What's a dog to do with so much snow?

 Aha!! Have snow cones of course!!

Mmmmm....very happy.

Post Christmas Snowfall

In spite of all of the rain (yes, rain!) we had for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we still managed to keep our blanket of snow so we could have our white Christmas.  Albeit a sort of shiny, glazed-over-looking snow, it was still snow!  I woke up yesterday to find it looking like a snow-globe outside!  Giant new fluffy snowflakes.  And lots of them!  My son took off to go skiing in all of that new-fallen powder.  That's the best!!  It's been a long time since I've gone skiing.  Maybe one of these days, I'll surprise him and go too!  If it's like riding a bike, I'll be ok.  Otherwise, I'm sure I'll provide plenty of antics that'll certainly keep him amused for hours!


Here's the view from one of the bedrooms yesterday at mid-day.  Sorry about the slight "checkerboard effect," I shot this from the window and the screen is a little noticeable when the picture is expanded.  The weatherman called for us to get 4" and I'd say that we received more like 7.  Nonetheless, it is so pretty!  I always love the peaceful quiet of a snowfall.  Everything seems so hushed.

It didn't stop snowing till mid-day today.  Today I took a look around to see how much we finally ended up with, and here's how my gazebo looked at mid-day today.  Of special note:  there is B-L-U-E sky overhead!  Something we haven't seen in eleven days.  Whew, was it ever good to feel the sun on my face again!

And, as the sun was finally setting, another unusual sight appeared....

Do you see it there?  It's just through the branches of the spruce.  We haven't seen Mr. Man in the Moon for eleven days now either, and I gotta say, it's nice to see him again, too.

~~Diana

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

Well, it looks as though Mother Nature has plans for us!  And from what I'm hearing, I think we're in good company.  We're in the midst of getting our first measurable snowfall of the season.  I always think Christmas lights look so much prettier with a blanket of snow.  So far, it looks like we only have a 2-inch blanket, but more is expected!  I just had to run out and snap a quick picture of some of our decorations.  I left the flash on so the falling snowflakes would show up.  If you look closely at the lower right-hand side of the picture, you'll see that we had a little four-legged visitor hop across the yard not too long ago.

Harvesting...Finally!

We've certainly had a strange year.  We had plenty of rain, and plenty of cool weather.  I've heard several different farmers (in different areas of the midwest) say that it's been the worst growing season they can remember.  This fall's rain has made it tough for the farmers to pick their corn and combine their beans.  I was beginning to think that the field behind my yard wasn't going to get picked until we had a hard frost.  There's just so much moisture in the corn, it would take a hard freeze to dry it out.  Here's how it looked mid-day yesterday.

A few hours later, I thought I heard some rumbling sounds coming from the other end of the field.  Sure enough, there was not one, not two, but three combines out picking the corn.  By the time I could grab my camera and run to the back of my yard, two of them had already made their first pass.

I hung around and waited just long enough for the third one so I could get a picture.  It was beginning to get dark and my camera couldn't focus too well so my pictures aren't the greatest.  I set my f-stop all the way down and hoped for the best.  Kind of looks like there may have been an issue focusing with the lack of light.

I've been wanting to have a bonfire, but have been holding off because I didn't want to set the field on fire!  Our bonfire pit is at the back of our yard and it's pretty close to the field.  Hopefully the weather will hold out for us so we can have that fire.  Tonight is supposed to be dry and 38° so keep your fingers crossed!


Don't you just love sitting around a fire?  We don't have a fireplace (gasp!), but we do have a nice-sized bonfire pit!  Hey, it works for me.  I don't know about you, but we could sit around a fire all night just staring at it and exchanging small talk.  I sometimes wonder why we humans have such a fascination with fire.  And as long as I'm thinking about it...I should add water to that primal fascination list.  Wouldn't it just be so perfect to have a hot tub with a fireplace nearby?  I'd be so happy in absolute heaven!

Let the Baking Begin!

What a surprise we had yesterday morning!  We woke up to find that it had s-n-o-w-e-d.  Less than an inch, but it was snow.  Thank goodness it didn't stick!  I know it's November, and it's the right time of year the for that.  I'm just never quite ready for winter and the inevitable snow and f-f-f-reezing temps that come along with it.


One of the things that I do love about this time of year is that it's baking season for me.  I tend not to bake nearly as much when it's hot in the summer  But when the temps cool off, I'm always ready to bake just about anything, especially for our family gatherings.  Besides, is there anybody who doesn't like their home smelling like a bakery?  My son came in the house the other day and wanted to know what I was baking.  When he thinks he smells something baking, in true "guy tradition," he's always ready to be first in line!  My oven was off and I wasn't baking a thing.  I had a candle burning, and it sure smells good!  It was one of Paula Deen's Cinnamon Pecan Swirl candles, and boy does it smell like the real thing.  If you haven't tried this one yet, I heartily recommend it.  Oh, and don't worry, my son didn't go empty-handed for very long.  I did bake up some cookies!



One of my brothers has a really big cookie fetish.  From as far back as I can remember I've called him Cookie Monster.  He joined us yesterday for Thanksgiving, so of course I baked a batch of cookies just for him.  Enough to fill a tin so he could bring them home.  This time I made Shortbread Cookies with giant Ghirardelli kisses.

I was so busy yesterday with all of the preparations, baking and cooking!  I was so busy in fact, that I didn't think to grab my camera so I barely have any pictures of the food at all.  I did manage to take a quick shot of one of the pans of dinner rolls I baked.  They've kind of developed their own reputation, and are pretty popular around here.  And they're big.  Really big.  You could use one of these babies for a hamburger bun.  The pan in this picture is a vintage one that used to belong to one of my neighbors when I was a kid.  She always kept an immaculate yard and garden, even into her late 80's.  And she did all of that work by herself (including the mowing!).  Oh, her flower beds were so amazing!  When she passed away her daughters held a sale, and I bought her muffin pans.  She used to make the most delicious muffins, and she'd share them with us too!

I hope everyone had a wonderful, blessed Thanksgiving.

Now.....let's all enter the "100 Ways to Be Creative with Leftover Turkey" zone!!

It's a Wrap...Almost

Where did summer go?!  It seems as though it was just getting started.  Fall is definitely here to stay with its crispy air.  Most of my gardens have been nipped into dormancy, and are waiting for me to properly settle them into hibernation.  I always have mixed emotions about fall.  I adore the colors and the smell in the air.  Yet I am saddened to think that for the next 6 months everything will be just so...naked.  But for now there are glorious displays of golds, oranges and bright reds waiting to be noticed around every new turn.

I took this picture of a Marmo maple (Acer freemanii) on November 11, 2008

And this one on October 27, 2009 of the same tree.  It's kind of hard to tell the difference!

My beautiful Japanese Whitespire Birch (Betula platyphylla japonica) in a riot of bright gold.  I took this on October 21, 2009 just before it started raining.  (Sorry about the blurring on some of the branches, it was quite windy when I took this!) It rained for 3 straight days and nights, with even more wind.  The show's over now for this tree, or rather it's been relocated, as 99% of its leaves are now scattered across my lawn.  It makes such a pretty carpet!

The Bidens (Bidens ferulifolia), and Lobelias (Lobelia erinus) are still holding their own.  Even though they've stopped producing new blooms, the foliage and existing blooms are still looking pretty fresh.

I've also got a few cute little Callie Rose (Calibrachoa) blooms hanging on.

I just happened to look down at the rocks along the edge of one of my flower beds as I was walking my yard.  It was just too perfect not to photograph; all of the colors were arranged better than I could have done myself!

My Crimson Pygmy Barberry (Barberis thunbergii'Atropurpurea nana') has begun to prepare for winter too.

I found this leaf stuck to one of my benches and thought it had a very interesting pattern.  Sort of makes you think of camouflage doesn't it?

And my snapdragons are among the season finalists every year.  I have no idea what variety they are, they didn't have any plant tags when I purchased them.  :(

They're so pretty, I just don't have the heart to cut them down.  They're really much brighter in person.  The blooms are so deep and bright that they almost hurt your eyes to look at them in the sun.  I've really had amazing luck with these guys.  This snapdragon basket was drowned nearly to death when we had flooding this past June.  The entire basket went completely limp within a few hours.  I brought it into my garage hoping that it would perk up.  Whenever the weather was dry, I optimistically set it back outside again.  Nothing doing, it stayed limp, the soil stayed soaked, and eventually the leaves got crispy, but stayed green.  I set it back outside again after a month, thinking that it was a goner.  It rained again (of course!), and you'll never believe it.  In a couple of days there were all of these miraculous, tiny leaf sets popping up all over the stems!  (I really wish I knew what variety they are!)  I cut away the stems that didn't show any new growth, and found that I had lost half of my basket.  The remaining half filled in so nicely, and the new growth was just as gorgeous as the original!  Snapdragons truly should be called a resurrection plant.  I am planning to clip the spent blooms from this plant once they freeze, and dry them out.  Next spring I'll plant them in hopes that these seeds will give me beautiful color for another year.  Cross your fingers for me...

~~Diana

Bright Splashes to Lift The Spirits

I thought I'd take a little time to share some of the things that I've grown in my gardens. Life's too short not to enjoy the color and fragrance of flowers! I try to keep my flower gardens blooming on an ongoing basis, so as one stops blooming, others take over. For me it's a true spirit-lifter. My mother, and both of my grandmothers (and many aunts) were avid flower gardeners, so I was happily born into it.

The weather this summer has been really strange though, and not really the sort of weather that makes your bedding plants want to thrive. It's been pretty tough on my flower gardens, and I'm having to water once or twice a day. We've gone from near-drought to flooding, to 40 degree nights in August (yes...in August!), and then back to more drought. Right now we haven't had a drop of rain in 2 weeks, so it's back to the drought thing again.

Think I'll get my truck washed today...that usually does it.

I've got an enormous Saucer Magnolia that's a real head-turner every spring. I planted it in 1989 when it was below my knee. It's now at least 12 feet in height, and I've topped it several times. For the last few years, it's been putting on a small second blooming (10 or 12 blooms) later in the season as well.
This was taken as it just began blooming. With threatening weather on one horizon, and bright skies on the other, it provided wonderful lighting to show off the blooms.
How lovely. I so look forward to seeing this every spring!
It's so enlightening to see new life and glorious colors popping up everywhere with the coming of spring. I've got these tidy little crocus clumps tucked around the corner of my garage. They've multiplied so much that I need to relocate some of the bulbs! They're even popping up in the midst of my peonies and hyacinths. They are fairly tough little guys and they don't seem to be intimidated by the other plants at all.

Aren't sunflowers amazing? I remember driving through Kansas and seeing hundreds of acres of sunflowers in a full riot of yellow. What a striking sight!! I always try to have a few around here (if the critters don't get to my seeds before they come up!).
I was a very young girl when I came across these beautiful flowers randomly growing in a field. I had no idea what they were, but I thought they were so delicate and pretty. I just HAD to bring them home for my mother, so I ran back to get a shovel and a bucket to dig a few up. She still has them growing in her yard today, and it's been over 35 years now. 3 years ago she thought it would be nice for me to have some in my yard, so we divided them, and now I have them too. Over time I learned that they're a native wildflower called Spiderwort. There's so many varieties and I'm not sure which one we have, but they are just so cute.
I'll have to do another post sometime about my other flowers and gardens. Have a lovely day, keep a smile on your face, and a flower in your heart! Diana