Winter

Winter

Thursday, May 22, 2014

A Busy Week


It has been a busy week. I have cleaned and cleaned and worked in the garden and in the flowerbed. I made 20 jars of jam and as fast as they are going through it I will need to make some more. The favorite snack I have noticed is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I guess it has been awhile since I made boysenberry jam. My older boys would tell my little Ems when she was small that it was safe to eat the boysenberries but to leave the girlsenberries alone as they were poison. Those were the red ones. I laugh to myself in the garden as I pick berries.


I have really enjoyed this week with so much to do. Those two weeks I was supposed to sit was torture. I did find out something this week. With my new eyes I see like I did in the my twenties. But my body is now fifty-six and while I want to keep working, my body keeps throwing a fit about 3:00 and says, " Now you will stop." I think that is the hardest thing, because I see so many things that need to be done.


I am doing the sew along with Blackbird Designs. I am getting ready to do a four sided stitch. I have never done one so it is nice to be challenged like this. I have been doing a little hooking in the afternoon.


As long as I have been blogging, I have wanted to share my charm bracelet. I started it when I was eleven years old. I think the last charm I put on it was when I turned 21. I got it out so my grandsons could see it and I thought I would share it with you. See the little shoe? When you open the bottom it is filled with kids and the Mom from the nursery rhyme, "There was an old woman..."


All the places we visited when I was growing up. See Bambi from Disneyland? Then the slot machine from Las Vegas.  There is a saddle from Virginia City, Nevada.


The bat is from Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. One of the things that is so different now, as some of these places were not so touristy as they are today. The first time I went to Virginia City in Nevada. I was little like three or four. It was in the process of being restored. My Mom and Dad took me into this old saloon, and on the wall behind the bar was this mural of a dance hall girl, with and enormous hooped skirt and the dress was made of silver dollars. The whole thing. When we went back when I was a teenager, I went back and that dress and the girl were gone. I was so sad. I think about it every now and then. 


I keep trying to get a good picture of this flowerbed. I just can't capture how really pretty it is in person.
After all the years I tried to grow Hydrangeas this just amazes me every single day. 


This was breakfast. There is nothing better than this, just standing out here grazing. I couldn't believe the crows scolding me this morning. Just because I was out here and beat them to it.


This is our grand children's favorite plum tree. I just love this color. They will get dark purple before they are ripe.


I hope you have a lovely Memorial Day weekend. I am in shock that it is already here. May is just racing by too. It is lovely here today, just another perfect beach day. The clouds burn off about noon. There is just the faintest hint of a breeze. May really is very pretty this year.

~Kim~


"If one had to live in town, Miss Hickory had always said, take a house under a lilac bush."

---Miss Hickory; Carolyn Sherwin Bailey, 1946

17 comments:

Julia said...

What a neat way to remember the fun places you went to with your mom and dad, so many memories....

How lucky to have good sight at 56. I wish I had good sight at 67. I need my glasses to read and to drive.

I had to laugh at the girlsenberries. Very cleaver of your son...

Your Hydrangeas are gorgeous. I can't wait for my Lady Kim lilacs to bloom. My neighbour has 2 old fashion lilacs and they scent the whole backyard.

Have a lovely day.
Hugs,
JB

TexWisGirl said...

love all your blooms and fruits. such color! loved the charm bracelet, too. and girlsenberries made me laugh. :)

cards4ubylouise and other treasures said...

Love all the fruit you have about you....I have two apple trees. Last year I had a tree full of apples...this year I may have 2 trees because of all the flowers that are blossoming...I am excited....love apple pie.

Catherine said...

Dear Kim, The bracelet holds so many dear memories..thank you for sharing. It is hard when you remember something and want things to stay as they were and they don't. I would feel bad too.
The fresh fruits look so wonderful! What a blessings to go out and pick your breakfast.
The flowers are beautiful and the stitching is an art.
I hope you have a beautiful weekend too. Blessings, Catherine

Alica said...

Your gardens are beautiful, Kim! Those hydrangeas...wow! Mine are only now starting to push leaves at the bottom, as our winter was very, very hard on them. :( Girlsenberries...haha! Such creative thinkers you have!

Debbie said...

i enjoy seeing your day to day stuff kim!! i really like that first image....and your pretty needle work!!

Nellie said...

What a pleasant, cheerful post, Kim! Love your flowers and fruit! That's a very special charm bracelet! Mine from my youth is not quite as well adorned.:) Give yourself "time to smell the roses." Those chores will still be around.:) xo Nellie

Buttons Thoughts said...

Oh your Charm bracelet is so beautiful I have one that my Mom gave me when I was eighteen it holds so many memories isn't that wonderful?
I just finished a peanut butter and jam sandwich I wish I had some of your boysenberry jam I have never had that. Love your Saloon memory with the silver dollars:) Hug B

Thistle Cove Farm said...

LOVE that charm bracelet; it's fabulous! We're still having frost so making jam and cutting flowers is unbelievable to me

Kim said...

I wish I still had my old charm bracelet. I don't remember what happened to it but it's gone. I remember going to the jewelry store with Mom and spending forever looking at all the charms on display and trying to pick my next one. I loved the way it jingled on my wrist

Kerin said...

Love this post :)
You've been very busy, and accomplishing so much!!!
It stinks.. getting older. There is so much that I think I can still do, and when I can't, I get so mad at myself.
I need to take up walking again.. I'm certain that it will help give me some more energy .

Love that charm bracelet . I have one too.. although not nearly as many charms or such a great history as yours.

Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend.

Smiles :)
K.

Anonymous said...

The Silver Queen with her silver-dollar dress is still there, inside the bar called the Silver Queen. We went in and looked at her this month when we were in Virginia City, and just now you got me wondering when that dress was put together, so I surfed around and read that it was in 1955. Here is one picture: http://www.cardcow.com/417532/silver-queen-viginia-city-nevada/

Kathy ... aka Nana said...

I am amazed that you can remember where you got your charms. I am sure that I wouldn't remember! No memory left these days.

I doubt if my hydrangeas will bloom this year either. Last year I trimmed it down (pretty sure my intention was just to remove any dead branches but I may have been a little too over zealous in my efforts to even it all out). This year I left all of last year's growth (even though it is all dead ... The new growth is starting from the base of the plant).

Where in the world has May gone? I'm not ready for it to be over!

Meg said...

Finally catching up with blogs... Gosh those plums got red quick! That's a very pretty charm bracelet. I never knew you had that. I can't wait to see you on Sunday! I've missed you! :)

camp and cottage living said...

Kim
You have such beautiful flowers and fruits in your yard!
That is a very sweet charm bracelet, so full of memories too.
Have a wonderful weekend.

Miss Debbie said...

Yes...you are busy! The jam looks beautiful and I love your charm bracelet. I have two...one from high school days and one from a few years back when they made a resurgence for a few minutes!! ha! ha! Hope your garden is very fruitful. We planted okra one time and the plants got as tall a small trees and we picked a paper grocery sack full every night!! It freezes well for frying or putting in soup if you cut it up and freeze it before bagging it. Look forward to seeing more produce!!

Sara at Come Away With Me said...

Love the shoe with all the little children inside - how fun. And how blessed you are to have all that fresh fruit right off the tree, I am a tad jealous! There is a lot of productivity going on at your house these days. Wishing you a wonderful long weekend.