The Pumpkin Patch

I wanted to show you a different view of the pumpkin patch.  I know you can't tell this but the plants are now up to my waist. They have grown so much. I don't think I have ever had a year when the pumpkins plants looked this nice. Tonight we are going to crawl around putting a teaspoon of Osmocote  and work it into the soil around the base of the plant. It is a time release fertilizer. The tomatoes and peppers will get their shot of Epsom Salt. I really have never babied a garden the way I am this one. This morning very early, two of the boys came out and they said, " No wonder you two stay out here in the early morning, it is so peaceful, it is like being at the beach." Up until then they act like we are a bit cracked. We spend so much time out here.

This is the gourd area. The white blossoms are the luffa sponges. The yellow blossoms are the bird house gourds, and the kinds that you can craft with. It is very pretty out here too.

 Do you remember the baby blue jay that fell out of the tree around Easter? The male and female blue jay had another baby. They drove this guy off and then had a new family. When the newest member fell out of the tree, it barely had feathers. Not being the best of parents, the poor thing died. I picked it up which was a mistake because the parents saw me. I took it and buried it. Remember how the male blue jay has been my friend and followed me? Not since I took the baby. He just left. The Mom for three days followed me around the house, what ever room I was in she would sit on the railing and scream obscenities at me.
It was traumatic for me. I was even folding clothes in the laundry room with the door shut mind you and she came right up to the door and screamed at the outside door. I felt like I was in some kind of a horror movie.

She was screaming at me one evening as I was watering my chickens, " I told her that it wasn't my fault she used two sticks to build a nest so her baby fell out, she needed to get with the program and build nests better." She stopped screaming and flew off, since then I don't see either one. I had nightmares for two nights over that baby bird!

 

 It looks to be a busy week around here. Lots of good things to get done before people start arriving. It should be a fun week. July will show up and be hot all month. It is summer after all. My challenge will be if I can keep my garden weed free for July.

Have a wonderful new week.
~Kim~

 

"Reading feeds the brain. It is evident that most minds are starving to death."
---Benjamin Franklin--- (1706-1790)

A New Day

 

See this photo? I was taking a picture of the sunflower. In the background Ron is working. See how it really is around here? I go around with a camera and he has the rake and is doing the real work of making it looks nice around here. Even now, I am in the house writing a post and he is out there finishing up that wood pile. (I am supposed to be in the kitchen making my squash relish.)

I picked this yesterday. I only got two jars of pickles and two jars of yellow peppers made. I did get 12 cups of squash cut up for my relish. I went out this morning but nothing is big enough to pick yet.

 

Look at all of the lovely little cucumbers. After last year and not getting a single cucumber I just stare at them and they make me so happy. I think this garden is really going to my head.

This morning I took some pictures of the pumpkins. They are going crazy too.

Baby Jack Be-Little.

Another one hanging from the sunflower.

These I believe are sugar pie pumpkins

It just amazes me that planting sunflowers next to the pumpkins works so well. I will do it with more of the pumpkins next year.

 

This one is called Moon-glow.  It will be white. I have some white Jack-Be-Littles too. My biggest fear out here in my pumpkin patch are white flies. The scourge of the earth. The make that sticky stuff that just will kill the vines. That is what destroyed my garden last year. That sticky stuff that they secrete smothers the plants.
That is why I am not an organic gardener this year. We have been using Seven and that has worked pretty well, and it doesn't bother the bees. I am hoping it will deter the squash beetles. Next week, starting Sunday it will be triple digits running 100-110. That is when it is hard on the plants and the bugs seem to take over.

This is sort of like a hidden picture. This was full of tiny little finches. I never can capture them on film. They were just chattering away having their breakfast.

Have a very nice weekend. Next week, all of my grand babies and my kids will be home. I feel like it is going to be Christmas all week. I am really getting too excited. I get to hold my grand daughter whom I have never seen in person. Life is so good.

~ Kim~

 

---And they lived happily ever after---
                       The End.
Because you know fairy tales do come true.

Odds and Ends

When I do a post like this I always want to title it. " New Crap I Made." I just think it might be a trifle tacky so I will stick to what is safe.
It has been a good week and it has been nice to try my hand at making things again. I am a trifle rusty, so it is like learning how to do wood again.

Here are some different sticks of dynamite. ( Made out of wood, NSA, NOT REAL DYNAMITE) I thought I should add that just in case.

 

I used a round wooden dowel, that was in Ron's shed. I always find such great things in there.  He even cut them for me on his saw which gives such nice smooth cuts.

These are the square ones made out of another piece of wood, but I think I like the round ones best. I just used re-bar wire for the fuses. I found at Home Depot where they sell re-bar, they have the nicest wire.

I also made this flag out of a piece of wood that had been part of the play house. It didn't turn out like I thought but it is okay for an outside door.

I think it will be destined to go out on my chicken house once July is over.

That is where I put my current and past wood projects. They look nice out there. The chickens don't mind.

This is my latest little pin-tuck. I was getting ready to iron it because I was all finished and Ron came in and looked over my shoulder and asked. " Why does it say Freedo?"  I looked at it and died laughing because I had forgot to stitch the "M" So now every time I look at it I call it my Freedo bird. The patten is from Shelly Auen by Primitive Stitchin.

 

Of course my shelf that all of it sits on. It makes me happy to have red and white blue things sitting around.

I just had to show you this, it is a cantaloupe that has almost tripled in size since Monday. I couldn't believe how much it has grown in a couple of days.

I was out there and I think I told you how I planted a row of sunflowers with a row of Jack be Little pumpkins, so the pumpkins would grow up the sunflowers. I took a picture so you can see that it is working and it looks so neat.

 

I just love those little curly cues clinging onto the sunflower.

 

Of course, you have to see the Jack Be Littles. I really am feeling like a miser when I go out here.

 

The sunflowers that the pumpkins are climbing on are called Black Cherry. I love these so much because they are just so dark and the center looks like it is filled with tiny lights.

 

I had to show you a picture of the other side of the pumpkin patch. This is where the big pumpkins are growing. The place is filled with bees buzzing away working in these blossoms. The only bees I see have observed are  the little wild bees. I never see honey bees. I also noticed the other pollinators, there are bumble bees, and little moths, and the moth that is called a Dusty Miller. They really are wonderful pollinators. There are these funny looking wasps and we have these bees that live in the ground out here. The place is just filled with all sort of insects. At night, the crickets make the loveliest sounds of summer. 

  I love this great bush of a sunflower. The finches do as well. I am going to be hard pressed to be able to collect seeds. I caught this guy having breakfast.

 

I know it isn't very good but I couldn't get any closer as I was afraid he would fly away. He was really bright yellow. and black. So tiny too. He looks like a normal size finch in the photo but he was not much bigger than a hummingbird. So as I am not a very good identifier of birds. I am sure my birder friends will know what he really is.

Well should go, I am granny today. We are going swimming so I imagine, by tonight I will be called " Toast."

Have a lovely Wednesday,
~Kim~

" They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
       Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
         They danced by the light of the moon."

---The Owl and the Pussycat,
        Edward Lear, 1845

( Runcible spoon- :  a sharp-edged fork with three broad curved prongs 
coined with an obscure meaning by Edward Lear

First Known Use: 1871

A Good Day

I hope your Monday is off to a good start. Today is a good day. Beautiful morning and lots of good things going on. I am spending so much time out in the garden. There is so much to look at and watch grow. I have harvested squash now.

I made jam from the blackberries and there are tiny cantaloupes on the vines now.

I just love looking at the tiny little cantaloupes.

There are lots of little tiny cucumbers. I really hope I get enough to make jars of pickles.

I finished a couple of rugs this week. I got one bound and finished but the next one is going to have to wait until it gets cooler. It is just too hot to sit and bind a rug in my lap.

I had such a lovely time working on this little rug. All of the designs just made me so happy. This little rug is a pattern by Cathy at The Orange Sink.. I also did another rug that I have done before. Just because I love this design so much.

I just love all of the designs in this one. I drew out a new pattern this weekend that I hope to start as soon as I dye some wool.

I hope to get some zucchini relish made this week. I have one jar left that I have been hoarding. It will nice to be able to use it up now. I had Ron cut up some wood for me. I hope to be able to show you a quick little project.

I hope all is well and the weather is perfect. It is after all Monday, and my list is longer than  I have daylight.

~Kim~

 

And envy and pride, like weeds, kept growing and higher and higher in her heart, so that day and night she had no peace.
---"Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs," The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm,
Lore Segal, 1973

Being Thankful

 

Sometimes it is just nice to sit and think and be thankful for all of the small gifts that seem to show up unannounced.

1. The breeze that blows in making the wind chimes sing and the air feel full of refreshment.

2. The boys telling me stories about that blue jay that follows them too. I love that they notice things and how when one son who was going out to pick plums, said, " I could hear birds singing and talking in the trees, I came out the gate and all of sudden it was silent, and a flock of birds flew out of the plum tree and I went to pick some and I could feel bird eyes watching me as I picked and I found bird pecks so they had been having a feast. As soon as I went in the gate they started back up the chatter."  I was thankful that they notice things like that.

 

3.I am thankful for our growing garden, I love seeing the little growing tendrils of the climbing plants. I love seeing how they are putting out these corkscrews reaching to climb what ever they can.

4. I am thankful that I go out in the early morning and I have sunflowers to greet me and the day. They never fail to give me joy.

 

5. The gift of sight. Think of the best dessert you have ever tasted. That is what being able to see feels to me. Every time I open my eyes, blessing washes over me, the colors, the textures, the grains of sand in the soil, that look like bits of diamond, ruby and jasper. Or the multifaceted crystals  that are the drops of water that shimmer in the early morning light.

6. The God gifts of chance meetings. I was in the toy section yesterday and a young boy helped me pick out boy gifts for a birthday present. He was shopping, spending his birthday money. He told me what he thought five year old boys would like best. I was and am so thankful for the sweet people God continues to bless me with that come into my life. Every day.

 

7. One of the many things I am thankful for is that God tells me no. Without those many " No's" I would not see the glory and magnificent answers to prayers. I always dream too small. I am always thankful too that after a trial, I am able to see so much clearer than I was before the trial and in the midst of it. I will continue to learn that, " His thoughts are not my thoughts and His ways are not my ways and His ways are higher than my ways.

 

8. Gardens are jam packed with surprises every single day. Around every corner and at every turn there is something waiting to give joy.

9. I have sat in and watched so many people in the last six months. Being out of my comfort zone allows me to see things I might not have noticed before. I am thankful that God gets me out of my selfish complacency and reminds  me that the world does not revolve around me. He became a servant so I might be one too.  ( I have lots and lots of room here for improvement.)

10. Of course, being thankful for Ron who continues to listen to me.  Who never complains about what ever harebrained idea I might come up with. He goes to work every day so I can stay home and do what I do. He is just fun to be around not to mention, I imagine I would be a couch potato with roots if he wasn't always full of energy. Laughing at my jokes is always a plus. Still.

I hope you have a lovely day, full to the brim of things that you love. Thank you for stopping by today.
It is nice to be right here, right now on this perfect day in June.

~Kim~

 

"I have no time to grow old...I am too busy for that,
It is very idle to grow old."
---" The Golden Key,  Dealings with the Fairies,
George MacDonald, 1887

And Back To Monday...

 

I hope you had a nice weekend. I just never can believe how fast our weekends just race by. 

Today is just a lovely day. Our town  made national news because of a fire in our local mountains. I do hope they get it out but the news report said it hasn't  burned this area before so that could make it a bad fire. 

I wanted to share some goodies I received this week. First off this surprise arrived. 

This is from Three Sheep Studio. I sent her some seeds and she sent me this, I was over whelmed by her kindness not to mention this little kit is so impressive. It comes with every thing you need to make these strawberries.

 

Here is all of the lovely wool to get you started and her directions are fantastic. I have petted the wool lots this weekend. I have also enjoyed reading the directions. I have tried to make these strawberries on my own before and there was always one or two things I was always unclear on and having the nice directions helped me finally see it in my head.  Rose has lovely patterns in her Etsy Store.

My next wonderful goodies came from Lauren at Rugs and Pugs.
She makes wonderful jewelery out of silver spoons and she also makes garden markers. I have some pots growing and I knew I needed some of that silverware to just dress them up a bit.

So here they are:

 

I need to replant the Chamomile because the chickens thought it was there for them to eat. My favorite tea is Chamomile and having the fresh flowers  makes the best tea.
She also sent a surprise gift with this, a butter knife with sea glass.

Isn't that nice? Thank you both Lauren and Rose for your delightful goodies this week. 

One of my sons told a funny story about how when he was young there was a Ninja Turtle episode he watched where a kid had special powers because he had sea glass on a pencil. He said " He walked in and picked up the butter knife and waited to see if it gave him special powers."

I don't think I have ever showed you the cantaloupe. They are just covered in blossoms.

I guess I don't pay much attention to them. I am just pleasantly surprised when ever I am out here walking around. 

Lots of little peppers in here. They smell so good when they are being cooked.

Little tomatoes, little yellow squash and more blossoms. I found pumpkin blossoms yesterday.

It is Monday after all and we spend so much time outside we do get the house pretty dirty. I hope your Monday is lovely and that you have a wonderful week.
Thank you so much for stopping by today,
~Kim~

" If tomorrow morning the sky falls...
have clouds for breakfast. If night falls...
use stars for streetlights."
---If You're Afraid of the Dark, Remember the Night Rainbows,
Cooper Edens, 1979