A Week at Home: The Garden (If you can call it that)

Some things look better as a whole. A beautiful vista, for example, where if you look too closely you can see signs of decay, litter, or the less pleasing parts. Others look better up close. My home yard is the latter.

It isn't that things don't grow. I can't seem to kill the hostas, for which I'm grateful, and my trusty hydrangea bush comes up, rain or shine, water or not, on the north side of the house.

It's in the narrow passage to the back yard which gets so overgrown, it is like fighting through the jungle!

The hydrangeas fight for space (and light) with the sunflowers. The sunflowers clearly win the light contest, blocking it out for the hydrangeas.

Sunflowers from the bottom up. Why do we never look beneath? 

In the front I have these happy fellows who seem to do their own thing whether I attend to them or not.

And I have to admit, their happy faces smile when I pull in the driveway. A few years ago the Garden Warrior in his weed pulling frenzy pulled out more than I wish. This year with Covid I did my own weeding and it seems they have come back in greater numbers. 

And nearby, a few coneflowers. There used to be more of these too, but you can imagine what happened!

The dill was super healthy. Again, I don't have to do a thing with this. I've found using the seedheads in floral arrangements with the hydrangeas adds a pretty, airy look to them and takes the bare minimum of time. It smells good too!

I don't know what these are. My neighbor gave me a few shortly after I moved in. Every year I pull them out because of where they are growing. Every year they come back. This year I didn't even try.

The biggest mess plant is my favorite, my sweet pea bush that I call Audrey Two after the man-eating plant in "Little Shop of Horrors." There is a reason why you see this only in close-up. 

 

See what I mean? It grows and spreads and grows some more. There's a bit of a gap in the middle where someone pulled out plants thinking they were weeds and they probably were, at least some of them. Weeds run rampant in that spot. I'd like to drown them all in weed killer of some safe sort but it would kill Audrey and that isn't an option. I love the sweet blossoms and they make the prettiest small arrangements.

Finally, meet my agapanthus. One of our book club members divided her plants and I got three. They are in the biggest, heaviest pots and need to come in for the winter in our Michigan climate. I have tried (intentionally) to kill my three for ages. (I can't seem to throw out a plant until it is totally dead, even if it looks wretched.) I even left them in the garage all winter. This year two of them rewarded me with their beautiful, solitary blooms and they are spectacular.

Now, I know if I stayed home and watered all summer, my garden (if you can call it that) would be much lovelier and well maintained. But there are trade offs and choices in life and I have made mine.

Fortunately, the sunflowers don't seem to care!

A Week at Home: Meet the Coopers!

You may remember when I wrote about the Cooper Hawk who built a nest in one of Rick's trees. The babies are hatched -- and they are big!

We think there are four but maybe only two. We've only seen two at a time.

They're getting larger now, and starting to roam farther afield. 

When they were younger, there was the constant high-pitched squealing of their call, all day! It sounded cute when we listened on the porch. (But Rick says when you're trying to work in your office all day and concentrate, it's not quite as much fun!)

They'll often sit on the edge of the fire pit or on an old BBQ in the back of the yard, no longer functional but a fine spot to check things out.

They also have a few favorite trees they seem to choose and they seem to enjoy hanging out together.

I'll miss them when they've gone!

Gotta fly!

There's still time to participate in my Blogger survey HERE. Tell me your problems (and check the comments -- you might find some answers!) I'll pull the comments into a post soon! 

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A Week at Home: Another Year Older and Deeper in Debt

Well, not literally in debt. In fact, less than ever! I'm entering my new year knowing that I'll pay my house off next month. But the new water heater wasn't an inexpensive birthday present to me!

Didn't Rick set a cheery table? I loved this bright lily.

That said, all was fine and wonderful. We came back from the lake. Rick made a lovely dinner and we were delighted when these two showed up -- with flowers, no less.

We started with bread and oil. Then dinner. I have to say, Rick knows how to cook a steak and found the most tender one in town, I think! A lemon couscous and fresh sweet corn on the cob and it was to die for.

But this was a treat for both of us. These pix are a bit soft. It's hard to hit a moving target!

But look at that face. Oh, he's going to be big, adorable trouble!

As Rick shared, he is the spitting image of Cam's dad at the same age!

We were glad we had chalk. Molly said "regular" chalk works better for his little hands than sidewalk chalk.

 A few days later, my friend Kate came over and we celebrated both our birthdays -- safely and at a distance in my messy garage!

Our friend Sarah Holland, massage therapist and baker extraordinaire, baked the most wonderful cake for us and we each had beautiful bouquets of hydrangeas from her as well. So thoughtful! Kate's birthday was on March 1. We were going to celebrate later that month after I got back from Canada. Well, we all know what happened then! It felt so good to celebrate together -- a "normal" day.

Fall is closing in! Ah, well, till then I'll enjoy celebrating another year older....with hot water!

I am so grateful to be having another birthday.

 

And I look forward to a new year.

Especially with this guy!

A Quick Blogging Survey

This won't apply to those of you who blog through Word Press, but I do have a question about that too, so I hope you'll stick with me!

 So many of us have been dancing through "New Blogger" -- or trying. But I'm a little curious about who we are and some of the issues -- and I have a couple of other concerns too. So, please answer what you can in the comments.

1) Do you know if Legacy goes away entirely OR if we only have until a given date (I've seen late August and Sept. 1, both) to choose which was we go in the future. (I have no idea.)

2) What is your age or age range -- a) Under 30  b) 30-40  c)41-50  d) 51-60 e) over 60

3) Do you monetize?

4) Do you prepare your posts on a laptop, tablet, phone or mix of any of these?

5) If you are using New Blogger, what problems are you currently having. These are mine. Familiar? Others?

    I don't like that then you return it automatically goes to a double space (which looks bad for a quote or poem.) Is there a way to adjust this? Can't figure it out.    

     I don't like how the new html looks -- it's all bunched together and if you have to go in to fix something up, it's almost impossible to find and more impossible to figure out how to get rid of that extra space that looks fine on the edit page.

    I don't like that you can't access spam comments later (in case you goof or want to check up on a name that you put there.

    I'm not fond of (but can work with) how the icons for deleting, etc., don't show up unless you mouse over them. What was wrong with the words Delete, View, etc. 

    Doing tag/labels is clunkier than before.

    Has anyone visited the settings page? I think it is more complicated to access easily. 

    I don't like that you can't just call up your drafts. 

    I don't like that if you want to find a post from ten years ago you have to keep adding more pages into a single list on the screen till you get to that date (versus the page 1, 2, 3, etc. at the top of old blogger, so you can first start looking near the end of the list.)

    I do like the look  of the "post" page with the first photo of the post. 

I'm curious as to what is odd that I haven't discovered yet. I also have a sneaking suspicion that a significant number of bloggers on free blogger, especially those who do not monetize, are of a certain age, like me. And many of us aren't big on change, especially if we don't see it making a positive difference. 

If you are on Word Press - Do you pay? Do you monetize? If you have worked on both, how user friendly is the interface compared to blogger?

Please tell me your issues -- I've heard of photo upload issues, comment issues and more. 

And thanks!

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Postcards from the Lake: Eulahberries

My lake friend, Eulah, was one of my Ladies of the Lake. My cottage and her home were separated by a vacant lot where the Bad Neighbors now live. And that lot was filled with blue gold!

Every summer we celebrated the arrival of what we called Eulahberries -- tiny huckleberries, ripe for the picking.

It was easier picking those wee berries when we had shorter legs! The older we got, the harder it was. But the payoff was good. During a good berry summer, we'd end up with enough for cereal and to make Eulahberry bread!

Now there is a big, hideous house on Eulah's lot. They tore down all the trees and paved a driveway large enough to land a helicopter on. They are not lake people. They just live on one.

Eulah, and her husband Bill, are turning over in their graves. And alas, the days of Eulahberry bread are long past. Just sweet memories.

Postcards from the Lake: On the Roadside

Earlier this summer I showed you one of my walks and some of the gardens and blooms I see along the way. That's looking up! This post is, for the most part, looking down at the roadside.

The weeds and wild plants we see on the sides of the road are a a sign of summer moving into a new phase, just like the shorter days and earlier sunsets. Things earlier in bloom begin to dry up and we also see new colors or ones that seem to continue much longer.

My walk started with a beautiful patch of knapweed. still looking pretty and purple.

I'm not sure what this is, but it is abundant!

To be honest, I'm pretty bad with plant names. I admire Shoreacres Lagniappe posts where she finds the most remarkable wildflowers in Texas and identifies them. Her photos are spectacular. Me? It's the little orange one that kind of looks like a mini-snapdragon bud.

Another sign of the change is the new proliferation of wild raspberries.

I'm assuming these are fine to eat, though I haven't had any, just to be on the safe side. But I wonder if these are the berries my mom's friend Fran referred to when she spoke of their childhood times at the lake and the day when it came to preserve the berries. Canning day was never fun because the children had to help and couldn't play!

It's a lovely thought, young children in the 1920s, helping mom with making jams and jellies from the berries they picked earlier in the day.

I know these are a weed but I think they look like morning glories!

I don't know what these are either (of course) but they are so sweet and puffy.

These shockingly bright yellow blooms pop out of the woods whenever I see them.

I think these may be the same in an earlier period. Or maybe not.

These pink ones look much the same -- I wonder if they are from the same "family."

In the garden post, I shared one of my favorite roadside blooms, the Queen Anne's Lace. It is still blooming but as the season as moved on, it is beginning to fade.

I find it interesting to watch this -- the fuller blooms began to shrink and it becomes more sparse.

And then it curls up into a soft puff ball. Its dried seeds will scatter for next year's flowers.

Here you can almost see the various stages!

Just as spring has its Trailing Arbutus, Jack in the Pulpit and Lady's Slippers, late summer changes are equally telling. We start to see bits of red that weren't there before....

....and leaves turning an early lemon yellow.

These berries have emerged, an almost greenish-coppery-sandy color. Will they turn red later? I'll have to watch!

The ferns are changing, too. While many remain a deep green, some have become to turn brown and die.

These red ones are new to me. I saw them in the woods but I've also seen them in gardens so maybe they just "traveled!"

This one is a sure sign of a coming fall -- do you recognize it? You may have it in your yard!

Yes. Goldenrod time is here!

Of course, when looking down, not everything is a pretty bloom. I still don't know how this fish made it across beach, cottage yards and a road!

And looking way up, we see the birch from which the branch fell with the interesting patterns, which you can see near the top of the tree here. Thanks to bloggers far smarter than I, I know that these are marks made by yellow bellied sapsuckers and perhaps other woodpeckers who find the sap from the birch a real treat.

I leave you with one of my favorites from my recent walk. This cheery green makes me smile. Big.

So, keep looking up, but if you must look down, look for the beauty. There's a lot of it out there!

 

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