Catching up

Friday night the Garden Club was invited to attend the annual Gothenburg Chamber of Commerce banquet, as we were one of three to receive an award for outstanding community volunteers efforts. (other honorees are active in the community theater and the VFW Honor Guard)

Today is my get-everything-done-before-we-leave-for-Aidan's-birthday day. Tim left for Omaha this morning for budget "week", he'll be back sometime Thursday - unpack, repack and off we go!! I've done three sets of chapter review questions since Saturday, and now just have one chapter left to read and turn in questions for econ. I have a library assignment to write.(and maybe a post for next week - just to get ahead.) I'll have an econ test when I get back and as I plan to blow off both english and ethics for the next few days, I'll have plenty waiting for me when I return.
I've got laundry going. I will be cleaning out the fridge, eating from the freezer. I've got eggs for Aidan that need to be finished and birthday presents to wrap. Work Wednesday and Thursday, pack and go!
It seems doubtful that I will get anything done outside but I did take this picture of the trellis Naphtali gave me for Christmas. This may be a temporary location (at an opening along the fence between us and the neighbor)or not...I had hoped it might be enough to keep Charlie from going through. We'll see. I have crocuses up, tulips coming up,and lots of perennials' leaves starting to green-up. Charlie and I are planning a walk this afternoon.

merry christmas

to the intrepid women of the gothenburg garden club
the phone calls started around 8:00 tuesday morning - should we?? shouldn't we?? our christmas party was on the calendar for noon yesterday. even though the rest of the state was shut down these ladies didn't want to miss their salad luncheon, or navigate the process of rescheduling - a tough prospect these days. at one point it was called off and charlie and i settled in (still in my jammies)to relax - snow day!!
we met. a 1/2 hour earlier than scheduled. i got the call(still in my jammies) about 10:30 (?) and realized i had 1 hour to shovel enough snow to leave my driveway, shower, dress and make a salad!! Nancy called with an offer for a ride, the salad was assembled, some snow was moved and i donned my party finery. everything was delicious. there was more than enough food and plenty of laughter as we sat watching the snow pile up outside arlene's window.
we had around 7 inches of powdery, fine snow. i made a dent in my christmas cards, did some cleaning, admittedly wasted a significant amount of time. i'll be shoveling when i finish here but it doesn't look too bad. the wind overnight left me a couple short drifts and a couple bare spots!!

wrapping up

this picture was taken this morning:
i still have daisies blooming!! here they are sandwiched between one of my lavendars and anemone in the background.



and here's charlie never-too-far-from-my-side keeping me company, waiting for his bath.



thursday night, friday and saturday our local garden club hosted a symposium. when i returned home saturday night i found my kitchen scattered across 2 rooms and a new window!! tim spent his time replacing our least favorite window bringing the total since june to 6!! it has become a fairly standard project by this time. he'll get the inside finished in the course of this next week. normally i've moved furniture and un-hung pictures and curtains to allow him to just waltz in and do his thing so this was a complete surprise!! a very welcome surprise.

for those preparing to be a flower show judge there are several hoops to jump and symposium is one of them. students are gathered, instructors provided and designs built and displayed for instruction (and testing) on how to judge them. i'm not working towards 'judgeship' but found the time well spent. if i know what they're looking for i'm better equipped to enter a prize-winning design or horticulture specimen. right??
of course, i find it fascinating to see the behind-the-scenes scenes too. the amount of stuff they accumulate and haul is mind boggling!!
our club provided 2 lunches and an amazing amount of snacks considering there were 30 or so little old ladies.....we had a delicious lasagne friday and a variety of salads on saturday. we each brought a batch of muffins (i made pumpkin) and a batch of cookies or bars. the kitchen work is always fun.
being away from the house for those 2 days means that my standard weekend routine is compressed to fit today..... so , of course, let's add extras like weeding several flower beds, potting a couple planters, cleaning the shower head, a bath for charlie.
all i have left is my ironing and i'm headed that way right now.

taking a break

my intention is for this to be brief. we'll see. i'm in the midst of laundry and i have wallpaper yet to hang tonight but needed a breather and why sit and stare at the walls if i can be productive for another 15 minute segment of my day. it's been a very full week. weeding and planting and projects and work and busybusybusy.
on tuesday the garden club went to a farm 13 miles from gothenburg, cozad and calloway. marilyn mcneal is a retired teacher, master gardener,
farm wife and general all-around nice lady. i see her regularly at the library. last summer we went up (out?)(over?) to look at her gardens and she invited us to come back this spring because she was planning to do some splitting and we could help her out by taking the extras. a very generous offer when you do the math...(part of the math that day included several ages revealed to a general chorus of oh! you can't be etc. marilyn is 77. and the excepting myself - the youngest garden clubber is - wait for it- 68. guess who manned the shovel and did all the lifting??
the math - 8 of us went to marilyn's. i came home with 10 different plants, about the average haul, some large enough to split again. we filled 2 trunks and had some on our laps. i got mine into the ground just before it rained that day.

and that night there was the episode with the chair. $10 bought this chair back in sioux falls and it will no doubt be the best quality chair we will ever own. it's comfortable but awkward to move - the back being rounded and no legs to hold on to -and no there are no 'before' pictures because i didn't think there would be a story to tell until we were already at this point. at what point, you ask?? the point where after getting stuck at the top of the stairs for the third time.... let me back up. the chair got wet during our recent water-in-the-basement episode. this is 'cleanup' week in gothenburg and we decided it was the perfect opportunity to get rid of the chair for free. borrowed a pickup. we're all set.
the chair is heavy. heavy and it has to be lifted higher than the railings. and make a turn at the top of the steps. and we took it there 3 times.

we decided to cut it in 2. the fabric wouldn't tear. the sawsall blade vibrated on the surface. we're laughing. breathing hard. and trying to make a dent in this chair from hell. we found a metal strip that had interfered with the sawsall. the wood! the springs! the padding! we could not demolish that chair!! it has a round swivel base probably an inch thick. at one point tim warned me, as he positioned the pry bar, that "ball bearings would scatter all over the floor" as he began to push. nothing budged! like i said, the best piece of furniture we ever owned!!
we eventually got it in 2 pieces that we could handle, up the stairs, into the truck, over to the dumpsters and out of our lives!!

i'm going to hang wallpaper. the rest of the week will follow soon.

fait accompli

the 2009 75th anniversary - fgcn state meeting and flower show has ended.
as a group we did rather well. all our entries won an award.
here is elnora building one of her designs and the finished project.

elnora is 80 something and loves to make designs. she won 4 awards.
thursday was spent setting tables, entering exhibits and, for many, building their designs. friday was committee meetings, judging (for which i clerked - quite a learning experience) and the flower show itself. saturday was the general business meeting, auction and awards banquet. the garden club's national president was our guest friday evening and saturday.

the amount of 'haulage' is staggering.













your humble correspondent received 2nd place for this entry.
i obviously need to work on my camera angles....
(i'm not even done posting and i have a comment!!) i bought a few plants at our auction - one woman brought, among other plants, about 60 of the healthiest, most beautiful salmon colored geraniums i've ever seen - and took 2 more home as door prizes. (this past week we've had some heat and some rain and my flower beds are erupting with both wanted and unwanted growth. i'm off on tuesday, the forecast says low 60s and i'm anxious to get out there and get something done.)
i got home around 10 last night and while browsing channels in an effort to relax before bed i found kenneth branagh's henry v so it was actually this morning when i got to bed last night. i find it impossible to pass up kenneth branagh's shakespeare. a couple weeks ago it was hamlet (his is the best i've seen)and i was up....
tim had to work today so it has been minimal laundry and maximum vegging for charlie and me today.

national garden week 2008

our garden club put together a display in the lobby of the public library. we have a proclamation signed by the mayor, our labeled specimens, and some information pertinent to our club.