a giveaway!!

i was thinking this morning about recruiting naphtali for a giveaway when i ran across this: they are giving away a bike each week. click on the picture and follow their directions.
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talk about getting to work in style!!

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.

last week

we had the most delightful hint of fall in the air. outside projects became possible. baking was not only acceptable but irresistible. getting dressed became interesting again. (i hate the heat-driven dressing for survival mode)
one of the projects involved -one of my personal favorites- the removal of grass. neither tim nor i enjoy mowing. in fact, we hate it. but it has to be done. in previous years we've found ways to share the task: front yard/backyard, every other time, trade for cooking. this year (bless his heart)he's doing it all. i contribute by occasionally digging up grass to create a new flower bed thus reducing the amount of mowing that has to be done. the maple tree in the back yard has some protruding roots that i decided to protect from the mower with a four foot circle of mulch.


the tree








the tools(impressed by the high tech gear??)











the first cut











yes, all my sod has been cut by hand. and on this job, at the end it was both of us on hands and knees, fistful by fingerfuls as we pulled it from between roots.

fini

some day i'll figure out how to chronicle the in-between steps but for now once i'm in the midst of the work with dirty hands, wanting nothing more than to finish, 'photo op' just doesn't spring to mind. i'm lucky if i remember to take before and after shots.....

happy anniversary

two

four


six










eight



ten

twelve











lovely roses from a lovely man. for all you do for me, all you are to me - my thanks and love always.

wild flowers

if 'untended' and 'unnurtured' (see the previous post) define wild flowers then this year's garden should be reclassified.

why is it....

indian paintbrush

blanket flower

i have, as yet, identified very few of my wild flowers due, in part, to a busy week but more to an attitude* that needs adjustment.

wild flowers fascinate me. they're not tended or nurtured. they thrive in less than ideal conditions. the ephemeral nature of their brilliant colors, their pollens and nectars that support so many other creatures in the chain are part of their appeal. scattered through a roadside ditch or across a mountain embankment they will garner oohs and aaahs of countless travelers who will never know their names.

i plan to identify the photos i took in wyoming. i further plan to teach myself to compose a power point presentation with them. *this is where the aforementioned attitude comes into play: why do we ('we' rather that 'i' because in conversation with others i find this is a fairly common reaction) relegate an honest learning opportunity, a new skill set, to our 'free' time rather than giving it full front-and-center status as a reasonable application of our time and attention. my work day has ended but is the laundry done? the cleaning?? was i supposed to bake for tomorrow's meeting?? there are so many legitimate demands on our time - can i invest this time in this project now?? how often have we said 'i'll save that for a day when i have nothing to do'? how often has that day come??

are our perceptions of responsible productivity genetic?? why the guilt??

a layered day

today was one of those layered days and i'm not comparing it to the yummy triple layer ginger angel food with lemon and toasted coconut cake that i served to the garden club this afternoon.....
we started our day with an automated phone call with a severe weather warning at 1:10 am. the program sounds soooo good on paper and my friend and i both registered. then the calls actually began. i have since gone back to the site to un-register, a process they say can take 4-6 weeks. i'll probably try again.
charlie and i took a walk.
i squeezed my lemons, made my goop, cut and assembled the cake (baked last night), did some last minute cleaning, ran to the grocery store, stopped to price a bracelet that had been calling out to me since my sister's visit, learned that it had been calling in vain, tried on my new boots (again), added the boot box to the garbage, etc etc etc.
i did'nt have time to check my email.
garden club happened, the cake was a hit, the dishes were cleared off and everyone in the business of leaving when i received a compliment on my hair. and for the first time ever in local ears i admitted that i was preparing for a trip this fall and needed to do my hair sans appliances and so had been practicing with a new look. (you know how a haircut looks best after about 2 weeks?? looks perfect for about 2 days?? then is suddenly, overnight too long?? in the last few days i've had several compliments on this particular cut which i got at the beginning of july.) paris. in november. with my sister. for two weeks.
i checked my email.
paris is off. i reread several times hoping i had somehow misread but no it was there everytime. paris isn't going to happen.
one of the responsibilities of a rational adult is having to admit in the face of disappointing news that this is not the worst thing to happen to me today or any other day. so let's just say i was bummed. yes, let's just say that.
in the discussion of the day's events with tim he did ask if i would continue to wear my hair like this 'cuz he likes it. and he finally understood the lowlights transitioning to gray concept and he's on board with that! (i've always hated the time and expense, the bondage, of trying to stay blonde and was planning -again with an eye toward paris- to just be done with it!! (i am at heart a low maintenance kind of gal and find myself surrounded with jars and tubes and formulas that i never would have forseen and do limit. but my advice is moisturize!! every morning. every night. every chance. and watch the sun. really.)
like i said - certainly not a candidate for 'worstdayofmylife' status.
my husband likes my hair. i have a home. a good dog. we're both healthy and working. (tim and i not charlie and me) the boots will look great where ever i wear them. and my itsy-bitsy, half price, half alive hydrangea bloomed.
bonne mercredi!!

vacation photos

these pictures were taken at mirror lake on the medicine bow side of the valley.

naphtali and i walked around the lake from our fishing spot and found an embankment studded with granite and covered with these delicate-looking yellow flowers

which turn out to be glacier lilies. when you consider the short growing season and extreme temperatures these lilies are any but delicate.

vacation

naphtali, hubby james and grandson, aidan (the kahls) spent the last week with us. always a delight to see them, this year we changed our traditional september hike to accomodate aidan's upcoming school days!! hard to believe the little guy is starting kindergarten. hoping to find somewhere less crowded and touristy we decided on the snowy range of wyoming. it was beautiful and we had the place pretty much to ourselves. cars were coming in as we left friday morning but our hike to the indian bathtubs (there's a story!!)











fishing at mirror lake,
and the attempt to find hog park resevoir all took place in relative solitude. delightful.







we celebrated naphtali's birthday
with a party the likes of which she hasn't seen in years (complete with paper hats and noise makers) thanks to aidan's relentless party-planning drive.

james built a campfire every night and we sat and enjoyed the tranquility. we had deer in our backyard,
listened to various birds calling, saw humming birds flit and swoop, watched a storm build and roll through the valley.
we had the lodge at river ridge cabins and i will gladly put in a plug for them. look into river ridge before you travel out that way. nestled between the sierra madre and medicine bow mountains in southern wyoming we enjoyed our options for daily activities.
charlie was happy to see us return. thanks to marg for taking care of him. tim and i sat out back saturday night and saw our own hummingbird and a double rainbow in our very own backyard. neither of us was energetic enough to rush inside for the camera....
i'll post more pictures over the next few days......