Granddaughter Weekend!

It is always fun to have granddaughters to entertain me for the weekend. This weekend was full of that plus visiting an organic heritage farm.  But first we had to start our weekend with breakfast.

I started this some years ago making animal pancakes. I let them choose which animal they want from my collection of rings.

This morning it was bunny rabbits.  Yes, there is a little trick to get them not to stick to the mold.

Then it is a little butter and maple syrup.  I know not the most nutritious but I'll leave that to their Mom.  Grammie's gets to spoil.

Then it was out side later in the morning to have out snack or tea time as they called it.

It is amazing to listen to them and the imagination they come up with.  The new seating area turned into a tea room for the morning.

Then it was off to Luscher Farm to view a very large community garden, children garden, animal petting and to learn healthy snacks.

They enjoyed petting the animals!

Doing crafts!

Feeding chicken and pigeons!

Seeing pretty flowers and running on all the paths!

Another reason I want to go was to check out Farmmade's booth.  You can check out there web and blog to learn more about this market place for all Farm made products. blog.farmmade.com
I had to take a picture of these wonder gals especially for one of my favorite blog buddies.  You will have to stop by Deborah Jean and check out her blog.  Can I move into her flower garden??? http://deborahjeansdandelionhouse.blogspot.com/

This is Amber on the left, Patty in the middle and her daughter on the right.  What a delight it was to meet these gals.

I ended my weekend with losing one granddaughter and picking up another.  And it was off to the pet store. 

They sure wanted to take these bunnies home!  But I let Mom and Dad off the hook and left the bunnies at the pet store.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  As for this Grammie it is now recuperation from all the energy of Granddaughters!

Enjoy June

SUMMER ENDING

I have been enjoying these last days of summer but still dreaming they would last forever.  It has been beautiful here with warm days and cool evenings.  Well, almost too cool!  I've been covering my tomato plants at night  in hopes that the rest of  them will ripen.  Come this weekend I should have another canner full and that will make me happy.  I love having my own canned tomatoes in the pantry.

I plan to visit a farm this weekend to learn more about gardening and preserving. You can check it out for yourself by going to: http://www.ci.oswego.or.us/luscher  I can't seem to get it to link so I guess you will have to do a copy and paste.  I will have two little grand daughters with me this weekend and they have a lot of children activities including a petting zoo, children's garden and crafts.  It should be fun.

This past week I have been busy with some sewing projects and doing a little more canning.  Where has this canning bug come from?  In my earlier years I thought canning was a lot of work.  Now I find it fun.  Just being in my kitchen, music on and just puttering or frittering away.  Then the end results is something like this.

I now have 14 pints of pears and 6 1/2 pints of pear butter.  The pears were given too me and definitely organic.  No spraying what so ever, so cutting out a few worm holes I did! I had one jar that didn't seal so I had cottage cheese with pears for lunch. Yum, Yum!!  Come this winter I know I will be enjoying these!

What are your weekend plans?  I simply plan on enjoying it!

Enjoy June

Another Project

This project should have been done at the beginning of summer not the end.  But, don't you like that but in sentences.  It always mean there is a excuse in my case.  The only excuse I can use is possibly too many irons in the fire.  Or it could be SM, yep, that's my new diagnoses!  Scatter Matter, in other words unorganized and flying by the seat of my pants.

I wanted a new seating area on the back patio.  So I had group my wicker furniture together to create a space for visiting.  That is I had any company to visit with. Some of you may recall this before picture.

I didn't like the chair brown and of course the rug was way too little.  So I got out my handy cans of paint and went to town.  Even the natural pine porch rockers got some much needed paint.

So this is what I ended up with.

Everything is white with the cushions and rug adding color. I'm really happy with the white.  Now the problem is I may only have a couple of weeks to enjoy it before it need to be put away for the rains.  Maybe next years project will be to build a cover.  Or again I may just move!!

I can use this as a coffee table or pull it over to my chair for a foot stool.  I have been spending some afternoons and evenings out there knitting.  It gets late afternoon shade so it is quite pleasant.

So do you still have summer project not completed?  I won't even begin to tell you how many didn't get done this year.

So I'm off to work and this evening canning pears!

Enjoy June

Summer Ending

It seem once Labor Day weekend is here all thoughts turn to Fall.  I know our evenings are getting cooler. I could almost call it cold.  But I still need sun and warmth! My tomatoes in my garden need to ripen. I was able to get one small Canner done.  It was suppose to be seven pints but darn, one of the jars broke so only six.

I have a lot of pears on the counter ripening. I hope by this weekend I can get them canned. I also have apples in the garage that will be applesauce soon. Since there is only me in my household I use pints for most of my canning.  I figure if I have more for a meal I can always open more.

As summer is winding down I am trying to finish up a few more projects.  My garden shed is one that is finally done.  Well, I can always tweak a few things but the painting of the door, trim and hanging shutters is done.

                                                        Here is the shed before!

Drum roll, Please!

Here it is after.  One big, huge problem.  The dead grass!  I tried and tried to keep it green but after daily watering and hundreds of dollars to the water company it didn't work.  It is either save my pennies for an in ground sprinkler system and new lawn or move! The soil in the back yard is horrible.  I wanted to rota til it up and add good top soil and replant.  But the people before me put in an instant lawn and the entire back yard has this green plastic mess under the grass.  So I have to have a company come in and scoop all the grass and mesh off.  $$$$  May just move!!

I'm still hanging onto what is left of summer and praying for an Indian Summer.  I'm a sunshine gal and not looking forward to winter., burr - don't even think about it. Do you still have summer projects still needing to be completed?.  I know I still do!! 

Enjoy June

Mini Vaca cont.

We spent one day sightseeing out toward Pudget Sound. We traveled west to what is called Deception Pass which allows us to cross over to Whidbey Island.  It is the inlet to Skagit Bay.  I think I already told you I'm in love with Skagit Valley.

The picture is a little hazy but do you see that bridge which we are about to go over. Boy! what some views!

This is looking out to the Sound from up top of the passage. It was gorgeous!

This was a huge boat or yacht coming into the passage.  Too bad you can't see the size.

I know it is hard to see but can you see all those boats below fishing.  Hopefully they caught a few.

These are the boats that were fishing and yes, we were clear up there. What an awesome area!

My brother in law and I were walking the shore looking for agates and pretty rocks.  Oh yes, Jazi was help too!

My sister and BIL enjoying the lovely weather and watching boats come and go.  Notice Mr. Zorro in the lower corner, Jazi's buddy.

We moved on to the picnic area which was out on the shoreline of the Sound.  We enjoyed home canned tuna sandwiches which was so much better than any greasy fried food.  Yep, that's me watching more boats.

This is our view from our picnic table.  Now who couldn't sit here and take in this view.

I think I could have spent the whole day there just watching boats.  But we finally pulled ourselves away and were on to our next venture.

Can you say I had fun, oh YES!

Enjoy June

MINI VACATION

Did you know returning from 4 wonderful, fun packed days off is hard? I return late last night from a wonderful trip with my sister and BIL.  The main reason for this little excursion was our niece's best friend's wedding. So we hooked up the trailer and off we went to Northwest Washington.  The Skagit Valley area to be exact. Wow, is all I can say as to how beautiful it was.  But first you will need to indulge me with a few wedding photos since this was the main purpose of the trip.

It wasn't,  "Going to the chapel and gonna get married" Yes, I know that is dating me with those lyrics.  It was more like going 3 miles up a gravel road into the mountains. We broke out into a clearing of Moon Mountain Lodge.  A very rustic setting it was.  We had to fire up the generator for power to the guest house where the bride and bridesmaids got ready for the big events.  My sister and I had volunteered to help decorate, food or what ever the brides mother wants us to do.

Our first task was to put pictures on old window frames.  First we had to secure the frames on the clothesline.  It became apparent my sister and I weren't very trusting of the weight and light weight wire they used to hang the windows.  We could just see disaster waiting to happen, which almost happen as one window came crashing down.  Thank goodness for my sisters quick reaction and saved the day or window as it was.

It was very difficult to get a picture since it was VERY rustic, weeds and all.  So we tried it at an angle.

I think you get the idea.  They wanted old insulators as vases so my sister macrame a jute basket while I held on to them.  Can you see why we were concerned about weight.

We added sweet peas for the final touch.  The pictures were secured with magnets on both sides of the glass. One project done.  Now we move onto the arbor.  We just added a bit of burlap so it wasn't so stark white and blended more into the rustic,

A cute window with their initials and it was done.

Of course I'm not showing all the last minute pinning the bridesmaids under garments out of site.  Wouldn't it be nice if young gals understood you make the dress and you impress on them to wear the bra you plan on wearing the day of the wedding for the final fitting. My sister made three of the four dresses.

It is time for the wedding!

Our sweet bride and groom as they say their I do's!

Our niece made the wedding cake.  She said that the bride wanted a naked red velvet cake.  Now do any of you know what a naked cake is.  In my mind I was thinking a total frosted smooth cake with absolutely no decorating on it.  No waves, swirls, dots and no cake topper.  I was wrong!  A naked cake is just that, NAKED.  No frosting what so ever on the outside.  Our niece is a little bit of a perfectionist and not being able to frost the cake was very stressful to her.  We had to remind her if the bride wanted a perfect cake we wouldn't  be up here in this rustic mountain site.  I personally think the cake turned out perfect! 

Our niece freehand the tandem bike out of white chocolate and put their initials for the front spokes, another request of the bride. 

I have several more of the special day and may save them for a latter post.  But I must not forget

The reason we were there! Our niece and the bride!

Next post will be; we did play tourist while on our mini vaca!

Enjoy June

MORNING DRIVE

I am very fortunate that my drive to work everyday is a pleasant drive.  No freeways, not a lot of traffic, just me and the country road.  But once in a while I get something fun to watch.

This time of the year our area seem to be in the hot air balloon path.  One morning there was five of them as I was driving.  They were pretty far off in the distant so I couldn't get any pictures.  Going up in a hot air balloon is something that is on my bucket list. I think it would be so peaceful.

I lost site of it as I was driving and then the next thing I know when I cleared the filbert orchard.

It had landed and the chase vehicle was right there.  I know they keep in contact with the ground crew but they were fast.  I wonder if with the flight you have to help pack of the balloon after you land?

It still was a pretty sight for my morning drive. What kind of morning drive do you have?  I tell myself I am not counting the days until retirement but it is 2 years, 11 month and 3 weeks.  Yes, under three years now, but who's counting!!

Enjoy June