26/52

A portrait a week for a year.
This week:  Wonder Woman had a hard day at the playground.  She rescued Baby and is going for a swing before nap time.

In The Garden: June 28

Last Saturday I watered the garden to try out my new drip hoses.  I forgot to turn it off when we left to go to a BBQ.  Oops.  The tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers had a good drink.  

This week consisted of pulling up the radishes that bolted.  It was funny though, there wasn't much to those radishes below ground.  They were white icicle radishes and instead of a veggie, it looked like a long, white taproot.  We are still eating the french breakfast and the easter egg radishes.  I had to replant the carrots.  They just weren't coming up.  Their new home is where the radishes were.  We are still eating lettuce in salads and spinach and kale in smoothies.  Although  neither of those plants has been spectacular this year.

west side
 The tomatoes are growing nicely.  I'm hoping to not have a jungle of tomatoes like I had last year.  That  made it so hard to pick them and a lot of them rotted on the plant.  I thought I read someplace that you are supposed to prune off the lowest branches on the tomato plant, that it is supposed to send more energy to the flower/tomato than to the leaves...Does anyone know about this? Have you done that?
East side
 So far (knock on wood) the potatoes look great.  They are growing in a fabric bucket.  I've used it before and have not had great results.  Which is more on the gardener than it is on the bucket.  This year, I've kept them watered and had added dirt to the bucket once a week.  I'm hoping to have more than 8 marble size potatoes.
potatoes
It still seems to me that things are growing very slowly (except the weeds) this year.  This week has been hot, 90's hot.  But it's a dry heat.  I have spent the last week digging up some dandelion sort of weed.  It's either that or a knapweed type of plant.  Nevertheless, it is annoying and was getting ready to bloom and go to seed.  And let's not even talk about the bindweed that comes from my neighbors yard. Ugh.

Happy digging this week! 

Yarn Along

It's Wednesday and that means it is time for the yarn along.  I have to admit that I love Wednesday.  It keeps me plugging along with  my knitting and reading.  That's what it is about.  The books and yarn.  I won't bore you with the same knitting that I've been working on for ages.  I did finally finish the last of the written pattern for the Citron.  I am going to continue working on it though since I have yarn left and I'd like it a bit longer.  

Books... I checked out The Memory Thief as an ebook, then last Friday a friend gave me her paperback copy.  There is no chance that I won't finish the ebook before it disappears from my iPad.  I am loving this book.  Honestly I put the book in my hold queue based on the cover and the short synopsis on the back.  The story is told from three different points of view...Aidan who dies in an avalanche at the beginning of the book, his wife Maddie, and Nicholas who loses his memory in a motorcycle accident, but his dreams of Maddie and her son are like memories.  
Happy Yarn Along Wednesday.

A Rose...

...is a rose is a rose.



 The roses are a jungle, but a beautiful one.  I only got a handful of them pruned before they had buds.    I can't help but smell them every time I walk by.  

Yarn Along

It's Wednesday again and that means it's time for the weekly yarn along.  It's been over a month since I last participated.  I had shoulder surgery and while I started PT (pain and torture or physical therapy depending on the day) right away, it was very painful to move my arm.  I just started knitting again a couple of weeks ago with some basic garter stitch.  I am making another scrap blanket this time making squares.  It's hard to tell here, but this is a super bright watermelon color.  I thought I would have enough to  make the whole square, but am quickly running out of yarn.  Oh well, I'll piece it together with other colors to make it look like I did it on purpose.  
Earlier this week I picked up the Citron again.  I am on row 14 of the last section.  However, I have that whole ball of yarn left, so I am going to knit additional sections.  I just don't know what I'd do with that leftover yarn and the thin lace yarn is not my favorite.  Plus I think I'll like the Citron a bit bigger.
 The book front has been crazy.  I reserved a couple of books at the library thinking that I would have plenty of time to read during recovery.  Ha.  Ha.  That is the funniest thing I've thought of recently.  Last week I was reading And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini.  He wrote The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns.  Well, I didn't get to it in time and the library wouldn't let me renew it because it was a new book.   I only got 58 pages into the book.  Ugh.  So I'm now back on the wait list.
Right now I am reading Sum It Up.  It's the autobiography by Pat Summitt the women's basketball coach for the University of Tennessee.  She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease during the 2011-2012 basketball season.  I'm reading this book on my iPad.  It's the first book I've read on my iPad and the jury is still out on that (I just like my books).  The one thing I really like about it, is that I can read at night in bed while hubby is sleeping.  I borrowed this book as well from the Denver Library and it is due tomorrow so I need to read half the book before it disappears from my iPad.  I am really enjoying this book, but just am having a hard time finding the time to read.

What are you working on this week?  Happy Yarn Along Wednesday.


The Weekend

What a weekend!  A lot of it was spent on our bikes.  Friday night we hosted the pre ride shin dig for the Highland Cruisers.  Everyone rode to our house for some nourishment and hydrating before the ride.  
We  meet every other Friday unless there is a big enough group to ride every Friday.  We basically just ride around the 'hood and wave to people.  It's a great way to end the week.

Saturday was the Highland Street Fair.  The Highlands is an area in NW Denver that has beautiful old houses with eclectic, independent shops and restaurants.  We rode our bikes to that and then ate our way up and down the street!  There were a lot of vendors that were peddling some really  nice wares.  A lot of handmade, creative things...metal art (think forks, hoes, rakes, etc), sewn baby clothes, handbags, and organic soaps.

Sunday was just like any other day except it happened to be Fathers Day.  We celebrated a little later in the day because daddy was at work.  C and I went to breakfast with Oma and Papa and then had a lazy day until daddy got home to BBQ.

Hope everyone has a great week!

The 52 Project

A portrait a week for a year.
This week: modeling the new swim suit that cousins E & S sent from Japan.  Their dad is in the Navy and Hello Kitty is wearing a sailor suit.  C is in her "swimming pool" also known as Henely's water dish.

This Week in the Garden

Wow.  It got hot this week.  Like 100 degrees hot.  Luckily that was only a day and the rest of the days were in the 90's.  The Denver area is under water restrictions.  We can only water two days a week.  We don't have that much lawn to water, so I'm not worried about that.  The suburb we live in is an old farming community, so most of the properties have wells.  We are very fortunate that we can water the veggie garden with the well, so it doesn't fall under the water restrictions.  However, I still follow the guidelines...no watering during the heat of the day and don't water the sidewalk.  

I put some old tomato cages around the rhubarb because the big dog kept walking through it.  Last week the rhubarb was about four times this big.  A friend came over to pick some and she gave it a thorough thinning.  
I planted three different kinds of radishes and they are coming up very nicely.  Just about the only thing coming up that looks great.  We are eating radishes for every meal and I've even been snacking on them in the garden.  
The potatoes got a late start, but they are coming along nicely in the potato bucket.  Last year we got about 8 marble size potatoes, but it was so bloody hot all summer, I think they got fried early on.  If we get more than that, I'll consider it a successful potato harvest!  The white pot is home to hubby's horseradish.  
There are some lemon cucumbers poking their heads through the ground.  Right now it is just a waiting game.  And a weeding one.  Ugh.  The weeds.  I am slowly getting grass clipping around the veggies to hold in the moisture and keep the weeds down.  We don't have that much grass, so it takes some time.  In the meantime, I'm just happy getting my hands dirty!

Random Thoughts on Thursday

*  This past Sunday there was a knock at the front door.  The lady on the porch lives down the street from us.  She asked if I would be interested in an iris swap later in the summer.  She was eyeing my peach and purple iris.  She would trade me some of her pink iris.  Sounds good.  She introduced herself and gave me her address.  Later in the day we drove by her house (like we do just about everyday) and that is when it hit me.  She gardens in a long t-shirt.  Just a t-shirt.  I didn't recognize her fully dressed.

*  Last Wednesday the high temperature was in the mid 60's.  Yesterday it was 100!  And now there are four fires burning in Colorado.   Three of them are down by Colorado Springs and south of there.  The biggest one is northeast of the Springs and it has burned for two days uncontained.  Over 100 homes have burned.  The wind is blowing hot, it feels like a blast furnace.  The tankers have flown over our house regularly all day.  The air is smoky, it smells like after you've come home from camping.  We've been at a deficit in the water department for so long.  I guess all that snow we got in April really didn't help.

*  The big dog is hogging the AC vent in the kitchen.  Henley goes out about 3AM and comes in about noon.  It's hard being a big black dog with two fur coats.  I think he is longing for some snow!

Rhubarb Muffins

Corrine's babysitter came over on TU and picked some rhubarb.  A good thing really, the plant needed to be thinned out and the bad stalks pulled out.  She took home a HUGE grocery bag full of rhubarb.  I felt the need to make these yummy rhubarb muffins.

Rhubarb Muffins

Mix together and set aside-
2 1/2 C flour
1/2 t salt
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder

Mix together-
1 1/4 C packed brown sugar
1/2 C oil
2 t vanilla
1 egg
1 1/2 rhubarb chunks
Then add 1 C buttermilk

Add dry mix.  Fill muffin cups with liners and fill the line 2/3 full.

Topping- mix together
1 package vanilla instant pudding
1/3 C flour
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 C pecan pieces
1/2 C packed brown sugar
Then add 6 T melted butter

Put 1T (or more) of topping mix in each cup.  Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

I have two muffins tins that are silver and one muffin tin that is the dark non stick pan.  I bake the muffins in the non stick pan 15 minutes and check for doneness.  That pan cooks so much faster than the other two.

Dee-lish!  Happy Friday.  Enjoy.

Random Thoughts on Thursday

* A month ago I noticed a charge on my bank statement that wasn't mine.  I called the company to see what was purchased because the charge was a couple of days after surgery.  I couldn't have bought something, I was pretty drugged up, but I didn't remember doing so.  The credit union closed my debit card.  I had no money for a week because I couldn't drive and my credit union is in Boulder and we aren't.  I had to dust off my checkbook.  That is when I realized how much we rely on our debit cards!  

Fast forward a month.  Yesterday I went to the ATM to take out some money.  I remember taking out the money and my receipt, but I don't remember taking out my card.  And it most definitely gone.  Crap!  Now I have to do that process all over again.  Wait for my new card, then wait another week for my pin.  Ugh.  At least I can drive now and I did take out cash yesterday.  

* The girls took a nap on me yesterday.  It's a vicious cycle.... Nap during the day because I didn't sleep the night before, but then I can't go to sleep that night either, because I took a nap during the day.  The girlies don't care.  They had a body to sleep on that was covered in a fleece blanket.  Doesn't get any better than that at least in a cat world. 
* Friday is national donut day.  Our local donut shop is giving away free donuts (with a hole) to anyone who comes into the shop.  Sweet.  

Have a great day!

How Does the Garden Grow?


Slowly.  Back in April when we should have been turning the dirt (heavy clay soil) and getting ready to plant, it snowed once a week and was unseasonably cold.  And that was when I was at home.  When I was at work it would warm up and be reasonably nice, but not nice enough to dry out the garden so we could till it.  

Along came May and I hadn't planted a thing.  Then I had should surgery and was laid up in a sling for a week.  I have been taking it slowly in the planting not wanting to overdue the stress on my shoulder (which I have done pretty much daily anyway), so some things are coming up faster than others.  On the far left of the picture are my radishes.  There are French Breakfast- favorites around here, some Easter Egg type of radish and White Icicle.  What isn't coming up very well are the carrots, kale and red onions.  The spinach is half heartedly coming up and so is the lettuce.  
I have this sprinkler hose (the black one) that you can add sprinkler heads to it where ever it suits.  I loved it the first year I had it.  But despise it even more each year I've used it.  The sprinkler heads get clogged very easily and don't spray in any fashion.  In fact the majority of them just drip into a puddle under the stake.  I do have one of those older green hoses with the holes in them that spray every which way.  On my to do list this week is to bite the bullet and just buy a new soaker hose.  
On this half of the garden are the tomatoes, broccoli and peppers which I bought from the nursery down the road.  I planted bush type cucumbers and under the trellis are lemon cucumbers- another favorite.   I usually start my tomatoes and peppers on the windowsill in the kitchen, but never got around to it this year.  While there was a good selection of tomatoes, the one I wanted, Red Siberian,was not available.
We have been having nice weather here on the Front Range.  I haven't even turned on the sprinkler system yet.  That will change this week.  Today was 90 degrees and windy.  Those little tomato seedlings did not like being so hot.

I must be patient.  It's hard.

22/52

A portrait a week for a year.
This week:  sitting with Grandma Joanne (who we don't see all that often) reading a story before nap time.  


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