T Stands for Tuesday and Geese and Gardening (Long)

  Hi Everyone,
     We are loving some warmer weather with no rain for a few days, and now we are headed to the 90's f every day this week-so typical Missouri jump right into summer after a cool spring.

    Tuesday is upon us and we are now beginning the new month of June as well. Hopefully things will calm down, covid will go away for a bit with these hot temps coming and we can try to get back to more "normal"

  Tuesday is also for T with friends hosted my  Bluebeard and Elizabeth-you are most welcome to join us just share a drink related photo in your post.

   This past week early mornings we have been enjoying and watching the duck family I shared last week. They must be spending the night nearby as just about every day now we see this family around 7 am or a little before.

     The other day Larry spotted these two families of Canada Geese

The sun was very bright when I took these photos

My tomato plants that I grew from seed are now ready to get planted. So that meant digging up grass to make a spot for them. I decided for now to start digging up in front of where the lavender and herbs are. Eventually I will have this all dug up and planted in flowers and veggies.

 I found this little guy hanging out near the tomatoes

I brought the tomato cages back today (Monday) from the woods house

Remember that big orange pumpkin trash bag? I cut it up in sections-cut a hole in the middle and placed it over the tomato plant-covered with leaves to help keep down weeds and retain moisture

These seed packets in the front-just one showing is different colors of yarrow

   Looking out the door  (not the lake side) this area is on the left. To the right of the steps we will be working on burning out a big tree stump to make way for a bricked area that I can bake and cook in my dutch ovens along with the Weber grills.  Lots to do and Larry is still not up to much physical work.  I have always worked up the gardens though.
    Things need doing but this summer they will start putting in the sewers and we  are not sure what they will be digging up or where. So many projects are on hold. However. we have plenty to do at the woods house to get it ready to sell.


Years ago a friend at the time that was junking remembered that I was sewing up allot of quilts-brought me two of these vintage sewing machine heads that were no good any more-I have had them in the garden at the woods house ever since-my friend that met me today to dig up plants said I needed to bring them to the lake house-so I brought one and will grab the other one next time

The lavender plant that I didn't think looked so good has lots of pretty blooms and really greened up for me too-we had allot of rain for awhile We brought these rocks we had saved from our woods home.

My friend met me up at the woods house early this morning to dig up allot of iris plants, a couple plants that like to be planted near water-very pretty blooms, and a shorter iris I had gotten years ago from my Mom's garden, and I wanted to dig up my madder plants-used for natural dye on cloth.
     I did some reading on them and I learned that it was better to dig up the roots, dry them well and store for a couple months to produce a better color. So since this is such a messy plant-I just kept the roots and someday I may set up another raised bed to grow more from seed.

These are smaller than I thought they would be-this is their 4th year and I read you can start digging them up at 3 years. There should be just enough here for one dye bath  I have always wanted to try madder-it has been used by our forefathers and before.

We had bought two gorgeous iris bulbs from a local lady that was in love with iris's and had fields of them-very expensive ones and gorgeous colors. I bought two that were Victorian colors-and by accident I got a bulb of the most beautiful black bloom I had ever seen-I had to have these to enjoy at the lake house.
   So my friend met me at the woods house at 8 am and we dug flowers until almost noon. I split everything with her since she did most all of the digging. This area is full of poison ivy and I am super allergic to it-she isn't -so now I have tubs of plants to get in the ground.

Over the weekend I wanted to try a no churn keto ice cream. It is made with whipping cream, sour cream, keto sweetener, mint extract, chocolate bits.  It made a nice treat but I wouldn't make it again.
    I broke down a few weeks ago and bought a cuisanart ice cream maker that doesn't use the ice and salt-you just have to have the bowl in the freezer for a day or so. It's been on back order all this time finally getting delivered this week-I think this will be fun, we love ice cream but I want to control the ingredients-no salt, less sugar-mostly keto sweeteners-stayed tune

These little grey squirrels are so fun to watch-they think this picnic table is for them haha
   They are about 1/2 the size of the red ones we normally see around

 Last week I started walking again worked back up to 2 miles (4000 steps) not quite there yet to get the 3 miles in. I will share some photos of the wildflowers and inspiration for painting soon.

   I will finish with my cup of chocolate mint tea (I need to find another plant of this-so delicious really smells and tastes like chocolate) and a lovely sunset-we haven't had one this pretty for awhile

  Happy T everyone