Garden Photos

   This afternoon I got back out digging up the chocolate mint. I have never seen mint with such large root systems, and packed in like a brick almost-a huge job for sure. Never could dig this out without all the rain we have been having. 

  I made progress yesterday and I was back out a bit this afternoon. The runners are soooo long that I yank a section out and then dig out the root system. It is raining again so needed to come in. I did grab my camera before it started really raining hard.

   That just soil area is part of the area I have been working on. This mint is mixed in with Larry's shallots and those gladiolas-too, so that will be a chore to get the mint out in those areas  I may just dig up the gladiolas first and then dig up the mint and replant them

It doesn't look like much but all that blank soil was solid mint. 

around the garden-with all the rain ,all of the perennials I grew from seed and planted two years ago are now huge.

Do any of you know what plant this is below?  Two years ago this was a tiny little plant that I bought on ebay. I think it was one the hummingbirds like-Mary you bought one too do you remember the name?? thanks

   That tube sticking out directs the rain water down to the lake and in our basement-like it did when we first moved here.

This year the deer or the chipmunks keep digging up what I plant in my big copper pot (above) I just replanted it again with some flowers I grew from seed.

I have a few large clumps of yarrow

Below these pretty purple ones are mixed in with the shallots I really like these

This geranium seems happy in this huge pot

Below flower seeds I scattered last week-mostly zinnias, I did the same with saved marigold seeds today

Happy new week everyone.

Started Digging Up the Mint

  Late this afternoon, I grabbed the old carpet piece I use to sit on the ground and my little short handle shovel-I noticed that a lot of my perennials are still there amongst all that mint-That had me smiling. When we had that water leak from our well up above the rock wall-it flooded this area most of last summer.  So I am surprised my plants survived. Most all of these perennials I grew from seeds.

  I had planted different varieties of milkweed, and bee balm and others.  Since we have had so much rain this area is easy to dig up-so I worked on digging mint away from these plants. I hear thunder as I am typing this tonight-so I guess we are in for more rain. I had thought it was moving on but guess not, more rain tomorrow night as well

  I grabbed the camera

   The two plants to the right still had the marker-milkweed plants. I love the wild violets here so after digging up the mint in this area I replanted the violets-in the middle. 

This next photo is just to the left of above that includes those wild violets.  There is a perennial in the photo to the left that I don't know what it is  all that green is mint-it is that thick everywhere 

This next photo is a little more to the left again-you can really see all that mint-ugh-and you can see the shallots. These were brought back many many years ago from Larry's grandfather's visit to Israel. When ever we moved we brought them with us.  They did not do well at the woods house but they love it here have multiplied quite a bit this past year-perhaps from all that water.

  Those panels in the back are parts to a lift for Larry to avoid the steps-hoping we can get that done soon.  There are a lot of iris's getting ready to bloom a long the rock wall

    Below is our patch of shallots-so happy these spread. I will work on getting the mint out of this area next.  There is another perennial in the front left corner. I won't know what these are until they bloom. These were all planted to attract butterflies, hummingbirds and bees.

This is another photo in the area of the first photo-you can see this old stump-that holds that very large copper pot. A bunch of perennials in this area too that I don't remember what they are. That spiky plant to the right in front may be a yucca-if it is I will dig it out. For some reason many people plant these yuccas-and they spread like crazy-I don't like them-and I just noticed it here in this photo. Our neighbor has a bunch of them so they plant themselves in the area.

  The photos will enlarge-just click on them.

Well, I am off to read a little bit while listening to the rain storm coming through

Wood Ducks, Gardening and Spinning for T

    I was not going to hook up with T 'til the 10th anniversary, but since I am caught up a bit with outdoor work for now and  that we are back to the high 90's F  again I will have time to visit.

   We had a few days of much cooler weather-finally-but still not a drop of rain. The grass is all burnt up here except for what splashes on from the lake.  Good thing though is no mowing for me smiles.

   Find link up for T with Bleubeard and Elizabeth in my side panel, you are welcome to join in just post a drink related photo.

  Today and Yesterday, I raked out the smaller stones and added 8 large bags of garden soil to part of the area. I will need to add more for sure but at least I got these bags on the ground. I collect my zinnia, marigold, and other seeds so I spread a bunch over this area-to keep weeds from growing and the butterflies will love the flowers too. It is way too hot, and with no rain, not a good idea to be transplanting perennials to this area right now.

  By the front door are the steps to the top-and then to either side is the rock wall with a curved area on both sides. I have a bird bath on the other side, so I added this large metal leaf for drinking water to this left side that we are working on. The rock came from the woods property I am thinking this is a drink reference as the butterflies and little birds love this for a drink of water.

Larry has been scraping off the dead grass with his skid steer on the left side of this area-we will be placing landscape fabric and adding stone to that area very soon.

   Doing that he found this large heart rock-so I brought it up to this corner area At the woods home, some of you may remember my rock shower project-sadly we never got to use that, but in the process of gathering rocks I found many many small and medium size heart rocks-never one this large-I love it.

The bags of soil were so heavy that I worked from both ends-ran out there in the middle-oh well, I need lots more soil before fall. I need Larry to decide about that hill in the back area-would need allot of garden soil added to level a bit. To the right is the pallet of brick for the outdoor cooking area.

We learned that our duck visitors are a family of wood ducks, that have been breeding in the area for many years-according to one of our neighbors. The hen discovered our bird seed early mornings and sometimes her youngsters come too. She had 6 survivors out of 10 or 12 little ones.

     I am realizing I spin better with less processed wools. I have found a couple sellers on Etsy that I really love, including the Icelandic wool. I was inspired to search out this wool from Erika's Iceland trip, learning that many of the sheep are not penned in-love that.  It spins like a dream I love it, feel like I know what I am doing even haha. I had bought a variegated roving with black, white and dark grey.

  Ready to spin

  This is very soft yarn, I am in love with this one-and ordered a little bit more of this one and the dark grey.

     I am still spinning thick and thin but it is not over spun which is a good thing. I love the textures of that in weaving. I am still spinning singles opposed to a finer yarn that is then plied together with two or three-right now I don't need to strive for that as I am not a knitter or do crochet-weaving is more forgiving I think depending on the garment being made.

    We have been enjoying root beer floats during these hot humid days. I shared one in my last post but I did make us another one last night.

   I make them with my own homemade vanilla ice cream-yum summer for me is a root beer float.

  This is a photo of me layering the ice cream and the root beer.

Happy T

We Have Been Working on Outdoor Projects

   Despite the hot and humid weather, (still very little rain over the last couple of months as well) we are getting outdoors very early and working on projects. We are so hot and humid with-high 90's F so we are up at day break to put in a couple hours before it's too hot for us to be outdoors.

   Larry has been working on getting his skid steer working again-changing parts and a major tune up, and a new seat -quite the job. He used to be a heavy equipment mechanic as well as working in construction and road projects. He does enjoy his "toys"  He also brought over a back hoe, the bull dozer is still at the woods house.

  The first couple months after we moved to the lake, he had rented a jack hammer, hired a couple guys we knew to get rid of all the concrete that ran in front of the house, and replace the walkway with bricks. The people before us knew nothing about directing water away from the house-we live on a hill, so they ended up making things worse with loads of concrete.  Those pieces have been piled up along the stone wall just in front of our door and front of the house.

   You may remember that I had carried allot of it to make those rock hills, and plant the perennial garden to the right of our front door and steps. To the left of that area we still had large piles of the concrete pieces.

  We got right to work this week, and I totally forgot about taking a before photo. Larry also dug out two large horrible bushes that just made no sense for this area. They are gone now and will be sunk in the lake, around our dock for fish breeding.

  Here is an after photo, and we also got the 8 large bags of garden soil down here too. In the back there behind the bags of soil is a lilac bush-I love lilacs so wanted to save it. This gives a clear view now, so we won't feel so cramped with those horrible bushes gone-they were just the wrong species for this space.

   Tomorrow morning early if I am not too sore, I will rake this area out and add the garden soil. For now I will scatter a bunch of zinnia, cosmos and marigold seeds to fill the space. To the right of this photo is a large pallet full of bricks to make my outdoor cast iron cooking area, we are pushing to achieve that this summer as well-still working on getting that large tree stump and roots dug out.

   Leaving the small pieces of rock and concrete will add some drainage to the soil, I did that on the other side as well. To the left and behind the lilac bush is a little garden shed-and behind that is a steep hill to the lake. Larry worked on scraping off the grass in that area this morning-getting it ready to put down the landscape fabric (my job) and rock-this will be easier for me to maintain with less grass cutting. 

  So we are making allot of progress which feels good-we both just have to really pace ourselves especially Larry with his heart condition. Those bags were soooo heavy-I had quite the time getting them into the skid steer bucket.

 I have needed to water almost every day, do to no rain. Everything is blooming well though and I am so happy with everything-there will be plenty of perennials to split up in the fall or early spring to plant in this new area.

My echinacea is still producing flowers and I have many butterflies that are enjoying all of the different flower blooms They really make me smile. We are attracting the bees as well.

For a treat late yesterday I made up a root beer float with my homemade ice cream, In the back is an empty bottle of wine waiting for me to remove and save the label.

   I am still making progress with my spinning-will post about that soon.

Enjoy your July and Summer

T Stands for Tuesday-Ice Cream

  Hello Friends,

This will be a short post this week. I am linking up with Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T for Tuesday where we also share a drink related photo in our post.

This past week I did get everything planted that came up from seed in my greenhouse bottles. I pushed to get it all in the garden with the forecast saying rain for several hours-We got missed-again sadly. A few sprinkles is all and then strong winds which pushed it all away from us-and no rain in the coming forecast. Typical Missouri though.

A few weeks ago we finished up the keto ice cream I had made back in the fall-that ice cream holds up really well in the freezer. The recipe I had been using is a long process. One makes a thick base first that takes 30 minutes of constant stirring, add the rest of the recipe. Cool for several hours,  and then put it in the ice cream maker. 

Today I decided to try a simple vanilla recipe that came with the ice cream maker and just substitute Splenda for the sugar. I almost thought of  using half Splenda and half keto powdered sweetener but decided to see how the Splenda would work out. Much faster for sure, just mix up the base and put it right into the machine. I churned it the full 25 minutes and it came out a bit over churned but tastes good.

     I did get my wool sock slippers mended with that little loom I shared. Sorry didn't get photos. The video I had shared was excellent for setting it up-I wanted to use wool threads for this to mend that large hole, but since the bottoms of the socks had little rubber alpacas that was hard to set up so the wool threads on the loom would seperate out to weave-so I gave up on that and used cotton weaving yarn instead-that worked out well. The one thing I did not care for, on the bottom of the patch are lots of loose strings from setting up the loom-when finished weaving the patch those all need to be brought to the back and then woven in. with the big hole in the socks that I was covering that was a challenge.   I don't wear shoes in the house, instead wear socks or I love these thick wool socks. Will see how long the mend lasts

   In the garden the bee balm started blooming Sunday morning

   This is my cup of tea Sunday morning while making the ice cream-my Ticket for T    I had picked up this large mug one year at the Fiber U event I used to attend classes at in July.

Here is one of those smaller ocean boats that are taking over the lake-too large for this lake but they allow it for some reason

Sunday morning early--we have dropped into the low 40's F this past week in the evenings-so quite chilly in the mornings

Happy T and new week

T Stands for Tuesday-more gardening

   Hoping all you mothers had a wonderful Mother's Day here in the States last Sunday. The lake was very busy all weekend despite the off and on rain with boats and those noisy personal watercrafts. The sailboat was out again too on Sunday and he had the perfect wind for his sailboat. We had a warm and very humid long weekend

  This brings us to Bluebeard and Elizabeath's T for Tuesday where we share a post with a drink related photo. Find link in my side bar to join in 

   

  I have been outdoors every day either weeding, planting or weed eating our yard. The weed eating was done in between small spurts of rain for three days now, I have one more area to finish. I use up 3 to 4 batteries at a time which is close to 2 hours-that's enough for my back in one day. Then I charge them back up for the next day. I know it's allot of hours, but the lawn service people are just too expensive, and I don't want to buy a lawn mower either-knowing me I would end in the lake haha.  We are also working on bringing in rock to get rid of most of this grass

  We had a lovely surprise down by our lake front. When we first moved here I dug up a few plants including our blue flag iris that love wet feet. They love being near a pond so they can get their feet wet. Larry thought they would grow well here at the lake by stuffing them in cracks into the rocks that is our natural sea wall here where we live.  A  couple years ago the lawn service continued to cut them down even after telling them not to-I finally fired them.  Last year we thought we lost them since they had been cut down so many times the previous year.  When I was weed eating grass over the weekend in that area-Wow so happy to see them again!!

Sunday morning the first bloom. These are Larry's favorite flowers-so I was thrilled to see them again. 

    They look like an inspiration for a painting

The electric company here that uses the lake to make power lowers the lake after summer and then brings the water back up by Memorial Day weekend. Once the water is back up-it will rise up to these plants but not totally cover their roots-just keeps them moist. So the lake will be much deeper here on the edge when that happens

  Last year I learned about hummingbird plants from one of my blog and slow mail friends  They are a perennial and the butterflies and hummingbirds love them-so thought perfect for my garden.  I bought 3 plants that were quite small when I received them in the mail and this spring I had lost two and then accidently pulled the third one out when weeding grrrrr  So I went back on Ebay and bought a different color and from a different seller-this is the seller's photo 

This is the name of this perennial   Agastache kudos silver blue hyssop mint  This was a different seller and the plants came so well packaged, were large and healthy. I gave him an excellent review I was so happy. This is a photo of them. The box even had a couple air holes for the plants.  I planted them early Sunday morning-in front of a rocked area I have been working on-to the right of the big copper pot. They will have room to spread up there and they will be tall with the rocks behind them-should look nice.

                                 

   I also got the area in front all weeded-saved the wild violets, and brought over allot of those chocolate mint plants which will then turn this area into a ground cover.   

   Behind that area I finished more of the weeding where the goldenseal plants are that I had planted last year and Monday the bloodroot plants should arrive so I can get those planted. There is just enough shade for those two plants in this area-they naturally live in the woods where it is shady. I will place bark around those plants too.  

 So the off and on rain the last couple of days has been perfect for gardening.

    I have a couple drink shares.  A couple weeks ago I started a batch of limoncello which is so refreshing on a hot summer day.  I used around 12 large lemons-peeled the peels into vodka, where it will sit for a month. Strain add sugar and a little lavender, can't remember now if water is also added. If interested in the recipe tell me in comments. We keep the finished limoncello in a plastic jug in the freezer where it stays nice and cold.

   So now I had a dozen lemons with no peels on them, so I made us fresh lemonade and used splenda instead of sugar to sweeten it up.

  The pottery lemon juicer is one of my first handmade pottery purchases-back in the early '70s. I love using it and have not seen another one as nice. I think I bought this one in North Carolina where I lived for awhile back then.

I also brewed up a flavored decaf coffee for something different, I decided to bring out another very favorite handmade pottery piece of mine. This was a 4 piece set of cups and I also bought the pretty pitcher that matches-which I need to bring out and use this summer. These pieces are soooo light weight. I had asked the potter how she did that and she told me her pieces are electric fired.

  I baked us up a big cast iron skillet full of apple crisp with the fresh rhubarb I had found at the Amish store a couple weekends ago. Makes a nice snack in the evening or I like it for breakfast too.

    Saturday I received the little mending loom in the mail, it is a cute little piece, will try it soon.  This is already long so will share a book next week

  Happy T and new week

T Stands for Tuesday-Gardening

   It's time for T over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's-find link in my sidebar to visit or join in with a drink related photo.

 I spent a 3-day weekend in the garden-weeding and planting. I bought way too many plants this year. I have decided except for the petunias I will grow annuals from seeds next year-which will give me a big savings in the end.

  Friday I spent most of the day adding more garden soil and planting ground cover thyme and a few flowers up on top of the hill. That ended up being quite the job-once it fills in will be nicer than the weeds that grew there

  Here is a look from the top down to a row of bushes-the lake is on the left-down hill and to the right is the driveway

  Saturday morning though I shopped around outside of Versailles, Mo visiting Amish greenhouses and stores. I had bought my plants last week Monday but our friend that comes over to visit and join Larry for a cup of coffee said him and his wife knew of several different nurseries. So his wife called and wanted to know if I wanted to go with her-Yes. Which is a big treat for me to get out of the house with someone else driving-smiles-I never enjoyed driving even when I had to commute to work

     I did not grab my camera as the Amish do not want their photo taken, so out of respect I didn't want to take any photos in the greenhouses either. I think after this trip I have it my mind finally how to find things without bringing along my GPS.

    We did start out at Zimmerman's greenhouse as my friend wanted several annuals. She thought the same as me, that the plants were not as nice as last year, and much more expensive than last year too.  I did find several nice herbs when I shopped before along with new to me mints. 

   The next stop was a huge nursery and greenhouse. I think I will visit this business first next year as they had lots of perennial plants and in nice size pots. I bought two lovely lavender plants and one columbine.

 

    These are the nicest lavender plants I have seen. The columbine was gorgeous too. Late Sunday after weeding and getting most things planted-here are a couple photos

I had planted fennel seed last year for the butterflies-nothing came up-but surprise here is one large plant from the seed-it is to the right of the daffodil plants and in the back by the stone wall-would you believe that is a huge plant of chocolate mint? I will need to pull some of this out as from two little plants it is everywhere now.

Another view-in the back right is a new to me weed that grows crazy here-easy to pull out too-that's my next project-clear all that out-add some bags of garden soil and plant sweet woodruff from seed-as an aromatic ground cover there. More rocks need to be hauled up to these hills as well

These stone pots were here when we bought the lake house. I moved them here and usually plant geraniums in them

  I started from seeds German Chamomile which you can see in the middle, and I planted vinca with the pink flowers In front of this photo I planted red yarrow from seeds (in the bottles too) which is at the corner coming down the steps. That green patch in front is chocolate mint

I will take a photo to share next time of the columbine as I see it wasn't in these photos.

  Our last stop was at the very large Amish Dutch Country Store-which is on the same highway as the perennial nursery. In front of the store they had a small greenhouse full of plants -they were gorgeous and the best we had seen so far. I only bought a garlic chive plant as I spent my limit already.

  

 Sunday was pancake day-Larry has his breakfasts planned out now-pancakes-then omelet-and then yogurt & granola day haha  Here is my gluten free version with fresh blueberries in the pancakes, topped with fresh strawberries from the Amish grocery store-soooo delicious-and a little whipped cream for fun In the back is my decaf coffee

We still have had no rain, it keeps missing us here in our area of the lake. Saturday and Sunday we were in the 90's-ugh so not ready for the heat just yet. I think it is at least a month since we have had any rain.

   So please send us some rain if you have extra-smiles

Happy T and new week everyone Yes the lake was packed with boaters over the weekend-enjoying the first hot days of the year

T Stands for Tuesday-We Have Photos

  Hellos to the T gang and all my readers

     It's Saturday morning so writing this up early for Tuesday. For the T Party we gather over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's and link up with a drink related photo in our post, and visit others on the link up. 

  We have spring blooms here, and another round of severe weather coming through today. Here are a few photos from early today (Saturday)  Tornadoes etc are still in the forecast for the rest of the day. There are allot of boats on the lake today for the big Bass Tournament-winning fish prize is $100,000.

  The skies were very black for awhile, windy with white caps on the lake-and then it left. I would not want to be on the lake during this type of weather.

  We also have lovely blooms.

  This first photo are dwarf size iris's I brought home from the family farm years ago in Indiana. This is the first year they are blooming well here at the lake-they got settled back in.

Lots more full size iris-different colors and gladiolas  growing

There is a very old red bud tree here-to the left-and the lilacs began to bloom

This is last year's crop of creeping thyme ground cover that I grew in bottles last year-the root system seemed to really spread over winter-these will get dug up soon and transferred to other areas.

Last week I estimated that I had 50 bottles-I actually have around 70, with 9 more to plant.

 The pink blooms are the ground cover phlox I bought from the Amish greenhouse last year

And the amaryllis has bloomed-it was slow to open up which was nice for longer lasting views.

 There will be 3 blooms on this stalk

Saturday the bloom opened even larger

I really love this color

  I also gathered dandelion flowers for my soap making-I infuse it in the soap with my lavender flowers-strain it and add the melt and pour soap to the molds. The dandelions here at the lake are large and lovely

I have always loved dandelions with their pretty yellow flowers welcoming in warmer weather.

   I am still spinning, getting better at the wheel, but still not even yarn and I don't always keep the wheel moving constantly-still spinning every day to hopefully improve.

  I found a bag of alpaca I had bought at one of the Fiber U events that I shared in the past of the classes I took there. I also found a big bag of small sample bits of alpaca that were for needle felting-so they were quite short-I blended them on the blending board. 

Rolags made from the blending board-the browns were small samples of alpaca

Here is the green-drawn out to spin 

Above greens spun into a very arty yarn-below photo

 I am now spinning on the wheel- white alpaca, next up a grey alpaca. I also found our (late) wolf Nikita's hair that she grew over winter-and then needed brushed out-very very short fibers and soft-I am carding that with alpaca and spinning on the drop spindle for better control. That will be an art yarn as well, will see how this looks after washed and dried-could go into a scarf. I have been able to spin it finer since this photo.

  Since I took above photo-found out how to delete date and time on photos

  I have been drinking my decaf coffee with whipped cream this past week, and a splash of my homemade kahlua  This is a hand thrown pottery mug we bought way back before retirement I have always loved handmade pottery dishes.

   

   I  make pancakes for Larry once or twice a week now for his breakfast-I made a gluten free batch for me today. I am using up the dried blueberries I had picked up at the Amish grocery store last year, with maple syrup-of course-smiles.

   This pure maple syrup we buy online from Pennsylvania-we were gifted this syrup from a friend years ago, so now I buy this for us. The best flavor we have ever had and we have tried many different homemade maple syrups from different states.  My cup of decaf black lemon Bigelow tea is also in a hand thrown pottery cup.

Sunrise early last week The sky was a brilliant red for just a bit

After the reds faded out

Happy T and new week