• Blog - Outdoors

    T Tuesday: week in review edition

    We had a busy week leading up to the July 4th holiday weekend. I barely touched my computer for days… I totally missed 2nd on the Second that Elizabeth our T stands for Tuesday also hosts. I didn’t even realize I missed it until the 5th. How’s that for being out of touch!

    Lets start back on Tuesday of last week…

    hail damage

    after writing my T post, we headed off to my inlaws to check out the damage to the garden and their house. The garden was a wreck. Leaves and plants ripped to shreds and beaten into the mud. I cleaned up as much as I could and will just hope for the best. At least we have a thriving garden here at home as well.

    Wednesday and Thursday were a blur… I can’t even remember what we did.

    Friday evening was spent at the carnival in town. The kids had a great time. I had a great time too. I wasn’t looking forward to going this year but I’m glad I did.

    carnival

    I don’t know if you can tell from the photo (upper left side) but we’ve been effected by smoke from the Canadian wild fires here. The sun at times is just a red glow in the sky. Yesterday after our heavy rains ended it was so hazy and the air smelled really bad. I found out later that we were under an air quality warning. Our air quality was worse than Beijing, China yesterday.  Thankfully today it has cleared out.

    EDIT: I can still smell the smoke but at least the sky is clear.

    On to Independence day…chalk collage

    Before the parade I walked over to the hockey rink at the Elementary school to check out the chalk drawing contest entries now that they were complete. Amazing work! The girl who drew Uncle Sam was 14 yrs old! Wow!

    And now parade time….

    T6 Texans flyover

    The annual flyover by a T6 Texan squadron announces the start of the parade.  Then we have another good 30 minutes before the parade reaches our seats. That’s ok…we sit with a group of about 55 people in a friends back yard along the parade route. Can’t beat that!

    It was a hot and steamy day…my drink of choice…

    corona

    Ok I didn’t get that fancy that day…I had to take one for the team yesterday for dramatic effect on the post. *grin*

    After the sticky day it was time for a dip in the neighbors pool.

    pool party

    And then some fireworks…

    fireworks

    We are back to a normal schedule I think. Errands, hopefully knitting and visiting my T friends are on the list for today.

    What are you doing?

  • Blog - Kitchen - Outdoors

    T Tuesday: Juneberry jam edition

    Welcome to yet another edition of T stands for Tuesday hosted by Dr. E aka Elizabeth, caretaker of Bleubeard and Squiggles.

    20150629_8030So what’s a Juneberry you ask? I love putting words in your mouth…makes me feel all powerful and full of myself.

    20090623_2733 But seriously…ever heard of a Juneberry? How about a Saskatoon berry? Or perhaps a Serviceberry? Until recently I didn’t know that they all happen to be the same thing. And even more so…we have a tree in our yard. Wish I’d realized that 12 years ago when it was much smaller!!

    20150629_8044Of course they are much tastier when left until they are a deep purple…but you have to fight the birds for them.

    I found several recipes online for Juneberry jam but decided to go with this low sugar version.

    20150629_8029Isn’t it pretty!?! I ended up with a partial jar that went into the fridge for immediate consumption.

    I’m not a big sweets girl…(unless it’s chocolate…which I’m allergic to but I’m willing to deal with the consequences occasionally but that’s a whole other issue)…so a slightly tart jam suits me just fine. Honestly I haven’t tried it on bread yet…just the spoon. Slightly tart and quite full of seeds. It will depend on if anyone else likes the jam if I bother with all the tedious picking again. It would be interesting to know if you could make wine or mead or some sort of adult beverage from these berries. More research I guess.

    Speaking of research…can anyone help me with the name of this flower?

    20150629_8035I believe it starts with a “C” but I threw out the handy dandy marker that came with the plant. I want to write it down so I can remember to purchase more next year.

    I’m not sure what’s on the docket for today other than talking to my in-laws. The Twin Cities area got hit with some pretty big thunderstorms yesterday…large hail, winds and heavy rain. We got very little hail here and not much of it so the garden is fine. We heard reports of two inch hail in their area  though. UGH..that would be awful!

    I have to show you my rouge bean plants too…I did not buy climbing beans but 4 of my plants have decided to climb.

    20150629_8038I’ll be putting in some bamboo stakes today.

    What are you doing today?

  • Blog - Outdoors

    T Tuesday: tour edition

    Welcome to another edition of T stands for Tuesday. Come with me for a little walk around the yard today. You won’t believe how huge the tomatoes are!! FYI…picture heavy post

    We’ll start were we left off last week. The former playset.

    halles hobbies tour edition1

    The sand box has been removed and all that’s left are some bare spots in need of a load of dirt and grass seed.

    halles hobbies tour edition2

    I got a little carried away with flowers this year but I’m really enjoying them.

    halles hobbies tour edition5

    Of course many of them are perennials which suits me perfectly.

    halles hobbies tour edition4

    Here’s one of the crazy horseradish plants along with some tiny cucumber plants. Only one survived the transplant to out doors after our strange spring. I just replanted some seeds. It remains to be seen if they ever get big enough to produce.

    halles hobbies tour edition3

    Here’s the same deck box garden from a different angle. Those are my yellow pear tomatoes.

    Remember where they started this year??

    plant vigil

    Hey look…there’s the playset in the background.

    halles hobbies tour edition23

    And we can’t forget the obligatory beverage for T stands for Tuesday. Ice water for the humid afternoon we had while taking these photos. Heavy rain early in the day gave way to a sticky afternoon.

    Continuing my backward progression around the house we come to this sad bucket of dirt.

    halles hobbies tour edition6

    There are seeds in there…I set it in the sun hoping they’d germinate. If not I’ll throw something else in there…perhaps some daisy seeds for a splash of texture and color.

    halles hobbies tour edition7

    The big garden or shed garden or perhaps deer feeding station.

    halles hobbies tour edition10

    Some things are doing wonderful like my peppers and a rouge carrot.  My beans not so much. I’ve replanted seeds twice now after only a handful came up.

    halles hobbies tour edition9

    The herbs I transplanted from a Trader Joe’s herb pot are getting really big.  Behind them is the other horseradish plant we inherited.

    halles hobbies tour edition11

    I have beef steak tomatoes in this garden…nice thick stems and blossoms. Hooray!

    halles hobbies tour edition13

    One of my Egyptian Walking Onions is starting to look real interesting. I inherited these with the horseradish.

    halles hobbies tour edition14

    Not surprisingly the clover is looking fantastic. *grin*

    halles hobbies tour edition17

    I picked up these great hanging pots at Walgreen’s of all places. I couldn’t pass them up for the price.

    halles hobbies tour edition19

    The front walk pots aren’t looking the best this year. I was a little late in planting them.

    halles hobbies tour edition16

    I do really like these ones though. I picked up with watering can half filled with dirt at a garage sale this spring for $2. It’s a nice edition to my eclectic bunch.

    It wouldn’t be Tuesday without a full to-do list  for me. I’ll be around to visit my T companions at some point…have patience.

    What are you doing today?