• Blog - Photography

    T Tuesday: exploring edition

    July 14, 2015 - By 

    Today for T stands for Tuesday I’m sharing a little snippet of a local outing the kids and went on last week.

    We went to the arboretum. It was a gorgeous day. Sunny but not hot.arb collageAfter walking around, snapping photos for a couple hours we headed off for lunch. We decided to try a place that we’d been very disappointed with in the past. Why would we do that? Well previously it was a dinner and it was at least 5 years ago. Why not try again? lunch dates

    Little J and I really liked our meals. Big J was indifferent. His food was kind of tasteless without the specialty sauces that came with it…which he didn’t care for.

    Overall it was a good experience that I’m glad we tried again…other than the price tag. Yikes! Oh well…we don’t go out that much and it’s summer. Gotta have a little fun.

    I’m off to drop one at volleyball and do driving lessons with the other. I’ll be back to check in with my T stands for Tuesday friends as soon as I am able.

    What are you doing today?

  • Blog - Outdoors

    T Tuesday: week in review edition

    July 7, 2015 - By 

    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

    June 30, 2015 - By 

    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?