Alphabet - R

R

rich
robust
round
red
raspberries

This year we picked more raspberries than we ever have, now granted, some years we had a lot of berries and chose not to pick them for some very poor reasons, we either didn't have time or we were too lazy or we just didn't want to get eaten by mosquitos, scratched by raspberry thorns and have spiders crawl on our hands when we reached for a berry.
We decided to mostly work together this year and get out there and pick them together...hmmm, it wasn't nearly as bad as years past. By working together, we have picked well over four gallon bags full of raspberries. That's a lot of berries, which are all frozen right now, and when Colorado peaches are in season here in Minnesota, we will make up some Raspberry Peach Jam. We'd also like to make some Raspberry Chipotle Marinade. YUM!
For some unknown reason, the berries were large and firm, they have usually been much smaller and softer, turning to mush when washed.

See if Kira has her R done yet!!

Alphabet Q...

Whew, we are off schedule here, but that's okay because she's my daughter and she's busy with two jobs and sweltering, never ending heat and missing home and yada yada yada...(I've giving her a break, my excuse is...hmm, I really don't have one, except for the fact that I just didn't get it done, I procrastinated, because I am a procrastinator.

I chose for my letter Q, quilts. I have a quilt in the guest room on the main floor, one on the daybed in the dual use guest room/David's office, one in the master bedroom, I have a quilt hanging on the wall leading to the second floor, another quilt hanging on the wall in the upstairs hallway and I have a very special quilt in my workroom lovingly made by my very talented daughter (the one doing the alphabet with me). I love quilts and I really do want to make one some day, I've been saying I want to make one for about 30 years, so the chance of me actually making one is pretty slim.

The quilts I have...

These last three pictures are of the quilt that Kira made, with all of my comfort colors.
 I just love it!

See what Kira chose for her letter Q.

Alphabet - P

Well, I'm way behind, but Kira is even further behind. I have to admit she did have a good excuse...she worked the nine days preceeding her flight to Minnesota, and once she was here, she was going non stop up until I dropped her off at the airport yesterday afternoon. Once she got back to Arizona, she unpacked, rested and got ready to get up bright and early for work this morning. Yeah, I guess I'll cut her some slack
 ;-)

I took advantage of all the beautiful flowers in the Como Zoo Conservatory when we were there on Sunday and took pictures of all the Pink flowers for my letter P.

This is the kind of job I should have, I'm much better suited to being creative, like with gardening than running tests on blood all day long. Ah well, such is life!

I think this is a "new Gerbera Daisy'. I saw them at the farmer's market a few weeks ago and I don't remember ever seeing two toned before. I think I'll get some next year.

All of these roses

smelled

devine.

I love lilies, they're such a wonderful garden flower. They're easy to grow, bloom profusely, and last a long time. They also make wonderful cut flowers. Lilies are probably one of my favorite flowers...unfortunately, 

I HATE the smell of them, as they pretty much make me gag.

Again, a lily, water lily this time. Beautiful! Thank goodness they don't smell.

When my darling daughter gets her act together, visit her and see her alphabet.

Alphabet O...

O, o, O, O, oooo

Oh, I actually put some thought into what to do for O, until I walked into my dining room and found...

Oliver!!  He Found us a few years ago, hanging around our yard, spending time on our deck, making himself available for some cuddles and our youngest, Ethan, was the perfect candidate to deliver them.
Unknown to me, Ethan started feeding and playing with him and after he was pretty certain he wasn't going anywhere, he told the #1 sucker about him (and that would be moi). Well, I didn't want another cat, seeing as how we already had two of them in the house, so Kira came to the rescue. She had worked at the Humane Society when she was in high school, and she suggested taking him there to get scanned for a possible chip, so if he had one, we could notify the owners. I was by now secretly hoping that he didn't have one. Well...hehadachip...damn. I called the phone number that was on file with the chip, and the previous owners gave me a very sorry excuse for why their cat was in Brooklyn Center MN and they lived in Wisconsin, and they clearly did not want him back. (whew!)
So, we now had another cat (remember, already have two in the house) and thought we should take him to the vet to get checked out, because of the sneeze, runny eye and runny nose, and I really didn't want the other cats to get sick. Well, thousands of dollars later, he still has a sneeze, runny eye and a runny nose. They think that he must have been wandering around for awhile and maybe sniffed at something a little too hard, and that something got stuck up in his sinus and formed a sort of cyst. He's had x-rays, steroids, multiple antibiotics, his sinuses cleaned and he's still the same.

I just have to put up with snot on my walls.
Yes, snot!
There is no short supply of Fun around here!

But, even with all the money we've spent and all the cleaning that I do should do, Oliver is the coolest cat we've ever had, jam packed full of personality and very cuddly. He loves to sit on shoulders and will jump up on them if you are not paying attention to him (except for me, I won't let him jump up on me). When he settles in on my lap chest (or anyone's) he reaches out and puts his paw on my face or he'll hold my face with both of his paws (you know where those paws have been) or if I'm eating chips, he uses his paw like a hand and will pull my chip holding hand (that he so badly wants) toward his mouth.
He is such a lover, he's our Olibutt.

Oh, one more thing, when Kira and I volunteered at the Humane Society, we realized that there was one type of cat that was always sooo nice and sweet and lovable...the male orange tabby.
Oliver just happens to be a male orange tabby...go figure.

See what Kira's O looks like.

Alphabet N...

N is nice,
N is new,

N is for my Not so New candles.

I used to throw out the small bit of candle that was left in the bottom of the jar after the wick was used up, but my hubby started to collect those bits and use them for firestarters by melting them and adding sawdust.
We save cardboard egg cartons and he uses the egg form to for his firestarters. I have to admit, that was pretty good thinking on his part.

So, I started to think...if He can do it, geez I sure should be able to do it, and now I have two new old candles in scents that I Love.

I used a waxed whipping cream container for the square one and if I were real picky, I would smooth the seams (guess I'm not that picky).
The glass jar had a different candle in it at one time that I didn't like the smell of, so that one got used right away for a firestarter. But, I just happened to find the jar on the porch and remembered I had two almost used up candles of the same scent, that I love and were really expensive (why are candle so expensive anyway??)
I put both almost used up glass jars in a pot with a little water and heated it up. When it was all melted, I removed the old wicks and slowly poured the hot wax into the new jar, (this time with a wooden wick).
I let it cool for a few hours until it was firm and now I have a new old candle.

The wooden wick works pretty well, I'd never used one before, but it seems to burn very nicely.

Check out Kira's N

Alphabet M...

Here we are already at the letter M, mmmmm.

I chose the Mighty Mississippi for my letter M.

There is a great walking path a couple blocks from me, right by the river and we walk there very often. I love to watch all the changes that take place during the different seasons.

We have two eagles that hang out around here (I wish I knew where their nest was) and one of them likes to hang out in the tree in the first picture. It seems like I Never have my big girl camera with me, but I always have my phone (thank you O children of mine) so at least I've been able to get proof that we do indeed have eagles. Now if I could get a better picture I would be very happy! It's so easy to see him/her when there are no leaves on the trees, but once they sprout, I'm not sure if the eagle even roosts there. I have seen one cruising down the river at about 6:30 p.m. for a few days in a row, and just when I think I have them all figured out, they go and change their schedule, so now I rarely see them down there. Once in a while they are waaaay up in the sky soaring on thermal currents. It looks so peaceful.

A lot of changes take place during one single season also. This past couple of weeks, because of the high waters, we've seen whole trees floating downstream, Fast.  During winter, the water will be wide open, then in a couple of days it will freeze over. Toward spring, huge chunks of ice will be floating downstream.
I see that I don't have a picture of the river frozen over in winter, or of ice chunks. I remember seeing ice chunks only one day this past winter, which is quite strange, but this last winter was so warm, that the river never did fully freeze over where I live. Hopefully this winter things will be back to normal and I can get some pictures of the Mississippi looking like it should.

The picture of the dock with my hubby standing on it, taken a couple of weeks ago, is almost always totally submerged under water each spring. I've seen the water up past the parking area. It's sort of amazing how quickly the river can rise. When you think of how big the Mississippi is, and with us being in Minnesota, we're closest to the beginning of it and when it floods here, what does it do farther south?
This was the first spring I remember that it hasn't flooded. Of course we ended up having a few really good storms quite close together, and that was enough to make it rise significantly.

Take a look at some of the changes the Mississippi goes through.

Once again, these were all taken with my phone and it looks like they can only be enlarged so much before they look a little off. 

Check out Kira's M, she has something interesting for you to read.

Alphabet - K

Finally I've got my K


My K is for Kitchenaid my beloved mixer.

I love this mixer, although I don't use it very much...gluten free ya know. But rest assured, I will start baking again. I have four rapidly browning bananas on my counter, just waiting to be made into some delicious banana bread. I'm going to use my Kitchenaid and a recipe I found that also has coconut in it, swap the wheat flour for something else and cross my fingers. I really hope it tastes good, I hate to waste tasty, mushy, brown bananas on a flop.

This picture is really blurry, I took it with my phone, as I have lots of other times. Last night the camera on my phone just stopped working. After charging overnight, I reset everything, and it looks like there is probably something going on that isn't good.


Check out Kira's take on K.