Linked 2013 - Everyday Life

Everyday life around here is pretty ho-hum, I sort of feel like I have lost my purpose in life now that my kids have left home to live their own lives, even though Andy is back in Minnesota and living with us. I really can't say it counts, because he is only staying until he gets caught up a bit, he stays in the new room downstairs and I rarely ever see him because he works so late. Not nearly enough for me to do to fulfill my Mom purpose.

Since Annie died, it's been even worse, because I lost my walking buddy. I walk with my hubby, but he's perfectly able to walk on his own without needing any help from me.

I work four days a week, I do most all of the mundane housekeeping chores and I do 90% of the flower gardening and zero percent of the vegetable gardening (I have to leave something for my hubby to do, right??)...oh, oh, I'm probably in trouble now ;-D
So, what have I been doing everyday that doesn't involve my job and homestead upkeep??
I have been taking pictures.
I have been taking LOTS of pictures.
I always have my phone with me, so I always gave a camera with me, and with Projectlife365 on Instagram, I take at least one new picture each day, (yeah, right, one a day hahahahahahahahaha)
and I am loving it...

Stop by the blogs of these lovelies and check out their days.

Amanda  Carla  Hanne  Heather  Rhonda  Jenn  Tracey  Rachel and Tracy

Linked 2013 - Fresh

fresh

vegetables
fruit
flowers
eggs - if i had chickens
chickens - if we were allowed
bread - grinding my own flours

for the past few years, i've been planting herbs in a large pot that i sit out in the garden
(they are extremely easy to grow) along with other vegetables and fruit.
i can't wait to have fresh lettuce again, there's nothing like tearing off a handful of different
lettuce leaves for a fresh salad...yum.
once all the other vegetables have produced and are dying, i clean off the herb pot and bring
it indoors for the winter, so i can then have fresh herbs for cooking until approximately april..
they just won't last any longer than that, at least for me.

well, this past summer, instead of planting herbs in a pot, we planted them directly into the ground
great idea - they grew like weeds - but we ended up having nothing to bring indoors to savor over
the long cold winter

for me, january is a fresh new month of a fresh new year and i find myself cleaning and purging and
simplifying my surroundings. i make plans for the much anticipated spring and summer, usually
while soaking in the tub ( i do my best thinking and planning in the tub). i look for new recipes
and call my son for help making those recipes taste good when i need inspiration, and i love
to use fresh herbs in those recipes. i've usually been able to find already potted herbs at
bachman's, the home depot or cub foods, so now that i've got the craving...
you got it, there are NO potted herbs to be found, except for a few rosemary and sage.
i bought one of the rosemary, don't want the sage and basil isn't out yet. i'm hoping there
was a run on fresh basil and by next week, one of these places will have more in stock

i could certainly plant them from seeds, but right now i want instant gratification

visit these ladies and get some fresh ideas...

Andrea, Amanda, Carla, Hanne, Heather, Heidi, Janet, Jean, Jenn, Kristin, Rhonda, Tracey and Tracy

Linked 52 - Tools...

Tools, well, what kind of tools?
There are an awful lot of different tools that one can use on any given day.

Such as tools for...

woodworking
book making
candle stick making
cooking
cleaning
sewing
crafting
plumbing
refinishing
car care
electronics
gardening

I have dabbled in all of the above at some time in my life, but for this prompt, I chose gardening tools.

One would think that I have neat and tidy gardens, seeing as how I spent most of the last 6 months in a crouch or on my hands and knees, playing in the dirt, killing my back and wrist, getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and gnats, wondering how much longer my luck can possibly hold out before I get mold spores in my lungs and end up in the hospital.

Well, um, NO, I do not have neat and tidy gardens, but I sure would like to. I would like to be able to go away for a week and not have to worry about what the gardens will look like when I return. I would like to have friends over and not be embarrassed by the state of my yard. I would like to go for my monthly massage and be able to ask for a relaxing massage, because no part of me really hurts.
The gardening I do is just a LOT of work that I do over and over and over again. Why? Because I was stubborn and didn't want to lay down weed block. I hated the old felt-like weed block we had years ago and refused to put that down again. Luckily we found a much lighter one that we/I am happy with. We have a couple more spots to finish up before winter (fingers and toes crossed), because I am getting real tired of pitching wood chips.
One of our projects over winter (in addition to finishing the basement that was supposed to be done this past spring) is to make a couple of Adirondack chairs (our old ones rotted) out of treated lumber, then paint and seal them so they are ready for some serious use come spring. I'd like them to be a little bit over-sized, and if we can find a pattern for the gliders, Yippee!!! I Love gliders.
My plan for next summer is to grab one of those chairs, find a nice cool shady spot in the yard, get a glass of pink lemonade, a good book, and relax and enjoy all my hard work, as often as I possibly can. (guess I'll have to make sure I go for extra walks and ride my bike to work)

Here is a little peek at my most used gardening tools...

I also took a few pictures that have nothing to do with gardening tools, but they do have a lot to do with gardening...

Stop on by these blogs and see what kind of tools these lovelies use!

Jenn

Heather

Tracey

Stacey

Andrea

Jessica

Kristin

Amanda

Tracy

Rhonda

Carla

Rose

Heidi

Hanne

Heather

Liza

Jean

Kristi

Linked 52 - Lighting, experimentation Part 2

So, I took my camera and tripod out to the pond last night and tried to get a better shot of the waterfall...
well, seems as though my camera doesn't want to take a picture with the auto focus on, it wants me to use my inferior eyes to try and focus on water and rocks in the dark, not happening.
I have a difficult time focusing during the day, even with changing the power to the viewfinder, so when
all the light is taken away, I'm pretty much just working on blind faith, which wasn't with me last night as you can see by the blurriness.
Anyway, this is what I got and it looks like stabilizing the camera on a rock works just as well as using a tripod, who woulda thought.

( I tried to load these last night only to find that the monitor on my laptop is BLACK. I tried a few things that didn't work and went to bed. This morning, same thing. I Googled My laptop screen is black and tried all the helpful hints, but I think it is DOA. I now have it plugged into my TV, but that's a little hard on my eyes and neck. Not quite sure what I'm going to do yet, I had decided to save up my overtime pay for a new camera, that's the only way I can justify spending a shit load bunch of money on something I just want, but a laptop might need to come first. Dang!)

Linked 52 - Lighting, experimentation...

Lighting, experimentation -

This was a tough one, my camera doesn't do well in low light, and I was wracking my brain trying to think of something good when my husband called me on my cell phone and told me to grab my big girl camera and take a picture of the lights on the waterfall in the pond...(I tell you, he is so irritating sometimes, especially when he's right!)

So, I propped the camera on some rocks and held my breath while it slooowwwwly cliiicccked away.

This is the only one that was pretty much in focus.

Now that I did this one, I'm going back out tonight, with a tripod and the outdoor house lights OFF, and try again.

See the Lighting, experimentation these other lovelies took...


Rose
Jenn
Michelle
Heather
Tracey
Stacey
Andrea
Jessica
Kristin
Amanda
Amanda
Lesli
Sara
Rhonda
Carla
Lena
Naomi
Heidi
Veronica
Heather
Liza
Amy
Jean
Kristi

Sunday - Wednesday Alphabet = H

Once again I am late, this is Thursday not Wednesday, tsk! Who cares anyway, Kira, do you?!

Today's letter of the alphabet is H...

I was having a hard time thinking of something that started with H, and by the time I figured out what I wanted to do, it was Wednesday evening, and a nasty storm was brewing, which means there was NoGoodLight, heck, there was hardly any light at all. I figured I would just wait till the next day and hopefully there might be a little sunlight. HA! No, it rained for a good portion of the day.

Fortunately, while we were out doing errands because it was too crummy out to garden, we stopped by Bachman's, after I got a medium, skim, pumpkin pie ice crema (with light whip) and what do you suppose I found there...

Hosta and Hydrangea and Hibiscus. Now, I have all of these in my yard, but, well, if I waited for the weather to cooperate, I would be posting this next Monday, and I had my trusty android phone with me, which I love, so I got all but one of these photos at my favorite garden center.

I probably have all of these hostas planted somewhere in my yard (I never kept the little tag that comes with the plants, so I have No idea what kind I have, I just know they look very similar)

This one above is my Hibiscus (I always call it a Hibiscuit because my mom's neighbor mispronounces words all the time, such as KMark instead of KMart)

This is my Hydrangea also.

So, I know Kira is also late with her H, but hop on over and see what she came up with!

Sunday - Wednesday alphabet

Wednesday is F.for.Farmer's Market...David and I went to the Big one in Minneapolis and on the same day, Kira went to one in Arizona.

I didn't take too many photos, because I still feel weird taking them in public, of public things and people. Maybe I should get over that, huh? Except for when I'm on vacation, then I guess I figure no one knows me, so I'm safe. Strange...

That same day, I heard there is a new Farmer's Market down by the Guthrie and Mill Park, they are supposed to have only home grown and hand made products. I can't wait to check it out.

Here are a few of the pictures that I did take:

Notice that there are actually a couple of Fs in this picture...see them up on the sign??

\

David HAD to buy some Stupid Hot sauce (that's the actual name of it!)

They sell a little bit of everything here.

I didn't get a picture of it, but someone was selling whiskey barrel, rain barrels. 

We bought one on-line the next day after we did a search on prices and decided that it was a steal.

You all come back now, ya hear?

Hop on over to Kira's blog and look at her Arizona Farmer's Market shots.

Linked 52 - Up...

I think UP in the sky is a pretty obvious take on the word UP, but I think there will be only a few of us
who chose it.
I find it very interesting that there are so many differing opinions on a word or phrase and I can't wait to see
what everyone else thought of UP.

I went with my first thought, which was taking pictures of the sky on subsequent days of the week. I had
fun and I only wish the storm that blew through at the beginning of the week would have been worse so I could have gotten a more creepy looking sky.

But, it is what it is!

 

Well, these last two aren't exactly UP in the sky, but they are UP from low down, ha!

stacey
michelle
heather m
jenn
jessica
kristin
sara
janet
lesli
amanda
amanda k
naomi
rose
tracey
rhonda
carla
lena
heather a
veronica
heidi
amy
andrea
liza
jean
kristi