a few garden snapshots

I spent some time in the garden weeding and cleaning up today. It was in desperate need of some TLC and I made a little progress. I am enjoying watching everything grow and change, and definitely enjoying harvesting tomatoes, zucchini, and acorn squash. Here are a few snapshots from tonight - along with bonus bunny and cow sightings.

This is a stem of one of my giant sunflowers. Isn't it amazing?

my Tweets

I added a little Twitter widget on the side of my blog so if you aren't a Twitter user, you can keep track of my last few tweets. They usually cover L's adventures, my cooking & baking endeavors, and other randomness from our day.

Hello, cows!

Last night after I put Lachlan to bed, I headed down to the garden to pick up some tomatoes, zucchini and sunflowers. As I walked back up to the front of the house, I encountered quite a surprise!
If you've been reading since last summer, you know that we have cows for neighbors. Actually, there is a pasture behind us, and we think it is rented out for a herd of cows now and then. Bill and I were just talking about how we haven't seen the cows yet this year. So, I came walking up from the garden and spotted this fellow, right out by the driveway. I whipped out my iPhone and called Bill because he has the number for the cow owner (we had a calf sneak through into our yard and get stuck a couple times last year).
Then while I was talking to him, another cow comes wandering up from the ravine, and another, and another! Until I counted at least six grazing around our yard! I wish I had a photo of more, but when I got closer to take a photo, they got spooked and ran away. And I almost stepped in a cowpie.
Our fence seems to be intact, but I think our neighbors section is where the cows wandered in, first to their yard, then up the hill into our yard. The cow owner came by about a half hour later and herded them into the pasture, but it was sure an exciting way to end the day around here!

new layouts

All of these layouts have been sitting it various stages of completion for the last couple weeks, so I decided to get going and finish them all up this morning, since I can't seem to get going on anything else productive today!
I've had these photos printed for months to scrap, just a quick page. He still loves to look at his reflection.
Lots of pictures from the blueberry picking adventure! Probably more than I needed, but I love them all so much. I think it's kinda fun.

This is for a dare, but I can't say I'm too happy with the design. I've had the pieces hanging around on my table for a couple weeks, so I just finished it up. Whatever, not every page can be my favorite.
L is working on new sounds and words every day. So far, the b sound is the most popular. :)

Here I am with the weekly update, having trouble getting here more than once a week this summer, but who knows, I'll probably post every day for a week now!
Tonight I taught a class at Home Ec about fusing plastic bags. It is such a fun and easy technique. And a little unpredictable, which makes you get creative - that's good! All the students made gorgeous bags. It was fun to see all the different shapes and colors. One of the students taught me how to use the bags to make yarn and crochet a bag. Can't wait to try that!

Other things happening around here:

• Picking blueberries
• sweet corn.canteloupe.blueberries.strawberries
• watching the garden grow (notice I didn't say weeding the garden, oops!)
• wrapping up the summer preschool session
• making zucchini recipes & Amish friendship bread
• watching Lachlan work on his "projects", which usually involving moving a group of things from one location to another
• looking forward to the ISF
• trying to read more, just finished The Reader and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

And a few links for you:
my new go-to recipe site: Tasty Kitchen
looks like a fun magazine: GreenCraft
I will be trying a few of these: Martha zucchini recipes

middle of July already?

Not much to report - now that everyone is healthy again, we've been spending lots of time outside. The garden is growing great. I'm loving the tall sunflowers and in awe of the pumpkin & squash vines! I love that Lachlan loves to be outside, too.
Last weekend we had a BBQ in honor of my mom's birthday and I made my first cheesecake. Big success, yum.



Harvested our first zucchini today! Bring on your favorite recipes!

This past week hasn't been very fun around here! Lachlan had his first real sickness - it started with a fever, which gave way to goopy eyes and a runny nose. After a visit to the dr. we found out it was Conjunctivitis and by Friday dinnertime the antibiotics were doing their job. Until... he woke up Friday night throwing up for the first time ever. Aww, it was so sad. Luckily, it was a short-lived stomach bug. Lucky for me, since it caught up with me yesterday. Yuck. And Bill has been sick all weekend with a head cold. So, not the most enjoyable long weekend for us. At least it meant some extra cuddle time with our cutie-pie.
We did spot some wildlife in our yard, though! This is the second time I've seen this buck in our yard. He was tasting our apples, and I've also noticed some lilies have been nibbled.
Then I spotted a skunk rooting around in the front yard. Don't worry, I wasn't in danger of being sprayed because I used my camera's zoom to get a closer look. Did you know that skunks are a main predator of honeybees?
I haven't had time to do much crafting lately, but I did manage to finish up a tag blanket that is a gift for a new baby boy. Here's hoping for healthier days around here!