Garden Update!

Hi Everyone!

Just a recap ~ I've been having problems when I post like everyone else seems to.  FireFox won't load any photos at all when I use that program to post.  Internet Explorer does, but moves my photos around on the post and sometimes deletes them or some of my blog.   It takes sometimes 2 hours for me to get a post up!

OK - that said - the garden redo - me, myself and I did not do the planting!  Honestly, I thought I had thanked my gardener who did plant them for me, and his helper.  Jose, owner of Angel's Gardening, here in Paso Robles, and his helper, David, did the work - dug all those holes, mixed the dirt, amendments and manure and planted.  Then ran the water lines for us.

My Sweetie and I did pick out and brought home all of the plants, and the plants for the garden, and seeds.  Tomorrow I am going to be aloud to plant my veggies, and seed my herb pots.  My physical limitations won't allow me to do the work needed to accomplish what was done yesterday!  I would have been in bed for - oh - about a week!!

Thank you all for your wonderful comments!  Tomorrow, I'll show you what I actually GET TO DO!!!

Blessings and hugs to all!
Donna

Front Yard Re~Do

Last Summer, we had about half of our front lawn ripped out.  With our constant drought situations here on the Central Coastal Region of California, it made better sense to go with some plants that take less water, and trees that will produce fruit.

I'm sure our neighbors thought we were nuts - but we've never let what they think govern what we do!

It's actually quite a large area.  Just on the side of this hill, we had planted 40 Star Jasmine, which I love, and seems to do well with our weather extremes - blistering hot summers and freezing cold winters.

I think one more needs to go in the upper corner here.

And, I left 4' from the edge of the lawn to the first row of plants to keep the Jasmine from intruding into the lawn.

Since the edge of the lawn is about the same length as the first row, we decided to taper down to the fifth row, adding one to each, yet leaving a good 8' from the trunk of the fruit trees.

My two little Apple Trees!  Sorry about my hand but I needed to shade the sun a bit, and it's late - not going to edit tonight!  They are the leafy twigs in front of the fence!  We placed them 12' from the fence, 12' from the lawn. 

Tomorrow I will show you my new Herb Garden area, and where all of the beds for our veggies will be this year.   We're very excited to finally get out garden started!  Like everyone else, Spring has taken it's sweet time getting here.  But the weather guesser has promised there won't be any more frosts or freezes for our area!

Blessings for a wonderful Sunday!

Hugs,

Donna

My Newest Wreath ~ Red, White & Blue

I love making wreaths!  I have 8 or so I rotate and refresh throughout year. 

I hosted our El Paso de Robles Daughters of the American Revolution monthly meeting this month, so I grabbed my wreath and hung it up.  But, it needed major refreshing and refurbishing this year.  So once everyone left, down it came.  Here's the finished project!

A wreath is just a wreath is just a wreath UNLESS there is something unexpected like ~

 



   LADY

   BUGS!!

And, how about a butterfly!!

What about a few bumble bees?  Oh yeah, at least a couple!

Oh my gosh!!  Look who I found hiding in my box of bugs and birds??  A hummingbird!!  OK  ~  almost complete  ~  In any Patriotic Wreath you just got to have  ~  The Eagle and a couple of Old Glory!

Thanks for taking a peak at my wreath!

I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed weekend!

Hugs,

Donna

I Had Mine ~ Have You Had Yours?

Your Mammogram, that is!

I had mine today.

When was the last time you had yours?

I've heard some women say,

"I'm never getting another one!  It hurt!"

They don't really hurt ~ hurt, it's only a pinch for a moment!

OK - your decision - I'm not one to tell anyone they have to do anything.

My best friend in the whole world, sisters by different parents,

so close we could finish each others sentences,

Mutt and Jeff close,

tell any secret to, share those inner most thoughts with,

the one you cry, laugh, be honest and tell each other to knock it off close to.

Suzy ~ she died 21 years ago.

Never saw her son marry.

Never met her grandchildren.

She found the first lump ~ one side mastectomy.

11 months later ~ second side mastectomy.

4 year 11 months later ~ she knew,

she didn't want to go in either, this time it had spread to her liver,

and 2 places in her left lung.

After removing one lobe of the lung, over half of her liver,

4 months of the meanest chemo they had at that time,

she entered Hospice.

2 months later she went home to be with the Lord.

Suzy carried the cancer gene.

Her grandmother, mother, aunts, cousins, all had surgery for

or died

of breast cancer.

Cancer hurts worse than the mammogram does.

Go get yours done ASAP!

Blessings,

Donna

Long Distance Thrift Store Purchases!

My sweet daughter in law in Colorado sent me this box of goodies, just jam packed and filled to the brim!

                    

This is what the box was full of!  Can this girl pack a box or what?  There's a little of this, a bit of that and a bunch of everything! 

Here, let me show you around!

Here are some pearls and beads.  Oh, just look at the ribbon - the organza blue ribbon off to the side!  There's also some in some yummy green, yellow and lots of tapestry ribbon!


 Lots and lots and lots of lace!

By the yard and look at the Eyelet Lace with Roosters! Cute, cute, cute!

Kim found the prettiest antique doilies!  Some stitches I've never seen before and all well taken care of!  Very few had stains, and I think I can tea dye them and use them for other items!  Oh ~ I love it!

 
 
 
So much beauty!!  Don't you agree?

 

 

 

 Tons of Ribbons, cording and

Calla Lily's on Ribbons!

And then there's bundles and bundles and bundles of this stuff - paper raffia ribbon - I don't know what to use this for!  Any ideas?  Any of you use it for ?  What???  Let me know, as I have lots of it!!!

Looks like great fun to work with ~ just need to know what, when, where and how?

 
 
Ideas?  Suggestions??  Have you used it yourself?  This is only a small portion of it!
 
 
 
 
Thank you so much Kim!  She is such a sweetie to go out and bargain hunt for me!  All of this cost me what??  A whopping $17 - yep - this gal knows how to shop! 
 
Love you, Sweetie!
 
Thanks for stopping by, I wish you all a wonderful rest of the week!
Blessings,
Donna

Gifts That Remind Us Of Love

As I cleaned and straightened after the Easter Holiday and packing away all of the decorations, towels and miscellaneous eggs and bunny items, I came across our favorite gifts given to us this year. 

I've shared with you many times our little granddaughter's loving hand made gifts, and this holiday was no exception!  And ~ these really are 'hand made' gifts!

These Easter Lilly's are an outline of her little hands, traced around the edges with yellow for definition, signed inside, "Happy Easter 2012 Elise" with a yellow pipe cleaner for a stamen.  

Each one sits on a straw and  has a vase made of a toilet paper roll, covered with tissue paper.  I just couldn't pack this away, so it sits next to the fireplace for now.  Sitting with it is this darling little book ...

Our crafter really took some time creating Grandpa's Shooting Star Flip Book.  I have to tell you, this girl has the crafting gene!  She loves crafting and she's got quite an imagination!  The 'Ultimate Crafter' can begin a project and complete it using almost nothing but her God given talents, and she already qualifies!  This book is pages and pages long, bound with tape, like a real book, and stapled so it won't come apart!  And - it actually tells a story!  Here is a brief version of the book ~ ~

The 'Shooting Star' as it begins it journey across the vast oceans of space from way far away ...

Skip ahead several pages to the shooting star entering Earth's atmosphere!  Look at the detail of the star's tail and the continents and oceans of Earth!

Closer, ever closer . . .

Grandpa sees the shooting star!  Do you see the Man in the Moon in the upper right hand corner?  And, take notice of Grandpa's face (click on the photo) as the shooting star gets ever closer . . .

Uh-oh , closer . . .

Aaaah!!!!!

Always wish upon a star, as Wishes Do Come True!!!

Is this the sweetest book ever?  Thank you, Elise!  You bring so much joy and love into our lives, into our hearts.  All of our grandchildren and children do, but you always make sure you bring us a little something to look at, to hold in our hands!  We love you, Sweetie!

Our older grandchildren use to do the same - in fact, I hang Christmas ornaments every year that my children, Connie, Albert and Jeff, made for me while growing up!  From Ryan and Jeff, Connie's boys who are already grown, and now from Albert's children.  There's no greater joy then the gift of Grandchildren!

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!  We are enjoying a weekend of 90+ degrees before another round of storms next week.  Although it's only supposed to get 25 degrees cooler, so a warm rain this time!

Blessings to all, and thank you for taking a look at my treasures.  I'd love to hear what your children and grandchildren make for you!

Hugs,

Donna

First REAL Harvest Of Our Fruit Trees!

Here's a photo of our little "Citrus Grove" (plus 1 additional Key Lime tree hiding off to the right side here.) These are dwarf trees and we bought 5 gallon sized trees 5 - yes FIVE - years ago. We've had a few Mandarin Oranges, several Meyer Lemons the last 3 years. The first year we had nothing, of course. When we bought them, the Nursery Man at OSH told us, "they'll do just fine in this area! And, they'll quickly grow to the 6' to 8' size we'd like to keep them at in no time at all." He fibbed just a little bit - well, actually he fibbed a BIG WHOPPER!! This guys pants caught on fire!!  Citrus Trees don't do well in an area where we have so many nights that freeze - only low to mid 20's, and many, many nights under 32 degrees. So, not just frosts or quick freeze, but a hard freeze for these tender trees.

Our first year here, we lost 3 of our first 4 trees, and had to start all over the following year.  OSH has an outstanding return policy - if your buy plants from them and they don't make it, they guarantee a refund for additional plants.  Can't beat that.  So, hearing that year was an exception and it's not usually this cold, again from the Nursery Man, we spent the next two winters taking the trees in and out of the garage to the back patio when the freeze would be for many nights in a row, or covered them as best we could.  Moving the trees so much we lost a lot of buds, and they weren't getting the proper amount of sunshine in the garage.

So, we contacted a nursery back East and spoke with them about the possibility of tenting them with a frost or freeze blanket, and were assured they would make it - and as you can see - they have.   They are too large now to move in and out of the garage, so their home is in the sheltered courtyard by our front door.  This summer they will be moved to the back yard, then planted a couple of months later, and before late winter rolls around, a tenting system will be in place - except the lime tree.  That is going to our son's new home in Hanford. 

Leila asked if she could "harvest" the fruit?  She's been patiently waiting for months, as citrus fruits take almost a year to go from bud to ripe - who knew?  (Not the Nursery Man by the way!  he he he!)  There are already buds beginning to open and the bees are starting to buzz about! 

She's so proud of herself!  She thought it would be very easy, but - - they didn't just drop into her hands.  I had to teach her to twist and tug.

She loved this.  She enjoys coming out to the garden with me during the spring and summer to help plant, water, trim and weed but loves to "harvest the veggies!"

Here she is showing off her two nice baskets of the fruit that was ready!  One is full of lemons, the other is filled with Navel and Washington Oranges and tons of Mandarin!  There are many more left on the trees in different degrees of ripeness.  She then asked, "Grandma, where's another basket?"  "What do you need a new one for?"  "Well, aren't we picking the zuchinnis now, too?"  she asked.  Oh, I wish!!  First - we need to plant them!!

Hope you enjoy my wee one and her "harvest!"  Wee ones are so easily amused!  Love it!

Blessings to you all!
Donna

Easter - A Tad Late In Posting!

Hi Everyone!  Sorry to be so late in blogging about Easter and being off the computer for a week ~ Right after Easter festivities, I left to take care of the little ones at their home.  The school they attend takes the week after Easter off instead of the week before ~ Anyway, please indulge me while I show my Easter off!

In addition to being one of the two most important holidays for me as a Christian, growing up we always looked forward to Easter as it was the beginning of Spring in California.  Days were warmer, drier and sunny!  I loved the times growing up, going to Mass, then heading over to Granny and Baba's house and meeting up with all of our cousins.  There were hundreds, it seemed, but really only about 15 of us kids, sometimes more depending on family friends who joined in.  Granny's home was open to everyone, and there was always enough food, no matter how many came!

That's where I learned my love of cooking, from my Granny.  This year, it was rather quiet with just my sweetie and me, our daughter in law, and the wee ones.  No problem though, whether 2 ~ 6 ~ or 16, we eat a great meal and have lots of fun!

Little Leila is always ready for eating - no matter what meal it is, just say, "It's ready, come to the table!" and she is the first up there and ready to eat!

Along with a nice pork loin roast, and a nice big turkey!  All three kids wanted a leg - a - ever seen that three legged turkey?  Grandpa to the rescue!  Top part of the wing is pretty close and just the right size for this little one!

Yep, our grand kids are carnivores!  Elise really enjoyed hers, too!  And Isaac - he started with the pork roast and by the time he got around to the turkey leg - well, there wasn't any room - not that he didn't enjoy dinner!

Notice that bowl of Grandma's home made sour dough stuffing next to him?  This guy loves Grandma's cooking, for sure!  I can't believe he's another one who is almost as tall as I am!

Mom and Grandpa thought dinner was finger lickin' good!

Easter Sunday turned out to be one of those grand sunny, warm days.  Blue skies, great temps so Karla and my sweetie did the egg hiding for the Egg Hunt.  "It's because the Real Easter Bunny is really busy and they don't have time to really get the eggs hidden for everyone!  Sometimes he must need the help, cause it's not magical like Christmas, ya know, Grandma?"  Well, I know now, Miss Leila!

This year, Leila had a 20 second head start, which she really didn't need since she spent most of it trying to catch a lizard!

 Then Elise got a 20 second head start before Isaac,

Now it's time for counting!!  Who found the most???

Elise counted 35!!



 



Isaac also counted 35!!



And, Leila counted 53!!













Everyone had a great time, Isaac said our Easter prayer at dinner,  we were so proud of him because he thanked Jesus for dying on the cross for our sins, and rising up again so we could go to heaven with Him when we die!  And, this from an 11 year old! 

My favorite photo of the day?  Our precious granddaughter, Elise.  She is so pretty, so smart!  Caught her off guard here, sometimes these make the best shots!

Thanks for sharing my Easter with me, even though late.  While I was gone, I couldn't down load any photos at all!  And, as you can tell, I had many to share with you!

Blessings to you all - may this next new week be wonderful!
Hugs,
Donna