spring and summer gardening

My favorite roses are Sexy-Rexy (the rose-colored) and Graham Thomas, the sweet smelling yellow roses

The blue Clematis will bloom from early Spring until late June

                                      This red poppy puts on quite a show in the garden

Tribute to my Mother

My Mother as a young woman - so pretty!!!

My Mother grew up on a farm in Minnesota, the youngest of eight children.  She later married by Dad and they moved to Beardsley, Minnesota and later to Ortonville, Minnesota where my Dad was Big Stone County auditor for many years.

My Mother taught me to love gardening and flowers which is my passion to this day.  One of her favorite flowers was the peony and it is also my favorite.



She spent many hours teaching me how to knit which I do today.  I made many, many scarves and later a few afghans.  I have graduated to socks and sweaters.

I miss her this Mother's Day



bird watching, listening

With this warm weather, I had my windows open last night and this morning Miss Robin surprised me with her wakeup song.  That put a smile on my face before I ever got out of bed.  The robin was sitting in a tree outside my window and although I didn't have my camera, this is probably what she looked like.

There was lots of bird watching to be done at the lake by the Littleton Museum where I take my walk, so camera in hand, here are some birds I saw:

It is definitely mating season as all the ducks are staying close with their mates.

This female wood duck looks like she is very popular!!  There were actually three males around her, but they wouldn't stay still for a picture.

These mourning doves sat in the tree and I think they knew they were getting their picture taken.  Oh what a wonderful sound they have.  Spring!!!!

a little indoor gardening

Fernleaf Lavender

The basil is coming up - hope not too soon for the garden!!

"True Rose" Pelargonium growing under lights; smells wonderful.
Hopefully will have blooms some day .......

This is Lady Plymouth Pelargonium, but not mine;
I'm hoping mine will look like this some day!!!!

so much snow

Snow along the Platte River in Littleton during February

"almost" moonday

I've enjoyed being snowed in for a couple days and decided to do a little sewing on a moon picture.  As I think about the snow on the pines, and the Canada geese flying overhead I came up with this picture.  It isn't quite a full moon tonight, but thought I'd post this anyway.

Storytellers

     These storytellers were packed away in a drawer and I found them recently - brought back some memories of Santa Fe and Taos trips and some of the backroads in New Mexico.  Then I had to check around for some books on the Southwest.  I have read a lot about Eppie Archuleta who was a very famous weaver and received many awards for her work.
     This "lady" has been on my shelf it seems forever, but I decided to take her picture and in doing that I got a really good look at her face.  Isn't she something?  I found her in a little shop on one of the backroads we traveled. 

One day many years ago while wondering around the Plaza in Santa Fe, there was an artist painting a picture of the LaFonda Hotel with the church in the background and when he finished I asked him if I could buy it - he said no, but he would like to give it to me.  (Needless to say, this was a VERY long time ago).  Here is the picture.

Lots of nice memories of New Mexico in years past. 

feeding time

It's a short walk to the lake at the Littleton Museum and the ducks and geese are always looking for a handout.  This day I had left over dried bread, and some cookies that didn't turn out.  They made quick work of everything and wanted more!

These 1890 farm buildings were moved to this site; this is actually a working farm.  This picture was taken soon after it snowed so there are no tracks as yet, but there are sheep, a couple cows, turkeys (always penned up at Thanksgiving time), two donkeys and two horses that reside in this farm.  It is a great place in the summer when the school buses come loaded with children anxious to see the animals.  One of the buildings is an old home and there are folks dressed in the 1890 costumes cooking over an open fire and even baking bread.

What a great place to spend time enjoying nature at the Littleton Museum, spring, summer or winter.