Spring Garden Tea Party

Tender blades of green grass please us all with a standing ovation for the arrival of spring!  Purple violets decorate the grass and the sun shines warmer!  This celebration of the arrival of spring was the backdrop for our celebration of Gracie Anne's 5th birthday!  April 5th was a lovely day for our Garden Tea Party!  This tea party was complete with sweet girls in lovely dresses, vintage jewelry, vintage hats and linens, mismatched tea set, pink lemonade and yummies, croquet, and hopscotch!

Gracie Anne, Eliza, Genna, Anna

Thank you to the darling girls for making a sweet memory with Gracie Anne!!

Brambles, Brambles Everywhere!

Its Blackberry season now!

They are BIG and beautiful!!  The rain has been very good to them this year.  In fact, the primacanes - next year's producing canes - were soooo long that I had to go in with pruners to be able to reach my fruit!

We picked a full gallon of these luscious fruits and when we got home we washed them, spread them on baking sheets and they are freezing in the freezer.  They will be perfect in my Lemon Berry Cake recipe!!

And they all lived happily ever after!

Not really, because while I was picking and her Royal Highness was taking a little break, she pulled the key to the golf cart out and dropped it in the grass.

So we looked...

And looked....

And found a caterpillar....

And looked some more....

Until we finally decided we needed some divine intervention.  So we prayed for help.  And while we looked some more, Her Royal Highness asked me if Heavenly Father had a car.  I told her he didn't and she immediately asked, "Then how does he get to 'pwaces?'  Does he walk or 'somefing'? 

And then we found the key! 

Her Royal Highness said a prayer to thank Heavenly Father for help us find our key.  I'm so thankful that Heavenly Father allows us to teach our children about little miracles!

...And they lived happily ever after!!

Artichoke Harvest!

I get something yummy with my lunch today!

I don't have to share 'em either - No one else in this crooked little house LOVES them like I do!!

They are still small, but who's complaining!!  I can't believe I grew them in MO!!

All Racoons Go to Heaven

This afternoon my boys called me to the front door and told me to check out the coon that decided to visit Taffy's dinner bowl.  You guessed it!  I had another Missouri moment.  This sort of thing would have never happened if we still lived in California!

It is very rare to see anything like this at my front door and of course a picture was warranted.

However, there is a reason that you don't see this happening in the middle of the afternoon.  Coons that come out during the day are sick, and this little fella was surely sick.  He could hardly walk straight.  I knew  what I was going to have to do and I wasn't very excited about it.  It isn't good to risk our farm animals to whatever illness this little critter is carrying (distemper?  Rabid?).  The bigger concern is my cat-hugging-dog-loving-chicken-snuggling toddler who might happen upon this fuzzy wuzzy coon and try to pack him home so she can force feed him twizzlers. 

So I did what all good Apple Farmer Wives would do and drug out the shot gun.  The Apple Farmer's advice to me over the phone was to make sure I was standing outside when I shot because he didn't want me to blow out all of the windows in the house.  I guess I over estimated my aim because I only loaded up two shells and didn't take any extra with me. 

I did get him the first time!  The last two shots were for eating my dog food and trespassing my property!!

  JUST KIDDING!! 

I did get him the first time though, but I was a tad too low.  He got up again but dropped just as I fired the second shot.  The third shot put him out of his misery and gave him his ticket to get to racoon heaven.  He is now happy as he can be up in God's corn patch (not mine!!!) eating all the sweet corn he could ever want!

Christmas Break of 1989

During my senior year in high school I had the opportunity to help Pat in her flower shop.  We worked very long hours, drove home after midnight and got up a few hours later to make our way to the flower shop and do it all over again.  Pat taught me how to put the FTD arrangements together and after a while they became very simple to arrange.  I remember arranging greenery and red carnations while some of Pat's very talented designers put together the most beautiful arrangements of flowers I had ever seen.  I loved every minute of assembling and watching what next was to emerge from each new vase that was placed upon the work space.

I haven't had the opportunity to work in another flower shop, but to this day, I still know how to tie bows exactly how Pat taught me!  This skill has been so handy in so many ways!  And although I will never be able to work the magic that her amazing designers did, I do have a lot of fun putting together little arrangements with the pretties that I like to grow in my garden.  Out of a simple opportunity to earn a little money over Christmas break, I never imagined that two weeks could have ever had such an influence!

Dewberries

Dewberry: As Blackberry, except stems trail or sprawl, tips root.  Rose Family.

Habitat:  Rocky open areas, thickets, prairies, roadsides, railroads.

Uses:  Same as Blackberry.

The Dewberry crop is pretty big this year.  The berries are mammoth in size!

It doesn't take much to fill up a bucket.

We enjoyed picking and eating.

Her royal highness enjoyed force feeding the dog with bottle caps.

She later joined us to help eat berries.

Mmmm!  He must've found a big one!

How did we get so lucky to have such wonderful wild berries show up along our fence lines?!?

Berry Thief

My fabulous neighbors are picking berries on shares.  Here is this morning's share!  I've been straining out a good portion of the seeds and making berry syrup.  It is sooo yummy on pancakes and ice cream!

There is one of many in my home that LOVE berries.  This one in particular will go to any lengths to get some, as you can see!!

Seeing Green!

My grape cutting have finally rooted.  Yay!  More grapes = more grape juice!

Did you know that kitty toes grow in the garden?

My squishy squash (AKA zuke and crook neck squash) are growing up near the front door. 

Pumpkins and Marigolds!

Our garden has finally started to lose its sickly yellow color and its greening up nicely!

I did it!!  I did it!  My first artichoke in Missouri!

Our Sunflower and Pumkin 'Island'!

Pretty Glads!

Some of the Rhubarb that I started from seed!  Wow, what a hearty grower!!

A Chicken-Tale

Once upon a time, in a flower garden full of flowers,

and weeds,

and flowers,

there was a lost little chick-lette.

She was scared and frightened because she had been found pecking happily away in the tall weeds, AND flowers, of the great and distant garden. 

After she was found, and swept off of her feet by a handsome prince and brought back to the chicken coop to live happily ever after,

The handsome prince promised to cover up little openings in the chicken coop gate so little peepers wouldn't get out and get lost in the giant garden fraught with dangerous weeds.

Then end!