Garden – Page 2 – Asbery's Echoes

What’s For Supper?

Cucumbers and onions from mom’s garden – oh so good!

It’s raining! Yeah! We were in a draught. Great big cracks in the ground, brown grass, the farmers were starting to worry about crops, gardens were suffering. I had stopped watering everything but the cucumbers and tomatoes. We aren’t hooked up to rural water. We have a well. In the 26+ years we’ve lived here our well has never run dry but there’s always a first time so we were starting to be extra careful with our water usage. So this rain is greatly welcomed by all!

Not very colorful – I need the cherries on my plate – but oh so good!

Supper tonight – I’m trying to watch what I eat for health reasons and because I really need to lose some weight. Tonight’s supper was so good thanks to my mom’s garden! Baked fish with homemade tartar sauce, fresh green beans, cucumbers and onions and cherries for dessert. Eric was home for supper which hasn’t happened much lately so no leftovers but that’s okay. I didn’t know he was going to be home and yet I served lots of his favorites. Score! I love this time of year and eating fresh garden veggies!

Mom’s Gift

Isn’t this the cutest flower container! My mom made it for me. She isn’t really a crafty person but she has a great love and talent for flower gardening so this craft was perfect. She made one for me, one for Abby and one for Aunt Konnie, my dad’s twin sister, who is battling cancer right now. I will treasure this gift that mom took the time to make for me and will find the perfect spot for it every year in my yard.

Another Busy Week Ahead

My chives are getting ready to bloom. I planted them last year but I don’t know what to do with them. I need to read up on their care. The blooms are pretty anyway!

It seems like yesterday went by in a blur. I am so ready for school to get out and for things to slow down. I don’t do busy well. Looking back I am amazed that I survived having the older three kids at home and involved in everything that they were involved in. I don’t know how some of those parents do it who have children involved in everything they can possibly be involved in. I find that it takes away from home and family time. Sitting on the sidelines is great and the kids learn so much being involved but there just needs to be home time too. Family time. Slow time. Joe left yesterday midmorning for California. He’ll be home sometime Friday afternoon. I have to remember to remind him to stop at Hy-Vee and pick up Eric’s graduation cake. It’s an extra in case we run out of cake balls. Drew had soccer practice after school. I’m thinking they have had plenty of practices for them being kindergartners but I guess that means the coaches were really involved so I can’t complain. He has his last soccer game this Thursday but starts t-ball practice on Wednesday. I’m already thinking maybe that’s too much but I guess one day of overlap isn’t too bad. He’s not sure he even wants to play t-ball. We’ll let him try it and see how it goes. Eric loved baseball, Aaron not so much. They’re all different. Our only rule is if you start it you finish it. But if you don’t like it, you don’t have to go out for it again the next year.

If all goes well, this will be pretty by summer. The wave petunias will cascade over the pots and look so pretty! Ignore the pallet in the background. I had Joe bring it out so I could hose it off. I’ll be using it in my decorating for graduation.

Today is the only day that we don’t have anything going on. I’m going to try to get the housework caught up and the laundry done because I won’t have much time until after the weekend now. Tomorrow is Drew’s class trip and I’ve volunteered to go along. Out to Belva Deer for a picnic lunch, then bowling at the local bowling alley and ice cream at Walker’s. Should be a fun day. Then t-ball practice. Drew will be exhausted. Thursday is soccer. Friday will see us at the church decorating for Eric’s graduation party. I’m hoping to get everything set up Friday afternoon and evening so Saturday we can focus on cooking. I’m looking forward to the party. We have friends we haven’t seen in ages coming and family members all getting together. It will be fun. With Eric’s party and all that entails, we haven’t made any plans for Mother’s Day. We’ll just wing it I guess. I think we’ll all be ready for a nice quiet day. Maybe a picnic later in the day out at Belva Deer. That would be the perfect Mother’s Day for me!

Doesn’t every chicken coop need a start and a horse shoe for decoration?

Esther and Beaky. They are past the cute little chick stage and not quite into the grown up beautiful chicken stage. At this point they are kind of homely but we love them!

Weekend Randomness

Lily of Valley that I transplanted from mom’s house a couple of years ago in a little vintage vase that was Grandma Ward’s. Lots of memories wrapped up in a little bouquet of flowers.

Drew’s picks from the nursery. A red geranium, a white begonia and a blue petunia. Red, white and blue – all ready for summer!

Another busy weekend in the books. Friday I got my hair cut then picked Drew up from school. From there we ran out to the new greenhouse. We have some Amish families that have moved into our community and one of the famlies opened up a greenhouse this spring. Very nice family and lots of pretty flowers. It’s so nice to have a greenhouse so close to home! After that Drew had soccer practice then we ran out to Dad and Mom’s where Joe already was to help them with a project. Supper at their house and some relaxing outside. It was a beautiful evening.

Drew found the baby kittens again. Not a very good place for them again. You would think Miss Mindy was a first time mama with the spots she is picking out for her babies. This was underneath my Bleeding Heart plant. But now that they’ve been found, shes moved them again. At least shes giving Drew something to do – hes on the hunts for kittens!

Saturday saw Drew’s soccer game then the boys and I ran to Ottumwa to get Eric some clothes to wear for Baccalaureate, Class Night and Graduation. We ate at the new Chinese restaurant and boy was it good. Then back home. Checked out Joe’s lean to to see how much him and Dad got done on it while we were gone. Later we went for a drive and got ice cream at the local ice cream shop. A summertime weekend pastime of ours. Ice cream and a quick trip out to our county park, Lake Belva Deer for a drive around the lake.

Joe and Drew working on the lean to. They are getting ready to close it in on two sides. The front will be open. A place to store firewood and trailers. Can you see Drew in the orange shirt? He is a lot of help!

Today Drew and I got all of our pretty flowers planted along with our tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. Can’t wait for those to start producing – yum! Then we had the Baccalaureate Service this evening at the high school. A very nice service and cake and lemonade afterwards. I’m glad they have Baccalaureate again. They had stopped having it for a few years but they’ve held it the last few years. It was very nice and a lot of the kids attended. Then Eric went out to supper with his classmates and it was back home for us. We had a movie night with Drew. We popped popcorn and he chose to watch The Life of Pets.