December 2018 - That Holiday feeling

 One of my very favorite Christmas presents from my older sister is the Christmas wreath that she makes and sends to me each year.  She uses lots of different kinds of greens so it is very festive looking.

Hellebores, or Christmas Rose.

We are getting quite a collection - we have this one, a green one, a reddish one and a blackish one.  They provide a bright spot of color all winter in the garden.

And you can't forget to get yourself something for Christmas.  These pretty poinsettia earrings were made by a lady named Iryna Chajka who I follow on Instagram.  She has an Etsy shop called EtenIren.etsy.com and her stuff is lovely.  She does a lot of succulents - earrings, jewel boxes, etc.  Prices are reasonable, and even though she's some place in Europe, the earrings came really fast! 

Some of the bounty of Summer 2018

 

The Shepherd's garden went every which way last summer, including this wayward acorn squash that set itself up in the black pine by the driveway!  

 

A beautiful little acorn Squash from last summer that we enjoyed for The Shepherd's birthday dinner. Spoiler alert - he saved seeds and they had crossed with the butternuts so he got all kinds of different things this year.  

Just another fall day in paradise

It was beautiful for a walk about on Saturday and I couldn't help myself from taking a picture of our lovely yard.  The Shepherd really works hard on keeping it that way too. 

Almost Alaska sized!

The Shepherd doesn't do anything by halves and his cabbages this year are as big as your head!  He's got mondo acorn squash coming on too.  Everyone who wanted some at church this morning was rewarded, with one gal getting this one to take home "to make sauerkraut" she said excitedly. 

What's in bloom?

I have had beautiful flowers from The Shepherd's garden on my desk for the last month and a half.  It's so much fun and so cheery.  Always a nice surprise to see what he picks and leaves in my car.

Love summer!

It's green bean time again. It's also what's for dinner for the next month or so.  Sure glad they are tasty. 

Spring pretties

This peony was given to me about 10 years ago by my friend Diane H.  Even though it's planted in kind if a sketchy place (more rocks than dirt,I think)it has flourished and has about 8 or 10 buds on it this year.  They start out dark and as,the,blossom opens it fades to pink.  Such a beautiful flower.  Thanks to my friend for so many years of beauty! 

Dreaming of summer

The Shepherd is just going nuts with too many things to do right now, and then there are all these little plants that need transplanted out of the seedling,flats.  A farmer's work is never done

Down the garden path.

Happy May Day all. 

Happy Spring

The daffodils are popping out all over the place.  Lambs will be soon to follow. 

Fall colors, etc.

Well, I have been widely rounded for neglecting my blog.  So, since I have a little time this week, I'll do little catch up.  Sadly I have a spammer who will not leave my blog alone so I've had to implement comment moderation.  I really hated to do it but the spammer was bad, so it goes.  I hope you will still leave comments. 

These are some pictures from our garden.  It was so pretty this year.  The biggest red maple was planted shortly after we moved here.  It was one of the trees that formed the background for our wedding in 1994! 

The Shepherd has planted our yard with great thought to how it will look at all times of the year.  His 45 +/- years of landscaping experience shows. 

Pumpkin harvest

The Shepherd picked all his pumpkins  (try to say that fast, ha ha) at the end of October and brought them in the greenhouse to set a while before processing.  This year he switched from the Amish pumpkins to a French variety,  they are bigger. 

Just before Thanksgiving we started baking them up.  I scrape the baked pumpkin into a big bowl and hit it with my immersion blender until it is nice and smooth.  Then I pack it in two cup amounts in freezer bags.  Just enough to make a pie or pumpkin muffins.  Nice to have as the year goes on. 

The Empress Tree in full bloom

Lavender rosebud azalea

Happy Saturday!

Oh my goodness it's been a busy week.

Our accounting/office manager at work has gone to Tahiti far a big vacation so I am working extra hours.  Really makes me appreciate my part time schedule.

We got a couple of brochure projects that I have been working on back from the printer this week.  It is exciting to see something that I put a lot of hours into come out looking nice...really nice, actually.

I walked through the garden yesterday and took bunches of pictures.  I haven't figured out how to post more than one per post from my phone, but they are so pretty I may just do that and, of course, today is chores day, I'd better get with it!

The garden is going in

The Shepherd planted out in his garden yesterday.  He's mixing corn and pumpkin in one row.  The second one back is his purple cauliflower.  The broccoli is still in the greenhouse, having been planted a little later. 

The sheep are growing like Topsy.  You can see pictures of them on my instagram account .. my instagram name is menolly44. 

Happy MOTHER'S Day all. 

The colors of spring

I have been driving down our neighbor's driveway to see the sheep this spring and I have been getting a different view of our yard that is very pretty.  Love this yellow azalea that we don't see from our driveway. 

Spring is just around the corner

The "Glory of the snow" is coming on. By next week you won't see any brown ground ...it will be a sea of blue.

Spring is springing

At last. 

A butterkin pie

Here's the pie I baked yesterday afternoon.  I'm not sure why the crust looks so yellow - must have been from the lighting.  It was OK...pumpkin pie is not exactly my favorite...but the shepherd liked it and that was what counts.