At the Bird Feeder

Yesterday Mr Creative noticed a new visitor to the feeder.  We think it is either a Pinion Jay or a Mountain Jay.  No crest on this bird and it is pretty dang big compared to the finches and Chickadees that usually are at the feeder.
It's always fun when we get a new visitor and hope they will come back often.

Who doesn't love a baby in her bouncy seat?
July 22

Some Time with Grdaughter K

 

 

Awww...nothing sweeter than a little baby with her Papa. 
Just a few seconds with our little K

Garden Report and a Little Weather

 It is mid-summer now and things are going quite nicely in the backyard veggie garden.  Above you can see the corn tasseling and some ears forming.  We need to keep our eyes out for earwigs and grasshoppers who love to eat the corn silk while it is young and tender.
Below you see the second planting of lettuce, spinach and I think mustard greens.  Told Mr Creative that the lettuce is ready so I need to start eating large salads at my meals!  LOL  He has been using newspaper to mulch the gardens, cheap and eco friendly too.

Saturday afternoon we were in the south part of Provo eating lunch at a Texas style BBQ place, Tommys BBQ, which was very tasty indeed, when I saw the grey rain clouds hanging on the mountains out the window.  Considering it has been so dry here the rain was very welcome even though it kind of spoiled Saturday at the Payson City Scottish Festival.  I just loved the look of those heavy clouds and the mountain peaks together.

Visitors to Nana's

 

While their Daddy worked Nana got to have the "kids" come play and spend some time with me. 
Grsons B and I got out the Tinkertoys (among lots of other toys) before we went to the AF Rec Center to swim and grd K took a nice long nap.  K just had a shot and her vitals done and she is now 9 lbs 7 oz at about 12 weeks old.  Pretty good from her low of 4 lbs 13 oz a couple of days after she was born.  You can see she is healthy!

What Were These Bees Up To?

I came home from Zumba and this is what I saw on my rose bush.
It really puzzled me a lot...maybe they were building a new hive with a new queen?
Maybe they were sick?
But, I think I finally figured it out...this morning I noticed that the hummingbird feeder just above this spot was completely empty and it has been only about 1/4 way empty before.  Somehow I think it had been tipped or leaked all that sugar water and the bees thought this was a new strange source for nectar  LOL
They were gone this morning and the sprinklers had been on last night so I think the sugar water was washed off the leaves. 
Anyway...kind of interesting

A Couple of Funnies

OK, so I don't drink "Sweet Tea" anymore since I am a Mormon but....
I can so very much relate to this cartoon in today's paper.  LOL

 This one is for the mothers of my three grandsons!  Who wouldn't want to "invite" in a caleypillar?    Gotta love boys!

NY Beauty Arcs Finished

Well, there they are the first pieced arcs of my NY Beauty project.
As you can see it's going to be a real mix-up of fabrics with enough going on to keep a quilter on he toes!  LOL
I love how they are going to each tell a different story.  I have started piecing the second arc and it's going pretty smoothly.
I can't tell you how much I love using INKLINGO to make projects like this just come together so easily and since I am working by hand I don't end up stuck in my sewing room all the time.  One thing great about doing these blocks is that each one will be a new surprise when I put them together.

Three Sisters and the Kitchen

The gardens are doing very nicely this year despite the lack of rain we keep them watered with the secondary irrigation water system from the city.  It has been a blessing to be able to use the untreated water on the gardens and lawns saving the treated water for household use.
We planted a "three sisters" plot which mimics what the Native Americans did back many years ago.  You plant corn, pole beans and squash together to use the strengths of each to help all...the corn provides something for the beans to climb, the beans add nitrogen to the soil and the squash acts as a natural mulch to keep down the weeds for the others.  If you click the picture you can see that the corn is tasseling (popcorn for us) and the beans are starting to climb the cornstalks and the squash (a mixture of spaghetti and mini pumpkins) are doing well in the mulch department.  So far a big success! 

I had to show off my new burner covers...when I saw the chickens I just had to add them to my growing stash of covers  LOL  and then Mr Creative thinned the beets and this is the greens and mostly baby beets that we will have for supper tonight.  He loves greens and I can eat them so it will be a nice addition to the grilled chicken tonight!

What Belle Sees

I thought it would be fun for you to see what Belle and I see as we walk in the mornings. 

You can tell this is the beginning of the walk as Belle is anxious to go-go-go!
Funny thing, why are weeds kind of pretty when they aren't trying to take over my flower beds and veggie gardens?
click on the pictures to make them larger.

Independence Day Fun with Family

I am lucky that I have some of my family close by so that we can get together for holidays like the Forth of July. 
Here we are gathered before prayer ready to eat!  Even Belle wanted to be in the picture but she had chased DS D over as he pushed the camera timer buttons  LOL. You can almost see our little baby K in my arms.
I made normal stuff like brats, hamburgers (regular and turkey), pasta salad etc but I had a little fun with some treats.

Jazzing up some store bought ice cream sandwiches and fudge stripe cookies with colored "chocolate" melts.  It was fun to use a spoon to drizzle the microwaved melts onto the treats. 

Belle and I say Happy Independence Day everyone!

Home of the Free Because of the Brave!

Olympic Trials

For the past few days I have been watching the men and women do their very best to qualify to be on America's team by participating in the US Olympic trials in several sports that always are exciting.  Anyone who knows me can say that I don't watch sports much at all but the exceptions are gymnastics, figure skating and BYU sports  LOL
Somehow when it is an Olympic year I find myself not wanting to miss all kinds of sports that I would NEVER even care about...soccer, wrestling, cycling and so-forth.  But, I have to say that I am always impressed by the men and women who are so dedicated to their chosen sport that they sacrifice years and years of their personal life to have this usually once in a lifetime experience (unless you are very lucky and blessed genetically). 
Tonight it was track, swimming and gymnastics for the women.  So enjoyable and there were a few surprises along the way. 
How much I enjoy it I can't stand to just watch constantly so this is how I kept my seat

Quilt binding!  Not my favorite thing but I love that I can sit and just stitch without having to think or match anything. 
I didn't realize that my messy room would show up in the picture but so it goes!
Congrats to all the new team members and best of luck for the upcoming games in the city of London.