Christmas Notebook

happy 30th birthday!

July 5, 2009 – 10:48 pm

Today is our oldest child’s 30th birthday. We’re so happy he and his family are visiting this week, and that we were able to celebrate his birthday with him.

Birthday cake was enjoyed by all. Along with peach pie and apple pie, and home made ice cream…mint chocolate, raspberry, and vanilla. It was quite a feast!

And some of us just like to have our picture taken.

DH likes to juggle and he entertained the grands this afternoon by juggling his brains…foam toy brains, that is.

In the garden, we are recovering from more than four inches of rain that fell yesterday. It always amazes me how well the flowers can withstand such an onslaught.

We need to add more lilies (Lilium) to the garden. They are beautiful and add wonderful color and fragrance. If you know the name of this one, let me know!

DH gathered lemon lilies (daylily), purple cone flowers, gooseneck loosestrife, and hosta flowers from the garden, and I made this bouquet for church this morning.

More pictures tomorrow! 🙂 ~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in family, garden 2009, our garden, twins | Tagged family, garden, twins | Comments (0)

the prettiest flowers in the garden

July 4, 2009 – 10:58 pm

No contest.

The Fourth started with a downpour and it rained until shortly after noon. We played on the front porch with the girlies and, after the rain stopped, they had a great time splashing in the puddles.

Like Grandma said…the prettiest flowers in the garden. 🙂 ~~Grandma

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in family, Holidays other than Christmas, twins | Tagged family, fourth of july, puddles, twins | Comments (1)

these doll babies are at my house

July 3, 2009 – 10:45 pm

04 25 09

Plus sister Lauren, and Daddy and Mommy. 🙂 Fun will be had by all! ~~Grandma 🙂

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in family, twins | Comments (0)

wednesday’s walk in the garden

July 1, 2009 – 10:50 pm

We had a great plant sale today. The weather was wonderful and we had enough customers to fund a very nice donation to the mission team at church. You may not be able to make it out in this picture, but we set up the table under the redbud by the front porch, where I sat from 10-4! Enjoyed visiting with all our garden company. And afterward, DH took DD and me out to eat and to see “Ice Age” which we enjoyed a lot! 🙂

And we had a special garden visitor today. Isn’t he cute?? I know he’s green, but he’s really a gray tree frog. DD would have liked to keep him, but she released him after a short visit. 🙂

To see how others spent their Wednesday, visit Outdoor Wednesday and follow the links. 🙂

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in flowers, garden 2009, our garden | Tagged daylilies, flowers, garden | Comments (7)

not enough time in the garden

June 30, 2009 – 10:07 pm

Between piano lessons this morning, the mower not starting this afternoon, and softball this evening, I missed a lot of garden time today. How sad is that??

I did get some pictures this evening, just as the sun was going down. Thanks to my nice camera and the great lens DH gave me for my birthday.

The purple cone flowers look great right now.

Daylily ‘American Revolution’

Variegated ribbon grass ~ Phalaris arundinacea

We don’t know the real name of this daylily, so call it “Paprika” as it is the color of dark rich paprika.

Miscanthus sinensis ‘Morning Light’ and the daylily ‘Arctic Snow.’

I don’t know the name of this lovely lily. To tell you the truth, I don’t even remember the plant! It’s one of those “did I plant this here??” plants.

The little daylily ‘Eenie Allegro’ is blooming happily, even though it’s in too much shade. We need to move these this year.

Looking across the east front yard.

The garden is in full flower and so beautiful right now. We enjoy every minute we can be in it. Tomorrow we are having a plant sale and the weather is supposed to be great…high of 84*. Wonderful after the triple digits of the past few weeks.

If you want to enjoy other gardens and their blooms, visit Jean’s Bloomin’ Tuesday. You never know what kind of inspiration you might find!

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in flowers, garden 2009, our garden | Tagged daylilies, garden, garden 2009, summer | Comments (4)

a walk in the garden

June 28, 2009 – 10:48 pm

Here are a few pictures from the garden this evening. Cooler temps made touring the garden much more pleasant than it has been for more than a week.

The daylilies are in peak bloom right now. Beautiful!

We’ve had this beautiful daylily for years. We don’t know the name of it so we call it “Paprika” as it is the color of dark rich paprika spice.

Russian sage is a striking accent in the garden. It has a long bloom time and attracts a lot of attention from our garden visitors.

We’re planning a plant sale for this Wednesday, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. If you’re in the area, stop by!

And if you’d like to see other online gardens, visit Artie’s Share a Garden Sunday.

~~Rhonda 🙂

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in garden 2009, our garden | Tagged garden | Comments (5)

menu plan monday ~ june 29

June 28, 2009 – 5:10 pm

We have a big weekend coming up. DS#1 and his family will arrive Friday evening for a week of fun!! We are so looking forward to their visit! Just look at these three beautiful granddaughters!

The first big activity of the weekend (after unpacking the van, squeezing kidlets, and getting everyone to go to bed at a decent hour) will be the Fourth of July parade! Fun for all! Grandpa will pack a cooler of ice pops and water bottles, the kids will find bags for collecting candy thrown by the float riders, and mom and dad will try to contain all the excitement long enough to get everyone there in one piece. And Grandma (that would be me!) will take lots and lots of pictures. But then, nothing new there! 😀

Monday
hamburgers / homemade buns
fruit salad

Tuesday
tacos

Wednesday
pulled pork / buns
veggies / dip
grapes

Thursday
pizza

Friday
spaghetti / homemade sauce
focaccia
corn on the cob
peas

Saturday
lunch at the parade

supper
grilled shrimp / scallops
hotdogs / hamburgers
grilled corn on the cob
grilled veggies
fruit salad

Sunday
pork chop / potato casserole
spinach salad w/ strawberries
corn
steamed sugar snap peas

birthday cake ~ DS turns 30!
ice cream

Check out more menu and recipe ideas at Menu Plan Monday.

~~Grandma 🙂

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in menu | Tagged menu, menu plan monday | Comments (1)

new daylily bed is in

June 26, 2009 – 3:53 pm

The bed for our anniversary trip daylilies was prepared earlier this year. DH sprayed the grass with round up, then covered the bed with several layers of newspaper, and topped it with five or six inches of wood chips. Then it waited…and waited…and waited…until today. 🙂 First order of business was to take a picture of each flower, then lay the plants out in the order they were to be planted. Had to be sure we didn’t put two of a similar shade next to each other.

DH planted and I made a map of the bed to keep in the daylily binder.

I also made plant tags for each plant.

Planted and tagged. After this picture was taken, we put a soaker hose on it to give them a good drink.

Our thanks to Marty at Aussieker Daylily Farm for her lovely plants and generous bonuses!

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in garden 2009, our garden | Comments (5)

happy anniversary to us!

June 25, 2009 – 10:10 pm

Today DH and I celebrate 32 years of wedded bliss. 🙂 And, as we have the past five years, we celebrated by visiting a daylily farm! We went to Aussieker’s Daylily Farm near Richview, Illinois.

Prior to our trip, I spent some time on their website making a list of daylilies to look for. Oh, my! Such beautiful flowers! Decisions, decisions!

It was 96* and super humid. Hot, hot, hot. But under the big tree in the yard, there was a lovely breeze and it felt much cooler. Very comfy place to sit and relax.

We filled the trunk…I think we brought home 19 new daylilies! Happy Anniversary to us!! 😀

Tomorrow we plant.

~~Rhonda 🙂

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in flowers, garden 2009, our garden | Tagged anniversary, daylilies, daylily farm | Comments (1)

here and there, in the garden

June 24, 2009 – 9:35 pm

Last evening, I took a few pictures as we documented “first flower out” on the daylilies. If you don’t know what that means…we keep a record of when the first flower appears on each daylily every year. That shows us this year, for instance, that the daylilies are blooming 5 to 7 days earlier than last year. Interesting to us, if not to anyone else! ;-D Anyhoo, here are a few pics from the yard.