RUG HOOKING BLOG

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I'm a mother of four grandmother of seven and great grandmother of three. I live with my husband in the house that we built with the help of my brothers and will have been married for 57 years this February.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

38 YEARS IS LONG ENOUGH...

This week I continued cleaning out flower beds and cut down the stems of my Peonies right down to the ground. Then on a whim, I decided to dig up those Peonies I'd been wanting to dig up for so long... The weather was summer like but the ground was saturated because of the heavy rain we had the day before. The mud was sticking to my boots, making walking very clumsy.

Had I known I would dig them out, I would have left the stems on to make handling easier.

At long last I dug up my old clumps of Peonies after 38 years in the same spot without being disturbed. It was difficult mowing around the Peonies  because I had three little flowerbeds instead of one continuous one. In 1977, I had just dug three small holes and buried three small pieces of Peony roots that I got from my mother in law. One white and two red. They have bloomed every year since, giving me  fragrance, beauty and abundant joy.


This is an old picture. You can see the three green flowerless little clumps of Peony by the shed in the fall. They were growing right in the lawn.


Although it's hard to make out, there are two red peonies side by side. See how the weeds are keeping them company.



And here is the white Peony. The fragrance is incredible when in bloom. They still bloom every year even though they're not in full sun as they should be...

I was really surprised at the size of the roots under the ground. It was a man job but I decided I was WOman enough to do it myself... The ground was sticky and heavy so I purchased a large bag of potting soil with perlite to lighten it up. It will make weeding a bit easier in the Spring.



My boots were getting heavy with mud sticking under so I had to use cardboard to walk on while digging.


Here are the divisions of the white Peony.  You can see the buds for next year.



This is the roots that are being discarded from the white Peony. After choosing a few good specimen, I even threw more roots away.

When digging Peonies, it's better to leave the stems on so you can see where they are when you dig them out  and it's easier to grab them by the stems to pull them out.... I don't think that I'll ever  dig these out in another 38 years though... I would be 107 years old. hahaha.




This is a picture of the finished border by the shed this morning. Notice our first heavy frost... I still have some sod to remove by the lilac tree in the middle of the flowerbed. I stuck red reflectors where the peonies are planted. I might stick some tulips in the new dug soil if it stop raining long enough next week before the ground freezes.



All that hard work made me hungry so here is a nice ham and broccoli quiche, Very yummy. I rolled out some pie dough I had in the fridge and as quick as a wink, my quiche was ready for the oven. I set the timer on and ask George to take it out of the oven when ready. A task he didn't mind doing...



Cypress wanted me to take a photo of him so  he got the step stool and set it up and waited for the camera to flash. Quite the little ham. I love his pumpkin shirt. He wiped out on the rug at his home and got a rug burn on his chin, poor little fella.



This is my front yard today and now it's raining again. At least it's not snowing.

Today I'm keeping my friends in Bakersfield California in my prayers as they are dealing with closed  out roads and mudslides after heavy rain. Keep safe....

Thanks for visiting and leaving your comments. I always appreciate your point of view.
Have a safe and good weekend.
JB

Monday, October 12, 2015

HOLY COW, WHO IS MESSING WITH THE TIME CLOCK?

September came and went and we are at Thanksgiving today already.

September has been a blur for me this year so Blogger wasn't much part of it.  A good thing I took photos to remind me of what I did otherwise I would have forgotten half of it.

It started with  negotiating for a house for our granddaughter and her hubby and all the paper work and the financing and the never ending signing of papers and visits to lawyers  and waiting for closure and getting things in order for my trip to Ottawa for a week in the midst of being so busy and the big move.


This is a cropped up image of the back of house to protect the privacy of the previous owner.





This photo shows the weeding in between the rows as we picked. My mini van and George look pretty small at the  top of the photo.

There were lots and lots of cucumbers and tomatoes and squash  to pick and pickling and some more weeding cucumbers and picking and picking. (No photo of the big field of squash and pumpkins or the rows of potatoes). We had three long rows of cucumbers. We grow cucumbers and squash for the church supper and pickle making each year. This is a great source of revenue for the church.



A small sample of my wool dying, taped to the fridge for photo taking.


Fun visit by Cypress in between all the coming and going. Just look at that happy face.


My visit to Ottawa, where I babysat Daniel on a Friday, saturday and part of Sunday.  Look at that happy face too. We had loads of fun and a little adventure I'll tell later as this post is already too long and growing...



Me and the boxed in kids. One is missing his legs and the other is missing his body. Two very busy little boys.


James was at a conference for amputee children from Friday to Sunday  and stayed in a nice down town Hotel with his dad and when asked what he enjoyed the most, his response was, the hotel room...  
and being in the pool of course. James is a cool dude in the pool.





Back home from my trip, and babysitting Cypress as the parents are moving into the new home. All this moving was very confusing to Cypress. He would look at the empty apartment and cry the poor little guy. I took tons of photos that day as he love being photographed and hams it up for the camera.
I'll post some of those photos at a later date when I have nothing to blog about.


I trimmed some branches of the maple in the back and saved the branches and chopped them all for kindling. I hate to waste useful things like wood.


A before  picture



and after


Another before picture


and after but still some lingering new chickweeds lingering.


two more flowerbeds cleaned up


and another cleaned up bed and many more to go unfortunately...


What's left of the Thanksgiving Pumpkin pie. It was served with fresh real whipping cream.

There you have it, over a month worth of blogging in a single post. 
Until next time, Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends and Happy Blogging to the rest of my followers wherever you are...   
Thanks for all the email and comments while you waited patiently to see if I was still alive. JB