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.

Friday, May 28, 2021

MAY BROUGHT ME SO MUCH BEAUTY, BUSYNESS, AND HEART ACHES.


May is bringing me lots of joy, lots of garden and yard work, fiddlehead picking, office paper decluttering, some long-awaited tests at the hospital since November, and my heartache is that my brother's 14 years old granddaughter has gone missings since May 11th, and no clues as to where she is. 

 A suspect has been arrested on evidence they found in his truck but he's not speaking and the police are not giving any details as there is a publication ban. It is now a criminal investigation.  And Blogger is not being nice to bloggers today.  


Creeping phlox and white daffodils




Creeping phlox on the rock wall


Crab apple tree suffered damage by armyworm this year.  I took down three big nests and a large patch on the trunk of the tree after I noticed that they had eaten buds and leaves.


The large daylily bed.


Creeping phlox and white daffodils and yellow Leopards Bane 


Daffodils by the big rock.


One of my many bags of mulch of garden debris that I'll be using to mulch some flowerbeds. I do this every year instead of throwing it away.  This year, I used the branch shredder instead of my lawnmower as my husband got a young mechanic to change the motor since it had been in the flood twice. It was much faster.


Blogger didn't want me to remove this duplicate photo.  They no longer have "delete" in the settings and I had to drag the photos in. I have done this at other times with success but I could delete photos then but now there is no "delete button"   or I haven't figured it out yet.

Golden alyssum  on the rock wall 




 Some of my many red tulips just before they finished blooming.



My first asparagus crop, grown from a package of seeds that I planted last year. I only harvested these as I want to let them get established before harvesting next year.


Nice fat fiddlehead after washing. The ones in the sink have been blanched.


16 pounds of nice big juicy fiddlehead that I blanched. I only went to pick once this year. 



I've been shredding old files for the farm business and this is only a tiny sample of what I will be shredding over a period of time. I just hope the old shredder holds off. In the meantime, the office is in a mess.



More old files that were shredded and it's just the beginning.  I only shred on rainy days but I need a new cord on the old shredder before I resume the gigantic task. I shredded 16  large blue Glad recycle bags so far. It's very time-consuming as I have to check every file before shredding.


It's been a long time since my last post and I hope that I'll do a better job of blogging next time. 
Stay safe and well. Thanks for your comments.  

Hugs,  Julia

 






20 comments:

  1. My heart aches for your brother - and for all the extended family. I do hope you get answers.
    I love your garden - and you are right. Blogger is not playing nicely at the moment.

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  2. Beautiful flowers!! We don’t have fiddleheads here. I will have to read about them. Shredding is a real chore, but makes for decent garden mulch. We grind our leaves and such for mulch as well. How terribly sad about your niece. I will add them to my prayer list. Hope you have a good Memorial Day weekend.

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  3. Beautiful flowers!! We don’t have fiddleheads here. I will have to read about them. Shredding is a real chore, but makes for decent garden mulch. We grind our leaves and such for mulch as well. How terribly sad about your niece. I will add them to my prayer list. Hope you have a good Memorial Day weekend.

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  4. Beautiful flowers!! We don’t have fiddleheads here. I will have to read about them. Shredding is a real chore, but makes for decent garden mulch. We grind our leaves and such for mulch as well. How terribly sad about your niece. I will add them to my prayer list. Hope you have a good Memorial Day weekend.

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  5. Your flowers are gorgeous, and I hope your shredder is up to the task.

    I hope your grand-niece is found soon.

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  6. Oh my word Julia how horrible that is about your bother's grand daughter it makes me ill to even think of it.
    you gardens are spectacular as always!!! and oh your fiddle heads yummmmm I have no had any this year.
    you do have a huge task with all that shredding a good winter project too.
    take care, sending prayers for a good outcome.
    Cathy

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  7. It's nice to see a post again, but then that horrible news. That's something you wish no family would ever have to live through. I'm so sorry that you have to go through this. Of course your garden is gorgeous, you work so hard at it.

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  8. I took a look at the cow licking photo, it's really great.

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  9. Oh Julia! My heart breaks for you, your brother, and the rest of his family. These horrible crimes just keep striking closer and closer to those we know. The "not knowing" part must be horrible. I will keep his granddaughter and the rest of the family in my prayers. Your gardens and flower are GORGEOUS!! I have always loved creeping phlox, but mine would only come back for a year or two and then poof...gone...so I gave up. Regular phlox don't seem to like our soil either though. I will look forward to seeing your garden of day lilies in bloom! That's a lot of lilies!! And a lot of fiddleheads! Do you freeze them after blanching like that? I have never eaten these...nor seen any growing here. In fact, I had never heard of them until I started blogging. They make me curious. Great idea to make your garden debris into something useful. The plants get to return to the soil as they should. Oye on the shredding. It looks like a dauting project (and I know all about daunting projects LOL.) I need to do some serious shredding here as well...years and years of legal "things," old insurances, students' tests, grades, business documents, etc. It overwhelms me to even think of it, but I need the space in my filing cabinets at the very least. I have yet to take the step of even buying a shredder yet though. Shame on me. Keeping you in thoughts and prayers as I know you do me. Hugs ~Robin~

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  10. Prayers for your family. How very sad and scary. Not knowing would be a person's worst nightmare.
    Your flowers are all so beautiful. With all those gardens to tend to, I don't know how you could possibly keep up.
    The shredding does not look like fun...especially since each document needs to be checked first.
    So good to see a post from you!!! Always a treat.

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  11. Never heard of fiddleheads. I sure hope they find your brothers granddaughter safe. Do I see a river in the background of one of your many beautiful flower pics? Janice

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    Replies
    1. Yes, that is the beautiful St John River flowing in front of our house.

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  12. Your flowers are beautiful. Why not burn your old papers vs. shredding. So much quicker. Ask me how I know. Lol

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    1. Thanks Jacqueline, but we do burn some, but there is way too much paper to burn in the stove and we are required to have a burn permit to burn outside , besides, shredded paper makes great mulch for the garden. What you see in the photos is just a small sample of the files I have to go through.

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  13. Hi Julia,
    I am praying for your family. That is awful heart ache.
    My love and prayers to you all!!

    I enjoyed your garden tour. I like the idea you are doing with your mulch. I also liked the peek of the river. :-)
    Love, Carla

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  14. Your garden has really filled up with colour, I love the creeping plox surrounding the daffodils & there will be an explosion of lilies when their time comes! You have been very busy outside & it shows Julia. The mulching will help hold the moisture on the hot dry summer days & keep the weeds at bay too.
    I watched our fiddle heads turn into ferns as they're not part of our meal plan & I enjoy the feathery ferns.
    So sorry to hear that the missing teenage girl is your brothers granddaughter. Very scary with the disappearance of such a young girl, that she can just vanish without a trace. I hope they find her safe.
    Thinking of you.
    Hugs,
    Cynthia

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  15. Oh Julia, I'm so sorry about your granddaughter; You've had too much heartache over the past few years. OMG, I've been on a journey to shred many years of his business records, our tax backup, health records, etc that my ex husband stored in the attic. Slowly I'm dwindling it down and probably would have been overwhelmed had all that plus my years of paper trail had been in a pile like yours is.

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  16. Sorry I didn't comment sooner. My heart goes out to your family. I certainly hope they find your brother's granddaughter. So scary. I'm keeping you in my prayers. Your gardens are so lovely and I know they are also tons of work. I've never eaten fiddleheads. Do find them wild or do you plant them? All that paperwork! We can drown in all our files as well as junk mail. Good luck with your project and again hugs and prayers for you and your family..

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  17. I pray for your brother's grandchild to return soon safely. Such a heartbreaking times for the family and the child. May she be safe wherever she is right now.

    Your flowers and autumn trees images are beautiful. As for the delete option. You can just go back to edit the post section and can remove or add images directly from there. This is a problem with blogger, not every function is given at one place and you have to navigate a lot.

    Shredding is so so time taking. Like, just sit for two hours and only then you get to clear the desks. You can also do it bit by bit. At least that is less boring and less hectic.

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