Creatures in my yard

Hi there Mary and Jeni,

I have been going through this years photo's and have come up with a collection of creatures that I have captured, photographically, in the yard. One of the first thing different this year were the two Canada Geese who decided to hang around on top of the decrepit old barn. They used it as a vantage point to honk at all the other birds in the slough just beyond. They came into the yard for several weeks to do this. My were they noisy!

At about the same time my tulips from last fall were starting to bloom. At my feet you can see the asparagus stalks which will cover that corner of the garden are starting to come up.

Next is the froggie from my pond cleaning. I am not sure if all the little tiny frogs I see are his babies, but I have seen many little ones out in the grass. They shimmer with gold when they are young. Soooo pretty.

Another frog, a tree frog, spent some time on our furnace exhaust pipe one day.

It let me get really close for the picture.

We also had a good looking buck and two of his buddies come into the yard. I had never seen three males together before. They all had quite big racks so I hope they make it through the hunting season. He sure was pretty.

After the garden started to green up a little we had a young woodchuck come visit our Sugar Snap Peas. The little rodent!

And a racoon who visited the bird feeders in the late afternoon.

And of course I took lots of pictures of birds. It was hard to choose. Here is my shy Grey Catbird. He didn't see me, he was intent on the jelly feeder. He has to fight the Orioles for it.

Here is a mama oriole finding stringy bits of the milkweed stalks from last year for her nest. That is why I don't allow Jim to go all Norwegian on me and clean up the garden in the fall.

And an Oriole fledgling on a daylilly stem. They eat your flowers you know! They especially like the unopened buds.

Here one is munching on my heritage purple morning glories.

I also got a good look at a Golden Shafted Flicker. What a noisy bird!

I also had several swallows nesting on the house. This is a bank swallow nest. I love the grumpy way the babies look. We also had barn swallows nesting. Their nest is more open and the nesting birds tail sticks out. More like half a robins nest stuck to the wall.

Alice is occasionally allowed in the garden. But only under strict supervision. She lives in hope of course, and whenever one of us is in the garden takes up her post on the chair in the mudroom and watches intently.

This is latest 4 legged visitor. He came in shivering and sopping wet and smelling like the slough. So I toweled him off and he decided I was his friend for life. He is a cute puppy but we called around and found his owner. Turns out his name is Bolt (after the movie, not his wandering tendencies). He was named by a three year old. He was a very nice visitor for a few hours.

This is the most recent picture, taken on Wednesday. One of only 6 monarchs in the garden this year. Usually we have hoards! It likes the zinnias Jim is partial to. I like the ones that look like they have bed head myself.

Love,

Nancy

A Farmers' Market in Whitefish

All summer long, I worked on Tuesday nights, across the street from Depot Park where Whitefish has its Farmers' Market.  I knew it had grown and didn't really mind that I wasn't fighting the crowds.  But now it's September, tourists have (mostly) gone home, and I wanted some fresh produce.  My coworker agreed to trade hours with me, so yesterday evening, I ventured out to my first market since...well since 2007.

It was wonderful.  I knew it had gotten bigger, and I don't like to share my hometown with strangers, so I was happy with the local crowd.  We had a band that I had never heard before; I love them.  

 

Bluestone - jazz, funk, and electric jam (I think I read it on their website.)   Of course, no public festival with music is complete without toddlers dancing.  They're the best dancers in the world.

There were Hutterite women selling jams and jellies,

a John Deere ice cream machine,

a recycled metal sculptor and his bird bird-feeders,

 

and a truck full of melons, surrounded by people and (of course) wasps.

I went to the Yak burger stand - AKA the Cuisine Machine - the Yak burger is fourth down on the menu -

 

and got a Yak burger with sweet potato fries.  Tasted like lean beef, and it was on the most delicious whole wheat (I think) bun with sesame, sunflower, flax and another seed I forget.  They also made a fresh looking salad and Pad Thai bowls:

Too bad I won't be at another Farmers' Market to try those.  

But my haul wasn't too bad:

varied cherry tomatoes, tiny yellow patty-pan squash, carrots, purple potatoes, and a wooden hat given me by a woodturner, just because I admired it!   I am going to be eating some delicious food...while admiring my new hat.

Nancy gets a porch

Hi there Mary and Jeni,

I have wanted a decent sized back porch for a long time. Partly because my knees don't like the last step up into the house. Partly because the back steps are rickety and the 3x4 top is tiny.

I wanted it bigger and I wanted it level with the threshold and I didn't want to paint it, ever. Fussy aren't I?

My friend Deb found a couple of guys who worked on her church. She said they knew what they were doing and they were trustworthy. You can't ask for much more than that!

Then I found out one of them was married to Becky who I have known for 15 years or so and that sealed the deal.

They told me they couldn't do it until later in the year. I was thinking maybe October or so. However the weather has been nice and except for the rainy weekend that caused them to frame up the deck in their garage (I think) the work went zip zip zip! So the first week they framed up the deck and brought it out to the farm where it lay in the grass and teased me.

Then they came out the next weekend and put in cement post supports.

Last Friday when Jim and I got back from Minneapolis the trailer of materials was parked near the garden.

On Saturday they did the decking and the stairs.

Alice supervised from the mud room sink.

On Sunday they put up the railing and finished the trim.

I have spent the last 24 hours lugging things to the new porch to decorate it.

I just love it.

It is made of recycled plastic and wood and it will never need to be painted!

Thank you Karl and Knute!

You did a good job. Now when I pick up the tops for the posts we will be all set!

Nancy

Jim wins tickets to the Twins

And I get my picture taken with Bert Blyleven.

Hi Mary and Jeni,

Jim insisted and just look what happened. Bert wasn't even told that I have a long history of doing that to others. He is just that way. Jim says I am lucky he didn't give me a hot foot.

Jim got the tickets because he guessed the answer to a silly question on a radio program and then his name was picked out of the correct guesses.

So we went down to the cities and stayed with the parents and saw Jon and E and ran lots of errands and went to the game.

We also got a tour of the Metrodome which involved lots of climbing up and down stairs. We got to stand on the field and peek in the dugout

and look out from the area the newspaper guys sit in.

Here Jim is standing under signatures of famous ballplayers who have been in the radio booth.

We bumped into Bert on our way past the TV booth. He was nice enough to sign the baseball that the other winning couple had brought.

Laura and her husband are dairy farmers and so we had a nice little farmer fest in the great seats up in row 33 perfectly behind home plate.

The 'print media' were just above us. We could see the 'great' Sid Hartman reading the paper and ignoring the game from our seats.

We had a great time although the Twins lost. We got to see this play by Alexi Casilla which was showed over and over again.

Jim remembered the score book (after being reminded) so we have it down for posterity.

Love,

Nancy

Forced to go to Quilting Shops and buy fabric

Hello Mary and Jeni,

It was all for the good of the economy and are we good!

Karen, Kari, Deb and I decided to do our bit during the Great Minnesota Shop Hop. We shop-hopped our way down to Minneapolis and then shopped around the metro area and then shop-hopped our way back to North Dakota.

Along the way we had many fabric adventures. The Wizard of Oz fabric was calling to one of us. (Not me)

Another one was seduced by the color orange.

It wasn't the first time.

Me....

Some of us bought more 'food' fabrics.

Kari and Deb.....

Someone hid her fabric in the car and didn't let us pet it.

Someone else spent all her ready cash the first day. It was a (failed) attempt at a budget. None of the rest of us were so silly as to bring actual cash. Well I did bring $40.00 for food and water, but that was all.

Karen....

We missed seeing Jon and E but Jon did check on the air conditioning upstairs while we were away playing on Saturday. Thank goodness he did because it was a nasty humid hot typical Minneapolis day.
Then when we were finished shopping on Saturday (the stores all closed!) I went to my friend Annies house and bought my new 'red head' Singer 66 with just perfect decals. I am afraid to clean it in case I ruin them. Here is a before picture.

Really doesn't look bad at all does it? Maybe I will leave it alone for now.

After a light supper at the Convention Grill with Annie, we went home to sleep off Saturday and rest up for Sunday.

One final picture of the car on Sunday morning at our last quilt shop. I kept making the two in the front seat wave back at me.

I couldn't tell what I was doing as the sun was in my eyes.

Check out this last 'wave'.

The camera doesn't lie.

For the final picture here is a road sign found on the State highway on the way home. I took a picture through our dirty windshield but it didn't show up as nicely as this one taken earlier. What other state would ask you to take turns?

Of course there was no one else to share with at the time we came up to it. But we did obediently stop and take our turn.

Love you,

Nancy

And I hear you got another sewing machine...

Hi Nancy,

   It's a mere 8 days since your last post, and I hear from the folks that you were in town last weekend and there is another sewing machine on their porch.  Do tell.  And just for interest, here are a few pictures of what's been happening here in Montana: 

Scanning old pics of Ben for Amanda - here we are making apple pie in 1981 or 2:

 

As I recall, the pie turned out wonderful, but then I caught one of the cats nibbling on it.

Below, I'm working at an independent study at the Main library in Kalispell - I get my own section to evaluate and select new stuff - and discard some things too.  Sometimes that's a shock for people - that libraries don't keep every book they've ever had - but there's a difference between a museum and a library.

And Fatty Tomato Salad on the back deck - with an orange tomato this time:

 

It's not as good as when I grew the basil and tomatoes myself, but it wasn't bad.  There's just something about picking your own stuff - and of course, there is no substitute for home-grown tomatoes.  Do you have any this year?   If so, I am envious.  

Love, Mary

Aunt Josephine's Spartan Sewing Machine

Hi Mary and Jeni,

I spent several hours last night and today spiffing up the Spartan Sewing Machine that Cousin Mike bequeathed to me. It had been Aunt Josie's and I was thrilled to finally have a 'family' machine. Our side of the family is sadly lacking in sewing heritage.

It was sort of disconcerting to learn from Mike that Josie also disliked to sew, and hated the Spartan. Evidently Jim, her husband, sometime in the 50's decided that she had to modernize and get rid of her treadle. As a move towards upgrading her sewing he dumped the treadle and got her one of the cheapest sewing machines available at the time. Drat the man. Anyway Josie could sew on the treadle but seemed to believe the Spartan was the spawn of Satan and it went too fast, and I hope Mike will correct me if I exaggerate too much, but, it was never loved.

From it's condition I would say something loved it alot but that was probably a result of living in Mike's garage for several years. Jim had to take this outside

and remove these contents before I could start cleaning.

Anyway it is now clean and shiny and runs like a champ and I will try to make up for its sad earlier life. I will start by proudly taking it to my quilt club meeting this coming Thursday for Show and Tell.

Love,

Nancy

Origami love

First: this is what my Angel-leaf Begonia has been doing for about a month: 

 

It is so gorgeous, isn't it?

Besides that, what have I been doing? Not knitting. Not gardening. Doing homework.  Going to work.  Going to work to do homework.

Oh all right, I'm exaggerating a bit.  Yes, I've been doing homework - in fact I probably put in about 8 hours today.  But I've been doing a phenomenal amount of reading, too.  In the last few weeks I've read, or listened to: 

The Lobster Coast by Colin Woodard (ongoing); 

The Risk Pool by Richard Russo; 

Foul Play by Janet Evanovich,

Bad Manners by Marne Davis Kellogg (ongoing - Evanovich "read-alike" except she's a Republican you can tell); 

Fablehaven by Branden Mull (Young Adult fantasy - really good); 

Book Lust by Nancy Pearl (ongoing for several months); 

The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz; 

Tears of the Giraffe (ongoing) and The World According to Bertie, both by Alexander McCall Smith; 

Blink by Malcom Gladwell (ongoing - have the book, and also have it as downloadable audio) 

and there's for certain some I've forgotten.  I also just picked up some SF called Old Man's War by John Scalzi and it's really funny so I might have to add it to my ongoing list.  That makes six ongoing books, and that's about normal.  I love it that reading makes me better at my job.  Oh, and I forgot, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (ongoing).  I have a book in every room, sometimes two.

And the other thing that's distracting me is origami.  Behold my many boxes:

 

  

I just learned how to make the insert to the Masu (pronounced maht-zu) box today, online at eHow.  This is very exciting.  You look for fabric, I look for origami paper.  I feel a folding fit coming on right now...must go...see you later.  Love, Mary