Here Comes Trouble...

My Mom is here for a visit, and Mom is a character (with a capital C), so we've been having a wonderful time!!

Mom arrived on Tuesday, and we got her settled… Tuesday evening Jeff had band practice so Mom and I went for a walk…

We walked around Como Lake, Como Park St Paul.

Wednesday morning caught Mom chilling out in the Library, reading a book and watching the bird feeders… Wednesday was "errand" day, we ran lots of errands, got caught out in the rain without an umbrella, and laughed a lot… :)

Thursday was a "stay at home" day, we watched an old movie (The Music Man) while I did a bit of work in the studio… it was fun to sing & watch Mom dance to the silly songs in the movie…

Thursday night was "Date Night" and we forced Mom to join us (she was trying to stay home), we went out for a nice dinner at a good Italian restaurant in the area.

"Fashion Friday", we're all dressed up and ready to go… Strawberry Picking!!

Don't those look Yummy?  The 2 boxes in the foreground (cut off) are ours...

It was a cool day in the Strawberry fields, just perfect for crawling around on our hands & knees and digging through Strawberry plants… and of course we ate our share while picking (had to do some QA on the product)...

The picking was the easy part… then we went home and made: Strawberry Freezer Jam, Strawberry Yogurt Cake, Strawberry Sorbet, and the rest we cleaned & cut up with a bit of sugar for Shortcake.

At some point (Thursday or Friday??) I had noticed I had some Garlic in my garlic holder that had started to sprout… so I decided to plant it… It's already growing like gangbusters!!

Saturday we met the kids (Tim & Marta) for a very late breakfast… umm… it ended up being a kinda late lunch (Jeff & I had a morning meeting that went late)… then we drove through Minneapolis to pick up some Lamb Sausages from a local deli we like… then we had the kids over for dinner - Lamb Sausages & Burgers with Salad (had some of Mom's avocados in the salad)… Yum!!  Then we had the Strawberry Shortcake for dessert….

Today we went to church, then some more errands, then we went over to the kid's house (Tim & Marta's) for dinner - they barbecued us up an absolutely wonderful meal!!  All on the barbecue they did:  Chicken skewers, Veggies skewers (onion, bell, tomato), Chicken Livers, Artichokes, Grilled Bread, Grilled Peaches, and Grilled Pineapple.  Amazing what Marta can do with a little Weber grill & some charcoal!!

Through Sunshine & Storms...

Things have been… ummm… "exciting" here lately :)

Things were nice and sunny for another one of Jeff's concerts… this one in a beautiful outdoor location in Plymouth.

Then we had some nasty storms blow through… resulting in…

Very early Friday morning (4-6am) large Cottonwood tree, 90-100' tall, fell in our woods & between the houses of 2 of our neighbors… No people, pets, buildings damaged… just a bit of damage to some fences and a mess to clean up… Praise God!!

Roots of the tree… and a pit left behind...

Our neighbor Lloyd (in the background) helped cut up the tree & bend the fences back (a temporary fix to the fences for the neighbor dogs), his son & I dragged all the cuttings & wood away except for these big chunks which Lloyd moved - I saved one large chunk to use in my Studio - but it needs to dry first so its sitting in the garage for now.

But did we get a break?  No… that same night some even stronger storms came through… Brooks Pond filed up in only about 15-20 minutes because the rains were so hard…  This time no more trees down - Phew!!

This is Roxanne, a friend of ours that got married on Saturday down in Rochester… why is she standing in a Garage?  That's right, more storms… but these were off & on, so there were breaks in the action… she was in the Garage waiting for one of those breaks so she could get into the car (below) with her new husband (Nolan) to go get some photos taken at a local park.

It was coming down pretty hard… Nolan had to wait a while…

Jeff and I just purchased one of these little sets, I'm going to see if I can get Mom to help me put it together… Mom comes for a visit today!!  This set will sit on our Front Porch, and is heavy enough that it shouldn't get blown off the porch by storms… much better than our plastic Adirondack chairs :)

Finally a sunny day, and Jeff got to use his new toy to make dinner… he's a happy boy!!  But then it's Jeff, he's always a happy boy :)  And dinner was delicious!!  Steak & Sweet Corn cooked on the grill…. Mmmmm….

Spring is in the air...

Spring is in the air, and a (not-so) young man's mind turns to…  Grilling!!

That's right, Jeff bought himself a new grill last weekend, and it got delivered today (ok boys - hold on, the picture is coming)…

Of course, before the brand new pretty grill could be delivered I just HAD to get out and clean up the decks - they were way overdue!!

One view of the deck, the sun was shining nicely (this was yesterday)… and here in the foreground you'll see Jeff's propane tank has been disconnected from his old grill & is waiting for his new grill...

Another view of the deck, this one shows our little upper deck as well… that old green grill in the corner, that's the one that finally gave up the ghost...

Of course, once I got the deck cleaned I decided I needed to clean the windows (today), but it was such a gorgeous morning I just had to stop and take a coffee break on the front porch - this was my view… ahhh… the birds were visiting the feeders & singing, doesn't get much better than this…

Back to the grill… did you think I forgot?!?

Here she is, Jeff's new (expensive) toy… she's just gleaming in the sunshine… :)

Jeff asked me to cover it, his text said: "If you can, please put the cover on so it won't get hit by birds before I cook one on it :-)"… That's my guy!!

Until next time…

What's New(s)?

So… life keeps up its hectic pace…

Spring finally got here to the Upper Midwest, but it's been cool & wet & seriously lacking in Sunshine

:(

I like kitty's attitude toward the weather:

Yep, curled up in a ball with her head tucked into the corner of the couch…

Word is that we're supposed to be getting some nice warm temps starting tomorrow… like 70s & 80s for at least a week or so… YES!!

As for me, at least the weather was cool while I was cleaning up the gardens… about 35 heaping wheelbarrows full of "junk" hauled into my woods to rot away, replaced by 73 bags of fresh mulch - and the cleanup is finally done!!  I've also planted some annuals and a few other new things… if curious go check out my gardening blog for the latest happenings.

Picture above shows a portion of my Iris patch today, only about a month late…

I've also been busy in my studio, especially when its been raining - rain makes gardening a little too cold & messy… Below is a new form I came up with, I'm not sure what I'm going to call it yet, at the moment I'm calling it "Lattice".  Deep rectangular frame, "lattice" is attached to the inside of the frame but way at the back, stone setting is on top of the lattice.  If curious about what's been happening in the studio go check out my art blog.

I'm once again fighting the "battle of the bulge"… so I've been experimenting with an idea my doctor suggested…

This is breakfast… almost exclusively vegetable… starting the day out "light" calorie-wise.

What else has been going on???  Well… Jeff had his first summer band concert at Como Park Pavillion.  The band was awesome (as usual) and while they were practicing / warming up I got to take a leisurely walk around Como Lake… the following are some pictures I shot while on my stroll…

A couple local boys...

…grabbing some fast food...

An interesting tall shrub… would love to know what this is… it was about 10-12' tall and had these pretty little blooms.

This interesting little plant, the leaves remind me of rosemary & the flower looks like a tiny rose… anyone know what this is?

That's all for now… life is busy but good… until next time!