Walking around...thinking..

So many things I want to do in the garden... but so much of it seems pointless at the moment.
This yard will be upturned in a couple years when the other house is torn down.
I want to plant new.. move a few plants around...
but..but.. don' really see the point as I have to evacuate half the garden.

It's a jungle...
Behind there are the berry bushes that will disappear.

Black currants..

wild raspberries..

a wild rose reaching for the sky...

gooseberries...

white currants...

and red currants.
They haven't been picked in years.
Sad really.
Except the raspberries, those go straight to my mouth.

Then there is this rose I want to give a better place to bloom.

Isn't it pretty, looks like carnations.
Only problem in moving it, is that it has more thorns than any rose I've ever come across..

The rhubarbs will need a new home.

This is about the spot where the new house will be.
Meaning the compost has to be moved.

And my laundry line...

It'll be hard to imagine this house gone though.
I grew up in there.

We have a new oak tree growing.
It was planted by a squirrel with bad memory...

In all the turmoil coming, I have picked three trees that will be safe.

My pretty "umbrella tree",

this pine, it lived here before any houses were built,

and my chestnut tree.

However the apple tree and the old oak have to go.
I cannot fly a flag with out it being tangled..


This rock wall is one of my favorite things.
Even all that moss growing on the asphalt.



And this trumpet lichen.
As long as there's lichen, I know the air is pretty clean.

On page 187

I'm off to read more.

See ya!

PS. Yes, this is the British cover.. or I should say the British children's cover, as there is a different version for adults.

blech

Friendly word of advice:

Make your parents get rid of mountains of junk before they die.

Yes... if you haven't fixed that certain gadget in 30 years time, odds are you never will.
And never store anything with the idea "I bet I can use this one day".
Because you won't.
Trust me.

We've filled about 30 huge black 150 liter (40 gallon) garbage bags to date.
Six of those today.
We've hauled carloads of paper, glass and metal to recycling.
It just never ends.

Oh... and my brother got his copy of Harry Potter today while I didn't.
We ordered from the same place.
hmmpphh...
I HATE WAITING!
I'M NOT THIS PATIENT!

Rainy day surfing

*note*
Don't give up on the Simpsonizer (see previous post) ..the site is just busy at times.

So, it's raining.
Looks like summer temporarily left town.
I'm STILL waiting for my Harry Potter book to arrive...grumble grumble *cencored* grumble.
It would have been the prefect day to read it.
Sigh.
It just better be here tomorrow is all I'm sayin'.

So instead I'm doing a little sewing and also some inspirational surfing.
I found Craftzine.
Lots and lots and lots of cool tutorials.
Happy happy joy joy.

Then I found Ann Wood's Flickr photos.
From there I wandered over to her blog and got happily lost.
Because I found these:

1. celeste, 2. emaline, 3. abra, 4. fancy progress, 5. wedding cake topper, 6. fancy1, 7. eugenia, 8. isabelle, 9. green group

Aren't these birds adorable??
I'm in love.
And desperately want to try to make some.
I think I need to go dig through my mom's old clothes before we donate them...
..just in case I find treasure.

Wanna be yellow?

Heheheeeeeee....

This is me.

In glorious yellow 2D.

Yes, I've been Simpsonized.

I want to see you in yellow.

Do leave a link in the comments.

Please.

Little pieces of fabric

It took me eight years.
Really.
Trust me on this one.
It was the biggest UFO (un-finished-object) around.

But now it is done.
Saara's quilt is DONE!
And she loves it.
Well.. ok.. so I still need to hand quilt those flowers on the white squares (look at the bottom row), but that will be my winter-time-tv-watching-task. Should be able to finish one flower a night.
Yeah.. wish me luck..

What about a quilt for Niina then?
Indeed she does want one.
And I do owe her one.
So... she looked at a few possibilities I showed her in my magazines and she picked this one:

I think I'll go cry now.
That's well over 400 little triangles.
Ask me about it in eight years, ok?
Heh...

A [smallish] CHS reunion

Suski and Jenny.
We were exchange students at Capital High School in Olympia, WA 20 years ago.
All these years we've kept in touch.
And visited each other (she lives in Germany).
She and her daughter were my guests last week.

You know what was really funny?
I met them at the airport, drove home and when I checked my mail, I found this:

Talk about good timing.

So naturally we got on the website and dug out my old yearbook.
Put names with faces, really kinda wished we could go, but only if our sweet, bohemian lunch corner group was going:

(Tawny, you'll remember my weird crowd...)
We never ate in the lunchroom.. noooo.. that was why this lunch corner evolved.
Shawna, Deb, Heidi, Greg and Chad...and a few more names.

We had a good time reminiscing. And laughing...
(And trying to decipher that full four pages you wrote in my yearbook, Tawny girl... no wait, make that five..)

But it wasn't only our reunion.
Our girls last saw each other a year ago when Saara visited Hamburg.

Saara is only four dys older than Fenja.

They played Sims.

On our picnic to Suomelinna we met some curious young ducks.

We got some sun that day... I came home resembling Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer..

My nose almost glowed.

We also got sun when we visited Serena Waterpark.

No photos from there, but the kiddos had a blast.

We saw some happy horses bouncing around my yard.

Or bored little horses...

..and one proud trainer.

Look, they match!

We hit the final sales and got the girls some fabulous deals at 70% off.

All in all it was a good week.

Now who would go be a fly on the wall at that reunion for us though....

Why I love foxgloves

First of all, they are oh so pretty.

And secondly, I find them in new places every year.
I always have some in my garden, I just never know where...
They like to move, heh.

This one wants to bloom next year in this crack on my patio...
I can't even move it without hurting it.
Best to just let it be.

New streetlights

This is happening in my neighborhood:

We are getting new snazzy lights!
You can still see the old wooden ones with the ugly wires in the air.
Those are coming down any day now.

The old hugging the new.
Wood to steel wasn't the only difference.
The light color changed from white to yellow...
Not sure if I like that part.

Hi, remember me?

OK, OK...
So I haven't been around much.

But I do have a very good excuse.
I have a dear friend and her daughter visiting me this week from Germany.
Lots to do.
And talk.
And laugh.

But I promise to be back with a long post or two and lots of photos this coming weekend.
Alright?

Now, go enjoy the sunshine.
And don't forget to put on sunscreen.

Pretty in pink

Remember my garden crystal folly?

It's looking nice now that the vine has grown.

There are a few other pretty pink flowers blooming also:



And then there is this ridiculously pure bright blue:

It is my favorite right now.

And my watering can hides behind the daylilies.
It has been wet the last couple days.
Pouring down with lightning and thunder.

Saara even had hail come down at her summer camp.
She said they were throwing snowballs made from it...