• Snow poles?!

    Not too long ago, the house looked like this.  Spring and Summer here were wonderful.  The second year for perennials is always a beautiful show and we weren’t disappointed.  We enjoyed the front porch with rocking chairs and an indoor/outdoor rug.  Granted, there were lots of days when the temperature and humidity were too high to even think about sitting on the front porch but it was nice on cooler days.

     

     

    All the plants on the front porch are gone after the freeze but the pumpkins made it.  Inside, it is definitely Autumn…at least until the weekend after Thanksgiving when the Autumn decorations are put away and the Christmas decorations come out.  Autumn is my favorite season.  Everything about it – from the colors to the clothes to the food!

    Doug was working in the garage one day this week and the next thing I see outside are these poles lining the driveway.  For my friends and family in the deep South, just in case you haven’t seen these down there, these snow poles mark the depth of snow.  When the snow is a foot deep, it helps to know where your drive and walkway are.   When I asked him about them, he mentioned that the ground is soft enough right now to get the poles in the ground.  So in they went.

    I’m a very happy camper with the first snow.  I get downright excited.  Watching the snowflakes fall with a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows is the perfect way to spend an afternoon.  I even get excited for the second and third and fourth snow.  Eventually, however, there are piles of snow eight feet high left by the snowplows everywhere.  The roads and parking lots turn into a black, dirty mess.  Snow boots track in sand and dirt.  This goes on for weeks sometimes.  I haven’t even mentioned the well below freezing temperatures and the windchill.

    There is something to be said, however, for living in Iowa where there are four distinct seasons.  You can count on it:  the green of Summer, the beauty of Fall, pristine white snowfalls in Winter and the new birth of Spring.  One after the other.  The circle of life.  I’ll take it.

     

     

  • Summer porch days…

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    I was awake early this morning.  With the temp in the low 60’s, I enjoyed my coffee and the sound of songbirds on the porch.  On cooler afternoons, the porch is the scene for enjoying bowls of ice cream and playing a game with the grandchildren.  Right now, it is overcast with a temp in the 80’s and the porch is the place for drying my clothes on a folding rack (my dryer is broken but the repairman is due here tomorrow).

    I love the ferns.  They remind me of walks on the mountainside in Oregon where the ferns grew wild and plentiful.  The fuchsia plant sits on a $5 red garage sale table.  It’s a thirsty plant!  What would a porch garden be without herbs and petunias?  The only problem with the herbs (sage, sweet basil, rosemary and spearmint) is they’re challenged to get enough sun on this covered porch.  We’ll see how they do.  Hopefully, I will get enough to be able to cook with them occasionally.

    My next-door-neighbor was discarding the white rocker and asked me if I would like to have it.  I was delighted.  It needs a fresh coat of paint and a cushion in the soft sage green.  I saw one at Lowe’s the other day – just need to go buy it.  The settee, blue chair and green chair all came from Lowe’s.  The outdoor rug was a good buy at Bed, Bath & Beyond.  I think I paid about $37 for it and it’s one of the larger sizes.  My daughter found the cute Dragonfly table for me at Walmart.  It was one of my Mother’s Day presents this year and I love it!

    If it stays overcast and cools down a little this afternoon, I think I will curl up on the wicker settee and continue reading the third in a wonderful series entitled Alaskan Courage by Dani Pettrey, a great new author.

    How are things on your summer porch?

     


    Sorry the pics take so long to load!

    I’m working with a new camera & photo software

    and it’s not too user friendly!

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