What’s Up with Kat

Since I’ve been back from Spain I have been trying to get my rhythm. Not too hard, but it does take time.
I tried to save the weakest chick of nine thar hatched (just before I got home). Sadly, Mr. Chicklet didn’t make it but we had some happy times before he passed.

Been cooking with my girl. I assisted with cake decorating for a sports themed baby shower. What is even better is I didn’t mess up the cake. I didn’t do the fancy writing but icing that sucker was a task in itself!

Picked some fresh strawberries, mashed and mixed them to make strawberry pies. Folks at work made the one pie disappear in under 30 minutes. Maybe more pie next time.

My poppies and tiger lilies are blooming. It makes the backyard look super jolly!

Made a fruit tart for some friends with my girl and now that I know how easy it is I really want to do one! Maybe I can borrow her tart pan sometime :-)

We also purchased a wee soft shell turtle. We plan on letting him grow bigger and releasing him into our backyard pond. There are some sliders in there now and frogs and I don’t want Jubal to be bullied by the other creatures in the pond.

Those are the highlights of the last couple of weeks.
We have been enjoying hot days but not the too stinking hot days we are used to in June. Such a relief after last year’s scorcher.

Day 358: Lilacs

The lilac bush at my house have full green leaves out, but no blooms on them yet. My mother’s lilac bush is amazing and fragrant.

I love the smell of lilac! I really hope to find a perfume or body spray with this smell. Or perhaps I can make a dried potpourri sachet sometime.
If I ever learn how to make an essential oil from flowers, I will do it. Someday, someday.

I’m worried I will miss my lilac bush blooming. I leave tomorrow for my flight abroad.

Day 339: Forsythia

The forsythia is blooming. Or, I should say, the few branches that escaped the loppers are blooming. We had two huge bushes right beside the house and last year we cut them back.

Of course, forsythia is a butt. It’s back. I thought about throwing a cover on that part of the yard to kill it, but I bet we’ll be fighting it for quite a while to come.

Yes, the little yellow flowers are pretty but the rest of the summer and all through winter it looks like a scraggly unkempt monster bush. There are plenty of scraggly things on the farm already.

Other things are blooming now too…

Day 149: In Bloom

This post I am going to double up on some pretty flower pictures. There are just so many pretty ones out there!

The first is a bloom on my okra plants. This is our first year growing okra on the farm. Now Kit may have known what their blooms were going to look like but it was quite a treat for me.

Okra grows on thick stalked plant a about five or six feet tall. We have a non-spiny variety….supposedly. I have to wear gloves or I’ll feel like I have been playing in stinging nettles. Maybe not quite that bad but close.

My next wild flower may not bring everybody joy. Even ragweed looks pretty from a distance. Kit usually refers to this flower with some colorful adjectives because he has pretty severe allegies to everything outdoors.

My final flower is a landscaped plant. I saw these pink and purple blooms in a box at SIU’s campus while I was in Illinois.
I don’t know what this booger is but it sure is beautiful.

Any flower experts want to take a stab at it?
I haven’t even done your basic Google search so you Magellan easily be able to turn up something.

Day 138: 1st Anniversary

Sorry for the jump in posts. My wedding anniversary was the 10th and I got a bit distracted with my kissy faces with Kit.

I got off work early and Kit came to pick me up. I had flowers waiting in the mini vase in the car. The new VW bug’s come with a small vase by the steering wheel.
I got home and there was a huge vase of flowers (pictured). The reason the floaers are so special to me is I went back and forth with both Mom’s about what kind of flowers for the wedding. Silk flowers (gravestone); bunch of expensive roses; paper origami flowers; none at all.

A day or two before the wedding I was exclaiming to Kit how the wildflowers were blooming just for us. And then everything clicked.
Not storebought or fake but wildflowers for my wedding. Handpicked by my husband to be the morning of the wedding.

Pictured also is a slice of our wedding cake left over. Happy first year anniverasaey to Kit! The best man for Kate :-)