I sometimes feel like I live on a farm with chickens behind us, cows and horses next door, buffalo across the street, and a steady stream of deer running through our yard. I live in a small town that’s next to lots of suburbia but feels like we are in the country because we’re tucked up against the mountains and isolated. I was flipping through farm and gardening blogs on Picket Fence Blogs a few weeks ago and found Sharon at Quilting the Farm. I’ve enjoyed reading about her adventures on an old homestead that she and her husband are trying to return to a working farm. It’s been fascinating to see their setbacks and victories. So I’m Paying It Forward this week at Holly’s blog to Quilting the Farm. Wander around the farm and check it out-you’ll love her perspectives.
Sue
Hail!
I love standing at the window watching a gentle summer rain storm. It’s so relaxing.
I do NOT enjoy standing at the window watching hail the size of marbles pound my flowers and punch holes in my vegetable garden.
Grrrrrr.
Keeping my balance in July
I discussed in a previous post my leap into a new phase of life and how I was going to try to balance my adventures. I gave a long list of things I want to do and here’s a progress report on how I’ve been teetering during my first month.
Alot:
service to family
service to friends
reading
gardening
crocheting
Some:
blogging
exercising
A little:
quilting
scrapbooking
practicing piano
organizing and cleaning out my home
child advocating
None:
family history
learning Photoshop Elements
So……..not too balanced overall, but I’ve had some interesting times and done other stuff that wasn’t on my list. I was starting to be a little hard on myself when I remembered a blogger I’d like to “Pay It Forward” to this week. Tara at Undeserving Grace has a great outlook on life and a strong faith. Her posts are interesting and fun and she has some memes that repeat. Say It Again Sunday often has some great sayings and I liked this post that helped me lighten up with the Bob Marley saying I’ve included here.
I also enjoy her Thankful Thursday posts that help me remember to be grateful for what I have and her Blessings in Bloom posts of her garden always cheer me up. Pop over and visit Tara. You’ll be glad you did!
Tuacahn 2011
We made a quick trip down to Broadway in the Desert this year with Mark. We left at noon on Friday, saw the show Friday night, and drove home Saturday after a little shopping in the St. George outlet stores. We went to see the regional premiere of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” and it was GREAT! The theater installed a water curtain for the show and all the underwater scenes utilized the curtain, they flooded the stage, there was lots of aerial work done in the underwater scenes to give the illusion of swimming, and it was all really cool. The costumes were really awesome and the wheelie shoes for the sea people made them glide along the stage. The talent was excellent, as always, and we saw some familiar faces; overall, it was a great production. We took Mark on the backstage tour before the show because the last time we went with Brian, Mark was on his mission. It’s fun to see the costumes and sets behind the theater. We also learned that the tunnel underneath the stage was expanded this year to go forward to the front edge of the stage and two trap doors were installed so that Ariel and others could come up right in the front and people could disappear down. Those were cool effects.
(click on a photo to see the large in a gallery)
I haven’t been very good at tagging in the past, but I went through old posts and tagged each year’s Tuacahn post so now we can see all our adventures in one search! Whoopee!
Bees are buzzin’
It’s late July and this cool, rainy summer has made everything late in my gardens. And even though I don’t have enough energy these days to make it look perfect, there’s a lot of lovely stuff going on out there. So enjoy what we have, right? One of the things I love in my garden is my lavender. I have 17 lavender bushes around the side of my house among the roses and in the summer they are a sensory delight. I can stand by them and smell their fragrance, see hundreds of honeybees flying all through them, and hear the bees buzzing. Because I basically live in the country it’s pretty quiet and that many bees are loud! I just stood out there for several minutes yesterday while I was taking pictures and enjoyed that sensory overload. Yum!
I’m sharing the other photos I took and you can click on one to open them all in a gallery with descriptions and plant names.
Because I love gardening, I’m Paying It Forward to a garden blog I found recently called Home Garden Diggers. Yael has tons of interesting tips and information about all sorts of gardening topics. I’m actually quite amazed at how much great info she has archived here. If you like digging in the dirt, visit her blog, and click on the button below to visit Holly and all the other blogs that are being recognized this week.