The Years To Remember

  Bean flowers are quite pretty! I'm about to head off on a late summer getaway up in the mountains. We will have bikes and kayaks and lots of evening activities to fill the four days. It will be a fun time even if it rains a bit on Weds. as predicted. I've taken a few bike rides, worked on putting certain garden plants to bed, while picking absolute boatloads of green beans. My freezer is stocked with them and I'm kind of tired of eating them, no matter how fresh and tender they are. My second crop of beans are about ready to pick - what was I thinking? I haven't been taking too many pictures, but I'll let these tell the tale of my week. A bike ride with friends ended with lunch at the quaint Window Box cafe.  They bake their breads on premises and the sconewich I had was scrumptious. Amyjean outdid herself with her butterfly cake for our book club lunch. Flight Behavior by Kingsolver was the subject of our discussion.  All of my monarchs have emerged and flown, ...

  My small book club is reading Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior which features Monarch butterflies in the plot. I've been taking so many photos of my little charges that I thought I'd make notecards and bookmarks as little gifts for the group. I really liked this one and have been playing around with my camera settings to get a good image. I’m really starting to notice the shortening of daylight hours. The nights are cooling rather quickly once the sun sets and I have to start considering sunset when I head off on a late afternoon bike ride. I hate to see the end of summer, but there is beauty in all the seasons so I’m not too disappointed. I got a nice bike ride in Tuesday afternoon and we managed to avoid the rain. It only rained for 5 minutes an hour before we went. Janice picked me up and we did a quick 18 miles over in Albany. I gave her two jars of pesto that I made this morning. My basil plants are so big that I'll have to make more tomorrow. I also dug up ...

  This little morning ritual is worth all the milkweed picking and poop cleaning I had to do to raise 14  butterflies. Releasing a butterfly is a great way to start my day. Seven more to go! For the past couple of months I've been on the lookout for more shelving in my kitchen closet/pantry to bring some order to my collection of kitchen supplies and food staples. Then I had an epiphany. The last time my sisters were here, we discovered a few cans of outdated and leaking tomatoes which were promptly discarded. It made me think, maybe I don't need more shelving, but better organizing and attention to what I do have.   I'm going to tackle a minimizing/organizing of that closet. It's funny how just reframing a problem can completely change the scenario. After that is completed, I'll revisit the idea of shelving to determine if that is what is needed or not. So far, I have two bags to donate to my local thrift shop, and quite a bit added to my trash can.  Later - It...

I’m obsessed by my garden lately. Is it a healthy or unhealthy focus though? I suppose as long as I continue socializing and enjoying the rest of the community it remains on the healthy side.   Look what I made! Or rather caused to happen.  It’s a little Monarch chrysalis tree! Some caterpillars chose the twigs, the rest I carefully relocated to the twigs from the sides of the jars they chose to attach to. None of these caterpillars/butterflies were harmed in this process and within a week or two they will emerge and fly off. Thank goodness only 3 more to go and I will be done safeguarding tiny caterpillars. The rest will have to deal with the dangers in my garden - mostly predatory ants. They are just remarkable with their gold accents. My last three charges - I named them Pequena, Mediana, and Grande. I haven't been walking any appreciable distance in the past few weeks, so I chose a 6 mile route Thursday.  My lower back was hurting by mile five, so I just got home...

Sunflowers are blooming! I planted eight little red potatoes in the spring. My only goal was to replace them with new potatoes. One of the 8 plants died back inexplicably, as the others are still green and growing. My curiosity got the best of me, so I dug that one up. This one plant replaced most of the ‘seed’ potatoes. Now I can’t wait to dig the rest up in about a month. Caring for the caterpillars is getting to be a chore so I won’t bring any more in. They are a marvel to watch though. This is Chikory when he was just about to fly off. I love how my garden hides all the neighbors homes so it just looks like an endless flower meadow. I didn't get to the pesto yesterday, so today is pesto day. I cut a huge bunch which commits me to the process. Esther brought me a box of little jars so I can store the pesto and give little random gifts of it. It makes me so happy to share my garden bounty. The basil is loving all the rain so that I can barely keep up with it. Regular basil and Th...

 Thursday - Lake Placid I signed up to volunteer just a couple of days ahead of the competition, and luckily Peggy was working that day too. We rode up together and spent a pleasant afternoon rink side helping out with the Ice Dancing Championship event. During the four hour shift, I "worked" a total of 20 minutes running the results up to the office on the third floor. I got my 10,000 steps just walking around the venue, watching the skaters, and chatting with Peggy and Lyne. It was the last day of competition so we got to watch the top performers. I was enchanted by the costumes.  We stopped for dinner at a brewpub in Lake Placid before the drive home. What a pleasant way to earn lift tickets! Friday - Bike Ride We rode 35 miles along the Mohawk River with 13 of us in the group. The river was high and muddy due to our recent storms. The weather was just beautiful for a ride topped off with ice cream! Valerie snapped this picture of me, Peggy, Lyne, Amyjean, and Charlene. We...