Monday, October 30, 2017

Blog Frustration, Frogging, & Grandson


Good Monday morning? Let me start out by saying I am so stinking frustrated with Blogger, so if you don't want to read my gripes it might be smart to visit another blog. I want to apologize to all my followers because last week I had to edit and remove the list. It came about with a GOOGLE ERROR #502. I put up with it a couple days thinking it would take care of itself, but we all know how that turns out. So I took an hour messing with instructions to go in and do all kinds of things including getting history/cache cleaned out and of course that worked real good, NOT! Let me say, it is never good to be gone from one's blog for any length of time because things change. I go to the layout page and it isn't anything like it use to be. I will go back and deal with their error when I have time to waste, say about a week when I have nothing to do.

Then it brings me to the above pic of the jigsaw puzzle blanket. Dug this out during the weekend and the more I looked at it the more I absolutely hated it. It will take days to frog it, but that is exactly what I intend to do. I also found the start of a granny square blanket (arthritis be damned to hell), I'm gonna get my crochet hook out and work on that while I sit and watch some tv now and then. Nothing worse than watching television with idle hands. I've had enough of that these past few months.  

Today I go visit with my grandson Holden at his 1st grade class to have lunch, recess and go to the book fair. My daughter has instructed me to not buy him any books because he has a ton at home and besides that, they bring books home from the library.....since when did she become my mom and tell me what to do? Anyways....if he wants grandma to buy him a book, grandma will do it. Can't spank grandma, lol.
Have a good day,
Susanne

Saturday, October 28, 2017

Mt. St. Helens, Holden and Happy Yarn Blanket


Good rainy and cold Saturday morning. 
I don't have much to share with everyone this morning.
So, I went through some of my photo albums.
In backing up a few months I ran across these pics of my youngest daughter 
Rayanna Meghan and her friend Chris.


They made a trip to Washington state to visit with Chris's brother and his wife.
Meghan has a bucket list. One of the things she wanted to do was climb Mt. St. Helens. 
Chris has done this before.
 

It doesn't look all that scary from this vantage point, but Meghan says 
the higher they got the scarier it became. Of course they weren't the only ones on the mountain.
If you check out the photo below you can spot people in the background.


I wish she could have sent me more pics. 
She told her sister when she got to the top she started to cry, 
it was so beautiful and because she was able to make this dream come true. 
You see, over two years she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.
Conditions like that make you aware that things change, and not always for the better.
her dad started out with RA.
The drugs you take lower the immune system.

 
Love this pic of my little grandson Holden. 
Enjoying some fun time in Toledo with his dad at a Mud Hens game.


And, since I know most of you followers love yarn and love happy projects,
 I will share some photos of some happy yarn and the happy results from another time.








 There you have it, a happy blanket in happy colors. 
If you are interested yarn is double knit "Special" by Stylecraft.
It is 100% premium acrylic, 295 metres/322 yards. 
The pattern is just one large granny square, 
starting at the center with each row around being a new color.
I didn't have any specific color pattern, I just picked what I thought 
would look good next to the previous row.
The yarn can be found at:
www.stylecraft-yarns.co.uk
I believe these yarns were in a packaged deal although you can 
buy skeins separately. I just went with something cheerful to work on during 
the winter months.

Thank you for stopping by, comments are welcome.
Have a good, safe weekend.
❦ Susanne ❦


  

Thursday, October 26, 2017

My Little Guy Holden, Fire Bowl & Missing My Guy


 Halloween typically comes on the usual day of October 31st, but for my little grandson Holden, it came on Saturday October 14th at the campground.
My oldest daughter Rachael searched around on Pinterest (we love that site) for a different kind of costume to make. She didn't want the run-of-the-mill Walmart standby.
This is what she found and made. It took her 9 hours, but well worth it.


He won the trophy for the best costume in his age group (5 year old). All his mother's hard work paid off, and he loved his costume.


One of my friends at the campground is a dog groomer, but she has a passion for crafting. One evening we were all sitting around and she brought over this neat fire bowl she made. I had never seen or heard of one before. She had painted hers with a Mexican/Indian sort of design. There is a can of Real Flame Premium Gel Fireplace Fuel that is down in the center covered by a round piece of screen mesh surrounded by small decorative river rock topped with fire glass. There are decorative red gem stones embedded in the top rim. The bowl itself is made of concrete that she molds. When it dries she seals it, then puts on the base paint using your color choice, then  puts a design on that you want, it is all sealed again. My color choices were to go with my Old American colors of a federal blue-gray base and old gold colored stars. I did not weigh the bowl but I would say it weighs a ton. After all it is made of concrete and the rocks and stone all add to the weight. I ordered it from her and when I went to pick it up she told me it was already paid for....what a surprise!
Thank you Rachael for the early Christmas present. I love it!


I know this is not a very good picture but the round candle holder says:
"In Memory of a Life so Beautifully Lived."


 You don't erase 43 years.
Love and miss you Roger ♥
Susanne

Freeze Warning Tonight


Right now it is after midnight here in NW Ohio. We are suppose to get freezing temperatures so I went out last evening drained my water hose and put it away. I gathered in all my pots of flowers I wanted to save. My geraniums were my main concern, I have managed to keep these now for a couple of years.  


I never knew about these flowers till my electric co-op published an article about some people saving them for years, some even 20 years. The article said you can remove the plant from the soil before the first frost, then you cut it back to where there is just some green above the soil line. Then store the plants in a paper bag in a cool dry place, like your basement. Well last fall I set all those plants in my garage and never bothered to remove them from the soil. Even though I was in and out of the garage with my car all that winter the plants remained green and when spring came I trimmed them back and they were just as pretty and healthy looking as the year before.


Here are the plants before I got to dead heading the spent blooms. I love geraniums because they can tolerate a bit of dry soil and like sun and shade.


Cannes are a perfect patio plant and they do well in big pots. When my mother passed she had a flower pot on either side of the overhead garage door. She always had smaller flowering plants in the them but I thought they were the perfect place for the Cannes a friend gave me. They were pretty red when they did bloom and the hummingbirds loved them. I love the large green leaves.


If there is a weed I love it is this one. I think it is called a corn flower. It grows wild along the road. I love the blue color and I just had to include it in this post.

 
Then of course there is Queen Anne's Lace. I always marveled at the very center where that tiny little bit of color is always located. If you ever picked a bouquet of wildflowers you have to include some of this in the bunch. They are such a delicate flower.


My trumpet vine. It has become a monster and got a good trimming back this summer. The hummingbirds, bees and unfortunately hornets love this vine.


It is an evasive plant. See all the little new ones sprouting in the yard surrounding it. I keep them mowed down. Over by gate post you can see the long seed pod. The vine will be loaded and I usually pull them off to try and keep the seeds from scattering once the pods dry and crack open.


A pretty volunteer petunia.


The farm field across the road from my front yard. See my pretty weedy bank. Well if I were to stand out there the bank would come up to my chest. My husband always kept it trimmed down with the weed eater. The state came along with their mowing equipment and made a pure mess of it, so from then on I hired my neighbor to keep it trimmed down with his weed eater. It looked wonderful all this summer.Nice and clean.


I feed the birds all year long. I usually have 3 feeders going and a couple of suet blocks. Then of course the raccoons become pesky and so I had to use shepherd's poles. I would come out in the morning and the sunflower feeder would be on the ground and those critters were smart, they could get the bottom off the feeder. In May when the hummingbirds come back the raccoons would go after the nectar in those hummer feeders. 


Love my hens and chicks.These came from my mom's house.


More hens and chicks only these were given to me from my mother-in-law years ago. They are a different variety than the ones from mom. This summer I had to tear the little wooden barrel apart and replant them in other containers. I hated losing the barrel but it was falling apart and squirrels had planted corn from the bird feeders in it. 


My cone flowers come up every year. They look a little worse for wear. The bees and butterflies love these.


Love them. They are such a low maintenance plant.


I forget what the name of this one is, but t also comes back every year and requires very little care. It has such a delicate little yellow flower with a bit of orange red around the center.


And, last but least one of my day lilies. They also come back every year.

Well, there you have it, Just a bit of the flowers in my yard. I had some impatiens too, but no pic to share. I put some of those pots in garage. I know you can root their cutting in water. 
The cold weather has set in and so that will mean growing season is ending. 
I have leaves to look forward to raking soon as they all turn and fall.

Take care 
Susanne :)

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Camper & Site


A year ago in July I made a big decision. I bought a 32' camper that sits on a seasonal site about a half mile from my house. Actually the camper was a good buy, but it was for the above pic that I bought it. I found out later this year that the seller only planned to sell it as a package deal although the camp site is a separate yearly fee. They knew that the fire pit area was what would sell the camper. Smart! I found out later that a lot of people were wanting that site and my daughter who camps out there the last 3 years is the one who tipped me off to it.


They were right, the little private area behind the camper is awesome. It is like being in another world. The campground owners allow renters to improve on their lots within limits and some restrictions. Mr. B is the one who made the pathway over the little ravine to build the area for the fire pit. He did not want to sell any of it, but his wife had 6 years of camping and wanted to spend time at the lake with their children.


They fed the yellow finches and she had a lot of nick knacks scattered here and there. This is looking to the right off the back deck.


This is the view looking off to the left of the back deck.


This is the back deck. The steps in the back ground to the left go up to the porch area to camper doors. The white lattice is the back of the chopped wood pile storage.


This is a view of the camper while standing in the gravel path to the little bridge. On the far right is a dog pen they built. They had 2 Yorkies and a Papillon.


Here is a closer look at the dog pen I have 2 Yorkies too.


The split wood storage bin. Behind my little storage shed.


She left all these potted plants behind. There was only a couple things she took, a cement bench and one of those big umbrellas that are off center. Not sure what they are actually called, but both those items were gifts from family.


This is the front of my camper, what you see when you drive up.


Like I said before, she had a lot of nick knacks. Many of them are glow in the dark things. There is a little electric fountain to right of front steps. Love the sunflowers :)


Looking back to the fire pit area. I never get tired of looking at it.




These are all pics from last July. There have been some changes. I'm so grateful to my brother Michael. He has been a god send to help me with whatever I want to change. First I cleared the site of all the clutter. I wanted to keep it simple and not a place to work me to death. It was coming to the end of the camping season anyways and things needed to be put up and stored. This year we took the leaf blower and got leaves cleaned up. Mike brought his trailer and we went after some finer gravel. The big stuff was hard to walk on and tends to roll since the area leading down to the fire pit area is on an incline. We started with new gravel back around the pit and came up the path to the back of camper area. Next year I plan to complete that project with more gravel. I had Mike remove the lattice on the wood bin from the side toward the camper to the back side where it was open. I like to see my wood pile. We removed the black plastic edging that was holding gravel back in the main area of the camper back and replaced it with flat pavers. That black plastic wasn't doing such a good job anyways and gravel was escaping over it. I sold the outdoor propane heater and a propane smoker that I had no intention of ever using anyways. Mike changed up the little bridge a bit. He thought putting wood posts on the edges would make it nicer. I agree.
I'm sorry I don't presently have pics of the changes to show you and hope to get them on here next camping season. There is more changes in the plans, but the season is over and the camper has been winterized and closed up for the next 6 months.

Thank you for visiting and if you feel inclined, feel free to leave a comment.
Susanne :)

Sunday, October 22, 2017

Black Squirrel


About the middle of spring I looked out and had to take a double take of what I saw under the bird feeders. Yep, a black squirrel. Oh was that a surprise since the ones we have are red and brownish red. He was pretty fat too. I guess he liked the sunflower seeds.


In Bellevue they have black ones and they are also found in Bowling Green. It makes me wonder how he got so far away from where they are normally found.


I wanted to get better pics of him, but was afraid he would see me and take off. See that little concrete bird bath that is tipped over in the back ground....raccoons! The weeds had taken over too.


He did eventually see me and ran next door. I followed him over to my neighbor's house and found out from them that they had seen this little guy a couple of times. Truth is, I thought he was a skunk at first.


See him up on the fence post? He is a fine specimen. 


Run little squirrel, run! And, just like that he was gone. Haven't seen him since he went next door. Wonder what happened to him. I hope no one shoots him come squirrel season.
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