Coming Attractions---hopefully soon:) AKA Aimee's 'To Do' List

I decided to move my cyber 'things to do'/coming attraction list to the side where I can change it on an on-going basis more easily. But...I had to leave this photo up because

1) It is from one of my favorite places

2) I think these birds are SO cute:)

Photo: Port Townsend, WA view

A Walk in His Gardens--Northern CA

Keeping another promise (happily)!

Well ... as you can see I am trying hard to be a good girl; all the while I'm being a 'bad' girl by being on the Internet still (and my garden is now a LOT warmer then it was when I started this morning plus the Farmer Boy wants meatloaf tonight). Sigh.

But first things first...
These beautiful photos are from my like-minded kinfolk, who unlike me, their usually cliff avoiding relative, don't mind the 'high places' at all! In fact, having seen some of their really scary hiking photos --- I am sure they're both part mountain goat!

One note here---because it has been awhile since I recieved these, I've forgotten exactly where they were taken. I do believe that they were in northern CA in the mountains there just over the Oregon border (and if I am wrong you'll correct me, right?). A BIG TY for M. Blessings for permission to post these beautiful photos here:)

Aren't the wildflowers beautiful?

Isn't the view gorgeous?

And...

Yea, I know...

mountains and summer just make for an amazing combination!

Other favorite mountain spots for summer wildflowers: Paradise, Mt Rainier; Snowbird, Utah and Red Butte Garden, Salt Lake City area.

Photos: this post
© 2009 A. & M. Blessings

(and another BIG TY for all the beautiful photos you've sent me to share M!)

A Note for Baby Love (and Her Family)

Dear Baby Granddaughter,

You know Grandma & Grandpa...

we just DON'T like it when you're not feeling well.

Not at all!

-

Now we understand how it works---for we've walked the Baby Road before with our own children. And we know that on that journey, babies and children get fevers, earaches, runny noses, 'stomach flu' and more.....

BUT we still don't like it

and,

honestly, never have!

-

So how about an early Grandparent's Day gift?

It's all we'll ask for

and it's all we really want anyway...

-

Stay well Baby Granddaughter

(and that goes for your big sibling, mom & dad too!)

OK?

Blessings & Love Always,

Grandma Aimee & Grandpa Farmer Boy

-

"The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: the Lord make his face shine upon thee,

and be gracious unto thee..."

Numbers 6:24,25 KJV

Confessions of Aimee (and A Walk in His Gardens)

I'm being bad. Not about my diet; that's going well and this AM it looked like things are progressing nicely:) No---I am being bad, because instead of being outside working in the gardens, I am on the time-sucking, hours robbing, addictive Internet.
I do, however have good intentions, and one of them is to get caught up with some promised posts so here goes (at least for awhile till I HAVE to answer my garden's call)...

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Earlier this summer--
I should have stayed with family; after all that is an expectation when kin gets together (besides being one of the joys of such occasions). But I couldn't--at least not yet. I could hear them in the distance though, chatting and enjoying each others company. But still something about the gardens, here at my in-law's home, and memories made there called me away and so I walked--alone--and remembered other times.

Now, as I look at these photos today, I still remember. How could one ever forget? For they, who are gone from us now, have left their touch on the gardens of the land their shoes once walked upon, and most importantly in the memories of those they loved and who loved them.

So, this 'Walk' post is dedicated to their memory and the family they loved.

-

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"Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted."
Matthew 5:4 KJV
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Blessings to my family,
Aimee
-P-
Photos:
Waterlily.
Flower of the field
and those of the garden.
Birdhouse.
Rooster checking Aimee out.

A Summer Day's Thoughts

Wow! I just opened up a bill and am a bit (actually a lot) overwhelmed at the amount due! It isn't that we don't have the resources to pay for it; we do. But it's the highest one we've ever received and it makes me wonder if we have more problems with this house then we are aware of (and we're aware of a lot), or if it just a case of not using resources wisely (poor conservation), or the abnormal PNW weather (or a combination of some or all of the above). Well the nice thing about it is if it is a matter of weather, we're now on our way to autumn which means cooler weather and a little rain.
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Speaking of the house, still so unsure what to do...I've prayed about it; family and friends have prayed about it. Still don't know which path to take--remodel and repair, remove and replace or do nothing - yet. Sometimes I wonder if I am a bit like the man who prayed to be saved from a flood and God sent several people to rescue him (but he didn't recognize them as answers to prayer and kept waiting for a miracle till he died in the flood)...at times I wonder if the solution is simpler then I am making it out to be (God has already provided the answer) and if it is a sense of fear in the future that is stopping me; of course at other times I wonder if God does indeed want us to wait because he knows there will be a better solution coming if we do. Much to ponder...

The weather continues to be beautiful, with the smallest but most definite hints of autumn,, and I am constantly filled with a sense of wonder at the smallest things around me...God is good! Never before have I been this much in tune with the world He created and I find it nourishing to my heart, body and mind. Creation certainly does point to the Creator who makes all things beautiful!
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It must be time to go--a song just came on and I find myself singing along with this prayer with tears falling down my cheeks as I do so. I'm so thankful that God is patient and loving with His children! I have so much to learn...
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Blessings this summer day from Aimee's Place to yours,

Aimee

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways..…Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:5-8, 17 KJV

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Photos:

What else? Yep, crocosmia -- again:)

Lichen amidst the stone of a dry creek creek/fall

Waterdrops on spiderweb

--

The Song Prayer (I was listening to)

'Stone by Stone', Michael John Poirier

A Walk in His Gardens: More at Aimee's Place

My weight loss journey is headed in the right direction--down (each week's progress will be on the right side under This Week at Aimee's Place...). I have been careful to watch the amount of calories I am eating but still need to be more consistent on the exercise part). So...how about another walk at my place since I had to be down today nursing a very sore foot? In a weird way I am hoping that doing a cyber walk will almost (NOT) make up for a real one!

Oh well, let's get started anyhow. We'll start in the Woodland-Bird Garden -- because we recently made some changes there.



This is a New Guinea Impatiens (wrong! a begonia). I find this color irresistible! It is just SO perfect a pink and looks so delicate, so pretty, so pink!
 

Reflections in the bird bath.

AND I'm happy to report we've been honored with visits from the feathered ones here!
 

 

A new addition to our gardens is this Dicentra, Bleeding Heart. This one is 'Spring Magic'. The sun rays hit the blossoms just right and made it look rather magical, don't you think?

Although they are not pictured, we added some PNW natives here in this garden bed: more salal, kinnikkinnik, an evergreen huckleberry (love them!) and winterberries. I would like to use a lot of native plants here.
 

Near the ponds I caught (on film that is) these beautiful leaf shadows on the rocks there. They remind me of plant fossils, which of course reminds me that soon---not too long from now--the mountain roads of Colorado and Utah will be transformed into a photographer's delight of gold and red. Sigh! I love, love, love Aspen in the autumn!
 

And our own version of autumn is starting here with the laceleaf Japanese maples -- a little at a time.
 

Pieris in sunlight. This amazing plant does something each season!
 
 

Another photo of crocosmia and cosmos. Hopefully you won't tire too much of seeing them before the season ends:)
 

 

And what does every cosmos have? Well a mascot bee of course. And yes, I was RIGHT there---I have lost my fear of bees for the most part (and that was after years of getting stung every summer. Of course there are bees, and then there are yellow jackets; since the yellow jackets were my annual summer nightmare as a child, I still don't like them too much!)
 

I include here the lowly dandelion (seed) -- now I know these little guys are pests which I too mow down. But after a long winter, the bright cheery yellow of these 'weeds' in flower is welcome, albeit for a short time:)

I think they are rather pretty though, don't you?
 

My best friend was helping me transplant two of our less tamed herbs and when she picked it up, it reminded me of a bouquet---a bouquet of orange mint! Yum:)
 

I must include the native blackberry here. Although a much hated weed of the PNW, it does--like the dandelion--have its benefits. However, I must confess, these beauties weren't from our gardens. Nope! Here those little stubborn, thorny vines are ripped out before they can produce a single blackberry. Although today I did-for a moment or two-consider trying to tame one of these vines in a raised bed to get some berries.

But thankfully this moment of insanity passed quickly...

BTW-it was almost painful to post this photo here.

Anyone have an idea why that would be?



And last, but not least, is a recent visitor to our raspberry here. In fact, she was right there as I was picking and munching down on a few of the golden, juicy ones.

That stopped when I saw her...praying mantises and bare fingers didn't seem like too good of a match!

And now...since it is about 1:30 AM, I bid you goodnight/morning!

Blessings, Aimee

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"The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: the Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." Numbers 6:24 KJV