THE GRAPES ARE READY

Last night I was watering flowers and noticed the Concord Grapes were bursting with color.

This time of year, the night shift critters have usually picked the vines clean.  I ran really fast to the kitchen for a container and began picking grapes.

Next, I had this flash from the past of a fall day in Galena when my high school friends and I were in a grape stomping contest.  Let me tell you grapes are slippery, and  cold, and they turn your legs purple. 

 But I am not making wine with these grapes.  Nope, these will be cooked and poured into cute little jelly jars.  Then smeared on warm rolls drenched in butter.  Yummy.

                              Here is my right hand "paw" helping me with the harvest.

 I only have one grape vine but it is a doosy, hanging over the fence and on the ground.

By the way, it is almost dark again.  I never get to garden in daylight, except at my day job, inside, behind a desk, tied to my chair, whipped daily, and spat upon.  Ok, you know I am kidding.
I love my job.

 

 And I love these grapes! 

                                                     Hey, that is not a grape!  But it is ripe.
                                                               I ran to get another bowl.

 

I am not making jelly or wine with these tomatoes.

But I could cook some mean tomato sauce.

 

The hens were clucking as they jumped up on the roost.

I looked in on them.  More eggs!

No, I am not  making egg jelly or wine from these eggs.

 

 

It's been fun harvesting the fruits of my labor.

It's also been fun laboring over the harvest.

And fruiting over the fun.

SELLING MY FLOWERS AT OUR LOCAL MARKET

 

After visiting the Farmer's Market at the Peoria Riverfront, I thought maybe I could sell my flowers at a market.  I asked my friend, Doug, at Heritage Farmer's Market, if I could bring some flowers to his market.  Doug kindly said yes.  

I contacted another friend who runs our college horticulture program and asked for her suggestions. 

Genny is a wealth of knowledge and was also very kind to share her knowledge with me.

Genny covered such things as when to cut the flowers, how to cut them, preserving the flowers and tieing the bundles.   

On this early Saturday morning, the air was cool.  The flowers were loving this unusually nice weather.  Look how happy this one is!

 

This is his sister.  She is singing, "You Are My Sunshine."

 

 

 The difficult thing about picking from my home garden is that I hate to pick the blooms.

I would prefer to be selfish and keep them all to myself.

 

 

The yarrow and lilies are full of clean, perfect little blooms.

 

Then I moved on to the pink garden.  I took a few cuts from  each plant.

Then picked some red Bee Balm and more lilies.

 

 

I trimmed the stems to get rid of some torn leaves.  I took a handful of flowers and held them upside down.  This way it is easier to stretch the rubber band around the bundle, and snip the ends off straight.

I filled several white buckets with water and a drop of bleach to kill the bacteria.

Then put the bundles in the buckets.  I set the buckets in the back of the van and headed to market.

How fun!  Now this would be a great retirement job in a few years. 

At the market I used a pretty tablecloth on the table and set up a grouping of my flowers in some pretty vases.  I set out a little sign with my name and price.  Well, not 'my' price, but the price of the flowers.  I could get arrested if I'm not careful.

Since this day, I have sold some flowers and am reading every flower power book I can get my dirty, grubby, little hands on.  After ten years of growing my garden, I am thrilled to have some very nice flowers.

 

Bloom where you are planted. Do what you love. Love what you do.  Do da day. 
Do wa diddy diddy dum diddy do. 

STEPPING STONE

The Pekin Rotary Club holds a silent auction annually, in June.

I look forward to going to this with Dennis.  We eat dinner, have a few drinks, and bid on fun items.

We also take an item of our own to donate to the auction.  This year we offered a snail flower pot with pink petunias.

 

 I bid on this patriotic stepping stone and I won!

One of the members crafts this by hand.  I have a light blue, tulip stone he made three years ago.

I guess I am starting a collection. 

 

 

So, I tried it out.  I took a step.

But I can't bear to step on it!  It might get dirty. 

Look how dirty my work shoes are.

 

I tried again and still could not step on it, only around it.

Then I tried my left leg.  It just sorta bent at the knee and went west.  Again, not stepping on the stone.

 

That's ok, I have seen paw prints on it so I know someone around here steps on it.

 

 

SWEETIE PIE IS BROODY

Our little Sweetie Pie is "broody".  This means she wants to sit on eggs and hatch baby chicks.  This is a natural instinct for hens.

When they become broody, they quit laying eggs.  In fact, they never leave the nest except for a sip of water and maybe a bite of food.  They are not fussy whose eggs they sit on either.  In fact, Sweetie is sitting on Maureen and Colleen's eggs, hoping they will hatch.

Sweetie can make it very difficult to find the eggs she is hiding.

A hen has a way of almost attaching herself to the nest, making it hard to get your hand under her to locate the eggs.  

SELLING FLOWERS AT THE FARMER'S MARKET

 

 

Last Saturday, we drove to the Peoria Riverfront Farmer's Market.
Weekly during the growing season, vendors sell their produce, baked goods, and even crafts from tents set up along the Illinois River. 

This is a retired man who make stained glass pieces with his wife.


Dogs are welcome too.



Women in summer dresses, moms pushing strollers, and an old couple holding hands.............oh, that was us!  It's a friendly atmosphere.


As we looked at each display, my wheels began to turn.
Little did I know Dennis's wheels were turning too.  We were coming to a similar conclusion.  I studied the fresh flower and herb arrangements. 




Tired of walking on the cement and getting hotter as the temperature rose, we opted to head over to our favorite coffee shop in Peoria Heights.  We rested and shared our thoughts on the market. 

We both agreed we have some nice, established, flowers blooming in our garden and it might be fun to try selling them for profit.
The wheels continued to turn. 




Dennis found some great books on raising flowers for profit and I began to cut flowers and put them in tubs in the basement to see how well they kept during the next week.  I contacted a friend, who is a horticulturist, for advice.





This past Saturday, we took our flowers to Heritage Farmer's Market in Tremont.  I arranged them on the table and priced them.
This first trial run was actually very helpful.  I was challenged by several tasks.  Should I gather flowers together by color or by size?
Which colors look best together.  How many leaves do I cut off?
Ew.......ants on my table!

I experimented with throwing in some variegated leaves from my trees and bushes.  It was fun!

It was also difficult to keep Cupid from eating the greens.  I had to put him in another room.

This is our display.  We will have more flowers next week.
Buy A Posey For Your Rosey. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tonight I planted more flowers. 

OH MY DARLIN', CLEMATIS (CLEMENTINE)

Love the colors of these fun pots.  Dennis picked them up to add a punch to our back yard.

 

 

We put them several places, and then I found this wire stand at a little shop.

I told everyone I got it for 25 cents at a garage sale......I lied.

But I felt better telling people that!

 

Just down from the pots are these blooming Clematis.

Holy Clementine Batman, look at those flowers.

"Pick me, pick me."
 
No, I can't pick any they are just too pretty right where they are.

I think all women named  Clementine should plant Clematis.  Just because.

But if your name is Taylor, or Reba, or Trisha you can have someone plant them for you.

I am just plain old Mary.  I had the little lamb.  I was also the Mother of a holy figure,  but my figure is far from holy or anything.  But I do wear holey underware on occasion.   See you later.

WHAT THE ?

 

 

Look closely around the hosta.

 

 

Let me get a little closer. 

 

                                          I can't stop laughing.

                                              Talk about a Fun Gi.

                             Sometimes they pop up unexpectedly.

There was a nice soft rain last week, and the temperature was very warm.
Nature has its own sense of humor.

BRICKIN' THE APPROACH

The yellow is beginning to grow on me.  I think this shade will be fine.  Thank you to my friends who gave their approval.

I continue to play around with my relics and bricks when I get a few hours.  It's like playing house.  I move things around and stand back and look at it.  Then I take something away and again stand back and look at it.  Doing this also keeps my mind off my dirty, cluttered basement.  I just can't get up the gumption to do that project.

 

 This is where I left off.  I hauled over a three more loads of used bricks and began to arrange them.  Keep in mind this is supposed to be imperfect and rusty,  not nice and new and square.

I can't do anything square if I tried.

 

                                      This is not looking right.


Ribbitt.  No, we don't like it.  Start over.  First, give us a push, please.

Next, I got rid of the white baby bed frame.  I put it back in storage.
Then I moved the 16 inch squares to the flower garden.
 

I

I layed more bricks and brought over a few flower pots, and a dog.
The dog can make a lot of things look better.  This is Jazzy Girl. 

Jazz is pretending to be a statue. 

 

 

                                  I think this looks better. 
                 Tomorrow, I have a lot more painting to get done.