Late July Harvest

This kitchen garden was a great idea. Thanks, Mollie!! I delayed thinning my carrots because I just hate to pull out a plant that is doing well. Therefore they are quite crowded but today I did thin my second planting and got some decent sized baby carrots. It was a very nice break from the garage job since it has been beautifully overcast with a nice breeze and temperatures twenty degrees cooler than most days this month.

Weekend Update

 The weekend is off to a perfect combination of relaxation and productivity. I am loving my home and making changes to make it mine but my favorite place to be is in my "Grammy Chair" with Lincoln. Sometimes he sits beside me and feels like a big boy, other times we snuggle and sing. He is getting more and more interested in the books that we read. He has a couple of favorites and we also read books that his mommy and Uncle Jay read and chewed on also.

I have an overdeveloped sense of pride over mounting this particular board in my garage. I was quite nervous about handling the 8 foot length of 1x4 on my own but it went up very well. I easily drilled into each stud to secure the board. I even got it level. The 4 foot length on the other side of the garage is the one that gave me problems...the third stud seemed impossible to find so I have lots of extra holes from my drilling explorations. Seems that I was using a stripped screw. Did I strip it with all of my drilling? I don't know. Travis helped me figure things out and we got it mounted securely. Now both boards are painted and I have started pounding nails and mounting brackets to hang garden tools, rakes, shovels, ladder and lawn chairs. Today after mowing the lawn I will work at hanging the hose reel and more tools. I am so grateful for the break in the heat the last couple of days. This project is going pretty slowly but I will continue to move forward.

Gardening in Red

 Peppers are turning red and showing up on the table at my house...so yummy!

The roma tomatos are beautiful and are showing up with fresh basil on pizza or in pasta dishes.

 The cherry tomatoes must love this heat. They are growing in huge clusters almost like grapes!

And this daylily may be the last of the blossoms for now. It was just transplanted this spring but doing well.

Good Days

Although I find time to complain about the heat and stress about learning a new job there is plenty of joy in these days. Lincoln is so much fun and I just love getting to see him so often.

Being so close to family again is such a blessing to me! It's a bonus in so many ways. I have always enjoyed my nieces and nephews and it's so great to spend time with them as adults. Drew and Molly joined us for the College Hill Arts Festival and it was fun to just hang out together. Saturday night ended up being a surprise family dinner. I decided in the morning that I might as well cook and ended up with Dale, Jay, Briana, Travis, Ashley and Lincoln. . . with very little planning!

St. Louis in April

 Although the motivation for our trip to St. Louis was Busch Stadium, we certainly enjoy exploring other aspects of the city. It did rain off and on but we enjoy the Arch as well as the grounds around there and the people watching.

The St. Louis Zoo was exceptionally good but also quite exhausting. We walked quite a bit and saw most of the zoo after walking around other parts of the city as well.

 We checked out a couple of great finds on Roadfood.com. The breakfasts at Goody Goody were delicious and the frozen custard at Ted Drewes was amazing. Both are very busy places on a Saturday but well worth waiting. We also tried a local St. Louis tradition of pizza with provel cheese (it's like the white version of velveeta.) I would not recommend that so much.

 The fun weekend took a drastic turn when we were hit with what they called "a historically horrific hail storm" in the St. Louis area. Dale and I pulled off the road when it became quite dangerous. The photo above is the rear window of the car and one of the hail stones that destroyed it. As you can see below there was plenty of hail at the hotel. Rows of cars with broken windows and no chance of getting it fixed in that area sent us on the road with no back window, a severely cracked windshield and dents and dimples over most every part of Dale's car. The storm cut our weekend short but fortunately we made it home safely and there were plenty of windshields available in Waterloo.

Busch Stadium

 Rewind...to the end of April! I never got our trip to St. Louis posted on my blog. I guess it was a busy time and it just didn't happen. Here are a few shots of our evening at Busch Stadium. Although I had been to the old Busch, the new ball park was on my list for several years. It did not disappoint. It's a great ball park and we had a nice time. Notice the jackets and sweatshirt. I look forward to that weather!

 This little lady sat in front of us and I so enjoyed her enthusiasm and team spirit. Her son was quite a bit older than me and didn't seem nearly as interested in the game as his mom was. I wonder if my kids will take me to the ball park when I am a little old lady...decades from now!

Way Too Hot

 If you don't like to hear people grumbling about the weather, you might want to skip this post! I make no secret about the fact that I am very uncomfortable in hot humid weather. Last year wasn't bad but this year it started early and is lasting too long. We did get some relief last week. I got to walk outside before work in the mornings, but that's not going to happen this week. My garage project is going in slow motion due to the weather. I have made some headway getting the trim painted but me painting in this weather is just insane. I work in very short increments! I hope that August is much cooler than July! But we are only half way through July! Oh my!

Too Hot

 It's too hot to garden, too hot to sit on the patio, too hot to go for walks. . . just too hot! I even think it's too hot to go swimming. The sun feels like a broiler lately and I have been in the shade as much as possible. Although I am sure that the bill might be shocking, I am enjoying my AC very much these days. I have dug out my sewing machine to get going on the next stage of this quilt project. I always seem to have very long pauses between phases of quilting. I finished the quilt top months ago and didn't touch it again until this weekend. I have also picked up my knitting, sorted through a closet and done some cleaning. I don't feel like I have cabin fever but if I did it would be more likely to happen in the heat of the summer rather than winter!

Wreghitt Family Fourth

Again this year the entire family gathered in Clear Lake at Aunt Snooks' house to celebrate family and the Fourth of July. We park on the lawn, line up the coolers, fill tables with food and circle our lawn chairs for a couple of days of talking, eating, drinking and lots of laughter. It was horribly hot this year so I have fewer photos but here is a glimpse into our family gathering.

Garage Project Start

I knew I wanted to do something to make my garage more space efficient, less cluttered and a bit more attractive but I had decided that it would probably be a project for next year. I changed my mind when a friend offered to help me work on it now. Although the heat has been awful, I have been pulling down pegboard and removing nails along the two walls that are all studs. Don't feel badly about the pegboard; it was really crappy and the holes were too small for modern pegs! I think it's going to look lots better when we are done but for now it actually looks worse and I have been sweating lots! I will show the finished project before the month is over!

Early July Garden

Love seeing the harvest!

Although it's too hot to enjoy garden work lately, I am enjoying the fruits of my labors. The cherry tomatoes are starting to ripen and I am still eating lots of lettuce with a new crop of spinach on the way. Yesterday I made salads with the tomatoes, lettuce, baby carrots, banana pepper and onion from the garden. The cabbage is getting big and the broccoli is still producing some. The carrots were planted for Lincoln but he doesn't seem too impressed by them yet. When they get lots bigger we will steam some and squish them up for him.

Of course I have to have a baby face in my garden posts!

We just got back from a family reunion in Clear Lake. . . after all that Wreghitt food, it's good to come home to a garden with fresh veggies! I will post some photos of the reunion very soon but be warned; it was hotter than hot and nobody looks good in the photos!