mosaic Monday...scenes from the weekend

We spent a wonderful weekend in northern MN with Jayme & Scott. On Saturday, we drove the Seven Bridges Road and admired the falls on the Lester river. Jayme is quite the photographer and showed me how to change settings on my camera to freeze/blur the water so I learned something new as well. We also took a short hike to view the lady slippers in bloom in the park.
Jayme shares my love of flowers so we went plant shopping and filled some pots with her favorites while the guys were doing some yard projects.
They have a beautiful yard and gardens including a vegetable garden they grow in cages to protect it from the abundant deer & bunnies in the northwoods.
June is a wonderful time to visit northern MN, the lupines are blooming along the roadsides for gorgeous color.
Driving down the interstate, we even saw a doe standing in a large patch of them but no time to grab a camera at that speed. It was a wonderful site to see :)

feathered friends Friday...

*updated

Since I posted earlier I was on the phone talking with my sister and looking out the window. As we talked a kingfisher flew in and landed on the gazebo - a first time visitor in the garden! I told her I had to go get the camera and hung up and by then he had flown up to a tree branch. I zoomed in through the window to get a shot and as I was taking a photo a second one came in and knocked the first one off! Blurry photo but amazing to watch:)
With two of them around, I better start counting my goldfish. Original post below...

It's been raining here the last couple of days so the only bird photo I took this week was of a wet bluejay.
How about a metal bird...does that count? Rebecca clematis is such a gorgeous red variety.
Speaking of clematis...Huldine has grown to the top of two of the gazebo posts and is trying to climb the satellite. I have her planted on one side with Niobe and the other with Jackmani for wonderful color combinations. The Killian Donahue in the front is looking very sick these days so if it lives it will be transplanted this fall to another site and I will add another taller variety to that pole as well. The fourth pole is a combo of clair de lune and avant garde. One of them is to the top but they are only in their second year so a bit thin yet.
Have you heard of the blue hour? I first heard of it from my friend, Kathleen, who heard about it on this post from Susan of Between Naps on the Porch. I tried it for the first time the other night and was surprised at how blue the sky photographs - it definitely doesn't look that blue to the naked eye. For more info on capturing the blue hour - check out the bluehoursite.com website, where you will find out when the blue hour happens in your area.

almost 4 years...

On June 16th it will be 4 years since I started this simple blog.
My first post on June 16th, 2006 was titled "morning has broken" and I showed a photo of the garden cabin along with the famous verse of the same name.

I began the whole blogging thing on a whim and as a venue to show all the photos I take but I never realized all the wonderful blogging friends I would make as well. It has been a wonderful 4 years reading your blogs too!

I also enjoy hearing from those that read my blog but don't blog or comment. Last year, at my son's wedding I was introduced to one of his co-workers. She told me she loves to read my blog and her all time favorite post was the "swim meet" one. So in honor of my 4th blogging anniversary I would like to hear what post you remember the most or as being a favorite of yours. You may leave the answer in the comments from now until the 14th or email me directly by clicking on the "Let's Chat" graphic in the column on the left. On my 4th anniversary, I would like repeat the 4 posts that get mentioned the most. The 4 reader favorites, I guess you could say :)

So in the spirit of remembering - here is the Weekend Swim Meet post loved by my son's co-worker :)

Mr. Orchard Oriole and Mr. Harris Sparrow competed in a synchronized swim meet this weekend. I had the pleasure of being in the audience and overheard a bit of their conversation.
Harris, you're late, I'm already warmed up!
Geesh, this water is cold!
I see my family in the bleachers.
Where, where?The performance began....
Watch your count! You're jumping the gun!
Look who's talking! I thought we were only going down for 5 seconds on the first pass and there is a judge right behind us!Finally, they were right on...
then patiently waited for the judges scores.
Look, at least the fans gave us a 10! Wave back at them!The evening ended with a solo performance by Mr. Baltimore Oriole.

rainy days and a promise...

We went camping this weekend down in the Minnesota River valley and since it was a rainy day on Saturday we toured the Harkin Store. The following information came from a area tourism site - "Harkins General Store was built in 1870 by Scottish immigrant, Alexander Harkin. At that time the town of West Newton was a more active town in the area. This was due to its location on the Minnesota River and the steamboat landing which served as a stopping point for much of the river traffic. Located in the town were a hotel, dance hall and brewery.

In the 1870's, the railroads began to replace riverboats and a line was run through nearby New Ulm. This had an adverse effect on the town but the store remained open and served as a hub for the farming community.

Eventually the town became less active and businesses began closing down. The owners of the Harkins store closed it down on Jan. 1, 1901. The building was reopened in 1938 as a museum with almost everything remaining where it had been in 1901."

All that remains of the former town site along Nicollet County RD 21 is the store and 2 houses that were owned by the Harkin family. The MN Historical Society now owns and operates the store museum.
The guides were clothed in 1870's era costumes and explained that 40% of the store's stock was left on the shelves when the store closed in 1901. The daughter's of the owner first opened it as a museum before it was bought by the historical society, which decided to focus on creating an 1870's store so the original items from later decades are housed in the state museum. During part of the stores history, the area farmers hit hard times when a grasshopper plague lasted 4 years so Mr. Harkin gave many of them supplies on a promise to pay. This definition of a promise was written by Mr. Harkin and posted on the wall. (dark photo because the interior is lit with one lamp and a gray day makes for a dark store)A Promise
A promise should be given with caution and kept with care
A promise should be made with the heart and remembered by the head
A promise is the offspring of intention and should be nurtured by recolection
A promise should be the result of thought and its fulfillment the result of reflection
A promise and its performance should like the scales of a true balance always present a mutual adjustment
A promise delayed is justice deferred
A promise neglected is an untruth told
A promise attended to is a debt settled

I liked this definition - whether he was reminding them of their intentions to pay or not it is still good advice.

Today, is another rainy day here at home - in a break from the showers I went out and admired the raindrop covered flowers.

steeple Sunday...

We saw these two beautiful steeples driving through Sleepy Eye, MN as they drew our attention above the tree tops.
It was raining so I am sorry for the photo quality but I felt this one was definitely worth showing for steeple Sunday because,
look at this...
as we got closer I noticed a third small steeple in the center of the church. I have never seen a third steeple like this before.

The Church of St. Mary catholic church...
cornerstone reads 1901.

Friday's feathered friends...

This little girl stakes out the honeysuckle vine as her territory and chases any other interested hummers away. It is so fun to watch, maybe some day I'll manage some in flight photos :)

June 1st garden walk...

The front of the wildflower angel garden is mostly green but the gallardias are full of buds and ready to bloom. The back is currently a field of of shasta daisies.
The roses are starting to bloom in the front beds...

and I've added a few annuals as well as planted the pots.
Vegetables, herbs and a few flowers are planted and starting to grow in the barnyard.
Pine Hollow is planted with miniature as well as low growing plants.
I love this wire vine growing up on of the arbors.
A view of the rock from the patio...
and a view from the path to the cabin. The hostas behind the house are huge!
I planted a few red verbenas in front of the cabin while I wait for the self seeded purple ones to grow large enough to bloom.
The paths were so overgrown with self seeders I pulled out buckets full this weekend - one more path shot to show why I have sore knees today :)
The view to the back arbor...
and then towards the satellite gazebo.
The honeysuckle vine is blooming by the red door and the hummingbirds love it.
One last view of the pond and garden.
To see how it has progressed from May 3rd, click HERE.