Hail Wreaks Havoc

It had been quite a while since we'd had hail here at out house, but hail season is upon us, and it came in with a fury last night.  We had a pretty intense lightning show that my daughter and I watched from the back porch.  There was just a steady sprinkle of rain, but the flash lightning was everywhere.  We came inside around 11:00,  and shortly after we had a burst of pea-sized hail.  I rushed outside to shelter the flower pots I had placed out in the rain, and the hail stopped almost as fast as it started.   It seemed like the storm was calming down, and we went to bed.

Around 1:00 I woke up to the unmistakable sound of hail.  Lots of hail.  It was so bad, I got out of bed to check it out.  The ground was already covered in white, and I knew that wasn't a good thing.  There was nothing I could do but watch the hail destroy the leaves on all all my flowers, trees and everything in my garden.  And it didn't stop for a long time.  I regretted taking the cover off of the herbs I have growing in an old Weber grill on my patio.

The first thing I do every morning is take a walk around our yard and check out my vegetable and flower gardens and plants.  Things always look so fresh.  I water what needs to be watered, pull a few weeds that have sprung up, and enjoy the beginning of a new day.

But today was different.  It wasn't so enjoyable.

All four of the geraniums on my patio looked like this.

I should've left the cover on my herbs!

A little less shade for my sitting garden.

Shredded sunflower leaves, anyone?

Apple tree.

Bruised apple.

My poor tomatoes.  :(

Good thing you don't use rhubarb leaves.

It's unbelievable how much damage a little ice will do.  Most of my plants (if not all of them) will recover, but it was so hard to see them shredded after having nursed them along for several weeks.  I hurt for them.    I realize my pain pales in comparison to all the farmers who depend on their crops for their livelihood.  I hurt even more for them.

While I was taking pictures of the damage and destruction, my daughter yelled at me to "come over here quick!  You have to take a picture of this!"  I rushed over wondering what in the world she could be looking at in the middle of the mulch.

And there was beauty amid the chaos.

What precautions do you take when you know hail is headed your way?

K

  

Compost is a Good Thing

If you live in Colorado and want to have a nice garden, you most likely have to embellish your soil; and compost is a good thing.  (Like how I tied it in to stamping?  heehee!)  The soil in my sitting garden area is the color of sand, and has no organic matter whatsoever.  I'm sure if I didn't add anything to it, I would have nothing but weeds growing at the end of the summer.

Our weather finally cooperated, and we haven't had any precipitation for a while, so I ordered 3 yards of compost to be delivered.  Fortunately for me, it was delivered the day I work which so happened to be the day before our community garage sale.  That meant that my dear hubby got to move it all off of the driveway!  I'm not sure how it worked out that way, but I'm not complaining.  I got to rake it all out after it was dumped into my sitting garden, and then I tilled it in.  That was the fun part.

The next fun part will be going to the nursery to pick out all my flowers.  I made a list a while back, and when I looked at it again today, I couldn't remember what a lot of them were.  So who knows what my flower garden is going to look like!  I'm sure it will look better than this...

I am a little hesitant to plant anything, especially in my vegetable garden since we have had such wacky weather over the winter and into the spring. The average last frost date for Denver is May 2, but for some reason I feel I should wait. Our temperatures have seemed cooler than normal, and it has me a little nervous.  We've only had a handful of days that we could wear shorts without getting chilled.

At least I've made a little progress this week and my beds are ready for planting now.  This has been 3 years in the making, and I am anxious to get it done.

How are your gardens growing so far this year?

K

Rhubarb Crisp

It is that time of year.  My rhubarb was one of the first things to poke up out of the ground this spring, and I was beside myself with joy.  You see, I grew up with rhubarb in my Granddad's garden, and my parent's garden, but this is the first time I have ever grown it in my own garden.  Watching it come up after its first dormant winter was a good thing.

Rhubarb is one of those foods that you either like or don't like.  There is no middle ground.  My son got my rhubarb loving genes, and my daughter got my husband's rhubarb "ew, yuck!" genes.  I don't quite understand my daughters aversion to the sourness.  She can eat dill pickles 'til the cows come home, but balks at the sour taste of rhubarb.  My kids were with me in the garden the other day, and when I said we would be able to make rhubarb cobbler soon, their reactions were quite the opposite.  Ross and I don't mind that they have faulty genes...it just leaves more for us!

Here is my mom's recipe for a quick and easy microwaveable Rhubarb Crisp.

Rhubarb Crisp

2 heaping cups rhubarb cut into 1" pieces
1c sugar
3T flour
Pinch salt
1 egg

In a medium bowl, beat the egg well.  Mix in sugar, flour, and salt. Add rhubarb and stir to coat the pieces.  Let stand while preparing crisp topping.

Crisp Topping

2/3 c flour
1/2 c quick oats
1/4 c chopped nuts (optional)
3T brown sugar
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 c butter

Combine dry ingredients.  Cut in butter.

Put rhubarb mixture in a microwaveable 8x8 dish.  (I dare you not to eat a piece of rhubarb coated in sugary yumminess!)  Top with crisp topping.  Microwave on high for 10-12 minutes.  Serve slightly warm.

Now you could add a scoop of vanilla ice cream or some fresh whipped cream if you want, but I don't want anything to interfere with the sweet/sour combination of rhubarb and crisp.  Speaking of sweet, as I was just typing the recipe, I realized I left out the brown sugar when I made this yesterday.  I thought it tasted a little different, but it was still delicious.

As you can see.

If you must lick your plate, make sure your kids don't see you do it!

Enjoy!

K

Hello Again plus Springtime in the Rockies Continued

One of the freebie sets I picked or SU!'s Sale-A-Bration this year was Hello Again.  I vacillated with the idea of ordering it, because it isn't really my style.  I thought it was cute, but knew I would have to work at getting it to work for me.  So it sat for several weeks longing to be inked.  I finally had time to search the SCS gallery for ideas, and decided on what I was going to do.  Then I just happened to see the CAS64 challenge to use orange, and this is the result.

The pierced line wasn't planned, but when I embossed the flowers, the edge of the folder left a line in the cardstock.  It looked really bad, so I improvised and added the piercing.  I lightly sponged pumpkin pie over the embossed flowers to give them a little more pop.

Supplies used:
Stamps - hello again, teeny tiny wishes
Paper - GKD PL white, old olive, pumpkin pie
Ink - Memento black, pumpkin pie
Accessories - pumpkin pie, so saffron, old olive, melon mambo and soft suede markers, CB folder and machine, ribbon, brads, paper piercer, sponge

I had fun using my new set, and thought I might as well make another card while I had it out.

I ended up making four.

Supplies used:
Stamps - hello again
Paper - kraft
Ink - pacific point, real red, rich razzleberry, melon mambo
Accessories - all the above colors plus summer sun and old olive markers, SAMJ (I won't stamp a sentiment without it!), stickles on flower centers

What do I think of my new set that I was going to have to work at using?  I love it!  It is really fun, and I can see lots of possibilities for it.  Sometimes you just have to think outside your comfort level and try something new.  I'm glad I did!

Springtime in the Rockies, continued

Remember my Colorado saying from yesterday?  Well someone must not have liked the weather because this is what we woke up to this morning.

More snow!!  It was only about an inch, but still!  All I can say is it's good for the grass and all the plants.

It also makes it that much harder for me to get my planting beds prepared.  Wet clay soil and tillers don't do well together.

Hoping for a dry spell...

K

Springtime in the Rockies

The saying here in Colorado goes "If you don't like the weather, just wait 10 minutes and it will change."  That is how our spring has been this year.  A few weeks back, a record high temperature was set and 24 hours later we got over a foot and a half of snow.  It even stayed for a few days.

This is what it looked like two days ago on Friday...

It looked like the middle of winter, except for the buds and leaves on the trees.  It was such a pretty snow...big, fat, wet snowflakes.  The grass seemed like it turned green overnight.

Here are a few pictures from today...

Not a frozen water droplet anywhere in sight.

I love springtime in the Rockies!

K

A Gardener's Work is Never Done

Or in my case, a gardener's work is just beginning.  When we bought our house 3 1/2 years ago, the yard was it's best feature.  I hadn't even seen the inside of the house, and I knew this was going to be our home.  We ended up doing a lot of construction to the house, but that's an entirely different post (or five!).  Here are some pictures of our wonderful 1/2 acre 'jungle' as it came to be known.

These were taken in June of 2006, and almost the entire perimeter of the yard was overgrown with everything that had ever been planted there 40 years ago.  Thus 'the jungle'.  After taking an entire day to clear about a 10'x10' area with a chain saw, we decided to hire someone else to clear it out.  We've come a long way since then.  Here are pictures of what it looks like now.

Notice the area to the right of the pine trees on the right side of the picture.  This is where I envisioned a sitting area.  That is my purpose for this post.  I am finally going to plant something there!  I wanted to post a before picture to track my progress.  I have immersed myself in flower garden/landscaping books, and I'm ready to take the plunge.  My perfectionism has kept me from doing anything until now.  For some reason, I think it has to be perfect.  But in reality, if it doesn't work, it can be changed. 
Here is what I am starting with.

I just spent the entire day removing the mulch and weed fabric that my husband so lovingly placed there last year.  I still have more mulch to remove (left foreground), but ran out of time and energy today.  You can see the pile of mulch I removed...it's behind the far pine tree right in the middle.  I still need to prepare the soil for planting, and with my schedule, that probably won't happen until this weekend.  But at least I started!

Now, if I could just get all the weeds pulled!

Stay tuned.  I will post pictures of my progress!

K