Gardening + Nature

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Hello, and Happy day before Thanksgiving for my fellow celebrants! Are you knee deep in preparations? After a bit of blog work, I am heading to the kitchen to make pie crusts, definitely pecan, maybe a wee pumpkin, too.

It is a snowy day, the fifth in the past few weeks, which is a bit excessive for November, just sayin’.

We’ve had a lot of activity, with Greg flying to Florida for a week of biz-ness ( I did miss him!), a weekend visit from Jett and his girlfriend Peyton, a sleepover at Michael and Mary’s. All very good things that have kept me occupied.

Let us begin. Firstly, with a most colorful selection of windfall apples from around the neighborhood that were turned into the equally colorful jelly above. It is quite delicious!

I am a slow adopter of technology, and since the library very frequently only has electronic copies of books in my Goodreads queue, we resorted to buying a tablet for such reading adventures. One day, while browsig the ridiculously vast collection of media on offer, I stumbled upon the Kitten and the Bear Cookbook, a diverse collection of jellies, jams, and scones. This is their apple jam, which, to my mind, is a beautiful and delectable marriage of jelly and apple butter, made extra special by the addition of apple chunks, sadly not made from windfalls, but store bought. You can’t have everything, at least not all at once, peeps.

That dog is super fly…

This was our first snow, which, like the song, went on and on til the break of dawn! Seriously, we got 24″, the icicles pictured below, and a ridiculously long melt time.

As I was out snapping this collection of photos, I fretted over posting too much of the same, a meal made, a Pike’s Peak photo, another ambered leaf in fall, before mildly chastising myself that this is what seasons are, a repetition, two points joining to make a circle. It is also who I am, a person sharing her singular journey. Another year has passed, and I am grateful to have made it, yet again, to this time of intense color and diminishing light, a year older and hopefully wiser. I still make my mistakes, mostly quietly, occasionally with bravado and much brooding over them, before moving forward. Like the tree from bare to bud to green to yellow, orange, or red. It is all good.

Additionally, I would be remiss to not include the best song, sharing the title of the post, from the late and very, very great Chris Cornell for your listening pleasure, or at least mine. Seasons

currants

rabbit brush

yarrow

ratibida

mallow

orange horned poppy

prickly poppy

A slice of the backyard garden scene. This year may be one of the most lush and green – plants enormous, birds plentiful, smiles abound!

We are settling into our summer routine. Greg works on the back porch, mostly with Juniper, very often with me, sipping coffee, fountain babbling and brook-like, birds chirping, until the heat becomes too much. We head in, work some more, and enjoy a meal. The afternoon is a battle against heat, of closed blinds and fans, reading and cleaning and programming and dog jaunts.

On special days, we host a visitor – Jeff! We play games and eat exceptionally well. This time was a feast of Korean style summer favorites, bulgogi burgers, homemade pickles of the cucumber, onion, and bell pepper variety, topped with a gochujang sauce that also served as salad dressing, poutine with gochujang gravy (fries courtesy of Wendy’s!). Traditional cherry pie, made with a bounty of home grown cherries. That we had enough for pie and two jars of jam was pure joy! Then there were rum and cherry cokes, with syrup made from the cherry pits (Seriously!). Exquisite and fun and the height of summer flavors.

Happy, happy…hope you are, too.

indian paintbrush

mallow

oak

sumac

loco weed

buckwheat

the flowers are about the size of a pin head!

wild garlic

sand lily

currant

mertensia

spider wort

vetch

phlox

loco weed

Greetings, fellow flower lover (I hope). This is a week’s worth of morning stroll blooms, which is pretty darn spectacular in my humble opinion. Just think, nature makes these for everyone to admire!

I have identified all that I know off the top of my head, but don’t quote me on them! Happy day…

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Despite the snow on the mountain horizon, I do believe spring has officially arrived in Colorado Springs! As ever, it feels as though it came at exactly the right moment, too. It was so thouroughly balmy that I wore shorts today. Huzzah!

Cherry blossoms blooming

Lilacs bursting and filling the air with their intoxicating scent

A cacophony of birdsong, here, there, everywhere! I do believe this is a Phoebe.

This guest room refresh happened ages go, but I only just remembered to photograph it. We painted the closet and paneling, got new lamps after a horrific electrical storm burned out the other two, updated the bedding, got a new rug, and slip-covered the headboard. I am super pleased!

Two of our latest eats: steamed eggs, which taste like the most delicate savory custard, Hummus Bling Bling with pickled raisins and homemade pita, jazzed up with store bought tulips. Happy Spring!

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