AIR SHOW

Do you know how hard it is to get pictures of airplanes zooming overhead on a bright sunny day?  Well, it's hard!  This is one of my photos:

Lovely blue sky with not a plane in sight!

Then we have this one where the planes are barely into the picture.

Or this one where they are just about behind the trees.

It's rather difficult without a quality camera and lens to get anything worth while.

It's always fun to watch the Blue Angels perform, and especially so when they come to a small town in Minnesota.  The farming community is not used to such high precision entertainment.

We have seen these guys, and their Air Force counterparts the Thunderbirds, numerous times as they often performed on the bases where we lived.  But there is something about loading up the car with lawn chairs and heading for the country roads, and finding a safe spot to sit and watch the show.

This is our spot!  Perfect for hubby, our daughter, my friend, three grandkids, and one of their friends.  Are we silly or what?  Actually, three or four other cars joined us for awhile, so we weren't the only ones acting silly.

IMPORTANT BIRTHDAY PARTY

Granddaughter Anna turned 10 yesterday.  It was probably the most important day in history so far, according to Miss Anna.  Of course the Bieb was there!

Her two beautiful big sisters were there, one of them carrying my great grand daughter to come in 3 months!

Miss Anna was the honored guest, the star of the show, and the entertainment!

She also requested that her mom make this feast of Chinese food: rice,  mango peanut sauce chicken and veggies, plain stir fried veggies, chicken and veggies with cashews, and in the black pot at the end, orange chicken.  Yum!  We also had plenty of fruit as you can see, and a wonderful chocolate cake.  And yup, all gluten and dairy free.  We ate well!

THE COLOR PURPLE

When I bought the starts to create my hanging baskets, I didn't realize that I bought mostly purple plants.  Or shades of purple.  There are a few red, yellow, and orangy flowers, but most of then are purple.  But I'm liking it now that everything is so lush and full of blooms.

And because I'm loving the shades of purple, I am sitting on my patio and taking pictures in all kinds of light and weather.  The next one is early morning......like before 6 am.

Late afternoon is shadowy.

And I kind of like the pop of color in the dark of the shadows.

I like the spiky plant with the delicate flowers and the bold coleus.

This one is kind of dull, however.

Some of the hanging baskets.

More purple.

And even more purple.

Cute pitcher!  I've been going to the 12 year old league ball games this week, and really enjoying them.

I don't know what kind of butterfly this is, but he's pretty.

I cannot believe that this is our garden the first week in June.  It's more like the first week of July!  Everything is so far ahead of normal.

FIRST HARVEST

Yesterday I harvested the first veggies from the garden.  Rosy red radishes and kale were the first food we enjoyed from our little garden.

I made a lovely Toscana Zuppe with the kale.  We enjoyed the soup for two meals yesterday, and I have two jars in the freezer for the future. 

However, if someone doesn't get to the weeds in the garden pretty soon, they will choke out any hope of future veggie meals,  Maybe today!

BREAKFAST GUEST

We are early risers, so we seldom have breakfast guests.  However, this morning about 6:15, just when I had delivered hubby's buckwheat pancakes and fried eggs to his spot at the table, we looked up and found this fellow right outside our kitchen window.

I grabbed my camera just when he realized he was being watched, and he took off across the yard.  I caught his back half as he passed in front of our garden.

 

Then I opened the door and stepped out on the patio and caught him looking at me from the neighbor's yard.  He must have crossed the four lane highway just north of our house, along the edge of the wetlands.  We've never seen a deer in our yard before, so our breakfast guest was an exciting start to a beautiful day.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

I don't know if you realize what an important day this is in the history of the world.  I'll list just a couple of the highlights:

1533  Anne Boleyn crowned Queen of England

1792  Kentucky admitted as the 15th US state

1813  Capt John Lawrence utters Navy Motto "Don't give up the ship."

1861  First skirmish in the Civil War takes place in the Fairfax Court House, VA

1936  Queen Mary completes maiden voyage, arriving in New York

1967  Beatles release Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in the US

2006  Marge retires!

That's right.  I have been retired for six years now.  Six years ago we were in the midst of packing up our 5th wheel RV, selling our house, saying goodbye to family and friends, and preparing to head off into the big new world of retirement.  We had purchased a truck and trailer, had invited an 11 and a 13 year old grandson to join us for the summer, and we were heading for Alaska.   Oh, what fun we had!  It was the adventure of a lifetime, not just for the boys, but for us, too.  Our original plans were to travel for at least ten years, but mom's cancer a year and a half later changed our plans. 

However, I am still retired.  I am still enjoying not having to get out of the house by 7:45 each morning.  I can stay in my jammies until noon (or all day!) if I wish.  I can bake or do laundry or clean house in the middle of the day instead of trying to cram it all in at night or on Saturday.  I can attend my Bible study on Tuesday morning with ten awesome gals, I can give rides when needed, I can help out kids and grandkids when needed,  I can go out for coffee with my friends, and I can do nothing if I want!

My historical event of today will never go down in history as earth shattering or important in any way, but to me, it's a great day!

I NEED A BREAK

Taking a little break.  I hope to return next week.  Hopefully someone will still be checking in then!

HAPPY SYTTENDE MAI

Syttende mai means May 17 in Norwegian.  It is a national holiday, celebrating the signing of the Norwegian Constitution in Eidsvoll, Norway, in 1814.  The Norwegians celebrate with parades and flags.

There are many areas of Minnesota and Wisconsin that celebrate Syttende mai, also.  A Lutheran church not too far from us is well known for the Norwegian dinner they put on each year on May 17.  People drive from many miles away each year to stand in line for hours to continue on the tradition.  A little town, also not far from here, has a city wide celebration with parades and flags and food. 

Not every celebration would consist of this white plate of white food, but many do.  The gelatinous blob on the lower right of the plate is lutefisk, which is cod or ling, soaked in water and lye for days before it is rinsed off and quickly cooked in boiling water.  It smells.  No, it stinks!  It reeks!  Norwegians pour melted butter over it, Swedes pour a white sauce over it, but neither of those additions do much to make it more digestible!  Yet every year, on Syttende mai and Christmas Eve, Norwegians force this crap fish down their throats and boast of tasting it twice as they belch the foul tasting fumes for the next twelve hours. 

To the left of the white lutefisk is white lefse.  Now lefse I like.  It's like a very thinly rolled tortilla, made with riced potatoes, a little bit of lard and flour, and baked on a lefse grill.  Spread the lefse round with butter, sprinkle with white sugar, and you have a treat!  Some people use brown sugar, but I prefer white.  And meatballs or turkey rolled up in the lefse are also wonderful.

Behind the white lefse and white lutefisk on back right, are meatballs coated in a white gravy.  They are good.....not the meatball you'd use in a spaghetti sauce, but a much more bland meatball.  Comfort food type meatball. 

Next to the meatballs, and the only splash of color on the whole white plate, are cranberries.   The food police said you need some color on the plate, so red it is.

Our Syttende mai celebration is going to consist of roasted vegetables: sweet potatoes, peppers, red onions, kale, and some sausage for the protein.  Nothing white there.

Happy Syttende mai!

The pictures of the flag and the lutefisk are taken from Wikipedia.org.

BEAUTIFUL IRIS

I love my iris.   Again, thank you Charlie!

Love the iris in the early morning with the shadows from the trees filtering the sunlight.

Love the deep purple with the white.

That purple is almost black!  The yellow one is just opening......beautiful!

These light purple lavender ones are so feminine looking, aren't they?

This basket on the table is from daughter Kari.  It contains parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, which sounds like a good name for a song.  I don't think the song sounds quite right when you sing oregano and basil at the end of that line!

We are spending time each day on the patio.  I'm so glad we did this project last summer!

ENJOY YOUR DAY

This arrived yesterday from Kevin and Molly.  Isn't it beautiful?

It dwarfs the baskets I put together!

I just realized I hadn't given you an early morning picture for awhile, so am including one today.

Have a wonderful Mother's Day.  I am missing my mom this morning.

THROUGH MY KITCHEN WINDOW

Finally my first iris!  Thank you my dear friend Charlie.  Charlie cleaned out her perennial beds last fall, and I was the grateful recipient of her gleanings.  This iris is on a stalk which is standing about 4 1/2 feet tall and is peeking right in my kitchen window.  Love it!

In other fun happenings, yesterday I hung blue glass dingle-balls on the pergola.  What are blue glass dingle-balls, you ask?  I don't know either, but I found them this winter at my favorite thrift store, and thought they'd make a fun decoration for the beams of the pergola.  What do you think?

I'm having fun hanging plants in the trees and pergola.  I'll post photos when the flowers are all in bloom, but this is what we have so far.

I am heading outside this morning to pot up a few more plants for the patio area.  Love that outside decorating.  Now if the wind would behave so things don't blow away.......

BUSY DAYS

The tools are ready.

The plants are waiting.

The ground has been prepared.

Hubby worked hard.

Broccoli is planted.

The tomatoes, green peppers, and multi-colored peppers are planted, as is the kale.  Beets, zuchs, and cukes are also in the ground.

And hubby is resting with a jug of water.

Then we had three days and three inches of rain.  Yay!

Yesterday sweet Jaden was confirmed.

I love the beautiful, old fashioned white altar of the little country church.  It was a beautiful service that began with a baptism, and then Jaden and six of her classmates renewed their baptismal vows in their confirmation vows.

I have a flower in full bloom, but somehow the flower doesn't match the rose leaves.  Ummm.....something is wrong here!

Right outside my kitchen window is this green headed monster, sticking it's weird looking head into my view.  I can't wait until this iris bursts into full bloom, right in my window!

VISITING MY BROTHER

I made the long trip, 12 miles I think, to the hospital where my Big Brother is being held hostage, hoping I could get him released and he could come home with me so we could bond over my Little Houses Schnibbles project tonight.  But guess what I discovered?  I don't think the doctor has even been in to check him out yet!  I am not happy, and I'm betting my Brother isn't happy either.  I did mention to the gal that I wasn't happy, and that this would never happen again.  And it won't.  I'll find a new doctor.

No idea what is going on but it seems weird.  Maybe there is a problem of some sort that I don't know about, but you'd think they would give me a clue if that was the case.  Meanwhile,  I know my old machine was having tension problems, but I am going to drag it out tonight and set it up to see if I can get it to sew straight seams.  I just won't do anything like quilting that would show!

STILL MISSING

My Big Brother is still missing.  I took him to the sewing machine hospital last week Wednesday, but seems that Shawn and Amanda were getting ready to go to a show for the weekend, so there was no time to check out the cranky bobbin problem that my Brother was having.  I called yesterday, Tuesday, and they were still unpacking from the weekend show.  I hope today was fix Marge's machine day.  And I hope I get a call first thing in the morning.

I have big time sleep issues some nights, and last night was definitely one of those nights.  I was looking for brown and pink fabric for the quilt for my great baby that is expected in August.  Baby momma has picked those colors, and I dreamed that I couldn't find a thing in those colors.  I finally found a line by some weird sounding name that I must have pulled out of some foreign telephone book.  (Do they still have those?  We only have cells.)   And I found a nice white fabric with teeny tiny pink rosebuds on it and thought I could use that with the pink and brown.  But then the pinks didn't match.  And the brown and white didn't look good together.   And there wasn't enough of one kind of fabric that I wanted, and the gal cut yards and yards of another that I didn't want.   I was trying to decide on a pattern, and I couldn't buy fabric if I didn't know what I was making, and there was nothing I liked, and on and on this weird half awake half asleep dream went.

I finally got up at two and watched an hour of HGTV to clear my mind.  And they were having a million dollar room show.....not a million dollar house, a million dollar room!  I can't even relate.  I've never even lived in a 2000 square foot house, let alone a 40,000 square foot house!  So then I got upset with the show because it was so unbelievable to me.  I went back to bed around three, and did sleep then, but I was exhausted when I got up at six!

My friend Judy is coming for supper, so I made brownies.  And chopped all the veggies for a nice salad, and also chopped veggies to put in my spaghetti sauce to serve over my quinoa noodles.  I love chunky veggies in my spaghetti sauce, peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, etc.

So here's hoping my Big Brother has a complete healing tonight and comes home, ready to get back to work.  We have stuff to do!