Garden and Chicken Tales

Well I thought I'd just put a whole lot of pictures in this post to show how the garden is doing so far this summer. The peonies have come and gone and the roses are on the downswing. There are still quite a few blooms and the garden is very fragrant but not as floriferous as last week. We have side let the chicken girls out to wander the garden as I weed. They are good weeding companions but yesterday they made a jailbreak and wandered into the husband's blueberries as we were talking to a neighbor. They decided that they liked them. We also have discovered during the last couple of weeks that one of the chickens is not-a chicken. We have a rooster in our midst. He likes to crow. Unfortunately I like him. Fortunately our immediate neighbor doesn't care and the neighbor on the other side can not and better not complain because his dogs are much more obnoxious then my rooster. So we will see how it goes. If it goes badly-hello coq au vin....

Super Dorothy rose covering the arbor

My lone foxglove cuddling next to a peach rose.

Cleo the curious.

Buffy the insect slayer

Rooster?!!

Checking out the potting shed

Binx on guard

Garden entry

Patio minus libations

A winding path

Another path

Barfing kitty fountain

Can't remember why...

More roses...

Etc...

Etc...

More places to rest...

Fourth of July rose at potting shed

More chickens on the go...

Chick, Chick, Hen

Well no hen yet, but I do have 6 cuter than cute chicks. Daughters # 2 and 3 picked them up on Friday from the local Agway while I was at work. We are now the proud owners/ wranglers? of 3 Araucana chicks and 3 Buff Orpingtons. The Araucanas will look like this



and the Buff Orpingtons will look like this...

In the meantime, The precious little babies look like this....Now hopefully I will survive until they make pullet hood and are moved to the garage.
Am trying to make corrections but the formatting is not working. Oh well...

Relaxing for Christmas

Playing with a wood burning tool and ink

Well I finished up the photoshop class right before Thanksgiving and since then have only worked on a few projects- a gift for an ailing friend and just some creative play. It's been that busy. You might as well not attempt anything from Halloween to New Year's. I however have taken the week off after Xmas and am hoping to have some quality creative time to play with whatever Santa brings me. Hopefully the progeny will leave me alone and feed themselves and maybe even take pity on their poor mother and feed me. Now that would be a true Christmas miracle.....

practicing on the stack of wood pieces supplied by the husband

So far this angel hasn't been doing her job

Romance on the Hudson...

Not really but I thought it sounded more exciting than "West Point Weekend" or "I Went to My Husband's 35th Reunion and Got Nothing but a Stomachache"...So the husband and I journeyed south to his alma mater this past Thursday and arrived in the evening to attend the welcome reception in some nameless hotel in northern NJ. I immediately scoped the attendees for trophy wives and saw none or at least I saw none that could hold a candle to yours truly...so on the first day-I win! And yep, that's all I was concerned about. Checked that block. Day two, the husband and I attended a memorial service. Thank God for protestants, it was only about 20 minutes. Next we blew off all regularly scheduled activities to view the outdoor sculptures at the Storm King Art Center and to visit a microbrewery that the husband said was a must see. Disclaimer:  this wasn't my idea it was the husband's, I was just being supportive.

Next we headed back to West Point to attend a dinner at the Thayer Hotel hosted by one of the Husband's company mates for about 13 of us. Very Nice.

Next day there was a parade, an ungodly meal in the cadet mess, and four hours of my life that needs to be returned to me after I attended the USMA/Northwestern game. God help them, they actually won for once.

Afterwards we got driven to another unsanctioned event in his classmate's Maserati-I knew it was a nice car....Ate some barbecue, drank some beer, had some whiskey and tried to intervene as the husband tried to shop our daughters out to the W.P.hostess in order to find them lovely cadet husbands. Next day we eschewed the organized brunch in order to save our stomachs and headed back north to NH.

How to Get Rid of Your Children Without Even Trying...

One mother working late from 1 to 8:30 plus one father going directly from the train station after work to the gym results in notes like the above specimen from daughter #2.

Goodbye # 4...

Binx needs packing

We gotta situation...

Goodbye...

Well daughter #4 is on her way out the door tomorrow. Yep she is off to college. She has had many in depth discussions with friends and assorted sisters about how much of her wardrobe she should bring to school. It is somewhere between "all of it!"(daughter #2) and just bring the basics and seasonal (daughter #3). And I know daughter #1 is thinking, "What?!! She's old enough for college?" Meanwhile she has bought out the surrounding stores in expectation of severe shopping deprivation. She has bought the perfect jacket for her "walking through college streets with her latte" ensemble. (I'm not kidding-that's how she described it...) Acquired rain boots, wheat thins, razor blades, water bottle, individual coffee thingamabobbies, moccasins, flashlight, shinguards-I could go on, but I'm sounding like those Target back to school commercials. What I'm saying is that she is ready. Go get 'em # 4!

Catching up...I Think.

Well I apologize, the summer has been busy. Lots of work, lots of art, not so much gardening. I can't keep up. I am hoping after getting daughters 3 and 4 off to college, things will settle down and I'll have time to do a mass cleaning of the house, garden, and blog. Need to fix the intro. Only have 3 cats now, no rabbit, no koi, and the beta had a burial at sea this past week. Not to mention, Walter the neighbor cat, who passed  away near the house and spent the night in the garage while I located his owner. I 'm thinking we've been having bad pet luck lately. Animals steer clear! So here are the last few things I worked on for the online class. I've been looking at some digital art classes lately. Who knows? Maybe I'll play around with that for a while.