Mom’s flowers

I stopped at my mom’s house a few weeks ago to see what she had blooming.

Johnny Jump-ups.   These cuties are all over in her garden.   I love their little faces. 

 

I think these yellow Lady Slippers were dug up by my brother when he was clearing land to build his house, they were relocated to my mom’s  garden in the woods.

 

This Fern Leaf Peony plants had lots of blooms.  The color of the blooms and texture of the leaves reminds me of Christmas.

Chives have a pretty light purple flower.

  

When I was growing up,  we had a huge chive plant under the water faucet on the outside of our house.   I was sent outside many times to pick chives for my mom when she was making dinner.  They were often added to potatoes.      I have my own plants now and use them in my dinners too.

Evening Clouds

After work tonight, Jay and I sat on the deck for conversation and drinks. It was sunny and calm.

Very shortly, the weather changed. Dark clouds came from the west. The wind started blowing. Hard.

As the dark clouds passed over to the east, fluffy white clouds and sunshine were waiting in the west.

In a few minutes they were in the east and the world was calm and sunny again.

I love weather. Except for snow, and cold, and ice.

I love summer weather. It's restless, like me.

Poison Ivy

I’m blaming this little creature for my poison ivy.

When we were camping, PD, knocked over his food.   This little critter came out of the woods to pick up the pieces.

PD was not pleased.

 

He looked all over for the scavenger.

 

He ran through the woods, until his tie-out wouldn’t reach any further.   He ran right through the poison ivy after the little squirrel.

I’m susceptible to poison ivy and I know what it looks like so I stayed away from it.   I didn’t go untangle PD’s tie-out from the brush after he chased he squirrel.   I made Jay do that.   He doesn’t get poison ivy.

All weekend though, PD spent time on my lap.   We cuddled.   He likes to snuggle up to me and I like it too.

I was trying to get some sun so my tops were low cut and short sleeved.  This  likely explains the poison ivy on my arms and chest.

I think that when PD ran through the woods, he got the poison ivy oils on his fur and then gave it to me.      But I love my PD too much to blame him for my itchy misery.

So I’m blaming this guy.

Camping

Last weekend, Jay and I took our first camping trip of the season. We stayed at a MN State Forest Campground.

We took our kayaks out on the lake.

I ate roasted marshmallows. Just two. The others caught on fire and then fell into the fire as I was trying to hold the marshmallow stick and the camera at the same time.

I listened to the loons. When you are in a kayak, the loons sometimes get fairly close. They pop up from under the water and surprise you.

I like this picture. It says Minnesota to me. Fishermen in the background, trees, water, and loons

One of the best things about this camping trip is that the campsite we stayed at was pretty close to my mom’s house, within ten miles. So I called her up and said, ‘Hey mom, we’re camping this weekend, do you want to come out for coffee in the morning?” She said, “Oh, that sounds nice.” “Great,” I said, “bring the coffee” And she did. Two thermoses appeared each morning. I guess she’s heard what I’m like if I don’t get coffee in the morning.

It was a perfect weekend for camping. Minnesota summers are the best.