I finally found something I like for a fresh look for the blog. Simple and clean, yet very pretty, in my opinion. Many thanks to CutestBlogontheBlock!
Quite a day
Papa and Mama Byrd are staying at the lovely Traxler “Bed and Breakfast” this week while they visit. It’s a nice way for them to visit us and some dear friends at the same time. Yesterday when they were getting close to our place, their Suburban started overheating. Not a good sign! They nursed it along and got it here, then Papa and Jonathan tried a bunch of stuff to get it to stay cool. Unfortunately, it kept overheating. They wound up spending the night here last night – yay for late night games! – and having it towed in today.
Once they left with the tow truck this morning, it was time to get busy in the garden! It’s been too wet to finish my planting, but it’s been a terrific time for the weeds to grow. Ugh. So today I had lots of weeding and planting to do. I also finally got the various areas staked and “fenced off” with string. Next year, this will be the first thing I do after tilling!
I got all of the seeds planted except the winter squash. We’ll have pie pumpkins, mini pumpkins, and butternut squash (drool…), but I wasn’t sure how big of a “hill” they needed, so today I just marked where the hills will be.
After the seeds are all in, the next thing to plant will be tomatoes and peppers. We also have some rhubarb and asparagus to plant, but since those are perennials, I’m not sure where I’ll put them.
Anyway, several hours and lots of dirt and sunshine later, I was glad to take a shower and relax a bit! Here is the evidence of my day’s labor (I didn’t take any pictures of all the dirt and sun that got on me!):
Yay for company!
My wonderful parents arrived yesterday, and it is just fabulous to have them here for a visit. I’ve been missing them something fierce.
And now, it’s off for a walk/run before the day gets any later. I just had to share my excitement over Papa and Mama’s arrival.
Identification project
A couple weeks ago, I posted a slideshow of digital “specimens” from our afternoon at Shaw Nature Reserve. Today, the older children and I spent quite a while going through and identifying those specimens. We used books and the internet, and got almost everything identified. I was surprised at how much fun it was, and I think the kids enjoyed it as well. Some of our findings were quite surprising… learning about the Kentucky Coffee tree, for one!
Here’s the slideshow again, with updated captions:
Missouri Botanical Gardens Trip
On Wednesday, we went to the Botanical Gardens with Dad and Mom Smith. It was our first visit, and we were very impressed.
A few highlight pictures:
The Blessings –
J&L – 
Dad and Mom Smith – 
I uploaded a larger number of “highlights” to an album – in my opinion, it would be worthwhile to click on the slideshow below so that you can see them up close!