Let the gardening begin!

 There is this moment in our garden when things look really good.  It is the moment when we are ahead of the weeds, the plants look healthy, the temperatures are not yet blazing hot, and all seems right with the world.

This weekend was that gardening moment.

We actually had the chance to put some plants in the ground and to do some weeding.  I also got to set out the plant markers I made this winter.

Inspired by a blog post by Pam on Simple Details, I thought I would try to make these plant markers.  We have a ton of bricks - literally a ton - left from replacing the sidewalk at a rental property.  We dug them all out of the old sidewalk, stacked them, loaded them, moved them to our house, unloaded them and stacked them again.  During the whole process, I kept wondering what to do with all of those bricks.

 I still have two that I would like to make - rosemary and parsley.  And, maybe I should make a few sets to give away.  We would still have just shy of a ton of bricks left.

 We also planted our tomatoes and peppers.  See?  Doesn't everything look right in the gardening world.  Now, give it three weeks and we will have all sorts of weed pulling to do.

And, these little beauties are the volunteer violas that pop up around our grill each spring.  My husband moved them to a planter to protect them from the first lawn mowing of the season.  He's a good guy to humor his plant geek.

The Ferry Building

 The Ferry Building is one of my favorite places in San Francisco.  I was so excited to be able to show my husband this really cool building full of great restaurants and shops, mostly centered around food. It truly is a foodie's dream!

On our first night in San Francisco, we made our way along the Bay to the Ferry Building with the hopes of finding dinner and buying a few supplies for the week.

A few years ago, I stayed across the street from the Ferry Building while attending a conference.  When we had a break, I would run over and enjoy all of shops, including the farmer's market that sets up outside of the building on certain days of the week.

I was really happy to be back and it was mostly because of the Cowgirl Creamery.  This cheese shop was featured years ago in a magazine and I had saved the article just in case I ever made it to San Francisco.  When I did, I looked it up and was not disappointed. We love cheese and I was sure that my husband would love seeing so many different varieties.

 We had a great time sampling several kinds of cheeses and hearing the staff member make recommendations.  We settled on three different types of cheese - all delicious.  We also picked up a loaf of fresh bread from the Acme Bread Company and a bottle of wine at the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant.

 Our dinner that night was at Mijita.  The tacos included freshly made tortillas and great fillings.  I fell in love with the light fixtures.

We returned to the Ferry Building for lunch on Tuesday before we left for Napa.  We had the best hamburgers from Prather Ranch.  This lunch counter is right next to the butcher shop and everything is fresh and sustainably raised. We had the best black cherry cola made with cane sugar.  I was in heaven since I have given up regular soda.  It was such a treat!

I also want a "Praise the Lard" t-shirt.

San Francisco adventures

 Our spring break vacation began in San Francisco.  Actually, it began kind of early on a Monday morning with a drive to the airport in Kansas City.

I never have trouble getting through airport security, but this time my bag got selected for additional screening.  No big deal - until the security officer said he needed to take items out of my bag and screen them separately because my bag was disorganized and crowded.  My husband got a big kick out of this and I got really irritated.

We always joke that our main goal when traveling is to avoid getting a permanent place on the "no fly list" by losing our cool with the general frustrations of travel.  As I stood at the x-ray machine watching my organized bag get disassembled, my husband stood five yards away mouthing the words, "no fly list."  (We have a good time, even when we are tired and annoyed.  Remember this...it was tested for our trip home.)

Regardless of how it started, we made it to San Francisco and navigated our rental car reservation disaster.  We opted for the $98 rental instead of the $498 rental.  This decision involved using an off-site rental car agency which was a train ride and shuttle bus ride away from the airport.  We finally made it and they were overbooked with a whole lobby full of angry people.  Luckily, we made it out with a car, but only after waiting in line for nearly two hours.

 The long wait meant that we missed the night tour of Alcatraz.  Even though we missed our Plan A - to land, get the rental car, check into the hotel and catch the last boat to Alcatraz - we still were fine.  Our Plan B was to walk around Fisherman's Warf and then to make the four mile round trip walking tour from our hotel to the Ferry Building.  More about the Ferry Building in a future post.

I think the photo above is the last boat of the night returning from Alcatraz.  Maybe next time.

 The next day was full of walking and wonderful sightseeing in San Francisco.  We rode a trolley from the beginning to the end of one of the lines and then hopped off to walk around. We had breakfast in a diner and then headed to Chinatown.

In Chinatown, we enjoyed some window shopping and taking in the history described in our guidebook.  Our guidebook told us about the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie factory.  It was described as being in an alley between two streets.  We found the two streets and we walked around the block at least two times.  It looked like there was a line for people seeking food assistance and a few other back entrances to restaurants and stores - not a public place. When I shared this story with a friend, he remarked that typically tourists are not advised to go down alleys.  He is right - this didn't seem right.  

My husband said that we should just walk down the alley and see.  We get halfway down the alley and a man steps out of a doorway and says, "Fortune cookie?"

We found it!  We stepped inside and watched two women making fortune cookies at this machine.  The workers would take a hot, freshly baked cookie that was still pliable, add a fortune, bend it just right, and drop it into a bin.  This went on and on and on.  I think the man leading the "tour" said that they make 1,000 in an hour.  We decided to buy some fortune cookies to take with us.  I grabbed a small bag and our tour guide suggested I buy the larger bag.  I agreed.  How could I not?  Our tour guide was the cutest little man.  My husband whispers, "You just got up sold!"

 We continued our walk and saw some amazing things - beautiful bay views from different high points in the city, lovely flowers, and so many beautiful homes and gardens...

 Gorgeous buildings with amazing architecture.

 The hills in San Francisco are amazing (and tough on tourists' legs).  Lombard Street is reportedly the windiest road in the United States.  Wow, right?

 

 Primroses were in so many flower beds and boxes.  I really enjoyed seeing the vibrant colors and it made me long to begin planting our own flowers for the spring.

 

And, the Golden Gate Bridge!  We made the goal to drive across the bridge and we did on our last full day.  On our drive back from Sonoma, we took a different route just to catch the bridge.  We learned later that we were some of the last people to pay our toll ($6) to a human toll collector, as electronic toll collection was implemented a few days after we left.

A beautiful Saturday

 Today was a beautiful day!  My mom and I started the morning by participating in a 5K race.  It was chilly, but lovely.  Everyone was really friendly and the race with my mom was a great way to not only start the day, but also her birthday weekend.

After finishing our run, I drove home to finish chores and get ready for a workshop in Manhattan.  Mom was kind enough to ride along for the day and we enjoyed some lunch before I met up with my group.

After the workshop, we took our cameras around campus to capture some of the spring foliage.

Then, we took off for Wamego to take in the Tulip Festival, an annual spring celebration with an arts and crafts fair, food vendors, music and more.

 One of the surest signs of spring is the forsythia in bloom.  I actually am able to see these blooms from my office window.

There are few tulips blooming, except for these white tulips near my parking lot at work.  It is always a little disappointing when the tulips are not in bloom for the Tulip Festival because they are pushed along too early or too late because of the weather.  These white blooms made it right on time and we hope the purples and reds follow soon.

A sure cure for spring fever

 This winter has been lingering on and on and on.  We got a bit of a reprieve from the cold and gloomy weather over spring break.  My husband decided that we needed a vacation and some time in San Fransisco and Napa would be a good adventure for us.

We really had a quick trip in mind - five days with two of them for travel. This was no problem for us because we usually jam as many activities into our vacations as possible.  We are incurable achievers - a to-do list even on vacation.

We had multiple travel adventures and even with all of the frustration and missteps, we kept our good humor and made good memories.

There were so many highlights - good food and wine, beautiful country and just time together.  One of my favorite aspects of the whole trip was getting an early view of signs of spring - spring flowers, trees in full bloom, and green plants!  We also got a little snowfall back in Kansas while we were away. We felt really fortunate to have warmer temperatures.

No matter where we went, there was something beautiful in our view.  This tree was one of many in downtown Napa.

These beauties were in the garden area near Chef Michael Chiarello's restaurant and store in Yountville.

I loved this drapey, romantic pergola - what a statement for an entrance.  This entryway was just off the main street in Yountville. 

My husband and I learned that our incurable achiever characteristics in combination with the time difference meant that we were awake and out and about early.  We were in Yountville before most things were open.  Ok, we were there before everything except the French bakery and a coffee caboose were open.  We even walked into a staff meeting in this cute antique store, mistaking the unlocked door and the light on for being open.  We apologized like fools and backed out of the shop.

More vacation adventures coming soon!

Spring inspired gift

A colleague and friend sent me a beautiful thank you gift a couple of weeks ago.  It was a lovely surprise and really unique.

I have blogged before about my love of spring flowers.  Tulips are that classic spring flower that always give me a lot of joy.  And since we are still a few weeks away from having spring flowers in the yard, and since we are still in winter with some cold temperatures, having a little spring on my desk helped brighten my mood.

Plus, you have to love the purple!

So, check out this great gift.  I love it because it was like a little science experiment on my desk, though I knew the outcome - the flowers would bloom if I kept a little water in the vase.

The flowers arrived in this vase with a little water in the bottom, the bulbs held above the water by a plastic frog, and the buds ready to bloom.  In just a day or so, the flowers blossomed and they showed off some flashy blooms.

 The tulips lasted a long time and were really fun to watch bloom. I am so thankful for the beautiful gift.

Happy Mother's Day!

A couple of years ago, poet Billy Collins who was the Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001-2003, visited our campus.  I remembered a poem he read about mothers and thought it was made a fitting post for Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day to my mom!  I will never be able to repay you for all you have done for me.

The Lanyard by Billy Collins

The other day as I was ricocheting slowly
off the pale blue walls of this room,
bouncing from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one more suddenly into the past–
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breast,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sickroom,
lifted teaspoons of medicine to my lips,
set cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light
and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift–not the archaic truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
that two-tone lanyard from my hands,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

What's blooming - columbine

 Earlier this spring, I posted about several plants blooming in the yard and highlighted some of the first blooms on the columbine plant on the east side of the house.

While we were getting ready to load alpacas I had a "whoa" moment when I saw the oodles of blooms on the columbine now.

Just for fun, look at the earlier post and then check out this beauty.  It is a showstopper this year!

What's blooming - spring flower overload

 One of my most recent photography practice sessions yielded more images of spring flowers.  What else, but more spring blooms!

I especially loved the look of these blooms as they are starting to open.  The contrast between the buds, partially open blooms and then the fully opened blooms is so very striking.

We are also a big fan of the purple clementis.  The pink version by our garden gets all of the attention in early spring, but the purple clementis plants near the front of the house have more longevity with blooms at different points in the growing season.  They also put on a really good show.

And, purple is my favorite color.

This particular plant provides a screen for our garbage cans.  I am so thankful for a pretty and practical solution for the necessary, but not attractive part of the yard.

Loads and loads of blooms

 We have been watching the progression of spring blooms in the yard.  The clementis started to bloom last week and today it was in rare form.

Get a load of all of those blooms!

You might remember that I posted about the first blooms on this point of pride in the yard.  We had an idea for a showy climbing vine on the post that holds the school bell.  The bell, a gift from my in-laws, is really special to us and has a featured place at the garden entrance.

Before we left for Topeka yesterday, I ran outside with my camera for a little photography practice and the chance to just enjoy some of the new blooms.

Love these blooms!

The impression of this gorgeous plant is the exclamation point on the garden this time of year.

Just can't get enough!

A bee was also enjoying the blooms this morning.  She put on quite a show while I was snapping photos.

Plant geek: what's blooming

 We enjoyed another great weekend in the yard and garden!  I took advantage of the time outside to take note of what was blooming.

I am trying to be more mindful of the "seasons" in the garden and yard.  Too often, I rush through the days and time outside is about checking things off a list instead of really enjoying the results of our hard work.

Long ago I read about a woman who would take a glass of wine outside and conduct a nightly garden walk to take note of the beauty and to also make plans for future work.  It all seemed so much more relaxed and enjoyable than my running around!

So, this weekend, the beautiful light pink tulips bloomed.  These are near the front of the house and right in front of the clementis that grows on an old gate.

It's no secret that the lilacs are in full bloom in Kansas!  The old-fashioned variety we have on the east side of the house is slowly coming to life.  I love the blossoms - a few fully open and others on their way.

This is my surprise for the spring!  On Saturday, we took off for a quick errand and I looked right out of our driveway and was so excited to see the lilac in the front of the house near the road was actually blooming.

We bought this plant as a stick from a mail order catalog.  We have babied it along for years and around two years ago, we started the serious debate of whether we should leave it alone or dig it up.  It had stalled out - little growth and never any blooms.  We decided to leave it alone and see what happens.

This year, it won us over with these sweet smelling and lovely pure white blooms.  Love it!

Plant geek: surprise violas

 The weather in Kansas as been superb!  If we were to order spring days, we might just ask for the temperatures and sunshine we are experiencing now.

On Tuesday, I made it home from work with plenty of daylight left.  (Thank you, time change!)  My husband was already hard at work on yard clean up and farm chores.  We jumped in together on the list we had made over the weekend and began to clean up flowerbeds and the few small downed limbs in the yard.

When I came around the corner from the garage, next to our grill was a few clusters of violas that sprung up from seed.  We tend to get these little miniature surprise plants each year, but this year, they are earlier than usual and super vibrant colors.  They are volunteer and I never know where they will creep up, though they are usually on the southeast side of the house next to our large old fashioned lilac

Thought you would enjoy seeing the violas that add such pretty color and a nice surprise for spring.

Spring is springing

Spring is springing all around. These little beauties have been popping up around the campus and it is such a welcomed site.  It seems like there are more spring flowers on campus than ever before and I discovered last night that we had a good showing of crocuses on the north side of our house, too.

Crocuses and spring flowers in general are some of my favorites!  When these emerge, you know that spring has finally arrived.  The 80 degree temperatures in the forecast for this week make me think that spring is going a little too quickly, but no one is complaining!

Looking forward to tulips and irises to soon follow!

Farm visit

We love to have people visit us - especially kiddo's. Our niece was here with Jeremy's family a couple of weekends ago for family pictures and to celebrate his parent's wedding anniversary. We always include time with the animals for the niece.

Even when it is cold, she bundles up to help with chores. Even when it is early and everyone needs to get on the road, she bundles up and rolls out of bed early to help with chores. We need her around more often.

She got to feed the chickens and gather eggs.

She fed and walked Blue - our ambassador alpaca. He is so calm and very happy for a chance to roam around the yard.

Then, chore time shifted to games in the yard. A serious game of modified tennis took up most of the evening. (If I haven't told you before, I love that hill behind our house. This picture is an example of our beautiful and serene our backyard view.)

And, the keep-away game with the cowboy hat rounded out the games. I think my husband thought it matched his shorts - and the silver, sparkle fringe was pretty cool.