Love, Laughter, and Life

Adventures With a Book Lover

Sunday Thoughts

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History of the Garden Arbor

It’s fun to go back and look at pictures to see how things have changed over time. Our garden area is constantly changing.

The garden started with three simple garden beds placed in the pasture, which used to be mostly dirt and weeds. As you can see, it was already looking good with “greens” growing.

Frequent feathered guests foraged in the pasture and wide-open garden beds. Which transitioned into even more visitors, of the furry and voracious garden eating variety. The chickens were fine with me, but when bunnies ate down all of my plants, something had to be done.

My honey put a low fence around the whole lot. The main purpose was to keep the bunnies out. It worked great! Actually, the fence is so short, most of us can easily step over it. But the bunnies were befuddled and my plants could grow free.

And then. I found one of those old metal chain-link fence gates while visiting my buddy in Seattle. One of those “free yard sale” treasures! Guaranteed to make my honey whisk his eyebrows up when I drove into the yard with my little Mazda packed to the gills. Gate included. So, we added an easy access gate. By we, I mean him. 😉

And then. I really wanted an arbor. Over that awesome gate. We had this other piece of metal junk hanging in our shaded car park area. Just an old rusted metal grate of some sort. I think it was left on the property from the previous owner. And ta-dah! Instant unique arbor! Instant for me. A bit of hard work for my honey and Taylor.

I might add how HEAVY that thing is! And I am blessed to have 2 strong guys to let me come up these wild ideas and they make it happen. Oh, and it’s rusty. One of my favorite garden colors and textures.

My honey bought me a honeysuckle plant for Mother’s Day. You can see it above just starting out. Below, you can see I’ve been working on training it up. It’s nearly reached the top!

And here we are today. I just took this picture. It smells so good! Last week I stood and watched a hummingbird feast on the fragrant blooms, for so long that I wandered off before it did. That is my kind of garden.

Ahhhh. The garden continues to grow and change.

What about you? Any big changes in your garden or yard over the years? Any cool rusty items??


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Haiku Moment: autumn sun

orange beckons me

summer patience rewarded

autumn sun peeking

autumn sun by Angie Quantrell

Yakima Valley

Sunday Thoughts

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Haiku Moment: autumn tree

hide and seek pumpkin

twisting, vining, reaching out

autumn tree decor

autumn tree by Angie Quantrell

Sunday Thoughts

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Free Yard Sales, Wood Scraps, and Homemade Table (Kevin’s Woodshop)

Welcome to another issue of Kevin’s Woodshop. In today’s story, we will hear how free yard sales, repurposed wood, and a little elbow grease contributed to this lovely weathered outdoor dining area.

FREE YARD SALES

Recently I visited “free yard sales” with my friend and fellow thrifter, Alyson. We love the thrill of the hunt. Free is an awesome word! My prize for the day is pictured above. Four solid metal framed wood outdoor chairs. Friends, that is what we call a SCORE. At this point in the “free yard saling,” I was cut off. No more stuff. Well. We only had her small car. Tetris in the car is the name of the game. And the limit to the thrifting.

I was so excited to haul these babies home. One of my favorite sights when I pull in the driveway after being away is to watch my honey’s face. My car is small, a Mazda four-door. BUT it works big! Like a truck. I call it my truck. I can get huge items in my little white truck. But not a gun safe. That is a hard limit. That’s a different story, but we did try.

I follow my husband’s eyes as I back around so we can unload my haul. Heh-heh. It’s almost more fun than scoring the “treasure” from yard sales or thrift shops.

He shakes his head. In wonder, I’m sure, amazed at how thrifty I am.

And proceeds to help me figure out how to reverse the process of filling my little “truck” with stuff. What. A. Guy.

REPURPOSED WOOD

We’ve been weathering our deck wood for a few years, always considering when it would be done to our satisfaction and what project required the updating of the deck so we could use the old wood.

Ta-dah! A taller patio table was needed to match the lovely free yard sale chairs. Time to rip off the deck wood.

Perfectly aged to that gray beachy tone. Some people work in clay, watercolor, textiles. My honey works in wood scraps. The older the better. The wood imperfections create challenges, sure, but the results are unique and wonderful.

HOMEMADE TABLE

Woodworker Kev got right to it. As I mentioned, aged wood often requires ingenuity and rethinking. That was certainly true with this table project. Some pieces were warped, so the framing had to be redone. He is so good though. Just look at that beautiful table! My style for sure.

Now we can dine al fresco (as long as the weather holds). Though we have to first wipe off the sunflower shells and debris from our guest goldfinches, sparrows, and red-winged blackbirds. After that, it’s sit and chill time. Ahhhh.

And so concludes another issue of Kevin’s Woodshop. Readers, do you enjoy old wood? Free yard sales? Thrifting? Dining al fresco?

Do tell.


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OH, THE THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH HAIKU! (+ WHO WON THE GIVEAWAY?)

Thank you, Danna Smith, for sharing all about haiku last week in a very special blog post. You can read it here. Danna has offered a giveaway of 2 (TWO!) of her Poetry Pop Journals! Wow!

But first. I had to play. I used the template Danna shared and penned a haiku comic. Sadly, you have to use your imagination to understand the drawings, and it was much harder to print small words than it looks! This is Monet, our cat. She loves the garden and watching moving things. I assure you, she is much prettier in real life.

In case you can’t read the print, here is my haiku comic:

Monet writes a haiku.

hot summer bees buzz

zig-zag garden rocket ships

orbiting flowers

Now that was fun! We would LOVE to read your haiku! Post one in the comments or tag us with #haikumoment so we can find you!

Drum roll, please.

The winner (with assistant Monet) of the Poetry Pop journals is:

It got a little dicey after this, because then Monet wanted to play a paper game.

Alyson, come on down! You are the winner of 2 Poetry Pop journals!

Thanks, everyone, for reading and participating in the fun. And thank you, Danna, for the word play fun and inspiration!

Now, let’s all go HAIKU!


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Sunday Thoughts

Photo by Angie Quantrell


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Haiku Moment: heart of sunflower

heart of sunflower

beams joy to avian friends,

buzzes, and humans

heart of sunflower by Angie Quantrell

Yakima Valley