daily yarns 'n more

oh yum! blackberries

Finally, we are getting blackberries.  There won't be enough to make anything with them as we only have 2 plants.  But, picking them to eat will be pure pleasure.

the garden is coming along nicely

I can't wait until I can do some canning.  I hope to get enough tomatoes to not only make tomato sauce but salsa also.

The peppers are getting nice and big.  Not only that, these ones are pretty HOT too.  The perfect kind to add to the tomatoes to make salsa.  Yum!!!!

We had a fierce wind the other night and I found these babies on the ground.  I thought the house was going to blow over.  I think I was up most of the time listening to it blow and I finally fell asleep when the wind died down.

We started our garden later then most around here and had a dilly of a time with our cukes.  The new plants pushing through the ground were dinner for someone faster than they could pop up.  At first we thought that the birds were that someone...not so.  The someone was a chipmunk.  The chippy unfortunately sadly perished in the windstorm.  I can't say that I'm too sad about that, and I know another one will probably take it's place.

but...no more

The before pictures of the beautiful golf course that we live by.  It's always been very peaceful to have a golf course close by...especially an 18 hole course.

I remember when the kids were small they used to go looking for golf balls.  They would come home and clean them up.  Later, they would go and set up at the edge of the golf course and sell the balls to the golfers.  It was a nice way for them to earn some money so that they could go to the candy store.  They didn't earn much but enough to satisfy their "sweet" tooth.

I'm still finding golf balls from time to time around this house and each time I think of the kids going to find them and the little business that they had.

But, no more.

Now, the after pictures of our beautiful golf course that is now being made into soccer fields and ball fields.

I don't think the park district people who are making this are very friendly.  Do you?

The wonderful tractors that we get to hear from just about sunup to sundown.

Now, normally I don't mind progress of any kind.  But, when there is no consideration for the people who are going to have to live next to this, that's when I start to have a problem.  Trees are being taken down for no apparent reason along the property lines.  Some people are going to have a clear view of this sports field who's property buts up right to it. 

We are lucky, we are 5 acres away from it.  And, the trees that are blocking the view for the 5 acres are on Farmer John's property, so they can't be touched.  We also have trees along the road which block the other 5 acres of land.  So in a lot of ways we are pretty lucky.

But, we are used to having no street lights in our neighborhood and at one time we had gravel roads.  Now we'll be having lights shining during baseball season as there will be 4 ball diamonds that will be hosting night games.  That's nothing though compared to what the traffic is going to be like.  Once word gets out that they can sneak through our neighborhood as a short cut.  They'll be coming past our house in droves to the 17+ soccer fields.

I guess I kind of thought that it would always be quiet and peaceful in our neighborhood.  We are tucked back in here and most people had no clue there were houses back here.  Whenever we had a delivery of some kind we had to draw a map for the delivery guy to find us and the delivery guy would always say "I never knew there were houses back here", when he got out of the truck.  It never failed, and I would think in my head that I would like to keep it that way. 

But, no more.

here chick chick

Our neighbor "Farmer John" told us to come over and see the chickens.  I think he said these are Brahmas and are supposed to get about as big as his ducks.  There are 16 of these babies.

Aren't they so cute.  I can't wait until we get ours.

My guess is you are going to be seeing some chicken pictures around here now.

quilt gardens tour in amish country

Warning Photo Overload!!!!

My DIL asked about my photo on the top of my left hand side bar.  That was taken on an outing we went on last weekend. 

Sunday we went to Chicago and Saturday we went to...

To go on the Quilt Gardens Tour.  So off we went through Chicago and onto Indiana where the Quilt Gardens Tour is.  It was such a beautiful day and the Chicago skyline was so pretty.

After getting on the Chicago Skyway.

And driving through Indiana our fist stop was the...

Flower Basket Garden.

A.C.E Garden

Breezy Days Garden.

Step of Faith Garden.

Maple Leaf Garden.

Shoofly Quilt Garden.

We didn't end up doing the whole tour but ended up in Shipshewana.  We just didn't have enough time as we wanted to stop and shop in Shipshewana.

 

Do you ever wonder what they do with all the horse droppings that are all over the place?

 

Well wonder no more.

Heading home we decided to take some back roads before getting on the expressway.  So at the fork in the road we took a left.

And ended up down this road.

So much to see when you take back roads.

This is the last of our outing from last weekend.  I hope you enjoyed it.

some chit~chat

I want to share with you a wonderful food blog called Full Bellies, Happy Kids.  Sandra has some wonderful recipes, head on over and check it out.

My friend Kar gave me an award oh so long ago, and awful me totally forgot about it.  I have to post about 7 things that I love.  I'm going to post the first things that come to my mind, because I love a lot of things.

7 Things I love

1. Hubby and that includes all my family.
2. The smell of a baby.
3. Yarn & Fabric
4. Aprons
5.Coneflowers
6. Life
7. Tennessee

I bet you never would have guessed my answers.

The rules to this meme award are.
1. List 7 things I love.
2. Link back to the person who gave the award to you.
3. Pass it on to 7 other bloggers.

I can't decide who to pass this on to.  I love too many blogs, so if you read my blog and have a blog I pass this award on to you.

And speaking of fabric that I love so much.  Here is some I bought last weekend for a table runner that I want to make.  Now to find the time to make it.

Have an awesome weekend!

it's a vist to millennium park today

First stop is Buckingham Fountain.

 

After seeing Buckingham Fountain we walked through a beautiful garden.

 

The entrance to Millennium Park had more flower gardens.

 

And, we had to see The Bean...also known as the Cloud Gate

Leaving the park and heading back to the train station, we decided to grab some dinner at a cute outside restaurant.

 

 

Our trip to Chicago comes to an end.  But, I have more to share about the other outing we took last weekend.

finished projects

I have been doing some knitting and crocheting.  There are so many patterns that I want to make.
I found this cute little knitted cupcake purse pattern on Etsy in this shop.

I made a couple of neck scarves for the winter.  For my ASG group the August challenge is scarves.  We are to make a scarf of any kind.  It doesn't have to be sewn, so I made two, one knitted and one crocheted.

I like how these smaller scarves fit under your coat.   They're not too bulky and they keep me much warmer when my neck is covered.

I'll be back later with some more photos from our outing last weekend, so much more to show you.

ETA:  Anyone with TypePad, do you like the "new" TypePad version or the old?

our walk through chicago

No, these are not mine or Jim's feet. 

Standing in line waiting to go to the Skydeck, I spied this guys feet.  I was nice and asked if I could take a picture.  He did tell me tho that everyone is wearing them.  Jim told him "Not the crowd she hangs with".

Walking along we thought that there were two guys scaling down the wall.  My heart skipped a beat thinking what are we walking into.

But, it was only just an advertisement for something over at The Field Museum.

I remember in High School having to go on a field trip to The Art Institute of Chicago with one of my Art classes.

This building was pretty neat.  The home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  On the front of the building, if you enlarge the photo you will see the names of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Wagner.  It gave me goosebumps just reading their names.

On our way to Millennium Park.

 

 

There is so much to see in Chicago and I really didn't take that may pictures.  But, there's still more to come.

great hall at union station

For a very long time now I have wanted to go and see the Union Station in Chicago.

This is called the Great Hall and it is very GRAND indeed.

I have heard about the benches that are in the Union Station and have wanted to go see them as well.  Jim remembers there being more benches. 

Can't you just imagine what this old train station must have been like in it's heyday?  I can picture people of all nationalities coming and going.  Families sitting around with their luggage waiting for their train to come and take them to a new life somewhere across our great nation.

If only walls could talk.