Finally .... SNOW!

Last night about 5:30 p.m. ... a little dark but you get the idea!

Not alot of snow, but enough to keep dh home today ... to get the kids done with their work early so they can go out and play in it ... and enough for me to think about sittin' and knittin' all afternoon with a cuppa and a movie on the screen .... oh and the mandatory "snow baking" (olive oil chocolate chip cookies and fresh white sandwich bread) to ensure that the house is warm and tummies are full! 

A perfect day at the Lake!  Hope wherever you are, you're staying warm and cozy with loved ones around!

You can see how much snow by the "icing" on the bird bath



Max ... not sure if he likes this stuff!



Snow baking -- to keep the house warm (and tummies full)

 

Question for the crowd ...

Remembering that the only stupid question is the one left unasked ....

 Does anyone know what this flowering plant is called?  We only have this one plant in our front garden ... and it is doing beautifully in this heat!  It is tall ... maybe 24" tall ... with long, pointy leaves ... lots of fragrant pink blossoms on each stem top ... and is just a beaut!

Any one know?  I want to get some more, but don't know what it's called.

ETA:  thanks to some very kind readers ... it is Phlox!  I only knew of phlox as the kind that grows close to the ground, cascading over walls and flowers in culverts, etc.  Who knew that Phlox paniculata, known commonly as Summer Phlox ... or ... Garden Phlox ... or ... Perennial Phlox ... or ... Tall Phlox comes in gorgeous colors and blooms all summer -- just try a google image search and see all the gorgeous colors. [The culvert ground cover seems to flower in the spring and then loose its blooms and just is a green ground cover.]

The ironic thing?  A friend gave us "Tall Phlox" (supposed to be white) to transplant but ours hasn't bloomed yet.  But, boy that pink variety is having a "field day"!

Where should we go today?

Christopher Columbus discovers the New World!

Dh was off ... so we were too!  What to do on a cloudy, cold (never getting much above 50 today) kind of day?

How's about a hayride and pumpkin hunting with a bunch of homeschoolers at a fellow homeschooler's family farm?  Sounds good to us ...

And, before (starting around 7:00 a.m.) and during (on the ride to and from, really helps to have dh home!) and after, I worked on my talk for 7th graders tomorrow on my fave topic: knitting.  Here's the project I made for them to try:

Easy Knitted Backpack

(shown in Knit Picks' Wool of the Andes Bulky --

I still want to felt it and then post the pattern here, but I won't have time before the class tomorrow.)

How was YOUR Columbus Day?

The Farm: Mad dogs, Englishmen and my dh

We've been living here at Hilltop Farm now for six weeks and the theme for the last week or so has been ....

At twelve noon the natives swoon, and no further work is done -
But Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.

(song by Noel Coward, 1932)

But, Mr. Coward forgot my dh in that description.

You see, my dh is a school teacher and August is rapidly coming to a close and so, even though "it's one of those rules that the biggest fools obey, because the sun is much too sultry and one must avoid its ultry-violet ray" there is my dh in the front yard fighting the battle between the vinca and the liriope ... taming the much overgrown azaleas ... mulching the magnolia ... separating the pebbles from the topsoil so we can minimize the pebble areas and reap the harvest of the now-aerated dirt ... puttering in and amidst the natural beauty of this place.

Yes, dh is out in the 90+ (with humidity, more like 100) degree weather fixing the "farm" so that he can finish before the school year starts (or at least be at a reasonable stopping point).

Well, dh may be like the Englishmen and the mad dogs, but what am I?

I am out there too ... screeing gravel, spreading mulch, planning the garden produce and (most importantly) thoroughly enjoying the time with dh while the kiddoes are in the a/c playing! Only String Bean joins us occasionally. But that's ok ... because if it was good enough for Coward to sing about, it's good enough for us to do!

[I promise pictures soon of the work we will have done by the time dh goes back to teaching. we are whipping this long-neglected spot into shape!]