So the other day when I was photographing my clothes line, I heard a very strange sound coming from these trees.
Then the sound started up in these trees. It almost sounded like a monkey.

Then this flew by. (not my photo)

It is a Cooper Hawk. It was stunning. I could not take my eyes off of it. (hence no photos of my own.) I just stood there watching this bird with it's massive wing span and huge legs gracefully glide by my deck. Then another one joined it.

They have been in my yard now for a few days. They spend most of the time perched up in a dead tree, just watching. When I looked them up, I found out that they love to hang around bird feeders in this part of the country. They unfortunately do not eat the bird seed, they eat the birds. That is kind of sad. But we have noticed that there are fewer crows around. I do not have a bird feeder so I am not sure what is attracting them. Perhaps it is because it is so wooded around here. Not sure but they are beautiful to watch.

2010 Garden

Since I showed you my rain barrels yesterday, today I thought I would show you the garden it feeds. These are the two raised bed gardens that my husband built me 3 years ago. The are all organic and the wood is cedar.
This is the larger one which has a ton of stuff in it.

and this is the smaller one. It has Zucchini in it. You can see the irrigation tube running through it.

This is what is in the larger garden. 7 tomato plants

Carrots, onions and green beans.

These beans tried to make an escape!

and sugar pea pods. yum!

In another place in my yard, I had planted two little blueberry bushes that I had gotten from Trader Joe's. This one likes to hang out with my grasses.

This year the blueberries have been amazing. I will show you in another post just how many we got. Look how juicy!

Gadets around the house that I love

I thought I would show you some of the things that I have around the house that make my life easier.

First, I just love my rain barrels. They save my garden every year when I go on vacation. We usually are away for about two weeks. I make sure they are both filled to the top before we leave. While we are off having fun the drip irrigation system I put in slowly but surely keeps the soil moist and we come home to wonderful veggies.


Another thing I love is my chalk board. I got it from Pottery Barn a number of years ago. Each week I figure out the meals for the week and the write out the menu. It hangs in my mudroom and I see it when I come in from work. It helps me keep focused and takes the guessing game out of "what to have for dinner"
My neighborhood has a few rules. One of them is that I can't have a clothes line in my yard. So technically I really don't have one in my yard, it is kinda on my deck. I got this online at Mrs. Peg's .

It is so handy. As you can see it holds a ton of stuff and when it is cloudy, I hang clothes on it in my sitting room. I love it.

Here is another shot. People can't really see it, and my closest neighbor, whom I love, doesn't care cause she hangs stuff out too. Plus we really can't see each other. We are just a couple of rebels with clothes lines.

So after I have watered the garden, planned the meals, and did the wash, I love to have a cool glass of tea. This is my Iced tea maker. When I first got this, I thought it was silly. But now that I am used to using it, I love it. It is so easy. You fill it to the line with water, add 1/2 cup of sugar to the bottom, fill the rest of the pitcher with ice, pop 6 tea bags in the top and plug it in. It makes a picture of nice cold tea in about 10 minutes tops.

Add a fresh slice of lemon, and you are all set.

Hope everyone had a great day. Off to make dinner, better check the board!

Still organizing

I am still organizing. We built this home in 2001. I have painted 18 of the 23 rooms in it and now I am up to my bedroom. My bedroom actually is four rooms. So if I can get my act together and get these rooms done, I will have a little time before I need to start all over. I thought I would show you the rooms as they are now. Pardon the mess, as I said I am organizing and I took everything off the shelves in my sitting room and it is spread out all over.

This is the corner of my sitting room that holds my office stuff. See the empty shelves. I am getting new ones. See the piles on the floor. What a mess!

This is the other side of the sitting room. That is a queen sleeper sofa. Unfortunately the ironing board is always up.

This is the bedroom. It is just off the sitting room. The three other rooms branch off this room.

Other side of the room. I really need a better book case. I read all the time. You can see the paint colors up on the wall. They have been there a year at least. Hard to make up my mind.

So now you see the rooms. When I get back from vacation I plan on painting. I will post pictures when it is done.

Whoo Hoo Birthdays

Yesterday was my youngest son's birthday. We spent the whole weekend celebrating. We went to the movies on Friday and saw Inception. Saturday we went to the outlets because he wanted to get these new high top sneakers and yesterday my in laws came over for dinner. Lots of fun

Organizing

Hello Blog World, It has been so long since I have posted. Listen to me I sound like I am in confession. Wow has it been busy around here. I never imagined that your child's senior year would be so crazy. My eldest just graduated from High School and is getting ready for college. I have been shopping like crazy and now I am in an organizing phase. It started out simply. My son wanted me to put his initials on the stuff we bought for college. So I dug out my thread. It was a mess, so I organized it.



Then I started in on the kitchen. One day I took everything out of the cabinet ( I mean all my food cabinets - everyone of them) and filled up my island.


I had so much stuff it wasn't funny. 8 bottles of olive oil, 4 boxes of the same oatmeal and I don't even remember how many mayo jars. I grouped stuff together, wiped out the cabinets and put it all back. This is my cooking cabinet.

This is the baking cabinet.

Not too bad looking.

I have two other cabinets but it gets a little boring. So now that I am organized, I guess it is time to cook. Crap!