Merry Christmas Everyone

I just wanted to wish everyone a wonderful Merry Christmas. Sorry I haven't been in the blogosphere for the past couple of months(goodness, I can't believe that) but I've been pretty busy.

Hope Santa is good to you all for Christmas. See ya after the first of the year.

Pumpkin Fun at Work

Since it is that "pumpkin" time of year I thought you might like to see some work creations.This poor guy got all messed up in his basket. Wonder how that happened?!?Say hello to Gordy. Check out those bushy eyebrows!Little baby pumpkin stacks. We also sell the big stack-able pumpkins which are a big hit with customers. This last pic is an old cooking stove covered in some fall beauties. Ornamental peppers and crotons are really beautiful this time of the year. Plant together with some orange sedge and pansies and you can have a beautiful container.

Here's hoping you find some "pumpkin fun" this fall.

Remembering our Arkansas vacation

When we were on vacation in northern Arkansas this past summer, we stumbled onto something we didn't know existed.We love to travel back roads cause you never know what you might find. As we were driving along we came to the Norfork dam and a campsite. We ventured into the campsite and then across the street we noticed this sign. But more than the sign, it was the sight of the bathrooms that caught my attention. If you travel back roads much you'll find there aren't as many of these as you might wish. (smile).
Neither of us had ever been to a fish hatchery before so we decided to explore a bit. Plus the price of admission was too good. No charge! The first thing you notice are these tanks that seem to go on for ever.
And as you can see they were filled to the brim with trout. I've never seen so many fish in my life.
They were beautiful and some quite large. If you enlarge this pic you can see big daddy in the middle.These are the pumps that keep the water circulating. It was quite an operation they had. Also they had netting across the top to keep birds from having a tasty dinner.Here is where the little babies start out. This room was really cold.Look at all those babies. Can you imagine how many thousands are in here? And they have many tanks of these little guys.The hatchery was located on this creek. They had built this nice walk along deck to aid in fishing. It is a catch/release creek mostly for kids to learn how to trout fish. I really loved the creek and could have spent many hours there just watching and listening. It had lots of trout swimming around.

If you are ever in this part of Arkansas I would recommend checking it out. We had a great time while there.

Colors on Monday

It's time again for Colors on Monday. Today's color is black. For other participants playing along go to the link on my sidebar. I decided to post 3 pics today of things I may or may not need.

Picture from internet

Number 1-I use to think these little guys were such cute animals. But I have to say after our lovely run in with them a week ago, not so much. So I definitely don't need this.Number 2-My cell phone. I don't know if I definitely need this or not. I did fine before when I didn't own one. But I must say I like knowing I can be connected to help in case of emergency.Number 3-My bible. This I definitely need. I can't imagine my life without it.

This ends the meme that has been hosted by Jen at Unglazed. So, thanks Jen for the fun and I hope everyone has a great Black Monday!

Colors on Monday

Once it again it's time for colors on Monday. Today choice is brown.One morning I was sitting at the breakfast table when all of a sudden I hear a little birdie singing his little heart out.As I peeked thru the blinds I found this little wren. Of course I had to watch him for a little while. He just sang and sang.I think he was waiting on me to toss him some money for his performance. After a few minutes I guess he figured out he wasn't getting any so off he flew.

Oh well, I enjoyed his sweet song while it lasted.

Hope you guys are having a great brown Monday. Be sure to check other participants by clicking on my side bar "Colors On Monday".

Sorry no photos and glad of it!

Have you ever woken in the middle of the night and smelled something more different than usual? You know, a smell that isn't entirely pleasant.

Around 6:00 this morning when dh got up I smelled something funky which you might say smelled like a skunk. Well at 6:30 he came back into the bedroom to tell me he was taking care of an "issue". My first inclination was oh no, what's he done now. Well low and behold, it was nothing he had done. But it seems that last night when I went to close the garage door Mr. Skunk was in our garage and he didn't leave when the door shut. Oh my!!!

Dh had heard what he thought was a bird that was trapped due to the call it was making. He went to open the backdoor to the garage and saw two white stripes scurry across the floor. Needless to say he pressed the garage opener and shut the backdoor pretty quickly. But unfortunately it was waaaay too late! The damage was done. Mr. skunk had knocked things over and evidently everytime they made a noise he dosed it with a lovely smell.

Well unfortunately the "lovely" smell has come into our house as well. Also we are driving around two skunk mobiles!

So the moral of the story is, I'm glad I have no photos and secondly, What does a person do with this disgusting smell?!?!?!?

Colors on Monday

Here it is Monday and time again for Colors on Monday. Today's color is purple. To see other participants click on the link on my sidebar.I love my little purple shamrock or officially known as oxalis. I like how it shows off it's pretty foliage and after awhile the foliage all dies back and the plant sleeps. It has little pink blooms too. You can find this plant with just green foliage too especially around St. Patrick's Day.This is a liatris bloom. This plant was new for me this year. It had about 4 spike with these little blooms on each.Here's a view with all the spikes blooming.
And lastly is a new iris I had bloom earlier this spring. Sorry I don't know which variety it is but it helped cheer up my pitiful looking garden this year.

Hope everyone has a great Purple Monday!!!

Colors on Monday-Blue

I can't believe it's that time again for Colors on Monday. And I'm sure you guessed it. Today's color is blue.First up, my Caryopteris(bluebeard) is starting to look really pretty right now. The bees are loving it as much as I am. This perennial can get 2-3 feet tall and almost as wide. Blooms in the fall which is great when other things are starting to fade.
Yesterday and today we had the prettiest blue skies. There was a wonderful crispness in the air which made it feel so fallish. I was loving it and I couldn't resist taking this pic.Of course, I couldn't do blue Monday without a pic of the beach. I'm not sure which was prettier. The water or the storm clouds that were gathering.

Hope you enjoyed my blue Monday. To see others click on my sidebar to see our hosts site, Jen and all the participants.

Colors On Monday-Green

Once again it's time for Colors on Monday hosted by Jen at Unglazed. If you want to play along just click on the link on my side bar. Today's color is green!One of my favorite herbs is cilantro. I think most people either love it or hate it, there is no in-between. Since hubbie and I love salsa I enjoy making it almost as much as eating it. Here's my easy recipe.

1 lg. can of crushed tomatoes or you can use chopped fresh

Juice of 1 lime

Medium chopped onion

Chopped cilantro-use as much as you like

Chopped fresh jalapeno peppers-I use 2-3. If you scrape out the seed and the white membrane they won't be as hot.

Salt to taste. Sometimes I have been known to throw in chilli powder or accent.

After mixing it all up I let it refrigerate for a couple of hours.

We love it and I hope if you try it, you will too.

Happy Green Monday to you!

Colors on Monday-Yellow

It's time once again for Colors on Monday hosted by Jen at Unglazed. To participate click on Colors on Monday icon on my side bar.Care to guess? This is an upclose pic of a squash bloom. I wish I could tell you the squash did wonderful but I'd be lying if I did. I guess you could say the squash borers enjoyed it more than I.Rudbeckias are one of the easiest plants to grow. This particular one is Rudbeckia maxima. It grew to be about 7 feet tall. They can make a neat attraction to your flower bed.During our vacation in northern Arkansas we took a hike down by the Buffalo River. I can't resist stopping to take pics of wildflowers.

Hope you enjoyed my yellow pics and I hope everyone has a great YELLOW Monday!

Colors on Monday-Orange you glad it's Monday?

If you haven't guessed yet, today's color is orange. If you want to join in this meme just click on my Colors on Monday sidebar.
This is the first year I have planted Cosmos in my flower bed. I grew this baby from seed and am so happy I did. Most of the time you see pink/rose and white cosmos. This one is a little more orange than it shows in the pic.

Hope everyone has a great Monday and I look forward to seeing other "orange" pics.

Colors on Monday

Today I'm joining Jen at Unglazed for her new meme "Colors on Monday". Today's color is red.With summer finishing soon it won't be long til college football starts up. Yippee!!! This is my favorite football team. Need I say more?!?!? Oh, one more thing-woooooo pig soooooie!!!

Happy Monday everyone!

Vacation-visiting down under

No, not Australia, even tho I would love to go there.I'm talking about visiting Blanchard Springs Caverns in northern Arkansas. What's that? You've never heard of it before. That's not surprising. We were told they don't have an advertising budget so I'm advertising for them.We visited here when I was a teenager. I'm glad I had the opportunity to come back.

We went down over 250 feet to a wonderful cool, constant 57 degrees. This felt wonderful considering it was 96 plus degrees above. They have two, actually three tours you can take. This one is about an hour long. We saw all kinds of stalactites and stalagmites. There were also a few bats flying around.Afterward we drove down to where the actual springs flows from the cave. The actual springs. They were so pretty and so loud. Hard to believe so many years ago the caverns were filled with water.This is Sylamore creek. I also visited here as a child. The water is crystal clear and cold as ice. We didn't venture in even tho it was so hot outside.

Hope you enjoyed the tour. If you ever find yourself in northern Arkansas, check it out. Tickets were only 10.00 which we thought was well worth it.