Another weekend?!

Wow, considering I haven't done a huge amount, the week is still flying by! Here's an updated picture of my sink. I realize I have been taking a lot of window sill pictures but I thought you might like to see the change of seasons through my window bouquets too. We went out for breakfast this morning at Perkins and Harold and Elaine came in right after us so we ate with them. That was a nice surprise. Fergus Wal-mart is having their grand opening next Wednesday and the grocery is store is very attractive I must say. IT's all set up but empty in the bakery, deli and produce. I've been avoiding the store all summer as they have been in a very messy transition but thought it would be safe now and it was.

I made another batch of biscotti tonight, haven't done that in awhile. I also used my new pizza peel for a frozen pizza and that worked pretty slick. I scooped it right off the rack and sliced it on the board. Maybe someday I will use it for homemade. :) Have a good weekend, everyone!

Slow Children at Play

We laughed a lot taking these pictures!!!

Polly loves the rocks. Nancy says it's in her Scottish bloodline, searching for varmints.

Weekend Pictures

Classic 7 year old smiles!!

Sophie & Polly

Carly & Shari

Ellen & Kayla

Joey relaxed

Miscellaneous Pictures

Stopped at the BB today and found these wonderful books for 50 cents each, hardcover. I have their first book already so these will be a great addition. The authors photograph wildlife in their woods and set it to delightful stories for children & adults enjoy it too. I picked up two other children's books as well, a Harry Potter and the picture book Yonder, which is one of my favorites. That's it, just books for my classroom-it's a good thing.
I went out for lunch with my 5 & 6 coworkers on Monday to Doolittles, had the Thai salad-loved it! Afterwards, Elaine and I stopped in to the thrift store on main street and I scored with this pizza peel for $3.50.
Finally fixed the hook on this tree so I could hang a basket, 5 mn of work, 2 years of looking at it thinking I should fix it.
Shari made this gorgeous bread in my oven with her Artisan Cookbook recipe. (It was delicious too) Now I know it IS possible. Shari gave me the cookbook for my birthday and a nice dough hook/whisk for mixing. I think I will be making lots of bread this fall and winter. Thank you, Shari!!!

When you feel like a nap, go for it!!

Most Recent Read

I just finished The Book of Bright Ideas by Sandra Kring. This is a book that I picked up at a thrift store a couple of years ago just because the front cover intrigued me and the description sounded good. I finally got around to reading it and it ended up being a very good book in my opinion. Here's a nice review it got on Amazon, let me know if you'd like to read it. Out of 80 reviews it had 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

I have been reading a plethora of genres for 40+ years, and every once in a wonderful while I stumble across a masterpiece that fortifies my love of prose. "The Book of Bright Ideas" is a precious gem among the junk jewelry of average reads. Button, narrator, gifts a summer to remember as her new best friend, Winnalee, blows into town in a beat-up pick-up driven by her sister, Freeda. Fierce, fearless, and opinionated, 10 year old Winnalee is bound to stir up Button's quietly sad childhood. Through their myriad of adventures, planned and NOT SO PLANNED, life lessons are earned. So many life lessons that Winnalee and Button strive to savor them in "A Book of Bright Ideas," which will quarentee their happiness in the future. Oh, that it could be true!


Kring has a gift of vivid description, rich dialogue, nearly ethereal insight and flavorful charm. Like Harper Lee, Sue Kidd Monk, Kaye Gibbons, and other greats, her work demands and receives your full attention and your deepest respect.

This is brilliant writing at it's finest....read this book and remember why you ever started reading in the first place.

Bear!

If you've been following my blog for the past year or so, you know what this is-bear scat! This time it's down at the neighbor's cabin just to our left-they've been feeding the birds. (And the bears!) Looks like he's been eating plenty of berries too. I'm sending this picture to the DNR for official documentation. Jan still thinks it could be a raccoon. Not me.

Because I've seen this.....

and this....

and this!!!

Just kidding, these pictures came from a Northern Mn blog, the poop is from Sandy Point.

Stillwater-St. Croix

We had a fun weekend with Tim and Emily on their boat on the St. Croix last weekend. Here's a picture from one of the lower windows.
The boat on the left belongs to Stanley Hubbard from KSTP. Can you imagine?!! There are three full time employees on this boat awaiting his beck and call and it spends the winter down in Florida-such a life.

I think these birds are falcons??

Dan and Tim relaxing in their normal way on a Saturday morning!

Emily and Me!

One of the islands between Mn & Wisconsin on the St. Croix, many boats land and camp here.

I-94 bridge between Mn and WI, we anchored here Friday night.

A lovely sunset.

We had a wonderful weekend!

Anderson pictures

Here's another picture that Uncle Mike added to the genealogy book and it was labeled "Anderson kids on porch." It must be a picture of all the cousins on whose porch I am not sure but I like it! I can see Mom (stripes) in front I believe, Joanne back to her right, Jeanette in the matching stripe behind Mom. JoAnne really looks like her daughter Carrie here. Who else can you identify?

Here's a nice picture of Mom when Royce and Lynn were visiting.

Grandma and Grandpa (Artys & Elmer) Anderson posing here with their first 6 of 11 children. Audrey is in front of Grandma, Elmer Jr to her right, JoAnne tilting her head, Mom would be the blondie in front, Jeanette looking down? and Mary would be the baby. Did I get that right, Karen and Kris? I think Audrey looks like Karen in this picture. Fun to see the family resemblances shine through.

Kids & Flowers

Royce and family were here last Saturday. Grant surprised us when he crawled into Chip's crate and closed the door. He was quite pleased with himself! I had plenty of time to get the camera and start shooting.

Gracie, not to be outdone, crawled in next.

The kids barely had 30 mn to play before the storm hit, but they made the most of it. Isn't that quite the mischievous smile? They are 3 years and 22 months and full of action-very sweet kids!
This photo shows some of the herbs I have on my deck. The basil is doing very well. I'm going to try pesto this week for the very first time.
The impatiens around the house are doing well, luckily the rabbits do not seem interested in them. My petunias are another story! I love this double blossom variety-like little roses.

Mn Bird Test

Mn Birds

Click on the link above to test your bird identification skills and hear each bird's call. I found this on the Mn DNR website. Don't click on this unless you have high speed internet as it may take a while to load. It would be great with a Smartboard or digital projector in the classroom.

Tuesday

Uncle Mike added more pictures to ancestry.com and I love this one. There are a few others I will share later. I could pick Mom out right away. From left to right we have JoAnne, Paul Fisher (a cousin?) Elmer, Lorraine & Jeanette. Aren't they sweet?

Just a couple current pictures from my yard. I've spent some time cleaning up neglected beds this summer. The hostas are doing great. Some of the flowers on them are ready to be cut off, which is a little project when you have so many. They don't all flower at the same time. The big green one you see on the left gets huge white fragrant flowers in August-love those. The hummingbirds have been enjoying them.
The basil in this basket are doing quite well. I used it for starting them as seedlings and then moved them to other pots. These will now stay. Not sure what I will do with them all.

Yesterday was a beautiful day. I finished The Other Boleyn Girl, which was very entertaining and fun historical fiction-a perfect summer read as it is quite long. It's about Mary Boleyn, sister to Queen Anne, their family and relationship to King Henry Vlll. I love reading outside on summer days-usually the Sky chair. Also made some rhubarb jelly, it looks good/pretty but I haven't tried it yet, only 3 ingredients.

Last week I cleaned up the bikes for Josef and Rachel to use so I decided I may as well use one. Took a nice evening ride out around the golf course. Today is cloudy and windy so I'm glad I did lots of outdoor activities yesterday. This morning I'm having coffee/lunch with Mary in Fergus and running a couple of errands. I'd better finish sweeping the driveway before it rains-enjoy your day!

July Photo's

The orioles have been visiting the jelly feeders with their young.

Rachel & Josef (visiting from Albuquerque) and Joel & Amanda spent a few days at the cabin this week. Dan, Joel & Josef are Jackson HS classmates. We enjoyed having them down there and getting to know R & J better. I especially enjoyed the girls afternoon in Fergus thrift shopping and having lunch. We stopped at the BB on the way back. I have had great luck finding books for my classroom collection-starting to think about how I will organize them next year.
We are very pleased with the new Costco screen tent we purchased recently. It's very easy to put up and more importantly, take down when storms approach. We hope this one may last a few years. I have saved a lot of netting if anyone has a purpose for it.

Fourth of July Shots

Neighbors bringing out the fireworks raft.