az plant lady family

Family Photographers on a Field Trip

Field trip

I enjoy photographing the beauty that surrounds me, especially plants and landscapes.

My youngest sister, is a very good photographer and her focus is usually people.

And then there is my nephew, Kenny, (son of my other sister), who likes to photograph both nature and people.

So what do you do with three family photographers? Go on a field trip to our local riparian preserve.

Even in winter, it is a beautiful place to visit…

In addition to my sister and nephew, my son Kai and my other nephew, Josh came along.

Of course, they soon set off to explore on their own…

Now, the rest of us got our cameras out and started taking pictures.

My focus was trying to capture photos of the many hummingbirds who make their home in the riparian preserve year round.

Anna’s Hummingbird

What fascinates me about hummingbird photos, is that although the photos above are of the same hummingbird; you can only see the bright color when the sun is shining directly on the feathers of their throat.

While I was taking pictures of hummingbirds, my sister wanted to practice taking pictures, so she was taking pictures of me, taking pictures.

I must admit that I feel a bit uncomfortable posing for pictures. But it wasn’t too bad because I didn’t have to pose.

My nephew has a very good eye for both landscape and people shots.

Sunlight and Purple Prickly Pear Spines

Great White Heron

My nephew also caught me in the midst of taking pictures of three mallard ducks.

I know that mallard ducks are quite common, but I have always liked them and their beautiful colors. I even used to have a pet mallard duck when I was young.

A curious goose was hoping we had some bread crumbs to share.

Another photo from my nephew, highlights the babbling brook that winds its way through the preserve.

Across one of the lakes, we spotted the boys who were visiting some of the ducks…

Soon, the sun was beginning to set and I had to get home to make dinner.

So we started making our way back to the parking lot.

On our way, I spotted some Canadian geese flying back for the night to one of the lakes.

Kai had a little help over the muddy spots on the path…

As we neared the entrance, my sister asked me to pose for a picture – did I mention that I really don’t like posing for pictures? I feel so self-conscious and am worried that I have lipstick on my teeth or that I will look so ‘fake’ in the photo.

My nephew took this photo and I must confess that I cropped out the bottom part because he didn’t push “the skinny button” on his camera.

Okay, I realize cameras don’t have “skinny” buttons, but I certainly wish they did, don’t you?

We had a wonderful time.

I hope you did too 🙂

The Gift of a Vegetable Garden: Part 2

az plant lady family, Compost

In my last post, I undoubtedly left you hanging, wondering how the second part of our project ended (just kidding).

What project is that? Well, my siblings and I along with our families surprised my mother for her 70th birthday by building her a raised vegetable garden to go along with her existing one.

I posted the first part of our project, which ended up with a lot of muddy shoes as we dug out the grass. You can catch up on the first part here.

Now we all gathered again the next Saturday and were excited to finish the project.

Birthday Gift

We worked on building up the remaining sides. It helped that my brother-in-law had a portable table saw, (if you don’t have one you can always have the store do it for you).

My 1-year old nephew Danny, (one of my brother’s twin boys), is just fascinated about how things work and he was wondering how much older he would have to be to use his dad’s cordless drill 😉

Birthday Gift

Almost finished with the sides!

My mother put out a blanket for the twins to play on and then the other grandkids came to play with them too.

Once we got all the sides up, we lined the bottom with newspaper, which helps to supress weeds and will break down.

My sister takes the twins, Danny and Dean for a walk around the backyard.

Here I am with my two sisters.

Okay, enough with all the family photos, let’s get back to finishing the garden.

I don’t think that there is anything quite as wonderful to a gardener then a trailer full of compost, do you?

Here is an action shot…

One of the clients that I write for wants gardening ‘action’ shots, so I try to get them whenever I can.

I love the fragrance of compost or as I like to call it “black gold”.

My niece Sofie (left), and my kids Ruthie and Kai had fun spreading the compost inside. They kept getting higher and higher up as the garden filled up with compost.

We finished the project by connecting the garden to drip irrigation and also put up support for the shade structure.

Some of you have asked me how we did this and you can see how it was done with the first vegetable garden…

The supports are made out of rebar. Two pieces form each support and they were bent by hand and fastened in the middle using wire. The support is used for shade cloth in summer, frost cloth in winter and bird netting all year to keep the chickens out of the garden.

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My mother was so excited about her new garden and she fed us all a fabulous lunch that day.

Later, we celebrated her 70th birthday with two cakes….

A few of her grandsons were more then happy to help her blow out her candles 🙂

Motherly Wisdom and Group Photo Shoot

az plant lady family

Okay, I realize that I am terribly late when it comes to posting holiday photos. But believe it or not, I am quite organized when it comes to other aspects of Christmas – especially shopping for gifts -I’m usually done in November 🙂

With an extended family as large as ours, it is hard to have everyone present for photo opportunities, but this past Christmas, we were all there.

The second difficulty that frequently arises when trying to get everything to gather together for the photo is getting all the kids to stop playing and come and sit and smile – (I’m sure many of you know what I mean 😉

Well, my mother in all her wisdom knew how to get everything one all together and fast….

“No one could open presents until we had taken our family group picture.”

My mother, two sisters, brother and our families.

Well you can only imagine how quickly the kids ran inside and sat down. Even us grown kids put down our coffee and snacks to smile for the camera.

I only hope to be as wise as my mother someday 🙂

Merry Christmas Cookies!

az plant lady family

There comes a time every Christmas season, when all the gifts and bought and wrapped (I finished up my last knitting gift today 🙂

I have finally finished baking for Christmas,

– Toffee Bars – that I make every year at Christmas

– Sugar Cookies frosted with vanilla candy melts and a Peppermint Hershey’s Kiss

– Pie Crust cookies filled with my homemade strawberry preserves and dusted with sanding sugar

I wasn’t the only one in our house baking for Christmas. Our holiday tradition includes baking Christmas cookies on the “Eve of the Christmas Eve” as my oldest daughter, Brittney always says. She now has a home of her own now, but we still continue our tradition with our younger children.

I love taking pictures of the kids making cookies and the joy on their faces as they anticipate Santa coming and eating their cookies….

Gracie and Kai in 2005. (It was Kai’s first Christmas since we adopted him. Gracie has always had a tendency to hold his ear now and then – not sure why 😉

Christmas 2007

Now, Kai and Gracie are getting older, but they still love to bake Christmas cookies, as does their older sisters, Rachele and Ruthie.

This year’s Christmas cookie baking day brought some new participants….

7 kids, cookie dough, frosting and sprinkles….the perfect combination.

My younger sister just moved here from California and they live just down the street from us. So my two nephews and niece, Sofie (also adopted from China as my 3 youngest), joined us.

My daughter, Rachele, rolled out the dough, but the kids did all the other work on their own…

Ruthie had fun making stripes with the royal icing.

My sister stopped by to help us frost the cookies.

My husband and son were the official taste testers (pardon the messy kitchen – I seriously haven’t had time to clean)

Checking out some of the finished cookies.

Here are more….

The aftermath…..

You know what?

I think the enjoyment you get out of making Christmas cookies is directly proportional to the bigger the mess afterward, don’t you?

I use a special recipe for my sugar cookies that stays chewy and moist….

1 (17 oz) package sugar cookie mix

4 oz cream cheese (softened)

1 egg

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

Add all ingredients and mix together (the dough will be thick).

Roll out to 1/4″ thickness on floured surface and start using your cookie cutters (I find it helps to dip my cookie cutters in flour before cutting into the dough).

Bake at 350 degrees F for approximately 10 minutes.

Decorate with icing and lots of sprinkles 🙂

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I wish for you all a very

Merry

Christmas!

Cookies and Sugar Cone Christmas Trees

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

az plant lady family

All too soon, we will be hearing little ghosts and goblins come knocking at our door.

But unfortunately, we won’t be home.

You see, Halloween is a very fun holiday in our family and we spend it at Double S Farms.

Last year’s celebration was lots of fun…..

As we walked in the door, we were greeted by the delicious scent of soup cooking.

My mother, always has a healthy dinner prepared since she knows we will be eating nothing but sweets later.

(Don’t you like her ‘fake’ tattoo sleeve?)

The table is set and there are fun party favors.

Do you like my new ring?

After dinner, but before trick-or-treating, it is time to play some games like throwing eyeballs into a pumpkin.

It’s a lot harder then it looks.

Then, as if the kids won’t get enough candy while trick-or-treating….

They get to try to hit the pinata, which is filled with candy.

The third pumpkin is carved into a “Mini-Cooper”, which is my nephew, Finley’s favorite car 😉

Soon, it is time to venture out and go trick-or-treating.

Fun holiday

I hope you all have a fun Halloween!

Family Get Together on the Farm

az plant lady family

This past weekend, the entire family was able to gather together at Double S Farms.

As I mentioned before, my brother-in-law was in town for final interviews for a new job. Although he was busy with meetings, we were all able to meet for Saturday breakfast on the farm.

I baked my Irish soda bread for the occasion and the kids couldn’t wait to eat eggs and sausage.

It was also time to check up on the new baby chicks and their new chicken coop….

New baby chicks

Their new coop has three levels and the girls really seem to like it.

One of the kids discovered an egg, from one of the older chickens…

The kids spent much of their time running around and wrestling in the shade of the apple trees…

My mother showed me the progress of her fall vegetable garden…

We have already enjoyed salad made from her romaine lettuce…

We visited with my twin nephews…

Dean, being held by my brother, is recovering well from his surgery, where he had a lobe of his lung removed.

My visiting sister, took her turn holding Danny.

Soda pop tried to find someone to throw her ball for her.

The ‘senior’ chickens, Effie, Ramona and Lucy, did their best to stay out of everyone’s way.

Indoors, my nephew, Oliver, showed off his ‘zombie’ makeup and did his best to scare us, but then he reassured us that it was really him behind the make-up.

Lastly, my daughter, Gracie, spent time with her Uncle Scott…

I love them time that we all spend together and we received great news yesterday – my brother-in-law was hired as the new children’s pastor of a local church. So they will be moving here next month.

I will be so blessed to not only have my mother, brother and youngest sister living nearby, but also my other younger sister 🙂

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Baby countdown is down to 7 days…..

A Tree Given a Second Chance…

Goodbyes, A Double Celebration and Upcoming Arrival….

az plant lady family

I must admit that this month has been very eventful.

We said goodbye to my father-in-law….

Who waged a courageous battle with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), which took his life 11 months after he was diagnosed.

A week later, it was time to celebrate a huge milestone in two lives…..

Dean loved his first taste of cake.

My twin nephews turned 1 year old.

Danny liked the frosting of his Cookie Monster cupcake the best.

We celebrated their birthday at my house and it was so fun to see the boys enjoy their cupcakes and play with their gifts.

The very next day, it was time to celebrate my daughter and son-in-law’s baby shower.

But beforehand, I needed to finish the baby sweater I had been working on.

This was my first sweater that I made. Overall, I think it turned out well, but I learned a very important lesson when knitting a pattern.

*Don’t knit when you are stressed or distracted.*

I had started the sweater in August and brought it with me to the hospital when my father-in-law was hospitalized. I also took it with me when he was transferred to hospice. As a result, I started the sweater 4 separate times due to simple mistakes.

So, I learned to work on it at home and got the buttons sewed on the night before the baby shower 🙂

Now that the sweater was finished, I was ready to enjoy the baby shower, which was being held at Double S Farms where my mother, sister and her family reside.

We all enjoyed a delicious brunch.

Just a few of the gifts waiting to be opened. (Notice my mother’s cheese grater collection?)

my cousin and my husband-the other future grandfather

Some of the men spent time outdoors discussing who knows what? (From left to right, the future grandfather, my brother-in-law, my cousin and my husband-the other future grandfather.)

That’s me on the left with my daughter. It seems like yesterday, when I was expecting her 🙂

The best part…..opening gifts! My nephew, Finley is on hand to offer any help opening presents if they need him 😉

Such a cute quilt made by the grandmother (the other one 🙂

She loved the sweater! I must admit that I need a break from knitting for awhile 😉

I couldn’t resist taking this picture…. It may just pop up in the future when he is older and easily embarrassed 😉

Favors for guests. Guess what they are?

Thank you so much for letting me share with you our eventful September.

It is a bit overwhelming to suffer grief and joy in such a small period of time. But they are both part of life. I must admit that I prefer the joyful periods though 😉

Curiousity, A ‘Good’ Bug and Chocolate Chip Cookies

az plant lady family

Now you may be wondering how on earth am I going to combine the above topics into one post.

Well, they all occurred yesterday while we were visiting my in-law’s house. We go there every week to help out around the house and do the things that my father-in-law can no longer do since he is suffering from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease).

Okay, first I will talk about curiosity and a bug. Actually this involves my three youngest children and a praying mantis that they found in my in-law’s backyard.

Do you remember how curious you were as a child about living things? There seems to be a natural connection between kids and certain bugs. Now, my kids will not touch a spider knowingly, but they are fascinated by other bugs.

Yesterday, they discovered a praying mantis on a Pink Trumpet Vine in the back garden.

As you can see, it was very young and small. I don’t think my kids would have handled a full grown mantis.

The kids had fun taking turns holding the little praying mantis, who in turn would walk up and down their arms.

I remember playing with pill bugs as a child and seeing them roll up into tiny, gray balls. We would put them into a margarine container with some grass and leaves. Of course, they would die if we didn’t let them loose.

My youngest daughter, Gracie, who can be a little afraid of bugs even decided to hold this little insect (you can just barely see it on her arm)…

It lasted about 3 seconds because the praying mantis scurried up her arm and she was afraid it would go up her sleeve 😉

We have a rule that if the bugs are beneficial, that the kids can play with them for a while, but have to release them out into the garden the same day.

So, since praying mantis are great at eating harmful insects, we let him go.

**Here is an interesting fact for you – Did you know that praying mantis are carnivores and have been known to actually eat hummingbirds if they stray too close? It’s true!

The kids were having so much fun with their new little friend that they forgot about the chocolate chip cookies that they had just helped to make with their grandma.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I didn’t forget though….

I must confess that I ate 3 of those big cookies, which is why I don’t make a lot of cookies at home. I did try to make it up for it by eating salad for dinner 😉

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I hope your week is off to a good start. My kids start school today and my husband and I are ‘celebrating’ by going to the movies and enjoying some time alone.

Does that make me a bad mom or maybe one that just needs a little break…..

Cookies and Sugar Cone Christmas Trees

Going Fishing….

az plant lady family

I absolutely love fishing. I really do….

I grew up fishing as a child when we would go camping each year. And although my sister and brother would catch their share of fish, I never did….

It was really frustrating because I was using the same bait and fishing right next to them. So as I grew up, I was happy to leave it behind.

Until we started spending time up in a small town in Arizona along Route 66 called Williams. You see, my sister-in-law’s family owns some cabins up in the woods there and they graciously allow us to stay there each summer.

Close by the cabins are some great places to go fishing and 4 years ago, I caught my first fish. It was a decent size rainbow trout and I was as excited as a little girl….I had finally caught my first fish!

So ever since, we spend time fishing up in Williams every year.

Sometimes we have to leave because of thunderstorms, like the one that was coming in the photo above.

The kids love fishing too and my husband is just wonderful about putting worms on our hooks….I won’t touch them 😉

Last year, we caught 18 fish in a period of two hours…..I caught 5.

But my son caught the most of all of us….6!

Even if we don’t catch any fish, I enjoy sitting and enjoying my beautiful and peaceful surroundings. Sometimes in the midst of my busy life, I wish that I could just take off for a couple of hours and fish.

You know what? I really could….we have stocked lakes just minutes away 🙂

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So, do you like to fish?

Where is your favorite place to go?

July 4th on the Farm….

az plant lady family

Did you travel out of town for the 4th of July? We normally don’t. But before you start to feel sorry for us, I would love to share with you what we did this 4th.

We spent it with my sister and her family on their farm, which is located just 5 minutes from our house. Their farm is a fun place to visit with dogs, chickens, a pet toad who lives with the chickens, fruit trees, nut trees and a vegetable garden. I love sharing their farm with you all.

So we started out our evening with an all-American meal of hot dogs, chips and watermelon. I brought Rice Krispy treats with both milk chocolate and white frosting on top. After we ate, we went outdoors and watched the kids play.

we started out our evening with an all-American meal of hot dogs, chips and watermelon

In the distance, we could see a thunderstorm brewing, but it didn’t look like it was going to hit us.

As I usually do each week when we visit, I decided to check out the fruit trees and vegetable garden see what was growing.

The green fruit that you see above are grapefruit that will be ripe this winter. Other then watering deeply (3 ft. deep), there is nothing to be done for citrus trees this month.

There was a single kumquat hanging in this tree. Later the tree will be covered with them.

I love growing gourds and have 4 big ones in my own vegetable garden. But, there are 3 large ones growing in this vegetable garden.

Both the watermelon and gourd plants are growing like crazy. It is probably not a good idea to plant these plants close to each other.

The chickens, Effie, Lucy and Flo were out enjoying the early evening along with us.

Do you remember the frost-damaged tree that I wrote about a few weeks ago? Well, look at how quickly it has grown!

My nephew Oliver, my son Kai, my daughter Ruthie, my nephew Finley and my daughter Gracie.

The kids were getting very excited about seeing fireworks.

Gracie may have been born in China, but she is a proud American citizen 🙂

Notice her shirt? Gracie just loves Sonic the Hedgehog and couldn’t believe it when we saw this t-shirt at the store the other day. It didn’t matter to her that it was in the boy’s department. She used her allowance to buy it. She wears it everyday until I tell her that I have to wash it 😉

Finally, it was dark enough to set off the fireworks in the front yard.

I don’t know who was most excited, the kids or my brother and brother-in-law who were going to set them off.

We started off small, with sparklers.

My daughter, Rachele, and I were happy to just watch.

Some of the fireworks were a bit loud for Gracie.

We had such a fabulous time watching our small firework show that we didn’t even venture into the backyard where our town’s firework display could be seen.

How about you?

What did you do this 4th of July?

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Family Photographers on a Field Trip

The Gift of a Vegetable Garden: Part 2

Motherly Wisdom and Group Photo Shoot

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Family Get Together on the Farm

Goodbyes, A Double Celebration and Upcoming Arrival….

Curiousity, A ‘Good’ Bug and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Going Fishing….

July 4th on the Farm….

az.plant.lady

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