I finally got to go shopping!

One of our neighbors on the next street over had a yard sale and I got some really cool stuff! I got this really pretty green apron.


And this pretty Christmas apron...


And this pretty pink and peach apron.


This beautifully embroidered strawberry tablecloth


This great cut-work daisy tablecloth which I'm hoping to make into an apron following the directions in MaryJane's Magazine.


This is a closeup of the daisies. Closeups don't seem to work out very well; it's a little blurry.


This was the best prize! I didn't actually get this at the yard sale. We went to a little antique shop that's right near the house with the yard sale. She sold it to us for half price! I've always wanted one of these butter churns but they were always priced out of reach for me and/or they were missing paddles. And they were all the quart sized ones. This one holds a gallon. I will be using it tonight.


This is a closeup of the top. I can't find a manufacturer's name on it anywhere nor can I find a patent date or anything. If anybody knows anything about this kind of butter churn, please let me know. I'm curious as to where and when it was made.


Closeup of the paddles. Aren't they in great shape?


Back at the yard sale...I got this neat old snap press. This will come in handy for so many projects that I have in mind.


I also got a large bag full of notions and 8 large pieces of fabric in lots of different colors and patterns. I got a roll of wallpaper border of a clothesline with patched jeans, colonial flags, braided rugs, aprons, quilts and socks hanging from it and wicker laundry baskets and baskets of sunflowers under it. It's a really cool farmgirl-like border. I don't know yet what I'm going to do with it, but I just couldn't pass it up. I don't have a laundry room; the machines are in the kitchen. Anybody have any ideas?

Since this is the first year that I have grown broccoli, I wanted to show it off to you all. This is the second head that's about ready to cut. I already cut and ate the first one before I even thought to take a picture. The white parts on the head are water drops. The picture didn't exactly turn out the way I was hoping. Anyway, I'll cut this head tomorrow morning and then I have two more that are much smaller that are coming along just as nicely.

My swallow babies are getting ready to leave

I took these pictures two nights ago. I just get the biggest kick out of watching the pair of swallows that come back to my birdhouse every year. George and Gracie clean it out, rebuild the nest, have their babies, feed them constantly and one year we were lucky enough to watch George and Gracie teaching them to catch bugs mid-air. In the first picture, the babies are just looking out the hole; not too sure if I can be trusted so close.


Now, it seems they're not so fearful as curious.


I know it's hard to see their features, but they look like little Orcas. Of course, they don't have the beautiful dark blue coloring of their parents yet, but they are so cute.

One of them fell out of the bird house yesterday and still couldn't fly. There are so many wild cats around here, that I just couldn't leave him to that fate. I got a pair of gloves that had been laying around outside and picked him up and put him back in the house. I sat out on the porch to watch and make sure George and Gracie weren't going to be upset that I had touched them. They seemed fine with it and all is back to normal.

Veggie Garden in July

I took pictures this morning to show off my heirloom veggie garden. I didn't bother to take a picture of the bed with the corn, potatoes and horseradish because the neighbor's junk is sooooo visible where that bed is located up against our back fence. My carrots didn't do well this spring, so while the bed is visible behind the zucchini/pepper bed, I didn't bother to mention it.

This is my little strawberry bed. Soon to be expanded to the grassy area right below it between it and the red picket fence. That area is quite a bit bigger.


This bed has watermelon in the foreground and cantaloupe in the rest of the bed. I'm about to build more beds so the blue tarp is there to kill the weeds.


This bed is Amish Paste Tomatoes. They do VERY well up here. A neighbor gave me the wall o' waters. I put those around the plants in the middle in the hopes that the warmth from those would help the plants on the outside, too. They are just blooming now.


This bed suffered the most from the frost last month. Zucchini plants at the front; the rest are my pepper plants. They are bouncing back, but it took them quite a while. Flower buds are finally forming on them.


This is my Amish Pie Pumpkin bed. The pumpkin plants have just gone nuts! I have several tennis ball sized babies in there.


This is my cucumber bed. I lost several plants to last months' frost which is why the left side of the bed looks so empty. There are tons of baby cukes in there though.


These are pots of Tumbling Tom cherry tomatoes. The only non-heirloom seeds I ordered this year. There was no more room in the garden so I had to put them in these pots in front of my greenhouse. They are a trailing type tomato and seem to be happy in these pots. These are loaded with lots of little green tomatoes.


This bed was planted with Anna Russian Tomatoes. I lost a lot of them last month, but I still have 6 plants in there and that will still be plenty.


This bed still has snow peas growing like crazy. At the far end of the bed is the spinach going to seed which I hope to harvest soon and replant for fall. The left side of the bed had rows of lettuce which is now all gone. I have one head that I'm letting go to seed to plant later, too. The sheets hanging over this bed prevented the lettuce and spinach from bolting too soon. It's not exactly pretty, but it worked.


This bed has chives and cilantro on the far left (not visible) and dill which is doing really well. As you can see, I have far more than I need. There are 8 plants in there! The parsley is doing well and I have harvested quite a bit from those plants.


This is the far right side of the same bed with the herbs. These are my broccoli plants which are just beginning to head. In between the broccoli and parsley I have beets. Across the front of this bed, are the pole beans I had to replant last month with a lean-to kind of structure of chicken wire for them climb and shade everything behind it from the hot after noon sun. When the beets are done, I will plant more lettuce and spinach behind it. Unfortunately, you can see my neighbor's junk behind my log fence. Someday, I want to put in a stockade fence so I don't have to look at it anymore.


So that's my veggie garden so far this year. I hope you enjoyed the tour. I will take you all on another tour in mid-August when the fruits are actually visible.