Punkins and cement!

I don't think our pumpkins will be ready for Cinderella by October, but they were volunteer. And we learned that pumpkins have male and female flowers which don't always bloom at the same time. If it is too hot, just the males bloom and the females prefer a cooler temp. So, until about two weeks ago we had just one pumpkin (the orange one) and now we have maybe 4! Very fun!!! They are not very big, but they came up on their own, so we are not complaining!

And I have been playing with cement. I always wanted to make a concrete leaf and after reading many directions online, decided to try it. Mine used a pumpkin leaf and it was a learning experience. I just made several more today using a much bigger leaf of rhubarb and smaller ones of choke cherry and something else I can't remember it. The first photo is after it was dry (not totally cured, just dry) and the second is after I took some of the leaf off..which might be an uphill battle!

I also made some stepping stones using what is a cake frosting technique. You can see how the layers look on the rectangle stone. The first one was just trouble..which is why it is so funny looking! (it is the one with the plate pieces) The others are not bad at all. I particularly like Jon's camo one. They also need to cure and we will see how they hold up. Right now they are a tad crumbly on the edges. I don't know why, but we'll see how they look after curing.

Am reading a series that is not quite done yet. The last book comes out next month..of course! It is by Angie Sage. Fun author! I like her explanations at the end of the book.

Not everything is what it seems

Sunday was interesting. I did not have my glasses on when I spotted a bright reddish shape in my garden where no reddish shape should be. I slipped on my outside shoes and dashed out to the garden and found a poppy plant!!! I was puzzled and excited. Excited because I had planted an entire packet of the seeds earlier this year, but puzzled because only one came up. As I looked at the flower more closely, I realised what had happened! The blasted thing looks like a thistle! I have learned that anything that resembles a thistle over here...probably is. So, I had been weeding up my young poppies. In fact, as I looked the area over (I had not weeded that particular area in a week or so and this flower was under my Virginia Creeper plant), I did see at least two more plants that WERE thistles. So, I toddled off to church is a rather disgruntled mood.
See how thorny the leaves look?

At church I got to play with some of the kids and we were going over the story of Lazarus. This is a great story of a man Jesus raised from the dead after 4 days and it leads into a good discussion on friendship. As I told the story I asked questions. Things were going fairly well until I asked the kids the names of Jesus friends. The blurted answers were Mary...Martha....Stewart! And the worst part was, they kept saying the names! They knew that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, but insisted on Stewart being a friend. As I was discussing this with one of my very dear friends Monday morning, she started laughing and said....'Martha Stewart!' On further reflection we are positive that was where the snafu lay, but now I will never remember the story of Lazurus without thinking of the poor forgotten friend Stewart. He must have been in the kitchen.

Book list: a lot of different ones. The dragon ones I thought I had finished, but there are two more! Sent the first one to Tony. And on a different note, did everyone see that Jeremy from Zits finally got his DL???????

after camp

We dashed to the coast to pick up Jon from camp and now we are home. Registration is on Thursday and the nights are getting cooler. I like the cooler nights, but am not ready for school days.

Here are the crosses and a bird that, as we look closer is probably a vulture. It was in the trees near the crosses and last there is an overview of camp. Jon was kinda sad as they did not hike up to the crosses as a group this year. We drove up! It is a very long way!

Am reading some more of Patricia Briggs. I think she is a new one of my favorite authors!

The cats and the Toyota

Here is a photo by photo scene of Moses and the Toyota. Later, as you can see, Maxwell hops up. We are not sure exactly what they were doing in the Toyota, but it makes for an interesting montage. It may have been that Rusty cat likes to sleep in it.

They were on the roof and inside, too. Unfortunately, they had their backs to the camera and the pictures would not have been very flattering, even for a cat.

Jon is now at camp again. I will post more pictures of that later. There is a great blog on the missions building at Camp Wi-Ne-Ma over in my blog section. It has finally cooled off. Now it is only 80 degrees outside at noon!

Books I am reading: Black Powder War. This is the last in that series. Not as good as the Patricia Briggs books I just read, but not bad at all.

too hot

Just a couple of cat pictures. Unlike Kanga and Daddy Bird (Living the Travel Channel), we have barely stirred this last week or so. It is too hot. Today the temps have dropped and it is only 90 degrees at noon. Anyway, here are Max and Moses, late at night, waiting for all the lights to go out so they can play.

Camping pix...

These are some photos Jon took while camping. The first one is in May, it is of a bull snake he and the leader found. The rest are at Baldwin. Jon caught two fish (no, they were not red or blue...) and a crawdad. He ate them all.





This photo disk was an odd one to work with and get pictures from. But, there you have it. Summer camp with the boys!

Reading a Mercedes Lackey Valedmar book. I don't care for the main character, though.