Finding Bliss. 3

There were two trips to the big city last week. I knew I had to take a picture of the morning glories in the back yard where Ali, Sarah and Alex live. Jack Frost will be visiting one of these days and changing the leaves and flowers to brown.

The leaves are my favorite shape and are going to be somewhere in my garden next year. I'll need to think about something tall for them to climb on, as these are over 8 feet tall.

Here is one with the bright zinnias, but I think I want the blue ones or the dark purple.

Besides loving the flowers, I must include the cat this week. This will surprise everyone that she is part of the bliss in my life. Yuna continues to be a pest, yet she is devoted to me, as she was to Wally.

The second trip to the city was for the Park Hill 35th annual home tour.

The homes in this part of Denver are older and so interesting. We couldn't take interior pictures, so I tried to take some outside.

This was the back yard and a familiar fellow was guarding the back entrance/exit.

This weeping tree was gigantic!! The parkway also had a small street fair going on for all the visitors.

The home below is shown in three pictures.

The middle of the house is below.

And the right part of the home. For "traffic flow" we entered on the side patio into the dining room.

Two houses I'd move into!

It was a nice day for the tour and a perfect beginning to fall. My next trips to Denver will be busy as I'll be helping Sarah and Alex move to another part of the metro area where the houses are newer, but not as charming as these.

I hope you will find something in a neighborhood near you that will bring you some bliss this week.

♥♫

Finding Bliss

It's been a long, wet week. More rain in a week in some areas than we usually have in a year. We are a plains desert area. Less than 15 inches in a YEAR.

Thinking about what one would grab if flood waters were only minutes away and there was an evacuation order. And me, being blessed with only normal rain showers at my house and living several miles from the South Platte river. A farmer on the news said the water was a mile wide in places. I tend to believe his estimate as farmers know what they are talking about--just think--as wide as the Mississippi River.

Sunday afternoon I made cookies for lunches this week at church for our emergency responders and displaced people.

This double batch using my favorite mixing tool with a thick wooden handle was supposed to be chocolate chip. The bags of morsels I found in the cupboard were white chocolate and butterscotch and were used instead of making a trip to town. I bake so seldom any more it's a wonder I had any.

I have these metal utensils that I hunted down after watching a PBS cooking show and seeing a man use one when he made bread. I love it so much that I have a short handled one and a long handled one. They come from some country in Europe and make mixing the flour into bread or cookie dough EASY and enjoyable.

I believe I just might grab these if I had only minutes to leave my home.

(Edit: I just saw this on another blog! It is a Danish whisk and can be found on Amazon.)

I thought it would be easier to make cookie bars so that's what I did. Of course, as with any church potluck, there was an abundance of food. Tomorrow's team won't need to fix or bring anything!

Only a few came for lunch today but our Monday team had a great time working together and sharing the delicious food. 

Look for bliss even in devastating times because it is there.

♥♫

Finding Bliss

I've been thinking about what it is I will be posting about when my beloved garden is winding down for this season and no longer full of the color that fills me with joy. I'm not a person that redecorates for each season nor do I paint furniture. Although I do have some painting in my future now that the temperatures will be more pleasant. My crafts at the moment are all figments of my imagination because I'm still cleaning and sorting through almost 40 years worth of teaching materials and  I refuse to take anything downstairs without it being carefully edited first. I don't want to post about the boxes of stuff I'm taking out of the house to the local thrift shop or the boxes of books that are finding new homes.

What came to me today was the word bliss and when I found it on two blogs I read this morning I thought,  "That's what I could try to do each week-my bliss for the previous week." I love the sound of the word.....to me it sounds like its meaning.

♥Bliss is a stage which is above any emotional state that is characterized as peace or happiness (feelings of enjoyment, pleasure, and satisfaction).

 ♥

 Finding a hummingbird moth at rest right by my door and being able to identify one in my friend's garden for her. The moths have been visiting my garden recently and really do look like small hummingbirds as they fly from flower to flower.

 ♥

Shopping at Lowe's 

and talking with a very helpful sales associate.

Wandering around the store and finding some floor tiles that I like and can afford for my kitchen. Perhaps a purchase in the future?

♥

Cooler temperatures!

This week:  86, 76, 80, 79, and 80!!

I'll be looking for more bliss throughout the week.

♥♫

  

Harvest Time

Farmers around here grow lots of corn, both for cutting and harvesting with a combine because cattle and dairy cows need feed in the winter.

Harvest time is here!

Monster corn cutters chop corn and load it into the trucks that follow the harvester.

Corn fields disappear in an afternoon.

Semis loaded with the ensilage slow down for the turn into the dairy next door.

Empty trucks return to the field. 

Over and over.

 

First time I've ever had a video! The harvester is similar to what cut and chopped the corn next door, but the neighbor's corn was still green and not so dried out! And the trucks here are much bigger!! The first two minutes will give you a good idea of what happens.

 

My dad cut corn for our cattle years ago. His cutter only did two rows at a time and the trucks were much smaller. The truck drivers drove to the pit and dumped their load over the side and the packer (tractor) went back and forth over the corn to pack it in. After school my brother and I would always change clothes and go jumping off the sides of the pit down into the soft corn. That was called FUN back in those days! 

Similar to the cutter my dad had and was pulled behind the tractor.

Have some FUN with harvest this week.

♥♫

.

September Summer

Fall?  

No sign of it here!

With temperatures predicted for the rest of the week at 97, 98, 98, and only 96 on Saturday, I am melting!

A plant and its flowers would have gone unnoticed if I were still going to school and wouldn't have been gazing out the kitchen window.  I saw something that seemed out of place - something white in an old compost pile out in the back .  So instead of going out front to water, I went out the back to investigate.

A moonflower. 

That morning there were only two blossoms with several more buds for another evening show.
It's been a while since I've had them in my garden, so was quite surprised. I like how the sun is shining through the bottom of the trumpet!

From the Better Homes and Gardens site:

A "Moonflower is one of the most romantic plants you can grow in the garden. It's a statuesque, ideal evening-garden plant bearing large trumpet-shape flowers that unfurl in the evening (or on overcast days) and stay open until the sun rises. Some are sweetly fragrant when open. This beautiful plant is also very heat- and drought-resistant. Beware: It's quite poisonous, especially the seeds."

Hope your week will be filled with new discoveries!

 ♥♫