Right now, tomatoes are my LEAST favorite reseeders! They grew everywhere this year, even more than last year. Must have been in the compost and not cooked enough. Hating goldenrod - it tries to take over and there are several different kinds here; I was coddling one thinking it was Balloon Flower. Love: Alyssum Petunias Forget me nots Cosmos Ageratum (they don't flower as fast as indoor starts) Violas, but they petered out this year after a 5 year run First year trial: blue woodruff - asperula - is supposed to reseed. I threw some seed on the ground just a few weeks ago and it is already blooming. Hope it comes back. It's a lovely delicate blue flower.

OHHH GOSH!! I must go get some of those orange and black wrapped things before their gone Sunday!...their like taffee but taste like honey/peanut butter...sort of like a soft Mary Jane candy...

My Grandad was a dairy farmer who farmed the old way with horses and such, and I spent every available moment at the farm. I have so many memories of Grandpa that I hardly know where to start, but I think one of my fondest memories was when I was 5 years old. They were hauling hay and I was riding the wagon, basically just getting underfoot so Grandpa worked out a solution. He had me stand at the front of the wagon and handed me the reins for the horses, he said, "if your gonna be in the field you gotta work, so you drive the team"....and I learned how to drive a team of work horses that day. (now keep in mind that Grandpa still had total voice command over the horses if a problem should arise). Grandpa was also a blacksmith and at 12 years old I was hanging out in the shop watching him work at the forge & anvil, and he says,,,"step over here boy,,its time you learned to make horse shoes too"... You can be sure my first attempt was at best almost a failure,,but i still have that horseshoe as a fond rememberance of Grandpa. For recreation Grandpa played a fiddle and had a job on weekends playing fiddle and calling Square Dances in a band at a local dance hall. I can remember many a night we would finally be done with all our chores about 9pm, go to the house and have a late supper, then Grandpa would take his fiddle down and play for an hour or so before we went to bed. When I turned 16 Grandpa used to take me with him to the dance hall, and that is where I learned to dance waltz's, Polka's, Foxtrots and Square Dances. I also used to love to hang around in the kitchen and Grandma taught me how to catch and clean a chicken, duck or goose, cook, bake bread, pies or home can fruits and veggies, but my fondest memories of Grandma were also late in the evening just before bedtime. Grandma never had a haircut in her life, but she always wore her hair up in a bunn. In the evening she would sit on a dining chair in the kitchen and let her hair down, and it would reach the floor, and I used to sit behind her and comb it out while Grandpa played the fiddle. At bedtime Grandma would open the oven on her old coal stove and take out a big firebrick that she had heated up. She would wrap that brick with a towel and I would head up to the bedroom, brick in hand. The brick was placed under the covers at the foot of the bed to keep our feet warm.

I love the functional things that we changed in our "refresh" last year: a large single-bowl sink, wipeable tile backsplash, replacing light-sucking black appliances with light-reflective stainless, converting base cabinets to drawer bases with soft close slides, adding a light-reflective quartz countertop on the sink side & a warm cherry butcherblock countertop by the range, and replacing upper cabinets with open shelving for everyday dishes, Our kitchen had an existing seating area with built-in banquette, which we (and our cats) love, and use daily.