Fruit trees are back

Two years ago when we first moved into our house we planted four fruit trees. Two Apples, one peach and one Cherry. We planted them late in the fall so we were very surprised when they flowered the following spring. We were even more surprised that fall when all but one of them produced.









That fall a year after planting we had the pleasure of eating two cherries, four apples and three peaches from our own trees that were just one year old.

This spring we were once again happy to see all four trees budding and we were hoping we would be lucky enough to have them all produce this year. I have been watching the trees closely this spring and am disappointed to say only three of them have leaves. The cherry tree still has small buds on it but they have been there for a couple of weeks now and no leaves have bloomed out.
I wish I could say it will bloom soon but the other three trees got their leaves a couple of weeks ago so I am starting to think the winter has damaged our young fruit tree.

The other tree that is disappointing right now is the apple tree that did not produce last fall. It got many leaves and then flower buds but the flowers bloomed one day and were gone the next. I do not think they had time to be germinated by the bees.
The leaves look great but there are no flowers like the other two. I hope it will surprise me and that the cherry will as well but for now I look forward to the apples and peaches from the other two trees. They look healthy and happy.

bridal shower towel cake

Last weekend Dan and I attend a Jack and Jill Cocktail party wedding shower for some friends of ours. On the invitation they stated that they wanted to think green and we should not wrap any of the gifts. I thought this was a great idea but I wanted to make our gift beautiful and unique while not wrapping it.
With all of these thoughts in mine I decided to make a towel cake. I had done this for other bridal showers and can be very simple. This is also nice because you can get the towels from the registry to use in making the cake and some of the kitchen gagets as well.
The time before that I did this the bride had registered for pink towels so I put it together with those and a tub of kitchen utensils.


The cake came out good but this time I was much more creative.

This time I bought more towels, I did not use a tub of utensils but just some of the kitchen gagets they registered for to decorate and hold the cake together and also made and got some other decorations.
This bride and groom had registered for white towel so the finished producted came out looking even more likea wedding cake. I rolled the the largest towels one inside the next to make the bottom of the cake and then inserted a mixing spoon inbetween the rolles half way in. I made the second layer with the medium size towels and then connected them using the mixing spoon to hold the layers together. I did the same thing witht he small towels and used a spatual between the rolls of the two layers to connect the middle to the top. I wraped each layer with a ribbon and put a bow in back. I cut shapes out with my circut machine and used these with other utensils and fake flowers to decorate. The cake topper was made out of a biscut cutter and fake flowers. I love how this one came out and will continue to use these ideas to build future towel cakes.

In the woods

So while I was in the woods taking pictures of the cave we found Macguyver in I also discovered a wonderful site. There is a small stream that runs along our property and through the back woods near our house. But because of all the water this stream is growing and bubbling like crazy.
The water has created numerous water falls along the path and it twists and turns in many different directions. I was like a kid going along the stream taking pictures and seeing where the water would go. I sat out there for a while just listening to it bubbling over branches, splashing down the rocks into small water falls, and spreading through the woods making new paths.
I enjoyed myself so much when Dan got home that day I took him out to explore it with me.
When Dan and I went out there we took more pictures and explored even further into the woods then I had prior. Besides the stream with the waterfalls, and hidden paths we also saw some wonderful rock walls, a fallen down tree covered in mushrooms and many shades of rocks.
It was a wonderful adventure and a great time in the woods.

My lost Kitten

I went out into the woods near my house today to take some pictures where we found our cat earlier this week. About two Saturday's ago Macguyver was out playing in the yard with Hobbes. Macguyver is not even a year old yet but had been going out for short periods of time and stayed close to the house most times. This day I was out working in the yard and so was Dan most of the day but we did not see either cat, so figured they were out on an adventure together. Later that night Hobbes came to the door to come in but Macguyver was no where to be found.
Every day we looked for Macguyver, we walked the roads near the house we went into the woods and we even walked down the farm near our house (where he was born). We did not find him. :(
We missed our little kitten so we decided to make some fliers. He had a collar with my address and phone number and a micro chip in is back that could be scanned to locate us. But nothing came in from either of those. We figured he lost the collar and was either lost in the woods, someone had taken him in or worse yet the coyotes had gotten him.
Wednesday night we put 50 fliers in our neighbors mailboxes. When we got home I saw a white spot in the woods and like we have done for a while we went out to investigate hoping it was him but thinking it would just be another white bag. But it started to run and Dan followed it. It was him and he was hiding in the back of a small rock cave. When we were really quiet he slowly came out to us. we took him home and now he is save with us.
He was very hungry and scared for a while of any noise, but he was not injured and now he is almost back to his playful self. We are glad he is home and so his is big brother Hobbes.
We will be doing some more training with him before he goes out again and hope he will stay closer to home.