Yard Art

This past weekend was the Des Moines Arts Festival.  The show downtown gets the most attention, and sometimes I go.  Artfest Midwest is held at the same time at the fairgrounds, and I always go to it.  One great advantage of Artfest Midwest is that it is here on the east side.  Another is that it is inside the Varied Industries Building and therefore air conditioned.  That was a big factor this year.  Temperatures were in the mid nineties.  The other thing that draws me there is the fact that there are more local and Midwestern artists at this event.  There are also items within my price range.

I like to buy pottery and yard art, and occasionally jewelry.  This is my newest piece of yard art.  This is steel art and I have a whole collection from this artist.  Every year, or just about every year, I add a new piece. These flowers will not wilt or die, guaranteed!

Flower Garden 2016

A lot has changed since my last blog post.  First and foremost, I retired from full time teaching in June 2015.  As I often say to people, apparently I don't fully understand the concept of retirement, because I spent four to five days a week at school.  Beginning in November, I worked as a substitute teacher, and I substituted in grades kindergarten through fifth grade for a total of 59 days.  It was definitely a learning experience.  I also volunteered many of the other days.  I really enjoyed working with small groups of kids.  Now that school is out, I am doing the things I usually do this time of year, working in the garden.

I started seeds around March.  Next year, I will start earlier.  I am really loving my perennials this year.  They are gorgeous!  I love the fact that the Day Lilies, Purple Coneflower, Hostas, and Shasta Daisies return each year, bigger and even more beautiful than the year before.

To see more of this year's flowers, click on the photo above.  It will take you to my Flickr Album:  Garden 2016.

Blogging at Caribou

I'm hanging out at Caribou Coffee and writing the first post for the 20 Day Blogging Challenge. This is an idea I got from Kelly Hines. Here is a link to her post. http://kellyhines.wordpress.com/2013/12/22/self-initiated-blogging-challenge/ Even if I don't get all 20 posts done in the same month, I'll be ahead of what I have been doing. You can find my posts at http://daysclassnotes.blogspot.com/. Wish me luck!

Picking a Pumpkin

Yesterday was the last farmer's market of the season in Ankeny.  There weren't very many vendors there, but the ones that were there had some beautiful pumpkins to choose from.

New Toy

Winnie loves her new toys, and it takes about four minutes before she starts tearing them apart.

Canned Deliciousness

This summer I have made lots of dill pickles, salsa and canned tomatoes.  I will be enjoying them for months to come.

Garden's Bounty

I have really enjoyed my garden this year, even though it was a lot of plants crammed into a very small space.  The squash pretty much took over everything.

The result was some very delicious tomatoes and acorn squash.