Free Trees - We Love Free Trees, Y'all

   It's a beautiful start to the week here in the foothills with mild, sunny weather.

 Mr. Cardinal looking for sunflower seeds beneath the hanging feeder.

 

What a face.

 

Our neighbors have a pine tree in their backyard that over hangs part of our pasture behind their house. As is the way with nature, the pine cones fall and the cycle of renewal begins, again. I love nature the way God intended it. 

 So, I recently dug up 10 free pine trees in our pasture that started from their tree. I do love free trees. I'm going to keep them in pots until fall when I can set them out along our back fence line without having to carry water to them during a long, hot summer. I might share a few, also. ;) We are still hoping to sell our house, but if that doesn't happen we will probably have new neighbors behind us, eventually. A nice row of pine trees will soften that situation a bit for us, methinks.

Update 6/9/14:   I decided to leave the trees to winter in their pots since they were so small last year.  They would have been lost in the grass at the back of the pasture so here they are a year later with nearly a foot of spring growth.  I plan to set out them out in the fall this year for sure.  The 8 that survived our bitter winter, that is.

 Love these petunias on the front porch. Nothing says welcome home to me like pink petunias.

 

Authentic Indian Chai ... our youngest granddaughter says it tastes like a good donut. I say hold the milk down to a dribble and make it spicier, but you might like it as is. Anyhoo - give it a try, you just might like it. We added a sprinkle of cinnamon on top for a little added zip. Click the link, there's a cool story about this chai recipe that I like nearly as much as the tea itself.  And did you know that a cup of chai tea will help if you're having an asthma attack?  Yes, the spices help open the airways.  

Until next time ... hope there's plenty o' lilies in all of your valleys. :)

Linking with The BackYard Farming Connection, The Art of Home-Making Mondays

Enthrawlin', Completely Enthrawlin'

Feel that chill in the air? We're having a li'l blackberry winter here in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. I don't mind it a bit, though; it sure makes a nice cup of coffee seem extra good. Here's a look at my purple clematis.Goodman and I went to Virginia to see Youngest and her DH over the weekend. We had a good visit with them and a very nice time taking in several of their area nurseries. We stopped at the first two and just enjoyed looking, but at the last one this beautiful hanging basket of petite petunias called Superbells caught my eye almost immediately. Youngest noticed how much I liked them and snapped it up for me for Mother's Day. (It looks even better in person. :)Truly, I'd planned to just look at all the nurseries' offerings, but this burgundy petunia was too pretty to resist. I do love burgundy flowers and petunias especially.
On the way back home we decided to take a back road near the mountains, and what do you think we passed right by? Uh huh, the Lodge Factory Outlet Store in Sevierville. It's one of my favorite places to browse. I could spend a lot of time in there. It takes a while to look at all their cast iron pots and pans and fireplace accessories, etc., but this skillet stood out right away. Yep, those bears followed me all the way home.
Remember the circular shawl I started a few weeks ago? Well, I've run into two problems with it. First, a disheartening mistake further back than the ones I'd already redone, and then..the book that the pattern is in has vanished. I'm at a loss as to what's happened to it and, frankly, I don't want to think about it right now. See, we took four or five boxes of books to the Habitat Thrift Store recently...oh, yeah. Sigh. So, pressing ever onward, I started crocheting this completely enthrawlin' little shawl. The yarn is CotLin from Knitpicks in their Linen colorway. I'm about one-third finished with the body of the shawl and will start the border very soon, hopefully.
Hope your week is a good 'un. :)