i'm going to stop my regularly scheduled day to bring you a blog post.

(that means editing client files is going to be on hold for a while).

: )

i uploaded the photos a few days ago and that's what takes the longest, so now i'll

just chat a little and hit publish.

the first few photos were taken right after i

wrapped up a photo shoot. it was a senior guy and it was the surprise of

the year for me.

there was rain in the forecast, but the mom and i decided to take a chance and not cancel

 and as i was driving to their home the skies opened up and it started to pour!!

mom saw me pull up and ran out to walk me in under an umbrella.

(she was soooo much fun).

i went in totally thinking we'd just talk a little and figure out our

reschedule date.

nope.

mom told me her son had been dressed in his suit ready for his pictures for

over 2 hours and that he has loved rain since he was a little boy.

*fellow rain lover? yes we clicked.

then she asked if i was game to take his pictures outside. in the pouring rain.

he in his suit and dress shoes, me under her umbrella and i

was all about it!

i love a challenge and trying something artsy and new.

*if you want to see more of that session watch for it on face book under

brown sparrow studio.

***************

i came back home afterwards and sat in the garage and just watched it rain.

it was beautiful and relaxing and good.

rain bouncing back up off a table~

raindrops dancing off the pavement.

and running off the roof.

and watering my gardens.

these photos are taken another day when it was sunny.

i have morning glories in my window box again and it fascinates me

how they reach out and trail all over, grabbing onto anything within their reach

and vining around it. don't you love their heart shaped leaves and bright blue blossoms?

this is a surprise guest in the garden this summer. no one planted pumpkins but i wonder if

squirrels carried the seeds in. this is one plant. yep just one lone plant that

came up in the landscaping rocks! if the critters don't get to it first, i'm going

to have a homegrown jack o'lantern this year.*score!

i hung a garland across the swing frame and have loved it cheerfully fading in

the summer sun.

scarlet runner beans growing on the picket fence.

other than the japenese beetles messing with things, my plot at the community

gardens in town have been really fun this year.

they hung a new sign recently and it just so happens to be right in front of my garden.

yep those are my sunflowers peeking out of the fence to say hi.

another gardener made these for her garden... ka-ute!
(lettuce romaine calm).

dill.

here's a couple shots of my happy little cutting garden.

i got my butt out of bed and made coffee, grabbed my camera and walked up to the

garden before the sun was even up one day. it was dewey and quiet up there.

i surprised a few rabbits who were sneaking their breakfast on the way in.

this is what i've got growing there. (a handful of happy)!

in my own garden at home i'm again enjoying dahlias this year.

this plant below is taller than i am you guys!!

it has taken a lot of staking and tying up to keep them from toppling over

and i have had two huge sections- full of buds- break off much to my

dismay, so next year i'm going to put a real fence post in the middle for support.

cosmos. i'm a fan.

and speaking of our yard... i've been trying to remember to show you what showed up in

our woodpile on the 4th of july. our dog smelled him and barked and

that's how lars discovered him sleeping on his back, wedged down in there

looking up at us like "what? move along... there's nothing to see here folks".

check out the possum's long feet. woa  these guys are way bigger than i realized.

it was about the size of a cat.

i don't want to end on that pink nose (although it is kind of cute) so here are a few

last pictures of my flowers.

if you're reading this and you live near me, i'd love you to go pick yourself a big

happy bouquet of flowers from my cutting garden!

xo, beth

my silly sister~

my sister and her hubbie live on a farm. they have critters on their farm and

today i  thought i'd give you a walk around with me to meet some of them.

(this is just some of them...i missed Shasta the dog and about 32 cats).

let's start with nimrod the goat. grampa david got this goat in the spring for their

granddaughter isie. she toyed with the idea of entering it in the fair but

instead she just comes out to the farm to play with him and hear him

bleat "baaaaaaa" real loud.

goats are funny and entertaining and unpredictable and he's all of that.

: )

my sis gets stuck doing the chores (which for you non-farm kids means feeding them) a lot.

her hubs works long hours and is gone overnight a fair amount this time of year. i followed sis

around their peaceful farm and watched her bring water and food to the animals and laughed

at her (ahem...with her) as she spit and sputtered about how she doesn't really

enjoy this part of farm life, but hey someone's gotta do it.

i was back home for a family reunion and hadn't been to my sister's

for over a year. that's weird to even write because even though we haven't lived

in the same town since we graduated from high school, when we were younger

and raising our kids we'd probably never go a month without seeing each other.

 next up was the chickens. it was a hot evening when i was there and the

hens were lined up in the hen house window trying to stay cool.

"hello there girls! nice to see you, but shouldn't you be over on your nests laying an egg or

two for my breakfast"?

don't you love the girls only painted on the chicken coop?

this is the granary and silos. dawn also painted a cool American flag

on this building that greeted us for many years, but rats- last year when the

granary got painted it was covered up.

say hi to the dog with no name.

 no- just kidding, he does have a name, but sis doesn't use it.

this is the dog that has tormented her and caused her to have nightmares.

all this poor dog wants is a chance to live in the house like the other dogs,

but nope.

they got him to guard the farm and he has to stay outside and bark at everything

like a good guard dog should.

in the meantime he jumps up and looks in the windows at the nice

family who lives in the house and scares and irritates them.

(hi peaches).

*i mean seriously. how cute is this face?

this is called a machine shed. that's because farmers use a big building like

this to store their machinery in.

nimrod lives in here too.

the big farmhouse my sister lives in is well over 100 years old and has

always been in my brother in law's family.

it's a really cool house and

they have remodeled it and made it so nice.

it used to have a wrap around porch on it.

why would anyone EvAr take that off? (that was done many

years before dawn and dave bought it.)

my apologies to the 39 (or so) cats. i didn't take any pictures of them. they have a purpose

on a farm too. they are the rodent police.

that's why they let a lot of them live there.

more cats = less rodents

***************************

and here is "baby girl"

this is my sister's new baby.

she's never fallen in love with a pet before, but this winter after

turning 60 and finding out she had thyroid cancer in the same week,

she decided she needed something new in her life to bring her joy.

and man does she love this little girl dog.

she named her cherkhan and won't stand for me trying to

nickname her like i want to.

*my ideas were:

cher

khan

sherry

khan man

CK

(all good i thought)

although my sister is totally gaga about this little critter, she also wants her to

be a "good dog" so there is an obedience stick on the table.

(it's a empty paper towel roll).

it totally cracked me up when CK came from the laundry room with a

sock and wouldn't drop it when asked, so here they are having

a battle of wills over it.

bahahahahahahaha

(obedience stick in hand~ see)

dawnie is more bark than bite though, so don't worry about the doggie being

mistreated. recently CK got on the table and chewed up sis's

expensive perscription glasses during the night.

sis's response?

"baby girl didn't mean to do it."

yesterday she sent pictures of CK after she gave her a haircut herself.

it was tragic.

just say'n.

it'll grow back in about 5 minutes though so it's all good!

I'm seriously so happy for her that she has this sweet

little companion to cuddle up with and love on.

CK is going to have a good life on the farm.

aren't they just the cutest?

love you dawnie irene~

be well,

xo, beth

i just came off a busy travel week. first we were at our cabin for 3 days,

where we celebrated our oldest's birthday, floated the river and played

competitive games till the wee hours of the morning.

then i was home for a day before heading to

northfield mn. to spend time with two of my best friends.

if you read my blog, you've heard me say before how much i love northfield.

it's kind of norman rockwell-ish.

any town built on a river is usually very picturesque.

there are two colleges in northfield and there are just amazing

homes. one of my favorite things to do, is drive around the

beautiful old neighborhoods and admire the stately homes and landscaped yards.

they are beautiful in the summer-lush and colorful and if you

get a chance to see them in the winter you're in for a treat.

lots of big porches covered in fresh greenery and twinkly lights.

anyhoo... i arrived at christa's on tues and couldn't wait to see her and

her family. she's always tweaking her house and they had installed new

floors and moved all three of her boys to a big, newly remodeled bedroom

in their lower level, so that meant there was also a brand new guest room

upstairs and she had it all ready for me!

here's a photo gallery of the 3 days of fun i had with christa and her

sister maggie. (i love those two...they make me laugh like no other).

*laughing is good. we don't laugh enough folks, so here's some advice:

find some friends who make you laugh. then spend as much

time with them as you possibly can. make it a priority.

christa's pretty front porch

christa is mom to 3 boys. they are going to a variety of camps this summer

and when i got to their house, just the youngest musketeer was home.

they all like some undivided attention from me.
(even the daddy...who showed me the best team building trick that night),
so it was perfect~
i got to hang out with "the baby" while mom went to pick up the brothers.

we talked and read books and then i got a wild hair to give him

"wild hair" to surprise them.

love a good clothes line.

benny loved his crazy hair and kept looking at his reflection in the windows...hahaha

(isn't he a cutie????)

christa had this sweet bouquet on my bedside table~

and this on my bed.

: )

i took a bunch of pictures of their house to show you because it's so interesting.

they are a musical family and have a dedicated space in the living room for

instruments and practicing. they have a keyboard, drums, ukulele, and as

you can see a bunch of guitars.

the papa bear, joe, is into carving. he's made all these hand carved wooden

spoons. not too long ago he was in the garage carving after the rest of family was in bed

and his knife slipped resulting in a trip to urgent care for stiches.

uff da.

(i didn't see any blood on the spoons.) ; )

the udels got a camper this spring and a friend cross stitched this for them.
ka-uuute.

a really, really old wind up toy on the back of the stove.

bathroom pretties

christa's mom  (my friend leslie) gave her this house. it's a vase.

christa put zinnias in it later in the day-

c. introduced me to truly.

early wednesday morning, we got the two youngest boys delivered to their respective

camps and isaac, christa and i headed out to a pick your own blueberry patch.

this was an experience i'd never had. (two new experiences in one week- blueberry
picking + tubing down a river).

it was the easiest berry picking i've ever done. if you get a chance go

do it! the bushes are about hip high and there's no thorns...there's also

about a million berries per bush, so even though it was about 90 degrees, we put on

sunscreen and picked

for about an hour and a half. we each went home with about 4 lbs.

now this is funny. when we got in the house with our precious berries we discussed

how we didn't want the kids to get to them and eat them all...and we knew we

had to hide them right? christa reached up to put her box full on top of the

fridge and dropped them. yep...all 5000 berries fell to the floor and rolled

across the room till some hit the fireplace on the opposite wall.

it was funny/not funny.

she yelped and may have used some colorful language and then we

proceeded to scoop them back up. (her one by one...she was feeling

protective after all our hard work, me? i got a cookie sheet and started

herding them towards her to get the job done).

she decided karma had played her a quick visit since she was trying to

hide them from her kids.

after lunch went out to the farm where c. has a crop share.

this is the 3rd year that i've had the pleasure to go with her when i was

in town. she goes once a week to get fresh vegetables and pick flowers.

the flowers were blooming so abundantly that you could pick as many as

you wanted.

*(and believe me, we wanted a lot).

unlimited flowers? why yes, yes we will fill our buckets! thanks!!

then a strange, funny thing happened out at the farm. i accidently

picked up someone else's bag, full of their share of

the weeks veggies, and put it in our car. i thought it was christa's.

it was an accident you guys! seriously- i don't even really like vegetables...

*more stuff to laugh about!

: )

this is some of the marvelous flowers we picked.

does anyone know what the long pink flowers are in the vase below? i love them.

   

this is gretchen. (gretchie sue to us). gretchen and christa are good friends and they both lived

and taught school in morris mn. now they have all moved to northfield and i was

so excited when christa told me that gretch had invited us over for coffee. : )

her house was just wonderful (like her) and she

treated us to handmade cheese, yummy fruit and muffins.

after all that fun, we just had time to pick up a kid or two and rush back to

the house to greet maggie and josie who'd arrived and get ready for an evening in the country

at Red Barn Farm.

this is a seasonal, really fun event that is open to the public.

the crew at RBF cook up the most delicious pizzas in a wood fired brick oven out

on their farm.  (wednesday nights in the summer)  hungry people travel there in droves

to sit on blankets, drink adult beverages (or water-whatev's), listen to

music and just soak up all that is good in the world,

on a minnesota summer night.

we got there early. by the time we left there were solid people having their picnics under

the night sky.

maggie walked will and josie over to say hi to the horses.

doesn't this make you hungry??

ben and jos stood right in the front of the entertainer and made us laugh with

their rapt attention.

yes we did bring a vase of flowers with us to red barn farm.

we're fun like that.

people bring tables, and candles, and chairs and wine and

it's just one big party out on the farm.

*me with the sisters that make my life sweeter~ (and funnier).

i brought some little tart shells and we let the kids make their own bed snacks

when we got home.

then they were promptly sent to bed and us moms had root beer floats!

~ "shhhhhhh"

ok, this is day 3. we went downtown in the morning and poked around in our 4 favorite shops before

having lunch at hogan brothers. while we were in a fun art supply store christa and i

decided to copy their front window idea, so she bought twine and some polaroid

photos and we carried on and re-created the look in her porch.

we both loved it and i think it looks like you're in a fun camper out there

                                                                    p.s. i need a porch.

i know this is getting really long. but hey i don't blog that often anymore so

don't be all impatient with me ok?  ok. thx.

the udels have summer rules at their house and i liked them enough

to show you what they require their boys to do before they can use

technology.

it's good right?

jobs done. shared screen time and carmel apple suckers.

(you can count on me to bring the junk food to any party).

: )

the last photos i wanted to share are some of the art that christa's boys have

made in school. you guys~ my kids brought home paper plates with googly

eye's glued on them.

now this? this is art.

their art teacher, (fabulous angie) has the best ideas and i am

always blown away when i see what the kids have produced!!

like this:

and this:

for a school project, will made this amazing kermit the frog puppet.

grama leslie and grandpa bob helped him with the concept but he really did

the work by himself i guess. (even sewing on the sewing machine.)

so, so great.

yep, one of the boys made this artwork~

right before i left, christa asked me if i would please help her

hang an assortment of artsy stuff on her front entry wall.

she had these things laid out and we walked around her house and

tried many other things before we settled on the combination that we

both thought was the cat's meow to welcome her guests when they walked in.

i LOVE this wall.

stinking cute and whimsical and artsy and fun.

kind of can't wait to go back to open their front door and see

this great big

HI.

it was just the best 3 day get away of the summer for me...

: )  : )  : )

thank you christa and Maggie for all the fun and laughter and

for always making me feel young when i'm with you.

xox, beth

*then i came home for a day and got back in the jeep and headed west

to stay with my sis and attend the 38th Baldwin family reunion.

more on that in my next post!