succulents in an old chair

A few years ago we garbage picked this old chair. It was ugly, but I thought it would be good for… something… I can’t remember what? Anyway, I gave it to Karen and Ryan and they “up-cycled” it for me into a bird bath. Very cute in the kid’s garden, but as all the plants have grown we ran out of room for the chair. Time to up-cycle again…

Grace and the soon-to-be kindergarten gang came over to watch. They heard I had the staple gun out and evidently that means “Ms. Theresa is up to something.” Good thing too because soon-to-be kindergarten students are great a demo work – too bad I grabbed the camera too late for that 😦

Once we had it down to just the chair with a hole in it we pulled out a scrap of burlap that I just happened to have in the basement. We stapled it on all hodge-podge to make a basket for the plants.

I recently bought a bunch of succulents at my favorite nursery using a gift card from one of my favorite students. We planted right in the burlap basket and found a place for the chair in one of the last empty spots in the garden.

Grace added a rock collection that she brought back from Lake Michigan yesterday, and a gourd bird house that has been unoccupied this summer.

And there it is… a bunch of succulents in an old chair… I hope the soon-to-be kindergarten gang, now jumping on the neighbors trampoline, is impressed!

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stepping stones… a fair project for the garden

This is another one of the entries that Truman showed at the fair. Grace and Anna Mae made a stepping stone too. We have supplies for Cole when he gets back – don’t worry.

The stepping-stones were made with a kit. We found everything we needed at Hobby Lobby.

I put Tim in charge of this one – I thought the kids could use some Dad time doing something other than sports. It was a hit and will be great in the yard. I love that I have a plan for all the projects this year…

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our first days exploring

Yesterday afternoon we went for a drive down the peninsula. We can now officially say we have been to Hel and back as it is the tip of the peninsula that is called Hel. Along the way we saw small villages, mostly fishing and tourism. It is high season and the tourists are everywhere. Kiosks trail the roads full of trinkets and souvenirs for people on holiday.

Bikes, cars, and people make the roads crowded and I worried for awhile about Tomasz, our host, driving us around. I am an accomplished anti-backseat driver so I decided to continue my philosophy and not think too much about it. It turned out we were more than fine and had a great time exploring.

My favorite place was Jastarnia where I saw the Konkel house and the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church; a boat hangs from the wall and Cole found ice cream outside.

Cole especially liked the open air military museum where we saw a number of bombs and weapons used to protect the peninsula during World War II.

Today we road our bikes to Puck on the bay side where we met Brunon, Grandpa Konkel of the same generation as my parents. There is an entire book written about how we are all related and if you are terribly interested I can put you in touch with the editor, my dad, who loves to tell the story.

For now I want to share how much we enjoyed Brunon’s home. I can hardly believe that dad did not prepare us for all the fun. We simply knew that he had hens. Now we can add ducks, rabbits, carrots, apples, berries, and a mini-farm waiting to be explored. Cole looks forward to going back. I found a rose garden, a cup of tea, and strawberry dessert – Brunon’s wife Stefania knew exactly how to make me feel spoiled!

We spent the late afternoon at the beach. On the north side of Władysławowie just across the street from Baltos the beach is beautiful, clean, and full of tourists. It was a fun place to do some people watching and let the boys play in the sand.

Tonight we are a little saddle sore and very tired. We are planning more site seeing tomorrow.

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butterfly bath

I came up with a fun idea for the butterfly garden — a butterfly bath. After reading that butterflies like to drink water and land on something shallow – I thought this would be a cool addition what will soon bloom into a colorful corner of my back yard.

I used a platter and tea cups that I found at a thrift shop. Bought the planter and the hardware for almost nothing and talked Tim into pulling out the hammer drill to make it easy.

I have been letting the rain fill it up – but if I water the flowers I give it a little splash as well. I read that the butterflies also like a little sugar in their water, but that sounds like one more thing I have to worry about – so this little bit of whimzy and plain water will have to do for now…

If I get a photo of a butterfly on the bath – I’ll be sure to share. There have been a few visits, but I’m not quite fast enough with the camera.

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The Little Tree

There is a fire-prairie crabapple tree right outside my window. Tim and I planted it last summer in the same place where a similar tree had stood. Unfortunately, the past tree was caught off guard by a rare northwest wind. We were sad, but I found a smaller tree on sale and tried not to think about it too much.

We took the new tree out of the only home it had known – a brown plastic garden store pot. We planted the tree and then sunk two thick metal sticks into the earth just to the northeast and to the southwest of the tree. We wrapped straps made from the same material used to make tires around the tree trunk and tied it to the sticks. Like a boy scout, this tree would be prepared.

The tree looked beautiful, proud, and sturdy for a week. Then, it began to miss it’s pot. It had a temper tantrum and threw all it’s leaves to the ground. It was alive, but stubborn. It sulked through the summer – naked and narrow – but well staked.

When autumn arrived and the other trees dropped their leaves the little tree outside my window stopped looking so out of place. I forgot the tree’s prior bad attitude and forgave it for misbehaving. As one of my charges, I kept an eye on the tree through the winter as it slept.

Now, spring’s arrival put an end to the long nap. Last week I saw six tiny yellow finches sitting on top of each of the highest branches. Playmates. The birds swayed in circles, like heavy ornaments atop the tree’s tiny arms. Since then the tree has begun to blush the beginning of pink buds. A patient parent I am happy to see the change.  Distracted from the toy I took away, deciding to be happy in it’s new home.

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