Happy Thanksgiving

Dollar Tree and Boutique Decorations

I decided to see what I could do with just decorations from the dollar tree, so I have giant snowflakes and large red ball ornaments. The happy snowman, the turkey windsock, a couple lanterns, a weather thermometer and misc decorations.

Here are a couple pictures...Owen and Hali LOVE the decorations.

Holiday Season

The leaves got raked.
The potting shed got turned back into a garage
The snowblower is ready as are the shovels.
The decorations are put in place...snow flakes and red balls this year, no lights
A new temp gauge is placed on the south fence
A couple lanterns are hung and a couple solar lights placed.
Decorated the large planter with red twig dogwood and evergreen bows.
And the snow man from the boutique is wishing everyone that passes a Happy Holiday.

Raking Leaves

Today I looked at the leaves and thought, oh gosh, I've got to get out there and rake them up for the gardens and the compost. And I will do that too, only just not today. I did, however, put up a little turkey flag sort of thing for a decoration and took down the ghosts that I had up for Halloween. Yesterday I took the grandchildren on a field trip to DePere thrift store and Burger King and the turkey flag thing is what Hali picked out. We also got some wonderful winter boots for each of the kids for only 25 cents a pair.

Spring like weather

Of course the warm weather is gone now but it left behind Magnolias that are growing. Looks like new leaves coming out. I hope this doesn't cause harm to this beautiful little tree.

Most of the flowers are gone now with the cold and snow that we've had in the last 24 hours. Still have the yellow tuberous begonia, a few lavender flowers, and one Mum plant is still flowering. It's one I got from my brother that appeared dead when I got it in the summer. The leaves have finally turned on the red maple and they will be coming down soon. They are wonderful mulch and I hope I can get them raked up before a lot of snow comes. I have the snow blower all tuned up and ready to go, but I don't have my garden shed turned back into a garage yet. I'll wait for a sunny day as that seems to make it easier to do and I can always bring out my small heater to keep warm. I have some decorations to put along the south fence for winter viewing LOL. That's about it, except to keep warm. Oh, I was going to get a new car before winter but now I don't think I will. I've had my old gray Honda so long that I'm having trouble parting with it. Like an old friend. It's a 1990 with almost 200,000 miles on it. That doesn't seem so long ago, but I guess it is for a car.

Around town

Went to get my flu shot today...I had an appointment...they said I was too sick and wouldn't give it to me. Have to go back on Monday. I feel better, just tired, but they said I still have low grade fever. It's always something isn't it. These pictures are all adjusted to comic view, it's a sign of the times.

Walter the tree and the sparrows feeding area. Looks like it was the hawks feeding area today as well. This is also my mini forrest and swimming area.

Here is the squirrel feeding station and several baby trees. Owen and Hali got them during a scavenger hunt this summer. Also the back fence that usually has beautiful Sweet Autumn Clemitis in bloom.

On the left is my compost bin that I've had for years and years. In the back over there is my shade garden and I can't think of what the plants are called. The sandbox area (better known as the beach) is in the front, and along the fence are the grape vines. No grapes this year, the blossoms were frozen out in the late Spring killing frost. On the right that tree trunk is my maple. It's a red maple but it sure puts out some wonderful syrup.

Guess what this is...yup it's the piles and piles of salt that they spread on Green Bay roads throughout the winter. I took Owen to see it but he was more interested in the oil refinery area.

My resting place when I'm working too hard. A couple garden chairs and a little fake birdhouse structure. I'm going to leave these out this winter. My butterfly house was here also but I bring that in for the winter. That's my holly on the left, still quite small. As soon as I find out if it's male or female I'll get the other one so I can have those pretty berries. The wonderful thing about this tree is that the beautiful green leaves stay on all winter long.

The oil fields...or oil tanks...or whatever. When I was a teenager one of these blew up and I still think of it as the night of the lights....it was a spooky, end of the world type event...in fact, it was even spooky being this close to them after all these years.

You can see a couple of the oil tankers coming in to fill up or dump off or whatever they do. The bridge in the background is NOT the bridge to nowhere. It actually goes across the Fox River. I was across it once riding with someone else. There was a terrible accident on this bridge and I was working at the hospital when they started bringing the people in...I've never been back across this particular bridge. I'm not so fond of bridges anyway. There's the swinging bridge at Pamperin that moves back and forth, there's the Main Street bridge, that as a child, I was on with my mother and sisters when they started raising it for a ship. There's the bridge in Sturgeon Bay that looks like it's made from a toy frame...none to my liking. Of course, once I did walk across the Fox River railroad bridge to get to Fort Howard Paper Company so I could jump aboard the Rainbow Warrior.

Well I guess I've come to the end of the pictures. If nothing else I got to practice my typing.

Goodnight and have a pleasant tomorrow.

Janice