Congratulations Travis and Ashley!

~ CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR WEDDING!~
Travis and Ashley, August 22nd, 2009 Here is a photograph of my oldest son Travis and his wife Ashley, who were married here on August 22nd, 2009. They are the parents of my grandson Ryan, who is shown in his (serious) wedding finery above! Much love and best wishes!

This is my family... my brother and his wife, my mom and I, and my children and their families, except my grandson Anthony did not get in the pictures, as he was too busy playing!

Here is Anthony sneaking off with a fruit kabob!

Well, I figured I'd best get to writing here again, lest I be too forgotten! WHERE did August go to? And how did September get here already? Aside from the wedding, not much out of the ordinary happening around here. The weather has been beautiful, and the gardens continue to grow and flourish... unaware of the impending frosts that will soon come and end their lovliness. I've been dehydrating zucchini, mushrooms, and green beans, and making Hot Dill Pickles, thanks to an exuberant crop of cucumbers. They have been coming on so fast that the chickens and geese and guineas and ducks have been feasting on too-late-found, too-large cukes and zukes! Even though I planted a late crop of peas, the weather got too hot again and thus they are spent for the season. There are lovely orange Cinderella Pumpkins and some rather green Howden's coming along. Fall Raspberries are beginning to ripen, and I've had a few Ever-Bearing Strawberries to snack on as I continue to weed and tidy up. I really need to transplant the beautiful autumn Forget-Me-Nots that have taken over a portion of the Berry Garden. I started them from seed last July, and they scattered themselves all over the garden, even managing to spill out onto the pea stone pathways. They are such a lovely shade of china-blue!

The Morning Glories have been rampant in their growth, taking over the fence, sunflowers, and even growing along the ground, wrapping their tendrils 'round any plant in sight. For years, I've not planted any deep-violet Grandpa Ott Morning Glories, as they've reseeded themselves year after year. But I did seed several new varieties this spring in different shades of sky blue... each with a lighter-or-darker star in the center. They are rambling over the back fences and across the arbor that is filled with the Hops Vine that was transplanted this summer from mom's garden. I really need to pick and dry the Hops flowers, too. This morning, I finished harvesting and bundling bunches of snowy white Artemesia and hung them to dry in the garden shed. And I finally salvaged a single crop of Catnip from the evil paws of our seven cats, and that must be tended to this week. There are bunches of Basil waiting to be dehydrated for seasoning, as well as to be made into batches of Pesto. I made a triple batch last week and got that frozen, but must get the rest into the freezer lest a frost ruins the whole lot. So all in all, a very good gardening season, even though it got off to a late start due to cold weather. My daughter and I are anxiously waiting for Apple Season to begin next week. I pressed a bit of Cider last year with our apples, but due to spring frosts, we do not have many on the trees this year. Which is the best excuse I will come up with to visit our local orchard for Cider AND cider doughnuts!

If you want to try a recipe for Apple Pizza, look in my Blog Archives from 2008, and simply scroll down til you seen the Apple Pizza recipe, and click on that! Have a lovely Labor Day weekend!