Saturday Meanderings

What a week! I have been so busy working on a neighborhood issue that has dominated my life~not much fun! So happy to be here with you this Saturday morning. The weather here has been all across the board, from beautiful fall weather to Emergency Alert dangerous dust storms.

A Week of Clean-up

With wind gusts up to 62 mph and many people without power, we are still cleaning up the yard and pool of tree branches, sticky palm tree berries and dust. Part of the hen house roof blew off and several trees lost limbs and branches. These dust storms are pretty intense!

To make matters even more dusty, we are in the process of putting in the winter lawn. Hence the bare spots in the yard as shown in the picture. The entire lawn needs to be de-thatched and then new winter seed is spread. It’s a big job.

Bird of Prey Sighting

My daughter, Elisabeth captures this photo of a Coopers hawk taking a drink from our fountain.

The adult male has steely blue gray feathers, reddish brown bars on the underside and a long tail. A medium sized bird, they fly fast and low to the ground. Such a great photo capture as he is looking right at her.

Cute Dishes

Look at the sweet dishes I bought on SALE at Ballard Design. I believe they are 70% off (maybe more). The Jacqueline dinner plate is $21.59 for 4 and I think this is less than I paid. You can find it here. Though I didn’t get the soup bowl, they, too are on sale for $21.59 for 4 here. Also, the cup and saucer set is still available and very cute.

At the time of writing this, I believe they may be sold out of the salad/dessert holiday plate. This red and white pattern can be used for Christmas, Valentine’s Day and any patriotic holiday ~truly a bargain!

Making Halloween Candles

How cool are these candles at the tables of The Press Room, aChicago restaurant? Each table has one with the melted wax collecting directly onto the table top. These candles inspired me to start thinking about making something similar for Halloween.

Since we do not get Trick or Treaters, we typically have a Halloween themed dinner party. With discarded bottles and lots of candle stubs, I am recreating the romantic, albeit spooky candle look for the centerpiece.

New Style Tulipiere

Many years ago our family took a cruise of the Baltic Sea, making stops in several countries. Tours included beautiful estates and palaces. It was at that point that I fell in love with tulipieres and the history surrounding tulips.

I am far from having a collection of tulipieres, but I recently added a new style tulipiere from The Enchanted Home. After a long wait, the box finally arrives this week. As you can see, it comes in 4 pieces.

This tulipiere is a larger, a different shape and with bigger spouts for flowers. I cannot wait to fill it up.

If you would like to know more about tulipieres, I wrote a post about this in 2019 here. Maybe I will try to use bulbs in the spouts to see if I can grow tulips.

I Never Tire of this View

Isn’t this the most beautiful, peaceful picture? It is the garden of my friend, Kim from Shiplap and Shells. She takes the BEST pictures and has the most incredible garden and property. I just wish I could transport myself there.

Kim writes a post every Sunday named Saltwater Sounds Weekly. There isn’t a week I miss it because I stare at her photos and always learn a thing or two. So the perfect weekend would be to read Saturday Meanderings and then on Sunday, read Saltwater Sounds. You can find Kim’s most recent post here.

DIY Fall Leaf Table Runner

In the past I have shared innovative projects by Rachel from The Ponds Farmhouse. I love this DIY of burlap maple leaves (who knew Dollar Tree sells these?) and I am thinking of all the places I could use these in my fall decor. Rachel gives a detailed tutorial and this is easy to make for fall entertaining. You can find it here.

When to Harvest Sunflowers

Sunflowers are relatively easy to grow in many USDA zones in the United States. Two years ago I planted a couple of different varieties and had great success. However, I wasn’t sure when to harvest the seeds. The picture above was taken in June, in the heat of the summer. My guess is that I waited too long, as the seeds were too dry.

Stacy from Bricks ‘n Blooms has a great post about this very thing which includes how and when to harvest sunflower seeds. I will be better at researching the best time to grow sunflowers in our 9b USDA zone and maybe I can get the seed harvesting right next time.

You can read her post here. Stacy is a brilliant gardener!

Well, that’s a wrap! I am hoping to work in the garden this weekend and do a little painting, and maybe make some bread. Time to decompress from a stressful week!

Have a beautiful weekend, my friends!