George and Nellie's Garden... July 11,2018

Tom drove us to Northeastern Ohio to visit my sister and her husband, her daughter, and to visit the Cleveland Art Museum.  After stopping at our niece's embroidery shop and having a good time visiting as we ate lunch with her, we headed toward George and Nellie's.  

We always take time to look at their beautiful flower garden before going out to eat with them.

At the entrance to her garden, my sister  had a new sign.  She said, "We'll see the troll somewhere as we go walking".

She asked me to take a photo of the verbena near the sign.  Some flowers are so tiny it is hard to see the details.  My Olympus Tough (TG-850)  has a Macro option so I was able to get a good closeup.  Interesting to me that the manufacturer used a flower to mark the setting.

She has a wide variety of flowers in her backyard which is one big flower garden.
The flowers that predominate are the lilies and the hostas. Most of the backyard is shady, an ideal place for the hostas.  The lilies glow in areas that get some sun.

There are a variety of borders.  In the first photo, you can see a brick border.  In the second is a stone border.  Nellie and George decide on the look they want and then do whatever they must do to achieve it.

She has  miniature hostas, too.  The gnome gives you an idea of their size.

Hosta blooms.

There are a variety of inhabitants in her garden, too.

Fairies...

Angels...

A colony of gnomes...

Small animals and birds and butterflies...

Buddhas and wind chimes...

Peace...

Shortly after I took this photo I found Twilly Troll.

This is the bridge he lives under.  Remember that sign at the entrance to the garden?

Embroidery in the Age of Computers...Sue Wills' Richland Embroidery Shop

Tom and I took a short trip to northwestern Ohio last week.  Our first stop was to visit with our niece, Sue.

Sue has an embroidery services business in Ontario, Ohio.

Embroidery is a lot different from what it was when I was taking sewing in high school in the 1950s.

This is one of the computer programmed embroidery machines she uses.

Imagine what a person has to know to operate one of these.

She embroiders a wide variety of items.  Tee shirts are popular.

Here are a few of the logos and pictures she has in her files.

She has embroidered ball caps for Tom to advertise his small business.  He puts together videos and copies them to DVDs and flash drives and also does statistical analysis, mostly for the local park district.  He also occasionally provides these services for other individuals and groups.

Since she has an employee to mind the store, she was able to leave her business and have lunch with us at a local pizza parlor.  It was good to talk with her.  We caught up on what she and her family have been doing and told her what has been keeping us and our family busy.

House Guests

Eric was with us for about four months.  He was between apartment leases. He worked at a job about ten minutes away.  Since he had to be at work at 6 AM, this worked out well.

Henry was with us for about three months while Sonja was looking for the perfect house. He helped keep all of us on schedule.  He had regular walk times, regular eating times and regular spots for taking naps.

Both Eric and Henry were good house guests.  We miss them.

Eric helped us get the house winterized.  Henry helped me keep up on my walking regime.  Both of them entertained us.  If it weren't for them, we would be really in the dark about life.  As it is, we're somewhere in the twilight zone.

Now it is 2018.  Eric and Katie are in their new apartment.  Henry is back with Sonja in a roomy new house.  Tom and I are back in our slow, retired mode in the house that we have lived in for almost fifty years.

Change Number One, Remodeling the Bathroom Vanity

Periodically, Tom makes changes to our house to make it more friendly for his scooter and power chair.

The first change he made this summmer was to his bathroom.

This is the vanity that was in his bathroom at the beginning of the summer.  It is now in our basement just in case we want it again.

He used the same washbasin surface but made a new vanity cabinet.  Now he can clean up facing the vanity.  Before he had to work from a sideways position.

He bought the wood at Menards, the big box hardware a couple blocks away after he had designed what he wanted.  A friend brought the materials to our house in his pickup truck.

Here is Tom cutting boards at the saw set up in our garage.

Here he is blowing off the sawdust after he was finished for the day.

Here is one of the finished boards, sanded and varnished.

His friend helped him install the new vanity.

And I sewed up a pair of curtains.

My Sister's Flower Garden ( and my brother-in-law's as well) Ferns, Hostas, Treasures...

 I hope you take time to click on these photos.  A lot of what makes my sister's garden special is in the small details.  You can only see them in a larger photo.

To the right as we walk into the backyard..

To the left as we walk into the backyard.  See Tom in the background?  The garden reaches to the property line.  The total backyard garden is a little over one hundred feet wide and two hundred feet deep.

Joy and Beauty abounds...

The Wood Wizard is reading his book of spells under a tall spreading tree.

Under another tree a red fox listens.

There are newly repainted gnomes for children to delight in finding.

And tucked away in another niche is a family of ducks which my sister  found one by one in various places as she browsed through shops and sales.

Throughout the garden a variety of wind chimes add music.

Here and there are messages that garden lovers realize are true.

There are nearly hidden narrow paths bordered by ferns and hostas.

Chairs and benches, many of them painted by my sister, hold baskets of flowers.

This chair brings back memories for both of us.  Dad brought  home a collection of kindergarten chairs when a school district was disposing of unwanted items.  We used them for teaparties and extra seating for years.

This angel is one my sister bought in memory of my mother.  My mother was a flower lover, too, so this garden is a perfect spot for remembering her.

My sister planted a tribute to one of her very best friends in a quiet back corner.

I enjoyed my walk through my sister's garden.  I enjoyed the love it radiated.  And I loved this quiet peaceful spot where I could sit on a comfortable bench and rest my mind.