Last week I received a very special gift in the mail. Fellow blogger, Becky, had a contest on her blog for giving away her newly divided iris rhizomes and I was a lucky winner. In fact, we were all lucky winners! You see, Becky’s iris are special. Many of them have been handed down from her mother. They are part of her familial heritage; family heirlooms. Please take the time to read her background story on the iris, it’s time well spent.
We had such hard rains I decided to wait until after all that was over with before planting them. All that rain helped to facilitate the necessary clearing out and pulling of weeds in what had become a neglected part of my flower bed. I thought the spot would be perfect for them as it’s sunny for much of the day and on a slope. (Becky tells me that iris don’t tolerate weeds very well so I will now have an excuse for keeping this part of the bed weed-free.)
The soil here is rich and dark. I kept unearthing these as I pulled up grass that had sown itself in the bed.
The iris have luscious and mysterious names: Hot Dogs & Mustards; Zandria; Alabaster Unicorn; Nigerian Raspberry; Whipped Honey; Silverado; Saharan Sun.
Soon the planting was finished.
I took a piece of paper outside with me and sketched in where I had planted each variety. Then I came inside and made this, just so I won’t forget. I color-coded the numbers with what I remembered their colors to be (sort of) from seeing them in bloom on Becky’s blog.
There were a few with no names, so when they bloom I will take a photo and Becky can identify them for me. Just like having a surprise package!
Here is where they are planted, in the big bed next to the pool.
I hope they like it here in New Jersey—after all they are all from the Midwest and West. And, I certainly hope they like worms as we seem to have an abundance of them! Thank you, Becky! Can’t wait until next year to see them bloom.
As you already know, Rick and I love to go to the farmer’s market in Warwick, New York. It’s just across the border for us and a lovely drive along Greenwood Lake. Some things remain a constant such as the cheeses and breads from Boblink Farm, the pesto booth, the goat cheese vendor. What doesn’t remain constant is the variety of fruits and vegetables. Let’s see what is now showing up at the market, shall we?
Onions and potatoes abound.
Peppers are popular! So many different kinds!
Leeks are lovely too.
Many shapes and varieties of eggplant are available.
Of course, who can forget apples this time of year?
Even a type of watermelon can still be found.
I couldn’t resist coming home with a few of these gorgeous hydrangeas for drying.
Sure signs of autumn are rows of colorful chrysanthemums and pumpkins.
Remember I posted about having seen a woodchuck in the yard a few weeks back? Well, he has obviously taken up residence with us since I see him nearly every day. Of course I named him Chuck, what else?
His favorite position is hanging over the fence rail looking into the back yard like he’s hanging out a window. I have no idea why he does this. It’s almost like he treats this part of the deck as his private balcony. His own little private view of the world.
His burrow is to the right of where he’s sitting, under the decking. At least I think it is because that’s where he always scurries off to. I have to be very sneaky in order to get photos of him. He senses me in the photos below.
I like having him around. Just another addition to our back yard menagerie. He may not be so welcome come Spring though if he eats my flowers before they bloom! Here he is seen from the other side in his favorite position.
The ferry arrived around 7:45 p.m. and the game was scheduled to start at 8:00 p.m. It was about a ten minute walk from the ferry to the stadium. We walked up to the line feeling pretty good, excited and happy to be there. Then the person taking tickets told us that backpacks weren’t allowed in the stadium and that we’d have to take it back to our car (uhm, no car lady) or check it at the bowling alley across the street. What bowling alley? We sure didn’t see one. If we couldn’t see it it must be further away and how would we have time to collect it after the game? We looked at each other and decided to empty the backpack and leave it behind. Okay, everything out of the pack. Let’s see, binoculars, keys, money, video camera.
Rick walked over to a hot dog vendor and asked him if he was going to be there until the end of the game and could he watch the empty pack for us? He said yes he would for $20. Time was ticking away. Behind us in the stadium the music was reaching a crescendo and the crowd was going wild. We were missing something important! We decided the pack wasn’t worth that much to us and left the pack with the vendor, telling him he could just keep it.
Back in line once again. Uh oh. No video cameras allowed inside the stadium. What?? Such a silly rule since nearly every camera you buy today can take video. But ours was a video camera. Just great. They shuffled us from person to person until one guy pointed out the bowling alley, which really was just across the street. So, Rick went back over to the hot dog vendor (who by this time is thinking we are completely and totally whacky) to reclaim our orphaned backpack and put the video camera back inside. Over to the bowling alley we went where a guy was sitting in front of a tiny room filled with checked items. Five dollars and fifteen minutes later we were finally on our way back to the stadium. Really, the camera is so tiny Rick could have put it in his jacket pocket and gotten away with smuggling it in but we didn’t want to risk another timely setback.
Inside everyone was on their feet and we had to ask several nice people where our seats were located because we couldn’t find them. Turns out someone was using our seats, so we go that straightened out. Finally we were in our seats and the game was about to begin.
So, sing along with me, won’t you? If you don’t know the tune to Take Me Out to the Ball Game, just click on the link to get you started.
Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd.
Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack,
I don’t care if I never get back,
Let me root, root, root for the home team,
If they don’t win it’s a shame.
For it’s one, two, three strikes, you’re out,
At the old ball game.
Two exciting home runs! The Yankees won of course. We left at the bottom of the 8th inning so we would have enough time to get back to the ferry (it leaves 20 minutes after the last out) and collect our backpack. I’m glad we had the chance to be there on the last night.
The ferry ride back was quicker and quite chilly. Here are two strange photos that could be abstract paintings I took on the way back. Does anyone know why the Chrysler Building has that strange upside-down superimposed image beside it?
And yes, that white blob in the photo above is the moon!
We finally tumbled into our bed at 3:00 a.m. A late night, but worth it!
For more great photos of this epic event please check out a fellow blogger’s great pics!
