Backyard Pond I'll Miss You

I am moving this week to a new house. My backyard pond I'll miss you. You have been a source of peace and serenity to me. I will also miss my jacuzzi in the backyard there by the pond. I am going to learn to simplify. I guess I don't need all that stuff. But I know I will really miss it too....sniff.....

My Backyard Pond I'll Miss You

I love a home with a water feature. We have 2 of them; one in the front yard with a waterfall, and one in the backyard, getting pretty overgrown with plant material now. John says he may need to just fill it in because we will be renting out the house and ponds are a liability. Well that is just sad, isn't it? How can such a beautiful thing be a liability. That sucks.

Backyard Pond I'll Miss You

  We used to have giant KOI in our Backyard Pond. That is,  until a bad old raccoon got in our backyard and jumped in the pond and bit off all their heads. Yeah, that is not a pretty sight to come home to...your lovely fish all gutted with the remains strewn all over the backyard grass. 

It was one of my hub's pride and joys that Koi Pond. So we just do a few goldfish now. And the grandkids love to come see them.  We have a mushroom fountain inside and some water plants growing in it. I plant the flowers around it. We have some iris, some herbs and some pansies. I've tried putting in azaleas and hyacinths too.  

The fish pond picture above is from Bunny Jeans Decor and More. She must have a green thumb for SURE! 

Ito is so fun to put goldfish in your pond. Ours will just hibernate in the snowy winter and it is interesting how you can actually poke them through the ice and they will wiggle a little. That's how I knew they were still alive in that frozen, winter pond. The next year the ones that live are very hearty and will grow to be 6 or 7 inches long. Very pretty.

Another neighbor of mine, the Newmans, have this great pond in their backyard. It's got a natural looking waterfall, lilly pads and koi swimming in it as well as beautiful flowers and bushes surrounding it.

I love the little Frog and the spiderweb in this Pretty Pond picture. 

Here's one my neighbor just finished. It's a waterfall ending in a pond. He lives on a huge hill so this water feature is a great idea to use up that front yard full of green grass!  

HERE at Gardening BC  is a tutorial on how to build a backyard pond
in your own yard to enjoy. I love mine. Even though it is a lot of work
to keep up, the sound of water is very relaxing to hear while you sit
and soak in the jacuzzi. I love a pretty pond full of goldfish too. I will truly miss it.

Our backyard pond water feature......  It's a beautiful addition to any yard.  Backyard Pond I'll Miss You. But now I'll have a new yard to decorate. That will be fun too. 

Swiss Days 2015 in Heber Valley Utah

Swiss Days in Heber Utah is always a fun weekend for our family. We love going there every year in the fall. 

Heber itself is such a pretty little valley town. It is picturesque and quaint. It has this cool Cheese Barn where you can go get cheese curds. They have free samples of fudge too. yum. 

I took a few close ups of the cows next to the cheese factory store. 

They had a cool tractor too. 

And a new baby calf to pet. 

Cheese tasting was lots of fun. They had fudge, all kinds of jams and cheese on crackers. 

More cheese. This line was long but it went fast. Took about 20 minutes to get inside for tasting. 

On the way to Swiss Days we snapped some landscapes of the beautiful Heber Valley. 

I snapped a few pictures of my favorite booths. The quilting lady had some cool wares. 

This booth had miniature towns with tiny plantings. 

Gotta love a toad stool. 

Or a handmade birdhouse. Lots of the crafts are rustic like this. 

This was art made from dried out gourds. We used to see these lying around the deserts in California. 

I almost bought one of these pretty glass pumpkins blown by hand. 

 Lots of pretty things here made from ceramics at Swiss Days.

More cool handblown glass objects. 

At Swiss Days there are even antiques. There are crafts of all kinds. 

Cute wooden coin banks. The artists are good about posing for pics. They are always so nice. 

Carved wood walking sticks were really a work of art. 

Swiss Days princesses 2015. 

Cute wooden toys at Swiss Days. 

I always go visit the barn at Swiss Days where they have crafts of all kinds at great prices. 

There are bouncy houses and climbing walls for the kids. And lots of food booths. 

Lots of pretty paintings. 

And metal workings crafts. 

Swiss Days had these cool license plates reworked into cool words. 

Another artist I took a picture of at Swiss Days in Heber Valley. 

I loved this LOVE sign. I want to make one. 

I've bought a lot of cards and handmade flats from this artisan, my friend Aimee Ferre. 

The Swiss Days Princesses 2015 were so pretty with all their ringlets. We had some scones as usual and watched the oompa bands while we enjoyed our snack. Swiss Days is a blast always. 

First Day of Spring Gardening

Well, I have been ignoring my gardening for months now. I have to repent now that it is the first day of Spring! In Utah we have the seasons, so there is really nothing growing in the garden during the long Winter. I can see a few of my bulbs peeking through, and a few of them have actually erupted! It is finally really and truly Spring. I am getting excited to see some flowers in my garden again.

Today I planted some paperwhite bulbs inside in a light blue pot for my newly remodeled bathroom. It is coming together nicely. All except for the too blue paint I did the walls with. It looks kind of cave-like. I need to re-pick that color. I should have trusted the hubs who is good at paint picking. I will never learn.

I hope I get a TON of tomatoes this year. I'm going to try my hand at making CATSUP! Everybody tells me how easy it is. And I know homemade is so much better than bottled. 

Got to get out all my garden gloves and shears today. It's time to start getting the beds ready. 

Save your seeds in mason jars from year to year so they stay fresh. 

Anyhoo, I also bought some little pots for my kindergarteners to plant seeds with. They were only $2.48 for 32 little prism shaped biodegradable pots at Walmart. I just have to cut them apart and buy some radish seeds. They seem to germinate faster than any others. And little kids' attention spans won't last more than a few weeks waiting to see something sprouting in their collective pots.

Every year I give them choices and every year the kids with the radishes get to be joyful watching their little flowery stalks grow green and cute. But the other kids wait and wait and watch their dirt get moldy from overwatering. It is quite a downer. So this year everybody does radish seeds. Or maybe even grass seeds; something that is fool proof!

I need to put some pre-emergent on the grass too so it will look green and pretty this summer. 

And Home Depot has really nice mulch for $2.50 a giant bag. I have to go get some of that and spread it around the beds. It always makes everything look new and wonderful. And hopefully it will help the plants grow lush and full this year. I'm going to have a really BIG garden this year. Last year we had the whole house stuccoed and there were scaffolds all over the backyard for weeks and weeks. We never did get to the garden.  There was just too much going on. So this year I will have to make up for it.

 I'm planting some bulbs around the pond where the deer won't get to them. And I'm planting some raspberry bushes up at the cabin. Bear Lake is known for its raspberries up there. And I'm jealous of neighbors who planted 3 years ago and have gobs of raspberries now. They make everything from pie to jam with their stash!

Jams and Jellies and Spinach Artichoke dip. Yummy stuff from the garden. 

Happy planting everyone. I hope you are as excited about this spring season as I am.

Gardner Village Witchfest and Witch Scavenger Hunt

 One family tradition we have in the fall is to go visit Gardner Village during Witchfest or Witchapalooza or Witch Scavenger hunt. And we always visit this original water wheel at the Archibalds Restaurant and furniture store at Gardner Village shops. They put out all kinds of giant bigger-than-life witches in funny positions hanging from buildings, spiderwebs, and stirring pots of green goo. It's a great photo op for kids. Check Witchfest out HERE.

See what I mean? Witchapalooza! My grandkids have loved it in years past. It is fun to go hang out and see what is new at the shops at Gardner Village too. My favorite place there is the 2 furniture stores and the Quilt Shop, and of course the candy and fudge shop. But caramel apples were like $6.95 now! WTHeck! Kinda pricey folks! 

They have these lovely covered bridges, a lake running through it with real ducks and geese you can feed breadcrumbs to, and witches, of course, sitting on rafts in firemen suits. (yeah, there is sometimes no logic to the witch surroundings). 

Sometimes you'll see a witch sitting on suitcases going through security at an airport, and another time she is wrapped up in a spider's web. It is very creative. I think this witch is in a gold mine. lol. Good luck with that, witch! They also have like 200 pumpkins all around the place. It is very festive. 

Then you have these real witches that tried out to play the witches of Witchapalooza. I tried out one year. But I never got a call. You have to put together over the top costumes like this one. And you have to have a very dramatic witchy voice and put on airs and stuff. This one was very weird and obnoxious. But she made me laugh. Dylan, my grandson, not so much. :D 

She had this funny pumpkin rolling stroller she dragged around behind her everywhere she went. I felt like she was stalking us at one point.  She was a little freaky-deeky! These people have to have lots of craziness and personality. They make it fun, though, I have to admit. 

 You go throughout the outdoor shopping village and look for witches to match each of about 20 clues. Then if you find them all you get a cookie in the sweet shop bakery. The girls loved that part.

 This is my favorite witch scene. The witches are stirring a green brew in the steaming cauldron. Everybody loves this scene. They added a lot of new things this year like a giant trampoline, a corn maze and pony rides that go around the park, not just in a circle. The extra kiddie land was $6 bucks. Otherwise it's free.

 It gets you in the mood for Halloween, and lots of kids dress up. We usually do. The parents sometimes dress like witches too. It is a fun community event. YOU have to try it.

I finished decorating the kitchen and living and dining rooms. My hubs was making fun of my "spooky kitchen!" because I plugged in a little string of skeletons and like 3 of them already won't work or their heads fell off. Stupid lights from China!  sigh......I still think they are cute....headless skeletons and all.....