THE FLOWERS ARE AMAZING

 The flowers have been beautiful this year in spite of everything.  First we had too much wind and rain in June, and just as we were whining about the rain, the weather became hot and dry and it has stayed hot and dry for several weeks.  We have had to water by hand and it has taken a lot of our time.
I have since promised never to complain about the rain again.  These pink flowers looked just like weeds when they first came up. 

We had a difficult time deciding which plants were weeds and which were flowers. It is quite possible that we pulled some flowers, thinking they were weeds, and there have been some plants that we carefully tended only to find out they weeds. 

There are a lot of perennials in our gardens and it is fun to see what is coming up. 

 It took about three weeks to get all of the annuals planted.  In this picture (right to left) are white and purple alyssums, pink impatience (they like shade so we should have chosen something else) purple salvia, dusty millers and blue ageratums.  It is fun to watch them grow.  We have had to battle bugs, groundhogs, and deer, but the worst has been Japanese Beetles.

 We have a dozen or more colors of lilies.  The deer came into our mailbox garden and ate the tops of 6-8 lilies.  We put pieces of Irish Spring Soap in all of the hostas to keep the deer out, but we had no idea they would eat the lilies.  We have since put soap around every garden.  The next challenge was groundhogs and/or moles who dug under the lilies and ate the bulbs, leaving the lilies lying on the ground.  They still had some roots on them (above the missing bulb) so we replanted them and they bloomed.  If you look closely behind me in the next picture you will see dozens of white lilies blooming, in spite of being re-planted bare root. We purchased two kinds of "noise makers" that vibrate and chase the moles away.

It is fun, but a lot of work keeping all the flowers alive, well, and happy. We have had to hand water  for several weeks and the grass is very dry (burning up).  The sprinkling system has been down and we have been waiting for a special part to fix the main line.  Mike got it fixed on Friday and it came on last night, for the first time this year.  It is great that he can do so many different things.  He still has to do more work on the system, but we are delighted to have it working now.

The peonies were beautiful.  This picture was taken in June.  We had white ones and at least 6 different shades of red and pink.  The varigated pink ones above were some of my favorite.

The white lilies on the right (above) are some of the ones that had their bulbs eaten.  The fact that they still bloomed seemed quite miraculous to us. 

The salmon colored poppies were beautiful this year too.  They are gone now, but they lasted for a very long time.

While I have been tending flowers, Mike has been cutting down trees, clearing brush, maintaining trails, and reworking the sprinkler system.  He still has a lot of work to do on the sprinkler system, but we are delighted he has got it working.   Hope you enjoyed the flowers.  Mike took lots of beautiful pictures.   Love to everyone! 

Joseph Smith Memorial Marathon July 7, 2012



We had an interesting day Saturday helping with a marathon.  Let me share the story of how the Joseph Smith Memorial Marathon came about.  An amazing lady from Utah, Suzy Larsen, had run a marathon in every state EXCEPT Vermont.  She wanted to run in Vermont but the events were all on Sunday.  She didn't want to run on the Lord's day so she organized a marathon on Saturday.  She flew out twice from Utah, staying several days each time.  Selecting the route was a challenge. It couldn't be too steep, or dangerous (no trip hazards) and she needed to avoid busy highways, lovely scenery would be nice, and it needed to be 26 miles long ending up at the church (so we could feed everyone).  Suzy had about half the route mapped but it wasn't coming together. She stopped at the Midway store in Sharon, and she must have looked pretty sad because the owner asked if there was something he could do to help.  She said, not unless you can find me another route to the Joseph Smith Memorial.  He said, "My grandfather used to own that property, and I knew all the back roads."  He told her the names of several roads (turn here, turn there, then take this road...etc.)  and the distance turned out to be exactly what she needed to finish the race.  Suzy also had to get the word out, and that was no small  job. Thanks to the internet and Facebook there were 38 participants.   She ordered t-shirts for all of the volunteers who helped.  Mike and I both got a t-shirt.  On the back of our shirts was this scripture:  "I will not boast of myself but I will boast of my God for in his strength I can do all things." Alma 26:12 

Suzy also had t-shirts designed for the runners.  They were very nice.  The material was soft and airy and comfortable and the pictures and sayings were great. On one sleve were footsteps and the letters ETTE  (Endure To The End) on the cuff.  I believe the other sleve said "Faith in Every Footstep."  You can see the cute picture on the front in this picture of Lisa.  Lisa was the first place women's runner. 

The youngest runner was 22 and the oldest was 70.  The first place men's runner was Curtis Moore age 31.  His time was 3:23.  Now I need to explain that the race was supposed to be 26 miles.  Suzy measured it with her car,  but when the runners all came in with their various GPS divices every one clocked it at OVER 27 miles.  That means their times were actually faster, and they didn't need to run around the arena in Tunbridge 3 times, just once. 
This smiling runner with the white basebal cap is Suzy.  She made friends with half the town during the short time she was here and was given donations and support from Village Pizza, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, and Cabot Cheese.  So everyone that came had pizza, ice cream, cheese, watermelon, sliced oranges, sliced apples and lots of water.   

I took over 200 pictures.  You can see them online if you are interested. https://plus.google.com/photos/104235639581602110957/albums/5762953384125218753
 

We had a great day.  It was a lot of fun.  I helped at the finish line and took pictures all day.  Mike was up near the memorial pointing the way, and giving encouragement.  Saturday we had 46 visitors at the Visitor's Center who were not members of the LDS church.  They really enjoyed their time with us.

I would write a bit more but my internet is acting funny. Love TO EVERYONE.