My Adventures Where in the world is ….

I thought I would post some pictures from our Christmas decorations this year.  Last year we bought our first artificial Christmas tree.  Technically, we had an artificial tree our second Christmas in Ukraine, a gift from one of the parents to each missionary.  It was just a little tree but very appreciated.  But last year was the first one we bought.  I think it looks very nice and it is certainly easier to clean up after Christmas since it doesn’t drop needles over the season.  Because of the location I was able to use all our ceramic village houses this year and all but three ornaments (I ran out of hangers or I might have used those as well. They were from our first Christmases.)

If you look to the left of the tree on the wall near the bottom you can see Carl’s Christmas Story leg lamp nightlight.

With the lights on.

Close up of the village from the front.

Our living room decorated.

Back view of the tree from our dining room.

Back view of the village from our dining room.

Bookcase to the left of the door in our dining room with nutcrackers and other decorations.

Bookcase to the right of the door in our dining room with nutcrackers and other decorations.

These boughs used to be hung on the railing in our living room going downstairs but I have not such railing here so I hung them over the kitchen windows.

Many years ago the Morgenegg family got a nativity that Carl remembers from when he was a child.  He is not sure exactly how old it is but probably over 70 years old.  Most of the figures are made of plaster of Paris and have cracked or been broken over the years.  One of the sheep no longer has a right ear and the camels are missing parts of their feet.  For some time I have wanted to do something to make them look a little better.  This year, with Carl’s approval, I borrowed paints from Holly and painted them.  Some needed some repair and I used craft glue to fix them as best I could.  Here are the before pictures.

Nativity Before.

Here is the almost finished newly painted and repaired nativity.

Here it is completed and sitting on the shelf in our living room.

I am actually quite pleased with the outcome.  The picture is a little blurry – sorry – but now the colors are brighter and the cracks and scraped off places are fixed.  I also glued the stable so it doesn’t wobble any more.  The colors are not exactly the same but I like them.  I think Carl likes them as well.

Our garden is doing really well.  We have had four roma tomatoes and the first of the larger salad tomatoes are turning red.  Our corn is progressing but it is still an experiment.

Here are some updated photos.  You can see some tomatoes on some but the vines are loaded down with them.  We had to alter our tie up strategy to get them off the ground.

Our Garden-05

Rock Garden and Wave Petunias-01

Rock Garden and Wave Petunias-02

Although the weather has been hot, Carl continues to work outside.  He has done so much and I am so grateful for his skills and his diligence.  What a great blessing he is to me.  One project that began with our buying new window well covers is finally coming to fruition.  The old window well covers were screwed into the brick of our house – not a very safe idea if you want to exit the basement.  Although the windows are small we have decided they are large enough you can get out of them if you have to so we wanted to make the exit safe.  Carl took out the screws not long after we moved into our home and he discovered the problem.  However, even though they stay in place there is some worry that in a strong storm they might fly off and then there would be no cover.  Here is a picture of one of the windows with the old cover on.

Here is an old very cloudy window well cover. This is what all our window wells looked like before.

Yesterday Carl put on the first cover and today the second.  This has taken some planned to make them fit our window wells but Carl is amazing.  Here is a picture of a newly mounted window well cover.

This may not stay as shiny as it is now but it looks so nice. It has metal clips that secure it to the window well but you just push up from inside and it pops off. It is very secure from the top though so it will protect the window and the well. Carl also cleaned out all the wells of debris so they are very nice now and I would not mind if the shades were up so you could look out if needed.

While I was out I took some other pictures so you can see how our garden is growing.  There are weeds but that is on going.  Descriptions are with the pictures.

If you have been to our house you have seen this arbor, here it is with the roses that grow on it in full bloom. Last year Carl pruned it and we tied it to the arbor. Although it is not much I think the roses are lovely.

We learned last year that the hedges had not been trimmed in a while and the man at the local nursery identified them and told us to cut them bag severely in February. Carl did and was worried if he had overdone it but they obviously are doing well. They are not nearly as overgrown as they were and with the edging fixed they look quite nice. Flowers are budding so soon they will be covered with purple flowers.

Here is the west side of our patio garden. The geranium was a gift from Matthew for Mother’s day. It needs to be cut back with is has been full of flowers. The petunias are wave petunias which vine on the ground and grow well here. One thing we learned in New York is deer do not like them and we do have deer here. There surround the upper patio and are doing well.

More wave petunias

This is the side of our garden closest to the patio. The green is the radishes we have growing. We have harvested two so far and the second crop is up so once the first is all done there will be more to eat. I didn’t use to like radishes but I like them in salad now. The next two small plants are kale and are actually doing very well. I really like kale in soup in the winter, or in casseroles instead of spinach. Beyond them are tomatoes.

The planter Becky gave me last year. She and Daniel made it. It has chives, parsley and basil in it. I have used them all. The basil is really doing well and I love fresh basil. The chives are from last year. The parsley I need to use more often. It is curly parsley and doing very well. You can see the tomatoes in the cages Carl made with wire webbing we found here. Beyond the tomatoes there will be more corn. There is some at the end now but much of the middle is not yet planted. We hope to spread out the harvest to enjoy fresh corn on the cob over several weeks.

A closer look at the garden with the hose that we found here that has holes in it, perfect for watering the garden between our main watering.  You can see some of the corn coming up.  Carl weeds almost every day.  It is ongoing.

Closeup of one of our tomato plants. Look at the blossoms. So exciting.

Another closeup. We have eight plants and they all have at least a few blossoms on them and more are coming. So exciting.

We have not had a garden for many years as our yard in New York was too shady for a garden to do well.  I had some porch gardens I tried but they were never very successful.  Here we have the benefit of a place to put it and you can weed standing up – always a good thing.  It is exciting to see it all coming up.  I can almost taste the fresh corn and fresh tomatoes.  YEAH!

FYI.  My third attempt at sour dough bread gave me the nice looking bread as the second loaf and the flavor of the first but more open.  It was delicious.  Sour dough has been a big part of our lives lately as I always seem to have leftover starter from when I divide and feed my starter.  I have found a great sourdough sweet bread recipe and have made cinnamon bread and danishes.  Both delicious.  We have regular bread for a while now but I will be back to sourdough again.  So glad to have discovered this as with so many not being able to find yeast I know I can make good bread without it.  No wonder the old miners were so protective of their sourdough starters – truly it is amazing.  The really good news is now I know how to make it and although that takes time (a week or two) to get a good starter going I know I can do it and with lots of rye and wheat I have the sources I need to provide for us very nicely.

I have really enjoyed my experiments with my sour dough starter.  Having started it from scratch from only flour and water I am really happy it has been so active.  While it was maturing we have enjoyed sour dough pretzels, sour dough biscuits, sour dough waffles, sour dough english muffins, sour dough french bread, sour dough chocolate cake, sour dough lemon cake, sour dough blueberry muffins (not nearly as good as Andrea’s recipe but with some tweeking it might become comparable) and one other loaf of sour dough bread.  I have learned a lot along the way.  For one thing you cannot knead sour dough like regular bread – you “fold” it.  I got a plastic scrapper that I use to fold it that is so easy to use.  This is still a lot of learning but I am getting better.  Looking forward to cutting into this loaf later today.

My starter is crazy active and this loaf really rose as it cooked. Those are chocolate chip cookies in the background.