Isn't nature wonderful...

This is one of my favorite plants! It gets about 8-9 feet tall. Gets sunflower type flowers on top and the best thing....is that the leaves form into a cup to catch rain water for the birds. You can see the water in the 2nd photo. Doesn't collect much in each "bowl" but there are A LOT od bowls. Very useful on the prairie. But once you plant it you really can't move it. The roots go down anywhere from10-15 feet. BIG tap root. Birds and butterflies love it. Of course it is a bee magnet also. Isn't nature wonderful! 

I had 2 teeth taken out today and a partial put in. All I can feel is plastic! Weird feeling. Doesn't hurt that much, but eating is hard. Guess that gets better with time. Next week I get it tightens so I hope that helps. Right side, roof and inside of left side is all plastic. I didn't think it would be this big. But I will get use to it. Guess it just takes time. I couldn't sleep at all last night. Don't know if I was worried about this being done or what. I am going to bed soon. I feel exhausted! See you all tomorrow, Teresa

A bit of minis today

Not a lot....but at least it is something! I made this wall to enclose the staircase in the Bellingham last weekend. I put one coat of stain on the doors and vertical boards today. I may have to restain some to make it all match. Funnny how stain doesn't cover everything the same. I plan on putting stucco between the boards and painting it off white. I think that will work out well. I really don't want to change out the wallpaper on the other walls. I think I am going to like this. Plus it will take care of putting spindles on the steps. lol. I wanted to do something different. Well anyway, back to staining woodwork. See you later.

Prayers for everyone in the storms path

Prayers said for everyone affected by the hurricane. I can't even imagine what this would be like! I hope everyone stays safe.
We are going to go get our mums today. I don't know what color yet. Guess we will decide when we see what is available. Never been to this greenhouse before. There is also a wildlife area near-by. Didn't know about that. We'll check it out. See if there are many water birds. Never know what you will see.
My nephew is a carny. He is at a fair in Gillet this weekend. Maybe we'll go there. I haven't seen him for a long time. There was about 15 years in the past that we didn't even know where he was or if something had happened to him. He has been a carny for the last 18 years. I can't even begin to know what that life is like. Of course with this lifestyle is kind of a rough charactor. But I love him. Life sometimes brings people to different lifestyles.

Here is a collage of some of our july pretties!

Well I guess if I am going to get anything done today I should leave the computer. See you tomorrow.

What a week!



Our kids. Tanner and Murphy
Murphy wa sgetting a little tired of Tanner not wanting to stay still.

Murphy had to go to the vet to have his mouth looked at. He had some teeth pulled 2 weeks ago. So just a check to see how he is doing. Mouth is healing nicely. But for some reason he would hardly eat anything for about 4 days. So we thought that it might be his mouth. No...no problem there. But is on anti- b's for one more week just in case a infection is trying to start up. Anyway while we were there they checked his anal glands. Lump! He stayed there for the afternoon and had x-rays. No cancer in his lymph nodes, stomach, kidneys, etc. But will need to have it taken out as there is no way to be certain that the lump doesn't have cancer in it or won't become cancerous. So next week he has surgery. Not cheap. But when we got pets we knew that the responsibility for their health was up to us. Well as far as it can be anyway, there are somethings that can't be controlled. So we are having the surgery done Wendsday. I don't think that I could handle it if we didn't and something worse would happen. Guess I would always question our decision.  At least we are trying. These guys are like our kids (we don't have human ones).
Tues I go in for 2 extractions of teeth and a partial. So next week will be a very full week for us!
We had a lot of rain yesterday. Kind of blew over our tallest plants. I have to get out there and stake them up again. But at least it is at the end of these plants blooming season so I may just cut them down and see if they will rebloom on shorter stems. I will have to see if they have a lot of buds yet. We needed the rain but not the winds. But of course beggers can't be choosers!
WOW guess I should get to bed. Just looked at the clock...3:20 am! See you tomorrow.

Another beautiful day

It is gorgeous out there! I played with the dogs for awhile. But too hot for them to run a lot. Murphy has been off his food lately. I don't know what is wrong. He is very active though. Ran after the toy as much as Tanner did. He also wants to "hug" his brother a lot. He is almost 10. Maybe he is senile and horny! He did have some teeth pulled about 2 1/2 weeks ago. But didn't have problems since...until now. He has to go back for a post-op checkup. So will talk to the vet about this.
Back to work this afternoon. Weekends go way to fast. But I did get a few things done around here. The wall I built for the dollhouse looks good. Still have to paint/stain it, but am pleased on how it turned out. Felt good to get back to working on minis. Maybe my dry spell is over. Muse is back? Whatever was missing the last few months.

The yard is full of birds and butterflies again today. It is so nice to see so much wildlife. Here are a couple of pictures of some of the birds we are seeing. I mostly have pictures of finches. I am still waiting to snap one of the woodpeckers. We have 2 different kinds. The male finches are so colorful! The females are more of an olive green, but still pretty. The females are less wimpy though and sit on the feeder until I get pretty close. The males fly off with any movement they see.

Well, I had better get a few more things done before I go to work. Always something new there. We are working with intermine managers right now. So every week to 10 days a new ones comes on. They all have different ideas. Our permanent head manager is suppose to start next week. Hopefully things will start to settle down. But I know it will be awhile before everything falls into place.  I am still a hospital employee, but they hired an international company to run our department. Oh well, at least I am still working!
See you tomorrow, Teresa

This is my first post on this blog.

I had another blog thisandthatminiaturesandlife.blogspot.com But lost it when I changed my e-mail addy. :(  Now I get to start over again. That is what you get when you don't change the addy before you discontinue it. lol.
Anyway it was a beautiful day today. Nice and sunny. Not as hot as it had been. We do need rain. But not as desperately as some of the other states. We have over 300 perennials in our flower beds. I love taking pictures of them so I am sure that you will see plenty of them in future posts. Here is one. Hard to tell but there were 8 monarchs on this one plant! Most I have ever seen at one time!

I also worked on the dollhouse that I have in progress now. I built a wall to enclose the staircase. Hopefully it will still look nice after I paint and stain it. This is my 3rd big house. I also have many contest houses. Never won. But there is always hope. I love looking at the way other people have decorated, or bashed (redisigned inside and out, not the way the kit came) and basically learn from others. There are so many great ideas out there.