Just wanted to share some photos I took at a great nursery in Oswego, Ontario Orchards. Just beautiful!!!

Sowing the seeds..........and meet our new additions....

Phew, it's been a busy few days......Thanks to all of you who came to my barn sale, it was a HUGE success!! I managed to get rid of most of my stuff. The Salvation Army will be receiving a big donation soon too! Since then we have been getting the yard in order for summer. We have been setting up the porch, buying and planting flowers and putting the garden in. Above see how we used tree branches for our "tomato cages". It's a nice natural alternative. The other picture is the herb garden we decided to move the the back of the house and expand. My hubby made a primitive twig fence around it and I'm going to paint an "HERBS" sign. Mom has been putting together my flower boxes, I'll add a picture later when they've filled out.
Yesterday we got four new additions to our family, 4 year old English Sussex hens. I don't want to deal with baby chicks so this was perfect. A family up the road was getting rid of their "girls" so they could go camping more. I already have 4 white leghorn girls so we have filled up the chicken coop again. Anyone need eggs???
We had an abundance of rhubarb so my mother cut it all and I made some Strawberry - Rhubarb dessert sauce, great for ice cream. Here is the recipe.
3 cups 1-inch cut rhubarb
1 cup strawberries, halved
1/3 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp. corn starch
In saucepan, bring rhubarb, strawberries, sugar and water to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and boil for approx. 10 more minutes until rhubarb is soft. Mix cornstarch with 2 tbsp. water and add to fruit, mix well and bring back to a boil. Puree and cool. Yum!

The Huge Barn Sale

Well, I have been bringing stuff up to the barn for weeks now and I knew I had alot, but the other day my mother, mother in law and I went up to sort through it. OMG!!! What was I thinking. I joked the other day about the show Hoarders, but I think I could really be one of those people. I guess the only thing that really separates me is the fact that I can look at and say "have I used it in the last two years?" and if not, it goes. I still have to walk through each room in my house and see if I have everything. How did I ever think we were going to move. With the military, you are allowed a certain amount of pounds when you move, according to your rank. Of course rank pretty much equals time in service and amount of shit collected. Well, I guess 22 years in the service means we have accumulated alot of shit.....

Random thoughts.......

Well, it's been a busy week! I have been doing some serious shifting in the house. It's amazing how a possible move gets you in gear. Even though we're not moving now we decided to still "clean out". The yard sale pile is getting bigger everyday and now I have the task of going out to the barn and sorting through it all and pricing. I have decided to make the old shop area my new painting studio and it's really coming together nicely. Above to the right, you can see some of my newest paintings.....very folky!! If you are interested, visit my website, www.theoldtatteredflag.com
Above see a model for one of my upcoming paintings. She was leisurely laying there in the grass as we drove up the hill to bring my son back to school. When I told her how pretty she was she perked up her ears. She apparently wasn't afraid because she never even flinched and I was only about 30 feet from her.
Keep checking back to see the progress of the yard sale and more of my art.......