Summer Lovin Party over at Sarah's

Sarah, from Modern Country Style, has been excited about hosting another party.  This one is Summer Loving.   The front of the BnB is one of my favorite summer spots and I call it my "town yard"... easy to maintain, the grass can be cut in about 10 minutes with a push mower,,,unlike the rest of the yard which takes about 3-4hrs on the riding mower..., and it offers our guests a quiet spot to enjoy the peacefulness of the country.

A quiet place to read your favorite book,,,

What would summer be without some flowers to make it even brighter....

Our  business sign, painted by a local artist.

Of course, what would summer be without having friends over for a BBQ.   Homemade hamburgers with buns from the bake shop and topped with all the fixins.    mmmm...

Hope you are all having a great summer!!

and be sure to stop over at Sarah's to see all the

SUMMER LOVIN posts.

Garden gate vingette

Remember the metal garden gate I got earlier this summer at the second hand store?

 I finished up a little project this past week  and found a spot for it in one of the tree beds. With having basically two yards, our yard and the bnb yard, there is always a project on the go, or weeding to do, watering.....

I started by moving 2 spiaria plants from the tree bed just off of our "outside room" to a tree bed that we have when you come into the yard by the BnB. The plants had gotten too big for the spot they were in, and I wanted to balance things a little better with the wooden flower planter.

I always forget to take "before" pics..just imagine 2 spiaria plants in the empty space :)

I left one of them,,,,off to the left.

I couldn't dig the gate into the ground to secure it too well as the Mayday tree roots were in the way.....so MORE prairie rocks to the rescue! I have hauled, moved, stacked and dropped so many rocks into this yard! For some reason as I am getting older my back is feeling it too!! I kinda like how the rock foundation turned out though. I guess we will see how the gate stands up once we get a good ole prairie wind storm.

I don't have much of a green thumb,,, but some of my flowers are doing okay.

So glad I found a spot to enjoy my garden gate!

How about you,,,have you made any changes to your garden this summer?

Have a great week end!

One crazy prairie storm...and getting somewhat caught up.

Hi everyone!!  There is one wicked storm brewing this evening.  We have had pouring rain, a bit of hail, wind and more rain.    I am finally finding myself in front of the computer .  Other than checking quick emails and making a few comments on some of your blogs, I have been busy this past week.  I am finally done working my fulltime "fill in" shifts at work and am back to my glorious 10-2 shift!!  We have had a busy week and a bit of BnB guests.  Holland, Switzerland, Edmonton, Moose Jaw are some of the places people have been visiting from.  I enjoy that about our BnB, meeting people from other places.

The Santo family from Switzerland.  

Their comments from our guest book at the BnB

"Dear Darrell and Dawna, we thanks you so much for your warmhearted hospitality! Your house is very beautifully furnished, we are very impressed.  A lot of details, and are all in the right place.  The flowers this morning were wonderful and the breakfast, dear Dawna, was very fine.  Thanks so much for all.  I hope we can come back in a few years.  We wish you all the best   If you are in Switzerland one day, you are very invited, to visit us."

It really is a small world, and in about a months time, Darrell and Ben will be in Switzerland and do plan on visiting the Santo family!!  Ben leaves for Sweden on July 28th...he is going with Hockey Ministries International and will be helping with on ice coaching and counselling at 2 hockey camps in Sweden.  Then on Aug 13th, he will meet up with his dad and grandpa in Zurich for another 2 weeks of seeing where Grandpa Florian was born and spent his early childhood.  They will have quite the adventure!!  Turns out that the Santo family's farming operation is only about 1 hour from where Darrell, Ben and Florian will be !  Ben will be travelling on his own to Sweden, so I know I will be a little bit anxious next week...you can say a prayer for me!!  I am glad that he and I  travelled to Europe last spring with the school trip, atleast he will know a little bit of what to expect with international travel.  

Ben getting on the airplane to come home from Frankfurt last April

Can't believe it is time to let them spread their wings more!!

We finally have had some really hot weather here on the prairies!!  On Saturday, after getting breakfast done for a full house at the BnB and getting all the rooms made up for the next group of people, I decided to sit in the sun for awhile, sip some iced tea and read my book!!

Same picture edited in Picnik

I decided to even let the watering can sit for a few hours....

Here is the same picture after doing some editing in Picnik.

Sunday evening and Monday my parents, aunt and uncle, and my moms first cousin and his wife were here.  We enjoyed sitting on the decks, looking at photo albums and visiting.   

My mom, Ben and cousin Donna

My dad, enjoying some ice cream on a hot day!

My Aunt Kathy and Uncle Alvin

Where has the time gone,,,,glad we have photos to remember them by!

Some interesting clouds in the prairie sky!

Have a great week everyone and thanks for stopping by the country!  

I will try to get caught up on my blog reading soon!!

SNOW! was in our forecast last night!!

It has been a cold, dreary week end so far here at That Country Place.  Thankfully the snow did not show up,,,but I am getting so tired of dragging pots in and out of my back entry!  and I am trying to get all my planting done!  Yikes,,,summer will be over before I even get started.

These hanging baskets are waiting to welcome guests at the BnB

Believe it or not,,,I have never planted begonias.  We are in the process of finishing the front deck, which will be covered, so I thought begonias should do okay in that new spot....

 I thought this old coffee tin would make a nice flowerpot.

I was trying to make some progress in the front yard a few days ago.  A wild willow decided to blow into this tree bed area and take root,,,,,I let it go for a few years, but now I want to cut it back and let some more light into the bed where I see some perennials are trying to grow.  Our yard is very large and its 24 years ago when I was trying to make it look like "something"..."anything".... I think we have made some progress.  Growing tress in our area is always a challenge...wind..little rain...winter kill...are all obstacles.  BUT!! when God blesses us with rain we can rejoice in some of our progress!!

View from our front deck

 I have hauled more rocks than I can count into our yard.  All collected from our fields.

There are some poppies that want to grow and I think a collection of birdhouses will also 

look nice in here somewhere..

The lilac under my kitchen window is almost ready to bloom.

So..stay tuned as the yard takes shape!  

I am off to check in on the ladies staying at the BnB.  They are here for a scrapbooking week end, so I will pop over and see if there is progress made for "show n tell".  Thanks for stopping by the country today and have a great rest of the week end.

Yeahhhh it felt like summer may be around the corner...FINALLY!

Well, I had a great day in my yard!  Finally got some plants purchased, some beds cleaned out, some plants moved and swatted lots of mosquitoes!!  YIKES they are hungry little guys.  There were a few times I was hopping around the yard and swattin like crazy!

My Mosaic Monday post includes some of the pretty shades of purple I have seen in the past two weeks...

This little table sits just outside our back door...I have some ideas for it, so stay tuned

Before planting

A few trays of flowers to plant..

Always love this happy bloom.

Pansies are one of my favorite annuals..the colors are so pretty and I always 

think of my friend Joanne when I plant them  :)

We have an "outside room" area on the east side of our house.  It is one of our favorite spots complete with a fireplace made from all our field rocks.  I wonder how many rocks I have moved into this yard for borders, tree beds, etc!  I was feeling a little overwhelmed with our big yard today and wondered what it is like to have a "town yard" as I call them.  So, instead of feeling overwhelmed and like there was just too much to attend to, I focused on one bed at a time.

Now, as I sit at the computer  I am ready to get to bed!!  My body aches a little, and I think I got a little sun on my shoulders.  It was a good day though!  Ended with a bbq steak, some fried potatoes and some steamed asparagus!  YUM..oh and 2 cookies and a cuppa hot chocolate :)

I will post some after pics later on this summer when things fill in a little bit.  Gardening on the prairies is such a challenge,,,,,I envy some of the beautiful gardens I see that look like they just grow and grow!  Oh well,,, we prairie dwellers are hardy with a capital "H".  Have a great week everyone!