A Walk in the Park: Day One

Over the summer (and beyond!) Dale and I visited quite a number of parks in our area. Usually we picked up a sandwich and had a picnic lunch. Sometimes we spent a bit more time wandering around and noting all there was to offer. Sometimes I took a bunch of photos of the facilities. Other times I concentrated on the plants.

So over the next days, I'll take us on a walk through these parks. It'll be a nice way for me to recall the sights and sounds of Summer.

We went to Washburne Park in Eugene to find a geocache. It was hidden among some roses.

The roses weren't blooming, but these nearby asters were

and the bees were busy.

#traveltuesday   Eugene Park Tour

Maggie Smith

 Raise your wands ... RIP

Red Visitor

I visited a cemetery recently and this little guy kept me company graveside.

He flitted between the grave of my first husband and the grave of his parents.

This may be the first time I've ever seen a red dragonfly like this. I'll keep my eyes open for his siblings and cousins from now on. It will remind me of this day.

Weekly Recipe: Stuffed Bell Peppers

 After babysitting my granddaughter yesterday, I "helped" daughter Jodie make dinner. She found a great new recipe for bell peppers stuffed with chickpeas - and jalapeno for a bit of zing.

Don't they look good?!!!

Nonsense is underrated.

If It's Autumn, It Must Be Mums

Out came the pansies, in went the mums in the barrel by the front porch.

I love the saturated color Dale and I picked this year!

It's called Plumberry Purple.

And look at the back of the plant tag!

Hearts, of course. I didn't notice the brand until after I planted the flowers.

Pods

Google Images tells me this may be the seed pod of the Golden Rain Tree. This one lives down the street.

The shape of the pod reminds me of a 3-D heart. 

Of course.

Oooo! Then I played around in my photo editing software and came up with this colored pencil version. Very cool!

Flowers for Friday: Morning Glory

I planted an entire row of morning glories along the fence in the backyard in the late Spring. Then we had 100+ degree days, and most of them fried. About 5 seedlings that were in a bit of shade held on. I watered them. They held on.

Finally, last month, the vines began to grow!

Last week we got our first morning glory bloom. It makes my heart happy.

I won't give up the dream of a fence full of these flowers.

Jigsaw Puzzle Week: Day Nine

This is the last puzzle I'll share for now. It's actually the 24th finish of the year, which means I've completed another of my 24 Goals in 2024.

This little wood puzzle was a toughie! I called in backup and Dale helped me put it together. It's the first time I've ever attempted a puzzle like this. It comes in a plastic box that's about 4" x 4" x 1.5" and the only image of the finished puzzle is this 3" x 2.5" sticker. I ended up taking a photo of the sticker and enlarging it on my phone.

These are all the pieces.

Some of them are cut into very fun shapes!

The various animals can be identified more easily upside down.

Since the pieces don't snap together securely, the entire wooden jigsaw puzzle is quite fiddley to put together (and keep together!) The pieces are very small. But look how beautiful it is when finished!!!

Here are some details:

de head

de tail

de feet

Time to end this week+ of puzzles and go do something more relaxing than editing photos and writing blog posts. Hmmmm. Maybe ...

put together a puzzle? 

Jigsaw Puzzle Week: Day Eight

Ah, yes. More than a week's worth of puzzles.

The second puzzle from the two-for-one pack is called Everyday Heroes. It has a distinct Americana feel to it.

There are a lot of fun details packed into this puzzle.

We do like our holidays.

Jigsaw Puzzle Week: Day Seven

We're into September puzzles now. This one's called Thank You Pop Art.

Small but mighty. The polka dots made it a challenge. They may look like they're all the same size, but they're not.

A mere 240 pieces in this two-for-one CraZArt puzzle from Dollar Tree.

I did the second puzzle the next day and will share it tomorrow.

Jigsaw Puzzle Week: Day Six

Rainbow Party Decor is another 20" x 12" puzzle. These colors are "to dye for." 
(That's a joke for YOU, Susan. Please groan).

This was a nice one to put together due to the exuberant image, the 500 piece count (small), and the thick pieces. I may keep this for a while and do it again.

By the way, the same organization that I sew bookmarks and crochet purses for also will take gently used small puzzles like these to go into the bags as comfort items for the kids in distress. I've been able to donate well over a dozen puzzles to Bags of Love already this year. I so love that organization!

Jigsaw Puzzle Week: Day Five

Colorful Electric Bumper Cars

This puzzle was more difficult than it looks. Or maybe I was simply tired. But it took a couple days for me to finish it.

This is also one of the older Puzzlebug puzzles with the thinner pieces. The worse the quality, the less fun they are to put together.

Beautiful colors, though.

Jigsaw Puzzle Week: Day Four

This is Motherhood. It's such a tall, narrow puzzle (20" x 12") that I had to construct it sideways so it'd fit on the tabletop.

A 500 piece Artbox puzzle with a bold, colorful, graphic design.

I want the entire artwork series.

Jigsaw Puzzle Week: Day Three

 Beautiful Colors of the Sea is another 500 "thicker piece" puzzle that I bought at Dollar Tree. 

Simple. Lovely. 

An excellent way to spend an evening.

Jigsaw Puzzle Week: Day Two

Rainbow Hawaiian Fabric was put together in late August. I needed a small-puzzle fix then so put a number of 500 piece puzzles that I could do in a single sitting.

This is one of the newer Puzzlebug jigsaws from Dollar Tree that has the thicker pieces. That's increased the quality quite a bit.

It's fun to work with the vibrant colors.

Jigsaw Puzzle Week: Day One

Over the last few months I've constructed a bunch of puzzles and took pictures, but couldn't push myself into editing and sharing. So I hope to catch up this week.

I put Taj Mahal together in May. This lovely puzzle was a gift from my neighbors. With it, they were sharing a bit of their heritage with me. 

It's a very lovely premium puzzle by Dowdle 

that is packaged in this hefty box with a hinged lid and a Velcro closure.

Inside is a poster with the puzzle image

that's dotted with numbers.

On the back side of the poster is a key to the images that make up the overall picture. You get to learn as you go!

The piece quality is superb. Here are some of the image details:

Beautiful.