A Miniature World

In our yard we have a garden railroad! We started it over 7 years ago...

It has taken a ton of work, but I think it has been worth it!!! 

These were bird houses that we painted...  

Most people that have garden railroads have big towns, but we only have a small one.We hope to make more houses for it this year.

The trees are bonsai so they stay really small. 

I love the chili peppers! :)

Fruit Trees

All of the fruit trees are blooming!
We just got two more fruit trees this week. One is an apple and the other is a pear.

This is the new apple tree. I love how it's white with a tiny bit of pink!!!

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We got this apple tree three years ago to replace a peach tree that died... 

This apple tree is about 10 years old and gives us hundreds of apples ever year!

I first started taking photos of the garden last year. I had gone outside with my camera because there was blue sky, I saw the cherry tree blooming and started taking photos... I think I have more photos of the cherry tree than anything else!!!

The sky

I love clouds!






I could not believe this cloud! It had been a really pretty day with blue sky and then all the sudden this enormous cloud appeared!

Even though it looks like a thunderstorm it was only drizzling!

I took this photo when I was 9 years old. I had a really cheap camera so I am amazed at how good this photo is!








Sunrise and sunset are even more amazing than clouds! (I think!)







It is rare that we have a beautiful sunrise like this! I woke up and saw the sunrise so I grabbed my camera and started taking photos and after a few minuets it had gotten even prettier!










We have some amazing sunsets here!

The green woods

I have started taking about 50-100 photos every day! All of them flowers. 

These are some photos of the woods. I have always love the greenness of them just after it rained!

An old tree house... It is completely covered in moss and fern from going over a decade with out being used...

 

Even though white bleeding heart does not grow naturally in the woods it is still seams like a woodland plant! 

Eggs...

 Easter Egg Dye

Cut 4in squares from nylon stocking (one for each egg) center a leaf on it. Set uncooked egg on it and tie with string. 

In a large kettle gently boil 2oz onion skins in 2 quarts water. Cook for 20min. 

Strain, & add 1T apple cider vinegar and uncooked eggs. Simmer gently uncovered about 20 min. Immerse in cool water till easy to handle. Remove stocking and leaf let dry. Rub with a cloth dipped in oil & wipe dry. 

Cake

We celebrated a birthday today and I made a really cool cake!  I decided to make a cowboy shaped hat! I had seen one and I thought it would be really fun to make!

This was my first time to work with fondant! I used this recipe http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm

 It does look like a mess!

 But after working with it for a long time it started working!

 I tried just rolling it out on the counter, but it stuck so I rolled it out on waxpaper. I took a real cowboy hat and traced the brim on to paper so I could cut it out in the right shape.   The I put more waxpaper upside down on a cowboy hat and put the fondant on it and let it sit for two days. Then I made two 9in cakes. Then cut them into the shape I wanted. I put the cake on the fondant brim and then covered it with more fondant.

                                                         

Spring!

Here are some photos I took today in my mother's cottage garden!

My first post and a new hat!

Here's my first post!


Yesterday my brother asked me to knit him a hat for when he goes snow boarding. I only had 3 days to make it! So I found a pattern I liked and started knitting as fast as I could! And I did it! It looks really hard to knit, but it was pretty easy! Here's the link to the pattern http://dailyskein.wordpress.com/2009/01/14/fireflake-hat/ The only thing I did differently was put elastic in the bottom when I was done... 


Here is a picture of it 1/2 the way done.

Here is a picture of it finished!