Windmills, Churches, and Flags

I know it has been a long time since I posted, but I have been gone all summer...
Last month we drove down to my grandparents cattle ranch. It was a really good trip. I spent most of the time taking photos. I think in the end I took over 2,000 photos! For some reason I took mostly photos of windmills, churches and flags...
This my seem like a ton of photos, but I have more photos from this trip of windmills, churches and flags!!!

This flag was in California along the coast..

It was wonderful to see blue sky!

This was in a really pretty town.. 

This flag was at the US Air Force Academy.

                           On this trip we went to Mt. Rushmore. It was my first time there! We went there in the evening and I got some good photos of the sun setting..

Quilting!

I'm making a quilt!It is red, green, and white. This is my very first one to make. I have never been really good at sewing, but I thought I would give this a try!

I think one of my favorite parts was organizing everything!

At first I tried to chose what to put together, but it took so long that I just started grabbing random ones and sewing them together.

I am still trying to decide if I should machinie or hand quilt it....

The Botanical Garden

Before I started blogging I always wondered why people didn't post every day.. Now that I have a blog I know why!!! It takes hours sometimes up to days to write a post!!

About a week ago we went to the botanical garden. It was my first time to ever go to one! It was amazing!!

The first thing we did there was go on the 1/3 mile woodland hike! I loved it! 

These ducks just ignored us! They let us get really close to them.

When I finish my garden I hope to have a waterfall in it...

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.