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Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts

Monday, May 29, 2023

Bodensee

For the long Memorial Day weekend, we were originally going to host some friends from the States and stay local. But after a change in plans on their end, we pivoted our weekend plans for a getaway. Our first night was spent in Konstanz, located by Bodensee. It can also be referred to as Lake Constance. 


Reichenau is an island in the Untersee, near Konstanz. Pictured here is the well-known abbey that calls the island home. We enjoyed walking around the abbey and other parts of the island on a beautifully, sunny day. 



Suzie enjoyed a few dips in the lake during our walkabout. 

After checking into the hotel and leaving Suzie to nap away the afternoon, we headed to Mainau Island. This is a popular tourist destination in the area and is well-known for its flowers and other plants. I had heard great things about the place, so I was happy for a chance to finally visit. While on the island, we grabbed beers at the biergarten, visited the butterfly house (not as good at the one Niagara Falls) and enjoyed amazing views of the lake.




On Mainau, we found a ginkgo tree which reminded me of working on the world's largest ginkgo tree farm. 



Down the street from our Konstanz hotel was a placed called Burro Burro. After discovering that all the restaurants on Mainau closed early, we headed to Burro Burro for dinner. Mexican food in Germany is usually disappointing, so we came with realistic expectations. The food ended up being pretty decent, although probably not the most authentically Mexican. But it hit the spot after our fun day!


Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Tending my garden

Growing up, my mom was always gardening. We moved just about every three years (unrelated to the military), so she had a lot of opportunities to start new gardens. And for the most part we always lived in new construction houses, so the yard was a clean slate to begin with. However, while I was younger did I have any interest in gardening? Of course not. That changed once we had our first town house in Ohio.

While renting, we were pretty limited in what we could do in the yard of each house we have lived in. We have planted several flowers and such in containers, but that is hit and miss with me.

When we moved here and bought our first house, I had my first real chance at a garden. This is a new construction house, so the yard was a clean slate. It came with grass and some plants in the front flower beds, but everything else was on us.

Being an environmentally-friendly person, I was most interested in creating a bee/butterfly/hummingbird garden. Bees are essential to our food production system. Pesticides and such are causing large amounts of casualties among bee communities, so planting bee friendly plants and flowers and avoiding pesticide use is super helpful. I made my list of plants and flowers to look out for and headed to Lowe's.

Chocolate mint
Citronella...my attempt to keep the mosquitoes at bay
More herbs
Lime basil and lemon balm both smell fantastic!
The cilantro (behind the salvia) has doubled in size over the past two weeks. I better start using it before it's taller than me.





We also wanted to plant some fruits and veggies. We had a tomato plant in California that did really well and we wanted to try a few other things.

Two apple trees and a magnolia tree
Strawberry flower
Okra
Broccoli
We planted three blueberry plants. Two are really tiny and we're hoping they grow nice and tall with lots of blueberries.
Watermelon! We attempted watermelon while in California, but it never really produced anything. Here's to attempt #2!

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Spring flowers

Shameless plug for a fundraiser I am participating in....
The Alpha Omega Alumni Chapter is fundraising with Dutch Mill Bulbs to earn money for our upcoming twenty year reunion! All items are guaranteed to grow and bloom, and our group earns 50% profit on every sale. I hope you will be able to help.
It’s easy! Make your selections, provide billing and shipping information, and choose a secure method of payment (credit card or PayPal). A shipping fee of $4.00 will be applied to orders 24 packages or less, free shipping on orders 25 packages or more.
Please click on http://groups.dutchmillbulbs.com/alphaomegaalumnichapter.php and you’ll be directed to our custom page.  Items you select will be sent directly to the shipping address you provide. 
If you are typing the link into your computer rather than clicking on the link, be sure to enter the information in the “URL” field (starts with Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.not the search box.

For me to receive credit for the sale, please include my name during the check-out procedure. On the top front of our web page is the following information:
Please Note
Please be sure to add the Student’s and Teacher's name or Group Member's name in "Add special instructions to the seller" field providedduring the checkout process as shown.  By clicking "add", a message box will appear to enter the information. 
This box is located on the page after the credit card or PayPal information has been entered and cannot be accessed from the example image on the front page.  
Page 1 Items available to purchase
Page 2 Your shopping cart
Page 3 Enter billing information / shipping information
Page 4 Enter credit card / PayPal information
Page 5 Summary of the order – Enter sellers name here (Kristen Thoennes)
Page 6 Confirmation of the order - Sellers name is viewed on confirmation page
Page 7 Receipt of Order
Please place your order by April 15, 2015.
Thank you for your support!