It's been a day, to say the least.

Today has been a day. Busy, a little crazy, plenty of things going wrong (mainly technology related), etc. We went to our local chain hardware store with my mom this morning. After procuring a few necessities, we headed to the garden department for a few nonessentials. Ardis enjoyed a  romp through the 10' x 15' miniature pumpkin farm that the store had set up-including picking out a few pumpkins for painting and trying out others as handy stools (cute photos to be posted later- when technology cooperates). We ended up with three lovely pie pumpkins and one large pumpkin for carving. Of course, the fact that it is October necessitates the purchase of pansies and mums. I would have loved to have also purchased snapdragons and Icelandic poppies because they can be planted now and will be beautiful in the Spring--but no such luck was to be had. I found bright orange pansies and a container of miniature pansies/violas a variety of colors (white, a purple-blue that I love, white, and yellow). While looking for mums for the large blue pot that sits outside of our yarden gate, Ardis found a GIGANTIC, beautiful purple mum that she wanted to get. A little price comparison revealed that the gigantic flower was actually the better deal- and the Monster was a bit giddy that her choice was the one going home with us.

The flowers, it turns out, were the best thing for my afternoon.  I'd set aside this afternoon for fun crafty stuff and had to acknowledge early on that fun just wasn't going to happen. However, flowers can't just sit around forever, right? Ardis and I worked to empty the large, blue pot of the portulaca that was growing in it- careful to move the moss rose to another pot since it was still flourishing. With Jesse's help, we planted the mum and nestled several of my orange pansies in around the base. (a picture will be posted later- again, when technology cooperates)

Ardis and I were trying to decide where to plant our remaining pansies when inspiration struck in the form of an old grill. The grill came with our house- as did many of our possessions. We moved into a house of a friend that was returning to Australia. Thus, we inherited an almost fully furnished house, two dogs (one a 14-year-old kelpie, who was a dream dog, and a 3 or 4-year-old chihuahua-bulldog-? hybrid, who is needy), a very full front yard garden (with about 33 tomato plants to be exact), and a non-functioning grill. The grill has been sitting in the same place near the back fence for the past 3 years because I could never quite make Jesse push it to the curb to be taken away by city sanitation (or one of our neighbors, depending on who got to it first).  I filled the grill with dirt after wedging the lid open with the rack from inside it. Ardis and I planted several pansies as well as few sugar snap pea seeds (just on the off chance that Mother Nature will cooperate and continue with the beautiful weather we've been having). The result was pretty nice if I do say so myself (even Jesse was impressed). (Again, a picture will be posted later, when technology allows)

We carved the large pumpkin. It turned out pretty cute. I'll post a recipe blog soon with one of the easiest recipes I've found for toasting fresh pumpkin seeds. It really just depends on when technology is going to cooperate, and who really knows when that will be, hmm?