The Lisa Link: Visit to Laurie's

Backyard jungle

Well, it's getting to be that overgrown, overly ripe time of summer. The lilies are tall and stalky and insects have apparently taken over our part of the world.

Leila's Sunflowers

This year for the first time we planted sunflowers in the vegetable garden at Colfax... thanks to Leila. This spring she noticed that some of our birdseed was sprouting into little plants right in the feeder. We tried planting the sprouts in our garden, and sure enough: sunflowers. I'll have fun using them while decorating this fall.

6 kinds of tomatoes

There; I said it. FALL. It's inevitable and it's on its way. Our days have been getting shorter, our nights cooler, and the garden is cranking out its harvest. Some of the plants, like peas and cucumbers, have finished their life cycles.

The Salsa Factory

School starts in only a few short weeks. I must admit this feeling of "end of summer" is probably helped along by all the Halloween merchandise I've been noticing in stores...

Did I mention I've been canning salsa lately?

Luckily it hasn't been all work this summer... we've managed to do a few fun things, too. Recently we made a trip to Madison to visit my sister Laurie and her husband Mark at their new house. It's our first time seeing it because they've only lived there about a month. But they're already settled in nicely.

Laurie and Mark's new place

Laurie had told us it's a "fixer upper", so we were surprised to see how nice it is. It's in the Black Earth nature area, on part of an Iron Man route (so lots of serious bicyclists zipping by). They are surrounded by scenic farm land and woods... the setting is really quite lovely.

My wonderful sister and her wonderful husband

Beautiful setting

Near Laurie's house

Picture windows

Kitchen

Laurie's craft room

Her hutch in living room

The house is spacious and has picture windows looking out onto greenery. The guest bedroom is very comfortable and, of course, Laurie has an enviable (and very organized) craft room.

While we were there, two of my brothers who live in the Madison area came over with their significant others to see us and have dinner. Since there are a few of us with July and August birthdays, dessert was a big sheet cake with "Happy Birthday" written on it...

My husband Jon, brother Bob, me, brother Bill, and Scott

Michael happened to bring along his chess board

Of course, Mark cooked us a sensational meal that featured a pork roast he'd started at 3:30 in the morning (bless his heart) and TWO kinds of home-made barbeque sauce (including one made with blackberries).

John and Jim

The following weekend John and Jim came to visit (from New Jersey). Of course, we make everybody who comes here look at our garden, so that's where this pictures was taken...

I will close with an assortment of other recent pictures of us out and about. Enjoy the rest of your summer!!