Why I Oughta...

While up in Michigan, we stopped in a bunch of yard sales.  At one of them, we came home with these two Westmoreland Milkglass candlesticks and the little bowl in the middle.  All for $2.00.   They're currently up on our mantle, but I know that while Nat adores milkglass, she isn't that into clutter.  I think these guys might have to get packed up saved for when/if we ever have a bigger house...

Look at those beauties.  They're getting big but not getting anywhere close to being red. This is a variety that I have not grown int he past, so I don't know how fast they'll turn, but the plant is throwing off quite a lot of fruit.  There might be eight or ten of these things on the vine right now.

Walking by this building on York this am, I saw this big banner announcing the (soon to be) arrival of a new Yoga studio called "Core Power Yoga".   Their site lists the Elmhurst location as opening in October of this year . This isn't some mom-and-pop Yoga place.  They're a big outfit.  In multiple states and have more than 15 locations here in Illinois including Hinsdale , Naperville , Oak Park and more. The building is on the East side of York, just north of Palmer and is really big.  During the last Mayoral race, one of the campaigns operated out of the first floor and if I read the signs correctly, I believe there is an art gallery on the second floor.  That leaves me with the assumption that Core Power Yoga will be taking up the first floor/street level. This is a really nice addition to downtown and should be a boost to the area north of Palmer.  There is a parking lot right next to the building, so guessing that the patrons will be able to drive right

No one brings out a bigger smile in me than my wife of (almost!) five years.  One of our friends just shared this photo from her wedding earlier this summer.  I may not be the best dancer, but I sure do have a lot of fun dancing with this amazing woman! If I had to guess, this was to Hall and Oates "You Make My Dreams Come True" which the DJ happily played for all of us.  (If you are reading this in your email and can't see the video below, do yourself a favor and click here to watch the video here back on the site. )

Back in late May, I picked up this Spiked Gayfeather from the Elmhurst Garden Club annual plant sale . It was a little thing with just a few inches tall of greenery.  I put it in the backyard in the beds underneath our family room.  It (apparently) likes it there.  Four flowered shoots have grown to be three+ feet tall and the flowers are so heavy that they're weighting down the stems. Nat doesn't love the placement, but I am not sure I should move it.  She wants it to be moved to a different area where it can serve as the background behind some lower plantings.  I don't disagree with that idea, but I'm hesitant to move something that so clearly is happy and healthy.   They're known to divide after some time, so maybe early next Spring when they're just popping up, I'll dig up the roots of some of them and move them around.

We're starting to get a lot of little green gems.  Still a week or two away from harvesting time, but they're looking nice and not getting any splits from uneven/over-watering.

Earlier this summer, I picked up a tomatillo plant on a whim.  I stuck it in the ground and pretty much forgot about it.  At some point, I read that you actually needed two of them for pollination ( source here ), so I went back looking for another one, but came up empty. I let the plant grow, but figured it was a lost cause.    I went back into the garden this morning to poke around and see what was happening and look at this beauty that is growing.  There are a few of them starting to take shape, so either they're going to be some bizarre tomatillo/tomato hybrid, you don't actually *need* two of them, or something else weird happened totally.

We walked to Church this weekend down York Street and saw the exterior construction that was going on in the old Smoothie Factory space.  You'll remember the Smoothie Factory closed back in April after a number of years in the location. Really glad to see an entrepreneur give it a go in our City Centre.  And I'm even more pleased that it isn't a nail salon or "Cash for Gold" franchise location.  Also glad to see the landlord make the necessary investment in the building. The exterior work on the building looks to be enhancing the facade - which is really nice.  Based on the story on the Elmhurst Patch , it looks like we're getting something called the Fulla Bologna Old World Delicatessent.   They have a site up , but don't give much detail on what they're offering. I'm hoping that they'll do a great job on sandwiches and IMPORTANTLY....have a killer giardiniera to go along with them.   As for the name, a commenter on the Patch pointe

Word came this week that the City of Elmhurst City Council did something that I have never witnessed a governmental body do before: Aftering giving something more thought, they unanimously adopted a “minority report” version of a recommendation coming out of a committee over the initial “majority” view of the situation. The details of what exactly happened can be found here on the Elmhurst Patch. The interesting part isn’t that a marketing agency only received a five month contract and not a twelve month contract. That’s not the big takeaway here. The important part is that Alderman Dannee Polomsky - my Alderman and neighbor - used this time to make a larger point about the City of Elmhurst taking some time to be deliberate and evaluate ALL of the marketing initiatives as a collective whole and work to optimize them.   For instance...The City of Elmhurst has a role (Part-time) on staff for something called "Visitor and Tourism" while at the same time, Finzall main

Some merchants in the Elmhurst City Centre are having what they bill as the "1st Annual Downtown Discount Days" coming up August 1st through August 3rd.  Sounds like a nice event. But 1st Annual?  That's my pet peeve.  I see it all the time and don't like it.  Call it what it really is:  the "Inaugural", please?

Back in the fall of 2010, we planted this Anemone plant in our sideyard (southside) after Nat's mom bought a few for a project.  I documented the blooms in 2011 and was surprised that it survived. I don't think I took a photo of it last year, but when I went out to plant our pumpkin seeds last week, I was amazed at how big the Anemone had gotten.  With the blooms, it is 3+ feet tall.  And the blooms?  You can see that there's TONS of them.  It clearly is happy in this spot.

A few weeks ago, I took the girls to the local "My Favorite Toy Store" in the Elmhurst City Centre where we picked up a few things including a butterfly project.  For twenty-ish bucks, you get a mesh cage and a coupon that you send away for caterpillars.  This was going to be a project for me and the Babe, my oldest daughter. We dutifully filled out the coupon and send it away.  This weekend, the Babe received a box in the mail and when she opened it, she found a sealed cup with five or six tiny caterpillars in it with some peanut-butter-looking stuff at the bottom. Once we opened up the box, the instructions said to set the cup upright in a place that is 68 to 75 degrees out of direct sunlight.  At first, these little guys didn't move at all.  They seemed to be stuck in place.  They must be kept in some setting that keeps in a place close to hibernation which ends after the box arrives, I would think.  A few hours of sitting on our counter, they started to move.

I have news for you folks:  We're 100ish days until Halloween and that means it is time to get your pumpkin/gourd seeds into the ground.  Based on the package, I'm actually a bit late, but with some care, I think I can get these guys up to speed.  Since we're not eating any of the pumpkins/gourds I'm growing, I have no problem giving them a feeding or two of fertilizer to get the fruits nice and big. I have planted these in a totally different part of our yard.  Totally separate from our vegetable garden both because of the above mentioned fertilizer, but also because of the bugs that these things draw.  I want to be able to use some Seven on them if I need to and (although it says it is safe for vegetables that are being eaten), I prefer to not do that on the rest of our plants/fruits. Having not grown this type of swan-neck gourd in the past, I have no idea how successful we'll be, but I figured it would be nice to have a few of these around come fall.

That is all.

Just a bit less than a month ago, I posted this photo of our radish seedlings popping up in our center vegetable bed.  Yesterday, I started to pull them up and we got a mixed bag.  Some really nice, plump, beautiful pink/round beauties.  And some skinny-minnies that are the result of bolting (I think?). This was the first year I grew radishes and they were VERY easy from seed.  They are an early crop, so can be replaced by things like Pumpkins and lettuces I would think.  I'm not sure I'm going to put anything in the space these were in this year, though.

News this morning that the City of Elmhurst has approved a program that will start to share the cost of the installation of check valves in resident's homes to help stem the tide of flooding and sewage backups that seem to be pretty common with any sort of heavy rain that comes to town. There are some stipulations to the assistance including a mandatory detaching of any rainwater systems with the sanitary sewer, but that is a small price to pay to have your basement free of sewage, I suppose. Residents of Elmhurst who want to keep sewage out of their homes during large storms can apply to have the city share the cost of a flood-improvement device called a check valve.   The program, which city officials hope will help ease flooding and prevent sewage overflow into homes, was approved July 1.   Building Commissioner Bruce Dubiel said residents can apply for the check-valve program, which will pay up to half the cost of the valve up to $3,000 per homeowner. Kudos to the M

We couldn't have had a better time over the weekend at Ravinia for David Byrne.  We went up there with Nat's family and if every trip to Ravinia was like this one, I would LOVE going there to see shows.   We parked right near the main gate (we didn't arrive to a bit after six pm, so we weren't super early birds), the weather was just right (not too hot), there wasn't an opener (David Byrne went on really close to 7:30) and he didn't play forever (we were home by 10:30). From the looks of the place, I wasn't the only one enjoying myself.  There were more people standing up to dance at this show than most of the other ones I've been too.  I guess the CSO doesn't give you much to dance too (and the susher's wouldn't have it anyway, right?!). I took this photo above (click on it to get the full feel) and while it is doing some weird things (like cutting Ryan's head off - guy in red in foreground), it gives you a feel for the night. Lo

Part of our typical weekend routine during the Spring/Summer is to try to stop at a few garage sales.  Sometimes, Nat and the girls are with me, sometimes not.  Usually, there's nothing to be had at them as we either arrived too late or there is nothing but junk, but on a rare occasion, I find something that I like and is priced right.  This weekend was one of those times.  I found two pieces of Milk Glass: this bud vase and a weird circular hobnail pattern taper candle holder.  The bud vase was marked $0.25 and the other piece was $4.00.  We went home with this pretty little vase, but I couldn't decide on the other one, so I left it behind. She's a real beaut!

It was just two weeks ago that I planted the Dahlia Tubers in one of our planters and when I peeked at them yesterday morning, I saw that some of them are already popping up.  They're hanging on one of the low sections of our fence and are getting a ton of sun.  With all the rains that have come down lately, they've been getting well feed too, it seems. We gave a set of Dahlia tubers to my mother-in-law about the same time so I'm hoping that her's are popping up as quickly as ours have.

Back in June of 2010, our little pear tree snapped in half during a big storm.   Here's the sad photo of it being cracked off at about 4 feet tall.  I didn't have much hope for it to survive, but we left it in the ground. By September of 2010, the tree showed some life and started to have shoots coming off the cracked trunk.   Photos of that growth here . This year?  Well...it hasn't stopped and now is in the running for the tallest tree in our backyard.  Here is how it looked this morning. And the pears?  They're starting to come in. Come September, I'm thinking we'll have some fruit to pick.