October - best month of the year

October in Philadelphia is not the chilly, misty, red and gold wonderland that I am used to from Michigan. Its been in the upper 80's every day here, and most trees are still as green as they were in July. I can't say that I love it, but I guess it means our fall foliage will stretch through November which will be a nice change. Michigan Novembers can feel desolate. 

Anyway, here are some beautiful sites from around our neighborhood (and house)

 Doesn't this church look like it just grew straight up from this spot? It's gorgeous! I walk by it almost every day when I nanny.

My neighborhood exploration buddy:

Cheap Date

With Tom in school full time, date nights have become a bit of a rarity. These days we don't have much to spend on anything but groceries, rent, and gas. But even if we had an abundant source of date night money, Tom barely has time for home work - so we probably wouldn't go out much anyway.

This has made times we do go out and away together very precious. It has also made us more economical about what we do on dates - they usually have to serve at least 3 different purposes for us to justify doing them. Going to church and out to lunch after for example, includes a scenic drive along the river, an 8 or 9 block walk, and pizza!

 Anyway, going to a park fulfills at least 5 purposes (time together, fresh air, exercise, photo op, and its FREE), therefore it is justifiable and a frequent date night choice. 

Our last date was a section of Fairmount park right near out house. The whole park is so beautiful - its full of huge trees, rivers, mountains, old bridges, biking paths, hiking trails, historic sites, etc. 

The trees here must be way older than the ones in Michigan. I don't remember seeing this many extremely tall, thick trees there - even on our walks up north. 

Sleepy Saturday morning faces

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BlogByJewels: Yesterday was a beautiful first day of Fall. It wa...: Yesterday was a beautiful first day of Fall. It was chilly, but not frigid. Here are a few things that describe fall for me... Sweater...

Tree Identification

One of my favorite things to do is lay in bed and look out our window. It feels like we are in a tree house - you can't see any road or houses or grass or anything. Only trees and sky. What other things in nature are as awesome as trees? Some of the ones we walk by every day have been there for a hundred years or more. You can sit under them for shade, animals live in them, you can listen to the sound of their leaves blowing in the wind, they add beauty to everything around them!

I remember learning about trees in elementary school, but I also remember not caring much which of course lead to remembering almost nothing. But the past few weeks I've had a craving to just know what I'm looking at when I see a tree so that I can admire it more fully. I've been looking everywhere (thrift stores and used book stores mostly) for a field guide to identifying trees - not even our library had one!  Tom found this for me the other day at a used book store, but it was $8 dollars. 

I told him I would want it if it was less...$4 dollars for instance. 8 was way too expensive. So he took it back to the store owner and asked if he could have it for $4. She gave it to him and now I have my long sought after tree book!

Published in 1943

I got some leaves to identify them

One critique of the book is that there are no pictures of the full tree which would help a lot in getting an idea of what to look for. But shapes and sizes of trees vary so widely, I guess I can't blame them. Anyway it was written in 1943. 

Propagating Geraniums

 Now for a youtube learning moment

 I have been wanting red geraniums on my windowsill all summer, and finally got around to "propagating" my two giant plants into 8 smaller ones today. It was easy! And there are so many people who put videos on with step-by-step instructions, its impossible to fail.

I am pretty happy with the results! For now anyway, hopefully they get enough light in our west facing window.  

The process is really simple and fast. It just took me forever to get everything together, pots, plants, and potting soil. Watching youtube videos is the most helpful way to learn how, but here is a quick summery of the steps:

1. Take 3 or 4 cuttings from a geranium (snip them low enough so they have a definite stem, then pull off any lower leaves so that none of them are touching the dirt)

2. Dip the end of the cutting in honey

3. Place it in the dirt

4. Water it until it starts leaking out the bottom

Norristown Farm Park and Geraniums: a happy Saturday

Tom and I went to Norristown Farm park today. The best (free) place to fulfill the nostalgic longing I have for the midwest once in a while since moving to Philadelphia. Ever since living in Illinois, I can't help loving a wide open corn field

We stopped here of course 

Its so nice to have this woodsy place so close to us. We live about 3 miles from the boarder of the Philadelphia city limits, so we can get downtown pretty quickly, and the suburbs are really close. There are huge and awesome woodsy parks inside the city, but nothing as quiet as this place - and definitely no corn fields for my midwestern nostalgia.

Soybean fields are also nice 

This is me, happy and tired after a nice 5 mile stroll.

Also, I have been dreaming of having red geraniums in our window ever since getting here in June. I knew they would be cheaper later in the summer, so I was waiting to get them for less. These two were originally $18.99 each! I would never pay that, but the only place I could find geraniums this time of year is this one quaint little (overpriced) garden store.

 Anyway, today they were on sale for $14.99 buy one get one free. Much more reasonable.

I wanted to separate these into 4 pots so they would be a little smaller. Thankfully, I watched a few videos on "propagating" geraniums before trying anything. It was a much different process than I had imagined, but really easy. I just need some soil and a few more small pots. This is perfect timing to do it because its not cold out yet. 

Hopefully by the time the weather cools down, I will have some cute little geraniums to put on my windowsill.