Tulips in January

These pretty white tulips bring a bit of joy and springtime into my life right now.

My last post in October rolled right into my sewing for several craft fair booths through November and into December.  Just as I got the Christmas tree and decorations in place I broke my shoulder during an altercation with my recycling bin.  This week I will see the surgeon for a go ahead with driving, I hope, and a more formal and aggressive Physical Therapy plan... I hope.

Lesson learned: don't put off until tomorrow what you can accomplish today.  For tomorrow you may find yourself temporarily incapacitated. 

The key word(s): Patience.  Persistence. 

The Color of Fall

Loving the autumn here... cold, wet, dark, then bright blue skies.  The colors are magnificent!

The last bouquet of zinnias and marigolds from my garden.  Last night a heavy frost finished off the last buds and blooms.  Roasted butternut squash is delicious baked with a coating of olive oil, salt and pepper.  A lone monarch butterfly came by last week seeking a few more calories for it's trip south.

By chance I caught the colors of sunset just right over the water.  Each day I am amazed at this lane through the maple trees and caught a photo before the leaves came down.

Fall Table Decor

A dear friend of many years loves to decorate her table and invite good friends for a potluck lunch.
Today was such a day!  Here's her lovely table all set for us.

Animal, vegetable or mineral?

What do you think this thing is?  It came in a bag of vegetables from a friend's garden.  It's very hard like a potato with a couple green leaves sprouting from the end.  I was stumped and had to ask.  A recipe came with the answer... slice thinly and fry until crisp and tender.  It's a kohlrabi.  And the kohlrabi chips were tasty!

Entitlement

This trio of mushrooms emerged in my yard the other day.  I found them to be quite exquisite. Their brief existence gave me much pleasure simply to consider their beauty with no expectations and no judgement.  They lasted only a brief time; I am so glad to have noticed them.

I share this photo to give myself pause in light of an experience this morning while walking my 14 yr. old dog on a public trail.  I am almost her age in dog years showing my age with a mop of white hair and we poke along out the path, then turn around and amble back home again.  A busy street is parallel.  My habit is to let her peacefully go about her business one way and pick it all up on the return trip.  Sound innocent enough?

Today I noticed a min-van do a U-turn a way up the busy street but paid no attention as it came back toward me.  Pretty soon it pulled over close to me, the driver yelling at me to pick up my dog's poop.  The fellow had obviously observed my dog in a private moment, decided he was obligated to turn around, double back, turn around again and judge me in very angry terms.  He didn't want to talk about it... just yell at me.  I whipped out my plastic dog waste baggie and waved it at him but he was off in a cloud of dust without listening to my response.

Why?  Why go to so much trouble to righteously punish without hearing another's explanation? What happened here?  Why did he feel entitled to judge?

Vintage Children's Dishes

The talents of a sea gull are much like mine.  I am attracted to colorful and shiny objects... oh, and food!  At the many estate sales in the area I often pick up items for no reason and with no plan although basically I profess to collect vintage linens.  Sometimes I don't even know what I'm buying, then come home and do the research... a good way to learn.  Here's one of my latest favorite finds: a few assorted pieces of Akro Agate dishes.  Made during WWII, the history of the company which originally began making marbles is found in this article:  http://www.akroagate.com/index2.htm

I hope you enjoy reading about these dishes.

Amazing Garden Success

Here are a few pics of the little garden and how it has grown in two months.  Lots of challenges along the way with a doe nibbling green beans and hollyhocks and bunnies nibbling everything else.  Bunny's favorite seems to be the bachelor buttons.  I later heard from a neighbor that the doe has two fawns hidden in the wooded lot to the north.  I cannot begrudge mama deer good nourishment.

Otherwise crabgrass is the next most challenging nuisance.  All in all I'm very pleased.

A Sunny Garden Spot

Who can believe that even more months and calendar pages have disappeared?  My last post was in October 2016!  But jumping right into the past few weeks for an update, I decided to battle the voles and moles in the front yard because it has sunshine for some sun-loving plants.  The back yard is mostly shade and well-established with shady perennials.

To dress up the plain front of the house we now have a simple decorative picket fence with a gate.
It's about a foot away from a ground level deck and gives the feeling of a porch.  Neighbors have stopped by to admire and approve.  I'm glad.  I removed some sod, turned earth, added compost and manure and have begun to plant.  My next door neighbor shared daisies, iris, lilies and rudbeckia.  I transplanted hollyhock, hosta and astilbe.  I planted marigolds beside pole green beans hoping to keep bunny away.  Bachelor button seeds sprouted almost before I could turn around.

Here we are within the city limits and before the earth could settle there were fresh deer tracks across the garden space!  I've never seen a deer here.  There are houses everywhere and traffic and people and bikes.  Yet the deer is checking out my garden!  Stay tuned.

Squash Soup

Weeks, months fly by.  The calendar pages almost flip over by themselves.  Gorgeous autumn here... mild, sunny, gentle days.  The colors are normally at their peak mid-October and here it is Halloween and still much green left and the most beautiful scenery every where.  We are raking.  We are carving pumpkins.  I am enjoying the soups of the season.  I made creamy squash soup the other day. Split pea soup will be Sunday's soup tomorrow.

Seed Harvest

What a beautiful Sunday it has been... sunny, dry, mild.  It is beginning to feel a bit like fall, however, with a few gold and orange leaves on the maple trees.  Today turned out to be a perfect day for harvesting morning glory seeds.  My pot of sprouted plants grew to cover a trellis right up to the roof of the house.  I expect I'll be searching for mature seeds for a few weeks.

Summer Garden Minestrone

It was a pleasure today snipping fresh herbs from the garden. I made a pot of minestrone using
not only parsley, thyme and basil, but added a nice zucchini and a couple tomatoes.  Oh, and a sprig of mint for my iced tea.  We are all enjoying these nice days as the maple trees are showing hints of red and gold.

Salad Greens - at last!

At long last my pot of lettuce is ready to eat. It sits on a bench on the deck where Bunny can not reach.  It made a tasty salad for lunch yesterday along with a fresh blueberry muffin.

However, leaves on my tomato plants were being stripped.  It took a couple of days of searching but
I found the culprit.  Tomatoes are beginning to ripen, but it will be a while.  Gardening is a challenge, but so worth the effort!

Cherry Pie in my Future

Today was a perfect dry, cool summer day... high sparse clouds... and the tart cherries are ripe for the picking.  Pick them I did. In a little over an hour of relaxed meandering through the trees, I have about eleven pounds of cherries.  They are pitted now and half are frozen in quart bags.  The rest will wait until tomorrow to become pies most likely.  I pit by hand one at a time so the cherry stays round, plump and juicy.  Years ago the tart pie cherries were called "sours."  Marketing experts thought "tart" sounded better.

A note on the Wascally Wabbit in my garden.... he has eaten the third planting of lettuce almost entirely... it's time I planted more for him.  My own lettuce is now growing nicely in a large pot on a raised deck seat.  Keeping my fingers crossed little Bunny doesn't climb.

Bunnies Eat Marigolds??

Who would believe the bunnies not only ate the new growth on the first planting of lettuce, the second lettuce planting, the nasturtiums and... yes, those nice marigolds I bought at the market
a week ago?  I also planted 4 zucchini plants and 3 sweet pepper plants in the middle of the mess... no photos yet as it look quite dismal.

Today's trip to Market was fruitful (pun intended): gorgeous strawberries, beets with those delicious edible greens attached, sweet snap peas and more spinach. A wee pot of rosemary, too. Nibble away, sweet bunnies.

Farmers Market Saturday

The second plantings of lettuce and swiss chard are up in my little garden for the bunnies.  A visit to the Farmers Market this morning resulted in salad for me, too!  The first spinach and arugula are here for the season, first strawberries, too, but the last of the asparagus until next year.  I bought a few marigolds to hopefully deter those hungry rabbits.

Toddler Tablecloth Sundresses

Charming little dresses from vintage tablecloths... I'm loving making these.  Here are some 2-3T and a 5-6T dresses (almost finished) specially made for a sweet summer shop in Northport, MI.  The vintage fabrics are such nice quality. Several more dresses are waiting in line beside my sewing machine. I'll use vintage buttons on these, too.

No Bunnies Allowed

My petite slightly raised garden bed is ... was... happily producing lettuce, swiss chard, peas and radishes until the adorable baby bunny emerged from beneath my neighbor's front porch.  First night he/she ate three rows of swiss chard.  So I googled rabbit repellent and sprayed what remained of the potential harvest with a mix of dish soap, hot sauce and water.  Next morning the peas were decimated.  I'll continue with the spray for a couple of weeks and see what happens.  The replanted swiss chard should be up by then and we can start over.... or not.  There's a lot to be said for visiting the Farmers' Market each Saturday.

Double Wedding Ring Quilts & Rhubarb

I can still find my way by the seat of my pants!  I found an estate sale yesterday 2 hrs. from home with only vague directions.  No signs were up until a teeny 10" low-to-the-ground sign at the street name.  It was oh, so worth it!  I found these two lovely hand-pieced antique double wedding ring quilt tops with the most beautiful feed sack fabrics!  And the last half hour of searching for the sale took me through horse country, Amish country... simply beautiful sights.  An additional bonus was the fresh rhubarb at the honor-system roadside stand.  Perhaps a pie will be baked today!

The Nostalgia of Tablecloths

Not only are the brightly printed tablecloths of the era around the 1950s full of memory for those of us who grew up back then.... the quality of the fabrics is superior.  Consequently I am drawn to these for my sewing and creating.  Here are pics of a few of the items I make from these old pretties... and I've included a photo of my tablecloth collection.  Most are cutters... otherwise I could not possibly cut into them.

Primroses

Having downsized from a nearly acre yard which I'd been planting and landscaping for almost twenty years... to a little 50 ft. wide city lot with established border gardens, I am finding surprises this spring.  I knew there were some day lilies but that's about all I was aware of.  So spring is a delight here as one thing after another pops up along the driveway or against the south side of the house.  And I am not overwhelmed by the work of raking and hauling branches and can spend a few moments looking for new sprouts.  For the first time in all these years there are tulips in my yard.  It's the first time there hasn't been a herd of hungry deer seeking them out.  Oh, how the deer love tulips! Here I also have white primroses... they are beautiful.  What a delightful surprise!