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| Yellow mustard seed from my pantry in bloom in the shade |
The garden is growing nicely right now. I’m really enjoying all of the lettuce that I’ve been growing. Some things are bolting in the garden right now (spinach, radishes, mustard, Swiss chard and some of the lettuces), and I’m hoping to collect seeds from all of my open-pollinated varieties this year so that I can plant them again in the fall. I give my bolted plants to a friend who has chickens, and her chickens eat them.
I know some of you are still under snow while we’re hitting what are summer temperatures for you (90ºF is just a nice, mildly warm day here). For those you of who are wishing for a longer growing season, you may want to know about Eliot Coleman and his success with gardening year-round in Maine (his books include Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long
Mavis over at One Hundred Dollars at Month visited his farm this month, and it was starting to hail on her way there. Check out the size of his tomatoes and spinach!) If you haven’t read Mavis’ site, I highly recommend it. She also feeds her family for–you guessed it–one hundred dollars a month.
Still longing for spring? Vivaldi’s Four Seasons: “Spring: Allegro“
Nowhere to garden? Check out one family’s year of growing in a community garden (in 4 minutes with awesome time-lapse photography).
I found these free note reading worksheets to use for my child who is learning to read music. I am including them with her schoolwork.
Recyclebank has a way to earn 100 points right now. 300 points gets you a free one-year subscription to Martha Stewart Living. 400 will get you a subscription to All You Magazine. I’ve been reading Martha Stewart Living for free for a few years, between this and another rewards program (the other is only occasionally available for a very short period of time). I received a copy in the mail this week, in fact.
I’m going to dig up and move some plants around in the garden this week, and I have a couple of sewing projects I’d like to finish. Are you working on anything to beautify your home this week?
I am working on my first quilt. I’m really enjoying it – it’s something that I can work on a bit at a time. I am also enjoying “The Great British Sewing Bee” on YouTube right now while I sew.
It snowed here this morning, yet again. I am grateful to God for the moisture, and not complaining. We have a few things started on our windowsill – mostly herbs – but our garden plans just drastically changed. We had decided to downsize this year because of problems with deer and rabbits, but one of the spaces we were going to use was a former chicken run. Meanwhile, raccoons managed to get one of our ducks, who were also in a very secure pen. (The raccoons didn’t actually get in, but managed to pull the duck out, in bits. Sorry.) Anyway, this event caused us to move everyone to the most fortress-like space we have, which means we just lost that as garden space. I still have a 10×12 and a 10×8 to use, and I will make do with those, I guess. I think the pumpkins will be planted ‘out’ and unprotected.I have been doing some indoor beautifying in the form of weeding out some things we no longer need and moving things from one room to another. It always pleases me so when I move a framed print or a candle holder to a different space and it all seems new. Once I get things moved here and there, I’m going to make a list of ‘wants’ and start on it. For one, I know I want to re-cover the cushions on the parson’s bench, so I will have to see what fabric I have on hand that would be an improvement. The goal is to beautifuy without spending. 🙂
Thank you for the music worksheet link!Since you asked, yes, I do have a project this week. I actually have several projects either started or planned, I just have too many distractions for efficient completion. I hope this one goes well though.My oldest used our property for one of her landscape design/drawing school assignments. I decided a while ago to implement some of her ideas since they solved some of our issues. So I have cut 2 new beds out of the lawn, one in front and one in back. I also have a small wall in my entry that I plan to paint soon with a sample that I have. Since it has a window type opening to the basement stairs I will make and hang a curtain there to dress it up. And since we don’t have a coat closet I have been wanting a way to hang things up from visitors. I found a decorative wall hook thing that comes really close to what I like so I will paint it the right color and hang in on that wall, I got it for less than $10 with a coupon.
My husband expanded my raised garden area, finished it yesterday. Tomorrow we are putting in a new raised garden bed. My strawberries have several blossoms, and I have a volunteer lettuce plant growing with my strawberries.
The video ou posted here was inspiring.loved it… As for projects we are only doing what needs to be done.Rusty door handles and latches and uneven garage floors and low lying mosquito breeding areas in our garden are on our mind this week…also reading eliot Coleman’s book this week to learn ow things should be done.Love the music link and bought through ur personal link here. Have a gr8 week ahead.
To beautify without spending is always a worthy goal.
It’s been a very busy for me at work and with doctor’s appointments,but I still keep things picked up and clean. I think that always beautifies the house!My son’s girlfriend brought me some beautiful white carnations as a thank you for having her over all the time and always making home cooked meals. They are so simple and so lovely! I’ve been enjoying them all week and made sure I freshened them up today pulling out the ones that were starting to turn brown on the edges and keeping the water fresh. It’s been a week and they still look great on the table.
I have several volunteer plants in my compost bin…think they are potatoes. They are growing beautifully so will transplant this weekend to a better location. My established strawberry bed is FULL of blooms and little strawberries already growing….can’t wait! My new strawberries are looking healthy and strong. Enjoying these last few days of azalea season here….seems like they have bloomed so long this season and it has given such pleasure to look at them this year.
I agree heartily with the idea of picking up to make things nice! I try to do a quick tidy every night before bed, so that in the morning, things are fresh and ready to go. It really makes a difference for me! I love carnations too, because they last so very long. I used to see them in the stores a lot, but now I don’t see them very often. I will have to look more closely. 🙂
They may die if you try to transplant them. Can you leave them where they are in the compost bin? They will grow well there.
It has been a bit of an up and down week. Have been blessed with an outing with my daughter and grandson but did think £17.50 entrance fee to the zoo was steep. However you cannot put a price on shared time and memories. Had a wonderful morning at my patchwork group. The ladies are beavering away at making quilts and quilted good to raise money for specialised cancer care nurses. I gave me her surplus precision rulers and shapes and rotary cutter and then a huge number of diamond blocks just needing to be sewn together. Had to have a glucose tolerance blood test which in this country is free at point of delivery but don’t ever ask an English man how much he pays in national insurance. You are very likely going to get a very harsh answer! Big downer, £70 car-park fine for over staying by 20minutes. My fault I should have known I would have been longer than I thought, and it was pouring with rain. The parking company is very generous, they will only charge me £40 if I pay within 14days. Hmph to say I didn’t feel blessed at that particular moment would be an under-statement. Then I got home and the sun shone, the pantry is still capable of sustaining me for a long time and a darling friend called in to give me two tickets for the latest play by the local amateur dramatic group. These may not be thrifting in the truest sense of the world but they have the feel good factor which makes he trials of making ends meet that bit easier.
My Big Project is moving. Trying to keep our little place picked up and looking as nice as we can while we work around boxes and packing materials. My Birthday and Mother’s Day is obviously right around the corner so I am planning a get together which will prove difficult in our little place and with packing boxes but we will do what we can , flowers and a simple meal. We will celebrate early as we will be on the road over my Birthday and moving in to a new place on Mother’s day weekend. So we are also setting things aside that we can not move to give to others when we have the get together. So our big project right now stems completely around the move.