Calendula

Copper Pinwheel

Three for you today...

To make up for missing yesterday. We had a super busy day yesterday, Playing and helping build an outdoor wood fire oven at the Farm, Swimming with Mut (my Mom) and then Andrew had his first "gig" last night playing with a bunch of friends at Muggs in D-town. If your interested, you can hear bit of it here, here, here and here.

So it was one real looong day but fun the whole time all the way to the end.

Today is for recovery....

Oh My

I almost forgot, again!

aPaD Library

I went to the library today.

That's all I was going to say. But I changed my mind. I think the fiction section is intimidating. Not just at the library, but any book store. I only going in there when I know what I'm looking for. If I don't have a book in mind I find my self getting lost in book spines and book covers. They all blur to together. I'm sure there's some really good stuff in there, I know there is. I just scan over them waiting for a title to sound interesting or a cover to draw my eye. I am judging all the books by their cover. I do this with wine also. I shop for "ooo that one has a pretty label".

Oh I did walk out of the fiction section with two books though.
The Girl with no Shadow by Joanne Harris (I liked Chocolat)
and
The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff (I really liked the cover)
We'll see how they turn out.

aPaD - Blah.....

Blah photo today. Blah 'cause I'm feeling blah. Staring at a computer screen all day makes you feel blah, even when your designing I think may be that makes it even more blah after a while.

This blanket isn't blah though. I've been saving fabric for years now to make a quilt for our bed. I've piling up favorite flannel pieces, scraps and yards waiting until I had enough for a queen-ish size quilt. I don't know about you but flannels can be pretty blah. It takes time to find the good ones. I don't want snowmen or moose (although I do like the occasional moose) or all plaid, you know what I mean. Anyway, it was time, the pile felt big enough and I began making the quilt in the winter. Now, I want to finish it before it gets too hot to sit under to quilt, if you know what I mean. I'm almost finished.

aPaD

My Boys!

aPaD

Cracker making is great for gloomy weather. And boy have we had a lot of that lately. Today is the first day of summer and you certainly wouldn't know it. It's more like the middle of Autumn around here.
The garden is fairing ok. But we are started to see some unhappiness in the onion patch. They're not standing straight and starting to look a little yellow. They're starting to get overwhelmed, that's what it looks like to me. Everything just seems to be waiting... Waiting for the sun. The peppers are certainly waiting, they are big and green and have a ton buds just waiting, waiting for the sun and heat that comes with in. Now, on the other hand things like the lettuce and other greens (collards, chard and kale) are thriving, but of course this is the kind of weather they prefer. The trials and tribulations of gardening....

This cracker recipe comes from one of my two favorite recipe blogs. I am so loyal, these are the first places I go when looking for recipes or ideas.
Check them out, your sure to be inspired. Real people, cooking in their kitchens with real recipes. Not just some cookbook.
101 Cookbooks
Simply Recipes
Here's another just 'cause it's a pretty awesome reference for Tex Mex and by far the best tortilla recipe ever -
Homesick Texan

aPaD

Ah this was supposed to be for yesterday but I got all caught up in pizza making and forgot to post. Oh well....

aPaD

aPaD

The Gnomes have changed! They are currently being simplified and (I think) cute-ified. They have been needing a rework. They were too complicated, too time consuming and just not cute enough. So I got away from them for a while and now that I've come back with new eyes I think it's working out.

aPaD

A weed has sprouted.

Not from my garden, I swear.

a Photo a Day (aPaD)

teeny, tiny snail.

I'm going to try to do a photo a day. Well I guess that's obvious from the title. I'm not sure how long I want to do this. May be a month? Yeah that sounds good. No rules.. or well one, I can't just take garden pictures. That's too easy. Oh and they can't be older then like the day before.

Craft:

"Wellington Dreams" is on Craft: Blog
Yay!
Thank you Tara from Handmade in Pa

Garden Update

Kale, first tomatoes, flower garden, clematis seed pods, nasturtiums

garden silhouette, potato flowers, calendula, peas

string beans, garden shot, columbine seed pods, strawberries, strawberry leaf with a fly, gourds.


So I've randomly going out of taking pictures of the gardens progress but never finding the time to update the blog about it. While I've waited many of the plants have out grown their pictures. I've now been motivated by my Sister-in-Law updating her blog about their new garden. It seems may be it's genetic thing - gardening.

We are having the best season ever. Everything is full, green and healthy. We have certainly exceeded last year in growth - we already have two little tomatoes. It's all about the lights and of course a bit of fertilizer helps too.

Much of the stuff you see above were started by us. This years new plants that we started were string beans, basil, greens - swiss card, collards and kale (we eat A LOT of greens and we're real happy that were growing enough this year to not have to buy any!). The rest (tomatoes, lettuce, onions, peppers) we've started in previous years and just keep getting better at it. I love it. We've got lattice everywhere this year - tomatoes, gourds and squash. I love climbers.