Or just plain... tickled pink.
This is absolutely, by far, my favourite picture this year.
Karen
Sunday, May 14, 2006
conflict of interest
Honestly, I can't decide whether to be completely bummed out that West Wing is now... done. over. finito. Forever. What can possibly come close to it?
Or just plain... tickled pink.
This is absolutely, by far, my favourite picture this year.
Karen
Or just plain... tickled pink.
This is absolutely, by far, my favourite picture this year.
Karen
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
You know...
You know you've been gardening too much lately when....
1. You walk by the perennial gardens on the campus and are tempted to weed them.
2. You start to think about all the space on campus that could be used as community gardens.
3. You close your eyes to go to sleep and all you can see on the inside of your eyelids are dandelions.
4. The dandelions start to talk back to you.
5. The dandelions take over your husband's brain and make him turn the lawn mower on so they'll be chopped back only a little and not actually yanked out completely by the roots.
Feel free to add more....
Karen
1. You walk by the perennial gardens on the campus and are tempted to weed them.
2. You start to think about all the space on campus that could be used as community gardens.
3. You close your eyes to go to sleep and all you can see on the inside of your eyelids are dandelions.
4. The dandelions start to talk back to you.
5. The dandelions take over your husband's brain and make him turn the lawn mower on so they'll be chopped back only a little and not actually yanked out completely by the roots.
Feel free to add more....
Karen
Monday, May 8, 2006
For no other reason......
....then I have a liking for these particular photos today.
I call this one "my maple beats your church steeple".
More tulips.
One periwinkle flower.
There are actually hundreds, maybe thousands.
We inherited this patch. Like forget-me-nots, lily-of-the-valley, and most of the mint family, there are some plants that I have a hard time believing people can ethically sell. Rabid growth is an understatement.
The tree in the forefront, btw, is one of the many squirrel-planted chestnuts. Something else that is in rabid abundance in the yard.
Karen
I call this one "my maple beats your church steeple".
More tulips.
One periwinkle flower.
There are actually hundreds, maybe thousands.
We inherited this patch. Like forget-me-nots, lily-of-the-valley, and most of the mint family, there are some plants that I have a hard time believing people can ethically sell. Rabid growth is an understatement.
The tree in the forefront, btw, is one of the many squirrel-planted chestnuts. Something else that is in rabid abundance in the yard.
Karen
Sunday, May 7, 2006
T is for Tulips
I have no inspiration for words today, so I'll let the pictures do the talking instead. Today's theme is tulips.
Karen
Karen
Friday, May 5, 2006
F is for....
Fritillaria Imperialis, "Aurora"
And close up...
Forsythia
This is the little garden between the fence and the sidewalk. I call it the Fenceline Garden. We have 7 different garden 'areas' - the Front Garden, the Fenceline Garden, the (former) Veggie Garden, the Triangle Garden, the Round Garden, the Tree Nursery Garden and the Back Fence Garden.
From the firepit, with my back to the green shed, out to the front fenceline. This garden area is new as of last year. I got tired of mowing in circles around the fruit and wedding trees and the grass next to the fence on the right was in terrible condition, being in shade for most of the day. So we added a HUGE amount of newspaper and mulch. By the time the newspaper breaks down, the grass and weeds underneath are largely dead, and the area becomes prime garden space.
And finally.... the Front Garden.
And close up...
Forsythia
This is the little garden between the fence and the sidewalk. I call it the Fenceline Garden. We have 7 different garden 'areas' - the Front Garden, the Fenceline Garden, the (former) Veggie Garden, the Triangle Garden, the Round Garden, the Tree Nursery Garden and the Back Fence Garden.
From the firepit, with my back to the green shed, out to the front fenceline. This garden area is new as of last year. I got tired of mowing in circles around the fruit and wedding trees and the grass next to the fence on the right was in terrible condition, being in shade for most of the day. So we added a HUGE amount of newspaper and mulch. By the time the newspaper breaks down, the grass and weeds underneath are largely dead, and the area becomes prime garden space.
And finally.... the Front Garden.
Thursday, May 4, 2006
picture fest to come! and allergies
I've been sick again. I think it's my allergies playing havoc with my sinuses.
In 2003, when I was last tested for allergies, the results said I was allergic to cats, like my pretty Ginger, seen here being unhappy about being indoors while I am out...
...and on a lesser scale, to dogs, like the bundle of energy friend that is Leif the Licky.
In the last 3 years since that allergy testing, I've been having this growing passion for... growing things. Gardening. I think I may be becoming seasonally allergic as well. I'll find out on May 16, when I have an appointment with the allergist for re-testing.
Anyway, since I was home from work yesterday with a raw throat and massive congestion, I wandered around taking nearly a hundred shots of the gardens and house. In between taking out what feels like hundreds of dandelions, the hard way, before they start to self-seed. And just as many mini maple trees, just because.
Instead of my usual post once a week or more with a ton of pictures, I'm going to try to post 2 or 3 new pictures every day for the next couple of weeks... so hang on.
Here we see apricot blooms closeup, from a few days ago....
And in perspective...
And yesterday...the blooms are going away, while the leaves are coming out.
Now, I'd like to say that soon we'll have apricots growing, but sadly that isn't true. I think this is one of those fruit trees that need a partner tree to cross-pollinate with, and we have only one of them. This is a tree that we inherited from the previous home owners and they either didn't know that, or just wanted the tree for it's Pretty factor. It's not a big deal, since apricots aren't high on my list of fruits.
Karen
In 2003, when I was last tested for allergies, the results said I was allergic to cats, like my pretty Ginger, seen here being unhappy about being indoors while I am out...
...and on a lesser scale, to dogs, like the bundle of energy friend that is Leif the Licky.
In the last 3 years since that allergy testing, I've been having this growing passion for... growing things. Gardening. I think I may be becoming seasonally allergic as well. I'll find out on May 16, when I have an appointment with the allergist for re-testing.
Anyway, since I was home from work yesterday with a raw throat and massive congestion, I wandered around taking nearly a hundred shots of the gardens and house. In between taking out what feels like hundreds of dandelions, the hard way, before they start to self-seed. And just as many mini maple trees, just because.
Instead of my usual post once a week or more with a ton of pictures, I'm going to try to post 2 or 3 new pictures every day for the next couple of weeks... so hang on.
Here we see apricot blooms closeup, from a few days ago....
And in perspective...
And yesterday...the blooms are going away, while the leaves are coming out.
Now, I'd like to say that soon we'll have apricots growing, but sadly that isn't true. I think this is one of those fruit trees that need a partner tree to cross-pollinate with, and we have only one of them. This is a tree that we inherited from the previous home owners and they either didn't know that, or just wanted the tree for it's Pretty factor. It's not a big deal, since apricots aren't high on my list of fruits.
Karen
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
What do you do?
Looking over my list of what I'd bought at Richter's Herbs, and how I'd broken it down into categories, it occurs to me to ask - what are your garden goals?
Are you growing for the Pretty?
Do you know, or want to learn, the use of medicinal herbs?
Are you a natural dyer crazy enough to risk the seriously invasive woad for that wonderful blue?
It doesn't have to be a crazy thing, it can be controlled. Or so I tell myself about the forget-me-nots and creeping charley and peppermint every darned year. But those are the previous home owners problems that I inherited. I'm choosing woad, and hopefully in a careful manner.
Anyway... is it a cooking thing? Growing veggies and herbs for your next meal? Or for sustainability?
Gods but Anti-V must want to kill me sometimes. Her Zone 4 climate and the esker running through her land makes gardening difficult, and she's passionate about cooking!
Maybe it's a Zen thing... the peace of gardening?
Or the pride of having bounty and knowing you've worked darn hard for it?
I'm in the 'all of the above category'. Though admittedly the dye plants and Pretty factor usually end up with top priority.
I'm hoping the dye plants will keep me busy through the next winter. :)
Karen
Are you growing for the Pretty?
Do you know, or want to learn, the use of medicinal herbs?
Are you a natural dyer crazy enough to risk the seriously invasive woad for that wonderful blue?
It doesn't have to be a crazy thing, it can be controlled. Or so I tell myself about the forget-me-nots and creeping charley and peppermint every darned year. But those are the previous home owners problems that I inherited. I'm choosing woad, and hopefully in a careful manner.
Anyway... is it a cooking thing? Growing veggies and herbs for your next meal? Or for sustainability?
Gods but Anti-V must want to kill me sometimes. Her Zone 4 climate and the esker running through her land makes gardening difficult, and she's passionate about cooking!
Maybe it's a Zen thing... the peace of gardening?
Or the pride of having bounty and knowing you've worked darn hard for it?
I'm in the 'all of the above category'. Though admittedly the dye plants and Pretty factor usually end up with top priority.
I'm hoping the dye plants will keep me busy through the next winter. :)
Karen
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Errrr... Hi! Still here.
Time to catch up a bit... it's been a busy week apparently. Thank you for the good wishes on my blogiversary.
Let's see now... Richter's Herbs, the visit. I should listen to my husband more often. He suggested that I call ahead, and ask to have some woad and weld plants ready for me. I didn't. They didn't have any available. I had to settle for seeds and I'm not all that good with seeds.
Climbing strawberries. Leopard Lily. Comfrey. Calendula. Rosemary. Madder. Purple Bush Basil. Pennyroyal. Lobelia. Chinese Rhubarb. Yellow Bedstraw. Valerian.
Dye Plants - Yellow Bedstraw, Madder, Calendula.
Medicinal - Comfrey, Calendua, Pennyroyal, Lobelia, Valerian.
Foodish - Climbing Strawberries, Rosemary, Purple Bush Basil, Chinese Rhubarb.
Pretty - Leopard Lily, Calendula, Purple Bush Basil, there may be more but I don't know yet. :)
In the Fiber world: Saxon Green (sort of*).
A passing glance at research says that Saxon Green is Weld overdye of Woad. Jo gave me the remains of her weld dyebath from FITP. I put a skein of alum mordanted lopi in, and left it overnight on the heating vent. There was a definite colour change but I wasn't entirely satisfied with the results - it was fairly mottled. I probably didn't sufficiently wet the wool before adding it.
Next step was to take a handful of fleece, previously dyed with chemical Indigo and throw it in the rubber tub on the heating vent. This stayed in for several days. I'd check it once in awhile and didn't notice any change happening in the wool. So I decided that perhaps it needed greater heat then the heating vent was providing.
I failed to notice that the dyebath itself was changing colour, until I dumped it in the dyepot to heat on the stove. "Oh" I say to myself "This could be interesting."
I also added the skein that had previously been dyed with weld, better saturated with water this time. Heated all of the above on a low simmer for about an hour, and then turned the heat off and left it overnight. Rinsed both throughly in the morning and got all excited.
What a pretty colour!
The skein on the left is the first exciting colour, and the skein on the right is the exhaust colour. I'm delighted with both.
I didn't get a picture of the handful of fleece.
I say "sort of" because while Indigo is the dye chemical in Woad, chemically formed Indigo is apparently a slightly different creature, and hence I 'sort of' have Saxon Green. Re-enactors get fussy about the details sometimes.
And on to the Gardens:
Not fully open daffodils, but still pretty.
Fully devoted to the sun..
Not quite open yet apricot blossoms.
Fritillaria Imperialis, "Aurora", also not quite open yet. But wow...tall. And Anti-V is right, the flowers are stinky.
Now, these things, on the other hand are very very tiny. Grape Muscari.
And finally, Lungwort. Surprisingly pretty. After it's done flowering, it's pretty unremarkable and looks a lot like Creeping Lanium.
There was a single lone squirrel-planted-on-the-far-side-of-the-yard tulip that has bloomed as well, but I didn't get a good picture of it. It's been raining all day and the one trip out I made to try was enough for me. I'll get more pics of tulips soon enough.
It's still really really early for some of these flowers. Very unseasonable warmth. As a human being, I'm loving it. As a gardener, it's worrying. How much of my garden is going to die in next week's predicted frost when the weather finally starts heading back to normal?
Karen
Let's see now... Richter's Herbs, the visit. I should listen to my husband more often. He suggested that I call ahead, and ask to have some woad and weld plants ready for me. I didn't. They didn't have any available. I had to settle for seeds and I'm not all that good with seeds.
Climbing strawberries. Leopard Lily. Comfrey. Calendula. Rosemary. Madder. Purple Bush Basil. Pennyroyal. Lobelia. Chinese Rhubarb. Yellow Bedstraw. Valerian.
Dye Plants - Yellow Bedstraw, Madder, Calendula.
Medicinal - Comfrey, Calendua, Pennyroyal, Lobelia, Valerian.
Foodish - Climbing Strawberries, Rosemary, Purple Bush Basil, Chinese Rhubarb.
Pretty - Leopard Lily, Calendula, Purple Bush Basil, there may be more but I don't know yet. :)
In the Fiber world: Saxon Green (sort of*).
A passing glance at research says that Saxon Green is Weld overdye of Woad. Jo gave me the remains of her weld dyebath from FITP. I put a skein of alum mordanted lopi in, and left it overnight on the heating vent. There was a definite colour change but I wasn't entirely satisfied with the results - it was fairly mottled. I probably didn't sufficiently wet the wool before adding it.
Next step was to take a handful of fleece, previously dyed with chemical Indigo and throw it in the rubber tub on the heating vent. This stayed in for several days. I'd check it once in awhile and didn't notice any change happening in the wool. So I decided that perhaps it needed greater heat then the heating vent was providing.
I failed to notice that the dyebath itself was changing colour, until I dumped it in the dyepot to heat on the stove. "Oh" I say to myself "This could be interesting."
I also added the skein that had previously been dyed with weld, better saturated with water this time. Heated all of the above on a low simmer for about an hour, and then turned the heat off and left it overnight. Rinsed both throughly in the morning and got all excited.
What a pretty colour!
The skein on the left is the first exciting colour, and the skein on the right is the exhaust colour. I'm delighted with both.
I didn't get a picture of the handful of fleece.
I say "sort of" because while Indigo is the dye chemical in Woad, chemically formed Indigo is apparently a slightly different creature, and hence I 'sort of' have Saxon Green. Re-enactors get fussy about the details sometimes.
And on to the Gardens:
Not fully open daffodils, but still pretty.
Fully devoted to the sun..
Not quite open yet apricot blossoms.
Fritillaria Imperialis, "Aurora", also not quite open yet. But wow...tall. And Anti-V is right, the flowers are stinky.
Now, these things, on the other hand are very very tiny. Grape Muscari.
And finally, Lungwort. Surprisingly pretty. After it's done flowering, it's pretty unremarkable and looks a lot like Creeping Lanium.
There was a single lone squirrel-planted-on-the-far-side-of-the-yard tulip that has bloomed as well, but I didn't get a good picture of it. It's been raining all day and the one trip out I made to try was enough for me. I'll get more pics of tulips soon enough.
It's still really really early for some of these flowers. Very unseasonable warmth. As a human being, I'm loving it. As a gardener, it's worrying. How much of my garden is going to die in next week's predicted frost when the weather finally starts heading back to normal?
Karen
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Blog-i-versary!
It's my Blog-i-versary!
And I'm too busy and tired to write more!
Soon, I promise.
My first daffodils came out sometime today. It was dark by the time we came home, so I'll wait until tomorrow morning to take a picture, and will entertain y'all shortly thereafter.
Karen
And I'm too busy and tired to write more!
Soon, I promise.
My first daffodils came out sometime today. It was dark by the time we came home, so I'll wait until tomorrow morning to take a picture, and will entertain y'all shortly thereafter.
Karen
Monday, April 17, 2006
monday!
Wow, comments! I love y'all. :) And it's so good to hear from other folks having fun in their gardens.
Anti-V sent this link along in email to confirm Nina's guess about the blue flower.
http://www.naturecaptured.com/photos/index.php?type=f&id=8
It's called Glory in the Snow. There's only one problem. I don't remember planting them, and I don't remember it being there in the years before so it isn't old homeowner plantings. And there's too many of them to have been squirrel'd in.
My memory is clearly starting to fail! Good thing I'm blogging much of it down.
More on the trip to Richters and family visits later.
Karen
Anti-V sent this link along in email to confirm Nina's guess about the blue flower.
http://www.naturecaptured.com/photos/index.php?type=f&id=8
It's called Glory in the Snow. There's only one problem. I don't remember planting them, and I don't remember it being there in the years before so it isn't old homeowner plantings. And there's too many of them to have been squirrel'd in.
My memory is clearly starting to fail! Good thing I'm blogging much of it down.
More on the trip to Richters and family visits later.
Karen
Friday, April 14, 2006
Good Friday was...Good :)
I'm in a much better mood today. We got lots and lots done in the garden.
We found the oriental poppies and moved them out from behind the ecineachea and the yarrow. They were too short last year to be in that spot. I would have moved them last year when I decided they were in the wrong spot, but after waiting for them to finish blooming, and being distracted for a week - I couldn't find them. Swamped over by the yarrow.
Then we created a path between the two lilac bushes by removing (and potting or transplanting - no waste here!) several lilac babies, overcrowded tulip and crocus bulbs.
Here's the new pathway ...
And the potted lilacs, with a few other odd plants from the same area. We don't know what they are yet, but we put them in pots to find out.
This is a new (to us) type of crocus. We planted it last fall.
All of the other crocuses in the yard are white, yellow, and purple.
We planted two patches of peas in a square plot. The theory is we'll be adding a square oblesik for them to grow up on. I'll plant another row around the outside diameter of the squares in two weeks so there's an overlapping harvest. The oblesiks will be in place by then.
These are the first daffodils of the season. As you can see, they are having some trouble with the rose bush.
I think these are blue anemones. Please feel free to correct me if you think I'm wrong. The hubby and I aren't too sure.
Last, but not least...I'm really glad these friterillas came back. They up and died abruptly last year, and I was never sure why.
Of course, there was weeding. I have no pictures for that. There aren't enough pixels in the world to take pictures of all the little baby maple trees in the gardens.
*whew*
Tomorrow, we're making the annual trip to the Richter's warehouse. We live close enough to make that easy, but they are also a great online seed and plant source. They have a whole lot of the odder herbs that one doesn't normally see in most nurseries - dyeplants like woad, weld, dyer's broom, alkanet and madder or medicinals like motherwort and allheal which are often considered noxious weeds and don't have a 'pretty' value like foxglove, valerian or yarrow.
Not that I know how to do more then grow the medicinals. Yet. Learning is on the list of things to do in my life someday.
So what are you doing in your garden lately?
We found the oriental poppies and moved them out from behind the ecineachea and the yarrow. They were too short last year to be in that spot. I would have moved them last year when I decided they were in the wrong spot, but after waiting for them to finish blooming, and being distracted for a week - I couldn't find them. Swamped over by the yarrow.
Then we created a path between the two lilac bushes by removing (and potting or transplanting - no waste here!) several lilac babies, overcrowded tulip and crocus bulbs.
Here's the new pathway ...
And the potted lilacs, with a few other odd plants from the same area. We don't know what they are yet, but we put them in pots to find out.
This is a new (to us) type of crocus. We planted it last fall.
All of the other crocuses in the yard are white, yellow, and purple.
We planted two patches of peas in a square plot. The theory is we'll be adding a square oblesik for them to grow up on. I'll plant another row around the outside diameter of the squares in two weeks so there's an overlapping harvest. The oblesiks will be in place by then.
These are the first daffodils of the season. As you can see, they are having some trouble with the rose bush.
I think these are blue anemones. Please feel free to correct me if you think I'm wrong. The hubby and I aren't too sure.
Last, but not least...I'm really glad these friterillas came back. They up and died abruptly last year, and I was never sure why.
Of course, there was weeding. I have no pictures for that. There aren't enough pixels in the world to take pictures of all the little baby maple trees in the gardens.
*whew*
Tomorrow, we're making the annual trip to the Richter's warehouse. We live close enough to make that easy, but they are also a great online seed and plant source. They have a whole lot of the odder herbs that one doesn't normally see in most nurseries - dyeplants like woad, weld, dyer's broom, alkanet and madder or medicinals like motherwort and allheal which are often considered noxious weeds and don't have a 'pretty' value like foxglove, valerian or yarrow.
Not that I know how to do more then grow the medicinals. Yet. Learning is on the list of things to do in my life someday.
So what are you doing in your garden lately?
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Hmmph.
I'm in a grumpy-ish mood.
Over a hundred visits to the last post and only one comment. I had almost given up in despair until Cyndy visited. I like Cyndy. :)
Yeah, I know, I shouldn't be so attached to getting comments. Oh well.
I guess we're all a little tired in the blog world at the moment. Even one of the most heavily traffic'ed blogs that I visit regularily is getting fewer and fewer comments lately.
We have a few new flowers in the garden, but I haven't taken pictures yet.
I think I'm tired on a profound level. We've been busy a lot for the last several weeks and it isn't going to stop any time soon. We've got the usual round of family visits to make this weekend.
All I want to do is curl up in my garden. Not that I have any planting to do until the last frost date, of course. :)
Oh well. Soon enough... the weekend after this one is free.
Karen
Over a hundred visits to the last post and only one comment. I had almost given up in despair until Cyndy visited. I like Cyndy. :)
Yeah, I know, I shouldn't be so attached to getting comments. Oh well.
I guess we're all a little tired in the blog world at the moment. Even one of the most heavily traffic'ed blogs that I visit regularily is getting fewer and fewer comments lately.
We have a few new flowers in the garden, but I haven't taken pictures yet.
I think I'm tired on a profound level. We've been busy a lot for the last several weeks and it isn't going to stop any time soon. We've got the usual round of family visits to make this weekend.
All I want to do is curl up in my garden. Not that I have any planting to do until the last frost date, of course. :)
Oh well. Soon enough... the weekend after this one is free.
Karen
Tuesday, April 4, 2006
Forward Into the Past
Well, it's over for another year. Seems like it came and went so quickly.
This past weekend, my hubby and I ran our yearly conference on medieval history, called Forward Into the Past. If you want to see a list of the classes taught, you'll need to look in the History section, as the Man has updated the site already. Comments from the feedback forms will be up later.
I got a five-year pin for teaching. :)
These are the results of the class that I spearheaded on natural dyeing in history. There were 5 teachers, including myself. I collected the teachers and did the overall powerpoint presentation for the class. Each teacher brought a dyebath and spoke on their choice. It was kind of a combination of class and round table.
The yellow at the top is weld, to the left is sandalwood, to the right is brazilwood, and the purples at the bottom are alkanet.
This one is special - it's woad, in a urine bath. Sarah wanted to keep it separate for the squeamish. It's pretty amazing to watch it turn colour as it absorbs the oxygen. I'm going to do that successfully one day.
And despite the snow here tonight... there were a bunch of these lovely blooms out on sunday when I took Anti-V and Jo on a walk around the garden to see what is poking it's head out.
I'm sure there will be more soon enough. I love my garden!
Karen
This past weekend, my hubby and I ran our yearly conference on medieval history, called Forward Into the Past. If you want to see a list of the classes taught, you'll need to look in the History section, as the Man has updated the site already. Comments from the feedback forms will be up later.
I got a five-year pin for teaching. :)
These are the results of the class that I spearheaded on natural dyeing in history. There were 5 teachers, including myself. I collected the teachers and did the overall powerpoint presentation for the class. Each teacher brought a dyebath and spoke on their choice. It was kind of a combination of class and round table.
The yellow at the top is weld, to the left is sandalwood, to the right is brazilwood, and the purples at the bottom are alkanet.
This one is special - it's woad, in a urine bath. Sarah wanted to keep it separate for the squeamish. It's pretty amazing to watch it turn colour as it absorbs the oxygen. I'm going to do that successfully one day.
And despite the snow here tonight... there were a bunch of these lovely blooms out on sunday when I took Anti-V and Jo on a walk around the garden to see what is poking it's head out.
I'm sure there will be more soon enough. I love my garden!
Karen
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Ahhhh-cho! *sniffle, snork, cough* etc.
Well, I managed to largely fight off that cold I thought I was getting over a week ago - until this tuesday. Then it crashed over me.
I've been doing a lot of sleeping, sneezing, snorting, sniffling and coughing. But I'm feeling marginally better today, thank you. :)
More pictures that I took the weekend before last... when the Canada Blooms show got me all excited about gardening again.
You've seen their tulips in the last post.... well, these are mine.
And this is a tiny little snowdrop flower that was hiding under the dead foliage of another plant.
We moved a lot of things to new spaces last fall. The wormwood looks happy...
The woad...
...and the weld both have abundant life waiting. Also recent transplants to a new space.
And the cherry tree seems content with it's new space as well.
I need to get lots more woad (are you crazy? it's a noxious weed) ...yes, lots more, for the garden this year. Apparently, it takes 24 first year plants to dye 4 ounces of wool.
More weld probably wouldn't hurt either, but it can wait. I can get yellow out of dozens of different plants.
Must get warmer... NOW. Must get healthier... NOW. Must plant stuff... NOW.
*sigh*
Karen
I've been doing a lot of sleeping, sneezing, snorting, sniffling and coughing. But I'm feeling marginally better today, thank you. :)
More pictures that I took the weekend before last... when the Canada Blooms show got me all excited about gardening again.
You've seen their tulips in the last post.... well, these are mine.
And this is a tiny little snowdrop flower that was hiding under the dead foliage of another plant.
We moved a lot of things to new spaces last fall. The wormwood looks happy...
The woad...
...and the weld both have abundant life waiting. Also recent transplants to a new space.
And the cherry tree seems content with it's new space as well.
I need to get lots more woad (are you crazy? it's a noxious weed) ...yes, lots more, for the garden this year. Apparently, it takes 24 first year plants to dye 4 ounces of wool.
More weld probably wouldn't hurt either, but it can wait. I can get yellow out of dozens of different plants.
Must get warmer... NOW. Must get healthier... NOW. Must plant stuff... NOW.
*sigh*
Karen
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Don't know what it is...
I don't know what's going on exactly, but it seems I've got some kind of weird blog block. Apparently, I'd rather move all the images around in my home directory, and fix all the links (by hand, individually) in the last year of blogs then write a new one.
Weird.
Anyway... the weather is depressing. It's still too cold to work in the garden, and while the snow build-up melted a week ago, and got me all excited - it's snowed again since. *sigh*
Last weekend (the one before this) we were at CANADA BLOOMS and got a few pics.
Masses of tulips, forced early and alive only for the weekend at Canada Blooms.
Art, which while very pretty, I can't imagine ever wanting to put in my garden.
Jack in the Pulpit - I'm going to have to consider adding these... what a great shape to the bloom.
Trellis / arch / art by a friend of ours - Darrell Markewitz at Wareham Forge.
Here's a close-up...
And the obligatory tourist shot of Toronto - the CN tower. The Metro Toronto Convention Centre is right at the base of the tower.
Karen
Weird.
Anyway... the weather is depressing. It's still too cold to work in the garden, and while the snow build-up melted a week ago, and got me all excited - it's snowed again since. *sigh*
Last weekend (the one before this) we were at CANADA BLOOMS and got a few pics.
Masses of tulips, forced early and alive only for the weekend at Canada Blooms.
Art, which while very pretty, I can't imagine ever wanting to put in my garden.
Jack in the Pulpit - I'm going to have to consider adding these... what a great shape to the bloom.
Trellis / arch / art by a friend of ours - Darrell Markewitz at Wareham Forge.
Here's a close-up...
And the obligatory tourist shot of Toronto - the CN tower. The Metro Toronto Convention Centre is right at the base of the tower.
Karen
Friday, March 10, 2006
it's friday!
And I'm getting sick!
It's just a cold, but it's just so damned inevitable it's funny.
Spring is starting to spring into being here - snow melting all over the place, geese appearing on campus, rain, temperatures rising, Karen getting a cold. All the traditional signs.
*sigh*
Ah well, there's something to be said for tradition.
And now I can start taking pictures of flowers again!
Here's a pic of last year's tulips, just to tide you over a bit.
Karen
It's just a cold, but it's just so damned inevitable it's funny.
Spring is starting to spring into being here - snow melting all over the place, geese appearing on campus, rain, temperatures rising, Karen getting a cold. All the traditional signs.
*sigh*
Ah well, there's something to be said for tradition.
And now I can start taking pictures of flowers again!
Here's a pic of last year's tulips, just to tide you over a bit.
Karen
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