morning of Day 3

Yes, it really is 7 something in the morning. You would think I'd sleep in on vacation. Neil is sleeping. But I found the bed too hard and the room too hot. I'm not rested, even if I did get 7 hours of sleep. Oh for that waterbed now....

Day 2 started off fantastic. We had all this great scenery in and around Lake Placid. Mountains and water - two of my favourite natural architectural features.

And then there was the ferry crossing at Port Kent - invigorating! I kept trying to hide behind Neil from the water crashing over the front of the ferry and he kept laughing at me. He was really in his element.

But then the drive just got longer and longer and longer, until we finally crashed - an hour earlier then planned. By the time we were checked in, I was too exhausted to blog.

I give you ...pics.


This is a river of unknown name near Lake Placid - just chanced upon by the road.


Where we found this fellow...



A little further down the road, we came across Ausable Chasm...



...which was really quite deep.

And then a little while later....

Neil...



...and Karen (who regrets what the wind has done to her hair but bravely posts the pic anyway)...

...watch the sights on the way over.





Today is a much shorter drive, and includes planned stops at a chocolate museum and aquarium - on the home side of the border. Back into Canada today. :)

blogging on the road!

Oh, this is the life! Laptop and an internet connection in a hotel. I can blog on the road.

It was a long drive, but once we hit the USA, the scenery was so interesting. Both human and natural. We're going across Route 3 through the Adirondacks, to Maine, and across the Bay of Fundy to Annapolis Royal.

Route 3 is a fascinating contrast in poverty and wealth. Mobile homes that aren't so mobile anymore next door to century old houses. So many not-so mobile homes...

The speed limits are different, even after the conversation from miles/per to kilometres/per. The common limits are 30, 45, and 55 miles/per. This translates to 50, 70 and 90 k/per. In Canada, the common speed limits are 50, 60, and 80 k/per. Not that anyone drives the limit in either country 'though.

But driving over the limit in a familiar area is a little different then driving over the limit in a foreign country. I kept expecting a friendly State trooper to leap out from behind a bush somewhere.

And driving 90 k/per in these twisting mountain roads - fun! Even if it does take too much attention away from the scenery at times. Fudge, handwoven baskets, leather artisans and blacksmiths - oh my!

Yes, I did manage to get through the cat and dog departures even if Ginger did try her hardest to guilt me out when we left her at the Cat Hospital for boarding.

There's a pool at this place - an important feature in choosing a hotel - but we were too tired to use it. Just curled up in front of the tv and computer. Maybe in the morning.

Karen

last day!

Last day at work for two weeks! woohoo!

Anyone know how to delete specific comments (ie. the spam)?

Karen

more pre-vacation jitters

Apparently, I'm nesting - big time. Is it really that crazy to want to just stay home? With the doggie and the kitty and the garden?

I'm sure I'll enjoy myself on this vacation - I've left home before and done so! But I'm being a lug again. I woke up in the middle of the night to listen to the cat getting healthier all the time - scratching the carpet in the middle of the night. And then couldn't get back to sleep because I was worried about the dog's first time in a kennel when we go on vacation.

So eventually I did get back to sleep, only to wake up again with a dream of setting a friend's tent on fire. Now where did that come from?

Strangely enough, I'm having Post-MichFest withdrawal symptoms. The Michigan Womyns' Music Festival is where I used to go every August, back in the days when I was a lesbian. Pre-bisexuality and Hubby.
The festival's just finished and I'm haunting the discussion forum for stories and looking for pics online. It's a physical sensation - my memory of being there, even 'though it's now been 6 years or so since I was last there. I'm going to have to go back again some year.

Karen

vacation, vacation, vacation!

Okay, I think I've finally found some enthusiasm for the vacation. :)

My poor hubby desperately needs to get away for a bit, and he's got this goal for the trip and he's been doing all this research for it and I've been, like... a lug.

A lug stuck in the mud, even. A real homebody, that's me.

But today, the desk schedule for next week came out and I realized that I won't be on the one after that and it was a good thing! I was surprised to find out that I'm actually looking forward to this trip. Okay, maybe not the hours of driving. Or the strange beds every night, or the being away from my kids (Leif and Ginger), or the missing the harvest part.... but umm, the rest of it.

The not being at work part, the being with the hubby, the newness of things, the gadgets, the sights, the ocean. I'm really looking forward to the ocean.

We're bringing the laptop, the digital camera, and the cell phone. We'll be the most connected ever and I do love gadgets! I don't think I've ever experienced time away from the house as quite so convenient. Oh, I can blog from the road.

Speaking of gadgets.... We're going out to the east coast of Canada. I've never been there. But if you're watching this spot at just the right moment, you can actually watch us cross The Bridge. Some things are wyrd, no matter how much fun the technology might be.

But the darned tomatoes had better start ripening soon if I'm going to get to use them. Since I'll have to perserve a lot of them.... got any good salsa or bruchetta receipes laying around?

Karen

a blog-inspired blog

I am feeling very much better at the moment. The back has gone from hellish to merely grumpy, and I've now had three solid nights of sleep - better even then I usually get!

I took today off as well - that doctor's note had better be useful! - so I've spent all week at home recovering from a very very bad back episode. But today, I actually got a few things done around the house.

I even baked bananna bread, but it didn't entirely work out.

I've been checking out new blogs and have found quite a few new reads that I'm excited about! Check out Counting Sheep, Piffle, Pocket Farm, The Farmette Report, mellowtrouble, and Riverrim blog.

Another new one that I added a little while ago is Anti-V who is actually a real-life friend who has, I think, a great perspective on the world around her.

Oh, and a happy belated birthday to my little brother! I've been a little busy being in pain this week to mention it earlier.

Karen

well now

Sure wouldn't wish the last 5 days on anyone else!

Accumulating and increasing back spasms and their accompanying friends - nausea and diarrhea, are just NOT FUN. Not fun at all.

I've now been 4 days off work, and flat on my back for most of it, popping pain pills with visits to both the chiropractor and the massage therapist. Whew.

I'm still not well, but at least now I'm starting to come out of that self-centered haze of pain and fatigue that debilitating pain can bring.

Maybe I'll even want to eat something today. So far - no interest, but at least no repulsion at the idea either.

Had to give up tickets to Great Big Sea tonight. I'm just not up to it. I'm not the biggest fan of the band, but I've been wanting to see the Fergus Scottish Festival, where they are playing ....ahh well.

Completely missed my assigned watering day this week, by virtue of being in a fog of pain and nausea. It's supposed to rain today, 'though so maybe nature will take care of itself before all the flowers and veggies die. I certainly don't have the energy to water by bucket today.

The good news is that we don't have to replace the septic tank this year. Repairs done should tide us over for another year or two. Maybe we can afford it then.

Okay, time to go back to lying flat on the couch feeling sorry for myself now....

Karen

Blah!

I'm at home, taking a much needed rest/sick day - too bad I'll spend most of the day cleaning the messes that have accumulated.

But after another night of back spasms, and the see-saw recovery of the cat, and the possible replacement of the septic tank that we can't afford, and the looming "vacation" that I'm not sure I want to go on.... I'm stressed.

At least my jaw is holding so far. Good thing too, since the chiropractor is on vacation.

Mrrrph.

Karen

Long, full weekend

I'm getting somewhat tired of feeding Ginger through her tube, but she is getting better. She's drinking on her own, and holding down her food, for the most part. And there was even the tiniest bit of poop - woohoo! The things one gets excited about, eh?



Started working on the new deck, designed and implemented by the man himself - my very own hubby. Those are my toes. :)



I stained my new deck chair, and started on the deck pieces, but there's no pics. The chair was a first-date anniversary present. :)

On saturday, we went out for dinner and a movie, and ended up doing dinner and an hour or so of browsing in Chapters instead. I'd mentioned to Neil awhile ago that I had been wanting to spend some more time then our usual 'magazines and sci-fi' trips, browsing other sections carefully. And *sigh*, after a very thorough trip around the store.....all I ended up with was one magazine.

I want to find - on the shelves - books on herbs that include growing, harvesting and using them for natural dyeing, medicinal purposes, and the kitchen. I want to find books on spinning, dyeing, weaving that aren't all about the modern versions thereof, without a lot of technobabble. I want stories of why people do what they do in the fiber crafts. I want to find something new and thoughtful and intelligent in the pagan sections - right now, it all seems so cheesy and cheap. And I want to find books whose information I can trust. Especially about health issues - I support alternative medicines, in theory, but it's so understudied, and overwritten. Everyone and their grandmother with a theory that knows a publisher....

I can find many books online, even on the Chapters website, and I'm less resistant to online shopping then I used to be, but still.... I want to find them on the shelves! The damned stores are certainly big enough.

Feel free to make recommendations, by the way. :)

And of course, did more weeding and flower shots and watching season 3 of Babylon 5. We tried to finish the mulching project but the place where we've been getting the mulch decided to close for the holiday weekend.

Brown-eyed Susan. I prefer the brown eyes to the black eyes.


And two shots of the echineacha.




I think I'm out of words now. :)

Karen

Ginger's home! and golden marguerite.

Ginger came home tonight! Now we get to feed her via a feeding tube, installed in her neck. Oh joy, oh bliss.

And she's healthy enough to resist a bit. More joy, more bliss.

But she is home, and seems happy to be here. And the feeding tube should go away in a couple of weeks as she starts to eat on her own again.

I've also been dyeing, with the golden marguerite (aka dyer's chamomille). Flower heads in one pot, and their leaves and stalks in the other. The wool rovings that went into the flower pot was pre-mordanted two nights ago with alum, and the yarn that went into the other pot was accompanied by a rusty iron nugget.

I came home at mid-day yesterday, after the contents of my stomach left the building, so I turned on the dye baths, and promptly fell asleep on the couch. Woke up an hour later to find them boiling, and turned them off. Fortunately I hadn't added the wool yet. I tested the flower heads dye bath with some cheap yarn to see if I'd ruined the colour but it turned out okay.

When the dyebaths had cooled sufficiently so as to not shock and felt the wool, I added it and turned the heat up again to simmer for a few hours.

The colours are delightful. :)


This is the results of the flower heads dye bath. Originally white icelandic rovings, pre-mordanted in alum.


This is the results of the dye bath from the golden marguerite stalks and leaves. Originally white mysterious yarn, iron nugget acting as mordant, in the dye pot.

Next on the list - elm bark.

Karen

Funnies, and philosophy

Ginger, a few weeks ago, before her current illness, checking out the new plant to eat.


So that's where I put the calla lilly bulb.... I'd forgotten where I planted the bulbs when I later planted the golden oregeno.

So anyway... had a little pissy moment on thursday, not having gotten any comments on posts for well over a week. So I had to start thinking about why I blog.

I think I have some unchallenged creative energies, that perhaps blogging is something akin to an artistic endeavor. Maybe more of a crafty one.

Fiber geeks will recognize that arguement - is it an art form, is it a craft?

But I digress. I have creative urges that I follow. Sometimes it's in the garden, sometimes it's in photography, sometimes I spin, weave, dye and sometimes I blog.

And I'm that weird mixture that many creative people are - wanting to share that creativity with the world and be recognized, and wanting just to _do_, and being too shy and self-conscious to actually advertise myself.

I blog because I want to stand out somehow ('though with millions blogging right now, one wonders) and yet I'm too shy to put myself into all the right places to get the traffic that would get the comments.

I'd be a starving artist, or crafter, if I didn't have a day job.

I won't be giving it up any time soon. Day job, or the creative urges.

Karen

Ginger, and getting a bone off my chest

Ginger's recovering slowly, still in the Cat Hospital. She has something called 'fatty liver', which is apparently entirely curable.

Thanks one and all for your concern. The drought of well-wishers has been memorable.

I suppose it's a good thing that I just like playing with gadgets....

Karen

Harry Potter

Oh my god, I can't believe that Rowling killed that particular character.

It's so not fair that everyone that Harry looks to as a parental figure dies.

And I liked him!

Karen

Ginger, and garden pics

Ginger cat went into the Cat Hospital on thursday. She hasn't been eating or pooping for a few days, and apparently she was very dehydrated. Poor kitty.

I'm of mixed feelings - some of which aren't so happy-making. I miss her and I know she's in good hands, but my allergies are better without her, and it's nice to not have to yell at her for scratching the carpet and curtains in the middle of the night, or to have to carefully watch the door while loading in groceries.

Her prognosis seems to be good, we'll learn more today when we vist, but at 17, she won't be with us all that much longer. 20 is the average age for most cats. I honestly don't know whether I'll get another when she does pass on.

On another note 'though, it may not have been the wisest idea to visit Chapters after dropping her off at the Cat Hospital. 4 books, 2 magazines** and a Godiva bar later - only 2 days before the Harry Potter release - I might have been working off some empty space anxiety. Ya think?

Anyway, it's been a few days since I threw ya a few pics of the garden.


This is the Calendula, my current favourite. What a wonderful collection of bright orange flowers! You can dye with this plant, but the colours are insignificant. More important is it's medicinal use as an antiseptic for burns, cuts and bruises. Not that I know how to get from plant to medicine just yet.



Now, the Golden Marguerite, aka Dyer's Chamomille, is an excellent dye plant. And I have more then enough of it this year to experiment with. I'll start collecting in a few days when the blooms start to dye off. It's also just plain stunning in it's abundance, spread and beauty.



I'm also enjoying the Yarrow this year. I think this is the original variety, but there are apparently many new cultivars on the market this year and some of those colours are quite pretty as well. Yarrow is also a medicinal plant - a quick Google search lists liver, digestive, menstrual and antispasmodic uses. Again, I'm no expert.

** Tanya Huff's "Valor's Choice" and "The Better Part of Valor" - hmmph, she's a Canadian author and she allowed the publisher to spell "Valour" in the American. I just noticed. How annoying. But's she's an excellent author, nonetheless. I'd just been putting off these two books because I tend to like fantasy better then military sci-fi.

Julie Czerneda's "Survival" and "A Thousand Words for Stranger". Both are first volumes of trilogies. So if I like them, I'll need to go get the rest of the set. She's a new author to me.

Bitch mag and Canadian Gardening, which is where I found out about the new varieties of Yarrow.

Karen

A is for Achievement

Woohoo! I have finally, in mid-July, planted the last plant I have any intention to plant. I have achieved a goal.

The little babies from the alkanet and dyer's broom are finally in the ground instead of their seed pots.

I feel so proud.

I can clean up the back patio, such as it can yet be called a patio. But that's a different kind of project, yet to be achieved.

Now, those plants that I may just happen upon ...that's another story. :) But I am running out of room until next year.

Did I mention the folks visited on sunday? Well, they did and my mom mentioned that my peppers are quite a bit bigger then hers at the moment. And we bought them in the same place back in May. That made me feel good because I had been worried about the progress of my veggie garden.

My folks also seem to have this strange way of socializing. They seem to believe that the family that weeds together, stays together. I was hard pressed to protest. :)

Karen

stuff

Vandy got herself a blog! I'll put a link in when she lets me.

Been watching a lot of Babylon 5 on DVD lately. It's such a good show 'though I do keep wishing that JMS could have written the whole story without having to accomadate mid-story network cancellations, actor's egos, and budget constraints.

Back spasms, sinus troubles and TMJ - all in one week. No fun.

But I did get the lawn cut yesterday, and today I spread some Scott's turf-builder stuff. And we went and got more mulch (yet more mulch) to add to the new space. Maybe I'll get out there soon.


Karen

the Girl card

Spent the holiday (that's Canada Day, on July 1, for the non-Canadians out there) quite pleasantly. Where else? In my garden. :) I was in an incredibly zen place with the weeds and spent hours pulling them without the least bit of frustration. I filled up a rather large size plastic tub with weeds. We really need to get a composter going.

Saturday on the other hand, wasn't exactly what I'd call pleasant. But I am left with a feeling of achievement and dozens of sore muscles to prove it.

The hubby and I went up to his mother's place to help re-shingle the roof. My advice for all the middle-aged out there? If anyone asks you to volunteer to re-shingle a roof - just say no.

Unless of course, you actually enjoy hard physical labour in the sun for hours on end. If so, then it's right up your alley.

All in all, I think I spent 6-7 hours on the roof. And for the most part, I was the only girl and probably the oldest person up there.

At supper-time, I changed into real clothes* and played the Girl card. You know, the one that lets you off of hard physical labour on account of being a Girl.

Then again, Neil** and I spent the next hour or so chainsawing up some broken limbs in the mother's yard, which is in and of itself physical labour, although not quite so demanding as roofing. But it was on the ground. And safe. Relatively speaking.

On sunday, I spent most of the day on the couch having a sinus reaction to something - either dripping, doing that whole body sneezing thing, or napping (because sleeping is the only time my sinuses would go anywhere near clearing). Fun, Wow. I figure it was a reaction to a combination of altitude change, hard labour, heat exhaustion, and the septic tank that overflowed the morning before we went to do the roofing.

* Real clothes being defined as clean and Girl-like.

**Neil played the Bad Knees card to avoid going back up on the roof again after supper.

Went camping, found some flowers :)

This past weekend was spent camping, quasi-Viking style, at an SCA event in the Kingdom of Ealdormere.


This is the hubby, in his Viking personna of Ragnarr. In an unusual moment, we find him actually helping out with lunch. ;)


Our fire, with a few too many iron gadgets to be authentic. What can we say? One of the group's leaders is a professional blacksmith.


This is the end of one of our friend's tent. Vikings like to decorate everything.


Found some daises at the campsite, couldn't resist.


It's a weed. Vandy tells me it's called Hawkweed. But it's very very pretty. And was all over the campsite.

I'd love to show you some pictures of the other Vikings, my friends, but I haven't asked their permission yet.

The garden exploded here in the past week. Pictures another day.

Karen

domain name problems

I'm not gone, I'm just lost temporarily.

Have got lots of pics to add, but my home website where I host them and just link to them from here is.... being problematic. We're in the middle of switching ISPs for the domain name.

Anyhoo... back when I have pics to show. Y'all so rarely comment on my text type posts anyway it seems pointless without them.

Karen

more birthday fun!

The hubby (aka Neil) dropped by work and brought an ice cream cake for me to share with the rest of the staff, just to draw attention to it being my 40th birthday.

He likes watching my face turn beet red. :) And apparently there are some forms of embarrassment that I like as well.

This birthday thing is perking up.

Karen

it's my birthday!

And I'm turning 40. I'm alternately wyrded out, and indifferent. One might say I have very mixed feelings.

Neil gave me a calla lilly plant for my birthday. Since I was foolish enough to plant the new bulbs in full sun, right beside the brick house, and they aren't coming up. I'll need to recover those, if they survive at all and remove them to a cool shady area where they belong.

He also gave me season two of B5 to compliment the season one set that he got me for christmas. Reruns of one of the greater scifi shows to ever grace the screen -- here we come!

Other then that, it's a low-key birthday so far...

Karen

and today

Tonight the lawn finally got cut, after two weeks of being ignored - Yeah!

Karen

the weekend

Saturday - boring, cloudy, raining on and off. Hence, very little gardening. So, I made beads instead. Glass beads - gas torch, melting glass. You get the drift. Neil gave me the glass and setup for Christmas this past year, and it was the great occupier during January and February. I made dozens of wonderful beads and then when spring started arriving, I got busy or sick and just started letting it fall by the way-side.

So it was very good to pick up the glass for a few hours again. But I think I've lost whatever talent I briefly had. I need to get back into it more often, to keep my hand practised. I made six beads this saturday, and only one of them is reasonably pretty.

Sunday - mix of overcast and sunny. Reasonable temperatures. So... back to the garden.

We are almost done. Almost. Well, at least this year's major plans. And not including the ever-ongoing weeding.

We need another 4 or 5 yards of mulch to finish the new garden area. But it goes quickly when we do it. Neil did the part I was dreading - pulling out the creeping charlie where it's broken through the earlier batch of newspaper/mulch barrier and reinforcing it.

I planted a few more annuals and some new tomato plants that I hope will take this time. I took a page from Mark Cullen's book on Ontario Gardening, and planted them directly in sheep manure. Maybe this bunch won't die like the others.

But I still didn't get the lawn done. The ground was too wet to mow most of the day. Actually, it might have been fine in the evening, but I was too zonked by then.

After we cleaned up last night, Neil and I took a walk around and discussed next year's plans. :) There's another whole bunch of fence line garden in the shady area that I don't venture in very often because the mosquitos are so prolific there. But it needs some major weeding, mostly of creeping charlie, some new plants, some mulching, some gravelling, and some delineation between it and the grass.

And the lawn desperately needs professionals to aerate, weed, restore the sparse areas, even out the bumpiness and kill monster ant hills. My puny amateur efforts just aren't suceeding.

There's more flowers in bloom so expect more pictures later in the week. Maybe my ugly beads will find themselves on film as well. Or maybe not. One never can tell.

Karen

creeping charlie, everywhere

I've spent much of the day fighting with one of the websites I maintain. It'd be easier if I had created this massive mess in the first place. I'd know my own work. But this was created by someone else with a far superior webwork education, and too much time on his hands. I'm trying to wrestle it into something much much simpler. It'll never get updated on an ongoing basis if I don't.

I did spend a little while outside weeding, but when my path crossed with creeping charlie - it chased me back into the house. It's a nasty little rooter that doesn't give up easily.

Neil suggested dinner and a movie tonight. I think I'd like that. I have a sweet hubby. :)

Tomorrow - more planting and mulching. And maybe it'll be dry enough to cut the grass. Same old, same old.

Karen

back to the garden, as promised

Ya know, one might be forgiven for wondering that if I'm such a big fan of gardening, then why is my grass so tall and unmowed?

I wonder sometimes too. But here it is - Neil's the only one who can reliably start the damn mower. It hates me. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.

Or it could be the rain for the past couple of days. Or the fact that we've been out of town. Or the fact that if I blink, it doubles in size. But really, I think it's just the hateful mower.

Anyway, here's a few more pics.


These white clematis flowers are new to us. We planted them last year while Neil was working for White Rose during it's dying days. It's funny how the same species can produce such different flowers. The Jackmani clematis will be open in another few days.


This iris stands out from the purple and blue varieties that are the bulk of our collection. We've been adding new irises every year for the last few years - mostly yard sale finds in this nearby town that has one great big day of yard sales every year. Many of the ladies in the local horticultural society reside there and sell their starter plants every year. There is what looks like a black variety getting ready to bloom in a few days.

I'd give you proper variety and plant names if I bothered to remember them. :) I just like the colour - I'm a big fan of masses of riotious colour.


This is one of the new Icelandic poppies that I went out and bought just a few weeks ago after the first one opened. It has been so hot and dry for the past couple of weeks that I wondered if they'd make it and here they are, popping flowers already. Almost makes me want to go out and get still more. :)

Karen

Smelting, or Melting?

This past weekend, I went to see members of the Dark Ages Recreation Companyattempt to smelt iron the same way the Vikings would have, over a thousand years ago.

The science worked! DARC again made a bloom of iron. The brave men of the DARC demo team could have died of heat stroke 'though, if they hadn't been smart enough to stop pumping the bellows by hand and insert the electronic version of the bellows instead.

30°C temperatures with a humidex that made it feel like 38°C instead is not a day to spend 5 hours pumping bellows by hand. There's apparently a reason that all the Sagas refer to the blacksmiths as working in the winter.

You can see the smelting by going to the DARC webpage, clicking on "Iron Experiments" in the left nav bar, and choosing "Smelt #5" or just by going here directly. Going the first route leads you to the index page for all of DARC's experiments.

Please keep in mind that the page for this weekend's smelt is still being written up. All that's available so far is the pictures from one digital camera (mine, I took them :)) - there are several more print films to be scanned in, and another digital camera full to make it's way to us. All of the accompanying written stuff is still to be written. My husband is the record-keeper for the experiments. I'm often (but not always) the photographer.

Tomorrow, we'll return you to your regularily scheduled garden report. :)

This just in from the front lines - apparently Vandy's next door neighbour is doing Sonny and Cher covers on a kareoke machine. Outside. Loudly. *shudder* I have a feeling that if she ever got a blog herself, the 'Blasted Heathcliffe' would feature prominently in her reports.

Karen

photo blog

The very very last of the tulips. These pale purple tulips are great performers - they've been in bloom for almost 2 weeks by the time I took the photo a few days ago and are just starting to go.


This oriential poppy is fantastic! I planted it last year but it didn't bloom until this year. I had no idea just how spectacular the bloom would be. The petals look like parchment paper, and the colour is just so dynamic.


One of my favourite iris shots - there are dozens of irises in bloom in the garden now.

These next two photos are sort of the 'before' and 'after' shots of the newest garden space. I say 'sort of' because the 'before' is really mid-way through the ripping up of the grass, and they are taken from different angles, and of course, several weeks apart.
Most of the new plants are still just baby plants, so they are harder to see in the 'after' shot. The hose in the 'before' picture is the new edge of the garden. It looks smaller in the 'after' shot because it's taken from further away and the plant growth behind the new garden space is so much more developed.



Coming up this weekend - Playing with Fire, the Viking Way. DARC's hottest new demo team will be demonstrating how to smelt iron in the Viking Era - a preliminary showing to a major demonstration in Annapolis Royal at the end of August.

I'll mostly be hiding in the screened in shade observation area, when I'm not helping out by crushing rock ore for the Annapolis Royal smelting. The boys of the demo team will be sweating their body weight out on the bellows in 30°C heat, with only a 30% chance of rain relief. Since this is a Living History demonstration, they'll be in full body wool, linen and leather - just like the Vikings of yesteryear.

Wish them luck!

Karen :)

opting out

Last night I opted out of gardening. I can hear that collective gasp of shock from here. :)

When we got home from work last night and did the usual 'walk around the yard looking at the new growth' thing, I swear I was mosquito-bitten a dozen times in under two minutes. I just couldn't take it, so I declared the evening garden-free and hid inside instead. We watched an old rerun of "Nine to Five" on tv.

Tonight after work, I have a pedicure. :) So that will likely be another night off from the gardening as well.

But I do have some new great pictures on the way. The irises started blooming just two days ago, and the oriental poppies started blooming yesterday.

Also, I now have mid-way and finished shots of this year's big garden project so y'all can see some of the work we've put in this year.

But give me another day. I've not gotten the digital camera to web photo routine down pat just yet.

Karen

yet more gardening

You're not tired of reading about my gardening yet? :)

Today in the garden, it was really freaking hot. And muggy. The weather prediction was for 30°C - I don't know what it actually ended up being.

We did an hour of weeding and mulching and cutting the front lawn grass and then gave up because of the heat for several hours. Went shopping - bouncing from air conditioned store to air conditioned store - but didn't buy much.

Came home and fixed the screen door. It's the first time in my life that I'd ever put a new screen in. Funny the things I'm learning as a (relatively) new home owner.

Puttered around the house gathering garbage for putting out tomorrow, and gave the cat's home room a thorough airing and cleaning. Ginger seemed to appreciate it.

And then it was finally cool enough to go back out into the gardens. I weeded and mulched and planted new annuals in the front garden while Neil weeded and mulched the front of the fence line garden. I only got half of my garden done while Neil completely finished his, but mine is bigger. :)

Watered bunches in all the gardens - I felt like I was baking, it had to be needed.

Oh! And the veggie garden actually is showing growth! Carrots and beans and peas and corn and garlic - oh my!

But I have to ask - does the dirt ever actually get out from under the fingernails?

Karen

another long day in the garden

Whew.... after a frustrating, annoying, very long four days at work this week, we spent another long day in the yard today.

First, they're rennovating the floor of the library that I work in, so my office had to move to temporary quarters in one of the conference rooms. My supervisor, our part-time staff and me - one conference table each, because they didn't want to move our desks. It's a bit cramped for desk space, and I've lost a lot of privacy. But there are perks - the new space has much improved proximity to filtered water, microwave, sink, toaster oven, and fridge. And the one and only colour laser printer in the entire building is just around the corner.

We've had to re-organize our schedules and procedures, almost every day, based on what new issue the construction brings up. It's been a constant, frustrating challenge, and I've always been slow to take up the positive side of 'challenges'.

At least at work, anyway. :) The gardens, on the other hand, have been a fun challenge this year and I've only had two minor hysterical fits so far. I think I mentioned the first - weeds and the vegetable garden on the long weekend. Today was the second one - the lawnmower doesn't work for me. Neil's the only one with the magical touch to turn it on, fix the wheels, whatever. And he wasn't home when I started this afternoon. But he did come home just when I couldn't take it anymore and had started kicking inanimate objects. He just gave me new tomato plants to put in, and fixed the lawn mower.

We started off the day dropping off bunches of yard waste - dug up grass, porch remains to the dump - and picking up another trailer load of mulch. Then spent most of the rest of the day cutting the grass, with a short pause here and there for mulching, weeding, watering, lemonade, grocery shopping, and helping Neil work on the shelves for the shed. And as long as the rain holds off tomorrow, I have more annuals to plant, the front lawn grass to cut, more mulching, and there's always another weed to pull.

Karen

Another photo or two :)

First Icelandic poppy of the year. I loved it so much that I went out the next day and bought two more plants.


Pink! I planted this one just last year!
Have I mentioned yet that I LOVE tulips?

Karen

another glorious weekend :)

Saturday - Spent some time with friends doing quasi-Norse things. Vandy allowed me access to her dyestuffs and we tried logwood, bloodrot, and dandelion flowers. I provided fleece and the patience to keep watch on the fires. :)

Logwood - tint of purple, Bloodrot - tint of orange/coffee, and dandelions - tint of yellow. Vandy says if we'd put more time into prep, we would have gotten better colours.

Also spent some time crushing rock ore with the hubby so the boys can smelt iron the way the Vikings did in a few weeks.

Sunday - We got home late the night before so this was a lazy day wandering around getting a few things done here and there.

Monday, which is of course today - I took the day off because I have to get rid of some extra vacation time before the end of June and because the gardens needs me. Or I need the gardens, whichever. :)

Today I finished cutting the lawn for the first time. It's somewhat delayed because of weather and breaking down of lawn mower. Weeded the garden, fertilized the garden. Did the dishes, did some laundry. Went shopping, bought some clothes.

Am I the only woman who feels insulted by the sizing methodolgy being used these days? I consider myself a thoroughly average sized woman, and when I can't fit into an extra large shirt - because it's too small - I'm insulted. And occassionally downright incensed. Do they use 10 year old girls to base the sizing on or what?

Hmmm...ranting. Right then, well, that's it.

Karen

photo blog

Some of the things currently in bloom in my garden:


Muscari, or grape hyacinth.


The daffodils are almost finished but I caught this one on film.


I just this morning had this identified by a coworker who has much more experience in the garden then myself. It's a Japanese Quince.


The Leopardsbane is just starting to bloom.


This strange species pops up everywhere in the yard, but only when we are outside with it, and always seems to come attached with a dog alert and focussed nearby.


Another one just identified this morning as an Anemone. Apparently the underwater creatures have cousins above ground as well - who knew?


Ivy on the house.


This beatiful red and white tulip is one of the new bulbs that I planted last year. It foliage (not seen in the pic) has a white edging to it.


One of the varieties of Primose.


This trio just lost it's petals yesterday, but you can see it captured forever this past weekend. I am very very fond of tulips, after all.

Karen :)

weekend in the garden

First let me say - Whew!

We may have bitten off more then we could chew.

Neil:

• made shelves for the shed using floor boards for the porch that we ripped up earlier this spring, but first he had to remove all the old nails.
• converted the hoses so that there is an additional shut off valve closer to where the hose will be used, both front and back of the house.
• helped me with the movement of newspapers and mulch to next year's new garden bed surrounding the 'tree lane' of the yard.
• converted the gravel around the elderberry and grape to fresh top soil
• adjusted the seperation between the elderberry/grape garden and the new patio area that we have yet to get started on
• cleaned up the mess that we'd been making of the patio area
• mixed some of the clay soil we'd been getting out of the newly dug up areas with peat moss and fed it back into the garden areas
• bought more top soil and added it into the new gardens
• moved the large cement paver under the old porch from one space to another in order to
• finish off the borders of one of the new garden areas
• tried to fix the router but failed, and opted for a warrantied replacement, due to arrive on wednesday
• reconfigured the laptop to dial out instead as a temporary measure
• fixed the leak in the kitchen drain, again
• finished the planting of the garlic in the vegetable garden when I took a fit of hysteria on the weeds
• successfully managed both not to laugh at the blubbering girl who'd just had too much work in the great outdoors and managed to comfort her somehow.
• dragged the excessive amounts of loose cement bricks and whatnot that the old owners had been hiding under the porch out to the driveway.

Neil still needs to:

• finish the planting in the new mulching garden area because I don't really want to plant it til next year, but he does, so he has plants assigned
• finish the shed shelves
• fix the bathtub tab and crumbling tiles
• get teflon tape for one of the new outdoor hose taps that is leaking.
• clean up the mess that he helped to make in the driveway

Karen:

• dug up grass (and large amounts of creeping charlie) in nice, neat little squares and threw it over the fence into the driveway
• added more topsoil to this new garden area
• planted all of the new herbs from Richters, except the Madder
• planted all but the garlic in the vegetable garden - rhubarb, tomatos, peppers, peas, beans, carrots (may not work out because the ground is fairly compacted), and corn
• put those cute little tomato cages over the new tomato and pepper plants
• washed the dishes
• added annuals between the new herbs, and around the elderberry and grape
• yelled at the dog a few times when he ran right through the new herb garden and fledging plants
• gave up and bought some ugly little white fencing to discourage the dog - he's too pretty to yell at
• planted a few new perennials in the front garden
• weeded both of the front gardens of dandelions and forget-me-nots
• tried not to scream but merely to weed when I encountered yet more, and more, forget-me-nots in the middle of the lawn
• watered in all the new plants
• snorted at the Region's new watering bylaws because it still allows people to wash their car (which we don't do) and fill their swimming pools (which we don't have) but god forbid that we water on the day not assigned to us - so okay, I can forego the sprinkler which I admittedly have forgotten sometimes to turn off, but damned if I'm going haul buckets out instead of the hose - and how do they think I'm going to fill said bucket anyway? Let them try to fine me.
• planted a variety of new bulbs
• tried to mow the grass but failed when the lawnmower gave up the ghost
• newspapered and mulched one of the new garden areas

Karen still to do:

• finish planting the annuals
• finish digging up grass in one of the new garden areas
• dig up overcrowded tulips that aren't flowering this year
• put the 'weed and feed' stuff on the lawn
• get the lawnmower fixed so I can mow the lawn
• clean up the mess I made of the driveway

Let me say again, just for the record: Whew!

Karen

Mixed reviews

On the Political Front:

Yeah! We don't have to have two freaking elections wasting our tax dollars in the same year. Now maybe Stephen Harper will sit down and shut up.

On Conservative MLA Tony Abbott:

Apparently, the man apologized (both publicly and privately) for his remarks about Belinda Stronach. Kudos to the man for 'fessing up to his own rudeness.

On the Garden :)

I took bunches more pictures last night and I promise I'll have some of them up soon.

I also sprayed the veggie garden with a total wipe-out to kill all the weeds, prepatory to planting this weekend. The product says it has no soil action whatsoever, so there's no need to wait for a long time before planting seeds.

I think next year 'though I'll lay down newspapers and mulch in the fall, so the spring weeds can't pop up at all. It seems like a much more environmentally friendly thing to do.

We can't really rototil in that garden since the 100+ year old maple's roots run throughout that area.

I am itching to plant! And the grass sorely needs to be cut. We've been so busy lately, and the weather temperatures have been sucky until recently, that I haven't had much chance to do the planting. But now it's the official last frost date weekend and I'm raring to go!

I asked Neil to remind me next year not to buy so many plants so far ahead of time, and the poor lad just choked on his snort of laughter. :)

Karen

behaviour - a word I just stuck in to find out which language the spell checker is presuming we all speak. American, apparently. I should have known.

Time

All I need to do is to quit my job for a little while, and then I'd have the time I need to spend in the garden.

Unfortunately, that's not very likely.

The hubby took me to the nursery last night to buy some annuals. He wanted to get them before all the crowds on the long weekend. It's as likely a story as any. :) I think he just likes to feed my habit. I can see his delighted smile when he watches me finding some new pretty thing to ooh and ahh over.

Unfortunately, I think the crowds had already largely gotten to this nursery - two of the annuals that I wanted were already gone, and they were out of coco baskets in the size I need.

Now on another topic - Belinda Stronach quitting the Conservative Party? It's about damned time. In my opinion, she never belonged there.

But don't get me started on the misogyny being displayed by our so-called civil servants in their varying reactions so far. My favourite is (and I paraphrase in absence of a documented quote) "she's just a little rich girl whoring herself out to the Liberals". This from fundamentalist christian Alberta MLA Tony Abbott. One might tend to think that he'd have more respect for women, as his church at least pretends to espouse.

Diminishing, demeaning, rude and crude. Hmmm...it looks like I got started.

Never mind, that's why I garden. It reduces my blood pressure.

Karen

gardening is hard work!

I took the day off yesterday to work in my garden. Neil got on a train at 6:30am to go to Toronto for a conference. Since I wanted the car for the day, I had to drop him off there. At that ungodly hour of the morning, on a day off.

But the good news is, that I had another bag of forget-me-nots ready for the garbage pick-up before 8:30am.

Don't get me wrong, they are a beautiful, intense little blue flower in full bloom. But as a species, they are also extremely invasive, and prolific little pains in the ass that when out of flower, can completely choke the life out of a garden. Sometimes gardening is about making hard choices and being mean to otherwise pretty little things.

Speaking of obnoxiously invasive species of plants... I bought some woad at my day trip to Richters. I understand it's invasive and persistent to the point of being declared a noxious weed (illegal to grow) in some parts of North America. But it's history as a source of blue dye that needs to be fermented in stale urine (for the ammonia) just can't be beat. :) So I could be pulling my hair out in a few years over it's invasion of my garden, but we'll see. In the meantime, I should get a few interesting dye baths out of it - stay tuned.

Anyway, back to the day. I also dug up the remaining concrete porch support but had to wait for the Man to return from Toronto in the evening to lift it.

I also dug up all the crocuses from their current location - the plan there is to relocate randomly throughout the yard, add to the front garden, and give away to friends.

And edged all of one of the new garden spaces, and the veggie garden.

In between throwing the ball a billion and one times for the dog. I swear that creature was on some kind of Energizer-bunny battery....he just kept going and going. The routine went something like this - throw the ball, put the shovel in the ground and heave, throw the ball, bend down to pick up the grass and bang it off, throw the ball, heave the grass in the wheelbarrow, throw the damned ball, start all over again, where banging the dirt off the underside of the grass was occassionally relieved by picking crocus bulbs out, throwing the ball, and heaving the bulbs into nearby bucket.

If it had been a stick that fascinated him, I might have gotten a break once in awhile for a bout of chewing on it.

Maybe that's why I'm falling asleep at my desk today - the ball throwing. Not the massive amounts of digging, mind you - it's the ball throwing that's done me in.

Karen

dandelions are evil

Got a late start doing anything productive today because the new laptop is so much fun to play with and it's sucky weather outside. But eventually, I did the dishes, started the first of many loads of laundry and heaved myself outside.

Started out towards the woody area of the yard to bury some trillium bulbs, but got distracted by the forget-me-nots growing in the middle of the grass. I did eventually get the bulbs planted, but also ended up pulling mass amounts of forget-me-nots and dandelions. All in all, nearly two garbage bags of weeds.

Karen

Bunch o'Paragraphs

This bunch of paragraphs will be brought to you by Karen's scattered, and occasionally too-busy life.

Let's see now, backing up in time.... on wednesday, Neil and I took the afternoon off of our respective jobs and went up to Richters, just north and west of Toronto.
I bought a rather large supply of baby herb plants, including calendula, st.john's wort, creeping speedwell, arnica, motherwort, woad, weld, madder, goldenseal, wormwood, blue spice basil, golden hops, and.... this is where my memory runs out. The herbs are at home, and I'm not at the moment.

Suffice to say I hope I have enough garden space for it all.

Not that I know how to use medicinal herbs particularily, but I would like to learn someday. In the meantime, I can grow them.

We've been dog-sitting for Neil's mom, and we dropped Shelley off that evening as well. I became quite fond of Shelley while she was visiting and I miss her.


That spinning wheel in the background is some small proof that I actually do have a Fiber hobby. I've been feeling guilty about not fitting it in recently, so for the past couple of evenings, I've tried my hand at plying my first skein on a drop spindle. I'm not sure if I've done it correctly - the S spin and Z spin things give me a headache, but both skeins look good. I need to do more in order to use them in a naalbinding project.

The idea of ever having enough handspun for a weaving project just blows my mind. I just don't have the time to do that much spinning. However did the Norse women manage?

On thursday....we both went back to work, and then in the evening, I spent too much money on other gardening supplies, while Neil played baseball with his company. Or rather, he tried to, but instead partially blew out a knee and is limping around today. *sigh* Men.

And that brings us to today. I'm sniffling with the beginnings of a cold. The frost of the last few nights may not be getting to my plants, but it is apparently getting to me. Neil's back in his office, limping around on the last day of software release. I told him to use the phone to chase people today instead of running around the building to chase people. Software development management - it's apparently something like trying to herd cats.

Neil's off to play with the Ontario Artisan Blacksmith's Association tomorrow, to record the building and successful (we hope, let's keep the fingers crossed) use of a Norse-age iron smelter. I'm going to stay home, nurse my cold, feel miserable for myself, and maniacally plant things. Or mulch things. Or something.

If the temperature doesn't warm up, or if it rains, I might have to do some spinning instead. *gasp*

Karen

Tulips!

Spring has been springing out in my little part of the world and we finally have tulips! Okay, so we've already had daffodils and crocuses, but I like the tulips the best.



This yellow one is my favourite so far, but there was another one, not quite fully open yet that appears to be pink. I'm looking forward to seeing it tonight when we get home.

Also caught this pic of my dog, Leif, a couple of days ago. It's too silly not to share. :)



Karen

The Weather

I don't know whether to say 'damn the weather', or 'wow, dig that weather'. Seriously, I'm mixed up.

Enviroment Canada's WeatherOffice says we're due for frost on thursday evening (low of 0°C). Which really fucks with the plants I planted yesterday and have every intention of planting tonight.

But holy cow, is it ever great right now, and it was fantastic! over the weekend.

Yesterday, Neil expanded the gardens once again, by digging up some grass. I helped a bit, but was really wiped most of the day. Then we planted a few of the hardier purchases.

It doesn't sound like we did a lot, but it sure feels / looks like we did!

I've got to get the camera out and start taking pics of the progress.

This wednesday, we've both taken the afternoon off so we can visit Richters on the way back to his mom's house to return the dog that we've been taking care of for the last week while she's out of town. I'm going to miss Shelly, she's such a shy sweetheart.

Richters is going to be a dangerous place for me to visit. I've already got a growing list of herbs and flowers and books that I'd like to buy there. The big question is... even with all this new garden space, where am I going to plant it all?

Clearly, the Fiber hobby is taking a back seat to the Gardening hobby at the moment.

Karen

Tired now.

Glass bead-making, being a puppy 'mum', thinking about being a real mum, reading, gardening, and of course, blogging. The other hobbies I mentioned yesterday, in case anyone cares, or is actually reading this blog.

I'm tired right now. It's a saturday and we woke up to the alarm. Which is in itself an Evil Thing. But it was for a good cause. We met my parents, and wandered around this nearby town that turns itself into one gigantic yard sale for the day. Many new plants were bought. Much wandering around looking at junk occurred.

And then there was this brand spanking new and gigantic greenhouse that had it's grand opening on the same day, in the same town.

Exhausting.

But then I took my parents off to a new (to them) store that specializes in airplane paraphenalia. My dad worked on the Avro Arrow project. He was in heaven, but all he bought was a baseball cap with the Arrow logo on it.

Then we wandered off to the Surplus store next door. Mind numbing amounts of more junk.

And then they wanted to help me weed! Not that I'm complaining much, but at this point, I just wanted to sit down for awhile. Still we got some of it done, and I learned the difference between a violet and creeping charlie.

I've been in heavy vegetable mode ever since they left. Funny how two 60+ year olds can have more energy then their daughter. I miss them.

Karen

The Nerve!

My hubby actually had the nerve to suggest to me that if I'm so interested in finding other Fiber Blogs, and if I'm going to have Fiber in my Blog subtitle, that perhaps I should occasionally blog about doing Fiber things. Can you imagine?

Hrumph. ;)

Okay, so here's the scoop. I have a warp-weighted loom gathering dust in the kitchen. That's a picture of me actually using it, as I finish up my previous project, in my profile. It's gathering dust lately because I can't stand the project that's on it now. It's a 2/2 twill, and the sheds don't open very easily.

In rare masochistic moments, I dust it off and weave for a few minute before I remember again why I find it so annoying. In the meantime, it's a good addition to Living History demonstrations. It's so much fun to not wear my glasses (because Vikings didn't have them ya know) and peer at the weaving from 3 inches away. It took me years to try wearing contacts during the demos and then I couldn't understand why I had resisted for so long.

I also crotchet, and naalbind. Naalbinding is loosely described as 'single-needle knitting' but I find it much more similar to crotcheting. Naalbinding is another one of those Viking Era historical textile things, like the weaving on a warp-weighted loom, except that it's much much easier to do. :)

I can crotchet in my sleep, I think. I've been doing it for almost 30 years at this point.

I also spin, on a drop spindle, reasonably well. It can be quite zen-like at times. I'm still learning how to spin on a spinning wheel. I haven't gotten the hang of it yet. I find that the wheel moves across the floor (maybe if I put a rug under it) and I can either draft or tread, but not both at the same time without all my body parts getting confused.

And just this past February, I went to visit a nice lady in Kingston and learned more about shearing Icelandic sheep. I also learned that the so-called "Ban on Canadian beef" by the US is actually a ban on all ruminants (ie. animals who graze for food), and this is also hurting the sheep industry. This news incensed me greatly, since the sheep industry already has a hard enough time of it, especially if their primary focus is the wool, and not the meat.

It almost makes me want to hate the American government. Oh, that's right. I already do. George Bush and his ilk are evil, pure and simple. And half(ish) the population voted them back into office in November.

Ah well, there's still the other half, whom I'm sure are good and decent folk. Or at least I keep hoping anyway.

But back to fiber. :)

I discovered a new blog yesterday - Yarn Obsession - and this lady has a meter on her blog that measures what percentage each of her projects is done. It was very amusing. But I'd have to do mine over a time scale as well to do the loom justice. I'm a little over a third of the way done, but in August, the current project will have been on the loom for over two years.

Why I've bought 5 new sheep's worth of raw fleece since then. :)

And finally, I also do natural dyeing. This can be a very addictive past-time! My hubby bought me some indigo and madder (and more fleece) at Christmas and I promptly set about stinking up the house with dye baths. Mental note: get pics of the dye results.

But it's not entirely over yet! There's more! This year, I've started seedlings of Woad, Madder, Weld, Dyer's Broom and Alkanet so I can learn how to make my own dyestuffs from the plant. I already have Golden Marguerite in the garden from last year, and I just recently learned that I can get interesting results from two of my garden nemesises - dandelion and creeping charlie.

Now, that's just the Fiber hobbies... I actually have other interests once in awhile as well. In short, too many hobbies, not enough time!

Karen

More on the Top Five!

More of the increasingly-ineptly-named ;) Top Five!

The best places to be on the planet (as yet discovered):

1. My house. :) Picture taken last year in mid-summer last year.



2. My gardens. :) Picture taken in late spring last year.


3. Michigan Womyn's Music Festival

Okay, so I'm not a world traveller yet.

Two reasons why Treheima* is such a good place to be.
1. Leif (aka "Leif the Licky")

2. Ginger (that's my warping she's in the middle of playing with)


*Treheima - bastardized old Norse word for "tree home" or "house with lots of trees". It's the name of our house. See our home website (in the links) for more.

Karen

Top Five

For no particular reason, and in no particular order, I present: The Top Five lists.

Top Five SciFi/Fantasy Authors (all of whom have several books each, most of which I've read):
1. Gael Baudino (before she lost faith)
2. Mercedes Lackey (pure mind-candy)
3. Joan Slonczewski (because she's not mind-candy)
4. Patricia Kennealy-Morrison (currently missing in action)
5. Rosemary Edghill (for her faith)

Favourite Feminist Writer by far:
1. Kay Leigh Hagan

There's only one in this category, and she's currrently missing in action as well. Is it that unrealistic of me to expect good writers to keep writing and publishing?

Favourite Relatively Obscure Folk Music:
1. Heather Bishop
2. Ferron
3. Jennifer Berezan
4. Rhiannon
5. Lucie Blue Tremblay
6. Holly Near
7. Sweet Honey in the Rock
8. Chris Williamson

Couldn't stop at five. :)

Favourite Mainstream Rock:
1. Tori Amos
2. Melissa Etheridge
3. Indigo Girls
4. Sarah McLachlan
5. Tegan and Sara

Favourite Relatively Obscure Rock:
1. Dead Kennedys
2. Four Non-Blondes (probably defunct)
3. Concrete Blonde (now defunct)
4. Two Nice Girls (also defunct)
5. Lydia Lunch

More tomorrow.

Karen

Good news!

The government isn't Evil, only devious.

Turns out I almost missed something on my taxes and where I thought I'd end up owing them too much money, I get a small refund instead. :)

Of course, if they didn't make the damned forms so complicated...

Life is good.

Karen

Taxes and weather

Let's just say that the government is Evil, and that the Weather Network betrayed me once again. Although I suppose they did tell the truth in one sense - there was no frost last night. Hail, yes. Frost, no.

Karen

Garden fun!

Things the hubby and I achieved this weekend:

• We dug up one of the freaking huge cement posts that anchored the porch we destroyed two weeks ago.


• We lay down newspapers and mulch over some of the grass we want to kill to create new garden space. Neil says "yet more garden space for Karen's obsession".


• Neil began work on the shelving system for the shed.


• We more or less finished the dog house ("per the stupid ass SPCA regulations" says the man on the couch"). It'll need some insulation for winter but it's good for the summer.


• The dog house doubles as a potting bench. :)


• I trimmed the sage bush and parsley.


• Threw the ball a few million times for the puppy. :)


• Tried out the new digital camera we bought yesterday, but have yet to upload the pictures.

Now all I need to do is finish my taxes for the year.

Karen