A photo a Day: December 12th

This Morden Blush Rose was so amazingly beautiful- It turns a whitish pink as it fades, and it was pretty prolific, I planted it with the intention of harvesting the rosehips eventually- as they're supposed to be big showy things, but then- the Deer ate all the blooms right after they'd opened- I suppose a fence is going to have to happen some day soon...

A Photo A Day : December 6th

I'm sharing a photo a day for the month of December- some of my favorites from 2014- if you have a favorite photo you'd like to share please leave a link in the comments- I'd love to see your 2014 faves!

A photo a day :: December 4th

I'm sharing a photo a day for the month of December- some of my favorites from 2014- if you have a favorite photo you'd like to share please leave a link in the comments- I'd love to see your 2014 faves!

In the Garden: September 14

Some of these photos are old- I'm a bit behind here, school, and birthdays and colds et al. but these are photos of our barley harvest- not much after the deer came and had their fill- but some enough for christmas pudding, and to increase our seeds next year. The zinnias I planted are all blooming and really lovely- it's a giant cactus mix, an a state fair mix I think- the colours are just awesome, coral and pink and orange and red and gold, they make an effortless arrangement. I've also figured out how to show them best- with short stems in a short vase so that you can look down on the flower tops, for years I've been trying to cut long stems and putting them in tall vases- and then getting annoyed because all you see is the underside of the flower- this way they make perfect little round flower
puffs- adorable.

My passionflower vine flowered too- so wonderful looking- an exotic flower for sure! It's set to come inside now along with my other special plants because we've got a frost warning here- so it's all hands on deck for harvest. This year we seem to be more relaxed about it- I think we've learned what can tolerate frost and what we'll bother covering or not. We just picked the sauce and drying tomatoes green and brought them inside- then covered some of the eating tomatoes. We brought in the pumpkins too- they look lovely and big- though must be tasty enough that most were eaten by something before we got to them. We had grown them in a patch that's surrounded by longish grass- which is just too easy for woodchucks of other rodents to get to.  I know pumpkins often get left out till the last and the vines are dead- but we never do- frost makes them spoil, and then they won't keep, of course taking them in early is tricky too- but if you're careful, and cure them well- they'll keep into February or March even.

The dry beans are starting to harden now- so hopefully it'll stay dry for them (and for the farmers- it's been a wet fall- so they're just starting to get things off the field- it's late and damp and no good generally). We've planted the strawberry transplants- in one long row hopefully that will help keep the weeds down and allow us to space the runners out to the sides of the main row which will make it easier to keep tack of, I'm amazed by how awesome plants that renew themselves are- the runners we placed in pots had taken off so well that the roots were growing out the bottom of some of them!

I think this will be the last official garden update- though I'll post about the new tomatoes we grew this year, and a few other photos of course- it's time to switch gears into the kitchen and clay studio...

Spring flowers

Yes- that's my baby outside in a shirt and diaper only,
my theory is that you have your whole adult life to wear pants in public, live it up bottomless while you still can.

This post is basically just a barfing up of photos from my camera- "Blech!" to you on the screen. Ditch Lady Slippers and Lily of the Valley, Bleeding Hearts, Muscari. These are the only spring flowers I've photographed this year- no Lilacs at all- weird! and none in the house either- they're all done now- but the sweetly scented Lily of the Valley made it inside to the table- never did anything smell so sweet.

Another sweet thing was the Victorian Tea the Village held- we got all dressed up in Antique clothes (except the girls- those are 1980's dresses), they belonged to my husbands great grandmother and are circa 1910. Very Very beautiful hand sewn work, the lace is amazing, and things are fragile- but it's nice to get them out and wear it. It was such a different time period clothing wise- where you adjusted your figure not by dieting, or trying to actually sculpt your flesh in the shape you want- but by corseting here and padding there- making your waist 20 inches one day, 22 the next, your bust ruffle going up and down to adjust to your shirt, your bum padded out to fill out your bustle, so Foreign to us now. Also the layers and layers of gauzy clothing- at first you wonder if it could possibly be right that they wore such flimsy skirts- but when you have four of them on you're so totally swathed in fabric, it seems like you'd be fine going outside in winter as is.

I love this big floppy bow in her hair, and how her new lace up boots go so well with the dress. 

 The tea itself was really lovely too- china cups and homemade mints, tiny sandwiches, and dainties, the girls were over the moon! They had sugar cubes too which the most satisfying thing to my kids- you could give them a choice of cake with decorations and chocolate oozing from it, sprinkles, candles, icing roses- the works- or one sugar cube and I truly think they'd choose the cube- well,  it would be a BIG decision anyways.

In Bloom: Amaryllis

The copycat, she'll do anything she sees you do- be warned.

This big beauty is such a treat, such large blooms, and so many of them- 4 on each stalk, it's an Amaryllis "Minerva", and I highly recommend it to anyone else out there that's buying them, it's so much nicer than I thought it would be. Also don't throw them out! ( I'm assuming that people throw them out and that's why they're so cheap right before Christmas- I've thrown out a couple myself... if you buy them from proper bulb sellers they're way more expensive) just keep on watering and fertilizing until July-ish, then let it die off and start watering again in October. My other plant (amaryllis 'Red Lion') bloomed the first year then just produced leaves, then produced blooms last year- I assumed it would be a bi-annual bloomer- but it's got a flower stalk again this year- and lots of leaves and also a tiny baby plantlet starting out- so I think fertilizing regularly is the key, isn't it always?

Zinnias & Zanies

Loving these flowers this week-still keeping on into fall- and another two weeks of beautiful weather on the horizon. The bees are happy I think. My favorite part of a zinnia is the back of the flowers- is that part called the calyx? Reminds me of a flamenco dancer.

While I was taking the zinnia picture, N climbed into the stroller (while A was out of it), I put A in after for a joke- hilarity ensued, especially as I pushed them both up to the house in it.

In the garden: August 9 & 15

Phew! it's been a busy couple of weeks- full of visiting, and kiln firing, and more visiting, and Tomato sandwiches- yum. The black Krim and our saved seeds are the only ones ripening yet- but the arbuznyi,  marizol gold, costoluto genovese, and pirkstine orange are close behind, the Jaune Flamee, and Ivory Pear are still only just flowering, with a few small fruits starting, I hope the weather keeps going into the fall to get these guys big enough to eat.

The melons, and pumpkins and acorn squash are likewise a bit behind, but hopefully we'll get some bigger ones, I think once those guys get growing they grow fast, so fingers crossed. The weather here has been very fall like, 15 degrees in the mornings, a bit rainy, but this week it's supposed to return to normal summer temps, so maybe we'll get a few more weeks of heat. We picked a last little pick of peas, which were delicious, and everyone we know is enjoying the Dragon Tongue beans, they are so yummy, and colourful, we've been eating them raw.

The other thing that's been exciting is the spinach seed! we've got lots forming, so that means we'll have our own carrot and beet and spinach seed to use next year, plus lots of flower seeds too, I'm going to try saving zinnia seeds again, the last time they didn't germinate- I think they didn't get enough time on the plant. How is your garden growing?

In the Garden : July 4

Volunteer Stocks are everywhere

note the grasshopper damage on the old leaves- the new leaves still look good- though.

Potato bug eggs- argh!!!

Cranberry Beans

Lady bugs love Tansy

Chamomile starting to bloom. 

It's starting to look like a real garden out there. Lots of blooms, lots of bugs, lots of food starting to grow. The bugs are not so great- Grasshoppers, Potato Beetles, Aphids- but there are lots of good bugs too- Lady bugs and bees, moths and lacewings. We tried the molasses traps and they seem to catch a few bugs- but not all grasshoppers, and not really enough to make a dent in the bugs- though the basil is growing back too- so maybe the feeding frenzy is starting to fade.

The peas are starting to produce, and the spinach is too, the herbs are ready for a bit of a haircut, the oregano is huge! and some small green tomatoes are starting up! so exciting- the Black Krim, and our saved purple Cherokee/black krim/Indian stripe seeds are also producing some fruit (we're not sure what type of tomato we saved from, we thought it was black krim- but then found the old 'rainbow mix' package from years ago, and black krim is not listed. Cherokee purple was though- so we thought maybe it was that- but we also know that some of the tomatoes sound very much like Indian Stripe- so this year we're really watching to see what they most resemble- so far they are subtly different from Black Krim.)