garden — Page 243

A Sad Lack of Decorating

April 21, 2011 at 6:41 pm by Claudia

May I be frank? I don’t usually do very much Easter decorating. We don’t have kids, the dogs don’t care and we certainly don’t need any candy around here. Today is, what, 3 days before Easter? Nothing. Feeling somewhat remiss, I decided to look for my fabric eggs. If you remember, I made many, many of them 2 years ago when I was in San Diego. Where are they?

In my catch-all drawer. In the same drawer?

My box of beautiful Quail eggs, which surely should be on display for Spring, right next to the lint brush. And on top of our wedding album.

My egg cup collection?

Tucked into their little home in the guest bedroom/studio/office. I didn’t even give them their usual Easter photo session.

This, my friends, is all you’re going to get this year:

Hey, at least it’s something!

This has been the coldest April I can remember. It it’s not raining, it’s windy. We’ve had only a few days of sun. Hello, Spring? Can you hear me? I’m COLD. I worked outside today in the garden with the wind howling and now my cheeks are red from wind burn. I have to leave for Wisconsin in 9 days. I think you’ve given me about 4 days that were decent enough to work outside. Enough, already!

Side note: I’ve been playing with the blog. (It’s been raining endlessly and I was bored.) I cleaned up the sidebar which was looking too cluttered. I dared to mess with the Html on my template and added some pages right under the header. They contain much of what was on the sidebar plus some extras. This is a work in progress – I’ll be tweaking it in the coming days.

Have a great weekend, if I don’t post before Sunday. If you celebrate Easter, have a happy one.

Working in the Garden & Peter Cottontail

April 19, 2011 at 9:36 am by Claudia

Our own Peter Cottontail:

Taken from my vantage point at the kitchen window. I seem to be doing a lot of that lately.

Signs of spring, though so much later this year than last: tiny little sugar maple leaves. Please get big and green before I have to leave.

When it hasn’t been raining, I’ve been grabbing whatever time I can to work in the garden. I’m under a deadline here and am frustrated by a combination of unseasonably cold weather and lots of rain. I put in a new garden bed on Sunday. Oh my aching back! And it might just be a silly thing to do since I am:

a. leaving for 7 weeks in a little over a week and a half
b. don’t have a lot of extra cash (in fact, none) to spend on plants
c. will have to rely on husband to water any new additions.

What was I thinking? I’ve had this idea in my head for over a year and, quite frankly, if I wait until a time where I’m actually here in the spring, it might never happen. So I did it. I used a method I’ve read about online and that you might find helpful. After figuring out the dimensions of the bed, I covered the entire area with stacks of newspapers (black and white – no color). Then I covered the newspapers with top soil. A little way into the process, I ran out of top soil and I didn’t want to stop to buy some more. So I used some leftover mulch. Then I used the garden hose and wet (wetted?) it all down. Fast forward about 2 weeks and I was able to easily remove the grass. It came right up. Quick and easy! Yesterday I added top soil.

I’ll have to put most of the plants in when I get back in mid-June. I still have to fill the planters and window boxes with impatiens, etc. And I have to mulch. The rest will have to wait until I get back.

Today is rainy. Big surprise. I guess I’ll have to start packing boxes to ship to Wisconsin.

Did I tell you I’m sick of packing?

You have no idea.

Thank You, Photos, a Camera & a Winner

April 17, 2011 at 10:54 am by Claudia

I’ve read every heartfelt comment on my last blog post. Several times. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. I say ‘us’ because I know many of you read all the comments, just as I do. This particular conversation has been wonderfully enlightening and I love it when that happens.

I posted a photo very much like this one on my photo blog, Through a Lens Daily, yesterday. On a very misty, foggy morning earlier this week, I saw little drops of water on all the wild roses. It was a great opportunity to see what I could capture with my camera.

My intention with that blog was to post a new photo each day. And I did that for several months. Then Old Man Winter came and with it lots of photos of snow. Eventually, I just couldn’t post one more gray, wintry photo. So I lost my daily rhythm. I happy to say it’s coming back.

I really love photography. My camera, a Canon PowerShot SX10 IS, is doing a very good job so far and I love her but she has her limitations. Buying a new DSLR with the option to change lenses is not in the cards at this point. I wonder if looking into a used Canon Rebel might be something I should think about? Maybe there is someone out there who has moved up to another camera level and would be willing to sell the older model. Any thoughts or recommendations as to where to look?

Now I feel guilty. About my current camera. Do you ever endow inanimate objects with human qualities? I do. So I need to tell my camera that I love her and I will always hang on to her, even if I have another camera some day. She could have a sister! Now wouldn’t that be fun?

A few more photos:

The hyacinth in full bloom. I wonder how it survived the torrential rains we had last night?

Another shot of my very quick and elusive friend, Mr. Cardinal. It was captured by taking an endless amount of photos from a great distance. This guy likes to move.

Finally, I used the Random Generator to pick the winner of a copy of The Kitchen Daughter.

Congratulations, number 29 – Sherry of Creatology! Sherry, send me an email with your address and I’ll forward it on to TLC Book Tours. They’ll send it to the publisher who will mail the book directly to you.

Have a great Sunday everyone. I’m going to work outside on this windy day. I have a lot to do and I leave for Wisconsin exactly two weeks from today.

A Sad Lack of Decorating

Working in the Garden & Peter Cottontail

Thank You, Photos, a Camera & a Winner

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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