Monthly Archives: May 2014
The lottery, May Sock progress and lunch out
Upon opening my email tonight the first thing I saw in a subject line was “YOUR IN” It didn’t take much reading to find that I won the lottery for a place in Judith MacKenzie’s 2 day spinning workshop the first week of July! It will be using the little electric Hanson spinner. I am so excited, this class is not offered often and many people enter the lottery. As well it usually is on a weekend and I needed it to be during the week. I just secured my hotel room for the event.
The sun gets up so early now, so if I take advantage of it, I can knit before Bill gets up and it’s breakfast time. That is exactly what I did yesterday and today. Here is the progress so far.
My daughter-in-law took me to lunch today at a raw restaurant in Tacoma. I got a bit lost getting there, but finally found it. We had a great meal, and an even greater visit. I will make the effort to spend more time together as she’s one terrific person.
Garden revisited May 19
The rain we were suppose to get today didn’t happen. But it was cloudy and cool. – good gardening weather. The beds have been cleaned out, so we are concentrating on filling them, and then we will address the issue of the banks between the beds which are filled with weeds.
This is the strawberry bed which did not get enough attention last year, so after it is through giving its fruit, we will take the runners and fill the bed on the other side of the aisle.
Bill is repairing one of the boxes that wanted to slide on down the hill. Nothing is planted in this box or the one across the aisle from it yet.
Here is last year’s garlic at the front. Behind them I planted beet seeds and behind them are the cauliflower (?) and behind them are the red onions. Across from them way down at the other end are a few volunteer potatoes I left in and I still need to put carrots and other items in the rest of the row.
These are volunteer tomatoes and if you look very closely, you will see some of them already flowering. I am afraid the flowering ones may be the tiny ones that are not fun to pick. I’m fertilizing heavily hoping to get them to be bigger. Then there is always the chance that they will lose these blossoms as they started in the greenhouse. Maybe they will wait and get bigger first.
These are potatoes with straw already around them in the first photo and the second is more potatoes with onions in the back. All potatoes this year were volunteer that we are letting grow where they are happy. I should have purchased some to plant. Maybe next year I’ll be more organized. Then again I’m not taking bets on that.
The beds are not difficult to keep weeded as I mulch quite a bit, but I’m trying to talk Bill into torching the hillsides before it gets warm enough to be a fire hazard. I’m hoping that will help as the hill is too steep to stand and weed whack.
Quilting will have to wait for a rainy day
Garden and a new block
It’s rather difficult to show you dirt and expect you to see what I’ve planted. I did get red onion bulbs in which I hope do better than they usually do for me. Then I planted what may be cauliflower (or broccoli) I didn’t write it down and at this state the plants don’t look a lot different. I planted a few of those I had started. There are more to go in shortly. Then beet seeds and garlic is at the end of that row. So one side of one row finished. And the rains started, which means I go inside.
In the greenhouse I tied up more tomatoes with a few more to go and planted these cute little celery starts which do very good here.
Too soon, it was time to put the animals in and make dinner. I had enough time to cut these out for the next three blocks on the “Knitter’s Gifts” BOM
Sabbath swamp walk
We have driven past the swamp walk many times and kept telling ourselves, someday we’d visit it. It is a short walk and has been there for 5 years now, but I guess because it is so close to home, we just keep putting it off. So, today was the day. It’s a little pocket that is not buildable and the freeway runs the other side of it.
We found these interesting flowers growing on a tree at the entrance.
This is the entrance and behind me are some inexpensive homes. They probably don’t have a lot of visitors and this is a terrific view for them. This is the bird watching tower, though the birds were not cooperative and we didn’t see any.
It really has been left in its natural state except for the boardwalk and a few trees they have planted. We saw no wild inhabitants of any kind, but did hear a few birds. I think one was a red winged blackbird who was complaining because we may have been close to her nest
The grasses and trees are lush.
Here is the field of invasive buttercups, but according to the sign, the cattails are winning the battle, which the sign said was very good.
Aurofil quilt
Another really fun quilt with each block designed by a different quilter. Pat Sloan has gathered these designers together and compiled the blocks into a fun, easy Block of the Month. I decided on a Christmas theme for this one.
And here are the blocks so far.
We’re planning on rain this weekend, so the unfinished garden will just have to wait. The beds are mostly weeded now and the tomatoes and onion sets have been planted.
Garden Prep work
The weather was again beautiful – the temperature made it up to 81 and is now a very comfortable 72. I’m so glad the tomatoes are well mulched as we are having work done on our water treatment system today and tomorrow which means no water. During the cooler parts of the day, we prepared some beds for tomorrow afternoon’s plantings. Hopefully, we will finish the other beds in the morning. The forecast is for rain Saturday, Sunday and Monday which means it will at the very least be cloudy with some sprinkling. Then it’s back to sun on Tuesday. Absolutely perfect weather for starting seeds. I’m feeling a bit behind, but we have a long season, so I should get caught up. I’m really looking forward to enough harvest to be able to share. This photo shows most of the garden area which is 3 long terraced rows.
Don’t you just hate it when you find a product you really like and is just perfect for your purpose and then the company doesn’t make it anymore. The twine that I use for tomatoes and other climbing foods is no longer made. So I drove around to several stores looking for something that would be a good substitute and I found something, but it only comes in double rolls of 3600 feet each. So to make a positive, I won’t have to go looking for more as this should last me the rest of my lifetime. In fact, I may look for other ways to use it. It’s just a tad lighter than baling twine.
Disclaimer and gardening
DISCLAIMER: I am not responsible when I hire people and tell them exactly what to do and different things happen. This is apparently how I happen to have a daylily in the front yard and some irises in the daffodil patch. So now, I’m trying to think of a way to label the iris colors so that when I did them up, I will know what colors are where. Any suggestions. PLEEEEASE. Here are the dark and light purple that opened yesterday and today.
It’s been warm (80 which is warm for Western WA) and I’ve been on a detox program which means I’m not quite up to par. So I’ve been taking a rest as well as doing some knitting mid day. This morning before the day got to far along, I planted a few more tomatoes in the greenhouse and did some weeding. This evening I thought I’d take a suggestion and behead the potatoes. Someone told me that by so doing, the plants would put more into the potatoes. These are the purple ones that DH doesn’t think he likes, so if it doesn’t work, it won’t be a loss in his sight. (lol)
The greenhouse broccoli will be ready to eat very soon. Look how well it is doing. This is exciting. When I plant it outside, it seems to go from being nice nearly ready to eat heads to instant flowers the next day. Or else the slugs find it.
And here’s how the red cabbage looks.
Then I strung up most of the tomatoes I first planted. Bill went to the store and bought more twine. Truly I have never seen such junky stuff. It is not like the twine I’m used to as it is very thin. It may get returned tomorrow if we can find some real twine. These tomatoes are the volunteers and I’m guessing some may be Roma’s which won’t get real tall. However, since I don’t know they will all be treated the same. I will finish tying them up when I get more real twine.
These plants are still waiting their turn to be planted and I really need to get my greens planted. So much to do, so little time and energy. In the front are the celery plants.
And look! Another little friend. This is a garter snake (insect eater) who is just less than 2 feet long. However, he is displaced and I didn’t want to catch him. He’s down where the animals sleep instead of up in the garden. It is interesting that we have wild insect-eating creatures here – snakes and toads. I love that these are provided for us. They with the chickens and ducks are doing a good job. Now I just need a wild flying insect and hornet eater.
