The Lazy Days of Summer

ummm... no lazies here! 

I've had extremely busy days and find myself wishing for more hours to complete everything.   I've spent some hours during the week on more behind the scenes stuff for the website. I'm not rushing it because I want to make sure I'm happy with it.  I'm taking my time and pondering each step.  My son is helping me with my label files... it seems my computer resized everything at some point.  I wasn't aware of it... I thought my eyesight was going.   Some of the old I will retire and some will be reworked.   And there are new designs.  All will be listed when ready and when time permits.

Much time has been spent in the gardens and they are fabulous this year.  I am going to allow myself the time to enjoy them.  

We are geeking out on the birds... hummers, orioles, bluebirds, finches, wrens, a huge woodpecker population, and more.  Because we're in a heatwave I've put out extra birdbaths for all.  Matthew is working on oriole feeders today.   I’m so thankful for all his hard work, every day.   

I worked on a new fabric pattern, the first in many years, and some punchneedle designs that I'm anxious to start punching.  And I am stuffing like crazy.  I've been staying up late every evening.... my kitties are always near.  

As always every day we spend our time with my mom.  Her knee is troublesome again but we're keeping her out of pain and well otherwise.  I'm thankful to have her home even on the hard days.  We will spend the coming months mostly at home so we can all stay safe and well.  Although I’m a homebody by nature and happy in my own little world, some days it gets to me...   today was hard, knowing we would have been at Walker Homestead having the time of our lives.   

‘Til next time, be well and have a happy summer!    

Loving Life

After a heartwarming weekend at Walker Homestead, we are getting back to working in the gardens.   It's been a poor start to the growing season because of the weather.   I'm not sure I will have the amount of sweet annie I had last year, for the fall shows, but we are trying!  Hopefully it will catch up!   Silly catnip is EVERYWHERE though :-) Still need to make time for the catnip rats!    I am up to my neck in some long overdue housework!  I've been organizing my fabric and cleaning out the craft room(s) and getting prepped for the next great push.... onward to Autumn.  The list is extremely long already, but with inspiration from all my past show photos I will get it done!   Last year's Deerfield booth was a knockout and it will be hard to beat.   My road is being reconstructed which will be at least a summer long project.  They started work on it yesterday morning and our property is lined with black plastic barriers. lovely, but it will look nice when they finish...  Matthew has most of the vegetable garden planted, and I'm looking for a few things to add to it to dry for my prim shows.  The trees we had taken down should bring an abundance of sunshine.   We have some good prospects for another weekend picking trip, so Yay, that's always fun to look forward to.      Enjoy this beautiful day ~  Denise and Matthew  

Our Humble Gardens

We have been blessed with good gardening weather this year, and have been working daily bringing the gardens back to their former glory... I try to bring my work outside as often as possible. One of my favorite crows overlooking the herb garden, with rambling rose trellis, greenhouse, and some of our many watering cans in the background.

Why hello little man... peeking out from the watermelon tub. 

My favorites... the purple coneflowers are everywhere, and a feast for the butterflies, birds, and bees! Mostly everything we plant is for them.

A vintage iron sink planted with nasturtiums and kale... should be interesting. 

Why hello little bee.... welcome to the catnip patch!

the top of the hill.  Our previously 40 foot high trumpet vine before the tree was cut, in it's trimmed and trained glory.  The hummer's favorite.

A peek into the raised veggie garden, over the catnip.  I have harvested a bunch of catnip this season, but leave lots of blossoms for the bees and hummers.

one of the hundreds of coneflowers.   they have taken over, and we have allowed them...

A spot at the top of the hill.  Coneflowers have started blooming and the Black Eyed Susans should be flowering in a day or two. 

I moved the shoe garden from near the picnic table, after snagging this plant stand at an estate sale.  I'm not sure how I ended up with one single shoe! 

One very large tufa, probably twenty years old or so, planted with overgrown sedum, on an antique iron base.  I need to do some thinning and transplanting.

The veggie garden is thriving this year.

I am utterly obsessed with wind chimes and motion in the garden.   One of my old worn out chimes.

An autumn project, curing on one of my benches.  First try at pumpkins, and also did a nice cornucopia...

One of my window boxes with petunias. 

I hope you've enjoyed this little stroll on a hot summer day!  Enjoy your day!

Busy, Busy, Busy

I have not spent much time at the computer this summer.  Too many other things have been keeping me occupied.... craft shows, sick kitty, doll challenge, the gardens.   I'd rather chat with my friends on the phone, because I can keep working.  Deerfield was a wonderful show as always, however I find the summer shows to be slow.  We brought along some new designs, and a glimpse of autumn.  I really enjoy the shows, much more than online...

Amherst was a rainy show, and we got to meet lots of nice people ducking into our tent to escape the buckets of rain pouring down from the sky...  Glad we brought an abundant supply of paper towels!The gardens are spectacular this year and we are drowning in cucumbers and zucchini.  An explosion of tomatoes is imminent and I will be canning lots of salsa and sauce. 

A little peek at the dolly I created for my first doll challenge.  I really enjoyed making her!

Now I am hard at work creating some things for the Autumn shows... my favorite time of year to create for. 

Hope you are having a nice summer! 

 

A little quickie...

 

I'm sorry I haven't posted very much lately.... With two craft shows approaching rather quickly,  my already limited internet time has been mostly hit and run for the past month...  I have recentlydiscovered Facebook, which looks like it could be a lot of fun, but for now we are outside getting the gardens going for the year.  This is a quick little peek at my raised beds.  The sunshine is making a huge difference. 

my hubby, hard at work... he's such a good sport!

Vegetable Garden vs the Trees

Well, we did it finally.  I'm a bit sad, but also excited... When we built our house 19 years ago, we kept as many trees as we possibly could.  I  love! all my trees, as well as the birds and squirrels that make their homes high up in their branches.     

 However after 19 years of working doubly hard to have a great vegetable garden while lacking the proper sun, we finally took down two mammoth oak trees at the top of the hill.  We are both not getting any younger, and I want a working garden more than ever, while we are still young enough and able to get the structure in place.   I enjoy growing our own food, and it's great exercise too.   Most years we have been able to grow some tomatoes, summer squash, broccoli, cucumbers, and leafy vegetables, but not in the great quantities we should have with the raised beds.  I cannot grow eggplant or peppers, two of my favorites.   

.  This shot was taken quite a few years ago.  We have about 24 raised beds, about 4 x 4 1/2 each and a long bed across the back. They're about 10" high, with nice rich soil.    The paths between them are lined with heavy black plastic covered by several inches of gravel.  We have room on the wooded side to add another long bed, but put it off because some of the boxes are getting crumbly after several years.  While we replace them we are going to re-do a bit, and make narrower longer beds.  It'll take longer because hubby has irrigation lines running into each bed to conserve water.   This past time we used 2 inch thick pine (not pressure treated, it's poison) for the boxes and that held up for a long time.  This time we are using thicker rough cut pine from the sawmill, and blocks from Home Depot.  I really like the cobblestones and might buy a few at a time so I don't realize how much I'm spending on them!  They might be expensive, but will never have to be replaced again.   The raised beds are pretty and make it so much easier to garden. Usually in the fall we dig in some of our shredded leaves and some compost, and the beds are nice and fertile.  We don't have to till anymore, and can just work the soil a bit and put the plants in.    After planting we add some composted chicken manure and then line each bed with newspaper and a ton of shredded leaves so there is very little weeding to do.    

Anyway, I have convinced hubby to add a whole new garden to the top of the hill where the trees were.... That is what we will concentrate on for this year, and I will plant the existing garden for one more year.  We've finally learned we can't do it all at the same time anymore, especially with my growning list of craft shows...

...will take some photos along the way!