It's My Birthday!

I've always been a big fan of my birthday.  So much so that I used to (even as a grownup) remind everyone around me how many shopping days were left until then--starting on August 1st.  Pretty obnoxious, I know.  Not that I care very much about the presents (although they are nice, don't get me wrong!), but it's just a whole day that I can be as eccentric, funny, silly, and self-centered as I want to and nobody can say anything about it....it's my birthday after all.  I've been known to wear a tiara all day, but not this year.  

Today I'm planting my lime seeds.  I soaked them all night in warm water, that makes them germinate faster (or so I read).  Later I'm going out to lunch with Brett, who is in the navy and is home visiting this weekend.  Looking forward to it.

So I got up and did a little pinning on Pinterest.  Mostly for my classroom, but here and there I come across something I need to see again later--like dwarf nigerian goats.  Someday....

Watering the garden this morning I noticed a BIG, FAT bumblebee pollinating my salvias--I love to see helpers in the garden.  There are also several little tiny toads out there, they are so cute.  I've also been seeing a lot of different butterflies, including zebrawing and gulf flitteraries.  They are a little unusual, and only feed on certain flowers, so it's interesting to see them here.    

I'm not sure if I've ever truly written about this on my blog, but I think I'll just outline my five year plan for my life.  Whether or not I'm here in this house, the plan is basically the same.  I consider myself a suburban homesteader--I garden (although not enough to feed myself), preserve foods, love to sew and do DIY projects within reason.  Kaleigh and I cook almost everything from scratch these days, and I'm very frugal (by necessity and preference).  

My plan is to expand on all these things over the next five years, to include making the garden larger, including a large herb and flower bed, as well as more vegetables.  Maybe enough to feed K. and myself.  I will be getting chickens as soon as K and I can get a coop built, which I have most of the materials for already.  Like I said, I'm pretty frugal so gathering materials can be slow while I wait for deals.  I'm anxious to get some girls, so I may cave and just buy a coop.   I'm thinking four chickens is a good number.  Several different varieties.  I want them for eggs, not meat, so I think it's okay to have different varieties and name them. 

Eventually I would like two girl goats (mini or dwarf), if I ever have a big enough yard.  They will be good for milk, cheese and predator control for the chickens.  

I need a good potting bench and area to work outside, I'd love an outdoor kitchen--it could be very basic.  I'd like to do more canning and freezing of produce that I grow.  I dabble at this time, but I'd like to really get into it.  

I love my fruit trees, and I'd like to add several more.  At least another lemon tree, another lime tree, several orange trees.  I love grapefruit too, but they take too long to set fruit, I don't know if I will still be here when that happens (in this house, I mean).   I'd like to also add some blackberry bushes somewhere, although I don't have a lot of sunny yard, so that may not be possible here.  Maybe on the side of the house.

I need to set up a good drip irrigation system, but the garden is small and manageable now, and I don't want to have to set it up, then change it in a year when things get bigger.  So until I expand the garden, that won't really be happening.  

When I do expand the garden, I would really like to cover the entire area next to my driveway up to my neighbor's yard with mulch and make raised beds for vegetables and a cottage garden type setup for herbs and flowers and strawberries here and there.  I can strategically place my fruit trees in there (I want to keep them in pots so they can come inside for freezes).  I'm not sure that will work without adding some kind of fence, which I don't want to do, but I'm still working out the details.  I do want to make sure that there are pavers for walkways (different ones in different areas).  

As far as my work life goes, it's very satisfying, and I don't foresee any huge changes there.  I'm very comfortable in my workplace and I love the people I work with--big and small.  I enjoy presenting at various conferences and other outlets, so I will continue to do that, and we'll see what other opportunities come my way.  Or what opportunities I can make.  

Very Productive Today...

I am glad I stopped feeling sorry for myself because I got a lot done today.  Nothing gets me going quite like giving myself a firm talking-to about feeling sorry for myself.  If I can't control what's happening around me, at least I can control some things.  I feel better then.

One thing I did was finally did something about the 23 key limes that my friend Cathy gave me.  As a rule I never turn down free food (within reason).  Especially fresh from someone's garden or fruit trees.  Even if I bought key limes, they wouldn't be this fresh, right?   They have been sitting in a bowl for a few days, while I tried to think how to use them.  Today I cut them in half, squeezed the juice into an ice tray, picked the seeds out (mostly) with a spoon, and froze the cubes.  I will put them into a labeled freezer bag tomorrow.  I figure the few seeds left in there will lend authenticity to whatever I use them for (probably guacamole).  

I started to throw out the peels, but I remembered reading somewhere that citrus peels repel bugs and cats from your garden, so I'm going to cut them into small pieces and throw them under my tomatoes, which seems to have something picking at the lower branches.  

I started to throw out the seeds, but remembered reading somewhere that you can grow key limes from seed (supposedly you can't grow all citrus from seed), so I'm going to give that a go. 

That's what I call a bargain, my friend.  Free limes and uses for every bit of them.  

I also moved some furniture around in my dining room that I've been thinking about, I like it a lot better this way.  It opened up an east facing window to let some real sun in, and provided a place where I put a low table (maybe to be replaced by open shelves) for plants.  This will be a good place for my seedlings instead of under a lamp.  (On a side note--I ADORE my paisley gardening boots!  And Bink's Curious George gardening boots!)

Mopped the floor and cleaned out the laundry closet.  In addition to cleaning the kitchen and getting rid of a bunch of stuff that was here and there and I don't need anymore.  Did some laundry, and I think I'm going to read for a little bit--there's a very compelling book about Compost that I want to finish.  

Random Thoughts...Again....

I've been alone for the last few days, which leads to a lot of thinking.  Thinking leads to a lot of seemingly disconnected thought processes.  I have learned not to question how my mind works because even I can barely follow the logic....   Anyway, here some of my recent thoughts:

• I WANT CHICKENS.  This is happening.  And soon.  I think they will be my birthday present to myself.  Kaleigh and I can build a coop and I think 3 or 4 would be a lovely addition. 
• My coffee sucks.  I'm not sure why I can't make a decent cup of coffee...my sister and I can make pots on the same day, with the same pot, same coffee, same everything, and mine is awful--hers is fabu.  Don't get it.
• I need to water the garden this morning--be right back.......................................................... okay, I'm back.  It seems like my green beans should have beans growing on them.  Maybe it's too early.  Looking forward to that for sure.  There's nothing like fresh green beans.  Well, that's not strictly true, all fresh veggies are pretty awesome.   I can't believe I've never planted a fall garden before this.  Last year I planted a few scraggly vegetables, but didn't really take care of them appropriately, thinking that they wouldn't grow since it wasn't spring.   Now I feel silly about that.  
• Maybe I'll make some curtains for my sewing room today--I've been needing a project to work on.   I'll look through my fabrics and see if I can find something nice to use.  I have some "vintage" (I use the term loosely) sheets that might be good to use.  I wish I had something to hand quilt.  Maybe I should look at my HUGE bin of unfinished tops for something to work on.  It would be nice to have something to do with my hands in the evening.  
• A few days ago, I chopped some herbs from my garden (basil, thyme and rosemary) and put them into an ice tray--covered them with olive oil and froze them.  This was an experiment that I saw on Pinterest (and I think we ALL know that sometimes what people represent on Pinterest isn't what REALLY happens when we try it!) so I thought I'd do it.  I can throw one of the cubes into any recipe for some fresh herb taste.  It worked.  I took the cubes out (they look like green stuff sticking out of lard at this point) and put them into a labeled freezer bag--I think I will throw a few into my tomato sauce later today.  Success!
• I'm missing Hillarie like crazy these days.  
• Looked back in my SUPER-DUPER AWESOME gardening journal to see when green beans were planted, and it's only been a little over a month, it is definitely too early.  They trick me by growing like crazy.  
• I've been thinking about moving the big hutch out of the dining room, or moving it into the corner so I can set up a planting table or shelves there in the sunny window there.  Then I can have more plants inside.  My kitchen window doesn't really get sun, just light so I'm limited as to what can grow there.  
• I need to think about some cooking projects to do with my class.  My assistant is like a genius with play dough, but the kids just love to mix stuff, and eating it is a bonus.  Do some research.

Enough rambling.  I have stuff to do.  I think I'll go mix up my compost and water the pile while I'm at it.  Peace.

Worry...

I've been pretty much moping around the house for the last few days, feeling pretty sorry for myself, and I decided it stops now.  There's a lot to be thankful for, even if things aren't going my way right now.  I took a few days off work--  I don't usually do this because I find that being at work keeps my mind off things, but I just couldn't imagine being able to put on a happy face for my class. 

A friend posted this on Facebook (thanks Kim!) :

Worry is an attempt to control the future.  Guilt is an attempt to control the past.  Let it all go and let God be in control!

Trying....

Anyway, last night I went to the grocery store and got a bunch of marked down tomatoes (not bad tomatoes, just not pretty tomatoes), and when I got home, I started some tomato sauce cooking.  It's been cooking down since last night--in the crock pot, and now the lid is propped open to let some of the water evaporate.  Then I will add onions, peppers, garlic, oregano, fresh basil and whatever else seems appropriate.  I will probably freeze it for when K. comes home--she loves my tomato sauce.  

Fertilized the "orchard" this morning.  (Said orchard being a meyer lemon tree and a key lime tree)   They both look really good.  Everything else in the garden looks good too.  Maybe tomorrow morning I will mulch the cucumbers again.  They are looking droopy.  

Cucumbers are Sprouting!

Went out to the garden this morning--things have been going on personally and I haven't been out there for a couple of days, so I thought I'd water and check things out.  I planted some cucumber seeds on Sunday (this is Wednesday!) and they are sprouting.  Almost all of them.  Very nice.  I don't have much luck with cucumbers here for some reason, so I'm really trying hard to plant different varieties, try different organic pest control applications, water the proper amount, etc.  

Like I said, things are going on personally, and I took the week off to take care of some things.  So today I'm going to get the house in order, mow the grass if it's dry enough out, and work in the garden.  I need some quiet time.  I keep reminding myself that I can't fret over everything, and sometimes things that don't seem good when they are happening, make better things come along.  I TRY to be an optimist.  

Gardening Journal

This year I have made a real effort to keep a gardening journal.  I can never remember what I planted where, how it grew, what kind of green beans were those?  So I've done pretty well.  I keep my very glamorous journal (an ugly spiral notebook--maybe I should glam it up a little, I believe you can never have too much glitter.) on a shelf next to my computer and every night I write a few notes about what I've done that day--if anything.  I write what I bought and what I paid, and if I had to water or if it rained this week, and what I transplanted, or anything else.  I also wrote in there what sproutrobot.com suggests that I plant based on my zip code.  Love that site.  

Cover (specially decorated by me!):

Sample Page:

This is what it looks like--not sure if you can read what's written, but you get the idea.  Each two-page spread has a week listed.  I had divided it up into four sections (showing four years of what happened), but it turns out, half a page isn't enough space for me, so I'm changing to one year per page.  So when the book is open, the left page will be for 2013. and the right page will be for 2014.  I can see from year to year what happened last year.  After 2014 I will get a new book (sometimes I HAVE to spend money--I think it's 99 cents well spent)

I'm not a great gardener, but I've always believed that what I lack in knowledge I can make up in enthusiasm, so I wing it.  It turns out that plants have been growing on earth for millions (at least) of years, and they don't really need much help from me.  They continue to grow in spite of me.  Another beautiful thing.

Simple Sunday...

Simple Sunday is something I made up a while ago to make sure I get a day of peace (or at the very least, a day to stay home) during my busy and stressful week.  I don't always stick to it, but when I need to, I do.

Plan for this week's Simple Sunday...

• Coffee with my sister this morning.  We don't do this enough, and we've both been so busy that we see very little of each other these days.  Sad.
• Plant cucumber seeds in newspaper seed pots that I made myself.  The fall garden is really coming along.
• Read.  I'm now reading three books at one time, which is very unlike me, but they are very different and sometimes I'm not in the mood to read where my food comes from.  It can be upsetting.  So I choose which book I want to read by the mood I'm in.  The books:
• The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.  I like this author, but this book is very eye-opening about where food comes from.  Hard to read at times.
• The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel.  One of my all-time favorites, and I reread it now and then.  
• The Complete Compost Gardening Guide by Barbara Pleasant and Deborah Martin.  This one is like a textbook about compost.  I don't think it's a secret that I have a strange obsession with compost at this point.  But it's not really reading for pleasure.  
• Laundry--I don't mind doing laundry because I can do other things while the laundry is working.  And I love clean-smelling clothes.
• I'd like to do some sewing, but I don't have a project going right now, so that might not happen--I should at least think about a project I want to start.  
• Puttering around my house--one of my very favorite things to do.  Water plants, move this and that, sit in my rocking chair, whatever.  

A Fresh New Start...and more Compost

I am a teacher.  A preschool teacher.  So I guess I don't have to explain why my new year starts in late August, and NOT January 1st.  I love a new school year.  Mrs. Jones (my assistant) and I have had a great first week with our new pumpkins.

Recently, I really feel like my work life is coming together the way it should.  Home life is settling down.  I'm ready to go back to concentrating on me and how I feel and what I want to do.  I am re-instituting the Year of Being Amie.  I did well with it the first time around, but life stuck it's big fat nose in and I got away from it again.  So here we go.

I'm sweaty once again.  I spent a hard hour and a half in the garden this morning.  I took some pictures but it was already so steamy out that they are completely foggy and you can barely see anything.  I'll take some more later and post them. 

I ended up planting some tomato seedlings--I grew them from seed myself, thank-you-very-much--in pots.  They look so tiny.  The "orchard" looks good, considering it's only two trees.  It's looking very garden-y out in my side yard these days.  

Below is my "orchard"--a key lime tree and a meyer lemon tree.  Love them!

Below is my green bean teepee--no green beans yet, but there are lots of flowers, meaning lots of green beans to come!

I mixed up a wheelbarrow full of planting mix, used some for the tomatoes and stored the rest in a Firehouse Subs pickle bucket for later.  I make my mix according (very loosely) to Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening recipe.  Bless Mel for figuring this out for me.  I usually throw a few shovels full of compost (more on that, my favorite gardening subject, later) into my wheelbarrow, then add several shovels full of vermiculite (which I store in a large bin in the garden area outside), and several shovels full of peat moss (which I also store in a large big on top of the vermiculite bin).  Stir it all around with my new shovel, and I use it in my raised beds and my outside pots.  Like I said, I store any extra that I haven't used yet in a five-gallon bucket.  

Compost...is there a more beautiful word in the English language?  What else illustrates the beauty of recycling better than compost?  Throw a bunch of trash in the form of food waste, dead plants, leaves, grass, animal waste (vegetarian animals only), dead yard waste, and it rots into something that helps you grow food!  It's a miracle, really.  AND, if you want to there are things you can do to speed it along...watering your pile, turning it, layering the correct ratio of green things (fresh, plant based materials) to brown things (dead, brown things), but nature does the trick all by itself, even if you do nothing.  Like I've said before--it's a fundamental law of nature--everything rots.  And of course, we humans can't help ourselves but to make a simple process complicated...with tools and thermometers, but they aren't really necessary.  

I do want to say one thing about my process.  I use a bin that I made from three old pallets (see above) and throw all my kitchen scraps in there.  I save them in the kitchen in an old plastic 5 quart ice cream tub and throw them out there when it's full--usually every 1-2 days.  My kitchen has a lot of scraps!  I put tea bags, coffee grounds, vegetable and fruit peelings, eggshells, dryer lint, and anything else that I would throw away except meat and fat.  I don't want any rodents in there!  When I dump my compost tub out there, I usually throw some dead leaves or grass or something over it so the food doesn't attract previously mentioned rodents (I know there are possums around, and squirrels, I don't want to know what else).  I don't really do anything else to this.  And as  a side note, I've read in lots of places that the pile has to "heat up" to do the work.  Mind is never hot--at least not hotter than it gets in Orlando on a summer day.  It just rots quietly.  And it DOES NOT SMELL.  Can't stress that enough.  It just smells like fresh dirt.  

That is Phase One.  Just kidding, that's just one pile.  

Phase Two (okay, maybe I wasn't kidding):  I have another compost pile right next to that one that contains finished compost.  I get some from the landfill, they have this beautiful (well, not so beautiful, but free!) pile of compost on a grassy area and there are always nice people there getting some.  I like to talk to them, much to my daughter's horror.  I don't have a truck, I have a Dodge Caliber, so I put all the bins, five-gallon buckets and whatever else I can find in the back of my car, grab my shovel and go to town (so to speak).  Yes, dirt gets everywhere in my car, but I don't care.  I also put my finished compost--mine takes about a year to stew and get done because I LITERALLY do nothing to it.    My daughter has a friend (yea, Erin!) with horses, and every now and then she drops off a huge bin of composted horse manure, and I add that to my pile of finished compost.  I've also been known to "steal" bags of dried leaves, yard waste, pine needles, etc. from my neighbors' curbs on garbage day.  Call me crazy.  In the spring, when I'm about to plant fresh, I will also buy a bag of several different kinds of compost, whatever I can find.  Mushroom compost, cow manure compost, etc.  Each of these adds different nutrients to the soil for my plants.  I use this to add a shovel full to each pot or raised bed as I replant, and to make my planting mix. 

Phase Three:  This pile is on the other side of the house, where most of  my grass is.  The reason it's there is because it's dry grass.  As I mow my lawn and the bag fills up, I dump them on the other side of my house to dry.  I just leave them there (they are out of sight of the neighbors) in a couple of piles.  As I use the most dry one for mulch (again, not pretty, but its free--I take that back, no mulch is really "pretty"), I add the fresh bags to a second pile.  When the dry pile is gone, I start using the second pile, and putting the fresh bags on the first pile.  

Phase Four:  Leaf Mold Pile.  This one is my favorite.  (I know I'm a composting nut job.)  I have a huge oak tree and other, smaller trees in my front yard, making it difficult to plant there, but giving me a true gift.  Leaves.  I rake these into another pile (behind a tree right in my front yard).  This is amazing stuff.  The dirt under it is black and spongy, and truly a gardener's dream.  When I plant a new raised bed (or bed in the ground), I get some of the stuff at the bottom of this pile and spread it in the bottom, under the planting mix or dirt.  If leaves are mixed in, I'm good with that.  Like I said, everything rots.  Eventually those leaves will nourish the plants.  

I told you this was a beautiful plan.  

This year I plan to scour the neighborhood for more of the neighbors' leaves, etc. and start a lasagna bed next to my driveway, with the goal of a cottage garden there.  Herbs, flowers, strawberries, and maybe some vegetables here and there.  It's ambitious, but it's a process.  Here's the plan:

• gather leaves, yard waste, etc.
• dig out sod, using it elsewhere in yard (low spots, etc.)
• lay down layers of brown cardboard, newspapers, etc.
• cover with free mulch.  
• start at road end (so neighbors are happy) and plant entire area with herbs, flowers, whatever I find that will look nice, and edging with strawberries.  

I think I may work on this in sections as I get materials.  Do areas 4' x 6' at a time, then moving on the next section.  This will keep my yard from sitting "naked" while I wait for materials.   I definitely garden on a budget so I can't go out and buy a yard full of plants at one time.  I'm getting pretty good at propagating plants so that's something that will help.  I do need to think about a low fence or something as a backdrop.  

Wow, this has been a long post.  Not like me at all....

God, please let me drive the karma bus....

I am a big believer in karma.  You get what you put out there.  You reap what you sow.  Do unto others.  What goes around, comes around.  And so on.  I also believe that EVERYONE gets what they deserve in life, and sometimes we get to see it.  Sometimes we don't, but when we do... it's a beautiful thing.  That's all I'm going to say about that.  

I Don't Want To Brag, But I Kind Of Rock...

So... I'm feeling very full of myself these days.  After work I went to Lowes and as always, I checked out the marked down plants.  There were some kind of tired looking white vincas for .40 each--my kind of price.  And vincas will grow anywhere and come back for many years.  I think I'm going to get my forty cents worth out of those babies.  

So then I think about how I got a passion plant at less than half price a few weeks ago, and decided to go and take another look-see at those.  My lucky day!  There was one that looked pretty okay, but had some dead leaves on it--they marked it down to $5 from $19.98.  WOO-HOO!

So then I thought I'd better take another look at the marked down stuff and I found some fruit trees marked down as well, and they actually looked pretty good.  I got a key lime tree (to go along with my meyer lemon) for $7!  I couldn't be more thrilled if somebody dumped a load of horse poop on my driveway.  (On a sidebar, it's amazing how the things that make me happy have changed over the years.)   There was another citrus tree there too, so I may go back and go crazy.  There was also a BIG kumquat tree for $20 which I am going to go back and get on Friday if it's still there.  I hope it's still there.  I actually have started my own orchard.  Yes, it's a citrus orchard, but details....

When I got home, I went out for a little dirt therapy--and I feel so much less stressed now.  Plus I smell like fresh herbs so that's a definite bonus.  I planted my flowers and some squash seedlings that I planted a few weeks ago, and watered everything really well.  I cut a bunch of basil and some rosemary from the plants, and when I brought them in, I cut them up, put them into an old ice tray and covered them with nice olive oil, then popped them into the freezer.  They should be really great to throw into recipes.  

Who knows, maybe I'll REALLY go crazy and start cooking again.  

Lawnmowers...Out To Get Me?

I do not have a large yard.  I don't even have to mow the backyard and one side of the house because of the plants there and it's not lawn.  So why do I have to struggle with the damn lawnmower EVERY fucking week?  Can't the stupid thing work for the 45 minutes (maybe not even that) that it takes to get the grass cut?  Can't it?  Granted, the grass is long because it's been rainy and it grows like... well.. a weed, and it's perpetually wet underneath so I have to mow slowly and keep lifting the mower up so it doesn't cut out.  But now it won't even start.  

Screw this, I'm calling a lawn guy.  Then I'm going to sit outside and sip lemonade and ogle him while he takes care of my yard work.  I'll handle the garden, and he can sweat while he mows.  I think it's a plan.




Post Script:  I went back out and finished mowing the lawn.  

Bring on the Preschoolers...

So...school starts on Monday (it's Saturday now).  We have had a frantic two weeks getting the classrooms ready--open house was Friday.  It was so much fun, so very PLEASANT.  Everyone has really been making their classrooms theirs--and this is really the first time I have felt like my classroom was MINE.  I did some painting and moving around, and I finally decided to gut the office and organize it the way it needs to be.  Over time, we added a lot of materials and without any organized way to store them, we could never find anything, so this was important.  Now there are specific shelves for literacy activities, math, science, motor skills, outdoor, art, play dough, and light table.  

I am most proud of the Quiet Center--with my pillows that I made.  And the sparkly lights in the lace curtain over the entrance.  That's our "SHOWSTOPPER", as Mrs. Jones says.  

Today all my coworkers met at Kim's house in Christmas--how much do I love that place?  Five acres, gardens, a pool, trees, a barn, etc.  Fabulous!  She has a whole fence full of passion flowers--gorgeous.

 Look at this banana spider!  It was as big as my hand!  Amazing.  

We all had a really nice time, in spite of the heat.  

It was very pleasant to spend fun time with everyone, just laughing and having fun.  I will have to remember to thank Kim for that.  It's all because of her.

I meant to come home and mow the grass, but it was raining when I got home so I took a nap instead.  I think it was the right thing to do.  I guess that's what I'll be doing tomorrow afternoon though.  Or my neighbors will revolt.  

I've been reading a really interesting book called "Sleeping Naked is Green" by a Canadian girl named Vanessa Farquharson.  She made one green change every day for a year and blogged about it--whether it worked or not, and if she was going to stick with it or not.  Some were kind of weird, like using vegan toothpaste, but she also sold her car and got rid of her refrigerator.  

I also just finished "Hit By a Farm" by Catherine Friend--who moved to a sheep farm with her long-term girlfriend (why the hell can't I just say her wife?) without any experience or anything, and what happened.  Loved it, as anyone could probably guess.  

I have seriously read 10 books in the last few weeks (maybe 3).  I'm a little obsessed.  Maybe.  

What's New?

Not much going on these days.  At work we are all getting our classrooms ready for the new batch.  I have to say, our room looks pretty AMAZING!  Mrs. Jones and I made a lot of changes and I finally (AFTER THREE YEARS!) figured out how I need things organized so I can find them when I want them and everyone else can clearly see where they go.  The classroom is really feeling different, really mine all of a sudden.  It's wonderful.  Will post pictures when it's finished.  

My tomato seedlings finally have real leaves, so they are ready to be transplanted--probably this weekend.  I had 100% germination with those, but I'm VERY disappointed with the yellow squash.  A measly 10%.  So I replanted more seeds into the pots, I hope these will germinate.  In another two weeks I will plant cucumbers and lettuce.  Looking forward to that.  My green beans continue to astound me, growing 4 inches a day.  Amazing.  Lots of flowers so that means lots of green beans.  

The garden is actually looking pretty good.  I would post pictures but I'm already in my jammies and I am not changing now.  Will do soon, though.  I built another trellis (this one looks MUCH better) and transplanted the passion flower--it is looking very droopy.  Not sure if it's going to make it, but I'm making sure to water it deeply, and tomorrow I will bring it a present of worm castings, and if anything will help, that will.  

Maybe things aren't so bad after all...

After the worst week ever, and just an okay day today, I came home feeling pretty yucky.  I decided that I needed a little dirt therapy, so I went out in the garden for a couple of hours.

• Yard work, check  (now the neighbors aren't cringing at the sight of my yard.
• I ALWAYS, without fail feel better after working in my tiny garden for a while.  
• Green beans are looking good (see below), so I mulched them with free, that's right, I said FREE yard clippings that have been drying out in a pile in my side yard.  (I have two more piles ready to mulch with when I get more plants into the beds). 

• I think the mulch looks pretty good--or as good as mulch ever looks.  I hate red mulch, and black mulch seems unnatural, so I prefer brown mulch anyway, and this looks like any other mulch.  And I'm improving the soil at the same time.
• My passion plant is blooming--look at this lovely lady!  I need to find a nice big trellis for her to drape herself over. 

• I saw several tiny toads out in the yard near the garden, which is really good, it means I have lots of nice juicy living things in the dirt.  No photo.
• Last, the strawberries are running!  Yea!

• Oh yeah, I've been meaning to take a picture of this--this is my little herb propagating and seedling area next to my kitchen window.  

• After I finished all my fun in the dirt, I decided to make a little something for my favorite new teacher ever--Trina Kennedy.  These are pillow covers I sewed for her new (and first!) classroom.  I just adore that girl!  They are much prettier in person--so much so that I think I'll make some for my own classroom...

• ... although mine were made from men's shirts from the thrift store.  I even used the buttons on the back as a closure.  I think I'm pretty clever.