The garden is finally starting to produce. I picked my peaches a couple days ago as the Jays had found them. They are ripe enough to soften indoors the rest of the way. Good! But now I’m itching. Those little zucchinis were growing on huge stickery plants, darn’em! And I chased the doe out before she got to the beans again. She was outside the window munching my America roses, darn’er! And the cherry & pear tomatoes are over=growing my big Brandywines and so they aren’t getting the sunshine they need. I guess I’ll have to prune some more. Next year those little sprawly guys are going in pots out in the danger zone. Let the doe prune them! My big ones need more room.
But I got several of those white eggplant fruits and there’s more of the japanese types, too. And I have a standard one a pot but it’s not ripe yet. Oh, and the bell peppers… They have done really well in spite of the fact that I cut the top out of one accidentally with the first pepper I cut. 😦 But Now we eat!
and we’re making looms again so if you have an order due… keep the faith, we’re getting there!
Archives
Full Speed Ahead!
We took the boys to the airport on Friday and they are back home now looking forward… maybe… to the next school year.
Meantime, the slab is poured and the forms pulled. The truck delivered the lumber this morning and Randy and his carpenter have already got most of the heavy double wall between the house and the shop built and it really standing now. They’re having lunch but I’ll bet this one and maybe more will be up by quitting time if it doesn’t get too hot. We should have most of a new space by the end of the week. X your fingers!
Water, water… brim full!
The grandsons worked hard today so I took them swimming. They even got Cori in and up on the log! I sat in the shade and read while they froliced. It was cool enough to be comfortable and I’m just not often attracted to swimming anymore.
Today we have a small possibility of thunder storms and it’s a little cooler. Both of them have weaving project underway and so do I so we’ll probably sit in the shade and weave.
I have to go buy veggies from our local farmer as these two teens are fond of green food. My little garden can’t keep up with 4 people so I have to supplement. But it makes me happy to see. They’ll be here for another 3 weeks & We’re enjoying each others company! Wish their Mom could have come, too.
Isn’t it pretty?!
Randy and Justin bought this Clematis for me long years ago. The vine has never gotten very big but it blooms lustily every year.
I think it’s summer!
Things are warming up and blooming! We have 76 here this morning and it’s not done yet. But I worked up quite a.. er.. glow on my walk this morning. lol I’m loving it, too. Sis got rain yesterday but there’s none of that in our forecast! But everything plant has loved our wet spring and things are blooming all out now. My iris bed, for instance! And I’m just cutting those that are out of our usual view but they look great on my deck and last much longer than I thought they might. They sit in the sun all day, too.
But we’re using the salad greens and radishes 😉 and have our first little green tomato. The corn is sprouting, too, tho I don’t think it’s going to be eye high by the 4th of July.
Meantime, I am still working on inventing bulky yarn out of thinner for the rug loom. The little I-cord machine from Bond seemed like a good idea but it only wants fingering yarn and I want to use worsted. I have ideas, tho!
If you do too, I hope you’ll share.
Here’s my bouquet.
Wow!
I grew radishes! For some reason I have never been successful with radishes! Those along with green beans are what they give Children to grow so I do not know what I do wrong! But I got radishes this year! Two of them anyway! the rest of the garden is growing slowly. waiting for Mother nature to decide it’s summer and give them some warm! She’s given them way too much water, but we’re supposed to be getting sunny warm days this week.
Two pictures of spring.
Yeah, it’s raining again or maybe even still! But once in awhile the sun comes out for a few hours. the fruit comes from the valley but the lilacs are here in the yard.
Bloom time
Here’s the old garden shed and as rickety as it is, it is still lovely surrounded by bloom. The white and purple plum trees and the yellow forsythia. Even the barely budded tree leaves add some color to the spring palette. You have to watch where you step these days, too as some springtime treasures are harder to spot. Check the header above!
We are starting to look to gardening season, I’ve planted some of the cole family in the new beds already and have warmer weather things waiting indoors.
Also still weaving on my orange top and making good progress. Should be able to post progress pictures here for that in a couple days.
And COMING SOON! a new Hazel Rose Loom for your enjoyment! Just a hint to keep you in suspense!
A project for a Green Spring.
A friend who was moving gave Randy one of those rainbow colored nylon wind socks and, looking at it, I thought, “Well now, Hazel, I think you can make one of those easy with your 12″ square loom!” and I was right. I only had a stock of the green grocery bags so it isn’t as colorful as you could make it with bright colored bags. I’m sure you have some of these saved. It took two bags to weave the square and part of another one to make the streamers.
Here’s a link on how to cut your bags into one long strip, no fooling around with loops.
How to cut your plarn in a long strip.
This gal is a lot more fussy about them than I was but you’ll get the idea. I also cut mine finer, about 3/4 to one inch wide as I wanted to keep it light. I had no trouble with it breaking. (You could also weave a few squares to use as place mats for your patio table while you’re at it.)
Once I cut my plarn, I just butterflied it and dropped it on the floor and wove from there. Weave your square. I used a bit of sock yarn to sew it into a tube, leaving a tail about a foot long which I then knotted to the opposite side of the tube. I used an overhand stitch and did not pull it tight so that I could pull the seam to lay flat. It is just stiff enough to hold it’s tube shape but if yours doesn’t you could use a bit of wire or stiff plastic around the mouth to hold it in a circle. I leave that up to you. I cut loops from another bag and used a larks head to tie them onto the bottom edge about every 4th loop. Then cut the loop to make two tails. That’s it. Hang it out and enjoy the gentle waving in the breeze.
New projects.
If I have anyone reading this blog, I have to apologize for letting it go so long. I didn’t realize it had been over two weeks since I posted! We’ve been busy with the kinds of things that happen in the spring. Those few days when it has not been raining are filled with outdoor chores and the rainy ones have been mostly in the shop or working on writing up weaving and knitting projects or… book work. 😦
But we do have one great project going. The new planter boxes around the deck! Randy has been working hard to get this done in time to start planting for this years garden. I have already planted peas and chard.
Here he is taking a well earned break. Good thing we have years of compost to use to fill them. But I am nearly though with a couple of projects, too, which I hope to be able to show you very soon.
Meantime, I hope your spring is becoming warm and sunny, too!
Hazel Rose 