Slice of a lawn chair

Last summer we painted the front door red and I decided it would be fun to paint my Adirondack chairs red too.  I took them apart and got one primed and painted before I ran out of summer.  I finally finished the second chair this weekend and today it the day that I dig out the bag of parts and put it back together.  It will be a lovely place to sit with a cold beverage to watch my garden grow.

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a slice of happy

I sat on the edge of the new raised bed and read the plant labels.  Yellow pear tomato, lemon cucumber, yellow crookneck squash.  A meager beginning but a beginning none the less.  Digging the holes was like cutting into butter, the fresh garden soil, warm and fragrant.  A fresh shower of water, a small fence to keep the bunnies at bay, the sun just beginning to chase away the clouds.  I pulled the lawn chair into a patch of sunshine.  This was a slice of happy that was worth the wait.

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Saved – rocks

The garden project continues and the piles of rock are growing as much as the weeds.  Today I was digging a border between the garden patches and the grass – just wide enough to give the lawnmower some space.  And with each turn of the shovel, more rocks were unearthed.  I do love rocks.  They play a big part in my garden planning – small piles of rocks here and there and then this one – creating a barrier between my space and the wild.

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Saved – a day in the garden

Elizabeth was reflecting recently on things she thought she would be, such as a good gardener.  I still think of myself as a gardener even though I have had to restart my garden annually and never get much further than those first few days of weeding and clearing the space.  I hope this year will be different.  We shall see.

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Saved – seeds

On the island, we walked past some beautiful plants.  Many of them were colors that you don’t normally see.  The flowers that kept drawing my eye were the black poppies.  The plant looks so much like the poppies in my yard but the flower is a beautiful black.  My friend knows the common and latin names for many of these plants and she showed me how to pinch the seed pod so I could save the seeds.  They will need to dry now and next spring, I can scatter them in my garden with hopes of having some of those amazing black poppies growing next to my beautiful red poppies.  This will require some patience.

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Simple

In April I began to dream of my garden.  A lovely spot had been cleared, a place where sun would warm the soil and the bounty would be visible from my kitchen window.  There would be flowers for cutting and vegetables for our table.  But this garden dream was sidetracked and yet there is a simple beauty blooming in my yard.  Today I gathered some of the perrenials that have come back, year after year.  And this lovely little vase is a treasured gift from a student ( I love those orange dots!).  I wonder why I overlook the gift of simple?

A pretentious, showy life is an empty life;
   a plain and simple life is a full life.  Proverbs 13:7 (The Message)

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Sewing orange

I do love orange, especially in a quilt block.  This one was left over from another quilt and I am working on using up some of the bits and pieces so I made a few pillows yesterday.  And then there is my lovely orange fabric inspiration journal (fromDonna Downey).  I am hoping to get some garment sewing in this summer too.

 

I finally got my basil plant into a larger pot and planted my little tomato plant in the barrel.  Gardening season snuck up on me so I am not sure how much more I will get done but I will be happy to  harvest tomatoes and basil this summer.

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