The weather outside is frightful....

No snow but gray skies, cold temps and lots and lots of rain....and it's my one day off, so what should I do?

Pick something to sew?

Pick a fabric?

Clean up my messy office?

Read a book?

Oh to heck with it....I'm having a cup of tea and..

..and think about how much more fun it would be to play in the garden.

Finished

Finally...finished my knitting project. I have been knitting for many, many years but I can not read a pattern to save my life. So this year I decided to make knit something from a pattern. I picked this sweet little scarf that I found on a fun blog I have been following for some time now, Said the Hobbit. You can see her scarf here and if you would like to try knitting this scarf, the pattern is here.

The pattern is very easy except for "dividing" which I never did it before, never knew such a thing existed but in this scarf it's very important because that's how the passthrough is made.

So with some help from the hobbit and lots of help from my mother in law I was able to complete it and I really love it.

A picture tells a thousand words....

My niece and nephew.

Just one dollar

That's all I paid for this Oriental poppy plant at the end of the season two years ago...now it's huge with the softest pink petals and dark maroon centre. Really beautiful.





Trying to put together a beautiful garden on a shoestring budget is not hard, here are some of my tricks...


- Be patient....you will never get yourself a garden overnight.
- Buy the smallest perennials you can find, they are the cheapest and guess what...they will grow..please see above re patience.
- Buy plants at the end of the season, you may very well get larger perennials very cheaply.
- Attend plant sales at local churches, garden clubs and neighbours.
- Start your plants from seed.
- If you spot your neighbour thinning their perennials just mosey on over with a cup of coffee and ask them for some, don't be shy.
- Trade plants.
- Divide your own plants.
-When possible overwinter some of your plants like dahlias, geraniums and begonias.
-Take cuttings. Believe it or not I took a cutting of a beautiful light pink climbing rose and it worked.

Do you have any other tricks? How did you put your garden together?

A natural room refresher

Beautiful lilacs from the garden...my kitchen smells divine.

Beans, beans....

...the magical fruit, the more you eat the more you toot, the more you toot the better you feel so lets have beans at every meal...ever heard that little ditty???

Well parts of it are true, beans are good for you, really good and yes they make you toot but the more often you eat them the less you toot.

Normally enzymes break down the food you eat but not beans, they go through to your large intestine where bacteria breaks it down and as they break it down they release gas....soooo it's not you tooting but those darn bacteria.

Beans are, in my opinion, a super food. Cheap, tasty, versatile and most important, extremely healthy.

Anyway, my veggie garden in done, beans were the last to go down. I have three types.

Berlotti Beans

delicious in soups and salads.

Italian flat green beans.

Very much like green beans but flat. These are coated with something pink not sure what or why. The beans I saved from my crop are white.

Black beans.

These are magic beans because one day I found them on my patio table.... I have a suspicion that friends of mine, Marlene and Hugh dropped them off. These are delicious in soups, many Mexican dishes, salads and omelets.

New camera

Well Art bought a new camera a few months ago and I'm having a hard time with it. It's not a point and shoot which is all I know how to use. He tells me he bought it for me but I don't believe it, why???? For the hundredth time man...I just wanted a point and shoot. Anyway, I'm stuck with it so I have to do the best I can. I have lots of interests and hobbies but photography is not one of them.

Well now that I'm on the camera rant....it's also heavy and awkward to carry around the garden and on walks...it does NOT fit in my pocket. AARRGGHH.

So the other week I was in the garden, nice hot afternoon but a nasty cloud was forming to the North. It was dark, the wind was starting to pick up and it looked beautiful. Took a photo and this is what I ended up with.

The top of the mountain was very bright with the sun shining on it and the dark cloud was just behind it. Unfortunately the two photos above don't do it justice.