I'm making a book.

It started out it's life as a calendar.

So this is what I have so far.

I'm doing the painting and collage now, I'll add the doodling and words next.

This is the cover.

Not sure what this is about yet. It's telling me something, something about yearning and gazing within...

Inside my head- there are rainbows

Works in Progress

The Way of My People...

I like this one a lot, not sure yet what I want to write here, I'm looking for a good quote.

Backyard Farm

this one is just calling out for rick-rack.

The Winter of My Discontent

I love this child!

OM

Offering

I'm going to change the head on this. It was the first one I did, I like everything except the head. I'm thinking of changing it to a building.

8 weeks

So here we are 8 weeks in, the Collards are definitely the stars of this show. I've been building my dream garden in my head. I want a picket fence around the front yard and raised beds in the front yard with mulched paths AND NO LAWN! Front yard is the only spot on my property that gets sunlight all day. I need to check into the zoning law and see if it's ok to take out the lawn. Or at least part of the lawn. I think raised beds all around a small patch of grass or ground cover would be pretty. I want to mix flowers and edibles, with wooden trellis for the vines to grow vertically.

Of course I don't have the money to build that all at once, that's why it's a dream garden.

this week in the garden

I finished the baby quilt, I'm sorry that the picture is so bad. Its a Double Irish Chain, the first I've ever made. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. It's machine pieced and machine quilted. It took me about 3 months to make it. It's the most complex and largest quilt I've made to date. It's about 50 x 65 inches. The borders are cut off in the picture, they are actually about 6 inches wide.

I've already given it to the expectant Mom and she really liked it.

The tomatoes aren't doing as well as I hoped. They are really leggy, and they have some die off on the bottom branches. I don't think they're getting enough sunshine, hence the legginess. I'm not sure whats up with the withering. Some kind of disease I suspect. But we have some fruit, this picture is of Lemon Boy.

Here's a picture of the entire garden. The Collards are growing beautifully. And they taste amazing! I've been picking a few leaves here and there to add to soup and they certainly don't taste like the Collards you buy at the store, they are so much better.

The Spinach has not done well. I planted 3 small rows and only half of 1 came up. It hasn't grown any either. So yesterday we went and bought some new plants to fill up that space. We got some beautiful Red Cabbage, Arugula, (yuk! I don't care for Arugula, but P loves it.) and some more Rosemary. P loves the Rosemary so much I'm thinking of doing an entire hedge down the side of the house. We planted some zuchinni also but you can't see it here.

We put some mulch around the outside of the bed, and I plan to put some more. I'd like to do a mulched path about 3 feet wide to try to cut down on some of the mud.

The rose has been producing steadily since the heat let up. I wish you could smell this, it's heaven.

Here is some lettuce I harvested for salad. It was delicious!!

Finally after the driest October I can remember, we've had a nice rain. Here's a shot of the garden. The lettuce is looking great. The spinach is a no show. It's not grown any more after the initial sprout. Too hot I think.

We've gotten the fence clear and the new gate installed.

You can see the tomatoes are very leggy, not enough light, they are being shaded by the fence. but look below, the first teeny-tiny tomatoes!





And of course the plants that were bought by accident, are doing great. I thought I was picking up Cabbage, but when I got home -- Collards. I'm not to crazy about eating Collards, but aren't they beautiful? Patrick loves Collards, so I'll be cooking them up. He can take some up to Viola, I know she'll appreciate them too.

Today I won the Employee of the Month. I got a $25 gift card to Panara. Too bad I can't eat any of those great pastries! I'm down 26 lbs from doing the low carb diabetes diet. No medication, and I feel so much better.

For the Spring we are going to make another raised bed a few feet north of this one, it's still in the side yard but sunnier.