brain dump

   So as it appears that no one reads this anyway I think I will start using this as a journal or maybe even a brain dump.

  Today is August 16, 2016. We are deep into the rainy season, with rain every afternoon, sometimes all night and sometimes all day. My backyard is mud with weeds and grass on top. The good news is it's very green. So it looks good as long as you don't try to walk on it.

   The orchids we put on the oak look good, they did have a brief period of adjustment but seem to have settled in well.

   I've moved the rubber tree from the driveway to the backyard and it's doing much better there. I added some potting soil and I've given it Reiki several times. Over the weekend I charged some Quartz and added them to the pot. It is sprouting new growth on all the branches. I think it was just to hot for it out front.

   The new porch is fabulous. We love it and are using it even through the intense heat. Feels like temps of 112 every day. I've been able to move the spider from the backyard to the porch. Also several plants from the dining room. I'm on the lookout for a 3 seater deep seating outdoor sofa for the porch. That will be the last piece to complete the porch.

   My eating has been completely out of control. Sugar every day. I haven't been gaining on the scale but I am noticing body changes. I'm not sure how to stop. Or why I'm doing it. I am still exercising a couple times per week. I just need to get back to my good habits. I feel better when I'm able to move a little bit. I think all the rain is keeping me from exercising, rain makes me hurt. But it doesn't make me eat, lol.

   My dog Lucky is doing so much better. After falling off the couch and breaking a vertebrae in his back he was unable to jump up or down and was medicated so he slept in his crate a lot. That was about 8 weeks ago.  He can now jump down off of laps or the couch but he down not even attempt to jump up. He doesn't try to stand up on his hind legs at all. We are going to attempt to make a ramp for him to get up and down from the couch.

   Patrick wants to get a small TV with the antenna instead of cable for the porch for football season. So I guess that will actually be the last piece for the porch.  We'll see.

   I'm crocheting an afghan for Patrick's sister for Christmas. She is having a really hard time, and I want her to feel like we are hugging her when she uses it. When that is done I need to do a grocery bag holder for Penn and one for Lane. Fortunately those go quick. Here's the one I use.

I might do a couple of hats for them too. I need to do a hat for Jordin, and those things that peek out of the top of boots for Estrella. Sam's friend wants a dice bag too. Time for a run to Michaels for some red and black yarn. I want both colors in one skein. that way I don't have to join and weave ends in.

   I've been trying again to schedule out meals for the week, but I'm just not able to keep to the schedule. When I have a bad day pain wise I just can't cook. So I'm trying to make extra on the days I do cook and freeze it so that we just have to thaw and heat up.


Todays Food List:

• Avocado
• coffee with Splenda, salt, agave, HWC
• 1 piece of bacon
• 3 chocolate chip cookies

Plan for dinner is chicken, baked potatoes and salad.

   Pills for the week are parceled out and I need refills for 2 meds, but I have to wait till the end of the week to call that in.

   I haven't accomplished too much today. I stayed in bed till 11:30. I weeded the Day Lilies and Society Garlic for about 30 minutes or maybe it just felt like 30 minutes. I baked some cookies to take to Jordin tonight. And that's about it. And I have to be okay with that because sometimes you just have to rest. Sunday took a lot out of me. Dinner party for 6.

   Tomorrow I'm taking Brenda out. I think we'll go to International Mall. I need to go to Sephora for Anastasia Brow pencil in Carmel. I'm completely out. I've been using the Ash Blonde but it's a bit too light.

project list

1. wash wall on porch
2. paint front door
3. pressure wash house
4. paint shutters
5. oil porch ceiling
6. paint hallway
7. pavers for patio in backyard
8. plant the Lily and the purple thing in front yard
9. plant the Ginger and Ti plant in back yard
10. get P to put away comforter in suitcase and back on top shelf in closet

  

Fairy Village

I'm a little late, but I saw that back in May a lot of people in the blog-o-sphere were making these Fairy Villages, so last weekend I gathered up all my supplies and made this one.

I bought the little birdhouses at Dollar Tree and cut a doorway in each one and painted them in bright colors. I still want to make a flag for the top of the houses.

I made a path out of glass pebbles also from Dollar Tree, and the Dolphin Statue is from an old wind chime that self destructed.

I banner is made from some take out chop sticks, a cord from a broken necklace and I cut out the paper triangles and stamped them with the words happy day.

Some black river stones are balanced between the houses, a couple of ground covers and a "tree", and an enormous mushroom in my favorite color rounds everything out. I still want to add a table and a couple of chairs or maybe a hammock. I'm still waiting for the right idea to hit me.

For now it's living on the dining room table, but I want to get a small table to put it on in front of the window.


In the meantime, Fairies Welcome!

coming along

We worked on the front yard all day on Sunday.
We got all the ground cover planted, Purslane and Sedium. The Purslane is all shades of pink, orange and yellow, very bright and cheerfull. The Sedium is medium green and then we also planted Stonecrop, acid green and my favorite.
We put some square pavers in with the ground cover so the we'd have somewhere to step to weed the garden.

The front garden is growing wonderfully. I've got Coleus with GIANT leaves, one with the acid green and one with deep purple. My two favorite colors. And I've been able to root some cuttings so they will multiply!



and Bougainvillea, I planted this last year and it didn't do well at all. It got really leggy and the grasshoppers ate all the leaves. It's actually been able to bloom this year, but still really leggy and not many leaves. I've got to read up on it to see if it blooms on old or new wood. I'd like to cut it back so it bushes up more. I might have to just suffer if it's old wood.


and Flax Lilly; they've really done well for me and I plan on doing them all the way down the side of the driveway along with Daylillies. That's a project for next year, I'm just full of plans.



















and there's 3 or 4 bushes that I can't remember what they are called, but the butterflies just love them. They are pretty much carefree, just water, I almost never fertilize. Of course I do add a couple of bags of compost in the spring.




This year I added 1 mystery plant that Patrick brought over, someone had dug it up to be replaced from his office landscaping. They said the freeze got it. Looked all right just a little burned, we planted it and wowee! A gorgeous Hydrangea.
I planted another to go with it.






On the left we planted an Angels Trumpet or Datura. This one is deep purple and creamy white. It got it's first bloom about a month ago and it hasn't stopped since. It usually produces about 3-4 blooms at a time. They last about 3 days and every day they look different.
Now I want to get the peachey-pink one for the other corner.




The roses are still going strong, putting out new growth and flowers. I've got a pink Floribunda, I have no idea of the name, it's been there for a long time and struggled for many years. This year it's been given some loving attention and is thriving.


That's on one side of the arch and on the other is Don Juan climbing rose. This was just planted this spring and it's doing so-so. Really legging and lost some leaves to mildew. I've had this variety before with the same problem, so we shall see if it's a keeper. May just pull it up next year and plant Clematis there. On the corner there is a miniature Floribbunda, Fairy Rose, pink and in constant bloom. Gorgeous plant!
The Lavender has calmed down and is looking a little weak, I may try adding some compost there, but I think between the rain every day and the heat they are taking a beating.
I have 3 Society Garlic here among the Roses and Lavender, they are doing a great job of keeping the bugs away! I plan on getting more of these, attractive and useful. I have a bare spot to the left of the big pink rose bush where some annuals are past their prime, they will do nicely there.
Except for this guy, I HATE these guys!!!



















I've got 2 Blueberrie Bushes on the property line on the far side of the yard. We planted them this past spring and they produced well. Escpecially since they are less than a foot high. I want to see how they do for a whole year and if they make it I want to do a whole hedge down the side of the yard. They grow pretty big and bushy, about 4-5 feet tall and wide and covered in berries in the spring. Blueberries freeze well too. Couldn't get a good picture of these, they just look like a tiny little shrub in a sea of mulch.
Next weekend we're digging up the rest of the path in front of the rose garden and over to the gate to the vegetable garden in the side yard. Can't wait for all this grass to go!

work and Play

So my son built me this table-shelf. It took a couple of weekends and we had to take it apart and redo it once, but I'm really happy with it.
I drew a picture of what I wanted and Patrick bought the supplies and we all helped but Sam did the bulk of the work.
There used to be a rusty 55 gallon drum topped with an old wooden pallet in this spot. This looks so much better and more useful too!


I still need to paint it. The wall is white and that won't change because it's vinyl siding. The porch posts and ceiling is turquoise and the door is deep purple. I love the look of the wood, but I think it needs some protection. I'm still trying to decide between painting it all funky and bright or doing a stain.

I have a lattice to add to the back, it will give the table a little bit more stability and give the Mandevilla vine something to climb on. Mine is red and pink, gorgeous. I don't have a pic of mine but here's a stock photo




I planted it right in front of the porch so it can climb the post and then the lattice. It will screen the back porch from the neighbors yard and give a bit of privacy and shelter from the rain.


And here is our latest project; we're making a mulched path from the driveway/front door to the garden. We were wearing a path there anyway, so I decided to pull up all the grass and put in a path and ground cover.



The path will be on the left of the picture and goes between the Crepe Myrtle and the rose bed in front of the house. By the driveway it will be about 4 feet across and narrows by the tree to about 3 feet and then widens again in front of the house.

Between the path and the front garden which is the garden on the right of the picture will be ground cover. I have Ice Plant, Sedum and Stone Crop. I'm also going to do some oregano; it spreads like crazy and smells great when you brush against it.


We got all of the large area in front of the door by the driveway done before the skies opened up and dumped gallons of water on us. We had a great time relaxing on the porch and watching the rain.

The Crepe Myrtle has MORE baby birds! The first batch hatched and grew and flew away and about 3 weeks later I noticed some activity and we now have 3 new baby Mocking Birds. They just hatched Saturday. So fun to hear the peeps and see the bright yellow-orange wide open mouths sticking up out of the nest. She built it just above my eye level so really easy to watch.

Next weekend we'll continue to dig up the pathway and put in the edging and mulch and plant some of the ground cover.

In the meantime, we've been taking advantage of the late summer sunsets and going to the beach after work one night a week. I love living close enough to the beach to do that. It's about a 40 minute ride and so worth it. I would love to move even closer but Patrick's not going for it. I'm going to keep working on him.

What I did last weekend

Tomatoes I picked from the garden tonight. 3 Lemon Boys, a Beef something or other and a handfull of cherry's.

I harvested about half the Collards, blanched and froze them, and the upper half is still going strong. They are about waist high now. I'm wondering if they'll eventually turn into a small tree!

We've finally got the new shed up and secure. What a chore! Took 4 weekends, 5 if you count the one buying (2 different stores) and transporting it.

First we built it, and then it rained for 3 days and nights straight and we decided that it needed the strongly suggested foundation. So we moved it and laid 5 rows of 4 20x 20 inch concrete pavers. Then move it onto the pavers. And finally yesterday: move all the yard maintainence tools and implements of destruction and painting supplies into the shed.








Friday evening I had the grandchild, all night and Saturday morning. She was wonderful, no problems. I didn't take any pics, but here's one from Easter:


Saturday was Tropical Heatwave. We look forward to this, one of the highlights of the year.
Our local community sponsored radio station puts on this huge one night only music fest every year second week of May.
This year there was 8 stages scattered throughout Ybor City and 56 bands. There's no way to see them all cause all 8 stages are playing at the same time, but if you plan carefully you can see a little of lots of them.
We started the evening off at Kristen's house with a pre-Heatwave bar-b-que. Then off to Ybor and a night of dancing in the streets!
Here's some pic's of my favorite band of the night: Cracker




That's Patrick enjoying Jeffery Broussard and the Creole Cowboys.


Then on Sunday, we moved all the stuff into the shed off the front porch. Cleaned the porch and the tables and chairs for the porch.

So nice to have a porch to sit on and now when people visit, it won't look like an episode of Hoarders!

Kristen just called and it looks like we have a date for Saturday at the Taste of Pinellas. Bonnie Rait and Buddy Guy are playing for $15 entrance fee. Vinoy Park, can't beat that, good food, great music, right on the water. I love living in Florida.

Rainy days are gone, and the weekend is now

Baby tomato! This is Mr Stripey. When he grows up he is supposed to be red and chocolate striped. I've never grown this one before, so we shall see.

We got a ton of rain this week, officially 3.99 inches yesterday. My yard was a swamp and my driveway a river. The veggies loved it, the tomato plants look like they grew a couple of inches. The roses lost all their petals but overall look ok, but the impatients got all beat up.

I planted a Honeysuckle against the fence on the side yard; and strung up garden twine to give it something to cling to. It grows so fast I think if I stand there long enough I'll see it move.

On the crafty side:
I bought the equipment to make lampwork beads. Very fun! I get to use a torch!! woo-hoo!
so I've only tried it once so far and was not as difficult as I imagined. I did do one thing wrong: I set everything up outside. It was a gorgeous day, sunny, breezy and I was playing with fire.... so I set everything up on the table in the back yard. The blue part of the flame is the hottest so that's where you have to hold the glass. Well, in the sunlight or dappled shade you can't see the flame at all. All I could see was the wavy distortion in the air.
Problem two: nice and breezy. While that felt fantastic, you really don't want the wind blowing the flame around; it needs to be nice and steady.
In spite of that I made 5 beads. Not too bad for a first time:







I know that with practice I will get better, but now just to find the time to do it.
quilt
I have so many things I want to do this year.

I have 3 quilts in the planning stage and 1 a little less than half pieced.
I want to make the baby some clothes.
I want to work on layering in my art journal.
I want to go to the beach once per month.
I want to dance.
I want to continue to lose body mass.
I want to creatively landscape my yard and make it so nice we love to sit out there.

Here's one last pic:

Compost Carpenters

I've been wanting to build a Compost Bin for awhile now. For the last two years I've been composting in a plastic garbage bin. It gets pretty slimey in there as there's no air circulation. So this morning after dumping the bin out in the yard to turn it; I decided today's the day. Compost building day!
Off to Home Depot for lumbar since my search for free pallets has come up to bupkiss.
Of course while we were there I dumped a whole package of nails everywhere. oops. Not my fault! Someone had torn open the end and set it back on the shelf. It was booby trapped I tell ya.

Back at home and I even managed to talk my son into helping. Doesn't he look thrilled?

and check out those Redneck sawhorses...

I'm putting them in the back corner behind some large bushes, a straight walk out the back door from the kitchen, but hidden from sight. Here's Patrick swinging a hammer.


And here we are nailing the last side together in the dark. We still have to nail a board across the bottom of front, then hardware cloth on all sides.


We also still have to build the front pieces. These will either be removable or swing open like a gate so the compost can be easily turned. They will be a wooden frame with hardware cloth stapled to it, just like the sides.
didn't the guys do a great job?

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!!

Luscious

Here's a pic of the lettuce this morning after watering. It's only about an inch and half high, but doesn't it look luscious?

We've been going out early every morning and hand watering with a misting wand for between 5 and 10 minutes. Today I'm going to attach and lay out the soaker hose. Give everything a good long soaking.

The tomatoes have blooms! I'm extremely excited. Take a peek:

That scraggly mess on the left is the turnips. They still need more thinning, but I think there might not be enough light for them. They are growing tall and laying down. Nothing I can do about that. The only spot in the yard that gets sun all day is the front yard. I'm not ready to plant vegetables out there. The neighbors already think I'm strange enough. I'm not ruling it out though. With raised beds, all is possible.

I've never been crazy about the lawn, ( and it shows!) it's completely full of weeds and sandy bare patches. I think that raised beds can only improve it.

I don't have a shed, and I desperately want one. For now I store everything on the front porch. Not a very pretty sight for visitors. But it makes me feel industrious whenever I walk in or out of the house and it's a visual reminder that I need to go work in the garden.

Here's the full view, look at those Collards!

So we've made a very small garden. I've planted way to much, but I figure half of will not make it so I overplanted.
We've got 3 tomato plants, Lemon Boy, Brandywine, and a Grape. Collards, Turnips, Spinach and a Lettuce mix. Globe Basil, Oregano, and Rosemary. Marigolds.
I always had a garden when I was younger. It made me feel good. I've been making compost for about 2 years in garbage can. Not the best method but it keeps it out of site of the neighbors. I'm ready to make a pile in the side yard and start composting leaves and grass clippings and not just kitchen waste. In other words I'm ready to get serious about it.
So this little garden is an experiment to \see how well we are able to keep up with it. I'd like to acutally have 4 raised beds in this area. They will just fit if I put them up against the house and the fences with a central mulched path, no grass. The compost heap is going in the back under the tree. Right now that is full of weeds growing about 4 feet high and kudzu vines growing up the weeds into the tree. So I have my work cut out for me. At the other end is some kind of scubby bush/palm that thre neighbor planted and it died on his side of the fence and grew like crazy on my side. So the has to be dug up also. We've got the entire Winter (until February) to do it as the ground never freezes here in Flor-i-duh.
I'm going to look around for a Meyers Lemon, there's a spot in the front yard I have in mind. I had one before and I loved it. About 12 years ago we had a severe drought followed by a severe frost and I lost it. Lost my azeala's that year too. So I will replace it.
I'm also thinking about making a hedge of Blueberries down the side of the front yard. Fresh Blueberries every year, wouldn't that be nice?