Johnny Appleseed: verb

This year, we are being very casual about our garden. We have a lot of landscaping that we want to do: add a back door off of the kitchen and onto a deck, where there will be a table, chairs, grill, and potted plants; move the chicken coop to the side yard and make a home for ducks as well, including building some sort of water-efficient pond that at least uses rain water and at best also utilizes some of the grey water from our house; getting rid of the grass in our front yard and adding flowering shrubs, edible plants, etc. to feed us and the bees, butterflies, birds and other beneficial little creatures.

So this year, one of our favorite words is "johnny appleseed," used as a verb, such as: "I johnny appleseeded cosmos in the front bed" or "I am going to johnny appleseed cucumber in the garden." Definition: throw seeds in a careless manner wherever you hope that that particular plant appears. So, I am curious about how stuff will turn out.

For one, apart from some cosmos, sunflower, bachelor buttons, and poppies, we haven't bought any seeds. They've been gifted to us or dug up from our old collection. Also, the sheet mulching of one of our gardens is still in progress. For months, since last November probably, I've been throwing newspaper out on that area and then covering it with used straw from the chicken coop. Thus the garden you see above. I made a pathway with cardboard, and planted kale and beans. Then I johnny appleseeded  cucumber and pumpkin seeds on the right. Brian has tomato starts going, and I have no idea what they are: probably all heirlooms left over from last year. Those are in his plastic hot house that he rigged up.

We also have a few pepper plants that will be in containers this year. Brian also built a few planter boxes along the back fence, and those have green beans, peas, and mesclun seeds. One is still empty. I might plant beets in there or stagger some green beans. I love fresh beans.

And of course, I'm staggering the planting of sunflowers, nasturtiums, and cosmos. And I could resist buying some lavender plants.

One of my sunflowers makes a small start to glory.

I'll be happy with whatever comes up as we continue landscaping and really transforming the yard into a sanctuary for a myriad of creatures, big and small, including ourselves. In the meanwhile, it will be fun to see what happens with what we've johnny appleseeded: Will the pumpkins thrive? Will the kale come up?

I have herbs, but for the most part, those are all living in containers until the back deck and door are built and we've designed an herb garden somewhere in sunlight and simultaneously as close the the kitchen door as possible. But currently, I've got thyme, Italian parsley, oregano, marjoram, chives (the blossoms of which are peppery, spicy, and delicious), and rosemary (which I did plant because it will grow into a large shrub).

Oh, and apologies to the late Mr. Appleseed.

Food for Thought

As I look at the canvas of my new yard and future garden, as I personally feel the reverberations of the global economic crisis, and as spring beckons, I am opening my eyes to those whose ideas inspire me to act, even if those actions are in my own backyard: converting my shed to a home for seedlings, chickens, and rabbits; creating a eco-friendly duck pond; using rain barrels and other irrigation methods to conserve water; making my way along the learning curve of beekeeping; and trying to make food that is colorful, healthy, local, and organic.

Here are some of the aids, inspirations, and politics behind these decisions.

The first and last are important TED speeches, and the middle one is a really beautiful 6-minute film.
Helena Norberg-Hodge speaks about localizing the economy on TED.
A beekeeper collects honey from an amazing rooftop garden in NYC.
Chimamanda Adichie speaks of the danger of the single story on TED.

Books:
Gaia's Garden: a guide to home-scale permaculture by Toby Hemenway
The Essential Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter
Farm City by Novella Carpenter
An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler

What is inspiring you of late?

Tend

Underneath the St. John's Bridge: Cathedral Park

Spring is on its way. The cherry blossoms have been in bloom now for a couple of weeks, we've received several dozen eggs from our chickens, and the bees have been busy collecting pollen. I am hoping to harvest honey next weekend. Today it was sunny, warm and spring-like after one of our colder weeks of the winter, including some snow.

Our baby trees in the snow

Friends of Trees gifted us with two new baby trees on our street-side lawn. We chose a red-bud tree, one of my favorites from living in Ithaca, NY, and a semi-dwarf janigold apple! We plan to return the favor by volunteering as tree inspectors this summer, strolling our neighborhood and checking on the health of the trees that they planted.

Speaking of trees, I am getting more and more excited by the little tree in our backyard. It has waxy green leaves and is not much to look at in the summer, but the buds on the tree are filling me with the hope that it's a tulip magnolia! If so, I will plan my yard around it, including moving our chicken coop so that it can grow and thrive. I'm not doing much with our yard this year, although I am prepping one of our first gardens and hope to plant some beets, beans, and maybe a few other rather simple veggies there.

Lucky Beans

Leno, our white cat, has been a challenge for us this winter. His teeth have been plaguing him, so in order to make sure that he eats, we need to make him smoothies: water and dry food, sometimes with a touch of canned food. He also needs to spend the majority of time outside as he's taken a shining to spraying in very inconvenient places (but really, is cat spray ever convenient?). He seems to prefer living outside when the weather's nice, but this week, with the cold weather, we had to make a nest in the downstairs bathroom for him. He seems to be okay with a warm place to curl up, a wee bit of affection, and a reliable soft meal. We've jokingly changed his name, thinking that maybe we cursed him by naming him after a song that goes, "Poor Leno," so now we call him Lucky Beans.

Elijah in a sunny spot on the stairs

Rejuvenation

Here are recipes for a mini-facial that you can often concoct from your own garden and pantry. I recommend using cucumbers on the eyes while doing the face mask, and if you wanted to extend this process, you could make a medley of lavender, chamomile, and other herbs (perhaps rosemary). Steep this in almost-boiling water and then steam your skin to open the pores for at least 10 minutes. Then proceed to the face mask. Your skin, body, and mind will feel refreshed and rejuvenated.
Enjoy!

Gentle Face Wash

1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup vegetable glycerin
1 T. pure castile soap
10 drops of favorite essential oil

Apply with sea sponge in circular motion and rinse with warm water.


Herbal Salt Scrub

1/4 cup grapeseed oil or other oil
1/2 cup fine sea salt
1 T. coconut oil
1 T. diced fresh herbs
a few drops of essential oil (optional)

Apply to exfoliate skin after facial cleanser. Substitute sugar for sensitive skin.


Face Mask (great for rejuvenating dried/sun burnt skin)

1 cup natural yogurt
1/2 cup oatmeal

for oily skin: add 1-2 drops lime juice
for dry skin: add 1-2 T. honey

Mix and apply to skin for 10-15 minutes. Rinse.


Chamomile Toner

1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
2 T. dried chamomile, crushed
4 cups water

Boil water and then let cool slightly. Add herbs and let steep for 15 minutes, at least. Strain into a jar and keep in fridge for 2 weeks. Apply with cotton balls. Good for oily skin.


Rosemary Toner

1/2 cup chopped fresh rosemary
4 cups water
several drops rosemary essential oil

Follow ingredients above, adding oil and a sprig of rosemary when finished. Great for healing damaged or dry skin. Works for all skin types.

herbalicious; or, yogurt face

I like to run. It's not my sole exercising venture. It's not my top pick. But, running can be really good to me, like today, when I was zoning out to bouncy dance beats and later, when the beats and melodies weren't quite as enticing, when I began to process some ideas that I'd had. I'm headed to a certain festival on Thursday, and at this festival, the spirit seems to be about creative freedom without the complications of commerce or greed. Creativity for creativity's sake. And also, giving for the pure sake of giving. Not everyone who attends this festival believes this or can/does follow this credo. But many do. Many, many do. And I realized, on my run, my own creative gift. So, upon returning from my run, I cut a basket full of herbs that I'd grown in my garden, I visited my local New Seasons, and I got to work.

Here's what I now have in front of me:

Cleansing facial wash: Made from my bees' honey, pure castile soap, vegetable glycerine, and lavender. So gentle and soothing. Honey is both cleansing and healing.

Salt scrubs to exfoliate: I made scrubs from lavender and rosemary; chamomile and lavender; bee balm and lavender; hyssop, mint, thyme, and rosemary; rosemary, citrus, lavender, and cloves; and one sugar scrub with basil, cloves, and orange zest. Making these was addicting, especially since I was working with my friend Amy. I can't wait to use them on my skin and to give them out as gifts to others. If any of these entice you, let me know, and I will send some your way.

Facial masks (not exactly sitting in front of me, because that would be gross): I plan to mix together yogurt and oatmeal, adding honey for dry skin and lime for oily skin. These masks, which should help rejuvenate skin that's been exposed to the sun and elements, will be applied for 15 minutes with cucumbers on the eyes.

Toner: A rosemary and rose hips toner spray, and a chamomile and mint toner for especially oily skin.

SPF 30 moisturizer, not made by me. And SPF 25 chapstick.

So next weekend, I will be giving free mini-facials in that order: cleansing, scrub, mask, toner, and SPF moisturizer, as well as a foot bath in minty carbonated water and then a minty foot lotion. I kept having these half-assed ideas: maybe I'd make bracelets or maybe I'd make tea. But this will be so soothing and fun and meaningful for people. And the fact that so many of the ingredients come from own yard is empowering.

Overall, this summer's garden has been more bountiful and more satisfying than last year's garden. Since returning home from our road trip, I have regularly been harvesting early wonder and chioggia beets, green beans (that are purple until cooked) and pencil pod golden wax beans (which are now about done), poona keera cucumbers (also almost done), and an occassional carrot and artichoke. My sunflowers, grown from collected seeds from last year's flowers, have grown taller and with more success than last year. And now, my tomatoes are ripening, and tonight we enjoyed a large salad of cherry and isis tomatoes with basil, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. Yum. I'm still full. I did prune the tomatoes violently today, in hopes of focusing the energy on the green tomatoes before our days of 85 degrees and sunshine fold over to cold and rain.


Tonight, while watering, I noticed that the borage that I planted by seed is blooming in my strawberry patch. Borage is supposed to grow well with strawberries, and of course, the honey bees LOVE borage. Love, love, love it. Plus, the flower is edible and supposedly has a cucumber-like flavor.

I attribute my successes not to weather but rather to better planning and better soil (thank you, chickens and composting). I mapped out my entire garden on graph paper, really considering the light and the hardships and fails of last year.

Sorry about the crappy photo above, from the cell phone. My camera got caught in the nude in a rainstorm in Montana and hasn't been feeling up to working since. I have another and better camera that I am trying to learn how to use, after having misplace, then found and simultaneously replaced the battery. So, I'm hoping to improve my understanding of photography with that venture when there's time.

Life's about to get crazy. There are many changes afoot. I will be updating soon, but this blog, likewise, will probably undergo some changes as well. Until then, let the mystery continue.

Feast!

Here's a description of my kitchen right now: in addition to my laptop on kitchen table, there's an open bottle of Rhone style red wine, a handful of nasturtium seeds, two organic nectarines, two organic peaches, a basket of freshly harvested yellow and purple green beans. On my kitchen counter, a homemade butcher block littered with cucumber, shallots, and basil from the garden. Down past the dirty dishes sit six jars of cooling and thickening blueberry jam, made from blueberries that Brian and I picked yesterday and Willamette blackberry wildflower honey from 2009 before I had bees. It tastes like (guess what?!) blueberries and honey!

This is the best time of year for food. A significant percentage of our meals are from our own backyard. This morning, I made scrambled eggs with shallots, thyme, sage, and goat cheese. Everything was from our backyard except for the butter and goat cheese. It's time to pick your own fruit at farms (raspberries and peaches are next!), forage for figs and blackberries, and harvest from the garden. Soon, we will be traipsing through the woods for chanterelles and lobster mushrooms, boating for Dungeness crabs, and with any luck, feasting on our heirloom tomatoes!

honey man

This summer has been one intense adventure after another, from camping by a glacial stream under Mt. Hood with amazing people and music to an epic trip around the country via Phoenix, Austin, Atlanta, Chesapeake City (the apex of the trip--my beautiful sister's wedding), Carlisle, Erie, the St. Croix River, Minneapolis, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Devil's Tower, Montana, Spokane, and then home again; but only briefly, because then we were off to the coast for four days of sunshine, spectacular views, pelicans, cormorants, sea gulls, starfish, sand, surfing, friends, and sunsets (more on this adventure to come), and then a weekend on our friend's boat on the great Columbia River, camping on Government Island--a state park that is only accessible via boat--and soaking in the rare Oregon sun (soaking in a bit too much in my case on Sunday) and again enjoying spectacular views of Mt. Hood.

It's been a summer of travel, of reconnecting with old friends and family, of renewed love, of falling in love with the mountains and the water, of building dreams and setting solid goals--and of course, a summer filled with my garden and reading.

When I got home from the trip, my garden seemed brilliant to my eyes. My friends who watched over it for me had tied up my tomatoes and everything looked lush and spectacular. Still no ripe tomatoes, but I heard yesterday that we have not yet had one day over 90 degrees yet this summer and only seven days in the 80s. Still, my garden grows: for lunch we had a salad of greens, beets, carrots, berries, and cucumber all from the garden, with a tarragon dressing. My herb spiral is lush with mint, oregano, sage, thyme, calendula, and Chinese hyssop. My peppers have many little buds and flowers on them. My tomatoes are green and growing. My artichoke is tall and ripening its 3rd artichoke heart; the sunflowers started blooming today.

The chickens are healthy, although baby has a bald spot from being pecked by the older witches. Poor baby. Still, they get by and we continue to eat eggs from our own backyard. The bees seem healthy and they certainly seem happy in my backyard with the lavender, vegetable and herb blossoms, and blackberry bramble that my neighbor lets grow wild in his untended backyard. However, there is an ant colony that wants to live with the bees, and we are working to fight that off.

The honey man, Allen, came by yesterday. He comes by door-to-door in the summer, carrying plastic bags filled with a delicious amber honey that he sells for about $12. We bought honey from him the first time we met him (before we had our own), and since then, we've often talked to him about beekeeping. He's an odd fellow, always overdressed and looking over heated. He seems far more at ease discussing bees when Brian is around; perhaps Brian is better at putting him at ease. The honey man understands and keeps Langstroth hives, so he's always curious about our top-bar hive. Yesterday, we showed him the hive, and this is when we discovered the ant issue. We wiped away the ants and promised to look inside of the hive today. Then, we gave the honey man a spoonful of our bees' honey, and he thought it was "really, really good." So good that we traded with him for a jar of his. This was high praise coming from the honey man.

Today, Brian and I opened the hive, brushing away ants and just nosing around. It looked as though the bees were doing all right and managing to keep the ants out of their beeswax. We're going to keep on peeking an try to keep that colony away from and off of the hive.

And then there were 3

On Monday, our little Rhode Island red laid her first little egg. The darker one is from the Americauna, the big one in the front is from the Speckled Sussex, and the little dirty one is from the Red. Since, she has laid four eggs, living up to her breed's reputation. Our other chickens had a much slower start at laying; her breed has laid as many as 365 eggs per year. Here's our little girl, all grown up.

 Thinking about her eggs and her struggle to fit in with the other chickens makes me miss our little black autralorp. Red had a tough go at it with Sussex and Americauna; I spent their first evening all together in the coop with them, trying to break up violent and excessive pecking. Red decided that she wanted to roost on my head, and it took over a week before she was allowed to sleep in the hen house with them. She still gets an occasional peck, but oddly, she seems to be more respected now that she is laying eggs. There appears to be a more peaceful acceptance amongst the flock.

Here she is taking a dirt bath. Chickens love and need to take dirt baths to prevent lice, mites, and other parasites from setting in. We let our chickens "bathe" every other day or so. That seems to be the only time they need a bath; sometimes I'll let her into her dirt bath area and she won't bathe but rather she'll munch on the comfrey leaves and peck out the ground.

My garden is growing despite our cold spring. The salmon berry bushes are taking over and will need some serious pruning after the first crop of berries is done. The sage, thyme, oregano, and mint are getting huge.

I'm quite proud of my foxgloves that I grew from seed. They are so tall. The hollyhocks are also getting rather huge and covered in buds. I've been grading and grading and grading, but school's out for summer. So now I need to spend some heavy duty time in the garden, weeding, pruning, staking, harvesting. We harvested two of our first ripe strawberries two days ago. I planted some beet seeds last week and want to plant the rest and some more beans and beets to stagger the crops.

I also plan on doing some self-indulging, errand running, party planning, trip planning, and wedding planning. I have a work meeting  and a knitting lesson (my second one! Here's my first planned project. By the way, this blog is adorable) on Tuesday, a message and haircut and book club on Wednesday, Brian's thirtieth birthday on Friday, and my sister's wedding on July 9! Whew! Adventures galore!

We put some of my photos in Brian's honeycomb frames in the living room. They look pretty rad. I would also like to alternate some with cool textiles or paints or collage. There are so many fun options.

pollen

I have observed honeybees and a female hummingbird feeding off of my collard green flowers in my vegetable garden. I love how covered she is in yellow pollen. I wonder, if I let the collards go to seed, if they will reseed and sprout in random places. I have some random kale starts growing in my garden, and I've let some of them flower as well.

gardening notes

Last Sunday, May 15, despite drizzle and mud, I planted my garden, with more planning and more caution than last year when I believe I certainly had planted everything by early May and had absolutely no map or plan of where anything was going. This year, however, I mapped out where everything is going using a companion planting guide. The first box has kale, beets, and lettuce. the second, larger raised bed has (from left to right), a row of poona keera cucumber starts, green bush bean seeks, pencil pod golden wax bean seeds, hillbilly potato leaf heirloom tomatoes, carrot seeds, Ukranian purple plum heirloom tomatoes (of which I had one fatality and need to replant) and a row of Hungarian heart heirloom tomatoes mingling with lettuce. Salmon berries in the background are going crazy and will need to be pruned after their first fruiting. Strawberries are in flower at their skirts.

Above, I have artichoke, scallions, pea seeds, spinach, strawberries, and kale.

Here's my herb spiral. Sage, thyme, oregano, and mint are all thriving. In front of the sage is a small French tarragon start. My lemon verbena is slowly making a comeback (in container) after wintering in the basement. The tall flowers in the background are collard greens that I'm letting flower.

I also have a chamomile start going strong, from which I have already harvested these flowers.

In this bed with the overgrown collards, I have marigolds, shasta daisies, chives and leeks reappearing from last year, a row of chocolate bell peppers, a row of red habanero peppers, and another row of chocolate bell peppers. Then I want to plant another row of leeks for which I have started.

Paul Robeson tomatoes and thai hot peppers are in containers in the sun near the fence, and in the patch near the fence are the rest of my tomatoes: cherry, isis candy, black from tula, along with marigolds. Basil will be added to the tomato gardens. Lots of basil. Along the fence behind the tomatoes are climbing hidasta beans.

 My foxglove is blooming and front bed is dense with foxglove, lavender, thyme, daisies, buttercups, and other perennials.

Tend

I have not written or published about my own world of petals and roots in a long while. Here's a blurry shot of our little white house, my mister heading up to the side door. The white cherry blossoms are still in bloom, the old cherry tree in our back yard in regal beauty. But these pink, early blossoms are long since done.

Early tulips are also finished, although shaded ones or later varieties are still blooming. I've noticed that purple tulips, like purple crocuses, seem to bloom later. These pictured above are some of my earliest tulips to bloom and are now just headless stalks next to some budding lavender.

Daffodils had a wonderful run in our cold spring, although they may be finished by now.

 Pansies and violas are and have been flourishing. Lavender is starting to bloom. My foxglove is growing tall and healthy. One of the joys this spring has been wandering around my garden, discovering that which is still alive or made it through the winter: my hawthorn and ginko trees, my echinacea, Chinese hyssop, lavender, lupine, hollyhock, salmon berries, strawberries, lemon verbena (over-wintered in the cellar), goldenrod, calendula (reseeded), peppermint (reseeded), chives, a sole leek, collard greens and kales (the flowers of which the bees love), sage, oregano, a variety of thyme, pansies, and columbine.

Right now, lavender, lilac, and bluebells are blooming which means I can plant my cucumbers and beans. In the woods, I found lots of wild columbine, bleeding heart, this mysterious yellow flower:

And a dozen wild orchids:

the woes of a lazy gardener

My Catholic guilt is trying to poke out it's ugly little head. I will let the guilt speak for one line:

I am a lazy gardener.

Now, I will defend with this: I dream of a lush garden brimming with vegetables but have found no time to do anything to get there, because I've been too busy trying to host a shower on the East coast, work, be a part of a book club, exercise, and socialize with friends. Third quarter grades were due Monday which resulted in a weekend of grading rather than planting last weekend as well as two nights of being able to do little more than decompress afterwards by running, cooking, watching movies, and going to hear some free bluegrass.

This weekend, I am going to snowy Mt. Hood to camp out in a look-out cabin, hopefully surrounded by snow since there won't be much or any sun. So while I  hope to read, read, read, I will  not be able to dig, dig, dig. So, where does that leave my garden?

In a sad, neglected state. That's where. My seedlings are somewhat pathetic looking this year, in part because we attempted to put them under grow lights in the basement. I do not like this arrangement. I feel alienated from my plants, because I do not particularly like my basement. Plus, I think it's too chilly down there for them to thrive, and they seem rather stunted and plagued with powdery mildew. Ugh.

I have to read over 200 pgs. of our book club book by Thursday, which I'm hoping beyond hope to kick out this weekend, but after that, my project is to plant seeds outside and baby my little seedlings. I want to move them upstairs and repot them in newspaper. Hopefully, they will be okay.

Boo. I should be posting pictures of tulip magnolias and cherry blossoms. Instead, I rant. Next weekend, I will redeem my little garden.

friday fantastic

What is fantastic about this Friday?

It is the start of a 3-day weekend, and I have exceedingly few plans, which means I may be able to conquer some of my many goals, including grading 9th grade honors essays, finish reading The Time Traveler's Wife, start re-reading Lolita, take walks and pictures, go for a run, start my seeds, finish two current sewing projects and start two new ones, and clean my house. My grin will be fantastically wide if I manage all these. Perhaps I should close down and go get started!

I think I may spend some time planning my garden. I think I will need to scale down a bit this year, due to teaching 6 classes this spring. However, I do want to have fantastic heirloom tomatoes, lush teas and flowers, and an eclectic variety of peppers so I can quadruple (at least) my output of the dank hot sauce I made in December. I want to grow more of what I enjoyed, such as chamomile, lettuce, kale, sunflowers, and peas, but I also don't want to spend the money I spent last year on starts and seeds (so I say now). Must have self-control (something that's quite difficult for me when it comes to books, flowers, seeds, and starts).

Happy week ending!

2010 restrospective

New Year's Day seems to be a rather quiet day. Perhaps because so many of us are fighting hangovers from the debauchery of the night before. But there's also a reflective quality in the day. I looked up my resolutions and goals for last year, and it's interesting to reflect on how far I've come in the past year.

For arts and crafts, I wanted to continue knitting and crocheting, which I didn't do. But I did sew: curtains, pillows, tote bags, stuffed animals, yoga mat bags. I had fun with it and I'm still enjoying it, and I'm confident that I will keep it going. I have a long list of projects, including curtains for my bedroom, new turntable curtains, tote bags for friends, and more stuffed animals. Plus, I do want to learn to knit, still, and make hats, scarves, and fingerless gloves. Plus, I became a better photographer this year. And looking back at my photos, I realized that I'm quite hard on myself, but I've done some good work this year.

I went further with my garden/homestead than I'd originally planned, but in many respects I also fell short. I have dried tomatoes, figs, and chanterelles, but nothing canned from my garden. I do have frozen kale and berries, peach jam, apple butter, and green tomato chutney. I have garlic bulbs wintering in stockings in the basement. We have drunk most of my own chamomile, and we haven't bought eggs since June or July. This year, I want to grow even more teas and herbs, more lettuce, peas, carrots, beats, leeks, tomatoes, garlic, etc. My bees need more management, so I will need to take some classes and do some work with them this year that may involve collecting wax and making some candles and finally harvesting some honey. Fingers crossed! My hens are fat and happy, and my garden sleeps under blankets of straw from their coop. My compost is lush and wonderful.

As for career goals, I got my full-time teaching job! At the school that I most wanted to be working at! That's been everything, really, having a job that I can put my heart into and apply my creativity and love of reading and writing and education. I can be organized and analytical and creative and weird. I can sing songs to my freshmen about conjunctions, and I can ask my juniors to create their own class agenda. Time to rev up. Back to work on Monday!

If I were to set some goals for myself for 2011, they would be to grow as an educator and continue my work with rewriting the way we grade and measure our students' progress, to create a book club with a few fellow book-loving friends, to learn to knit, to keep on sewing, and to grow another wonderful garden with happy honey bees and plump egg-laying chickens. Plus, I want to backpack and camp, including biking around the base of Mt. Adams and then summit in a two to three day adventure!

 

Happy new year!

blogs, bee, teas, and things

I just discovered two lovely blogs. Tospann has an assortment of random photographs of lovely people, yellow thread and fabric, wine, and tea: a few of my favorite things! The above photo is from Tea For Joy, also a wonderful blog of art and photos with tea themes.

I'm thinking about taking this bee-keeping class. Yes, it's 101, but I feel like I could use a refresher course. Plus, my plans to build some bee-keeper community last September got derailed, so the class would be a way to make some connections. Also, I think that at some point I'd like to try a Langstroth hive, so there's yet another reason for the class. I just hope they're not Langstroth snobs who disparage top-bars and all hives that aren't Langstroth. The hive worlds have difficulties agreeing, somewhat like Republicans and Democrats in our current Congress.

All I want for Christmas is photoshop, I think. Or some sort of photo editing software. I'd like to continue to take photos throughout the winter, but it's rather difficult to take pictures at night with my craptastic flash or perhaps it's my limited knowledge of my camera that's to blame. I'm hoping to get oot and aboot with my camera this weekend, perhaps on a tromp through the woods to hunt for wild mushrooms and some digging in my own garden to plant those garlic and scallion bulbs.

Here's some loveliness from Tospann. It makes me want to sew.

Wonderland

Yesterday, I slept in and then spent the rest of the warm, sunny Saturday in my garden. I cleaned out the chicken coop, shoveling out the straw and chicken poo and putting it into the compost bin, which I stirred and watered. There is some rich, black compost in the lower layers, which I think I may dig out and feed to my perennials before the first frost.

I also bagged up some more comfrey. I am letting a full black garbage bag of comfrey die and decompose so that I can use it as a mulch and fertilizer next year. Its leaves are so full of nutrients, because it sends long taproots deep into the soil, but it's also quite invasive. So I'm going to store it in the bag and let it decompose into comfrey-compost before using it.

While examining my pole beans which are starting to flower (hooray!), I discovered this teensy little snail. I am glad to see that my pole beans are doing something. My bush beans were a huge garden fail this year; I harvested and ate aproximately 7 beans. Boo! And I love, love, love steamed green beans with olive oil, lemon juice, and sea salt. So hopefully the pole beans do a bit better. Maybe I'll get 15 or so.

I also harvested seeds. I've been collecting dead sunflowers and letting them dry, and yesterday I cleaned them and got them ready for storage. I harvested a lot, which I'm thinking may turn into gifts. Unfortunately, my record keeping this year turned out to be far less than I'd desired, so I just threw all the various seeds together, not really caring or minding that I'm not sure of the exact type.

I do want to write some reflections on gardening this year: what worked, what didn't, and what I enjoyed and what I didn't enjoy so much. Maybe, for instance, I'm not the record-keeping, name-saving type of gardener, and that's okay. Maybe I'm more the seed-scattering, day-dreaming, photographing and blogging type of gardener. Is it possible to not be the first and still be decent at the pursuit?

I am very happy with my sunflower seed harvest. After spending so much money on seed packets, I don't think I will need to buy any sunflower seeds next year, and I will hopefully learn from my mistakes and wait to plant my sunflowers close to the end of spring or early summer and then plant more again in July.

The chickens were right at my side the whole time, begging for some seeds. So I fed them a few, especially the General (the one in the sun in the back), because while she was most excited, she was also the politest, rarely pecking at my fingers or leg, unlike the americauna (a.k.a. Kentucky, a.k.a. Little Shit).

Meanwhile, Leno snoozed in his current favorite nook (or one of them).

I also harvested chamomile and collected cosmos and poppy seeds, which I threw together, deciding that wherever I scatter the one, I'd be excited to see the other growing as well since they are about the same height. I love cosmos for their ease, their soft, sweet perfume, their varied height--some being almost as tall as me--and their prolific display of color. They are currently making my garden a wonderland, washing away the late-summer doldrums