Herb and Fruit Gardens

Please... come and take a walk with me and enjoy my herb and fruit gardens. Tomorrow I'll bring you around to the flowers and veggies.

Against the side of the house was some straggly bushes. We cleaned this area out and made it useful. Here are some onion sets I planted in late April. We've been enjoying fresh onion tops in our salads and on the grill.

Some parsley...

basil...

and cilantro, too. Soon we will be eating these, too.

Here is our little strawberry patch. We've had this planted for several years and each year it seems to do better and better.

Some blueberries are growing here. Some plants are older than others. A few are three years old and several are newly bought this fall. They came through the winter just fine.

Some raspberries are planted here. Again, some are a few years old, while some are new, planted in the fall.

These beautiful raspberries were just transplanted today. My neighbor down the street didn't want them anymore and we were only too happy to take them off her hands! They are quite mature and bear a lot of fruit. I hope we didn't shock the plants too much by transplanting them. Hopefully we'll get lots of fruit from the this year.

And it wouldn't be a run-of-the-mill day without at least three loads of laundry on the line, now would it? Hope your day is filled with lots of beauty.

New Banner

So many people would ask me if the old banner was my house. I would always answer, "No, but I wish it was!". So I decided it was time for a change. I decided to do a bit of embroidery on a piece of linen, then 'frame' it with some 1930's prints. It's now hanging in my kitchen. It goes perfectly with the rest of the decor and it really screams 'me'.

Swamped

Two birthdays a day apart, working on the books for the ambulance, finishing up my kiddoes paperwork, consulting and all the accompanying paperwork, gardening (lots of that) and life has left me with basically NO time for blogging... :(
I haven't even been able to read other people's blogs. I feel a bit out of touch and miss the whole blogging world, but as soon as things settle down I'll be back and will catch up with you all. Miss you guys...

Little People Surprise

The two little ones have birthdays this week. We bought each one a new bike and helmet but I thought they still needed something small that their little hands could play with. So I had a bit of fun painting and fussing over the wooden boxes and people.

They'll each have a little family to play with...

and they will sleep in their little houses.
I think the girls will enjoy playing with these little treasure surprise boxes.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you mamas! Hope it was special!

They're Engaged!

I'm pleased as punch to announce that my son, Corey, and his girlfriend, now fiance, Lisa, have just gotten engaged! They plan on a spring 2011 wedding! I'm so happy for both of them... they're both very sweet and a perfect match!

Square Foot Gardening

Gosh, what a busy week. Nothing interesting to blog on, just the usual, mundane, day-to-day stuff. My husband and I have been working on getting our square foot gardening made and ready to go. I've been using the All New Square Foot Gardening book by Mel Bartholomew as a guideline. I've also gone on IVillage for more info on it. It looks as though, if you follow the directions, that the yield you get is wonderful. It's quite costly to set up, but once done all you need to add each year is compost. We have a lot of farms here so adding manure of all types hasn't been a problem! We also bought some fruit trees and more blueberry and raspberry bushes in the fall and they are coming along very nicely. They all made it through the winter except for two blueberry bushes. I'm going to try to get a replacement for those.
Gary is nearly finished with building the boxes. I got lots of wood, just perfect for SFG for free from Freecycle. So we're nearly ready to plant!
I'm still working on small clean-up projects around the house: cleaning closets, cabinets, painting, etc. I can see the difference so I keep going. I'm not overwhelming myself, though, as I'm only taking one doable project a day, if time allows. I'll be starting another round of end of the year consultations in the next few weeks so my project time will be cut WAAAYYY back. So just wanted to check in... hopefully I'll have more to post once planting and consultations are wrapped up!

One More Spring Top & Happy May Day!

My third spring top of the week is Simplicity 3835. I really like this top alot... easy and cute BUT I made the wrong size! Silly me, thinking I could get away with a smaller size. It wouldn't have been so bad but it was pretty tight through the bustline. So, I gave it to Kaleigh and it fits her nicely; a bit loose on her but surely wearable. I will make myself the next size up though. I'd also like to make this in a more giving fabric; maybe gauze. I didn't get any other tops finished for the week and I'm kind of disappointed in that, but I will make a couple more. I have one cut out and waiting to be sewn and one other that I bought all the goodies for: rick-rack and buttons. So it looks like I have three more tops to make before I call it quits on the tops. This has been a real fun challenge and I will do it again next year if Rae decides to hostess again. And because it's May first...

my little ones made cards and helped me bake cinnamon buns for the neighbors. It's been a long-standing activity through all my kiddoes where they run over a neighbor's house, drop their home-made goodness and run away and hide. They watch the neighbor open the door, pick up the bag and SMILE! The kids enjoy this so much, I love to watch, too, and the recipients really like it! Happy May Day!