It’s that part of the year where all I want to do is be out in the yard, to garden, watch the birds, plant flowers in the yard. It has been a weird summer, cold then hot, wet then miserably dry, then miserably humid. Pah! Let’s see what I have actually accomplished while not blogging!
First, the garden. The constant rains earlier on means a big, lush garden. Some of the plants, i.e., the zucchini, are way TOO big for my garden! I will have to plant them separately in their own bed next year. They are choking everything else out, and I am
having to strip out leaves in order to let light in to other plants. And of course, there is always the one that ‘got away’. In this case, the one nearly as big as Koda!
The peppers are coming along nicely. This is a photo of a Spanish Spice pepper. Yummy! 
Spicy, without blowing the top of your head off while burning off all your taste buds 😮 (The pot? An apricot tree!) I even have Corn!!! 
The little flowers you see where I laid a couple of the zucchini I harvested? Yep. Those are morning glory vines. They grow absolutely everywhere, and choke out the other plants unless I rip them out every day. They seem to grow a couple feet a day!
Koda is, of course, my constant companion and helper. I love having his company, and he still adores the taste of mint!
The rare black Russian tomatoes (left photo) seem to be doing well, the ones that starting developing are already about three 
inches across. The Zapotecs (right photo) are doing well, and the new, tiny Sugar Tomatoes are making a lot of clusters. I am most thrilled, however, with the Grapes! I have always had one or two clusters a year 
that the birds and other critters get first, but as you can see from the photos, the vine is loaded this year! Me being me, I went out and wrapped the branches around where the clusters are growing with dog fur (Shelties really shed!) hoping to scare off the critter so I can actually get most of the grapes for myself!
Here is the fabric for my next quilt project!
I am helping out Jan Krentz, who is wheeling around in a wheelchair right now from a broken leg. I am making the quilt from one of her test patterns, taking photos and checking for measurement errors in the pattern as I go along. I will send photos when I am done. The one below is going to be for sale when it is done… lots more to do on it, of course, but the top 4 diamonds are all sewn.
I “interview” a lot of fabrics for the spaces between the star and the outer ring of stars. These are three of the first I picked out of my “stash”. The light is bad where I have my big layout board, it always turns everything orange! 
Of course, I ‘interview’ several fabrics before deciding on a color palette for the stars as well. Losers?
And another:
This is how I decide if a star is really going to “work” or not. I make one diamond, then use two mirrors to check out the overall flow. These two still have “possibilities” but I wound up liking the one I have on my board better.
I have a ton of reviews to get to, so off to do that! I have been doing edits for Susan Bliler and Michael Angel this summer, as well as some “technical” edits for a couple of businesses (Ugh! Dry, dry, dry stuff!), so I need to get the book edits done, and I have actually read a few books (and listened to more!) since the last time I posted as well.
More soon!
I picked up a copy of 
possession?
The beds were left with all the dead plants rooted in over the winter. I wanted them to rot as much as possible in the ground, and pulling them up now instead of in the fall means I loosened up the soil when I pulled them. As you see from the photo, I have garlic, strawberry and mints coming up, hooray! They made it through the winter! I have already ‘top dressed’ this bed (spread several inches of composted manure over top) and I have one of the other beds done as well as about a third of the third usable bed. I will hopefully finish that one up later this afternoon. I got really worn out yesterday carrying the heavy mulch so I started filling the roughed out beds with mulch.
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As you can see, my manure heap is a lot smaller than it was. I want to get more, but you see, I have this little issue – as in a HUGE pile of chopped up trees in my driveway! LOL (And yes, is my finger in the photo – I took it after a looong day of working in the beds, and I was way tired and sweaty. Hey, want to clean out your pores? Garden! Digging in the soul is not only cathartic for your soul, it is works for your skin as well!) You can see how large the pile is 
compared to my neighbor’s big ol’ pickup. Cool, huh? Free mulch!! A local tree company was cutting trees in my neighborhood after the blizzard and they were more than happy to dump them in the driveway. No having to haul them away and dispose of the mulch themselves. So, I got two full truckloads.
These two beds are going to be filled with the mulch up to the top and left to overwinter. Yes, those are ripped up phone books – the phone company will insist on throwing them in the driveway, though they have been asked not to. Ah well, more paper to rot! 😉 That big branch in the one photo has stumped me. My chainsaw will insist on throwing its chain and trying to take my arm off, and I finally gave it up for a bad cause and that limb will have to go to the pile of brush I have in the back corner of the back yard. Small animals like to nest in there – squirrels and certain birds especially. It is fun having a special habitat back there that is completely wild.
Oh, look! All that lumber is still sitting there, waiting for me to build my cold frame! (Didn’t I say I was going to do that last fall?) But I did find a solid glass door to use for a top (free, of course!) so I am putting together a list of the lumber sizes and figuring out what to use for the standing braces to bury in the ground and screw the sides to. But that is for later in the year.
for her 
redwood and leave it raw – I want to paint mine wild colours so I will need paint, but just cheap wood for the obelisks themselves).
would love to build out covers for the beds so I can keep plants wintered in for next winter . . . hum…. 26 in. x 8 ft. Polycarbonate Roofing Panels from Home Depot are $21.62 each. If I use those for both the Roundhouse and the garden bed greenhouses, that would be inexpensive. Steel T-Posts are $6.98 each. Six per garden bed (one at each corner, one at the middle of each long side) with one Panel on each long side, one panel cut in two for the ends. Throw in the fitted braces to hold the panels, “The Sunlite 24 in x 96 in. 
Polycarbonate Twinwall Roof Panel features an air layer that bolsters its insulation strength, making this a powerful roofing option.” ($35.63 each and maybe I should consider those for the walls as well, since they are insulated?? Yeah, maybe!), recycled wood to build roof braces…. a couple of recycled house fans to move air… Yep. This could work! Now, if I just had a couple big strong Shifter Boyfriends to do the hauling stuff around for me! ROFL!!!
Giggle time! Celia and Mina’s fifth in the “Quick and Furry” series was just what I needed to snuggle into tonight. Giggles and grins with a side of yummy.
So, I Read This Book Today 