Yelling for help????

"HELP! We've been falsely imprisoned! Help us out! Help us out!"

Or is it a "welcome home guys" kinda yell???

Today's rain is very welcomed...but...

...I miss being outside :(

Sunflowers are like pancakes...

...the first one is never the best.

Things I like...

Hydrangeas and my eldest, Moco.

...water in a clear blue vase.

A small study on Lulu-ness

Rainy quote day

I know...Dylan is playing in the distance, cats sleep in their cozy beds, flowers & steaming coffee on the desk & I am sorting through a pile of treasures...here's one more I found:

From Oscar Wilde's De Profundis:

"With freedom, flowers, books and the moon, who could not be perfectly happy?"

☼☼☼☼☼☼

"...spring always seeming to one as if the flowers had been in hiding, and only came out into the sun because they were afraid that grown-up people would grow tired looking for them and give up the search..."

☼☼☼☼☼☼

"To me it is so much so that at the close of each meal I carefully eat whatever crumbs may be left on my tin plate, or have fallen on the rough towel that one uses as a cloth so as not to soil one's table; and I do so not from hunger--I get now quite sufficient food--but simply in order that nothing should be wasted of what is given me. So one should look on love."

Adulthood - by Mark Jenkins

I know, I've been digressing from the garden stuff, but I was cleaning up some files and I found this quote (which I happen to love) from an old Outside magazine article, circa 1999:

"Adulthood is an insidious process of accretion. If you're not watchful, you begin to grow a shell, a carapace that you are expected to carry lightly: the rigid, high-stress hull of safety, security, status, status quo. The thicker, the better, right up until it crushes you. On the inside, whether you can still feel it or not, your soul is trying to claw its way out."

Blog-Void

I think I am having one...

Back soon...

Nesting

Off to work in our nest. Prepping for getting rid of the carpet, weeding, finishing a small patio made of recycled broken sidewalk chunks...you name it. Be back soon!

So well put...

As we grow up, we put away our laughter and our silliness and our childish noises, the great sensory hilariousness of our young lives. We pick up a few notions about proper behavior, like what books to read and how to go about getting married and buying a home and being polite and having cocktail parties...and the next thing you know, the little child--who was also an enormously alive sensory apparatus--is just another boring adult going to work in a seersucker suit with a briefcase.

John Rosenthal, from Amazing Conversations.

Doggon it!

In awe of all things nature. I tell ya. Dried up passion flower twirls.

Stolen Loquats!!!

Well, not really stolen, I asked permission...and in the process I met some of the nicest people I have ever met in my hood (and that is a lot for me to say as I am a horrible human being and normally I don't find people in my area very likable. There. It's out.).

I am not saying this because they fed me delicious fruit, they truly were sweet people and I am looking forward to showering them with garden greens and tomatoes very soon!

Things continue to be hectic, hectic, hectic...but I did set aside time tomorrow to write a whole bunch and post tons of pics I shot in the last week while I was breaking my back working out there, planting and transplanting, etc.

Also, I am furious about a certain gardening personality here in Central Florida who had the nerve to highly recommend recycled tire mulch...and I have to wonder, does he live in a Tupperware??? I mean, I am all for recycling but there are smarter ways to recycle tires, like, say...the way my hippie uncle in Chile used to make us kids summer sandals with old pieces of leather and soles made of old tires...that was pretty cool...but to have its chemicals leach into OUR soil to end up in OUR waterways? That's a bit much...anyhow, the scientific explanation of why that is definitely an irresponsible & ignorant move coming up tomorrow along with free organic ways to mulch things up in a healthy manner.

Question what you read. Question what you read here. Do your research, get info from unbiased sources as much as you can...look at who advertises in the sites where you get your info from. Look into the financial ties of those who help guide you in your garden (or in your life for that matter)...and finally, in all things, use common sense...not trying to tell you what to do, only how to do it .

*giggles*

I am all fired up...but duty calls and I must go get stuff done. In the meantime, I leave you with birdie pics taken in the last few days...See you tomorrow!

HELP!

The Birds

As I was wrapping up the garden work they came by the dozen.

A sight for sore eyes...and back...and legs...and arms...you get the idea.

Anyway, the pics did not quite turn out like I wanted (background light was too bright) but this is the final result after a while of playing with Picasa. Garden update coming up soon.

E. B. White quote

M. F. K. Fisher quote

Mine would read, "When I can't garden, I write. When I can't write, I read. When I can't read, I cook...and I always eat."

Raised bed

Planted:

Edible chrysanthemum
Mesclun-Sweet salad mix
Pigeon peas (just two to help bring nitrogen to the soil)
Swiss chard-Rainbow
Chervil-Brussels winter
Thai Oakleaf lettuce
Italian dark green parsley
Forest green parsley
2 Heirloom tomatoes (too lazy to go check on the tags...I am sure nobody will lose sleep over this)
Flowers to attract beneficial insects and pollinators (some shown/listed below)