Mar 12, 2011

In the Garden

It's funny...for weeks now, I've thought, "Oh, I need to get blog pictures of all the new green things around here!"  I was busy digging the last of the perennial beds, (the total of which now about equals the square footage of our 2,000 sq ft house!) and planting the veggies, herbs, reseeding the annual flowers, etc.  Each tiny seed that sprouts and each tree bud seemed to say "Hurry!  Get the camera!"

So yesterday I did...and y'know?  It's just not very impressive from a distance.  And it occurred to me; this is still only mid March!  The camera won't pick up the verdant lush nature of this place until mid April or later, once the flowers have started blooming, and the veggie garden actually has some produce.  (Okay, besides lettuce and spinach cuttings every day.)

But I've been so excited after the winter--every little leaf budding out makes me want to shout!  Woohooooo!  Spring!!!

I know--our winter here is only three months long.  And even then it's not so much cold as it is just bare and sleeping.  Come visit in July for an accurate picture of the downside to such a mild winter.  But back to the point.  Garden pictures!

I went ahead and took a few, because I was embarrassed to post a picture of last years' peach blossoms in the last post.  So...for now, until I can get some good April pictures, here is some of the garden.  (Click to zoom.)


Foreground; broccoli and Brussels sprouts, background; peas.
Spinach, lettuce, and more peas!
Mmmmm.  Red cabbage!
More Mmmmm!  Asparagus.  Plants are still too young to harvest.  Maybe a few spears this fall...
The oak to the left has flower catkins on it (you should hear the cloud of bees in it) but the rest of the trees in the distance are still barely budding out yet.  The peach is happy, but we still can't let her make that huge load of peaches or it'll break her branches.  She's just a little over 6 feet tall, with a trunk diameter of about 2 inches.

But she looks awefully nice in her spring finery, eh?

The Peggy Martin climbing rose has grown 8 feet in one year!  Multiplier onions in the foreground...
The last of the perennial beds, and Schultz standing on the new grass seed to fill out the bare dirt.  Silly dog.

Not much rain this year, so not many wildflowers...but we still have our Texas Bluebonnets.
The new bed again.  See the giant fire ant mound in the foreground? 
This is Pete.  He guards the house when we're gone.

Mar 11, 2011

What is my name? Where is my car?

Spinning around a little lost lately. We got the rent house rented (a cute couple who asked if they could have chickens in the back yard!) and are now in contract for another one. All that is well and good, but it sure puts a giant dent in the doll making.

The peach trees are blooming!
On the positive side--spring is HERE and I have gotten LOTS of landscaping done!  Finally cleared away the white rock and @*#$^* landscape fabric the previous owners were so enraptured with. Perennials all around, but small with room to grow. Veggie garden is doing well, except the broccoli. I think the 40 degree mornings and 80 degree afternoons have confused it, because it's growing tiny little heads and then flowering straight away. Oh well. We'll have sugar snap peas soon.

I have desperately missed the daily blog read, and made time to sit and read this morning. Posted a Tips and Tricks over at ADO, (on photography) and have been working on

Tshilaba, as she was when she arrived here in San Antonio...
my visiting Traveling Doll Project friend, Tshilaba. Pictures of the rent house re-do, the garden, and Tshilaba coming up this next week. (And maybe one of the dog with a new haircut--he is sooooo shaggy!)

Be well y'all. I miss you.
Jan

Mar 3, 2011

A Challenge!

Art Doll Quarterly magazine issued a gourd art doll challenge.  Uh, hello?  How can I refuse?  I've made several lately, but I think this guy's the one that would fit the timing (Autumn) best, so off he goes.