i'm having a bit of trouble

with my right arm, it's hurting very bad
so for a few days or whatever time it takes to heal
i won't be typing much
sorry everyone

i'll try to just post pictures instead ok

i hadda dream......

it was actually pretty interesting
it was about a man finding out that he had a son, who was 17 or 18...... and meeting the parents of his son, as well as his son....who looked exactly like him!
how the mother was so afraid that this man was going to try and take her son away, how the father was so protective and fearful and confused about his role in his son's life
and how the man who's biological son it was, just wanted to know the boy and do right by him
it was a dream about rights, who's rights, and what is right.
it was a dream about emotions, about time, and raised a lot of questions in every direction
and in the dream i got to see and feel each position from inside the person who was in the dream!
i dreamed of the mothers hopes and fears, the love and pride when she saw her son, the dedication she had to his well being
i dreamed of his father's pride, and patience, and love, even though the man knew that he hadn't fathered this boy. he HAD parented and raised him and in the end that is the part that matters, he IS the parent. how this man had sacrificed so many things that this boy would do well in the world.

then there was the biological father, who didn't know he had a child. who wanted to be part of this boy's life but didn't want to take anything away from the boy's parents. who was broken hearted but not angry that he hadn't known. and who took an almost childlike delight in finally realizing that this boy was a part of him, and looked just like him

interesting huh?
over all in this dream i was amazed at the levels of love for this child's well being that the adults felt
the fierce love and protectiveness they had. and the biological father was truly childlike in his wonder at this boy..... this finding suddenly that there was a person related to him that he knew nothing about-the sadness that he'd never had a part in this boy's life. the hope he had that the boy would have a better life then he did.
the mother's feeling that the biological father was not mature enough to ever go near her son

the complexity of emotions, and the clearity and honesty of emotions
it was like watching a very good movie.....and i could even SIT THROUGH IT~!!!
hahaha
i can't actually sit through movies much in real life
I LOVE dreams like this....love them these full story dreams

so many things where going on all at once, there was not any actual resolution to the delemia, but there was a sense of understanding for me to see how it all connected together overall.
that the fears were expressed in different ways and overall how much love for his one child tempered everything.

i loved how the biological father and the son stood right next to each other... looked almost identical, and took everyone by surprise. even their mannerisms were identical.
meanwhile the son had NO IDEA none........... typical of his biological father at the same age!
hahaha

gee really i am not this deep in real life.....i just dream deep

ok now today i am to go with jen somewhere, i don't know where.
i am still extremely sore from the fall (remember that fall?) actually my shoulder is getting worse. so are my knees
so after my sister in law comes i will be going to the doctor and then most likely into pt

now over the weekend, we got some stuff done. bernie repointed the stone on the house, he was in a good mood too as he did it and it wasn't hard. so he's feeling pretty good about himself.
he is going to help me do the trellis for the beans and cuc's in the garden too
i picked up some seeds in town and i am going to start some of the fall crops
and while i was having this incredible interesting dream i also dreamt a solution to my tomato planting delemia as well.....so i am going to be making a bamboo and plastic 'greenhouse' for them

we had burgers on the deck with my mom's potato salad, which this time we made with yukon golds, and it was a LOT better then the little reds in there....so from now on....yukons!!!
my beans are well sprouted out in the little bed. i am so happy to see them. i also saw one nasturium sprouted out there.. i got seeds for the climbing naturiums yesterday so they will climb the cucumber trellis with the cuc's, i think i will have two flowers for every 4 cuc's and then border the bed with marigolds and chives
we got some strawberries and a pound cake so tonight........strawberry shortcakes!!!
and we picked up wood for another 4X8 bed... this one will be made next week end..
the following weekend we will have to make the cold frame up.... i think we are also going to have to figure something out as we can't sink a bed 14'' under ground level for it
so insulation must be our friend...
ok off i go now
enjoy your day everyone

tell me what you think of my dream
now i just took a tylanol arteritis strength and two aspirins to get me through the day.

good morning every body

we went out last night with the cousins, i woke up hoarse from laughing.
this morning i am amazed at the light in my studio
there are white sheets on my clothes line and the sun is bouncing off them into the studio
i love it!!!
BRIGHT light in the studio
today is food shopping and errands we used to do saturdays, which sorta sucks as then i have to process meat all day sunday
also i noticed that the vadalia onions aren't in the stores yet
i normally get the 10# boxes for 4.99 and dry them all..... (50+ pounds dry to 8 quarts), each box actually weights 12-14 pounds
now onions stink while you are drying them but dried vadalia onions are wonderful
seriously wonderful
no fat, no salt 'potato' chips
seriously W O N D E R F U L
now in garden news, my bush beans are really starting to pop out of the soil, i left them uncovered last night so we'll see how they go
i need to cage and wire the next bed and hoop the tomatoes and that in there

i am running late today so i'll sign off now
ttyl tomorrow
ok?
everyone have a good weekend i hope

warning.... yarn porn ahead

hahahaha, don't say i didn't warn you... ok in the left corner... an amazing hand dyed laceweight from my friend lotta in sweden....... you should see it in person....people have DROOLED over it... and in the right corner an equally amazing silk from spirit trail........in red......... yup it was a RED LETTER DAY....... my favorite kind of day.  today i received my favorite colors in yarn form from two of the most gifted colorists around........yup good day for me!!!

i picked up 34# of chicken today ( split chickens) and packed them for the freezer, i need a bit more chicken and of course a few cases of breasts to bread and to can, and then i will feel a bit more secure with my freezers. i have a turkey to can out of the freezer as well.

a few more bush beans are up now. and beets are sprouted as well as a few radishes!!! maybe some carrots. but i don't know about the slenderette beans that were disturbed by that damn cat. oh and mark up the hill is trapping whatever killed his chicken. we all think martin, weasel or fisher... it was a nasty attack. much like when my serafina was killed

momma is sitting tight and very close i couldn't get her off the nest today to eat anything so tomorrow i may just drag that crate out where it's warmer.....so she'll get up-stretch ......eat..........eatting is good.. drinks some water
you know......keeping life going
i didn't plant the cuc's...i went out to but a thunderstorm came in, so i took myself, the ducks and my seeds in the house


now i am hoping that tonight calpurrnia won't feel the need to kickbox the air conditioner....i have spoken to the air conditioner and told it that i expect that it won't annoy the blue eyed one....... oye

ok i am going to wrap this post and publish it.....
i may not have time in the AM
so if i don't get to you folks
have a wonderful evening, and a fantastic weekend ok?

i am up at 5am due to bernie's sinus headache

as well as his forgetting his house key in alpha!, he almost took the one last remaining house key....which would have meant a locksmith coming out to give us either a new lock on the door (double key deadbolt) or a new key.....

he told me i had 'a spare set' ha.........NO that was the set you took the last time you lost a key
so i'm up
it's ok though, as i didn't sleep anyway, due to his snoring because of his sinus headache and his need to sleep on his back... yeah right

then there is calpurrnia, she feels the need to batter and claw at the new air conditioner at about 2am, just around the time when fawn catches another very loudly protesting mouse.....
amazingly thaddeaus is the GOOD one in all this......has the world turned on it's axis? and are we all now through the looking glass?

ok now real fast, i got news......colleen my invisible but favorite sister in law is coming next month.
it's sort of spur of the moment, she is going to kill her husband through what we all hope is the last phase of the endless rebuilding after IKE.....(yes still with rebuilding after IKE) she lost a year due to the mortgage company from hell holding the insurance check HUH??? how can you rebuild if the MONEY is being held???? she sued....they sent her the money
her husband decided she needed a trip home, and he was looking for flights....... hahahaha
so she called and let me persuade her  (ps: my mouse is messed up too, so i can't spell check this easily please forgive me for the bulk of my spelling trespasses)

ok so that is one news thingie........ which also means i have to clean the house...... i am thinking i may not survive that

next up
momma duck is setting eggs..... oh my, if everything goes ok, we'll have ducklings june 11
which is about the time colleen is coming

and there are beans in that thar garden............YUP beans!!!!! well, the seeds have sprouted anyway.
i been covering the bed up at night now with plastic. but as the weather has warmed up, we should get more plants up
inspite of the neighbor's cat from hell.

sooooooooo since colleen is coming, we need to buy a mattress!!! ( yes, i love my sister in law)
which we've only needed for like 10 years.......( them 25 year warrantied mattresses really only last about 28 years.....not 33 and the last few years really aren't worth it at all)

now what else? well i am still in pain from that fall a few weeks back.... it's gradually working it's way down i suppose.....right now it's my shoulder and ironically my knees! so today i am not only going back to bed (in a few) but today i am wearing tie shoes all day....and for the next few days i think
maybe that will help
these crocs suck btw
i wear them all the time cause they are easy but they hurt my body
(maybe that would be a sign not to wear them huh? but they are easy to get in and out of to put muck boots on etc.)
oh and it's warm out so i put the plants out again
they were glad
and danced with happiness.......... (hey plants can dance with happiness, really they can.....sorta)
ok that's my whole news and nothing but the whole news........
so there you go
i told you all first

i think i got spring fever...... and sinus

i been trying to paint roses.....now you folks know i am really not good at flowers at all...seriously not good at them. i do sorta try at times.... but well.....the duck drawings are powerful, they are authoritative, they are good..... my flower paintings are sorta anemic, timid, and a bit pokey.
cause i am NOT sure and confident with them.
(ironically i am good with figure drawing, but that is because i always had live models when i was doing figure work)
anyway, until the muse hits......i been doing a bunch of tiny painting of pumpkins, and today tried a rose because i am so freeken sick of this really cold weather.... SICK OF IT i tell you.
anyway i have come to the conclusion that i suck at flower painting, give me a duck i am in my element, guess some refined and cultured florals are beyond me and i am much more comfortable in a barn (which btw i am convinced is the BEST PLACE ON EARTH....i love barns....i love being in barns if there are animals in there.....LOVE IT)

here is a shot of my first garden bed, it's 2' wide by 8' long, at the far end are my multiplier onions, some garlic and at the near end my ONE tiny little walking eygptian onions... i had to move them, i had no choice. if i didn't they were doomed to be trampled by someone's size 11.5 sneakers.... (i wear a size 6.5) so we moved them. i think that the multipliers should bulb up well at least the small ones the big ones tend to make lots of baby bulbs.... which you replant and THEY make the big onions....cool huh?
anyway that is one bed.

i didn't pull the plastic off the bean bed today, as it was raining and quite cold.......i was cold. so i made the beans 'put a sweater on' which was the plastic. meanwhile i spend the day trying to keep warm. (i am typing this wen night, while waiting for bernie to get out of the shower)  due to cold and sinus, the ducks didn't get out until late. momma didn't want to go out.... she ran back in a few times. as she's got a crate full of  eggs now.
i let her in and wouldn't let falstaff in with her.....i am going to let her try and set i think. i don't like the idea as she doesn't have access to outside if she sets..... the crate is still in the house...i can carry the crate in and out i suppose..... maybe we'll try that..the worse that can happen is she abandons the eggs right?
she was very cute, one egg was broken so she carried it out of the nest and out of the HOUSE..... dropped it outside!
i said to her.....'you want water now'?
she didn't
she also tried to get lilli's eggs.....which i find funny as lilli kept eye momma's eggs.....
those girls crack me up
ok so this is going to post in the moring........ i will hopefully be asleep....
gees....

feather care is so important

these are actually from last summer, as the weather here is pretty bad lately..... no baths on the driveway. i miss my girls. i so love to see them bathing in the sun. they happily splash water all over. the droplets sparkle light diamonds. it always makes me so happy when they are doing that. now THAT i wish i could video and slow down the images. thousands of tiny drops of shimmering flashing water- it's better then any grand fountain in oh so many formal gardens.... gees i love my ducks. hahahaha.    now in garden news, we have bean sprouts!!!! yeah for bean sprouts! it's the tendergreen bush beans, or the soleil, and i think that the indy gold wax beans are sprouted as well..... along with some beets, carrots and radishes....and i hope what is really nasturium... and i think that the marigolds are thinking about it.  i am hoping that i can get the other beds in soon. i want to get my pole beans in, and the squash stuff as well as the tomatoes etc.......i hope it is a good summer but i doubt it.......

ok i am running late and behind...blame my sinus headache

and i forgot i was writing this

i was out with the ducks....it's cold, rainy and a bit greenish out....the sort of weather i imagine that nature spirits adore....

now i am going to take myself to my drawing board and fight with paints

wish me luck

ps: i am in such a fog lately.......you all have to forgive me please ok?

frost over night, but the house is a garden!

here are some of the african violet flowers, but i have all the deck flowers on the floor in the studio right now ........so the studio is all in bloom. i so need a greenhouse. - i had covered the bean bed with plastic the other night, good thing i did. AND THERE IS A sprouted bean out there!!! yeah for mother nature doing her thing. yesterday i cleaned a bit..... cooked a roast for bernie for supper (leftovers tonight) and painted some small birdhouses. they are the decorative ones that you can get at the craft store for like 1.00 each. i have a few kicking around......so i based coated one with pink and one with yellow (that was way too bright so i dry brushed over the yellow with cream)  i'll paint flowers on them as i ususally do and then stick them in the window. ONE of these days i plan on putting fabric on some as well... i have a few abiding loves in my life. (i mean besides bernie and all the animals etc) i love bird houses, bird nests, fancy bird cages, plants, goldfish, fish bowls and tanks. ** you all already know about the weakness for good china and glass- three peices of pink depression glass are on their way, next up..yellow***              now here are very blurry shots of the tiny birdhouses in the window.... the green from the leaves outside tinged the photos....these are actually in chalky pastel colors. these are another thing i do while goofing off. (maybe this should be titled 'how an artist wastes time')

so i suppose i am feeling very springish.  i keep wanting to feather my nest and rearrange my space. i reminded bernie last night that he hasn't had a day off since january 11...not a sick day or vacation or personal day. i would like him to take a few fridays off........payday fridays. i want to get some painting done on the walls in the house, i want to get some odds and ends done and i want to go to a gallery in bethlehem. maybe a few day trips. do you all think he'll go for it? i think i would like to go to the camden aquarium again, this time with my camera, and indoor glasses.   in poking around here and there on the net, i have discovered 'primative cupboards' which i see are super easy to make.....so i think i may........i could use a few narrow but long ones for walls that i don't really have..i can't afford to buy them but make them......yes i surely can i don't have a table saw but i can clap a guide on the wood and work that way (although a table saw is now on my list) i used to work with wood when i was in highschool and art school....maybe it's time again?    just think..... every sliver of wall space that doesn't work can have a small floor to ceiling cupboard with books etc behind the doors......

ok in cat news, they have GOT to stop bring live mice up to the bedroom to play with ....... all in the middle of the night...did you know how LOUD mice squeek? trust me......LOUD

wakes me right up

oye

the baby budgies and the easter budgies are starting to talk to each other a bit...... the easter budgies are both girls btw, i am a bit disappointed that the light blueish/lavender one is a girl but that is what she appears to be.... the yellow one is a pip..... oh man does she have personality......the little blue one is very quiet and laid back.... i think that one is much younger then we thought.

so i have to get two boys next........ no doubt a blue one with white or gray wings and i would imagine either a violet factor or an all gray. as we have enough green with mrs fezziwig.

in chicken news......there is nothing to tell at the moment....... the uphill (way uphill) chicken neighbor lost a bird yesterday to what we think is a north american fisher.

in duck news.......mmmmmm i didn't put the girls out in the back pen.... not since mark's chicken was killed....i figure that this fisher may be becoming a bit desperate what with the steady stream of jackass neighbors kittens and rabbits unavailable to prey on.
we are cutting the forest further back from the duck pen out back and maybe will be finishing the upper pen sooner then we think

although this weekend in another bed in the garden and a cold frame
maybe we can also do a cover roll of welded wire and wood strips to hold it in and do the doors.....at least then i can use it as a day pen

now i had a slight coffee accident this morning.....my coffee pot is one that doesn't drip if you remove the carife ............. ahem...i didn't have the carife totally in the pot and the coffee (which sucks this morning btw) spilled over the TOP
lovely
it pissed me off first thing ( even more then the mouse squeeks and i wasn't real thrilled with them either)
oye
that's about it for today i think....
i hope to plant cuc and pole bean seeds today...in the back bed. and zukes, squashes etc in cups to go out in like three weeks into a new bed on the side.
oye
next up is trellises for the garden EVERYTHING that i can put on the trellises will go on the trellises.......
i have spoken

oye again

oh and garilynn, i am going to use that milk paint recipe of your dh...... thank him for me for answering my question too ok?
i think we are going to do the walls in the studio with milk paint! cream no doubt
i don't quite get when exactly to add the pigment and if the pigment is to be slaked first but i'm pretty sure it's not a biggie

MIA? apparently sorry about that

susan emailed and informed me i hadn't posted since thursday afternoon!
hmmmm, i am assuming that friday was uneventful as i don't remember it!
bernie was naturally late though friday night, THAT i remember

over the weekend we got another bed into the garden, so our total now is 2-4X8 and 2-2X8 beds, next up is the cold frame.
we also have space on that side for another 4X8 bed then we start the center beds
bernie also took 2 of the 4 trees down that are shading the garden on the southwest side. we need to limb up the very very large maples that over hang the bed from the west side.

i had to bring all the plants in as we got a light frost! i also covered the planted bed with plastic.
there were really high winds all weekend also. so it was cold really cold......
if the easter budgies weren't down in the studio on the cold woodstove, i would have lit the woodstove yesterday and last night.
it was too windy, in my opinion to light the BBQ even so while we did have BBQ, (ribs) we baked them in the oven

we picked up the mortar for the house, so we can re-point the stone. i felt it was too cold to do it.....so that will be next weekend

i need to rethink a way to grow tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and squash. i am seriously thinking that the two beds out in the garden right now are going to have to do the job, with hoop houses over them.
all the gardener tricks (as well as hot manure) of cover and mulches may have to come into play

i moved my multiplier onions over the weekend, as well as some garlic and an egyptian walking onion ( i have one tiny plant of that, i hope that it increases) i have three batches of garlic to move. i know it's the wrong time but it's either that or no garden bed progress so i moved them
i want to find a place to put rhubarb, horseradish, asparagus, and any other perennial food plant i can think of, in that garden. (and i am going to add red or gray shallots i think in the fall as well)
i really like these raised beds in the garden, i think i am going to end up with more usable garden space.

the upshot of the extreme wind weekend was:
clothes dried fast but wrapped around the line
plants dried OUT fast and fell over
i was cold

i also tidied up my drawing corner, then searched for ideas for a bit of privacy through the windows without sacrificing light-without spending a fortune. 16 windows are a LOT of windows......and that is just the studio alone....(there are 13 windows *not counting the kitchen window* in the main house and 16 our here) ok i am still sort of stuck on that one.


i am looking around for alternative storage for paints, and i think i am almost figuring it out. i got them in the little plastic drawer thingies but soon pigments will be here..... i am going to store the pigment in uniform glass jars, and put the jars into some sort of chest with drawers but a tiny table top one
i been cruising ebay and etsy looking for something i can use that's cheap

the upshot of a lot of this as well as the colder weather is that i am not spending as much time with my ducks as i would like, nor with the chickens. but i am spending time with the cats and budgies
so not a lot of new duck tales.......which also translates out to not a lot of new drawing ideas either
i hope the weather breaks soon.while bernie cut trees down saturday, i did have lilli and phoebe in the garden, hunting for slugs........(yeah right, they scoffed up worms by the hundreds) when they moved over into the area that has the taller jewelweed growing in it (which i have to cut and dry soon) they so looked like dinosaurs i couldn't believe it
i suppose that since muscovy have that carunkling on their faces, it's a lot easier to see them as dinosaurs. then with that in mind, watching them walk and balance.....yup dino duckies all over the place!

so that was my weekend, now i am going to have my coffee....and see what on EARTH thaddeaus is crunching into his food bowl
(oh and fawn caught a mouse friday night, she naturally brought it into the bedroom where it woke me up squeeking......i don't know if she ate it or not)

so everyone have a nice day, another cup of coffee and we'll talk tomorrow
seriously...i think i promise

a bit of drawing, a bit of dishes, a bit of ducks....all the Ds

there's our girl!!! that's phoebe! she had just come out of the duck pond and was shaking off her wings in late morning sun (hot sun though), i am actually thinking that this one is DONE! hahahaha...   maybe a bit more shadow in front of her toes, (maybe not) and a bit more work on her chest but that's about it i think. this is on that new vellum surface bristol that i paid a lot for........ i can tell you all, that it was sooooooooooooooo worth it! totally. the lines are like etching lines. ( and i used to do etching and would love to go back to it-can't you tell?) i had penciled in the whole drawing, then after inking i erased the pencil lines. without any damage to the drawing, or to the paper....ok so i'm sold. this is the only bristol i am going to use from now on i think ... i also have the plate finish in this very high end bristol....i'll try that but i think i am going to stick with the vellum for the drawings...

now i am wondering if i should do portraits of all the others....? hahaha, but that one is a great pose that phoebe was in when i took the picture. it captures her true personality in my opinion.

a portrait of lilli would have to be with her squeaking at me

btw, donald, i am having trouble loading the video i took of the ducks....blogspot won't take it anymore. i would have to load it to photo bucket and then link to it.

when i put the ducks out this morning, i went to check out my perfect little garden bed......... only to find out that a feral un-neutered tom cat had used it for a toilet and messed up all the seeding at the end...

i have no idea how much these seeds were either buried or tossed or what.

today i put hardware cloth and rocks over the bed.

i want to now build a cage for netting etc over the beds.

now i again put falstaff and momma out in the garden pen....as it looks like yesterday he actually BATHED in the water, instead of just dipping his fool head and thinking his ass was in water when it soooo wasn't

so i figured, he'd go into the pond again

i think he did

i am pleased

now, i goofed off drawing almost all day.......as you can see...

i did the dishes!!!!

then discovered my 5 year old rosemary plant had scale. so i basically tossed it

i hope that the african violets don't have it

i was pretty upset

there was so much that i couldn't get them all off with the alcohol and swabs

so that was pretty much my day.

now no one said anything about the giclee prints so i would take that as a no?

now tomorrow, which i have just discovered is FRIDAY......... damn

i am going to have to find the energy to clean the pens.

and see about if this portrait of phoebe is finished....... and then start the next drawing

i still have to deal with the polar bears and the killer whale drawings....i've done them both once and really liked them. now it's coming time to do them again

although i am thinking that the polar bear one should be in color and in egg tempera....

oh and i have decided on a pigment palette, so now all i have to do is afford it and get the panels......

by then the chickens should be actually laying no?
oye

wednesday was a pretty pretty day

first off.... DONALD where the hell you been??? painkillers? what happened? i been wondering why you haven't said a word.....it isn't like you

first off it IS wednesday right now......
i started out at 5am (don't ask) read email, etc.
took the duckies out pretty early, i don't think momma laid her eggie yet...i know lilli hadn't
momma and falstaff went to the back pen as it was their turn....... i put the big pond in there so they had bathing water ALL DAY......i sincerely hope falstaff actually got in the damn pond instead of dipping his head and THINKING his ass was in the water
i let them out to graze in the garden while i planted

i finished planting one bed, (it's got the little white markers -that would be the center bed) it's got bush beans, carrots, radishes, beets, nasturtium, and marigolds-which should be a productive as well as pretty bed if there is enough sun for it...those trees are growing over the garden now
meanwhile i had to shoo the ducks back into the garden pen as there was a hawk checking out their tender little feathered butts......
i let momma out for a bit after until i had to come up to the house to get ready to meet everyone.

jen was at borders when i arrived, she looked so pretty and fresh and spring like.
lesley unfortunately couldn't come as her mom had an emergency

jen and i had a light lunch and then went looking at books..... i got my 'where women create' magazine and an english cottage garden magazine (that one is for bernie.....i need garden help and that may do it)i had a 5.00 off coupon, and that tail end of that gift card so the two cost 9.00 which is a lot, but 'where women create' is 15.00 all by itself
we checked out the budgies at petsmart next door.......
 i couldn't do much of my errands as i didn't have gas in the truck.....but i did get to the post office and my watercolor paper was there, as well as my egg tempera book............ woohoo........now......
the chickens aren't laying
figures no?

now here is a picture of the small watercolor box i sort of adapted- this is an old binney & smith 'peacock' watercolor box from like 1975... (i got a picture of the front of it, and the price was .59 cents)
i filled the half pans with mgraham watercolors and labeled them with 4 point type. the labels have the color name, the PIGMENT number the chemical name of the pigment, and the mgraham stock number on it....... so i can reorder and not be confused.--- i am still working out palettes for mixing....i think with the new ones........ as long as i get something to PUT THEM IN so not too much hair/fur etc gets in them i will be ok for a while like this
meanwhile i been studying pigments, especially modern light fast pigments. as much as i love historically accurate stuff, i have to say this is one area where today has yesterday beat by a million miles..... the light fast pigments. i believe that all the historical great masters would have KILLED to have been able to get their hands on these pigments.....
and i like them a lot.
i also like earth pigments..and i tend to mix earth pigments with the modern stuff which is going to make a lot of colorists and artists roll either into their graves or over in their graves but that's me

last nights 'garbage salad' that was my mom's term for something that had everything in it
sorta a clean the fridge sort of thing....... she used to call minestrone soup 'garbage soup' our salad had
purple cabbage
sweet red pepper
sweet green pepper
sweet onions
hard boiled duck eggs
chunks of roasted chicken
tomatoes
grated cheddar cheese
and mini cheese raviolis
red loose leaf lettuce

we ran out of swiss cheese, olives, croutons, and didn't have yellow squash, zucchini, snow peas, broccoli, spinach, mache, and chunks of ham....which is what i also normally put in these garbage salads
and believe me...they are wonderful
ok now i am going to post this and most likely not post tomorrow morning..... ok?

btw, what do you all think of me selling prints of my work online? i was looking into giclee prints and they are the very best top of the line in fine art reproduction, archival and pigment guaranteed for 200 years (or so they tell me- none of us will be around to know...but our heirs will be) i am still checking into prices but i think the black and whites would retail around 75.00 for life size (the size they are in real life) and of course cheaper smaller.
could i have some comments or opinions on this?

gardening and worms

i finally got my hands in the dirt........ only to come up with fist fulls of worms....
tons of copulating wormies in my new raised garden beds ( i shoulda taken a pix huh?)
ok, let's start the story,

once upon a time (don't they all start that way?) there was a small garden behind a small cottage in the woods...........lovingly turned and toiled over by the wicked b*tch that lived there ( ask my neighbors...they'll tell you i am a wicked b*tch) one spring, the garden was left fallow, to molder and to weeds as the person who tended the garden hurt her back wrestling sheep.
then low and behold, the DH of the wicked b*tch started to build raised beds for her.....and she happily started to plant seeds..... bush beans and carrots at first
(then discovered the unneutered semi feral tom cat of one the neighbors using her pretty little beds as a toilet..... his death is being plotted)

ok so now, every single time i see those beds i smile......i love them
i seriously love them.

 SERIOUSLY   LOVE

i think they are the best decision we ever made.
now even though i didn't garden last year i never stopped making dirt. if you are a gardener you understand that.
if you aren't a gardener, let me explain the joys of compost
hahahahaha
first off compost is alive........ seriously
it's teaming with all sorts of bugs, bacteria, microbes...... it breaths, it changes
and if it's finished it also has a rich earthy spring smell to it
oh and it's DARK........my dirt is BLACK
you want that in a dirt you know.
worms love my dirt
they love it so much they spend all their time rolling around in it nekid and copulating
it's rather difficult to plant the garden with these nekid copulating worms rolling around in your dirt.
(and my dirt MOVES around if you watch closely)
now in my garden and surrounding areas, what LOOKS like untidy piles of leaves or hay or manure really is my dirt making operations
yup
i just pile it all over
martha stewart just had a stroke
but mother nature loves me..... cause i do it her way
just piles
just keep adding here and adding there..... all over, as i figure whatever i can't use in the garden is going to enrich the mother anyway.... so mother gets her own back in her own way and i get to borrow some for my slightly weedy garden
now compost to a plant is life blood, air, and all goodness rolled into one soft dark patch of dirt.
worm and chicken and duck poop mixes in and grows tall happy rows of green beans so sweet and so healthy that your entire life is uplifted just by looking at them glowing in the garden
HEY mother nature knows her shit.....literally
anyway back to the beds and all

i couldn't find my very mostest favoritest pole bean seeds..... i had a HUGE pack of them...HUGE

(and this wonder of a pole bean is called appropriately enough Meraviglia Venezia!! the wonder of venice!,*the white seeded not the black seeded***not only that but venezia is my maiden name!! how cool is that?- oh and they taste slightly like vanilla) my second favorite is an heirloom called turkey craw or turkey gizzard.........i love them too.

so i planted bush beans 'slendertte' and 'yellow wax' , along with purple haze carrots and lil finger carrots...... today i shall put in radishes, beets, turnips and more bush beans, green ones for the freezer.
now i don't really like bush beans, pole beans have a ton more flavor but bush beans mature all at once which is good for canning or freezing so that will be my can/freeze bed no? also the annual herbs will go with these guys .....and some flowers. i am hoping that this year with the raised beds, that the weeds won't get ahead of me and swallow the border flowers ( and bernie won't walk all over my carefully mounded beds and compact the soil....the man doesn't freeken LEARN)

the next bed needs to be cucumbers.......i NEED my kosher dills.......NEED THEM *heavy on the garlic* i will add the pole beans to that bed i think.......and mix up some other stuff in there as well
some tomatoes on the deck, peppers in the end bed with eggplants
a cold frame that i want to start stuff such as cabbages and leeks etc.....
oh my the anticipation and hope of the early garden
of course this year will be the BEST EVER don't we say that every year?  never mind that these garden beds are WAY expensive, and even with all the dirt i have continued to make over the years we've been here..... we still won't have enough to fill the all the beds i am planning.......
and never mind that i am thinking of hooping most of the beds to temper the uneven climate lately.....
which will add to the overhead....it's going to be the BEST EVER.
no?
all my garden will BULGE with the brightest colors, the BIGGEST most delicious veggies that will convert the most dedicated carnivore...... right?
hahahahahaa
oye
anyway the beds do make things a bit easier to plant, and i imagine to weed also
i am going to eventually make a movable section for adding so i can put in root crops that really need more depth then the 12'' we are making the beds
the cold frames will be deeper as well...... and i think with polycarb panels and auto vents

anyway, yesterday while i was planting i let lilli and phoebe out to hunt bugs and keep me company, phoebe didn't get that one very long centipede that i had hoped she would but they got millepedes and sow bugs and spiders and a ton of other bugs.... some good ones, mostly bad bugs
and they ate copulating worms.....
*have i told you all how unbelievably beautiful a pair of white duckies are when they are right next to each other and scoffing up nasties in the garden? *
now what i didn't tell you is naturally i got eaten alive by mosquitos...... i don't think i got a tick although there are some tiny nymphs out there so i don't know (1/16'' by 3/16'' are about the size of the nymph ticks......so they aren't too easy to find) bernie checks me when he gets home (yeah like 5 hours later)

there......now....
today, i am going to town at noon to meet jen and lesley for coffee.....and bitching.
hahahaha
lesley has man trouble so we will gather and support her by telling her how right she is (she really is) and what a rat the man is......(he sorta is.....)
and we will laugh...... a LOT......LOUDLY
we won't solve her problems but she'll feel better about them for a while after
i also have to go to the po for watercolor paper that was out of stock
i hope my egg tempera book will be there

now bernie got home after 8:30 last night so we had a fast garbage salad and then went to bed
nothing was from my garden except the hard boiled duck eggs... as i really did have to take a year off...and that is hard when you garden (or try to) year round

but soon........
soon

very soon...........

(visions of the perfect garden salad dance in my head)

not too much to show and not too much to say

yesterday i just potted up some plants, and forgot to eat!
it was terribly hot and humid out
that's about it
today should be better

monday always fresh

now i am not totally sure how these are going to load but we'll have a go shall we?

hopefully first up are the flowers bernie bought himself and the ones i picked out.......his are the multicolored petunias, mine the rose flowered pink impatients.

sorta makes up for that tick thing last night......

now the bowl of mixed ground veggies is the base for my mac salad, the veggies are

• purple cabbage
• sweet red pepper
• sweet green pepper
• sweet onion
• fresh garlic cloves
• fresh celery

salt and fresh ground pepper (add more salt then you think you need if the weather is hot...do NOT salt the finished salad, it has to be done in the dressing)

the next bowl shows the mayo added and it stirred up (use REAL mayo)

add the elbow mac well drained but still hot

mix throughly and chill

at serving add a big heaping tablespoon of mayo just to 'wet it' and stir well

it is going to be multi colored, blue and purple and pink and green etc

any leftovers will be a purplish color but will be just as good...... FYI there are RARELY leftovers

 next i hope that the picture of one of my living room walls is showing up, with my old calico red china...and those antique etchings from england. that's my favorite wall in the house, i love china, i love transfer ware in red or purple, and i also adore china with violets on them (and occationally some roses) i love vintage english teapots too, (and i got some good ones) and yes i love hanging plates on the wall...... oh my..... i also love depression glass, in pink, yellow, green but not blue......however i do like blue milk glass go figure...(and pink and also the white milk glass)

i have a bit of modern colored glass, in pinks also.
eventually  (if we stay here) i will line the walls of the front room with shelves and put my collections up there with earthquake wax
we do use them sometimes....not often, but we do use them. bernie loves them btw, he oftens shows me a plate or a teapot and tells me 'i want that one' we get it too. he's got one with purple pansies on it.
and a cobalt blue one.
so this is a part taste of how our weekend went. it was hot, we ran and got a monster AC unit for the bedroom 12000 btu's (for a 9x10 br) but we'll leave the door open and it will do the downstairs main house as well. the other unit in the studio just does the studio so between the two we're covered.
because of the new AC unit, the easter budgies are now in the studio (they are sitting on the woodstove....we've run out of space) and they are going to be just fine i think.. they were afraid at first, but now they are starting to watch the others and chirp and such....so we expect that within the week we can add an apple wood perch and more toys etc.
i am also going to put them on a water bottle instead of open water bowls
and a mouse committed suicide in an open duck water bucket i had forgotten to empty out of the Aframe pen
so that is what happened this weekend.......
the only real mar was the heat overnight and that damn tick

other then that it was a pretty perfect weekend

we were up too late last night

i turned into a pumpkin

also last night, i got a tick on my upper arm, just where i couldn't reach, thank goodness bernie was there to try and yank it out, and that thing was latched on but good. now the last bad tick i got was on my ass.......so you know who your friends are....... just saying

we put one of the big beds together out in the main garden, bernie used all the soil from the old north south beds to fill this raised bed....... but i have stashes of my compost made soil all over the place out there, so we can keep going, even though he doesn't think so. i am going to plant the cuc's and the beans today i think...... braving ticks to do it (gees i hate ticks)

i want to net the entire garden and turn the chickens out to eat the ticks..... we have to net cause of the hawks -now we have some baby hawks out there as well.

i know they got to eat too....but not my chickens and ducks

right now i am having a quick coffee and a bagel (bad bad bad for me) i think we are first going to go get an air conditioner. it was brutal upstairs last night, no one slept not even the cats

so a very bitten up sleep vi is typing at you now

oye

studio cleaning

ok first off, i really hate to clean, well actually i hate to straighten clutter...... and i have problems with stuff on the floor....... as in it usually stays there, i mean why argue with gravity, believe me i lose that argument all the time. so imagine my surprise when i found myself cleaning my drafting table corner! now i want to paint the walls CREAM.... either whitewash or milk paint! i actually like this corner but don't like how dark the wood is..that's why a whitewash thing. i can't take the dark. - also i have an old old cheapo tv stand (thin vinyl over particle board) that is just the perfect height and and almost the perfect width for me that i need to paint....i am thinking just shooting it with krylon fusion paint for plastics......i don't know if that will work on vinyl but maybe, as it would really make my day to have that thing cream as well. i should just get the paint, and a spray gun and line all the stuff up that i want to paint, and go to town spraying it all cream. that would make my studio a lot better for my mental health. i also have a desk from the 50's to do and that BLACK CHAIR has got to have a make over SOON, i am thinking tan heavy canvas or something that i can use as a slipcover and wash the paints off. the drafting table will be up for a make over soon as well..... i am not sure what i want to do to it...it was old old 40 years ago when i got it... i think i would like to just pickle it and then wax it...or even a sort of scrubbed wood look to it...i don't want to take the patina off, just lighten it up a bit...there are still bits of original tape on it from when it was in a drafting firm! i should also flip my borco cover (self healing mat) or maybe after 25 years, i should get a new one? and move that old one to another table?

*** maybe i should whitewash then white wax the floor too? it's only underflooring..... we never laid a floor after we took the carpet up....it's partly painted a weird brown in spots, that dissolves in water!***

i am closer to making my decisions about a palette of dry pigments for egg tempera, plus i got a book coming on it. i downloaded a list of pigements that work in egg tempera from the society of egg tempera painters so i am going to go through that as a start, but most likely i am going to use the exact same pigments that i have in watercolors. as i like that bright clear palette with some earth tones mixed in here and there (it's not orthodox but i like it)

ANY suggestions for storage would be more then welcome, as i am sort of going out of my mind here.

i did realize that the supplies on my left isn't the brightest idea i've had lately, since i am having terrible problems raising my left arm to reach them- let alone trying to hold them and move them over...that arm is just bad

i also realized that i could sooooooooooooo use even more low table space for palettes and such... so i may put a larger top on my little tv cart (if that thing ever breaks..... oh man i better get making one in plywood, NOW... and add a larger top that flips open and a drawer or two in it...i CAN make it perfect i think)

bernie is a bit amused and a bit put out that i did this without waiting for him.... well hell i waited a long time, almost a year, and he didn't do it so i did

and i am going to do the next thing and the next thing and he isn't going to like it

mdsw......we aren't going.... sniff...... we are however putting in two 4' x 8' raised beds or we better be.... if not he's going to hear my mouth and then we will go to mdsw sunday.....(unless he's too tired, i worry you know)

in between i hope to spray paint something big in the studio

and maybe get some primer on the walls? what primer would i want to use with milk paints?

ok i am typing this friday, but i got it posting saturday am

soooooooooo have a good weekend you folks

is it friday already??? WARNING photo intensive

ok so i have to tell you, it's actually thursday afternoon as i type this, i may add more tomorrow but right now....thursday

now yesterday we got that daniel smith order...here is the first box as i opened it, and there is half & full watercolor pans, that are empty and waiting for colors

and palettes, as they were 3.00 each i got 5 of them, regularly over 9.00 each.... i may give one to bernie for his models if he can use it. ( i don't know how the pictures are going to show for you  folks so bare with me ok?) then today i ran and got the small screws to attach the casters as well as another set of casters that may work on my drafting table which would be good......although i most likely will fall over as i lean when i work.  they didn't have mouse traps so i have to go out again tomorrow.

then in honor of fixing or muddling that shelf thingie into a cart thingie.... or a sort of half ass taboret of sorts (my old taboret was all drawers and that is next for a makeover) i CLEANED part of the studio..... ahem..... except the floor...... and the cobwebs (which i like to think makes it halloween all year, as after all i DO halloween stuff occasionally too.......)

then i arranged some stuff on that half assed cart/taboret..... and i have the pictures to show you folks. please excuse the mess ok?

i mean what is a few cobwebs and some papers on the floor between friends right? you guys ARE my friends right??? this isn't going to appear on america's most messy artists show right??????????????? oh man

now the first picture is a terrible side shot- i have another shelf to add to the bottom which i need some help cutting as the saws vibrate too much for my bad shoulder to hold them and the wood.

i am also going to spray paint the entire thing cream as soon as the weather is a bit more predicable anyway there are some of those little plastic drawer unit thingies. top shelf has watercolors in tubes, and the clam shells with cut watercolor paper in it (quarters if anyone is interested), my humidor for the working rapidograph pens, and that turny thingie with brushes, pencils and stuffs like that

 second shelf has palettes with watercolors, sponges, tapes, the other rapidographs, some of the intense pencils, old brushes, pastels (not many, and the drafting brush tucked in between the two drawer thingies

the third shelf (there will be a fourth eventually) has office type stuff as well as my india inks (center thing) with the full set of intense on top.. saral paper, ballpoint pens, cutting things, tools, small note pads etc.  THE FOURTH shelf shall hold heavy stuff to keep the cart/taboret thing from being tippy, so that gets gallons of glue, bulk stuff that's heavy (possibly the cut paper clam shells if i get a few metal ones....that stuff is HEAVY) so there you go......that is what i am working on in the studio at the moment

how about THAT?

any organizational suggestions would be most appreciated btw, i keep the refrence drawings in manilla envelopes in my magazine files that i made..... cool huh?

edited to fix some spelling and to tell you that i have been tweeking that area so it functions a bit 'cleaner' i'll do the floor later i suppose

5am and i am stoking the stove

isn't this like..........almost may?
ok i had some interesting dreams.....old boyfriends! some of which are dead (where not dead in the dreams but didn't hang around long enough for me to realize)
the first one was jon and bob hiking TOGETHER over the mountain to jon's mountain cabin....i checked his cell phone battery levels and they were almost dead.......so i told him to get a 'solar wrist recharger' before they left so if 'anything happened' they could call.......even though bob would have his with him

then i dreamt of another bob.....bobby, who died very very young from aides
i dreamt we were in what at first glance was an art supply store but really had a ton of musical instruments laying around.......i asked him about french horns but he picked up a sax and asked me to pay for it as he had to leave..... actually he asked me to just stand on line as he had an account with this place (he was in real life a highly gifted musician, on the keyboard...organ and piano) he had to leave for a gig with a symphony.... but as the checkout didn't know ME, they got his grandfather out (after i waited forever) and suddenly it turned into a drug store with the grandfather raving about how he needed to reform from being homosexual......(bobby was gay, and just starting to come out when he died-he was very very young, i don't even think he was 25 yet) before it killed him (back then no one knew how to prevent aides and it was a 'gay' disease)

it was the weirdest two interconnecting dreams. .......fast forward to this morning where i am contemplating the taboret of sorts i made yesterday
i took a shelf that was useless as a bookcase, and reinforced the legs that bernie said couldn't be done....
then i got casters out....but i don't have screws to put the casters on....so a trip to the store i suppose today is in order

my daniel smith (edited cause i got the name wrong, oye) art supplies came, they took a bit longer to ship then blick but they are wrapped so much better..... in fact i am keeping one box and going to cover it with paper as it is so nice.
that was the order of palettes and empty watercolor pans
in looking at the water color pans, i am wondering if it would be cost efficient to make them in porcelain here in the studio?
i COULD make masters in wood and just pour in white porcelain and clear glaze them....hmmmmm
that would be a lot of work however.

in other art supply news, the more i think about it the more i am thinking pigments are going to be coming home to a study near me....
dry pigments
lots of them
i realized that i have made my own paints (duh, i always made my own china paints) and if i have pigments i can make egg tempera, watercolors, oils, pastels.....and if i bought acrylic medium....i could make that too..... as well as casein and milk paints, white wash etc......
before i do that i want to have a cabinet for them and the jars for them
but the egg tempera thing hasn't gone away.....it would take about 3 weeks for me to do an egg tempera....well isn't that about how long it takes me to do a blk/wht?
(which i got another one on the board now...phoebe with her wings up-we'll see how this goes)

this weekend is maryland sheep and wool but we aren't going.....we ARE going to put two more beds in my garden, both of which will be 8'X4' (then two weeks after that will be another two foot bed and a cold frame, and possibly the framework for a greenhouse out of a shed hardware kit, and greenhouse plastic)

meanwhile bernie is exhausted, (also why we aren't going to sheep and wool) he isn't sleeping and he's working so hard. which is part of the reason i decided that i would do that little bit of rough carpentry on my own. he (and i ) forget i can and have used power tools, i'm the one who taught him to
i wish we had a table saw though, as it would make some things a lot easier.....and a power miter saw would be nice too
then i would build my own damn computer desk and my own really nice taboret with paper drawers and paint drawers

i am still struggling with the after effects of that fall(so i get out power tools.....smart vi, real smart)..... my knees are now hurting too...my right knee feels loose.......and there is pain in the left one
so today when i get changed i am going to put my tie shoes on.......really i should also go to town today and get some odds and ends...mouse traps too....and use that gift card before it gets a service charge
oye
and one day soon i need to get to the provisioner and get chickens breasts for canning and freezing......(summer salads here we come)

***ahhhhhhhh the first sip of a fresh pot of coffee......oh man that feels good****
really i should do some mop up shopping today or tomorrow
we haven't run errands in a while so i haven't been out of the house really for a bit.... and also small stuff hasn't gotten boughten like mouse traps...... and a diverter thingie for my hose- stuff like that you know......and a short round of the dollar type stores for small cheapo stuff you didn't know you wanted or even needed (and most you don't need but occationally you find something you can't do without- i got my canning tools that way)
i would really like to find a nice set of happy colored summery dishes etc to take out on the deck. in hot oranges, magenta, yellows, turqouise and maybe lime green.......so far nothing strikes me as perfect
it would really make bernie happy to have deck stuff like that.
(said while stoking a woodstove ....and it's MAY just about)
ok now the sun is coming up sorta kinda....i hope to have pictures of my frankenstein taboret and maybe my daniel green order either later or tomorrow
mean while i am going to finish this first cup of coffee........ debate on stuffing the boneless chicken legs with ham and cheese and rolling them in bread crumbs for supper (and making a light mushroom sauce for them with the mushroom concentrate i made and canned) what do you all think of that?
morning everyone
have another cup with me ok?

good morning everyone, we got the woodstove on again

this is april? it got cold last night so i lit the woodstove. i brought wood in .....(not the best for my shoulder) then bernie brought in wood for the night and today.

it's april huh?
soon to be may?
i am starting to really lean towards making my own paints from ground pigments.......i am thinking that with an investment in pigments, i can make watercolors, oils, pastels, and egg tempera.
make sense???
now explain to bernie how i need to find storage for a whole 'nudder bunch of art supplies................?
anyway i have been dangerously close to ordering pigments.......lots and lots of pigments....with the rational that it would save money over the long term... ahem..... (but i just HAVE to have that cobalt blue you know.........) anyway it's better to walk away for a bit..
i flipped that shelf unit over yesterday, and yes it will do what i want it to do......bernie has resigned himself to it as well.
i may also have to add to it and make something else.........
i think he is trying hard to stem the tide of work coming out of the studio.... cause that means even more stuff (like storage for finished work etc)

knitting updates: i am almost done with the second repeat on the leg of the first sock, i am knitting very slow because my arm is hurting so much..but it is an enjoyable knit....i love this yarn from spirit trail (sunna)

MDSW: we most likely aren't going. that would delay the garden by another week....... as bernie won't do anything sunday..... (he'll be too tired)

shoulder: still hurts, aches, burns......all the way down my arm into my hand and fingers so there is some impingement going on i am pretty sure

duckies: momma is laying, lilli is bitchy, phoebe......well phoebe is content to play in her water bucket (sorta like calpurrnia with a leaf in the corner)

cats: thaddeaus is taken to sitting on a pillow behind my chair so he won't be tempted to jump on the budgies...he doesn't like the results when he does that- fawn has taken to sitting ON my drafting chair while i draw.....and of course calpurrnia is calpurrnia....... and the only one who comes to bed when the woodstove is on...thaddeaus and fawn tend to stay and worship the woodstove (you didn't know that the woodstove was a deity did you?.........now you know)

chickens: new baby pullets are getting big, but not laying yet.....soon though very soon (i can't wait)

budgies: ok mrs fezziwig is mature now.....her cere is a brownish tan and captain cuttle's is a nice bright blue..... maybe babies? they fight a lot though. the easter budgies are not named yet.... i don't know for sure if the little bluish one is male or female...... and they have one more month of quarantine to go- which allows me another month to figure out where they will go in the studio to get everyone used to each other (although i am seriously thinking of bringing them down and putting them on the other side)
i have them a kabob toy to chew but so far they are acting like it's a budgie eating kabob..... such is life with budgies

did i miss anything?

i am going to get another cup of coffee, as it isn't too bad this morning, and i am not too awake this morning
anyone care to join me?

sleep glorious sleep

i took two arthritis pain and two aspirin last night, and guess what??????????? YUP i SLEPT
not all through the entire night but the most sleep i got since i fell last week.
so then i overslept

oh man
hahahahahahaha

in knitting i was also able to pick up the sock for jen at spirit trail, i can't knit long on it, but i can do about 2 rows then put it down
same sort of progress with drawing
slow but steady
this fall took a lot out of me, it was one of the worst ones i have had yet. normally i fall out back in dangerous conditions, ice, snow, blizzards.....and i stick to the fence or can't get up....(ok so i also fall in 'duck mud') but in terms of getting injured, this was the worst.

it isn't raining here today....amazing huh? maybe my clothes on the line that have been rained on for three days will dry now? or just what? grow mold?
oye
i brought some of them in and hung them on the inside line but without the woodstove on they didn't dry much

now i can't delay much longer, i have to re-pot the seedlings that are huge..........HUGE, did i mention that?
oye
there aren't many but i haven't got pots !
although i think the impatients can go right into the planter i have waiting for them... the eggplant, peppers and tomatoes just need to be moved on to larger
i wish i had a green house and some cold frames
i am going to order impatient and begonia seeds online, as i realized i could start them any time, and keep them as house plants like i did with my 1$ begonia i got at the end of last year.... i cut it back and rooted the cuttings and now have a nice little plant.... i got 10 plant at 1$ each, i got flowering maple, scented geranium, begonia, and coleus.......i lost one scented geranium
the rest all prospered and i am going to put them outside this summer again, and try again next winter to winter them over in the house
cool huh? meanwhile i think i will again take cuttings from them
now if i had a warm greenhouse attached to this house.......... i could never have to buy any of them again, just take more cuttings!!!! hahahahahaha
oye
(really it's the challenge of doing it)

supper last night: smothered pork chops, mixed grains with garlic, green beans...... wow it was GOOD...i was able to cook, and bernie was pretty happy about it
i am thinking i need to make sauce today......if i find chopmeat in the freezer

this saturday is MDSW maryland sheep and wool festival......down in friendship md....
i haven't been since the year the ducks came
i would love to go
i am not sure if we can as planting is so close and that saturday would get me two more beds in the garden.... if we go i have to wait another week and that will delay planting
although i am tempted to go today and hoe out where the beans are going......... but at the back of the raised beds i am also going to put a row of beans on a trellis.......

meanwhile, i am sitting here having my coffee, and yes i am late today, i slept!
tomorrow i should go to town, but i most likely won't.......
the birds could use a few new toys (the easter budgies)

ok everyone have a wonderful day