Ode to my Gardens and Homes

After nearly 21 years of living in our wonderful mountain home, finally we have had our hillside landscaped. This dogwood now lives by the front door where an unruly mountain laurel once lived. Underneath the dogwood will be hydrangeas and ferns. We've had a stone wall added by our driveway and on our unruly hillside. The landscapers added quite a few plants and of course I had to add my own. I've planted some Japanese irises by the water feature and some herbs and tomatoes. I'll be anxious for Mother's Day as I can add more perennials and more tomatoes. I was taking a huge risk with the first ones, but thus far, the weather has been good.

I've slipped down to our beach place while my son in law paints my living room/dining room/kitchen and main floor bathroom; and am enjoying the garden here too, the roses are blooming, the hydrangeas are full of promise and all my herbs are happy and spreading especially the mint, good thing I like it a lot. I have one raspberry bush and three blueberry bushes. I'm hoping we can be here when they fruit. I'm hoping to add the same to my mountain home too. I've been in the mood to cook so have made dinner for several nights for my widower neighbor. Each time I take him a plate of hot food he has forgotten who I am, but his Bulldog Bitsy remembers me quite well and is ever so glad to see me. She's so short and fat and so full of bubbling energy. I continue to patiently explain who I am...Becky from next door. Tonight I am making us a bacon and potato frittata. I look forward to tasting that.

I love both our homes so much I'm not quite sure where I'd rather be. Just now my hubby is back in Dubai and we talk via Skype, nothing is quite the same without him with me. He too has a problem about where to be...at the beach or in the mountains. Thankfully we'll soon be retired and we can do both at random.

For now I'm washing all my tea towels and dish cloths as I've had a little "visitor" in my absence. I don't mind the company, it's that they're not potty trained and they tend to be a bit destructive. So I must set out my farewell meal for them and hope they leave for good. So for today it's cleaning out all the kitchen while I talk with my sweetie via Skype. I guess I could just call this spring cleaning and learn to love the process of it. Actually I do as I love our little beach place so much. It's a bit chilly today, had to put on a sweatshirt for my porch sitting earlier.

I have a few errands to run, minor things...mouse bait, I need envelopes and stamps and then I plan to spend my afternoon with my crochet and perhaps a good movie. For the morning I'll get my work done, that's the way my Mother used to do it. I should follow her footsteps a bit more.

Speaking of gardens...I am wondering how my lime tree in Dubai is doing.

New Landscaping

Oh I've been trying to hold back and wait until it's finished to post a picture of our new landscaping.
But it seems I can't wait, so typical of me. There's still a few days work left to do, plants to be set in, sod to be laid and all the clean up from the "construction". Here is a taste of what is to come in my garden.

Crochet calms my soul

Well, I found this picture in a yarn shop catalog advertised as a pattern and have made up my own version using Vanna White's yarn. I cast on 223 chains, then did a single crochet in the second chain from hook and repeated all the way across, chain one and turn and I go in the back of the loop, though I first started alternating front/back with the rows, then decided it would be prettier to go in the back of the loop so I would get the ridges, but I kept those first few rows and will try to duplicate them when I get to the end. I'm using slightly different color combos than this picture. I crochet everywhere I go and so many women stop me and admire the colors in this piece. As soon as I get a few more rows on I'll include a picture of my piece..
I'm eager to get to the end of this one as I want to do one in creams and lavendar, purple and white I think to go with a quilt I am making for my guest room.

Button Dyeing for Chernobyl

Yesterday a friend from our quilt guild taught our stitch group how to dye buttons. Who knew? There was a small charge for the class and supplies. All profits went to benefit the victims of the Chernobyl disaster. To volunteer or donate go to their website chernobyl2000ltd.co.uk

You start out with white plastic buttons, all shapes and sizes and designs. Also buy beads.

you add water, buttons and the tiniest amount of disperse dye to a pan that you will never use for anything else. Bring all to a boil until the color is as you choose. Then rinse and drain and wash rinse with your dish soap and hot water. Rinse until your water runs clear, then lay out to dry on old towels pressing the moisture out.

Separate by colors/size or however you like, then make the jewelry. We worked in alternate groups of four to make these bracelets. We all had a great time together, learned something new and contributed to the efforts for the folks of Chernobyl. Our friend and her friends have made thousands of dollars for them making and selling dyed button bracelets. It's a small way to show you care about others misfortune.

Weddings and such

This is a picture of a wedding house....we see these pop up around our neighborhood from time to time. We never see the bride or groom, just know there is a wedding taking place from the beautiful lights. From what we understand there are papers signed, the men celebrate in one place the women in another and the groom comes to fetch the bride at midnight. Different from what we're all used to but a marriage none the less and in the night sky these brightly lit homes are so beautiful. We've seen the men with their sticks and drums, singing and dancing in the night air, but we have never seen the women, they are so carefully hidden from view.
I'm working on many projects at the moment. Two quilts, and one afghan with more in my minds eye so I am trying to get my work done and move forward with the things I want to do next.
I spied a gorgeous well organized sewing room on an OPB earlier...oh OPB? Other People's Blogs! It was just so neat, tidy, organized. It looked like maybe a garage that had been redone. This lady was so organized, she labeled every thing so everything was quite literally at her fingertips. Oh how many times have I searched for an hour for some little thing I think I really need and of course have never found it in that hour but found about ten other things I want to fool with? That's me, a professional at puttering and pondering!

Olive Shells...who knew?

These are the olive shells and the fossil I have picked up on the beach in Fujairah, UAE on the Gulf of Oman off the Indian Ocean.
I did a tiny bit of research about the olive shells and discovered they are carnivorous, feeding on bivalves and carrion...carrion being other dead animals...they take their food and burrow into the sand to feed. Apparently all the shells I found were already dead themselves as there is nothing inside them. They secrete a mucous that can produce a purple dye. I am intrigued by them as they are each one vastly different, much like so many other things in nature. It does make one wonder how on earth nothing is completely identical, now that fascinates me! I have a rather pretty glass jar with a lid at home and I think I will put this collection of olive shells in that. I so enjoyed my quiet moments this morning gathering them on the beach and daydreaming about how to best display them.
And the fossil...wow...I haven't been able to discover much about that....it's just beautiful, a bit heavy for it's small size. I have researched some star fish and discovered they too are vastly different and there are many in the species though I did not find anything even close really to this fossil. I wonder about some sort of lily or other plant life. I just found one called Bryophyta that looks to me a bit like ferns of some sort just found that too called a crinoid. You can find just about anything on the internet.
My memory these days is not such that I would remember all this data but it is fun to search it out and write a dibble dab about it. Meanwhile I will continue my collecting of shells tomorrow and for now will dive back into my book...The Mermaid's Chair by Sue Monk Kidd. I find it rather intriguing.

My Valentine

My husband I had a rather quiet, though sort of unusual Valentine's Day...It was one of those jet lag nights that I could not get to sleep, laid there thinking what can I do to make that little silver box of candy more special for him? The man who has everything, wants nothing is difficult to plan or buy for as he literally wants nothing. Well I got up and went downstairs and cleaned up the kitchen, having been too tired to clean it up earlier...so I cleaned it, prepared all the coffee fixings for the next morning, laid out a plate, the box of pastries we had purchased, a banana and his cup and spoon and set out the precious little silver box of delightful Bateel chocolates, the very best in Dubai we think. So I finally fell asleep about 6am and my husband was up at 6:30, I heard nothing of course. He kissed me goodbye, told me Happy Valentines Day and I groggily came to and went downstairs to at least feed the dog...and there waiting for me on the breakfast bar was my identical little Bateel box and a large card and an even larger Big Brown Bag...inside was a lovely fun bathrobe we had spied the week before at the new Bloomingdale's in Dubai Mall. I laughed out loud at the silver box of candy....we were both stunned that we had picked the same box of chocolates...two minds, one heart. I hope all of you had a lovely Valentine's Day too.