jewelry and squares

kaitlyn(DD)said i should put this on my blog.  so here it is.  the fabric the the necklaces are laying on is the jacket that i made for the cruise trip.  it is silk fabric that mike brought back from china for me.  i love it!  but it took me a couple of years to figure out what to make out of it.(thanks sheila)  the cruise was a great excuse to sew it up in to a jacket for our dressy dinners.  the green stone is christophase which i have also had for awhile and it matched the green in the jacket perfectly(amazing)  it is a hard green to match.  the other necklace is a dark grey freshwater pearl.  each is hand wrapped and it took me ALL day to make it. very labor intensive!

i love to paint.  i don't have enough time for it.  someday.....this is my painters palette and brushes

i have my tea pot on a lace table cloth, so here is my coffee pot and mug! i enjoy tea, but want my coffee 1st thing in the morning.

i like the pouring from 1 square to another

my latest 7 squares

CAN YOU FIND MY PEAS??  there are 3 of them among the leaves, blossoms and vine.  they are hard to find sometimes in real life, too!!

DASHER DOG and his bone

I HAVE HAD GOATS since almost day 1 on this farm that we started over 10 years ago.  we are thinking about getting out of goats, but they have been a big part of my life.

I LOVE BIRDS and nests, and when i work with jewelry, i enjoy pearls.

EVERY YEAR we have a number of barn sallows take up residents in a few of our out buildings.  there she is and her chicks have their mouths open and ready for a  bug.  it is fun to watch them fly, whirl, and dive.  WATCH OUT KITTIES!!

porch flowers and plants

I LOVE SITTING ON MY FRONT PORCH, especially in the spring and fall, but the summer,too, in the mornings and evenings when it is not to hot.  i have alot of fun creating flower pots.  i have seen a hummingbird at my flowers already this year.   instead of buying 3 hanging pots($15+ea.) i bought some little starters from mouse creeknurseryhttp://www.mousecreekperennialfarm.com/ i probably spent less on the 3-4plants than on one hanging plant.

I love OXALIS  and now have 5 varieties.  these are 2 of them.  i also have the plain green

and 2 mini varieties purple and green.

i also have some tomatoes on my porch.  these are 100 cherries.

MY HEADLINER PICTURE

I  have been wanting to talk about my title picture that you see first thing when opening my blog.  I think it is one of my best pictures!  it is taken off my front porch at sunrise one morning a couple of winters ago.  you can see the smoky mountains in the far background.

WATCHFUL

MY 2  BABY GEESE!!  IT seems silly that there are only 2, hopefully more are on the way.

  The mama geese is still setting on their other eggs, and the rest of the flock is babysitting.  they are very watchful for preditors.  i think it is kinda cool that the whole flock is taking responsibility for the babies.  hopefully more are to come.  there are at least 3 geese setting on eggs in the barn.

AFTER A GREAT RAIN  last night, i decided to head out to check how everything is doing.
i also decided to put in a few more seeds.  last year i had tons of sunflowers, but had not gotten around to planting any this year.  i will tuck a few in where i can.  i have a pot of herbs growing on my back porch and I'll put somemore french thyme and creeping thyme in the pot.

i will RE-plant my limas and scarlet beans. it was either to crowded or something liked my seeds-large tasty bean seeds.

FINCHES ITIBITS

ball of yarn, house finch, and my knitting.  it's really knitted!!

MY NEW ITIBITS!!  I think  this is my favorite, so far !  it takes up 3 squares +(can't stay in the lines(paula))

sheila, thanks for the yarn and bits of thread.

1st PEAS and BEAN SPROUTS

my beans are sprouting great!  and will hopefully be climbing up my bean tower very soon.  it seems that when they start up the tower, they really take off.

i replanted some of my limas.  they did not seem to be sprouting well.

I HAVE PEAS already!!  and many blossoms on  the pea vines.  they have pretty little white double heart blossoms.

may 12 garden

FOR MOTHERS DAY  mike built me a arbor, of sorts, to support my growing kiwi.  he made it out of leftover oak from building our house.  it is staked into the ground and off the ground with landscaping timbers.  it is very rustic looking!(on purpose)

this is my kiwi plant that has been growing for about 3 years.  i am going to train it to start growing up the arbor. last year it seemed i still had 3 kiwi-2female and1 male. this year, maybe because of the harsh winter i lost 2. so i am going to have to replace the 2 with 1 female and 1 male

i have started training it to grow UP the arbor by tying cotton string lightly around the vine and posts.

i somehow ended up with a very hardy passion flower in my garden.  maybe carried in by seed by birds?  last year it even fruit, but the birds got to it before i did!  with my new arbor i decided to transplant it from a raised bed(2) to the opposite corner from the kiwi.

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itibits 11-16

TEAPOT on lace table cloth

my dh(dear husband) mr. geek.  LOL  love you hun!!



















my broken flower pot and garden charms

spring garden 6

this hypertuffa pot is by the back steps and porch.  there is 2 corsica mint-mini leaf, with chocolate mint in the middle.











this is my siberian iris-beautiful-up in my front bed













this is hardy geranium by the back porch











these are some of my seedlings, that i still have to plant, but i hope get alittle bigger before i do.

this is my mushroom composed pile

spring garden 5

these are my 2 sorrels the right one is starting to flower and the other is purple veined.  (sorry it is sidways)

this is my mulberry tree with the beginnings of berry's-YUMMM

this is one of my blackberry bushes starting to come in bloom.

this is some apples, there are only a few.

this is one of my peach trees, i need to spray again this week

spring garden 4

1. this is my main asparagus bed that probably was put in 6 years ago.  it is the first thing i get to harvest in the spring.    there are a goose berry on each end.  i also transplanted strawberries and dill from my burmuda grass infested far west corner bed   

2.the bed next to my main asparagus bed also has asparagus in about 1/2 of the bed.  i also have rhubarb and another gooseberry.





















3. the purple flower is my comphrey that is blossoming
















4. purple flower on my chives.  i will have to make potato salad and decorate with the edible flowers.

STARTING IN THE LEFT TOP CORNER AND GOING FROM LEFT TO RIGHT is a pic to the 2 beds that have the peas and lettuces and cress, raab, and giant spinach planted from last year.

the next 2 pictures are of lettuces and some onions.  the next picture-with the pool in the back and arche and trellis'  will be my main bean and cuk bed.  they both have onions-red and white.  the left one has been invaded by sun chokes(which is my fault)  i am trying to get rid of them in that bed-but i am not doing real well.  the left bed also has some rhubarb.  i put 2 tomatoes in the left bed also.  the right bed was my tomato bed last year-'09.  the bottom left pic is some more lettuce-i will have it coming out of my ears very soon.  the right pic might be little cone flower seedlings(I hope!)  i had an cone flower there but moved it to the back fence.