First Harvest... In disguise

We had an yellow tomato ripen weeks earlier than its little friends - it's officially our first harvest. I took a photo to remember it forever.

Then I thought maybe, just maybe, we should have a bit more fanfare. So I snagged this pic. Too formal?

Veggies galore!

That's what we are hoping for, at least. This is our newest project -- a raised veggie bed! I have planted two kinds of lettuce, carrots, spinach, green beans, zucchini, cucumbers, and tomatoes and peppers are going in today. With luck, something will live. It would be nice to have fresh veggies this summer!

Recuperating

It has been far too long since I last visited this space, and I miss it! We have survived the worst winter of our lives, and I think we are just now recuperating from it.

Around here lately

I have been horrendous at keeping this blog up to date. And then I sat down this evening and started to think about it, what a great diary it has been in terms of remembering when we did what in the yard, when we did what to the house, and so forth. So I have a bit of catching up to do for 2014.

Let's start here.

Three years later, purple iris.

I purchased these iris bulbs the year we moved in, and they were supposed to be sky blue. Two years went by and I had lovely leaves on them, but no buds. They were evidently saving their energy up for this year, because these suckers just took off. 

Not exactly sky blue, but lovely anyway.

Gorgeousness, right?

They were just breathtaking. Which is good, because someone (we all know who) ate my delphiniums down to nothing this year, with the exception of one stalk that managed to hide in the iris. And my roses aren't happy this year at all. I have to move that autumn clematis out of there and give everyone some space. That plant has taken over!

Another new addition to the other side of the fence is a new herb garden. 

I've got some lavender, lemonbalm, anise, oregano, cardinal flowers (which are doing diddly squat for me) and some basill in there. Maybe something else too, but I forget now. I need to make some nice markers to stick in there so I can remember what everything is called.

And in the front of the house along the driveway, I hauled out a bunch of dead grass and places that are just determined to be dirt to add in a new perennial garden.

Not the best photo of it, but I will work on others. It took me an entire day to do this, and I seriously tuckered myself out. But I've got a good variety of stuff in there and it makes me incredibly happy. There's portulaca (one of my favorite words), daisies, brown-eyed Susans, a couple kinds of sedums, lupine, sage, butterfly weed, chocolate clover, hopefully some poppies and hollyhocks that will do something next year, and some other stuff. Oh, a rosebush. That one isn't happy either. Not a good year for my roses for some reason! Josh picked up some rose food/disease ridder for me and I need to spray them all with it. Maybe that will appease the masses.

Autumn clematis, or snowflakes in September

A friend gave my Mum three autumn clematis, and mum passed one on to me. That was last year, and frankly, I didn't think it would do much. It was a tiny plant at the time... I guess 2013 was meant to be its power year! 

It has lovely little white flowers that remind me of snowflakes. This is the only kind of snow I am comfortable with in September. We already have a frost warning for tonight - I'm not thrilled. Am also not thrilled about the dead bumblebees I just found in the back yard. They did town wide mosquito spraying last night, and though I called to ask that they leave our area alone, it looks like there are still casualties. I can only imagine what we all got to inhale last night while we slept. 

Dreamy bouquet

I got these peonies and old orange blossoms from my aunt and uncle's garden - they are just amazing. A short post today, but I just wanted to share pics anyway. Beautiful flower clouds.

Memorial Day

I'm not sure that this post can seem like it's anything other than morbid. But it's not morbid to me. It's really related to gardening, in kind of a philosophical way.

When I was growing up, my Gram made it her duty at Memorial Day to put flowers on all of our family graves. (Granted, you should probably just be focusing on the graves of the veterans in your family, but always practical, she figured we'd just do them all and get it done.)

That tradition sort of faded away when Gram passed, which is unfortunate. To be honest, Memorial Day tends to surprise me every year. "Wait, what? It's here already? Didn't we just do Easter?"

For some reason, this year I was prepared. I have been thinking about loss lately. And about traditions. And why traditions can make loss a little bit easier.

So I informed my parents that I wanted to do flowers at the cemetery again this year. Armed with our best geraniums, we set out to find the family graves.

Now this is the part where you're going to say I'm morbid -- yes, I did take photos of the graves. I had two reasons for doing this: 1) I wanted to write about them. 2) I am considering posting them on ancestry.com for people who are looking to trace their family roots, etc. That kind of stuff can be helpful when you are from a family of immigrant Swedes!

I am also irritated with the quality of these pics. My iPad did not serve me well here.

We stopped to put a geranium on the grave of my great-aunt Winnifred's parents (Winnifred married Eskiel, my grandfather's brother.) Then we moved on to the graves of my great-grandparents and great aunt, followed by the grave of a family friend.


Great Aunt Ella, and my great-grandparents, John & Frederika Willamina (who I am sort of named for in a round-about way.)

 We then made our way over to our main family section, where I was working away at uncovering Uncle Charlie's stone that gets eaten up by grass every year. We also put a geranium on my great-uncle Alec's grave (along with his wife, Eleanor), and he was also a vet. (WWI, I think?)


Uncle Charlie, who is the main character in several colorful family stories. Also a veteran from WWII.

 And finally, I worked on my grandparent's grave, which was over run by weeds and leaves. (My uncle Ken, great-grandmother Nellie, great-aunt Fran and great-uncle Lynn are also buried here.) I replaced the weeds with geraniums and two dahlias, one orange and one yellow. I need to come back down and do some more stuff -- the other side could use some attention. Also, the bushes on either side of the stone absolutely have to be removed. We're thinking of replacing them with azaleas.


Ethel, John, Ken, Nellie, Fran & Lynnwood

 It was a long morning and a bit labor intense at times, but it felt good. It was a connection to family, both here and gone. And if you can create that through gardening, then all the better!

A new tactic

I'm trying a new tactic against you-know-who. And I think we all know who. He/she has four legs, a brown fuzzy butt, a voracious appetite for everything in our yard, and lives in the bat cave under the neighbors' shed.

So far, this stuff appears to work. For now. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it stays that way.

Pocket full of kryptonite.

Let's hear it for the little guys

Words really cannot express how happy I am right now. My miniature irises are blooming! My aunt and uncle brought them down last summer from their garden, and I added them to my little flower bed. They didn't look too terribly happy when I transplanted them, but today I went out to find healthy leaves and darling little blooms. Good job guys!

Rah, rah, siss boom bah! 

Goooooo team!

A bit of mulch

I'd like to begin this post by saying that I thought these photos were far better than they are in reality. Oops.

This here is one of them "before and after" entries -- or my general opinion on how much (mulch) nicer things can look with a refreshing layer of color. (My philosophy is the same regarding my hair.)

Back with a vengeance

After a long winter's nap, I am back to the ol' blogeroonie. To be fair, I really haven't had anything house or yard related to talk about as all it did all winter was snow. And since I hate snow, I had no interest in discussing it.

We are just ending a two-week vacation that led us to Sanibel Island -- my dream home -- and back on a flight from hell. (13 hours, door to door, to get from Florida to Massachusetts.) But it was such a treat coming home to see these little guys! A blanket of phlox. They have filled out so much since I planted them last year, and they are starting to drape over the wall. I think next year will be even prettier! A reward for investing in perennials.

10,000,000 blossoms

10,000,001

A bit of cleaning needs to be done. Ignore that and focus on the pretty stuff.

Holidays in review

I'm pretty sure Christmas was here at some point. It was a complete whirlwind, but it was here. And we were merry. Josh and I do our presents on Christmas Eve, and little miss Tuukka was in rare form. She had to be in the middle of everything, and even sat on the arm of the couch so that she could be right next to the tree when I was playing Santa and passing out presents. And since she was a good girl all year, Santa brought her some goodies as well.

Someone is spoiled rotten.

Test chicken

Oh yeah, I have a blog. Geez, I nearly forgot!

Much has been going on, mostly related to us running around like chickens with our heads cut off now that its the holiday season. And speaking of chickens...

May I present my first baked chicken! It was my test chicken before our Thanksgiving celebration that included about 20 family members on my Mum's side of our family. The chicken was about 7 pounds.

Chicken Little.

This beauty, however, was a good 20 and took about 4 1/2 hours to cook. I basted it every half hour -- it was a delicious labor of love. And nobody died after eating it!

Turkey Lurkey.

I realize that many people cook this way on a daily basis -- whole chickens and so forth. This is new territory for me, and makes me feel quite domesticated. I'm excited to work on some new stuff soon -- I am making it a New Year's resolution to learn how to cook at least five new things next year. Doesn't sound like a lot, but I'm a slow learner. Obviously.

A whole lot of nothing...

...has been going on with this blog. I feel like the past two months have been a whirlwind of work, family events, and never ending to-do lists. But then sometimes, things slow down enough to enjoy the little things. And the fuzzy things.

Priorities, people.

Tricks and treats

It's that time of year again - time for the annual pumpkin carve-off that Josh and I have each October. It's not really competitive, but it's definitely serious business. Josh had his design chosen a week ahead of time, while mine was Googled at last minute. We are both happy with our creations and hope they hold up long enough to use them on Halloween. We also feel that his bears a striking resemblance to his grandfather, which has been the topic of hot debate within the family. Pretty amusing if you ask me.

His & Hers.

Bring on the trick or treaters! We're ready for you!

Long time no see!

Worst. Blogger. Ever. Who wanders off from their blog for two weeks? This gal, evidently! Truth be told, there hasn't been a whole lot of excitement going on in the garden front. I do, however, wish to share this beautiful blossom with you. This beauty is half dahlia, half peony -- my two favorite flowers in my favorite color. Of course, the woodchuck ate the first blossoms that it had earlier this summer, and it took the rest of the summer for it to rebloom. I was thrilled to be able to enjoy it again before we hit freezing the other night. I hope I get to see it again next summer!

The highlight of my gardening career.

A little project, or the benefits of yard sales



The bubblegum house from hell.

 Here's a little project I finished this past week. A friend and I went yard saleing a few weeks ago, and we both came back with some fabulous treasures. She ended up with a vintage chair that she scored for $2 (nice!) and I had a multitude of little weird things that I planned on turning into craft projects.  At one sale, I ended up filling up a box of random items, and this was one of them -- a Lil Kids Tiny Toy Shop. Hideously pink, but I love the form. Look at the little shelves! And the arched doorway. And the little roof! It had potential.

So I did what any self-respecting crafter would do: I hauled out the spray paint again. (Not that this is becoming a problem or anything. I do not have an addiction to spray painting things now. Nope.) And what color would convert this pink nightmare into something fun? Why yes, the answer is black. Very good! 



Pumpkins! Get your pumpkins here!

 Here's our converted house -- it's now a pumpkin stand. My first vision was to turn this into a little garden shed or something, but with the Halloween season fast approaching, it didn't take long to convert the idea into a holiday decoration.

Projects like this are a great way to use up the little doo-dads that you have kicking around.  Granted, I bought all the cute little pumpkins at my favorite craft store (Absolutely Everything in Topsfield, MA), but the rest I had in my stash. The patterned stuff is all paper and a fabric ribbon, the skull is a bead that I received in a swap, the bucket that the skull is sitting in is something I had picked up from Home Depot.  (Josh says there's an actual use for them, and thinks it's amusing that I saw them and said, "Aw, little pots!" They were in the washer and nail aisle.)



We've got big pumpkins and small pumpkins!

 I had moss kicking around from several other wreath projects, so that had to go in here. I like that it makes it feel like it's being overgrown.  Much like our front garden. (Ha.)



And some fancy stuff in bottles -- probably magic potions.

 I made the signs and window boards out of grungeboard from Ranger. The bottles I picked up at the AE yard sale this year, and they were originally clear so I colored them with alcohol inks and added glitter. The number 13 is actually a weird magnet thing that I also got at the yard sale, and I needed something there on the roof.  An unlucky number seemed appropriate.



 



Don't mind our broken windows!

  I have also had this stained glass window thing from Jolee's sitting around forever. It's one of those things that I have always thought was super cute (thus why I bought it probably about five years ago) and just couldn't find the right place to use it. It has finally found a home. (Or rather, a pumpkin stand.)

And there you have it -- trash to treasure. Well, I think it's treasure. It's certainly better than the bubblegum mansion I started out with. It was seriously fun to make, so for that reason alone I'm pretty happy with it. Josh seems to like it a lot too, so hopefully this is just another argument for the benefits of yard saleing. (See, I actually did something with some of the stuff I bought! It's not just junk I brought home!)





World domination and new rosebushes



Taking over the world one bug zapper at a time.


I had a friend who warned me about trumpet vines -- she said they take over the world and that we should get ours out of the front garden. I mentioned this to Josh, who has been very excited about attracting more hummingbirds, and he wasn't sold on the idea.  Then he read about them online and how they really do take over the world. So it got moved. 

I can't recall if I have mentioned before that we have what used to be a giant bug zapper in our backyard. (In other words, we have a very large, very ugly metal pole in the corner of the yard.) My brilliant husband put two and two together, and voila! A new home for the trumpet vine.  Hopefully it will grow right up this puppy and we'll have more hummingbirds than you can shake a stick at. The pavers aren't really that white in real life -- I took the pic when it was sunny out and the just seem to glow.  (They're the same gray as the pavers we used to edge the patio.)






Everything is turning up roses.



So what took over the trumpet vine's place in the front garden? I'm so glad you asked! It appears that most garden centers have their perennials and other good stuff on sale since its the end of the season. Yours truly ended up with two new rosebushes at about half off the original price. So if they survive the winter, we should have a lovely rose garden next year. I also stuck my two iris bulbs in here, so hopefully they do something magical too. 

Pettengill's in Salisbury is having a big festival this weekend with antiques and crafts. (And plants, of course.) I hope to make it over there to see if they have anything on sale again. We went to their spring festival and it was marvelous. That's where we got the glass bird bath -- a guy makes them out of recycled glass pieces and puts them all together to make beautiful garden stuff.

I love beautiful stuff. These people must see me coming a mile away.