Dreaming of Summer

 

There I have said it! I am dreaming of summer. We worked in the garden this weekend. It was lovely. The air was perfect and cool and we had a nice ocean breeze. I wanted to stay outside all day. June will be on the calendar. I do love turning the page to a new month. April and May were so jam packed. I hope June slows down just a bit. Before I show you pictures of my garden I have to show you some pictures we got on the game cam the other night.

 

It is either a fox or a coyote. Where we have the camera set up now, its a freeway at night. We have also been picking up shapes that could be maybe owls or night hawks. So many really interesting things to see at night.

Okay now for my garden pictures.

 

Here is the long view of the garden. I have planted sunflowers between the trees and here at the end of the garden. So I can have the feeling of a secret garden.

 

I had to show you my zinnias! We planted them on Saturday. These were seeds I meant to plant last year, so I really didn't know if they would grow, and when we went out last night they were already up.

 

This is my whole zinnia bed.  I thought it might be nice to break up the green from cucumbers and pumpkins.

My tomatoes are growing like crazy.

The one good thing about hot weather is that tomatoes just love it.

The plums and apricots are just so pretty this time of year.

This is Ron's pepper garden. This next weekend, Ron is going to have two dump truck loads of mulch/bark
delivered so we can put it between the plants and hopefully it will keep the moisture in as well as deter weeds. I am going to put in one more bed of zinnias, and plant some more sunflowers and plant some dill.
I keep thinking of more things to plant. My back flowerbed is pretty much turning into a herb bed.

I will show those next post.

I love spending my days working in the garden.
 Have a wonderful Wednesday.

~Kim~

 Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

Odds and Ends

When I looked at the date of my last post I was shocked. I am sorry I have been away so long. I thought I would let you know that the skunks packed up and moved after I wrote my last post. No reason other than they are shy and we make too much noise. Sasha started not paying attention anymore and we set the camera for two days and nothing. We buried in the hole and nothing has dug around it since. They are still around though.

I went out early yesterday morning. I had walked one lap when I noticed that Sasha was staring intently at the pasture next door. Thankfully she is such a smart dog, that she doesn't leave our property unless I tell her to so she hadn't started the morning off by smelling to high heaven.

Here is what she saw:

I grabbed her by the collar and dragged her in the yard and shut the gate.  She barked and threw herself a little hissy fit. I didn't care. Then I watched it ramble off with its little rolling gate back three pastures over to the new place they must be living now. They are very small, just lots of fur. They are very proud of those tails. I have noticed they like to wave them around like flags.

I picked my first batch of boysenberries after the skunk was gone. Sasha was able to come back out and she rolled her eyes at me and walked on past giving me a cold shoulder while I was picking berries. She went out in the pasture looking very much like she wasn't going to speak to me the rest of the day.  She just ignored me and spent her time with my chickens.

Blue jays are very territorial. Apparently what I found out this week, is the berries are not mine to pick. I have been scolded and told off every time I even look side way at the berries. The blue jay is so brave that she will sit in a tree above my head as I am bent over looking for ripe berries. She will break off sticks and drop them on my head. She squawks the whole time. I have to put a lid on my picked berries as she will fly down and take every one. I thought the first day was just a fluke. She did it today as well. I just laugh because she is so brave. I will try to get a picture of her tomorrow.

  My hydrangeas are huge this year. In fact one bush is so tall its above my head. When I take pictures I have to stand on tiptoes. Of course, today is 103 and its so hard on them. My garden likes it though. My beets and sunflowers and zinnias are up in one bed and my row of sunflowers around my garden is growing so much that every day they look an inch taller. I planted cucumber and pumpkins this last weekend. I know I am going to regret planting as many cucumbers as I did, but oh well. My pickles turned out so good two years ago and I just opened my last jar. So its time.

 The other day I went to the library. I had a book in and one of the guys that now works there I knew as a kid. Which is weird because he is the same age as me but I remember as being younger. I was friends with his Mom and his sisters an eon ago. We visit when I go in and this time he wanted me to read some books he had found. Really not my cup of tea but I said I would. As I am reading along, the person in the book starts talking about Bakersfield and Valley Fever. I thought how come this always happens. All the time.
So today I was digging around and found that he and his wife used to live here and both wrote for our local newspaper, The Bakersfield Californian. My thought was, all roads lead to Bakersfield. Isn't that funny?

I have a friend in England and we used to exchange books back and forth. I sent her a package one time and as she was at work the post man left the package with the next door neighbor. When she went over to get her package. The people who were never very nice is what she said, were extremely chatty. She said they asked " Who do you know in Bakersfield California?" She told them and they said that, " They had lived there once upon a time." Even George Bush Junior was a little boy on a tricycle here. So go figure.

So just an odds and ends kind of post today. Not much going on other than me trying to find out how to keep from cooking my brain. It should be a tad cooler tomorrow. Sasha is snoring at my feet so I guess she isn't mad anymore. I am going to go walk and let her watch the cats that live at the back of the pasture. She thinks its beneath her to chase them, so she just stares mean eyes at them. She knows that smart animals don't go running around in the heat like her owner is getting ready to go do.

Have a delightful week!

~Kim~

“Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don't they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers.”
― Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine

Post Mother's Day and Skunks!

 

I hope each and everyone of you had a nice Mother's Day.  On Saturday, we attended My nephew's wedding. It was lovely, but I didn't take a single picture. They forbid us to take Iphone pictures so I complied. I don't think I have ever seen so many photographers and videgraphers at a single wedding.
(Megan did film some so if you want to watch her video its here. )

Emilie did the flowers and I helped her set up earlier in the day. She does such a lovely job with flowers. I have become too sensitive to the sun it seems and this is the second time in less than a month I have over done it. We got home from the wedding and I was feeling woozy. I kept thinking it was from dehydration.

 We have a skunk issue. A bad skunk issue. Here are some pictures that we got from the game came this week. (I know this is an odd way to change a topic, just stay with me.)

Cat or raccoon?

Daylight!!!

Its a freeway of activity. There are three for sure living under my shed.

 Anyway back to Saturday night. We got home from the wedding, and the boys got home a bit later. They came in the house smelling like they got sprayed and they said that they must have drove right into it, the house was filled with the aroma. Which turned my too much sun headache into the migraine of the year. As early in the morning, I was driver of the big white bus, I thought to myself, " What a interesting way to be spending the early morning hours of Mother's Day. I began motherhood and all of the first trimesters doing what I was doing on Mother's Day."
I thought  it was interesting that my body is doing one thing and my mind is doing another. I thought of how motherhood is born of sacrifice. Giving of oneself always requires sacrifice.

Look what is blooming already? I love these white ones so much.

 So not the way I thought I was going to spend Mother's Day. Its a new week though. One filled with lots of wonderful gifts I am sure. After yesterday, it was awesome to wake up this morning feeling like me and no pain. We have lovely clouds. I am going to have to be so careful I guess because for some reason sun and me are not friends.

 This morning I am planting what I didn't get planted this weekend. Sunflowers and beets. Slowly but surely I will get my garden planted. I guess I will be wearing a hat from now on.

I hope you have a lovely week.

~Kim~

“It is a naive sort of feminism that insists that women prove their ability to do all the things that men do. This is a distortion and a travesty. Men have never sought to prove that they can do all the things women do. Why subject women to purely masculine criteria? Women can and ought to be judged by the criteria of femininity, for it is in their femininity that they participate in the human race. And femininity has its limitations. So has masculinity. That is what we’ve been talking about. To do this is not to do that. To be this is not to be that. To be a woman is not to be a man. To be married is not to be single – which may mean not to have a career. To marry this man is not to marry all the others. A choice is a limitation.”

A Finished Rug

 

The weather today is lovely. We have a cold front moving down from Alaska so it is just a perfect day. I spend way to much time fooling with my chicks. Who are now on the way to becoming teenager chickens.
They all have little attitudes. I think I have three bantam roosters. All three have funny personalities. The hens are nice and sweet. The little roosters are just so bossy. They just make me laugh. Have you ever been bossed around by a little rooster? They peck really hard when you don't obey.

I finished a rug today. I shall fondly call it my nemesis. I have redone, and changed colors, I have put it down and tried to move on. I have not had such a hard rug to finish ever. I made myself a goal when I started hooking and if there was a time I didn't finish a rug I would stop hooking. I was not going to have UFO's---unfinished projects in my closets. I would put this rug down. I would pick it up. I would stare at it. I would try and move on. I couldn't. This has been my Waterloo. When I finished it and steamed it, I really did feel like I had conquered a huge road block in my mind. Without further ado.

 

Pattern from Old Tattered Flag. Easter Delivery. I have made myself like binding rugs so that isn't any big deal to me any more. I will have to put this one away until next Easter once its bound. I decided to right away started a new rug. This one has been in my pile of  patterns for a year.

 

It feels all right in the world. To be hooking my own pattern and hooking what I like again. I just thought I was never going to hook another rug again. It kind of scared me.

 

I planted sunflowers today. It feels nice to be doing normal again. Well, whatever this place I am in. A new normal. I just had to share my rug with you.

I wish you all well this week.

~Kim~

 People think six is a great many, when it's children. ...they don't mind six pairs of boots, or six pounds of apples, or six oranges, especially in equations, but they seem to think that you ought not to have five brothers and sisters.
E. Nesbit

Gardening on the Brain.

 

This week I have spent with my hula hoe. Trying to make every thing look nice and clean. I do enjoy using that tool. It gives me time to think, to ponder and to plan. This weekend, I am planting the garden. I am going to plant a whole row of sunflowers. I want to have little squares because I can do anything in little squares. That is how my brain works. I hook that way and I clean that way. I told Ron once I could conquer the world one square at a time.

 

I am so thankful for the warm weather. I will admit it being 104 was a bit too warm, but I do feel better when its warm. I realize that I live outside most of the time. As soon as it gets warm, I am outside, more than inside. I even spent some days this week hooking on the porch. Which to me is bliss.

 

This picture is from my second garden. Look at those weeds. I remember being so shocked at how they grew that year. I don't think its been like that again. Today I keep thinking of all of the wonderful things I have to be thankful for.  We have made it through a long hard trial, and even though I am tired from it, I am thankful for the lessons I have learned. I have allowed too many weeds to grow. Trials help me to realize what is important and what is not. What things are needful and what things I need to let go. Trials keep me on a short leash. It helps me to de-clutter because I don't have the strength for excess baggage. Being in the garden helps me focus.

 

 I thought about how going forward means keeping my eyes going forward and not looking back. There is I think something magical about being in the garden. Dreaming and drawing out plans. Then to finally see it all beginning to grow and bear fruit. I am so happy to be able to be here right now. I am thankful that joy comes in the morning. Without trials, I don't notice the blessings.

 

 Today is a lovely day. I will be dreaming dreams of a garden to be and flowers to bloom.
Thank you so much for stopping by. I appreciate your friendship and the color you add to my life.

I hope you have a lovely weekend. Thanks for stopping by today,
~Kim~

 “He who is born with a silver spoon in his mouth is generally considered a fortunate person, but his good fortune is small compared to that of the happy mortal who enters this world with a passion for flowers in his soul.”
-- Celia Thaxter

May Day and a Trip

 

Happy May Day! April was such a busy month for us. I expect nothing less for May. What a blur of a year already. Ron made reservations for us in Cambria in January. We would never go anywhere if he didn't. There is always so much work to do and to leave it is so hard. I am so glad he did. Everything is so green right now and with it being May these hills will be turning brown. This has to be the prettiest drive and prettiest place I have ever seen. Its just full of these beautiful farms and vineyards and barns and windmills.

 

It wasn't as clear as it is sometimes but in the distance you can see the ocean and Morro Rock. We were so high up I had butterflies. At another place you could see starting a Morro Rock the seven sisters all in a line. These giant mountains of rocks.

 

It was so windy the day we got there and the beach was almost empty. Except for this guy and his dog. I can barely chew gum and walk and this guy was surfing and holding onto this kite. It was amazing to watch. He would jump waves and sometimes go airborne. We watched him as he flew all over that ocean. It was just amazing.

 

Ron and I did this trip as a walking trip. He scouted out all of the walking trails and we spent the most of two days doing nothing but walking. On Saturday I got 21,000 steps. That I think is my record for one day. Ron and I walked together everywhere. He has a longer stride since I am so short. I get more steps, but he gets more miles. Isn't that funny?

 

We walked this trail that he found that follows the bluffs on the ocean. If I lived there, I would want to walk it ever day. It was incredible. We think we will go back again just to hike along this place. Can you see the seals and pups on the rocks?

 

Its good to be home though. Its nice to get back to taking care of Sasha and the chickens. I am excited about getting the garden planted. We have our first week of 100 degrees. It will be time to get summer things ready. I hope your first week of May is a great week.

~Kim~

"The wind is tossing the lilacs,
The new leaves laugh in the sun,
And the petals fall on the orchard wall,
But for me the spring is done.

Beneath the apple blossoms
I go a wintry way,
For love that smiled in April
Is false to me in May."
-  Sara Teasdale, May