Gardening and Such

One of the things I absolutely adore about owning our home is that we get to do what we like with the yard.  For example, there was this juniper tree in front of the house that I hated.  It was too tall and completely blocked a trellis on the front of the house.  We found a landscaping plan when we were going through the house's papers after closing and it turns out the juniper started out pretty small.  Whoever did the design either didn't take into account how much it would grow, or figured it would be trimmed back a lot more than it has been. 

Also, it had a huge dead patch in the front.  Also, it was full of prickers that made it painful to wrap Christmas lights around it.

So one of the first things we did was have someone rip out the juniper tree.  Yay!  Now there's an empty space (which we have filled with veggies and flowers) and we have a big grapevine climbing up the trellis.

This is the year that Jason and I have gone a little nuts with the gardening.  Well, I've gardened in the past, and have been content to putter along, reading a bit about container gardening, but basically throwing things together willy nilly and seeing what happens.  Jason, the Scientist Boy that he is, has made this into a Project, complete with research. 

For example, he's made all of our potting soil.  All of it.  We do the majority of our gardening in containers, so that's saying something.  He researched the perfect mixture and figured out we could get a better growing medium for cheaper per gallon than if we bought it at the Home Depot.

The plants seem to love it and we've been eating peas, cucumbers and zucchinis for a few weeks. 


All of the tomato plants are full of green tomatoes waiting to ripen.  We're going to have a bumper crop.


In addition to veggies, I have loved planting my favorite flowers.  Well, to be fair, the house already had 2 giant hydrangea bushes, which is one of my favorite flowers.  During blooming season, I always have a vase full of hydrangea blossoms in the house.


Dahlias are another of my favorite flowers.  I planted our first dahlias last year.  Squirrels dug up 2 of the bulbs, but the 3rd soldiered on and gave me a bunch of beautiful red flowers.  The bulb actually made it through the winter and is blooming again right now.

A few months ago, I planted more dahlias and some peonies and watched with anticipation as the the plants grew.  Only, it turns out the plants I thought were peonies are actually more dahlias.  Apparently I planted more dahlias than I remembered AND the peonies bit the dust for some reason.

No matter.  These are the dahlias I thought were peonies:


Fantastic, right?  I think they look like the lion flowers from Alice in Wonderland.

Old Lady Time

So I'm starting to knit again.  Again? you ask.  Did you stop? 

Well, yes, kind of.  I had a flurry of knitting pre-Christmas and then I started this darling vest for a friend's baby boy who was due in March.  I made almost all of the front of the vest and then I ran out of steam.  Busy days at work meant I would much rather sit on the loveseat and zone out while watching TV than keep my hands busy with knitting.  When I'm really busy at work, I don't have that extra energy at the end of the day.  My brain is tired.

However, work has slowed down a bit with the summer, and I find myself itching to dive into the big pile of yarn that I've accumulated in the guest room closet.  If only so our future guests will have some place to put their clothes, rather than being stared down by a mountain of yarn when they open the closet door.

Last weekend, Jason and I drove up to a concert at Tanglewood.  It's really the first long drive we've done this summer and when I realized I would be sitting in the car, in the daylight, for 3 hours on the way up, I figured I should make myself useful.  I grabbed a couple of skeins of yarn and some big needles and started a charity hat to donate to the Rhode Island veterans this winter.  A few years ago, I connected with a local woman on Ravelry who collects charity scarves, hats, gloves and blankets for local veterans every year around Thanksgiving.  I can bust out a warm hat in no time.  It keeps my hands busy AND does some good. 

By the time we drove up there I was about halfway done.  Then we sat on the lawn for a couple of hours waiting for the concert to start and I almost finished it completely.  The only thing that stopped me was when my decreases got too small, and I didn't have any double pointed needles to transfer my stitches to.  It's only a matter of about 10 minutes to finish it at this point.

Today we're going on another long drive and I have a baby sweater and hat to make for a baby shower at the end of August!  Then I will finally finish the vest for my friend's baby.  Good thing I made it for a one-year old, because I think that's about the time he's going to get it...

In the meantime, I'm starting to think about Christmas knitting.