2012 Garden Journal #1

There is no better way to keep yourself accountable for amazing garden results if there are potentially many viewers of your adventures. Bringing all of my work to one spot will make looking up what I did so much easier. I am the champion of writing items on small scraps of paper that always get lost or misplaced. Thanks to Ginny for making a linking list for like-minded individuals to share their labors!

This is my "beginning" shot. I have landscaping cloth on several garden beds to keep the feral cats from using it as a toilet. I weighed it down with old milk bottles that still contain (frozen) water from the rain barrel.


I haven't really stopped gardening as I am experimenting with a very primitive cold frame. The plastic on the top got a rip from some ice, so I just covered it up with floating row cover material. The rapid growth of the plants inside is telling me that enough light is indeed entering the cold frame. All the towels around the frame are covering some huge gaps in the plywood. Like I said primitive, but highly effective. Rainwater-filled cat litter containers are holding the plastic and row cover material in place so that the wind doesn't loosen them up.


A view inside the frame. The spinach regrows enough for me to harvest 1-2 dinner salads per week. I pick away leaves from the outside of each plant, allowing the inner leaves to re-grow. Behind the spinach is mache, the world's most delicious green, followed by turnips and carrots, which are both slowing adding bulk to their roots. I planted some radish seeds last Sunday, 2/26, in an empty spot as an experiment when (or if) they might show up.


My bulbs share a bed with some lettuce plants that have existed since last fall with no protection. The lettuce has survived, but has not grown any since fall.


Here is this weekend's harvest! I better go prepare that salad I was planning with dinner.


Best wishes for a productive growing season!

Finished Sweater, Finished Book

Hello there Wednesday Yarn Along Day! Check out the rest of the action at Small Things today.



I finally finished my godson's Christmas sweater AND managed to get it in the mail to him. Pictures and reviews of the lad were extremely favorable! According to his mom, he is wearing it with everything, including sweatpants!



The Details:
Pattern: Hogwarts Sweater from "Charmed Knits"
Size: Child's Large
Yarn: Encore worsted (my favorite go-to yarn for children)
Colorway: Bluejeans for sweater, Butternut for letter "B"
Needles: Size 8 circulars and DPNs
Started: December 9, 2011
Finished: January 15, 2012 (Very bad Auntie...)
Modifications: I knit the front and back at the same time in the round and then knit back and forth on the front or back when I got to the armholes. I also started the sleeves on the finished top. I just do not like to do any seaming.



I stitched the "B" on the finished sweater. In retrospect, it would been easier to knit it in using the intarsia method. However, I designed the letter myself, and was making modifications as I was stitching, so everything turned out as it should in the end.



I finally finished reading "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson and David Relin. Of course I was awed by Greg Mortenson's monumental achievements building schools in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan, but I found his insights of the region during the post 9/11 era priceless. I wish this book were required reading for all of my middle school students. To look at another culture and see how the people yearn for even basic knowledge to help them lead better lives would help them understand that they have it so good here. Even though many of my students live near the poverty line themselves, they have much much more than a rural Pakistani child. They have a free, mandatory education, not to mention supplies, books, running water, roads, busing, and a free and reduced lunch program. We are so lucky.

Till next time!

In the Interim - A Yarn Along

It's Wednesday and Yarn Along day. Join Ginny at Small Things for all the latest reading and knitting projects in this unique community.

I am waiting for pictures from a few people so I can post finished items in their entirety here. In the mean time, I got serious itchy fingers and started a fun Cabled Keyhole Scarf by Anne Hanson of Knitspot fame. The yarn is Berocco "Jasper" and it is a little thicker than the pattern demands, but will likely be toasty warm when complete. I made two of these scarves at the end of 2010 and loved everything about them. There are some other daunting projects that are begging for a finish, but the mood was not right just yet.



In reading news, I am re-reading the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I am definitely taking my time to soak up the details this time around. We had a lively book group discussion on Monday during which I thankfully remembered all the key points. While it was initially a page turner for me, I am enjoying the process of really studying the family tree and learning to pronounce all those Swedish names. This book may be the one to inspire me to take up coffee drinking. Coffee is either made of consumed on just about every other page!

Till next time, stay warm and enjoy some cozy knitting and reading!

SOOO Big!

Dark Star is four months old today!




I promise that there will be pictures of knitting soon. Three finished projects need a photography session. And the new owners must receive them! Stay tuned...

Growing...

The cold weather is setting in. I am very excited that I still get to eat fresh veggies from the garden. The cold frame plus a warm-ish Fall really helped my plants mature nicely.


Spinach salad: it's what's for lunch almost every day! I am only plucking the outer leaves so that the plants keep producing more from the insides. We had a wonderful spinach salad with mustard greens, mache, and early turnips for Thanksgiving.


Here are some mâché and turnips. The turnips are touching the top if the cold frame plastic and got a little frost damage this week. I may decide to harvest most of the greens and little turnips soon so they don't go to waste. I put some greens and baby turnips into a soup last week - divine!

Yarn Along

Just popping in to say hello and join the yarn along at small things today. I tried to post last week and it didn't want to upload from my phone, so here we are, back to the old school way of blogging from the computer. How spoiled we get!



I'm still knitting a scarf with Brooklytweed's Wayfarer pattern. I am in the middle of chart C and keep making mistakes and ripping it back... Sigh... Almost finished with Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. Just in time for book club on Monday night! It took me a while to get into the story, but that dry British humor was certainly enjoyable.

Happy Knitting and Reading!

They Grow Up So Fast **sniff**

After seven long weeks, our little darling cria boy and his mom returned to the Shady Grove Farm on Saturday. Dark Star is a little more than twice his original size now. He is already eating hay and grain and is much more solid than his former gangly self. He is ten weeks old today.


The Alpaca Farmer decided to re-breed 'Greta, which meant a little visit to the farm of origin. Alpaca crias for all - put in your order! They're awfully cute, as you might note...


It is nice to have the whole herd re-united again. Or for the first time, if you consider that Bella and Dark Star have not co-existed together yet. As you can see, Bella is separated from the others because she has a tendency to gobble up all the hay and grain while chasing the others away with her neck. She will even go so far as to eat the dog food. I have started calling her Miss Piggy.


Moonstar is lurking in the background... She is either plotting a play session or a domination match with her new pen-mate. The two "Stars" are hilarious to watch!


Till soon... HUM!