My stomach demands. Give me the scones! Their sitting right there dammit! What are you waiting for!

My stomach is a tyrant. It scorns the beautiful plums I picked from our tree this morning. It snickers at the fragrant peaches I packed in my bag for a snack. It may be appeased with the zucchini I purchased this morning to grill with garlic and mint. It may settle down and leave me be for a minute if I make some of that right now.

I lost 3 lbs last week so I’m encouraged to soldier on.

To this………

The studio is a busy little place these days. Old unfinished projects like this one, getting done.
This was intended as a pillow I think, it’s been a few years since I started it. Since I’ve abolished all pillows from our sofa I instead opted for another bag for my camera, wallet, cell phone, grocery bag and book.

I need to lose 10 or more lbs. If my current strategy to eat only fruit and vegetables every other day doesn’t work, I’ll have to resort to a more precise and complicated plan.

I’m ready for a road trip.

To this………

The studio is a busy little place these days. Old unfinished projects like this one, getting done.
This was intended as a pillow I think, it’s been a few years since I started it. Since I’ve abolished all pillows from our sofa I instead opted for another bag for my camera, wallet, cell phone, grocery bag and book.

I need to lose 10 or more lbs. If my current strategy to eat only fruit and vegetables every other day doesn’t work, I’ll have to resort to a more precise and complicated plan.

I’m ready for a road trip.

To this………

The studio is a busy little place these days. Old unfinished projects like this one, getting done.
This was intended as a pillow I think, it’s been a few years since I started it. Since I’ve abolished all pillows from our sofa I instead opted for another bag for my camera, wallet, cell phone, grocery bag and book.

I need to lose 10 or more lbs. If my current strategy to eat only fruit and vegetables every other day doesn’t work, I’ll have to resort to a more precise and complicated plan.

I’m ready for a road trip.

Those little bastards are back!

Exhibit A

I’m glad I didn’t buy any plants this weekend like I wanted. It’s that time in the garden when the first flush of spring/summer bloom is gone and we’ve deadheaded and cleaned most of the beds leaving big bare spots. My first inclination is to run to the nursery and buy some color. Start a whole new plan. All different plantings. Herbs maybe or just flowers or just veggies or flowers and veggies. Now that all the “bones” of the garden are set, it looks quite lovely even without the riot of color. So go ahead gophers! Starve!

The bed under the maple tree was filled with snaps and poppies and daisies and flamingos. After we took everything out yesterday it turns out it’s really a tiny little planting bed so we scrounged up some johnny jump up volunteers from around the yard and planted them here. “Lasagna” style. After the Lasagna Gardening book which proposes a no digging planting method which I have modified to suit my own needs and shortcomings. Threw in some half baked compost, blood meal, bone meal, peat moss and mulch and called it done.
The book calls for a much deeper/higher (24″) layering of these things but I figure 3 or 4″ will be just fine. It’ll all melt down as it goes and I’ll just keep adding layers as I go AND I like the idea of using this half baked compost, which is not really compost yet but will be. Eventually.

The fence line is blooming with these sweet little lobelia and johnny’s and poppies.

Under the plum tree.

Filling out slowly by slowly. We’ve lost a few of the poppies we planted. Damn! We can’t seem to manage those very well though they did give some lovely blooms and made it through that horrible heat wave last week. 106 in Cambria!

Color coordinated house and garden.

lobelia seem to like it in the window box.

We’re done with the spring explosion of blooms and have a ton of cutting back to do. The Buff Beauty’s blossoms fried in the heat wave and neither one of us have been moved to dead head.
Next weekend maybe?

I’m a little bit tired of Mexican music.

I listen to it at least an hour a day at work. Maria likes to listen while she works in the kitchen. The station plays the same 3 or 4 songs over and over again until you feel like scooping your eyes out with fork.

Saturday night our neighbors had a party complete with bounce house and live Mariachi band on stage with speakers. It started at about 3 in the afternoon and by 5 the dogs stopped barking though whenever the children came close to our fence the dogs went off again and it’s not like you can call the alarm company and have them shut it down. Those beasts will only stop if you stand over them with a mallet and beat them. Continuously, cause one bop to the head doesn’t do it.

So our neighbor must have gotten wind of the fact that I’ll do pretty much anything for food. Including but not limited to disposing of the body. He brought over Tamales, Enchiladas, chips and condiments and a trough of Posole. Enough to feed many people and 3 dogs.

Any party that I don’t actually have to attend but still get to eat the food is my kinda party.

Andale!

I’m a little bit tired of Mexican music.

I listen to it at least an hour a day at work. Maria likes to listen while she works in the kitchen. The station plays the same 3 or 4 songs over and over again until you feel like scooping your eyes out with fork.

Saturday night our neighbors had a party complete with bounce house and live Mariachi band on stage with speakers. It started at about 3 in the afternoon and by 5 the dogs stopped barking though whenever the children came close to our fence the dogs went off again and it’s not like you can call the alarm company and have them shut it down. Those beasts will only stop if you stand over them with a mallet and beat them. Continuously, cause one bop to the head doesn’t do it.

So our neighbor must have gotten wind of the fact that I’ll do pretty much anything for food. Including but not limited to disposing of the body. He brought over Tamales, Enchiladas, chips and condiments and a trough of Posole. Enough to feed many people and 3 dogs.

Any party that I don’t actually have to attend but still get to eat the food is my kinda party.

Andale!

I’m a little bit tired of Mexican music.

I listen to it at least an hour a day at work. Maria likes to listen while she works in the kitchen. The station plays the same 3 or 4 songs over and over again until you feel like scooping your eyes out with fork.

Saturday night our neighbors had a party complete with bounce house and live Mariachi band on stage with speakers. It started at about 3 in the afternoon and by 5 the dogs stopped barking though whenever the children came close to our fence the dogs went off again and it’s not like you can call the alarm company and have them shut it down. Those beasts will only stop if you stand over them with a mallet and beat them. Continuously, cause one bop to the head doesn’t do it.

So our neighbor must have gotten wind of the fact that I’ll do pretty much anything for food. Including but not limited to disposing of the body. He brought over Tamales, Enchiladas, chips and condiments and a trough of Posole. Enough to feed many people and 3 dogs.

Any party that I don’t actually have to attend but still get to eat the food is my kinda party.

Andale!

It’s done! The Way Back is done. Paths laid in, dg spread and beds planted. It feels great to be done putting in the bones and having more “rooms” to hang out in.
Now for the bath house….

The throne in one of it’s many incarnations.

It has since moved to the way back with quite a few of those nasturtiums still draped around it like some drunk and demented shawl.

Did I say I wouldn’t plant anymore tulips? Well that’s just crazy. They finally did show up and they were spectacular. They last forever and a couple of days and one single solitary blossom in a bud vase looks like a Brazilan dollars.

I will be planting more of those.

In the front garden

Jupiter’s Beard is everywhere around this one giant Iceberg Rose. Like ballerina’s dancing in pink tutus around the star of the show. The Hydrangea cutting I planted more than a year ago is still there tucked away in the corner. She looks timid right now but I’m counting on her growing big and blowzy some day.

The studio

garden. The Love in a Mist on the left there opened their blooms from one day to the next. There will be enough seed to cover the hillside and beyond.
The artichoke was crawling with bugs until I sprayed it with Neem oil. It doesn’t work so quickly with the black spot on the roses or the ants on the Abutilon.

The plum tree

now has a horse shoe bed surrounding it with the opening facing the Lair. We planted Lavenders, grasses, Poppies, Larkspur and Bacopa. Probably too much for such a small area but if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing.
And that is the story of our garden.

It’s a chilly 61 with 40 mph winds.

My daughter’s hands are almost an exact replica of my own so when I knit her these gauntlets I used my own hands for measuring. Problem is, my hands are bigger. My hands are huge. I’m stitching up a hand to put on an apron I made. I traced my own hand for the pattern and it looks like it may take up the entire body of the apron. Suddenly I feel like I’m mostly hands. Enormous bony paws without the french manicure. If I had a french manicure I’d scare people. Maybe I scare people now.

I don’t know.

My daughter’s hands are almost an exact replica of my own so when I knit her these gauntlets I used my own hands for measuring. Problem is, my hands are bigger. My hands are huge. I’m stitching up a hand to put on an apron I made. I traced my own hand for the pattern and it looks like it may take up the entire body of the apron. Suddenly I feel like I’m mostly hands. Enormous bony paws without the french manicure. If I had a french manicure I’d scare people. Maybe I scare people now.

I don’t know.

My daughter’s hands are almost an exact replica of my own so when I knit her these gauntlets I used my own hands for measuring. Problem is, my hands are bigger. My hands are huge. I’m stitching up a hand to put on an apron I made. I traced my own hand for the pattern and it looks like it may take up the entire body of the apron. Suddenly I feel like I’m mostly hands. Enormous bony paws without the french manicure. If I had a french manicure I’d scare people. Maybe I scare people now.

I don’t know.

It’s difficult to keep up. The garden is loaded. Every plant is budding or blooming and it’s all a matter of cutting back now. Trying to keep it in it’s place. It’s magical out there. When I’m in the studio it’s hard to focus on anything but the profusion of blooms outside the doors. It’s a good thing the weather keeps changing from winter like to summer like otherwise I’d be out there all the time.

I keep watching that giant pine tree up on the hill on Jim’s side. It’s huge and it’s dead and it threatens my little sanctuary. It needs to go.

I’ve got two window boxes of rapini going, one doing much better than the other. A clear lesson in using fresh soil. I just dumped the seeds into the soil that was already in one and filled the other with fresh soil before sowing.

There are volunteers everywhere. Cerinthe is blooming in almost every bed, little johnny jump-ups jumping up between the bricks and geraniums by the Buddha’s garden in the deep shade. Not to mention all the daises!

I’ve planted the rooted cuttings from the abutilon alongside the back fence. It will fill in and make beautiful shadows. My other cuttings are coming along nicely. The princess flower, new guinea impatiens, fuchsia, sage and camellia all rooted! I’m determined not to buy any plants this season. We’ll see how that goes.