In the Garden and on the Internets

Things are blooming. The plum tree, the wisteria….the maple and the ginkgo trees are leafing out, the cerinthe is sprawled out drinking in the sun and I planted a blue hydrangea by the front door. The days are too short for all I want to fill them with.

As soon as I heard about Google dumping its Reader I started looking around for an alternative. I love(d) reader, it was part of my morning ritual. Not being one to hang on to the bitter end, I bid Reader a reluctant goodbye and signed on with Bloglovin and Feedly and have been going back and forth between the two finding fault with both but I have finally decided on Bloglovin because Feedly erased two of my favorite reads (Angella and Ms Moon) and I didn’t even realize it until I hadn’t seen any postings for a few days. I thought you two were much too quiet…
I don’t know what happened but that just made the choice easy.
Bloglovin it is.

Jumping Babies…

Yesterday our little grand baby jumped out of his crib. No major damage done but holy moly there was a bucket of tears and my little heart was squished up in pain. This little guy, aka Danger Mouse, is a map of bruises, cuts, scrapes, bumps and lumps. He is fearless and scary. He goes whenever danger calls, with relish.
He scares the shit out of me.
He and his parents live behind that door and I feel lucky to have them so close, to see them every day. They are a fresh wind that blows through this house. Sometimes a tornado, a hurricane, a fierce lightning storm, sometimes a warm summer shower. Like last Sunday when my daughter came home from work and cooked a beautiful and delicious meal. Her first one ever!
The good, the bad, the scary.
Embrace it, run for the hills or let it all wash over you. You can then air dry or towel off and have some lunch til the next thing happens.

Namaste.

Charmed Life

It feels like a charmed life around here this morning. Daughter and grand baby snuggled up on the sofa watching Pingu, grand baby’s favorite thing to watch. Dog snug in her bed, the doves cooing just outside the window. The turkeys from the other morning, I’m sure they are real because I have heard them since, while fully conscious. They must be on the other side of the creek that runs across the road from us. I will get out of my jammies soon and dress to leave the nest but for right now the nest feels sweet and lovely. I’m soaking in it.

Namaste everyone.

Friday in the Garden…

I’ve committed to spend some time each day working in the garden. There is so much to do! This space has become too big for us to manage but taking small steps feels better than throwing in the towel in defeat and bit by bit, the work gets done.

The old shoes planted with succulents have held up well through the years…

We’ve cleaned up the back pretty well and the plum tree is loading up with buds and flowers.

The Jasmine vine around the bench is completely out of control.

A few Calendula stiil show up every year but not like before. I was so happy to see these.

The prayer flags in front of the little studio are faded and tattered and the daffodils are just about done.

and this year an intrepid explorer has joined in the fun. It makes working in the yard fun again.

All pictures taken with Instagram.

Have a lovely weekend.
Namaste

Oh it’s one of those days….

I want to go somewhere. My bug out trip last week, (was it last week or the week before?) was foiled by illness and life’s other absurdities and today it’s gray and chilly and threatening to rain and early this morning, before daylight, I heard turkeys gobbling. I’m not certain it wasn’t one of those phantom sounds I create in my own head. Turkeys gobbling is entirely possible.

The collage above is from my growing pile.

Ready For Take Off…

Once again the time has come for a change. I’ve been chewing on this one for a while now but was finally pushed over the edge by Google’s unceremonious announcement of it’s killing off my Reader. I was having fits about it at first, I like change when it’s my choice, not so much when it’s foisted upon me without warning. Thanks Google for reminding me that I am not Queen of the Universe. I have adapted. I am going back to blogger where I can read all my blogs from my dashboard! And where I can manage and post to my blogs from my mobile device with ease. Everything all in one place!

Change is good.

Planting Along the Verge will now reside @ plantingalongtheverge.blogspot.com

I hope you’ll come by and say hello.

namaste

3/13/03…

It was our anniversary day before yesterday. 26 years of fun and games and chaos and madness and mess and all the stuff that makes up a life. A really really rich and beautiful life.

Tearful now has the cold/allergy/flu/hellishly tenacious crud that had me in its grip for a month so we remained calm and had a super lovely day beginning with breakfast with our daughter and grandbaby, the new comedian in the family.

People, there is no greater joy than having a grandbaby. For real.

3/13/03…

It was our anniversary day before yesterday. 26 years of fun and games and chaos and madness and mess and all the stuff that makes up a life. A really really rich and beautiful life.

People, there is no greater joy than having a grandbaby. For real.

Sunday…

Purple tulips and baby oranges from Trader Joes…

I’ve spent the morning dyeing scraps of fabric, washing clothes and playing with beads. The wild baby is gone with his mother, out for the day so the house is SO QUIET. Except for the clothes tumbling in the dryer. Tearful is taking a nap, all is right with the world.

I am heading off tomorrow for parts unknown to me. It’s time I took the White Dragon out for a night or two now that the weather promises to behave itself.

si dios quere…

Sunday…

Purple tulips and baby oranges from Trader Joes…

I am heading off tomorrow for parts unknown to me. It’s time I took the White Dragon out for a night or two now that the weather promises to behave itself.

si dios quere…

Walking The Beach…

It was a beautiful morning here on the central coast…

chilly and overcast for the first half of my walk with the sun showing up for the last bit.

This beach is the best for finding treasures…

and bringing them home…

Walking The Beach…

It was a beautiful morning here on the central coast…

chilly and overcast for the first half of my walk with the sun showing up for the last bit.

This beach is the best for finding treasures…

and bringing them home…

playing with plants…

A pot of cotoneaster. I think it’s cotoneaster, I could be wrong and would appreciate being corrected.
If you gather and boil these for an hour or more and then strain them and throw some fabric in the pot and boil for another hour or so, you get a darker tea stained mustardy color.

Here’s what I started with…

and here’s what I ended up with…

unfortunately I can only get pictures uploaded through Instagram as our computer situation is still tenuous at best. The dyed color is quite a bit deeper in true life than in this photo. Not a dramatic color but very pretty and very pleasing for my first foray into natural dyeing. I’ve got a pot of Hardenbergia simmering on the stove for my next experiment. I have jars of gooey looking liquids lining the laundry room window sill.

truly I have become an old crone.

playing with plants…

Here’s what I started with…

and here’s what I ended up with…

truly I have become an old crone.

Playing With Ghosts

image play continues…

digitally and on paper. What happens surprises and intrigues me. It’s like trying to remember and interpret a fleeting dream.
Which I have been doing lately. Dreaming, fueled by sleep and cold medication is intense. The dreams are thick and sticky things, melting with the light of day like butter in a skillet.

In other news…
I have a day to myself!