Love My Garden

CuCumber

Dew Poppy

Butterwides

OPEN

O' Bean

Glory

Solar Clothes Dryer!

I was finally unpacking from Plant Swap and repacking a crate for the Rosendale Famrers market this Sunday and I came across a business card. A really nice, 5X7 inch handmade and handcolored with crayons card advertising gardening consulting:

"Back to Basics" and " Turn your Grass into Groceries".

My favorite," Lettuce us help you get your garden started....>".

On the back with an adorable hand drawn picture of a chicken and a tree is a list of things that they will consult, design or install.

A list of :

• Organic gardens-vegetable , herb and flower
• compost bins
• Small orchard and berry patch
• Backyard chickens
• Greenhouse & Cold frames
• Fencing
• Rain barrels
• Livestock
• Maple syrup kit

AND

• Solar clothes dryer

WHAT? A clothes line. Have we come so far as a society that we have forgotten how to hang our clothes out in the sun to dry? We're doomed.

Jake just made one for me when our dryer went on the fritz. We don't have much sun on our property but I have been yearning for one for years.

I delighted in having one when I had my first daughter some....HMMM, almost 40 years ago.
I lived on the third floor of my Dad's building in the apartment that was previously inhabited by my grandparents where amazingly my dad was actually born in 1927!
I would wash my diapers and being a nimble twenty year old stretch myself out the window and would string them all the way out on this 300 foot line.
Lots of diapers are needed for a toddler and newborn. They would dry quickly and I could usually get two loads or more in a day. I dried everything out there.

The only drawback was if I forgot and didn't get them in before lunch, they smelled like the french fries from the Texas Weiner place next door.
I would have girls with potato heinies!

When we put up our current "Solar Clothes Dryer" , it cost us almost $100 in hardware for the house and tree and the line and pulleys and the pins but oh, how nice the sheets smell.

I think there is a career for advice or knowledge like mine. I wonder if they are hiring?

Sunday in the Garden

Breakfast in the Bed

Explosion

"Was it good for you, too?"

40 Years!

I have been a mother for forty years! OMG. How is that possible?

I remember it was just a few years ago the oldest was going off to kindergarten. I was walking her to school and looked down at her feet. Her shoes were on the wrong feet and I did it!

It was just a few years ago I was showing off my new baby son to the neighborhood kids.

Wasn't it just a few years ago I helped my daughters bring their sons into this world? They are both graduating from High school this June.

It was last year, it seems that the two youngest were walking down aisle to their graduation from junior high and off to the graduate dance.

Holding Katie Scarlett ( above), was it really 8 years ago?

Forty years? What's next?

Rain Rain

Ahhhh the world is lush today. My peas are perky and I am going on the nursery tour today even in the rain.

I spoke with my Sara today when she called Jake to get my address. Jake said to her,
"Your mother's right here!"

I think she thought she could just get away with not talking to Me until tomorrow.
HAH. Jake knew he wouldn't live it down if he didn't give me the phone.

I like rainy days and Saras.

The Weather

Jake calls the weather radio down in "Balmer" just to hear the familiar accent.
"Mo-o-o-ostsly Clow-dee on Sare-der-day".
I Love it.

Feeling Old?

This was taken on a sail on the Clearwater two years ago for Toshi's birthday.

Actually it was a "Toshi, We Love you and we thank you" sail .

I feel old some days, I feel defeated and not very effective and then I remember I first met Pete in person thirty years ago ( when he was a tiny bit older than I am now) and he was just starting up the Clearwater organization.

I think of all he has accomplished and where my life has gone because of his influence and I am encouraged.