garden 'before'

what a wonderful 3 days. i had only 2 things on my agenda this weekend, to patch the roof and to relax. guess which one got accomplished?

ha. that roof project does not seem fun. but i MUST get it done next weekend. must. anne, do not laugh at me...i will eventually conquer my fear of tar, and get up there.

more importantly to us more visual folk, the garden is looking pretty swank. i did finally tackle the last leg of the meandering perennial pathway, as well as weeding and mowing in the hot sun. i might have lost a couple pounds, come to think of it! digging sod is so not fun, but the payoff at the end makes me happy. i also got the rest of the veggies planted.

2010 back forty:

11 tomatoes (mix of canning/roma/cherry)
12 peppers (sweet/salsa/habernero/cayenne)
onions (red/white)
4 hills cucumbers
1 zucchini
1 yellow squash
2 pumpkins
1 butternut squash
mesculan mix lettuce
cilantro
basil
rosemary
sage
thyme
more basil
chives
mint

i went for a leisurely walk around the neighborhood tonite, and was so pleased to see several little backyard gardens. i love that folks are wanting to grow/eat the good stuff. as always, i am excited to 'put up' all of my goodies come august/september. fun, but not as fun as watching them grow all summer long :)

yep, honey, i feel that way about this project today, too...

happy friday!

mad mats

i think i have posted about these before, but here i go again. mad mats. they are WONDERFUL!!! they are kind of famous, and i can see why. they are made out of weird little 'tubes' of cheap recycled plastic. the cool thing is the designs, which make you wonder how they did that.

i just got my new one in the mail today. i did not NEED one. i have had my old one for probably 5 years, and it is just the same as when i bought it. i even leave it out all winter!!

but, i wanted the one i saw in my latest issue of Country Gardens magazine (which, by the by, will be the death of my checking account). it's rainbowish, in a turquoise kind of way.

ahhhhhhhhhhh! i love it! even though the actual plastic is very boring primary colors, the weaving (and your eyes) make the combinations look like rich, cool colors. amazing!


i love how this one goes with my very very very favorite one dollar plastic tablecloth that protects my plant shelf when i overwater.


and i love how it matches the other pretty things in the sun porch, too :)

the important stuff

i know it's only mid-week, which means there is still a bunch of important things to be accomplished. clients to please. big thinking to do. deadlines to meet. important, significant, world-changing stuff.

why, oh why, then - can i only think about making rhubarb soda?!!!!!! oh yeah. because it's pretty :)


happy almost-the-weekend!

falling sticks

i always complain every time the wind blows or it rains, because my ancient ash tree drops sticks all over my yard. i swear, i am surprised that it has any branches left! yet, i coddle it because i am afraid that when those stupid emerald ash borers make their way here, they might want him dead. that's the way it always is, you treasure things more if you think you might lose them.


at least i wasn't my neighbor, who awoke to this picture in his yard this morning! man! i am not even sure who to call for this!!!! i am pretty sure my garbage man would not be interested whatsoever :))

mercy me!

Kind of a funny thing has happened to me in the last few weeks. I have decided to go to a new church. FOR REAL. Which really, is kind of a big deal. Especially considering I’ve gone to one church my entire life. Starting at age 39, of course.

Still. A. Big. Deal.

It’s probably been a long time coming. I tried going to a different church a couple of years ago as a ‘trial’ to see if I really wanted to switch. What ended up being harder than I thought was fitting in to a new place. I’m not terribly social, in most situations. People pretty much always scare me. unless I am talking to you guys, of course ;)) anyway, I ended up going back to my old church, mostly because it was comfortable. Except it really has not been.

I am ready to grow. I am ready to step out of the cocoon I have created for myself that keeps me only doing/being things that I have done/been. I know that it’s time. I think the story of how it came about is funny in a God sort of way.

See, I have a wonderful worship group. We are down to 3 now, after a ‘split’ last fall from a larger group. I love both of my girlfriends a lot. They both went to another church in town until last year, when some funky stuff started going on there... So, they both left, and have yet to find a new church home. I’ve invited them to my church in the past, and did so this spring as well. Then, we kind of decided to try this other ‘new’ church, called Mercy church. It’s been around awhile, actually, and I know a few people from there. I know the pastor, Shel, and I know his wife, Anne, whom God has strategically placed in my life at several key times since I’ve known her (hi Anne! Some of you guys know her, too). I thought I knew what Shel was about, because we are friends on Facebook. Yeah. Well, at least I am admitting the stupidity of that notion!

Anyway, we went to Mercy, the 3 of us, a few weeks ago. And something funny happened to me in the service. I started to cry. I’m not sure why, but I started to feel God touching me. I have never ever left a church service so fast as that day! Ha. I was afraid. On the way home in the car, I actually cried much, much more. I repented for spending so much of the last couple of years living for mostly me. I asked God to help me step out, and move toward Him. I asked Him if He wanted me to switch churches, and I thought I heard ‘yes.’

I went again the next week, and although I didn’t cry, the ‘yes’ did not turn to ‘no.’ And the preaching was good. Really good. See, the thing about Shel that I thought I knew is that he reads a lot of books, and he has a lot of fancy names for people, like ‘third way Christians’ and ‘anabaptists.’ all of which kind of bugged me until I have found out in the last couple of weeks what he MEANS when he says those things. I guess it has been a little ‘aha’ moment for me to find out that his preaching makes a lot of sense to me, and that probably is not a bad thing. HA.

So the next week, the ‘yes’ got a little louder. And I got a little more confident in hearing it. YES. That means what it seems like it means. YES, it’s time to move. It’s time to follow God and serve Him more. It’s time to open myself up to new things, and new people, and new teaching. It’s not time to think about what was wrong before, or blame anybody for anything, because God planted me where I was, and I am thankful for the places I’ve been, and the foundation in Christ I have. But right now, I am moving forward. To what, I cannot say I know. But I know God knows, and that is enough for me.

And this time, I’m not calling it a trial. I’m calling it a decision. I think it will work better that way. And I’m looking forward to looking forward.

i love summer. i love weekends. i love summer (almost) weekends. the garden is coming alive, thanks to many trips to the greenhouse in the last 10 days or so...and i am filling up slowly with new ideas for pretty things to make and look at. i am also taking naps on a regular basis!! i am full of joy, which always surprises me when it comes. thank you Lord!

can't decide

loving life

sighhhhhhh. this is the week i've been waiting a long, long time for. i am super busy with work stuff, but i find that just being able to take a 10 minute break in my plant kingdom really changes how i perceive things.

speaking of perception, we INFJ people perceive things mainly internally. i bet 99% of us (which are only 1% of the total population) like to garden. just because it's all about you and the dirt and possibly, if you let Him in, God. we INFJs tend to like it that way :)



anyway, the garden is tilled now. i'd tell you the crazy story about yet ANOTHER service worker who loves the Lord who i somehow picked out of the phonebook, but those are getting old. thanks for the day brightener, Joel, it was good to meet you....you also know how to rock that rototiller, so thanks for that.



there is really nothing better, nothing, than starting the day in the sun and the quiet and the peace of looking out over the greenery and a freshly planted crazy-quilt garden.


except maybe staying out late into the evening, pulling some weeds and avoiding some bugs and admiring beauty in the dark also :))

hope you are having a good week so far.

past blast, literally

apparently, 30 years ago today, mount st. helens errupted, and i graduated from high school.

i would not have remembered this without the magic of facebook. i knew it must be good for something.

seriously, my memory seems to be a little ahead of its time... meaning alzheimer's is just around the corner. i joined one of those "i lived in brookings in the 70s" groups - and i swear, about 90% of the stuff that people are blathering on about, i have no memory of. maybe i'm not really me, or the past did not really happen?! hmmmm.

good thing it's a nice day, and i can just live in the moment for a bit instead :)

finally

it's days like today that i remember that i started this blog as a gardening journal, a way to capture the beauty of God's creation, and to thank Him for it.

i am amazed at how quickly i forget. i swear, i have very little faith. after nearly 10 days of rain and greyness, i was convinced that we would never see the sun again. i was sad. i wanted to curl up on the couch. i did not go outside. at all.

and suddenly, after 48 hours of sun, i am a new and different person. i have a porch full of goodies to plant this week, and i have done some serious sitting and being still.

thank you Lord for not giving up on us, when we so easily do. i am believing for a fantastic week for each of you! if you'd like to sit and be still with me, c'mon over.

on being a hoarder

i am starting to begin to wonder about myself. it's all because of that tv show 'hoarders.' have you seen it yet?

i guess i always knew i liked things, and when i liked them, i wanted more of the same of them... never knew until i started watching that it was actually a sickness to be this way :)

still, i'm a happy hoarder so far. i can still have people over. you can still find a pathway to the bathroom (but you might not want to go in the basement).

lately, these are the kinds of things that i am wanting to hoard.

1) rain.

kristie laughs at me on this one, but seriously people, do you know that much of the world does not have enough water? i got a rain barrel from kristie's dad last summer, but i did not get it hooked up. then, this spring, i got it hooked up and it leaked. THAT was very distressing to me, and my first clue of the hoarding kicking in. NOW the barrel is full, and the runoff is disturbing me. i want more rain barrels. hmmmmm.

2) vintage clocks.

this one has been going on for awhile. i kind of know it's a problem. i have at least 10 clocks in the kitchen alone, i only have to turn 36 degrees in any direction to see what time it is. that should be proof enough that i have a problem. thing is, i get really happy when i find a vintage clock. i feel a need to rescue them, one by one, until i have them all. hmmmmm.

3) cats.

well, i only have the one of these. but i constantly daydream (and dream at night) about having many, many more. and i stress out about this one waaaaaaaay too much. yesterday for instance, i spent nearly an hour down in the basement, disassembling the duct work because i was convinced she was stuck in there. i almost called in assistance, but then she walked out of the bedroom, yawned, and looked at me, and i realized i might have been mistaken.

sigh. i guess it'd be a good thing to not hoard cats.

monday lesson

this is my devotional for today. i think that i shall take it seriously.

. . . you may be partakers of the divine nature ... 2 Peter 1:4

We are made “partakers of the divine nature,” receiving and sharing God’s own nature through His promises. Then we have to work that divine nature into our human nature by developing godly habits. The first habit to develop is the habit of recognizing God’s provision for us. We say, however, “Oh, I can’t afford it.” One of the worst lies is wrapped up in that statement. We talk as if our heavenly Father has cut us off without a penny! We think it is a sign of true humility to say at the end of the day, “Well, I just barely got by today, but it was a severe struggle.” And yet all of Almighty God is ours in the Lord Jesus! And He will reach to the last grain of sand and the remotest star to bless us if we will only obey Him. Does it really matter that our circumstances are difficult? Why shouldn’t they be! If we give way to self-pity and indulge in the luxury of misery, we remove God’s riches from our lives and hinder others from entering into His provision. No sin is worse than the sin of self-pity, because it removes God from the throne of our lives, replacing Him with our own self-interests. It causes us to open our mouths only to complain, and we simply become spiritual sponges— always absorbing, never giving, and never being satisfied. And there is nothing lovely or generous about our lives.

Before God becomes satisfied with us, He will take everything of our so-called wealth, until we learn that He is our Source; as the psalmist said, “All my springs are in You” (Psalm 87:7 ). If the majesty, grace, and power of God are not being exhibited in us, God holds us responsible. “God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you . . . may have an abundance . . .” ( 2 Corinthians 9:8 )— then learn to lavish the grace of God on others, generously giving of yourself. Be marked and identified with God’s nature, and His blessing will flow through you all the time.

...the house smells kind of yummy today :)

on our knees

today it is quiet, and a peaceful day here on the back forty. a great day for the National Day of Prayer. i think that we as Christians need to be tuned in to the importance of being allowed to observe this day in honor of our Lord. because you know, that right is slowly being taken away. thank goodness you cannot take away the presence of the Holy Spirit, or the God who resides inside us!! a friend sent an eloquent email, it seems perfect for today. i pray peace and blessings and prosperity and love for all of my blog friends today :))

The Lord is our helper,
He is the one true God who is, who was and who will
always be eternally our help in times of trouble,
our provider,
grace giver,
mercy extender,
lover of our souls,
beautiful savior,
exalted forgiver of all our sins,
mighty God,
redeemer,
friend,
counselor,
all wise God,
teacher and advocate.
He is our peace,
our righteousness,
strength, truth and way;
He is gentle, kind,
sustainer and keeper,
King of all Kings,
deliverer,
creator,
comforter,
Lord of all Lords,
refuge and solid rock.
His Love Never Fails,
He never fails,
He has the victory,
His plan will endure,
His love will endure,
He will have the final say
AND He holds you in the palm of His hand.
Cast your eyes upon the Lord
and abide IN Christ
and He will draw near to you.

website of the day

what can i say, i kind of love my gas station :) they have a kool website too.

today, i actually entered a contest to name their drink cups, and win either $10,000 or a year's supply of free beverages! i'd be good to go with either option.

i also like that they have kind of good people working there. today, a sweet little girl tried to talk me into the great deal they had on candy bars: 69 cents. i wanted to ask what the normal price is!! and maybe say 'honey, when i was born you could get 5 snickers for a dollar' - but i didn't.

i'll let you know how the contest goes :))

do over

so, yesterday was not exactly what i would call a wonderful day. i am asking for a 'do over' today. to get things off on the right foot, i purchased a new mercyme album. i loved it so much that i accidentally downloaded it twice :)) oh well, i am sure it will be worth double the cost! sheesh. here's to tuesdays that beat monday.

more projects

wow. do i ever have a huge project list. trouble is, i am also lazy. those two are not an especially good combo :)

yesterday afternoon, i decided i needed another. remember way back when i recovered the sun porch cusions? wow. that seems so long ago. i wish i had not left them outside all winter last year, so they could get mildewey and yucky. but, since i did, i really have to recover them.

there is no budget for this. the star of the sun porch is PLANTS, which i have saved up for excess spending on ;)) he he .... so, i was saddened to find that most outdoor fabric now costs upwards of $15 to $20 per yard. yikes!

then, i went to the remnant bin. i should just START there, shouldn't i?

i found this:


it reminds me of a garden. my garden. it's a little old fashioned, and kind of 'loose' in a good way. of course, the color seemed good...there was only 3 yards left, not enough to do everything, but a good start. i'll have to get creative and find something to match/coordinate. that will be fun. $11 total :)


i always think i am buying something wild. then, i see that i just keep buying the EXACT SAME THING over and over :)) i will keep you posted on results!