All in a Garden Green

Right... so... I'm still here. This is still here. Spring is here. Dusting a few things off today, both physical and metaphysical, I guess. Kurlon is at the track for his first actual race weekend in a few years, so it's just me and the kitties at home for this first actual beautiful sunny warm weekend of Spring. I planted the garden box. Half of it.

To start with:
'Sugar Snap' Peas
'Five Color Silverbeet' Swiss Chard
'Early Wonder' Beets (yup... gonna try 'em... I had pickled beets, and didn't hate them, so we'll see what happens here)
'Purple & White Vienna Blend' Kohlrabi
'Tyee' Spinach
'Buttercrunch' Lettuce
'Danvers Half Long' and 'Purple Haze' Carrots
Borage
'Sunspot' Sunflowers
'Mahogany' Nasturtium

and a pot of 'Starry Night' Sweet Peas by the front porch... hoping they'll grow and climb the railing after they (hopefully) hit the top of the trellis. Hoping the slugs are not as bad as they were last year, that was awful. All defenses armed and ready for that battle, they will NOT get ahead of me this year. Slug bait, diatomaceous earth, and beer. I will deal with gooey piles of drunk slugs if it means I get to keep my seedlings.

I cut down a few saplings that needed to go, more to go in the near future. More tomorrow. Cleaning up the garden, porch area, other stuff. Maybe I'll even wash my car.

Mostly. I think I relaxed for real sometime around 4:30 on Saturday afternoon, during one of several naps...

Arrived onsite at Panteria earlier than I'd hoped I would, helped Max & Mickel finish setting up the Taj, and had a lovely dinner, fire, and starwatching with everybody. There were a few shooting stars, and lots and lots of satellites swooshing overhead. A beautiful evening.

Did not sleep well, for some reason, Friday night. Bah. Made for an out-of-it (and apparently slightly cranky) Camille the next morning. Fencing was at 11. That was the happy thought of the AM. Breakfast was good, I chased a bird into the crabapple tree across the way (an American Restart, a pair of them!), attempted to sit and be calm for a while, failed, and took a walk around camp. Helped Frenya set up the fencing lists at 11, got my gear, headed back, did some FENCING. I needed to stab people. We did a few authorizations; neither one really had a firm grip on the rules, but we gave one guy a provisional. Outright failed the other guy, which I felt a little badly about, but he had no clue... nobody in his area (Mountain Freehold?) to practice with, but he hadn't even read the rules recently and couldn't tell me much of anything about proper fencing. We did the swordwork as a formality, and there was no hard hitting or hesitation, but skill, even with light was just not there... sigh. Better luck next time.

Cynan showed up, ginormous shield in hand, and we fenced. It was awesome. From fighter to fencer in three months, and he's FUN. He and Carolyne and I were one team for Jack's tavern brawl, and we ended up winning the day. Woo! Usually it was Cynan and me left standing at the end of the scenario, which was a new thing for me... still alive? How strange. Hot day though, and lots of fencing, made us all tired. I headed back to camp for a shower and a nap. Kathy joined me on the blanket in the shade, Mickel tootled on her recorder, and I think I actually got some sleep. Or at least relaxed. Which was lovely.

Woke up a few times, not entirely myself, apparently, but conscious enough to chase down Cynan, find Brian, who had my cake pan filled with lovely things from Angus & Tigger before he headed back to Canada, and return to the blanket for more nap. Kinda nap. Laying down in the shade, talking with wonderful people, drinking a bit of Kathy's chocolate-whippedcream-wine. Delicious. Delightful. We were camped on the corner of the main road through camp, so everybody walked by, said hi, socialized for a bit, and wandered on.

Mickel and I headed for the ball post-feast. She ended up playing my recorder and I danced and directed traffic. It was pretty near perfect. Back to a campfire prepared by Max, for stories and singing and socializing, and then I had to go... way too early again... sigh. Home by 3AM, not enough sleep, but work the next day wasn't too bad. So much fun.

The sunshine and warm weather has made the garden explode! Now if only the pouring monsoons would ease up a bit. Between the slugs and the pounding rain, I have hardly any seedlings left. They've eaten the tops off half my sunflowers, the spinach has gone half rotten, and the rain has beaten half of my poor carrots into nothing. I'm going to have to replant, and get some slug stuff. Blech. I whacked my red coneflower this evening, and sent at least a dozen slugs flying. Ick ick ick. All my iris leaves have holes in them, but I am pleased to say that I will be keeping the iris that came with the house. They are not the expected "old fashioned" purple (not that there's anything wrong with purple, I just can't stand they "typical" purple iris that spread everywhere...), but a lovely shade of pale lavender. At least the one that bloomed is. My potatoes have also taken off like crazy! Even out of the tower, like they're supposed to! Yaaaaay! Just need to get rid of the slugs...

Excited too; I have 6 new hoyas, mostly miniatures, coming by mail from The Violet Barn, probably on Friday. They're small, they won't take up much room!! So pleased I rediscovered the site... I need to go through my houseplants again. Most of them need cleaning, some need repotting. It's supposed to rain Saturday. I'll do that when I need a break from sewing. Making a new door for the tent, BEFORE Great Northeastern War! Which I still need to do some planning and scheduling for. The class form is going up this weekend. Will work on that tomorrow.

Till then, some photos:

05-25-26 Panteria

Garden 2012

It's spring. It's been crazy. I finished a scroll and a half last week (pictures next week, after it's awarded), and am fried. Wheee! First weekend off in a while. I could have gone to Carolingia's Investiture and had a fantastic time, but staying home and puttering around in the garden was a much better plan for today.

Car is fixed, I'm in debt... but, new timing belt, window all better, new rear brakes, everything else should be OK for a while (I hope). Finally got the bill for the repair of my broken arm. Ow ow ow all over again, even though we knew exactly what it was going to be and have the money set aside, still no fun.

The last couple weeks have been full of fencing and friends! Fencing at Fort Knox (SO AWESOME. And we had a STAIR PIT!), got my baby goat fix and had a lovely visit and dinner with Jehan and Kyle at Sunnywood, Sea Dogs game with mylisant, Northern Region Rapier Championships and Tyger and Bucket, and finally a day to myself in the garden.

Mother's Day tomorrow; work will probably be crazy, which is really a good thing. I only spent a half hour on the phone with the office today, not bad. Re-confirmed this week that some people have zero sense of self-preservation. WTFPANIC moment from work: I'm in the BIG loader, just finished dumping a bucketload of mulch into the back to this guy's truck, have it in reverse (bucket is still up), so the loader is beeping, and the guy WALKS UNDERNEATH THE BIG BUCKET ARM instead of waiting literally 3 seconds for me to back out of the way enough that he could have walked the exact same space, without danger of being clocked in the head with a major F=MA win on my end. Thank goodness I was paying attention and not actually moving backwards yet. Idiot.

Played in the garden today. Put fabric and started to do stones along the drip edge of the house so any mulch or compost I put down won't get washed away. Got rid of the burning bush and all of its horrible little children so the lilac (which is actually blooming this year!) doesn't have any more close competition. Also found a stepping-stone pathway (though I'm sure the intent was for it to be better...) that I knew was by the front porch, but not the full extent. A flat shovel did nice work uncovering it. Now I know what I have to start with and can do something nice with it all. Planted 2/3 of the seed potatoes in the other half of the raised bed, I will bring some straw home from work tomorrow and build my awesome potato tower that dervishspin found. Cannot wait. Decided also that the garden box should really have been built on the other side of the driveway... we'll see about moving it next year, maybe.

Lots of photos:

04-28 Jehan's Fencing at the Fort	04-28 Sunnywood	04-30 Sea Dogs
05-05 NRRC	05-05 Tyger and Bucket	Garden 2012

And carrots, and lettuce, and onions, and a bunch of other stuff!

I was not completely wiped out tonight when I got home from work, and found myself idly pulling a few weeds in the garden bed by the stairs, which then turned into ripping a bunch of weeds out further up the path, which turned into getting the damn sorrel out of the garden box by the driveway, which turned into turning over the soil, grabbing my seed packets and labels, and getting half the box planted! Whee! The other half will be mostly potatoes, which hopefully are shipping this week and will arrive soon... I ordered Yellow Finn and Dark Red Norland from The Maine Potato Lady, two pretty much fool-proof varieties, so I am led to believe.

I also finally planted the chives and garlic chives and muscari that have been (barely) living in a box for the last two years, since I dug them out of the garden in Windham. I think they will be happier now.

Garden 2012

Seeds, from back to front, left to right:
'Ringmaster' and 'Flat of Italy' Onions
'5-Color Silverbeet' Swiss Chard (and an empty spot that I need to do something with...)
'Carnival' Carrots (so fun! multi-color!), 'Red Sails' Lettuce, 'Tyree' Spinach
'Cascadia' Sugar Snap Peas are planted by the trellis, and there are a few 'Sunspot' dwarf sunflowers and some borage thrown in around the corners for good measure.

Also went to Coronation this past Saturday with Jean, Sorcha, and Mylisant, which was lovely. Still going through photos, there will be a gallery posted soon!

I made a big pile of mud! And then put plants in it! Yaaay!

I have exorcised the last of the ghost of the euonymus, I hope. And hopefully the raspberries will have to work a lot harder to get through 6"+ of loam, so I won't have to deal with that. And kurlon is the most wonderful husband, because he took pity on me (or got sick of me whining), set up a plywood ramp on the stairs, and then did not kill himself pushing the last 4 wheelbarrows full of loam that I needed to finish filling the bed up said ramp. So much quicker than shoveling it all over the wall. That was not a whole lot of fun. (Didn't help that I was cranky already for having to go into work and water. 2 hours driving for a half hour of actual work... on my day off... on my vacation. Tempting to charge travel time for this. :( ) But now the fun can begin! I get to pick out all the lovely plants that will help hold the soil in place, and make me happy. I think an actual set of plans are in order so I don't go too nuts, and don't end up ripping too much of it out... We'll see how that goes. A few of my nasturtium seeds came up along the wall, the lovely 'Enchanted One' Iris finally has a home, and a beautiful 'Rozanne' Geranium has joined the hill.

The coral bells in the terrace are happy; the little tiny 'Ruby Bells' that I split into three pieces are getting bigger, and next week, after I get back, I think an Oakleaf Hydrangea will be coming home with me to live in the top half of the terrace. Just about perfect.

Veggie garden is kinda growing. It only gets about 5 hours of sun, 9AM to 2PM. We'll see how it all works out. Perhaps will try something different next year. The squash have flowers, though, and I have wee little tomatoes on both plants, and things are still alive.

Listening, now, to a thunderstorm rolling around (the sky is still blue), and cooling off... Tomorrow will be packing the truck and hopefully heading to the GNEW site for a day of relaxation before all the craziness happens on Thursday, and all my friends from far away arrive on Friday.

Good things, mostly, this week.

+ 4 out of 5 days got to ride the bike! Could have, maybe, on Tuesday, but would have been COLD. And Wet. Even with rain gear. So it worked out OK.
+ Good fencing day on Tuesday!
+ Finally bought 'Sigh No More' by Mumford and Sons. For $5. mp3 Album from Amazon.com. LOVE.
+ Sunshine today, finally.
+ FRIDAY. Kinda. For me. First Friday of the week!
+ Lovely dinner at Blast from the Past with anna_mickel and Max tonight.
+ Rode home under a beautiful moon and indigo skies.

- Not going to be able to play in the garden much this weekend...

+ ...because I'm prepping stuff for Spring's Inspirations on Saturday! Paint and gold and friends and general SCA loveliness.

- Not sure if I'll have any sort of veggie/edibles garden this year... I gotta do something, I'll go nuts...

+ ...but I'm going to help S get a container garden going behind the restaurant where she works! Next weekend, we plant beets and radishes and STUFF!

- ...because she's still hurting from a rough break-up. I'm gonna kick K next time I see him... but not too hard... life will indeed go on. Gardens heal souls. /sigh.

+ Started some herb seeds in a little egg carton greenhouse. Hopefully will have some thyme, and basil, and borage, and other stuff coming up soon. Green. Need. Green.

+ Kitties happy. Got most of the mats (not too bad, but bad enough) out of Galahad's underside out. kurlon has to pay attention to the front half, while I work on the back half, and it's quite a feat of acrobatics when we get fuzzbutt up on his haunches so I can get the underside, but he's such a patient, calm kitty... thank goodness. No protesting, even when I know it pulls a little bit...

+/- We really need a garage door. There are birds nesting in the third garage. I think it's a Phoebe. Working on replacing, maybe, the one we lost last weekend...

Time to get off the computer now. Things to do! Busy weekend!

Spring is here, spring is here! It's not snowing (though it's only 26 degrees out...), the sun is shining, and I've got the day off. Life is goood.

I did get outside, too, at 12:30 AM or so (agh, need to change the time on my camera for daylight savings...), with my camera and tripod (and should have worn gloves. Brr.), and stared up at the sky for a little while.

Big bright moon, perfectly clear night. Gorgeous.

The first photo I took also had some stars in it. I will need to play with this fantastic camera a bit more, when it's warmer in the evenings, and there is not quite so much moonlight. I have tried taking star photos and a lot of moon photos before , but I have so much more control over every single setting on this camera, I bet I can get some better ones. This was the 'Chaste Moon', according to English Medieval tradition... It was beautiful. Everything outside was bathed in blue light, reflecting off the snow that still covers the land here.

Stones are poking through, though. I am excited to see my terrace again; this year, I know what I am going to put there (Hydrangea quercifolia, Oakleaf Hydrangea), and will do it, before fall! So pretty... Much soil amending to be done first, and the Battle of the Sumac and Raspberry will continue... I made a good dent last year, but there is much ground to be gained and much compost to be spread.

I have a new toy... It takes purty pictures... EeEEEeeeE! And I might just have to buy that rose... I think the giant chartreuse hosta is not liking where I put it... too much sun for it, but I think just enough sun to grow a pretty pretty yellow rose. And with a name like 'High Voltage', who can resist, really?

But first, Vinland Raids! So much fun! So hot... But there was fencing, and feasting, and dancing, and lots of time spent with wonderful friends. The site was lovely, if a bit spread out, and I really, really wished the rest of my haushold was with me, specifically with their crossbows, when the darn crows decided that 5:30 AM was a good time to start cawing, right outside my tent. Grumblegrump...

So glad I took Sunday off, and didn't try and do a crazy thing and drive back on Saturday night. Xavier and I had a nice, semi-leisurely ride home up the coast, only one exciting part when we drove through a heck of a thunder/rain/hail storm going through Wells.

Arriving back at work on Monday, I was greeted by S, our office manager, who told me she did a silly thing over the weekend... she found a heck of a deal on a practically brand new Nikon D90 camera, with lenses (digital SLR... covet, covet, covet...), and bought it, even though she had a really nice DSLR already. So jealous, I told her... she then of course mentioned that she was going to put her old D70 on Craigslist, or something... eh? Hrm. How much do you want for it...? One thing led to another, and it's mine, now. Or will be officially, once I actually pay her for it... Is shiny. Is take purty pictures. Is going to be a month of reading the manual before I figure things out, but this means I will be able to take good photos at courts, and in low-light situations, and get right up the butterfly's nose with the spiffy spiffy macro lens. I realize now, after playing with this camera for a few days, how much I missed my film SLR. Better now. :)

Before playing too much, though, I have got to get cracking. There's a ton of stuff I've got to get done before GNEW, not the least of which is a rather complicated scroll, but I'll be fine... To Do List to be made tomorrow... after work, and the Greek Festival in Portland! Mmm... loukomades...

But a good one. This is not the best photo, but it gives a pretty good idea of what I've done for the last couple days... When are my weekends going to be relaxing again, I wonder...

Yesterday started semi-early, but it was good to be up. Had to go buy paint! But first, had to clear away stuff from the walls in what would become my library.... that took a little while, as did taping and prepping. Took off parts of the door molding, since they weren't exactly securely attached to the walls anyway. Made for easier painting. First, bought compost for the garden (and two new Pasque flowers, to be planted soonish... I hope), and then paint, brushes, and rollers, and then home.

Did yellow first, to finish the main column which is part of the same visual space as the dining area... Max and I debated about painting it or not, and after not, it turns out it definitely needed to be done. Better now. Then onto blue, ceiling first. A beautiful, pale blue. Almost white. Pale enough that it was a little bit difficult to see where I'd painted, plus it being a textured ceiling (haaaaate.), coupled with the dawning realization of 'uh oh... I'm using a LOT of paint (dang super-fluffy roller)... perhaps two cans would have been better?' made for a semi-frustrating time. I think I used every single drop of paint in the can. Should do a second coat at some point, but it's done enough for now... got one pretty even coat over the whole ceiling.

Walls went quick, thank goodness. They are perfect, forget-me-not blue. I love it. Only a few little touch-up spots that I find every now and then, and they're easy enough to hit with a brush. Now the only thing left is to figure out what to do with the horrible white door... I'm thinking mural, but not sure of what yet. I should just paint it and get a clean coat of *something* on it.

After paint, went to visit Max, and we finished up edging the last of the oak molding for the bedroom. Hoping to get it over here sometime this week, and will stain, and then hopefully put it up soon. Can't wait to move into the downstairs bedroom...

Max and I then met anna_mickel, ninian_vesalius, and alexsaintpierre at the movies, and saw Robin Hood. Oh. My. So good. EEEEEEE. Fun movie, different take on the legend. Forget everything you know, enjoy the pretty, and listen to the wonderful Alan Doyle sing. :)

Speaking of which... Alan, Bob, Sean, and Murray have a new album coming out. Just in time to completely miss GNEW, but it will give me something to look forward to after it's over. Three tracks are available for listening (and if anybody can figure out how to get actual copies of them off the flash player, it would make me a very happy kitty), and I am so looking forward to hearing the rest of the album... Eeee!

Painted the library yesterday in preparation for E, Mom, Dad, Mom-in-law, and Dad-in-law, who all came to visit today. Mom and dad brought boxes of books, great-grandma's sewing machine, and some random other STUFF. MiL and DiL brought a rocking chair that was J's great grandmother's, and came to help put more stuff away. E came to visit, and was shanghaied into helping reassemble my house... I've promised her a better visit soon... The library is assembled, my sewing room is more organized, almost usable, and I'm exhausted. My plans for today (since it was kinda rainy) had included getting the library and sewing room organized, whether everybody had come visiting or not, but it certainly went quicker with more help.

This week at work will be interesting... tiring, I suspect. Open house/Customer appreciation day on Saturday will be zooey, and it's prep for that that will be taking over my work week. Aieee. Hoping to get in my garden on Friday, the sumac is starting to wake up, and since I've taken away the big feeder trees, root suckers are popping up everywhere. I think I'll have to buy a wheelbarrow this week, start hauling stuff out of the garden and into the trailer so we can take it to the brush pile. Hope to clean up the boxwood, rip out more roots, and get those 6 bags of compost spread on the cleared part of the garden soon.