Standing at the Trailhead of Winter

The weekend weather, sunny and 70's, spoiled me. I need more of those days. Today, however, is not to be one of those days. No. Today is 40's and misting. Today is an inside day. Thankfully I did get the lawn mowed yesterday. I love seeing how pretty it looks right after being mowed. That being said, I'm already thinking about turning as much of the lawn as possible into garden. While I enjoy mowing, I enjoy flowers and trees more. My goal is to turn my lawn into a beautiful, whimsical garden. This can't happen in one summer, I know. It'll be the rest-of-my-life kind of hobby. This summer, I'm mostly going to see what's already here. All the way around the house there are daylilies. I like daylilies, but I might relocate a lot of them to another area of the yard. Maybe on the other side of the garage where they'll get a lot of sun in the afternoons and evenings. I also have a few irises that are nearing their bloom time. And I've found some m...

Along with cycling this summer, I've been spending time working on the gardens. For now, I have four raised beds at the east side of the house, a garden spot on the south side of the house, and a fruit garden at the west end of the house. If it were up to me, I'd have the entire north side of the house in raised beds, but that's been a hard sell to the boys, mostly because of the mowing difficulties it would create. I'm not giving up, though. One day, the north side will be raised beds. So far, the plants I've put in are doing well, even the bush bean plants I bought that seemed all but salvageable. I truly thought I'd wasted nearly $20 on them, but in the good composted soil where I'd buried the fish carcasses from last summer, they are now thriving. We've had enough rain that I haven't had to water, and my rain barrel remains overflowing. A second barrel is on my mind since I could always use the water from it in the fruit garden. There, the grap...

This morning I awoke early, just after daybreak, and sleep just wasn't going to come back to me as I was too curious about the bees. I needed to check on them. When I did, all was quiet. No sound came from inside the hive. The image of floating goldfish came to mind. Surely I hadn't killed them all so quickly, I thought. Hubby came out and bent down to listen. He heard a scratching noise. I leaned in but heard nothing. Dismay began to well up inside me. I figured all I could do was wait. Wait for the sun to come up to warm the hive. Wait to see if the bees began humming. So I turned to other things, like . . . planting some flowers in pots and in a pair of old rubber rain boots that had belonged to Funny Delightful Son when he was three or four years old.  putting out my new angel statue, officially putting myself in the "old people who garden and buy silly statues to place here and there."  getting on the road bike and going 10.5 miles, starting slowly since ...

 I went to Hubby in early June and said, "I'd like a space to call my own. A workshop type of place." I pointed to the area behind the garage, saying we could clean everything out and build a barn for me. He immediately sat down with a sheet of paper and a pencil, and drew out the kind of roof I wanted. Then he measured the space to see just how big I could go. We ended up deciding my workshop could be 9 x 16. From there, we started in. After two weeks of hard work, sometimes 12 hour days, we ended up with exactly what I'd pictured in my head. I now have my red barn in which to create all the ideas that pop into my brain. My sister gave me the leaded window above the doors, and the door windows came from a salvage company here in town. I love being in my new space, but I love Hubby even more for taking my idea and turning it into reality. One of the projects I started once I could move my stuff into the new workshop is painting all my curbside chairs that will be...

Despite the 22 mph winds yesterday, I pedaled my way to 51 miles. When I started out, the wind was out of the SW, so I headed west, thinking I'd have a nice, somewhat of a wind at my back for the return ride. Sounded good, but the wind didn't cooperate. After 25 miles into what was mostly a headwind, I turned around to find the wind had shifted to be a straight out of the south crosswind. By mile 44, I was toast. But, I managed to get 51 miles logged, and the fatigue felt really, really good, so I reveled in my winning the battle against the wind all evening, as I watched the Blackhawks win in overtime against the Redwings. My plan to get out again today most likely won't happen. The wind is still at it, more so than yesterday it seems. I just can't get excited about cycling into 25 mph winds today. With my self-supported ride nearing, along with the ride with the Northern Tier group through Indiana and Illinois, I'm afraid I won't be physically ready to tackl...

When I signed off back in April, I knew I would be back sooner or later. At the time, I just needed a breather. I turned off a lot of the background noise for the last month and some days, and focused on a few things pulling at me, like gardening and creating. The joy that I've felt completing a few of these projects got me through the end of the semester, to the end of the school year for my boys, and ready for the beginning of summer. Bicycle Birdbath The bicycle wheel birdbath is by far my favorite project to date. During a meeting at work the last week of the semester, I drifted off into JK Land and thought, "I really need a birdbath." Then I started doodling on the pad of paper I always carry with me, thinking about the couple of old wheels hanging on the side of my workbench. I knew I still had the fork from the pawn shop bike, too, so I figured I could combine the wheels and the fork to make my birdbath. As soon as I got home that day, I went to the garage an...

My epic walk on Monday left me with a blister on each of my feet, both exactly in the same place near the heel. These aren't just run of the mill blisters; they're ginormous. The one on my right foot is the bigger of the two, and yesterday evening I was in some major pain. I've had blisters before, and none of them ever hurt like the one I have now. The slightest pressure on the skin near the blister was painful as well. I was fearing it was becoming infected. As soon as I got home (we were at football practice with my youngest), I dabbed triple antibiotic ointment on it and took a couple of pain relievers. An hour later, the pain was nearly gone. Today, the pain is there, but it's much less than what I was dealing with last evening. I've not had to take any pain relievers today, so hopefully whatever it was is on the mend. With it now being August--can you believe it?--the last couple of days I've been mulling over my goals for the summer. At this point, I...

The clouds and rain have moved on. Finally. The wind we've been dealing with since last week no doubt pushed both the clouds and the rain away. The garden soil is now cracking from dryness, but thankfully both of my water barrels are full, so I can water liberally without feeling like I'm wasting money watering my plants. The two lettuces, the spinach, the peas, and the herbs are sprouting. So far, nothing is showing for the potatoes. I haven't grown potatoes in many, many years, so I won't be too surprised if I end up with none at the end of the season. They're a little different from other plants, and I'm not sure I got them in the right way. All in all, the garden is coming along. Retractable Clothesline My new retractable clothesline is in place, allowing me to stretch it over the garden plantings to dry clothes. Once they're dry, I can release the cord, and it will wind itself in its housing, out of the way when not needed. My hope is to not use th...

With yesterday being a warm, dry day, and today being a warm, dry day, I took advantage of the opportunity to work in the garden. The last two weeks have been rainy and cool, so putting out seeds didn't seem like a great idea. A lot of hard work most likely would have ended up water-logged. Though it's a bit later than I like for starting with seeds, I'm glad I waited. After a short time sitting on the deck this morning, I pulled all the materials together and started in. Around 11, my lovely daughter called me in for Easter brunch. She loves to work in the kitchen, and between her and her boyfriend whipping up brunch, we all enjoyed veggie omelets, waffles with blueberry syrup and whipped topping, bacon, sausage gravy and biscuits, and coffee. What a feast! Talk turned to past vacations we've taken over the years, and for a little while, we sat and laughed, remembering little moments we all now cherish. The dirt JK made! As my daughter began cleaning up the kitc...

Though it's much too early to really be planting anything, I can't help but think about the coming warmth of spring and being able to put out my small garden. My spirit lives in the country, and sometimes the pull to up and run to the land overwhelms me. I know I'm living in the wrong house. I just can't convince my husband of this. I can do small gardening around this house, mostly container gardening. The problem with trying to garden here is the trees. Two trees in the yard block out the sunlight for most of the day. Most veggies need more hours of sunlight than what we get. I've asked that the trees be cut down. I've demanded that the trees be cut down. Always, always the answer is no. Since I can't have what I want, I'm going to have to be creative and devise a container system that will allow me to grow more in less space. I already have some planter boxes, but they're way to deep. The planning was all wrong at the time; it was sort of a whim t...