A tour of the garden and probably other updates

As I was guilted for not blogging lately...

After signing into my account, I realized it had been 2 months since last blogging.  Whoops.  Other than busyness, my only excuse is that I run my internet through my phone, and it's impossibly slow.  Already it's taken me about 10 minutes to get to my blogging screen.

So, without further ado....let's take a walk through the garden!

Front:

Front of garden.  Hello cow skulls!

For some reason I don't have a full front view of the garden on my phone.  My bad.  On either side of the front gate there are long beds surrounded by stone.  In the front beds we have blueberries, rhubarb, multiple herbs, strawberries, and some random bulb flowers like tulips and gladioli.  This picture is actually old, as yesterday we painted 2 grain feeders and affixed them halfway up the trellis so my sweet peas could grow out of them and up the rails.  The sweet peas I have planted in the ground aren't big enough yet to start climbing.

Garden beds:

Inside the garden are 6 raised beds of varying sizes:

Front bed:  zucchini on the left, cucumber in the bottom right, and the start of one type of carrots in the top right.
Back bed:  cauliflower, artichokes, 2nd type of carrots on the right.  

Pole beans!

Fava beans in the front (the taller ones we started in the greenhouse several weeks ago, the ones in front we planted about a week before we left for vacation).  In the back is corn.

Pumpkins!  In the front, smaller sugar pumpkins.  In the back, traditional jack-o-lantern sized pumpkins.

Edamame in the front (the taller stuff is like the fava beans - we planted in greenhouse awhile ago), and butternut squash in the back.

 Greenhouse:

This is just a sample of things in the greenhouse.  Just yesterday I planted 2 small flats of flowers to hopefully plant around the yard and in pots.  And for some reason I have no pics on my phone of the front of the greenhouse, which is my favorite thing to look at.

Two tubs of pickling cucumbers.  Yup.  Can't wait for pickles!  Also, it's amazing the difference between the cucumbers grown outside and the ones in the greenhouse.  The greenhouse ones are a lot bigger.

Tomatoes and one pepper plant (on the right).

A small sampling of more pepper plants.  There's over 15 tubs of multiple kinds of peppers planted.

And that is it for now.  I should probably take more and better pictures.

Here's a good picture to leave you with.....

Be a fountain, not a drain.
~ Rex Hudler

Apparently it's me

These are the carrots I planted inside in March/April, then planted outside in May.  When my whole garden died?  These are the only things that survived.  I just harvested them, with 5 months of growth.  I'm pretty sure something is wrong with my soil.

Be confident in the skin you are in, because that is the only body you will ever have, the only place that will ever be solely yours.  Even if you will never be as skinny as those supermodels, or the beauty who makes everyone stare, you can be beautiful in your own way.  And you have to accept that, and own it.
~ Deejae Harper

If only every day could be like today...

I finally planted my lavender.  If you only knew how long it took me to hand-till this section and plant everything.  5 hours.  Ridiculous.  The soil was littered with a ton of well-rooted weeds and other unrecognizable plants.  The soil is also so rocky I started pulling out the decent sized rocks.  And decided to make them into borders.  If the plants don't die immediately I might actually spend some money and put down some mulch.  We'll see. 

I stll have all these rocks left.  I'd have more but I got tired of pulling them out of the soil. 

This is a good representation what I started with.  And what I will be getting to another day.  Grass didn't work as weed-killers in this area so I think I'll spray vinegar and just kill off everything and leave it as dirt for the rest of the summer. 

Atticus wisely basked in the shade for a good part of the day.  What a guy. 

Fired up the firepit again.  Ate the rest of my potatoes and brussel sprouts, then decided to go for a grilled banana with chocolate and peanut butter.  I won't lie....it was AMAZING.  I got the idea here. 

Even Atticus liked it.  Yes, I'm a bad dog mother.  In my defense, its vegan chocolate.  I don't know if that makes a difference for dogs or not. 

So yes, my first day of vacation was vastly productive.  Awesome.

To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.
~ Audrey Hepburn

My life

Zucchinis and Atticus - my life at the moment....

From the garden straight to the kitchen and into the frying pan!!!  I might be a little biased when I say this, but I'm pretty sure the fritters I made with this are the best ones ever. 

I'm on 8 hour shifts this week....I can't believe how much you can get done with 2 extra hours...
- worked for 90 minutes outside.  Cleared most of a flowerbed on the side of the house.  Raked up an insane amount of rocks from the soil.  I should be ready to plant lavender the next time I work outside (although mowing the back yard is the priority - the weeds are almost up to my knees.  Luckily all the grass is dead).  I uncovered a mystery of #1 who was making holes in the piles of grass I had in the flowerbed (I was naturally killing weeds by suffocating them), and #2 what Atticus found so fascinating in the side yard....  apparently he's been hiding his chew toys in the piles of grass.  Funny dog.

- Went to the gym for an hour. 

- Wandered around internet world looking for a new recipe.  Decided not to use anything I found and instead fell back on an old favorite

- Cooked up two batches of fritters and a batch of cookies for dayshift tomorrow - we're having a mini-potluck.

- Cleaned up the kitchen, set up the coffee pot, played with Atticus a little, took a shower, etc etc etc. 

I feel so accomplished.  Now its time for some sleep.  I haven't been getting nearly enough of that this week.

She wasn't doing a thing that I could see, except standing there, leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together.
~ JD Salinger

Lets take another walk through my garden...

The squash has kinda taken over.  I'm cool with that though.

Baby squash!

Baby zucchini!!  (hopefully no one eats this one)

My best looking brussel sprout stalks.  I have high hopes for these guys.

Checking the size of my carrots.  Yes, they're purple!!  Should be ready to pull one or two shortly!!!

I've had a tough couple of days.  Two 12 hour days at work with 7 hours of sleep combined the last two nights.  Another 12 hour day tomorrow, training in Seattle.  I've had to take a step back and let a lot of plans and expectations go the past several days due to lack of sleep.  I don't want to accidentally blow up at the wrong person due to my inability to get a full 8 hours of sleep.  Can't wait for this week to be over.

Once in awhile it really hits people that they don't have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.
~ Alan Keightley

Today

I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul.
~ Pablo Neruda

Rubbing hips with the rich and green...

Today a friend and I went to Bainbridge Island to take advantage of all the island has to offer.  Bainbridge Island is the "in" place to be...full of wealthy elitests wearing birkenstocks and paying $20 for what costs $5 anywhere else.  But, the place is beautiful, clean, and full of unique things...

First stop...Bainbridge Organic Distillery...

Release day for their organic whiskey...sells out in one day, and one bottle allowed per person.  We got there an hour early to make sure we each got a bottle.  No, I'm not a whiskey person, I just wanted to get in on it....

I'm more of a vodka person.  Supposedly this stuff is so good it would be a crime to mix it with anything.  We'll see...

Lunch.  Yup...I drank part of mine.  And no, thats hard cider, not weak beer. 

We also stopped at the Bainbridge Farmers market, where I picked up some herbs to start my indoor herb garden...rosemary, thyme, varigated oregano, and chives...

mint...

And apple mint.  Hopefully my sunroom will smell delicious in a couple of days....

Atticus wisely stayed outside while I planted.

Yay!  Indoor garden!  (and outdoor crazy dog!).

2 hours til I meet another friend to watch the Sounders game (on TV, not going to the game....that is a goal though).  So I have 2 hours to figure out what to make with all the veggies in my fridge.

4 more days of work til my vacation.  I NEED IT!

The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.
~ WB Yeats

Thats right...

...I finally planted my garden.

*crosses fingers*

Sometimes it seems the harder you try to hold onto something or someone the more it wants to get away.  You feel like some kind of criminal for having felt, for having wanted.  For having wanted to be wanted.  It confuses you because you think that your feelings were wrong and it makes you feel so small because its so hard to keep it inside when you let it out and it doesn't come back.  You're left so alone that you can't explain. 
~ Henry Rollins