Happy Valentine's Day!

This is what my honey had delivered on Thursday morning for Valentine's day. They came when all the ladies were here for bible study. I love that! They are alstromyerias.(?) They are just beautiful. He's a very special guy.

He also gave me bags of steer manure, compost, flower and rose food and seeds. It's really what I wanted. Now I just would love to have some dry days to work out in my pea patch. Can't wait.

I have some daffodils called "Cheerful" blooming. They started blooming about 3 days ago.

The top picture is my potting area out under the grape arbor. This is one of my favorite places to be in the summer. I have pots and soil and tools and buckets and all the things I need to garden. Its great to go out to and just putter. I hope to have chickens on the other side of the arbor this spring.

Well, we are sitting here watching speed skating on the Olympics and its hard to concentrate. So I hope everyone has a great day. Ta ta for now!

P.S. Happy Birthday, Carla my dear friend!

Sweet Pea Time

There is no picture today. In two days it will be time to plant sweet peas here in Puyallup. It's probably time to plant in other places too so let's talk sweet peas.

My friend Carla who had the most amazing sweet peas last year told me what she does and I'm not sure if I have everything correct but this is what I'm going to do. First of all they are heavy feeders. So that means a well prepared bed for them to grow in. I'm going to have a row about 10 to 12 feet long so I'm going to add a bag of steer manure, chicken manure, a bag of Whitney Farms Rose and Flower Food and of course, compost. Now I know that sounds like a lot of work but if you want the best sweet peas it's worth it. And the seeds need to be pre-sprouted. They can be put between two wet paper towels until they sprout and then planted. I'm going for it this year. Then when they start to bloom they need to be picked every day. Now who wouldn't want to see you coming with a bouquet of sweet peas?

So, President's Day is the day to plant sweet peas and Monday is President's day so you know where I will be. Have a great Valentine's Day.

Ta ta for now!

The Seattle Flower and Garden Show

Cold Frame

I got to spend all day at the Seattle Garden show Friday and had the most wonderful time. I went with 3 friends. Carla picked me up at 7:15am and we didn't get home until 9:30 that night. What a day!

I hadn't been to the show in about 6 years. A former boss and me used to go every year and sometimes spend 2 or 3 days going to lectures and touring the gardens and shopping. So it was a real treat to go again. It was fun to see all the gardens. There are some talented people out there. Three of them featured chickens. I was glad to see them because it shows how popular they are becoming.

The fragrance when you walk into the convention center is very powerful. It's like a whole room of hyacinths and daffodils and clean dirt and so many other things all together. It's heaven!

I still don't have the picture thing figured out on here yet. That's why there are pictures with no writing. Some day I'll get this figured out. So here are the descriptions of the pictures.

The first one is three Barbies sitting at a patio. They look quite relaxed don't they? I wish I could look that good sitting in my garden. I've never seen Barbie weeding. I woner how Barbie would look after three or four hours of weeding. Hey Barbie, got a minute?

The second picture is of a chicken in the cab of a small truck. They planted the bed of the truck with a vegtable garden and made the cab into part of a chicken coop. Quite clever. In the lower part of the door there was an opening cut out so that the chickens could go into the coop that was attached to the truck. Very cool.

The third picture is of a cold frame that I'd love to have. I know that they are not supposed to be that hard to build, its just finding the right place. And the window and the time, blah,blahblah. (I can make up a long list of excuses.)

And the last picture is of a John Deere chicken coop and chicken. I really like this one because it was what is called a chicken tractor. That means that you can pick up the whole thing and put it anywhere in your yard that you want and leave it there until the chickens have eaten the lawn and fertilized it and then you move it somewhere else. Very cool.

The other cool thing that I saw at the garden show where Sunglo Greenhouses. I have greenhouse envy for anyone who has one. I know there are many kinds out there but I know someone who has this particular one and she really likes it. I hope to get one this spring if possible.

There's so many things coming up in the garden. It's hard to keep track of everything so I walk out there every chance I get. I do have what look like paperwhites coming out by the back walk. Very exciting!

I worked out in my potting area today just cleaning it up. It felt sooo good. I'm always so embarrassed when someone comes over and it looks like a tornado hit it. So, it will look nice till I start potting things up again.

Well, its time to get something to eat. So,ta for now!

Bunnies, twigs and borders

My friend Carla has 3 Holland lop bunnies and they love apple tree trimmings. So yesterday I went to a friends house who was having her apple trees trimmed and I got a couple of arm loads full of trimmings to take to her for her bunnies. She was very appreciative. Then today I took the kids for a walk and there was a guy trimming more apple trees and so I picked up some more apple trimmings for her. As I was looking at the trimmings I thought they would make a great border for my lasagna garden in the front that the kids won't stay out of. So I picked some up for me too and came home and put a border around my garden. It looks pretty good as you can see. I don't know how well it will keep the kids out but it was fun and it looks cool.
It was so nice out today. Very cold this morning but warmed up this afternoon and the sun came out for a while.
The eagles were back again today. I can always tell because of their call. Very distinctive.
I checked on my garlic today and there are 3 elephant garlic and 16 regular garlic up. Very exciting. Its the first year that I have grown it.
So, ta ta for now.

Oh the joy....

It is 61 degrees outside right now at 2:40 in the afternoon. Oh what joy, oh what bliss. "Why are you inside?" you might ask. I have been working outside for about an hour and a half and came in for a break. The sun is out and I was out there in my long sleeved t-shirt and it was very comfortable. I had bought six primroses and nine pansys and wanted to get them planted and I did. What a spirit lifter to be outside.
I had some children's cowboy boots and rainboots I had gotten a couple of years ago and planted them with some of the pansy's and put the others in pots and containers and it feels like spring. When the ladies come over for bible study on Thursday it will look nice.
There is so much coming up in the garden. When we have days like this and I can go out and explore I feel so much better. Anything coming up in your gardens?
Well, I am going out for round two. Ta ta for now!

Family Birthdays

Yesterday we celebrated Mark and Jen's birthdays and Sarah did all the cooking as you can see.

She made Chicken Stew with Biscuits and a French Apple Tart.

They were both so good.

Everyone loved them.

She used her new dutch oven that we gave her for Christmas.

(I know this isn't about gardening but there isn't much going on right now and I wanted everyone to know that Sarah can cook.)

She wanted her picture taken so that everyone would believe that she really did cook.

She even did most of the clean-up!

She makes me so proud.

Tonight we're having Quiche Lorraine.

I'm cooking.

Umm....

Ta ta for now!

Beautiful Sunrise

There is nothing like a beautiful sunrise to start the day. God must love us very much to give us such beauty. Mark called me this morning from his truck driving to the job and told me to hurry up and go look outside to see the sunrise because it was magnificent. So I did and was not disappointed. So I was able to get several shots before it was over. Of course I had to take pictures in between cars driving by, because I didn't want to scare them. Can you imagine driving by a house and having a flash go off? So I tried to be considerate. I hope it worked. It was a beautiful day today and I got to take the kids for a walk.

There are things coming up all over the garden! I'm so excited! Spring is on the way.

Time to make some dinner so ta ta for now!

The Kids

These are the kids. Lola and Bing. They are so much fun. We love them dearly. I try to walk them everyday and they love and look forward to that everyday. In fact as soon as I put my white walking shoes on they start getting excited. I have to drive to another neighborhood to walk them because our street is just too busy and we have no sidewalks. But that's ok because I have met some very good friends by taking them for thier walks. So, anyway these are the kids and we love them. So this is the second post of the day. Ta ta for now.

Chickadee Rescue

Chickadee's are one of my favorite birds and I had the chance to rescue one today. When I got home from taking the dogs for a walk (in the misty rain) this little bird was lying on the back porch where it had apparently flew into the window. Lola was sniffing at it and would probably tried to play with it but I was able to get to it before she did. So I held it in my hand and had to get the dogs harnesses off with the other. Then I went to sit in one of lawn chairs to see if it would come back to consciousness. And low and behold I had my camera in my pocket so I was able to take a few shots of the bird and me. It only took about five minutes for it to come back to consciousness and to fly to the roof. It was so tiny. Much smaller than they look just on a branch or the feeder. What fun!
I think I may have figured out how to get pictures off the new camera. If so, I will be posting more. Well my soup will be done soon and my granola is coming out of the oven. Ta ta for now.

Happy New Year!

Do you love New Year's? I always get up before everyone else and think and pray and write down goals and for the coming year. I will not bore you with the details except to say that I have many. How about you?

This year for Christmas I wrote down a bunch of books that I wanted for Christmas and I got four of them.
"The Backyard Homestead" from my son Chris
"Lasagna Gardening" from Mark
"Keeping Chickens" from Mark
The American Horticultural Society's "Plant Propagation" from Sarah
and my friend Carla gave me "Tasha Tudaor's Garden".
What fun I have had already going through these books, and the garden catalogs keep coming everyday! I'm so excited. This is going to be a great year.

I hope everyone out there had a wonderful Christmas and that your New Year will be everything that you hope for. Have a blessed day. Ta ta for now.