A Deer Named Calamity

This is Calamity.  She's a young wild deer.

Whose standing in my garden.  Helping herself to my flowers.

I'm taking these from my living room window.  The Mister called me over to show me our visitor.

She didn't seem rushed or nervous.  Just hungry.

I wonder if I can train her to eat my weeds.  That would be a win-win.

Alas, it's tough to shoo her on when she does cute things like scratching her head with her wee hoof.

Or waggle that cute little white tipped tail.

We've seen her in various places around the yard for the last few weeks now.  Some how my tiger lilies have been sparred from her appetite.

And I'm pretty sure the dogs and I walked right by her unknowingly while she napped under the willow tree. 

What wildlife are you enjoying at the moment? 

And if you have a second you can see deer that have visited us in previous years: 
Oh Deer!
That is Doe Amazing!
Twin Fawns Under the Apple Trees - with video!

Hand in the Dirt {how does my garden grow?}

This garden of mine is growing quite nicely!  I do owe it a bit of weeding, but in general it seems to be thriving. 

I'm going to contribute the success to these.  Puddles.  Which means it's been raining.  Plenty.  Meaning I'm not guilty of forgetting to water my garden.  Cheesy grin!

Here you can see a row of potatoes that are getting full, bushy, and green.  I only planted these about 2 weeks ago and they are racing taller every day. 

A closer look at an individual potato plant.  It's my first year growing these.  Can't wait to see what happens... and goodness knows I love potatoes!!  Bet they are incredible fresh from the dirt!

The peas on the trellis are doing their pea thing.  Climbing and climbing and getting so intertangled with each other.  There are a ton of flowers and I am so looking forward to seeing those turn in to pea pods!

A closer look at the wee pea flowers.

The squashes are happy. 

I have summer and a winter butternut variety.  A total of 8 or so plants, but I still wonder why this particular one is so much bigger than all the others.  And the leaves are getting so big that in a rain storm the water makes them heavy and they lean on the ground for support.

This is my first time growing orange peppers.  I love how early they are emerging and really looking forward to seeing the orange color!  Hello fajitas!

Here's a look at on of the grape tomatoes plants.  Lots of fruit emerging, but I also seem to have something eating on these.  Going to have to investigate a bit more.

I always seem to have a doggy shadow when I get about my gardening work.  I know they are just as excited about eating things straight from the garden as I!

And I'm not sure I've properly introduced you to my favorite rock in the garden.  This particular one is part of the stone wall that the Mister built for me in the spring.  I just love the character and it's even more interesting in the rain.  Makes me smile every time I see it!

Hope your gardens are doing wonderful too!

WIP {Starting Prism and Veggies!}

As promised, here is a better look at the rainbow all put together.  And that's Katie there under the quilt.  I just couldn't resist a photo with her cute little fluffy tail there and wee little bum!  Next steps with this one include basting, quilting, and binding.  You can read more about this one in yesterday's post.

This Week's Work in Progress (WiP) Stats:

Last WiP Wednesday Total: 8
New Projects: 1 (the hand sewing ribbons)

Finished Projects: 0

Total WiP's: 9

With the rainbow blocks off the design wall I didn't leave the space empty for long.  The triangles for my very own Patchwork Prism jumped right up on the wall. 

I am still fussing around with placement and loving it!  I'm also happy that this is going to be a nice and big quilt!  I'm following the quilt along found at Sweet Diesel Designs if you are interested. 

This little stitchy was started in a power outage and really came together all on it's own.  Is it done yet, should it be an art quilt mini, a pillow?  I'm not sure yet. 

But I have the piece right in my workspace so that it can tell me what it wants next.  It's one of those go-with-the-flow kind of projects and I'm excited to see where it takes me. 

And for the sake of sharing all sorts of progress, I wanted to share that my garden is growing!!  I'm smitten that a lot of these plants are coming up from seeds I have sown.  Makes it extra special. 

In the bottom of the photo you can see green bean plants and peppermint.  That's the pea trellis toward the back. 

And I couldn't resist a sunny photo of the rock pathway.  I have such a sweet spot for rocks and the Mister really hit a home run when he put this garden together for me.  I love that I can bounce through the garden and fuss over a plant or pull a weed without worrying about where my footing is. 

In this one, you can see a bell pepper plant and tiny butternut squash in the lower left.  The tall plant about midway up on the left is a rouge peony that's going to be moved.  On the right, you can see a tomato plant and the tiny leave line to the left of the tomatoes is arugula.  I'll be sharing this over at Outdoor Wednesday with A Southern Daydreamer too!

I'm looking forward to more work on both the sewing and gardening fronts!  They both have a way of calming me and making me smile!! 

Wishing you a lovely day!

Raised Veggie Garden Open for Business!

It's finished!!  The new raised veggie garden with hand built natural stone retaining wall.  Squee!

I couldn't be happier with my new dream veggie garden!  It's big with over 164 square feet of gardening goodness.  And there is even a new supply of dirt/manure mix which should make plants very happy. 

Oh, and how about the stone stepping path?  Isn't it marvelous?  It also helps me divide the space in half creating natural planting rows and squares/

I think the new wall does wonders for the front of our house too!  As much as I like brick... I think the stone makes more sense for our forest-y area.

And yes, I couldn't resist putting the first plants in the garden.  The first two are jalapeno plants!  I will be adding lettuce, spinach, green beans, peas, and probably a few others this coming weekend. 

Can't wait to get my hands in the dirt!!

How about a quick look at a few of the tulips that we are enjoying right now?

Having these brilliant colors around is really making me smile!  I also think I need to make a note to add purple tulips in the fall.  I seem to have a lot of red and orange. 

Lastly, a small story... I pass this tree at least ten times a day.  I mean seriously I have probably be staring at this tree every day for nearly 3 years.  And I'm not sure I ever really noticed this awesome knot on it. 

It's about the size of a bowl -- big!  And has lovely textures and shapes.  I think I feel it inspiring a quilt.  Don't you just love when you have a moment that you finally see something for the first time? 

Previous posts about the rock wall project:

The Rock Wall is Nearly Done

The Rocks are Multiplying
Veggie Garden Retaining Wall

Veggie Garden Retaining Wall

This past weekend we enjoyed the most delightful sunny weather.  The kind of summery feeling day that draws the whole family outside to soak in the rays, feel the breeze, and get our hands (or paws) in the dirt.

We were minding our own business.  Dreaming of seeds to sow and veggie garden layouts. 

And then it happened.

The brick retaining wall, who has seen better days... 

...looked at us funny...

...so, we tore it down.

And made a big mess.

And I know there is a bunch more work to go... but squee! we're building the expanded veggie garden of my dreams, complete with a hand built natural stone retaining wall.  

Can you see it?  It's going to be amazing!! 

p.s. and that's how I spent most of my weekend.  Yes, we did cook down the final batch of maple syrup.  no, I still need to take a picture to share here.  and yes, that was our christmas tree holding down the woods as a natural bird habitat... at least that's what I keep telling the Mister.

Hands in the Dirt: from Aquarium to Terrarium

At one point we kept a fish tank.  Well actually we have two fish tanks.  I don't talk about them much ... and that's probably a good thing since all the fish in our large tank have passed on to fishie heaven.  We thought about starting the tank up again, it was a tough call after having one fish live with us for almost three years, but we decided not to.

So, what to do with a 29 gallon tank and stand?

First of all... I drained the water.  It was full to the top, I luckily remembered to take this picture mid-draining.

Then, I flattened out the rocks and cleaned the glass. 

I added about one inch of sphagnum moss (was surprised to find it at Home Depot of all places fairly cheap!) on top of the rocks.  Then, a bunch of potting soil.  Then, I started planting little indoor plants.  I also put the fish rocks and decor back in between some of the plants for added drama.

And voila!!

Here you can see (from left to right):

"Creeping Fig" Ficus, "Silver Tree" Pilea, Polka Dot plant, and Spider plant in the back right

On the left side we have (from left to right):

"Magenta" Dracaena, African Violet, and I have a bit of Christmas Cactus behind the horse 

After everything was planted I gave it a generous watering until I could start to see some of the water making it's way down to the rocks. 

I really think this is going to be a great transition for me to indoor gardening over the winter. 

I know, it's only August... I shouldn't be talking about winter.  But I am.  This should make those cold winter months more manageable.  I hope.

I am going to see how these plants make out for a bit.  Hoping they are all hardy and low light enough to thrive.  I was also thinking about adding a few aromatic plants like mint or oregano. 

And there you have it!  I now get to tend to my very own little terrarium -- we are only on day three, I'll be sure to let you know how it fairs.

Also, here is a shopping list in case you also have an old aquarium laying around that you want to set up as a terrarium:

• old aquarium - I used my old aquarium... doesn't mean a new one wouldn't work.  You can also look for other containers.  Really the sky is the limit on what can become a terrarium.small rocks/pebbles
• small rocks/pebbles - these are also used for drainage.  If you had a fish aquarium, then by all means use the same fish rocks.
• small indoor plants - I found "Angel Plants" to be good ones for low-medium light and the bonus is they purify air too!!  These ran me about $2-3 a plant.  I also looked around at my current house plants and clipped a few pieces of the spider plant and Christmas cactus to include.
• potting soil/dirt
• Sphagnum moss - this is optional; but seems to really help the plants from getting too dry.  I managed to cover the whole surface for about $4.
• decor - anything goes for this too.  I used a plastic horse, fish rocks from the aquarium I had previously kept, and that rad skull which also came from the aquarium.

 Do you keep a terrarium?  I'd love to hear about it!!  And if you set up a new one, I'd love to hear about your experiences as well! 

Let's go garden!! 





I will be adding to these parties:

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