It's the Little Things

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Hide and Seek

See him?

Now do you see him?

Watching things grow

My garden then...

Only a few weeks later, my garden now...

I found two gnarly tomato hornworms on my tomato (obviously) plants yesterday.  It was my first encounter with hornworms and I'll admit, I was pretty grossed out.  They make this awful clicking sound and spew out nasty goo when they're threatened.  I didn't think about taking a picture (I was too consumed with getting them OFF MY TOMATO PLANTS!!) but here's a picture of one I found online for your viewing pleasure:

From http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/M1224.html.  This website has some really great info on these guys.

Here are some pictures I took of the chickens this afternoon.  They love chilling behind the wheel barrow.  

Little does homeboy know he (as well as his bro) will be placed in a new home in the coming week.

Thanks for stopping by!

These are a few of my favorite things

 Why the hell is my dog laying in the fire pit??

 This is the rain chain my husband got me for Valentine's Day.  I love it!  I then bought a half whiskey barrel from Lowe's ($30?) and put a water lily in it.  So far it hasn't flowered and I'm not sure it will based on how much sunlight it receives.  The wreath was made out of grapevines by my dad for my wedding.  I love him.

 I made this raised planter bed from this tutorial.  I have sunflowers, strawberries, basil, catnip, apple mint, cilantro, okra, cucumber, tomatoes, serrano peppers, and some sort of squash planted.  I say some sort of squash because they came up from my compost and I have no idea whether they'll be zucchini, summer squash, or pumpkin.  You may notice my tomato buckets on the fence...last summer I had them hanging but they became too heavy and broke so this summer I have them sitting on two iron plant hangers.  I need to do some serious pest control.  Just need to figure out the best eco-friendly way to do that.

This is my blue hydrangea that I absolutely love.  A late frost this spring caused some burning, hence the left side full of blooms and the right not so much.

 

My rain barrel!  It's not the prettiest thing in the world, but it does the trick.  And best of all...it was FREE!  I won it in a raffle at Greening up the Mountains.  

The chicken coop!  I painted 'eggs' on the side.  I'm so cute I can hardly stand myself.  :o/  I realized after the fact that I should've installed the planter box lower so I can open the window without hitting whatever's planted.  Oh well.  Speaking of that window box, I made it myself from leftover boards from the backyard fence.  I like free.  The coop & run...NOT free. 

 The chickens then...

 The chickens now...

Spike is on the box and Little Foot is the brown one.  We think they might be roosters.  :(  We're pretty sure Ducky & Petrie are hens.

Hope you enjoyed my favorites from around the house...thanks for stopping by!

Empowerment

Anybody read any good books about female empowerment/finding oneself? 

C took over my running endeavor since my ankle injury and now I feel like I need to find a 'thing'.  Right now my list consists of swimming and gardening.  Ultimately I think it's probably that I'd just like to belong to a group outside of anything I do with my husband.  Guess I'll need to do some networking. 

Live Clean, Live Well

Today was our Earth & Wellness Day.  I don't know precisely why we combined Wellness in with Earth, but it certainly makes sense.

I got to hang out at our table playing cornhole & ladder golf and also got to visit the different tables to be schooled on either 'earth' or 'wellness' and converse with lots of interesting people.

I was most impressed with the guy who turns beer bottles into glasses.  So cool.  I also started to entertain the idea of being a staff leader for the Service Learning trips that are taken by students in the fall and spring--essentially they're alternative fall/spring breaks.  I'm definitely at a point in my life where I feel I need to take more trips, do new things, and be more adventurous.  Hence the running endeavor.  There was one CSA there and I'm trying to get C excited about it.  I understand his concern.  It's $250 to receive a box of veggies every two weeks during the summer.  It sounds steep, but in my opinion, well worth it--local, organic food while supporting local farmers.  I promised him I'd try to find something cheaper, but if not, I'm sorry, but I'm going for it.       

What else?  We went for a two mile run today.  I didn't run the whole time but I definitely felt stronger than I've felt in a while.  The race is on Saturday.  EEK!  I'm excited though.  So once we get through that and get through the end of the year party for all our staff on Sunday, we're home free and I can enjoy some time off to relax.  Until May 10th when we start our 10k training.  Oh yeah...you heard me. 

Visit my Pages!

Don't forget to check out my other Pages I post to: 

• All Things Food where I blog about recipes I make whether or not I ultimately like them
• Books, Books, & More Books where my "expert" opinion on books I read are jotted down
• Crafty Things where my current & finished projects are outlined
• Playing in the Soil will be seasonal due to my lack of fall/winter gardening skills
• Run Like Hell where I am documenting my progress in my hobby: running

Seed Bombs

This is the coolest thing ever!

Oh...you know...stuff

Photo by David Cappaert @ www.forestryimages.org

Went to a cookout at my boss' place this evening.  Every now & then I realize how much I love living here.  The southern hospitality is unparalleled.  And the lightning bugs.  Come on...who doesn't love lightning bugs??

 Please enjoy these images from my southern garden:

One of my mimosa trees (a non-native) in bloom.  If you look closely you can see Pony has stuck his head in a MASSIVE HOLE THEY DUG!!  :oP

My hydrangea weeping from the heavy blooms.

Weapons of mass destruction

I've been checking my sunflowers everyday.  This is what I came home to today:

Sunflower leaves eaten

If you're thinking, "Wait.  I don't see anything."  Mmhmm.  Precisely.  SOME VARMINT ATE THE LEAVES OFF MY SUNFLOWERS!!  I'm proposing the following critter:

Keep your eyes peeled people!  These guys kick ya when you're down!  And to think, my husband and I were just ooing and awing at a mama & two babies happily strolling up our driveway.  So what do I do?  I put my husband to work!

Putting a fence around the sunflower bed

Not to worry, he owed me for this:

Black spots on beebalm from weed killer

 And this:

Last surviving leaves on mountain mint from bout with weed killer

I shall leave you with a happy ending to this story.  Check these babies out!  They're taller than me!

Michigan Lilies

 And someday soon they will look like this:

Happy day everyone!

Salsa anyone?

Check out my homemade topsy turveys!  The shepherd's hook with the sun on it (furthest from the camera) is one I already had.  I was hoping to use the one with two hooks for both pots, but they were just too heavy--I kinda saw that coming.  Not sure if I'm going to return it & get two of the smaller hooks or keep it & still get two smaller hooks...the only problem with that is that the plants might grow so large they touch the ground.  The best option would be to have my husband build me something sturdy to hang them on. 

All in all I like how they turned out.  I have a tomato plant, pickling cucumber, & serrano pepper.  My coworker made pickles a while back, so I want to try that out.  The idea behind doing this (topsy turveys) is that 1. they're off the ground so less likely to become diseased or infested & 2. they're closer to the house, so I'm more likely to attend to them.  :o)

And speaking of my coworker...it's the same lady who gave me the plants in this post.  I have some bad news about the plants.  I had my husband spray the front slope & apparently it was windy because my newly planted beebalm & mountain mint got hit.  :o(  The beebalm has pulled through and I think the mountain mint might pull through too.  It looks like there's still some green leaves at the top of the plant.  I know, boring, but I was pretty upset. 

Happy gardening!

National Bike to Work Day!

Just a reminder to all you cyclists that this Friday (the 21st) is Bike to Work Day.  I plan on suiting up starting Monday and hope to continue riding through the summer and into the fall. 

We started getting the laundry room together.  I decided not to waste money, time, & energy on repainting...it's already a bright & airy yellow appropriate for a laundry room, so there's no point in redoing it.  I had a great idea regarding one particular corner of the room that shall remain a secret until "After" pictures are posted. 

I transplanted the sunflower seedlings I started & they're not doing so well...in fact, they might be dead.  But when I transplanted them I planted some more seeds in the bed & they're coming up, so I may have sunflowers yet. 

Many things left to do...hope you all had a great weekend!

Christmas in May

I received the most wonderful gifts from my coworker this morning:

beebalm - great for the hummingbirds!

mountain mint - smells yummy!

wild white indigo - this one is still tiny so I hope I don't kill it  :o/

I can't wait to plant them and see how well they do.  They're pretty hardy plants, so I feel confident.  I was telling my husband that as soon as I get my garden just how I want it, it'll be time to move. 

My sunflowers aren't doing as well as I expected them to be at this point--oddly enough there was an article about sunflowers in the Southern Magazine I picked up to read during my work out today--sounds like I should have transplanted the seedlings into my garden a while ago.  Oops.  I'll do that this weekend when I transplant the gifts I received today.  *happy*

*Images from novascotiagardening.com, wildcrafting.com, & northcreeknurseries.com*

Little rays of sunshine

See how my sunflowers are doing!:

The season for home improvements

I can feel Spring right around the corner.

Which is cool, but also not so cool. My brain goes into over-drive with all of the things I'd like to do around the house. With money that we don't have.

• Buy cabinet pull bars (won't do this unless I find a really good deal)

This is what I want (in brushed nickel or whatever our faucet is):

• Put up a backsplash & under cabinet lighting in the kitchen (would do this before buying cabinet pulls)

I'd love to do red, but it might be a bit much for a small kitchen & probably wouldn't be good for resale.



I may end up doing something with a red accent like this:



Who am I kidding?? I'll probably go with whatever's cheapest or not do anything if I can't find anything I like for a price I like.

• Come up with a creative way to draw people to the front door instead of the back door (our drive takes you to the back of the house instead of the front). I'm pretty sure this will involve taking out a good deal of grass and replacing with plantings. If anyone knows of any solutions, I would be thrilled to know--I've searched and searched on the internet and can't find anything specifically for this problem. The easiest thing to do would be to call the back door the front door and the front door the back door.
  
• Along those same lines (& the more permanent fix to the front-back door problem) is to convert the carport to a garage. That would conceal the door and then people would have to use the front door. Don't think that will happen any time soon. Maybe not ever.
  
• Create a patio of some sort in the back to create more entertaining space and integrate the fireplace more fully.
  

This is what I'm thinking:


I can't wait to tell C...I'm sure he'll be thrilled.

Time sure does fly

We got back from our honeymoon in Canada at 2am this morning. Had to go into work at 12 and was actually excited about it. Got good news that I can start full-time on Monday. Bad news: working on my thesis around my work schedule--I take full blame for that one. More bad news: even though I'm full-time now, I'm still temporary. To go from temporary to permanent, the position has to be re-listed & I'll have to reapply. My boss has to interview at least two applicants. I do have an advantage since I've been in the position for a while now, but it's still a little disconcerting. Especially since anyone who applies and was previously terminated due to budget cuts gets first dibs. Great.

I've forgotten the real reason for this post. Oh! Time flies...I noticed the bulbs popping up around the house. I exclaimed: oh my gosh! And then realized it is almost March. Where does it go?? I remember when a year was an eternity.

Took some pictures one day...

Bee balm past its prime:

Pony!:

A bloom on the mimosa tree that's past its prime:

I love dahlias:

I believe this is a michigan lily:

Last post was on 7/5

It's been a whole week since my last post. I tend to do my blogging while at work and the Internet has been out!


1. Mr. P found a robin's nest with 3 eggs in it today when he was trimming the redbud. They're so cute! I'll post a pic later. I'm worried he cut it back too much and now the nest will be easy prey. :o(

2. Went from a guest (when I suggested he could go to the BP station across the street to get shampoo if none of the housekeeper's carts had any) telling me "What you just said wasn't very nice." to a guest taking my name down for the bigwigs when I upgraded them to a suite for no charge when he got into a yelling match with the hotel in Hillsborough, NC. Apparently the online people made their reservation for Hillsborough instead of Dillsboro. You show me your military ID and you can have the penthouse for free. We don't have a penthouse, but if we did...

3. Speaking of work, today's my last day! Woo! Start the new job on Tuesday.

4. Made a huge eco-boo-boo when we bought pesticide & herbicide this weekend. Eek!

5. Got the invites printed and most are cut and embellished. Just need to do the backing and sash. Oh, and all the other millions of invites we're doing for other events.

6. I have renewed energy with regards to my gardening. I've never been able to successfully start plants from seed, but so far, the ones I just planted are doing great! The moonflowers are almost ready to transplant and the seeds I planted from the bridal shower favors (packets of various types of seeds) are good looking seedlings. I also transplanted a plant that wasn't doing well on one side of the house and planted some grape hyacinths under my maple tree. I cleaned out two flower beds in the backyard in hopes of making those beautiful soon.

6. My love of the outdoors is slowly but surely coming back to me (I came to despise it after my field work). I've been riding my bike with Mr. P and I just really have so much fun. The fireflies were awesome last night! I told him today that I hope wherever we move next has as good of biking as we have here.

7. Along the eco lines, homemade detergent still going strong. Next up: homemade fabric softener.

That's about it. Or all I'm willing to bore my readers with right now. ;o)

Let's make a deal

Two weeks or so ago Mr. P made a trip up to the neighbor's house above us to see who they use to do their lawn. Yesterday, the guy came down to the house to talk about what we'd like done and how much he would charge.

Well, turns out he used to live in my house! He's married to the woman from whom I bought the house! He's the one who put all the planters in and I'm pretty sure he also built the firepit. I hope we haven't disappointed him too much by how we've let it grow up!

I had called a different guy to come and give an estimate, but I think I'll scratch it. This other guy is just too perfect. He knows the property lines, what's planted (weeds vs. plants), and he's charging a lot less than I expected. He's going to trim up the hedge (great b/c I don't have a hedge trimmer), cut off some lower branches of the trees above the house, clear out the rubus (blackberry--man I hate that stuff) from the front of the house, and do the regular weedeating. I can't wait! I wouldn't even do this work for the amount he's charging. And then he wasn't even worried about getting paid. He says, 'Well, if I don't get it the first time, I'll just get it the next time.'

Too bad he can't come by until next week. :o(

2 Notations

1. My veggies are growing! The watermelon plant has finally started growing, I have peppers (hot & bell), a real nice yellow squash (last year I had a problem with bugs, so I'm diggin' this nice looking squash), two big ol' tomatoes, some killer cucumbers (have never actually seen these suckers grow), and cilantro that's so potent it'll knock your socks off. My lettuce is still hanging in there--not doing much of anything really. And the strawberries are non-existant. Damn you birds! My fiance is in charge of making a scare crow, but I think that's not high on his priority list.

2. Had a job interview for a receptionist position at a new dermatology clinic in town. I'm super excited about this and have a second interview with the doctor on Monday. We discussed the possibility of me moving up in the clinic (because of my advanced degree--hardy har), so that's pretty frickin' awesome. Definitely better than the sporadic paychecks I'm currently receiving...or not receiving rather.

Need to go. Have to get up at 5:15a to go feed some people breakfast. Ugh. What one will do for money. I guess I should count my blessings.