Spring time update

I wanted to post a few pictures showing some happenings at Fork in the Creek. I've done some nature walks in our big beautiful yard, as well as in Bird's Hill Park. This season is all about being fresh and gives way to new life in the garden and in the woods. I haven't spotted any morels yet. My current life quest is to find these little gems to try for the first time!

Like a hole in the nose

 Break through!
This is a weird post, just to warn you!
As I sit here typing away, entering my oh-so-fun manual part numbers into the computer system at work, I start playing with my ear piercings. I always forget that I have a second hole in each year, but for some funny reason I decided I wanted to know if an earring would still go through after all these years of not using it. I think to be exact, someone in middle years school said a second piercing wasn't cool so I promptly took it out and never used them since. Well what a thing, it went through with no problem at all. If it can go through after all these years why doesn't my nose piercing let me after a few minutes when it fell out last year? or six months after or even up until about a month ago? After many failed attempts at my nose piercing before today I chalked it up to the fact that I had to get it done again. Boo! Apparently you can't just walk into your local Claire's at get it done like I did the first time. You actually have to go to a Tattoo Parlor and get a pro to do it, and of course its $60 bucks on top of that! Regardless, it's been on my mind for a long time that I wanted to get it re-pierced, it's almost a missing part of me. My girlfriend totally understood what I meant when I said that!
Anyways back to today, I was jiggling around my earring in my nose hole and by golly it went through, with light force and only watering eyes! It didn't hurt near as bad as the other failed attempts, I guess I just had to line up the holes! You know what they say about getting your ducks in a row? No? Not funny? Ha ha, ok....
Needless to say, I am one happy gal! My friend the nose piercing is back, its been a long time old friend! You were missed

Friday, thank you very much

It's Friday today. Its been a short week with Easter Monday off, but it has still been a long week. Its Friday today. Thank God. It hasn't been overly busy this week, working on the sewer pump (yeah), and getting my brakes fixed on the little blue truck. The beautiful joys of being a home owner in the country.
I've done a few more curtains for the camper. I'm more than half done on that project and already thinking about starting my next project. Its really enjoyable to get my feet wet again in the sewing department. I've put off doing anything having to do with sewing, crafting or making until ALL the house renovations were done. So now I'm releasing myself to my creative flow.

Since I've started living with JT I've been after him to start a give away bag for all his extra clothes. He doesn't have just a few shirts or jeans here and there that don't fit anymore, he has bags and bags and bags of stuff that are currently sitting in the bottom of the closet. He won't consider parting with them. I suggested at one time that we should get a quilt made from all the T-shirt logos that he loves so much. He loved the idea. Or maybe it was his idea? Regardless, for the past couple years I've had it on my mind to find someone to take on this gigantic task. I would expect them to charge top dollar for their precious time so I've been putting it off knowing I would need some big gift like this in the future. Recently I've dusted off the ole' (new) sewing machine to take on the camper curtain project. I've got to thinking that there is no reason why I couldn't do some of it myself, at least start to cut up the shirts into squares and sew them into place.. How hard could that be? That would also in turn help to free up some of the space that the bags of T-shirts have been taking up in the closet. Good idea Ashley! Saving a few bucks, organizing and at the same time contribute to my new "be creative" obsession. I have to finish the curtains first though, we have to funkify the 1970's Prowler before camping season starts. Only a couple more weeks and we'll be packing up and heading out to the first race of the year with a full summer of weekends schedules right behind it.

Oh, I also wanted to report that I tried my hand at water color painting yesterday. I suck, of course, but it felt really great to start releasing some of the images I've had in my head onto paper. It's very exciting for me to realize that it is ok to be crafty, artzy or whatever you may call it after years of bottling it up and pretending that I wasn't. I'm not doing anything to sell or to show off to anyone, I'm doing this for me, and I like it. The picture below isn't something that I've done obviously, but its definitely something that I can capture in my mind to refer to and maybe even one day work toward doing myself.

3 words to describe this summer

Gardening, Reading & Making

04/04/12 Seed Starting Fun

I started my seeds last night. Pulled out the seed trays, dug out some soil, grabbed my new bundle of seedy joy that were delivered yesterday via the wonderful Canadian Post and introduced them to the ratter tatter bunch that are stowed away over last winter in a broken Ziploc container that has been relocated fifteens times in that last couple months with all the renovation activity. In the back of my mind I always feel that I never have enough seeds, I'll run out, not have enough to plant and keep us fed for the winter! Gasp! What am I thinking? As it stands right now at home, on my dining room table, there is enough seeds in enough packets to feed a whole community. That's just it though, they are seeds, that need to be planted, that need to grow big. So moral of the story is GET THEM IN SOME EARTH! Than maybe you can feed that community Ashley! Nothing is going to grow unless you give them a warm, caring space for them to spread their roots. To allow their tiny little leaves to reach up for the sun, until they are all big enough to join the jungle called the great outdoors and grow into big edible wonders. The journey from that tiny little seed, to the towering plants that bear beautiful, nutritious fruit is an extremely long and a very taxing one.

So many elements come into play. Location, temperature, light, and soil conditions just to start. Than there is our lovely mother nature, who seems to test the limits each year, or test the farmer/gardener in other words. In between the seed coming from the house to the big gardens, there is a constant array of predators trying to take there share or the bounty. White cabbage fly, I will beat you this year! I will not allow you to take my beloved Brussell Sprouts and destroy them to nothing like last year. I am in control of what goes on out there! Don't even get me started on trying to fend off the herds of deer that wander through our yard in search of the perfect seedlings night after night. After all the love and tendering (fighting for their lives) from March to August, it is finally time to pull the first beautiful tomato off the vine, write a post to proclaim that harvest has finally arrived, than make it into a mouth watering tomato sandwich. Toasted Multigrain bread, butter smeared delectably across, Miracle Whip (I'm a firm believer in the use of mayo and Jon does remind me of this, but there is something special about the Zip in Miracle Whip in a tomato sandwich), topped with the vine ripened tomato in my garden tomato, and finished off with freshly ground pepper and sea salt. If you are lucky and can wait that long, add some bacon and lettuce to the mix. Take a bite of the fresh gooey mess, the concoction of melted butter and Miracle Whip drip down the sides of your mouth.  There is many aching mouths by the end of the first couple days from the acid in the tomatoes and the rub of toast on the top of your mouth. Heaven, in no other words.