Garden pics

Well, as I don't have a good place at my house for a garden, my parent's have graciously allowed me to put a garden in at their new house. I took some pics right after planting and thought I would post them. I have sprouts now so it looks a little different right now.There are still many plans in place that will improve my little garden once I am able to complete them......
Here is the main garden, it is 30X30 and will have trellis/fencing around 3 sides for my cukes and peas. It will also have chipped wood pathways between the squares, if they ever deliver it to me! It was supposed to be delivered a week ago but I still haven't seen it......
In the greenhouse that you can see in the background of the above pic I have a large raised bed of tomatoes and below is my outdoor raised bed for herbs.
I am trying a method of gardening called companion planting. I have a book and it gives examples of plants that thrive together and plants that thwart one anothers growth. It is an interesting theory and so I am trying it out. I am excited to see how my garden grows! :o) I will post more pics as my garden looks more gardenly! ;o) My garden may not be cute, whimsical, showy, etc.... but it should be practical (if I can keep the wildlife out!).

CAMPING!!!

So, though gone less than 24hrs, we went camping for the first time this week! Now, for those of you who are seasoned campers, please bear with my lack of correct terminology, etc.... I am after all a first time camper! Growing up my family went camping but my parent's idea of "roughing it" was an older travel trailer. My folks and I slept in the trailer while my brothers slept in a tent. I think that I have slept in a tent a time or 2 when I was VERY young. ;o) When I "camped out" it was generally in the tree house my Dad had built or in the haymow at the barn. My BIL & SIL were rafting down the Nehalem river so asked us to meet them at a campground near the falls and camp a night with them. We took them their truck so they would have a way home and it was fun. I will tell you though that camping is a lot of work!!! It wouldn't have been so bad if we had stayed longer but all that packing and unpacking for less than 24hrs!?!?!?! Our friends very nicely loaned us their tent and we found a good deal on sleeping bags......... I will tell you though that I don't think I have ever had such an awful nights sleep! Our cheap bags were rated to 40* but I think that was misleading and the "camp pillow" that it comes with? Well, lets just say that I should have looked at it before we went. I am not sure it would have been big enough for a doll let alone me! So between freezing, having a small piece of fluff for a pillow, and having a little man who thought he was going to die if his hands were not firmly entangled in my hair, it was a VERY long night and I sitll hurt! LOL! What an experience. It was a GORGEOUS campground though and we had it all to ourselves! What fun! We explored ever so many nooks and crannies, trails and campsites. I got to do a little flower photography which made me happy.

I also got some cute kid pics.





And, though it painfully obvious that they are self portraits, I got some fun pics of the girls and I. The one of my little man and I didn't turn out and there was no second chance with him! :o) This is on one of our "exploring hikes"




The inadequacies of my camera were many and frustrating to me, but probably only because Costco has a special going on the camera that i want. Oh well, maybe next year. :o)

Well, I am currently kidless while the girls ride in the tractor with my Mom and my boy FINALLY sleeps. I am off to do something slightly productive! :o) Hope you are all enjoying the sun!

New Look

I am trying out a new look. What do you think? A bit more cheerful than my all black background, though not as classy? Anyhow, makes me smile! :o)

Storage Unit Woes

We had swore (well almost) that we would never have one.
We had secretly rolled our eyes at those crazy people that had them.
We had tried to find alternatives.
But we ended up getting a storage unit.
"Just for a couple months" we promised ourselves.
That was 2 years ago.
Life seldom follows the path you intend it to
And our life is no exception
Tonight we went to the storage unit and arranged boxes,
Dismantled the kitchen table,
Dusted
And did other sundry things
Tomorrow we are moving some of the larger items
Most notably my piano
2 years is a long time without my little stress reducer
I have missed it.
I played it tonight
In the unit
A few keys stuck
It wasn't in tune
I am way out of practice after 2 yrs
Regardless, it was beautiful
It was also, possibly, a wee bit weird for the other people there
For once in my life
I DIDN"T CARE
Lord willing the entire unit will be empty by the first
My stuff will be stored now in various locations
I will be going through and getting rid of much
In some ways it seems like defeat
I still am not in a bigger house
I may never be
I may have to go through this again
I may never have a piano in my residence
But, praise God,
IT'S JUST STUFF!
:o)
Now if I can just keep that in mind all of the time
Life as a sentimental pack rat is hard! ;o)

Art

After sharing my attempt at artwork it was recommended that I go through the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". I ordered it from the library and it sat on my shelf for a week while I had company. Knowing I only had a week left before it had to go back I sceptically pulled it out of the library and looked through it. It was interesting so I thought I would give it a go. So the last couple days my spare moments have all been occupied with my "schoolwork" and (to quote 1 of my fav movies) I am having what can almost be described as wild enjoyment! Tonight was my first lesson in "upside down drawing". I recreated Picasso's "Portrait of Igor Stravinsky"!!! Doesn't that sound impressive? I was very surprised at how well it turned out and am starting to get just a bit hopeful that there may yet be an artistic bone somewhere in my body!!! ;o)

There is so much I have wanted to blog about lately but it is late so it will have to wait....... Goodnight! :o)

Technological Difficulties 2

O.k., is it just me or is blogger having picture issues? almost every time I pull up my blog some/most of the pics are missing. They just randomly appear and disappear. Is anyone else having trouble seeing my pics or with pics on their own blogs??? Maybe the scheduled outage at 2 a.m. will fix it. GRRR!!!!

Hair Envy

I am suffering from hair envy............ as mentioned in the previous post, I spent a week with a friend that has absolutely gorgeous thick curls. I barely survived that only to walk into church and get overwhelmed with all of the hair. My friend Ed's wife has amazing hair and no matter what she does it looks great - long, short, up down, down, layered, one length..... you get the idea, then MamaG walked in with the most beautiful up-do I have ever seen (she also has amazing hair that looks good all the time). I am now so green it is not funny. MamaG if you read this, I am begging you to expand your writing skills and try photo journalism. I think that you need to do a photo essay on how to achieve that style! My biggest problem though is, no matter how many styles I try, there are few to no styles that actually look like they should because of how thin my hair is. When I go to the salon and am asked what I want done to my hair their responses run the gamut. I get everything from all out laughter and "Ya, I bet you do wish your hair would do that" to sympathetic shoulder pats and "I'm sorry dear but it just isn't possible with thin hair like yours". Ah, the tragedy of thin hair. I have secretly eyed many a hair product that promises to give thick, beautiful locks. Fear always wins out as visions of said products causing all of my hair to fall out rush to my mind............... thin hair is better than no hair! My grandma once tried a product that promised to give you thicker eyebrows....... now she has none! You can pencil in eyebrows and look good but you can't pencil in a whole head of hair!
Speaking of hair....... Here are the promised pics!Here I am:




Oops! wrong one! I did not go blond. :o) Let me try again..........



That's better...... not much different than my normal color but a nice subtle change. I have yet to get a pic that really shows the color.........

And here is Courtney, notice those gorgeous curls and the stunning color! I love how it turned out!


Well, that's all for now folks! ;o)