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when you can grow your own?
Rosa 'Spice' and 'Belinda's Dream'
while i did support the floral industry for yesterday’s big event, i had to supplement the arrangement that arrived on our doorstep with a few of these fresh beauties from the garden. there… that’s better.
alstros, roses & panicum arrangement, finished sweater & cheddar beer mustard bread.
my sweetie was particularly lucky. not only did i make him cheddar-beer-mustard pull apart bread (which was good even for someone who can’t stand mustard…), but the sweater i’ve been knitting him on/off for the past three years is finally DONE!
i hope cupid was good to you. happy belated valentine’s day everyone, and happy bloom day.
the past few weeks i’ve been in michigan for a summer sojourn, primarily to spend time with my parents. i had intentions of posting a blog or two while there, but the speed of the local internet connection made working in the garden much more fulfilling. so i missed posting for 1.) august’s garden blogger’s bloom day, 2.) the finding of a kitty nest in the old compost pile, 3.) a dear friend’s baby shower, 4.) gwen frostic, 5.) my sister’s birthday and 6.) the untimely death of my trusty nikon camera.
1.) august’s garden blogger’s bloom day was exciting, as i was able to see one of my all-time favorite plantings, eight to nine years since it’s original planting date (how can that be…)
Echinacea, Sedum, Perovskia and Miscanthus cushion grandma's garden bench
the Echinacea (coneflower, probably Magnus species) have done very well for themselves, pushing out the Perovskia, Miscanthus, Sedum and Carex to the periphery. elsewhere in the garden, the Rudbeckia (black-eyed susan) have taken center stage:
Rudbeckia's closeup
if you look closely in the image above, you can see one of the many critters that have made mom’s garden home. here he is again, for his closeup:
green frog (Rana clamitans melanota) in the garden
i’m guessing that s/he is a green frog, but i’m no herpetologist, best leave that to the state experts.
2.) speaking of critters, my mom and i had a surprise find in the old compost bin… a nest of kitties, from a visiting barn cat who thought it’d be a great place to rear her young:
a nest of kitties - two gray and white, one brown and black
i checked on them often, and found the momma cat feeding them on several occasions. but one day there was only one gray and white kitty left, who had crawled out of the nest and was laying in the hot sun. a friend of mine and i thought it was dead, but when we prodded it, oh how it cried! great, now what? a call into the local vet suggested we return him to the nest, as the mom was just moving her kittens elsewhere, and would most likely return to get him that evening. well, she didn’t, as i found him the next morning nestled into a corner of the compost bin’s upright pallet wall. good thing we have friends with experience in these matters… friends who are willing to travel all the way out to the farm to help the kitty, with lunch in hand (formula for the kitty and sandwiches for us)!
sarah works her magic on little mister blue eyes
sarah has already rescued five kitties, and was willing to try again, in the hopes of giving him to her father-in-law who recently lost his cat of 21 years. i can’t wait to see how he grows… thanks sarah, you are the best!
3.) a dear friend of mine is expecting her first baby, and i was able to attend her baby shower up north with lots of her friends and family. here’s what i made for baby mac:
hooded baby blanket, knit in blue sky alpaca's cotton yarn
this blanket should grow with the little boy as he gets older, as it is generously sized (modeled below by my 15 year-old cousin):
zander models the hooded blanket
4.) while up north i had the privilege of going to gwen frostic, a well known michigan artist and stationer. while gwen is no longer with us, her artwork continues to be printed on heidelberg presses using the original wood and metal blocks she created. sadly, the property looks like it could use a serious restoration effort, both on the shop and surrounding landscape. i hope the value of this michigan jewel is recognized by an entity that can continue to share her simply beautiful work.
5.) my sister’s birthday occurred while i was up north, so here is my belated birthday picture post for you, dear sister:
a feat full of birthday greetings from lake michigan
over the years your feet have been to shores and mountain tops all over the world… but never forget that you will always have lake in you…
6.) i took the last image on my cell phone, as my trusty nikon coolpix 4500 met an untimely death on this trip. yup, the sneaky cam has gone onto higher megapixel pastures, as its leap from a four foot tall bathroom dresser onto a tile floor (while concealed in my lop-sided purse) rendered it in a systemic error of crunching internal noises… oh sneaky cam, you’ve been such a great camera for so long, how will i ever replace your rotating lens? here’s to many captured memories…
the sneaky cam at rest
without a decent camera to share images with you here, it may take a while for me to post again. be sure to check back often – i’m not a huge twitter user, but if interesting things are going on, i’ll be sure to mention them there, as they’ll also appear at the upper left hand corner of my blog. thanks so much for reading and looking at my work. here’s to a beautiful autumn ahead…
a friend of mine sent me a link to the movie coraline that’s just come out. looks like it will have lots of inspiration to harvest for gardeners and knitters alike…
and for you knitting fans out there…
was that a dolphin on that sweater?!!
amazing…
