So, haven't blogged in almost a month. I feel like this summer has passed me by. It was one of the nicest summers in a long time, weatherwise, that I can remember. I missed most of it. I injuried my back/hip in July and have spent the last month hobbling around. Used crutches for the 1st time even. Didn't even knit. Anyone who knows me, knows I usually knit just about every single day of my life. I just couldn't do it, I couldn't stay vertical long enough.

I really need to take a new pic of the garden. Everything is growing like crazy. Picked zuchs and cukes yesterday and ate the 1st ripe tomato! I'm hoping I get enough cucumbers to make a bunch of dill pickles. I've pickled beets and other veggies but never made dill pickles before. Can't wait.

The gooseberries in the backyard are ready to pick and so are the handful of currants on the singular currant bush. Blueberries are in season but there is no way I will be able to go blueberry picking this year. I've injuried my hip recently and really can't doing anything that requires me to bend over. Sad really, the best summer in NL in years and I am laid up,grrrrr.

So, I haven't been posting much. Right now, any extra time or energy I have is going into our plot @ the community garden. This summer the weather has been great and the garden is showing the results. Our own sore point ( besides weeds of course) is that one of our beds has club root,grrrr. So all the broccoli and kale and maybe even the cabbage are most likely not going to make it :(

I've also been doing so light knitting. The Ravelympics start this week so then it will be nose to the grindstone for the next 10 days or so. Wish me luck.

I love working @ home but right now it is really,really hard. I can hear the trees in the warm breeze  coming in my window. I can see the sunny sky. I can smell the neighbours starting the weekend early with BBQ and Weed. I want to turn off my phone and go play in the sunlight.

One thing that I love to do is canning. I love having pickled beets @ Christmas dinner that I made. Hopefuly this year, my beets and cucumbers  will grow well and I will be able to eat them all year round. I found this great resource on-line today on the website Root Cellars Rock . It is a PDF of a canning workshop. The supplies for canning most fruits and pickles are not verra expensive and once you have them, they will last for years and years.

I've been spinning away for the Tour de Fleece this month. To tell you the truth, I have not been having great sucess with it. I'm doing well with the spindle:

 but am having issues spinning with my spinning wheel. I'm not sure why. I had always been pretty good with my wheel but had not  used it in awhile and seem to have lost my touch,lol.

So to self soothe, I have have signed up for a Stephen West Knit-a-long! I did one last summer and really liked the end product. It is supposed to be knit in fingering weight but I think I am going to bump it up to a light worsted weight instead. I like a larger size shawl.

This morning, I was amazed and overjoyed to see how many bees were in my garden.

In the community garden , it's nothing but weeds,weeds,weeds. Spent an hour this morning weeding just 1 row. One row @ a time. I figure no one needs to see pix of that,lol.

Homestead Revival: Sizzling Summer Round Up: Timber Press!

Homestead Revival: Sizzling Summer Round Up: Timber Press!: Today, Timber Press is kindly hosting our Sizzling Summer Round Up give-away! Perhaps you're familiar with some of their earlier tit...

I'm not sure if anyone reads this blog but I thought I would post this link to the 59 cent campaign. Seems like a brillant idea. Just hope Harper doesn't keep my 59 cents for himself.

http://youtu.be/TQiSe00HOec

So today I had a full day before my day really started. I had to start work @ 10.30am but had a number of things to complete before then. The main thing was that I had to go to the St. John's Farmers' Market pick up my plant order from The Organic Farm. I just purchased some Tomato and Pepper plants. They have some great varieties I also had to go water my spot in the McMorran Community Garden and put my new tender seedlings in the greenhouse.

I also drove my GF to work so that I could have the car to run my errands. I think I was not quite on the ball when I left the house . I was chatting to a friend @ the Market and she asked me if I was trying to start a fashion trend. She told me to look down.

Yup, fashion trend indeed.

It may not look it but things are progressing nicely here in the community garden. Everything that needs to be planted, is planted. Things are sprouting and growing  including the weeds lol. Really the only things left are the Zucs and Pumpkins. Right now they are hanging out in the green house waiting to be planted out. Last year I lost my Zuc's and Pumpkins July 3rd to cold weather. So I'm going to wait another week and plant 2 plants of each outside keeping 2 of each aside in the greenhouse just in case. If the weather holds out and they don't die, then I'll plant out the others.

potato
onion
carrot
parsnip
kale
cabbage
broccoli
beet
turnip greens
lettuce
garlic
tomato(greenhouse)
strawberries
peppers(greenhouse)
Cucumber(greenhouse)

That's it so far. I do also have some rescued Rhubarb that seems to be struggling along. Someone ripped it out of their garden last year and threw it on the compost pile. So I rescued some plants for my garden. Since they really were ripped out, the roots were damaged. So if this year it just struggles along, that;s ok. I won't pick any of the stalks. I'll let it build itself up.

Sock mastery is coming along as well. I've started on another pair. I have finally gotten the toe up cast on mastered!!! Poor Amy from my knitting group must have shown me about 50x the other day. Turns out I was doing it backwards and that's what was messing me up.

Wow, the weather is so changing here. I know that the phrase of " Don't like the weather? Wait 15 minutes." is common here but yesterday was in the high 20's. This morning I was @ the garden, the sun was shining and it was HOT. I watered the bejebus out of the seedlings afraid they would die in the sun. Right now, 3 hours later, it's freeezing and overcast. I'm hoping they don't just keel over from the cold!!!!!

So far in the garden, I have carrot,onions,beets,peas,potatoes,parsnips and, thanks to my fellow community gardener in the next  plot, red cabbages. Tomorrow the kale, turnip greens,lettuce and broccoli will go in. This weekend, I hope to get the tomatoes and cucumbers planted in the green house. I'm so cautious about planting. I'm going to grow pumpkins and zucchini but I'm too afraid to put them out yet. Last year I lost the pumkin and zucchini plants to cold weather on the 3rd of July!! I'm just going to keep them in the greenhouse for another week or 2 and then listen to the local weather report everyday until the beginning of July. I've got some old sheets ready to cover them with if necessary.

PS:  5 minutes has passed since I started this post and now the clouds have blown away and it's sunny again. ARG! I love it here but this weather drives me around the bend!!!!

where has summer gone!

May was sooo promising. Warm weather, sunny days. Now!!!!!!!!! R D F. The only good thing about it is that I don`t have to water the garden everyday. I really wish that the Sun would come back! I don`t mind watering that much.

Good Glod! Almost 2 weeks without posting. It's been a couple of busy weeks, that's for sure. I still working away @ knitting socks. It's a little slow going but I am working on my 3rd pair this month :) Hoping to have them done by this weekend so I can start a pair with the wool I just got from Knit Picks.


I've also been plugging away @ our community garden plot. Tammy tilled it last Wednesday. It's the 1st time either one of us used a tiller. It was a little scary I have to say. Every now and then it would sorta take off on you. Hilarious. We started setting up the rows. This was the 1st one. More has been done but I haven't taken a pic yet.There's garlic and rhubarb down there on the left hand side far corner and on the right is our water barrel and our potato condo. Both empty for now. We'll be planting potatoes and filling up the barrel this weekend .

Whoa.....long time between posts. Still here, still knitting. I'm on a sock kick right now. Just ordered a pair of Blundstones. I bought a pair for Tammy for Yule and did so much research and heard such good things, I had to get a pair for myself,lol so I'm knitting socks to wear in my blunnies. All my store bought socks are low cut so I need some slightly higher ones. Weather here is nice. Some RDF but lots of nice sunny days too. Hope we have a great warm summer this year, I gots plans. Swimming in real water plans. Outdoor adventure plans. Geo-caching plans. We'll see how it goes.

Ok, the week of haiku was kinda a fail. I made up many haikus while falling asleep but had forgotten them by the morning. I am going to try to do a haiku bomb tomorrow to make up for it all. Well in fact it won't be tomorrow bc it is after midnight but you know what I mean. :)

Alrighty, it's the morning. Haiku Bomb it is.

winds howling outside
warm woolen comfort inside
want warmth outside too

waters a running
trickling dripping down the rock
spring is in full swing

needles click-clacking
making warmth from woolen fleece
adding love to work

crows caw neath window
murders outside looking black
shining feathers gleem

On the Knitting front, I've been wrapping up all kinds of projects. Working in ends,darning,fixing . I'm planning on making some socks. Several pairs I hope. Wanted to get all the little things out of the way 1st. I also knit some booties and a hat for a friend who just had a baby. They're verra cute. I'll post a pic after I have given them to her.

Seagull circling Angel like on pure white wings Distance belies truth Day 3 haiku, just squeezing in before midnight :)

Ok, day 2 haiku. Needles click softly Baby booties made with care Keep little feet warm Ok, a stretch I know. I figure that the process is what matters. I'm also going back to the gym this week. After all winter and my stay @ home job , I need to shake off the cobwebs. Wish me luck.

So, I decided that all this week I would try a haiku a day. Talking all day long Wishing for silences gone When will quiet reign? I know, it's crappy but working in a call centre DOES make quiet a precious commodity. Maybe tomorrows will be better,lol.

I really REALLY need to get a camera. My crocus have finally come up and bloomed. I wanted to post a pic and realized that I only have my crappy point and click. Our good camera died last year, ruined by a thunderstorm while we were out geocaching. On the knitting front, I finished Tammy's sweater. Just need to block it. I'm working on some toe up socks. They're only about the 5th or 6th pair I've ever made. I've always had a mental block about them. I'm determined to finish these this week and start another pair. I want to knit myself a few pairs before I start on a new sweater.