early spring in the garden

mmmmmm....days like today are the perfect reason to have a garden.  1-2 hours in the afternoon sun pulling up old tomato canes, twisting metal cages back into shape, brushing away straw to see what did or didn't survive the winter, days like today are worth their price in gold.  My perfect escape.
This year the garden held a few surprises.  Among the dead vines & branches there are so many fallen/rotten tomato carcasses that I'm going to depend on volunteer tomatoes this year rather than plant new.  I'm telling myself that I'm being frugal rather than lazy. 

I wish I could remember if this sad survivor of winter 2009/2010 is a broccoli or a cabbage.  I think it looks like cabbage, but I could swear that is where I planted the broccoli.  Either way, this little plant kinda looks the way I feel most days.  Badly injured but still alive.  The eternal optimism of Spring, right here in my own backyard. 

and wonder of wonders...Garlic!  lovely, green, smelly garlic!  Looks like most of the  garlic that I planted last fall survived.  Before I get too excited about my gardening prowess let me step in and remind myself that garlic has been cultivated for a very long time.  And they won't be ready for harvest till Summer.  but still. 

There is such comfort in plant, wait, harvest. 

Jeff

HD recently found a couple of old canisters of used film.  Yeah, film.  I wasn't sure that you could still get film developed!  We both knew that more than likely there would be pictures of Jeff on the rolls, but we had no idea when the pics were taken- might be copies of pictures that we already had.  He got the film developed, and sadly there were only 7 or 8 pictures with any image quality at all.  There is a picture of Beau when we first adopted him.  He was so cute, but SO dumb!  He has grown into a beautiful, good dog, but he was a serious challenge as a pup.  We also got a few pictures of Abbie.  Gorgeous Abbie.  Best dog ever.  Period.  A few very faded, grainy pictures from Christmas 2002, just Jeff, Doug and I.  And one, clear, brilliant picture of Jeff in the City Center parking lot.  He is tan, and smiling, mohawk painted red, white and blue.  You can't really see the mohawk in the picture, be we remember it well.  I'm so grateful for these few pictures.  One thought that haunts me is that there will be no more pictures of Jeff.  No more memories. so wrong.     It hurts like hell to look at them, but I also know that they are an incredible gift. 

So, what have you been up to lately?

just a few things I've completed lately. The shawl isn't really complete, I need to add a border when I spin a complimentary yarn. And don't look too closely at the hat! I took the picture before I realized there were some yarn ends that needed woven in!

October socks

Yes, it is in fact the 20th day of November, so shoot me!

A Wool Gathering....gather'd up some goodies!

yeah, yeah, two posts in one day- but I had a really busy and fun weekend! LD and I rode out to A Wool Gathering fiber festival at Young's Dairy near YellowSprings Ohio. It is the only fiber fest I've found so far that is close enough for a one day trip. And ya'll know I can't leave the pups alone to take a longer-than-one-day trip. So this is my once a year hands on fiber fix.


Llama mammas!















sheepies!








trying to subtly tell Mr Paparrazi that I'm done being photographed!




I got some yummy swag too! Finally got my hands on a card weaving book. I've had the cards for a year now and was chicken to try it. This book is fab, very clear and easy to read instructions. See that blue strap there- I made that within about a hour and a half of sitting down to read the book. Card Weaving is wicked cool. I picked up my pound of lovely merino top from the lovely folks with Ohio Valley Natural Fibers in Sardinia, Ohio. A gorgeous 8oz ball of Romney wool and mohair. The colors are to-die-for. I enjoy doing my own hand dying, but without a carder, I can't make roving as gorgeous as this. It is from a company called White Creek Wool in Deford, Michigan. I also picked up an ounce of dove grey cashmere. That was my last purchase of the day and I've lost the business card of the vendor that I bought it from. Cashmere! I've finally graduated to cashmere! I'm spinning it lace-weight on one of my drop spindles to try and stretch out the spinning love. It is heaven. And hey! I'm wearing my sweater again! see the end of my previous post for sweater details, if your interested.

be nice to the littles, you never know when a big is around the corner.....

Um, Yeah, that is one big bug! Part of the 'Big Bugs' exhibit at our local Innis Woods Metro Park. My previous post showed a lovely smaller specimen that came to visit my garden.







and since I hadn't hassled her smaller cousin, this lovely creature left me alone.......




















LD wasn't quite as lucky!










Sunday was our 7th wedding anniversary, so I thought I'd share a rare posed picture of the two of us.....







and the much more common picture of the two of us being silly. Silly, but very happy, relaxed and very much in love. And lest you think this blog has completely lost all knitting content....I spun the yarn for and knit the sweater that I'm wearing! brown merino with one skein of one strand of silk ply'd with one strand of the same merino. I did this when I realized I would run out of fiber before I got the yardage that I needed. Worked out nicely I think. The sweater pattern is one of the top down women's t-shirt patterns from Fiber Trends.

Visitor in my Lavendar...

I spent about an hour cleaning up the flower beds this morning, deadheading flowers, pulling up poison oak and (my favorite chore ever) trimming the spent lavendar stems. The flowers are all dried and there is nothing left for the bees, so now I get to play. ....and I got an extra bonus today. I was just finishing up trimming stems, wondering how I missed this and that, got a buzz-by from a bee, when I looked up and noticed that I had company.....!

How gorgeous is s/he?! LD and I saw the babies in early spring and I was hoping that at least a couple had hung around.







yes darlin, I am looking at you! Breathtaking!