To Plant A Garden...

To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.

~ Audrey Hepburn

 

Hi friends!

I hope that tomorrow brings rain to the North Houston area.  My garden is in need of rain, and not just my watering with a water hose.  It always seems to do better with rain from Mother Nature.  I did get out and water yesterday and put a little fertilizer on the tomatoes.  My leg is keeping me from tending the garden like I would like, but it does get better with each passing day.

I hope the lack of attention isn't causing my garden to suffer too much.  My potatoes look pretty pitiful, but they have looked that way in the past and have yielded lots of yummy potatoes to enjoy, so I am hoping for the same outcome this year!

I do not think my tomato plants have as many tomatoes as they have had in the past, but my husband thinks they look about the same... And, I have tons of cherry tomato plants, and I know that I only planted two of them....I think some were mislabled at our local nursery.  But, luckily we love cherry tomatoes, so all is well.

We are big fans of eggplant parmesan.  We really love the Japanese variety eggplants (Ichiban variety is pictured here).  I will post a recipe when I have plenty of eggplant to cook.

Basil and Rosmary.  I love having fresh herbs to cook with.  Making homemade pesto is a special treat.  We also like mixing homemade pesto with mayonaise for a yummy sandwich spread.  Hot paninis with fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, and pesto is so delicious!  When I get enough basil, I will post a recipe that I found for easy pesto.

The lizard population is continuing to grow.  I saw this little guy on a pretty red hibiscus.

Metal Sunflower, Pretty Mushroom, Red Poppy in the wild flower area.

 

Fridays in the Craft Room....

I finished this little Snowman a few days ago.  I started him before my leg trouble, and he was begging to be painted, glittered and dressed up.  It was my first attempt at using paper clay.   I will be doing more of this in the future!  I found the picture in an old Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion Christmas magazine, and tried making him from the picture.  Luckily, you can go on line and figure out how to use the items mentioned in blogs and magazines (such as "paper clay").  You can google and pinterest search for everything!!  Makes crafting so much easier than just a few years ago.  I am really wanting to try making different shapes and designs.  I did lots of online shopping while resting.  Boxes of crafting supplies are beginning to arrive :)  I will be making many Christmas presents when it is too hot to garden this summer in south Texas.

I found this cute jar at WalMart and decided to organize my rickrack and different trims that I have collected over the years.  I think I need another jar since this one is full and I still have more to wrap around old spools and pieces of cardboard.  I can't wait to get busy organizing my craft room a little more.  It is in dire need to refreshing and organization.

I am itching to cook, craft, and garden like crazy.  To just be busy all day long. I am very fortunate that my troubles are small and will get better with patience and time.  Many aren't so lucky and I hope that I can remember that when my aches and pains are gone and be a little kinder to those

who need a helping hand from me.

~ Joeby

Windy Day in the Garden

The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. ~ Austin

I have had a hard time gardening or crafting much these past two weeks.  Turns out my pulled muscle in my leg was actually blood clots (Deep Vein Thrombosis).  I ended up spending a night in the hospital - thankfully only one night.  I am on blood thinners, and totally on the mend.  I can't wait to get out there and dig in the dirt a little, and do some crafting as those clots dissolve.

My sweet husband has been doing a little gardening for me to keep things going.  I got a chance to take some pictures this windy & chilly morning.  It is very unusual to have a 45 degree morning in the North Houston area in May!!  I'm sure my tomatoes are loving it!

Tomatoes like cool nights and warmer days.  We are lucky to have those!  Once it gets warm here, the blossoms fall off rather than make new baby tomatoes.  So, planting early here is a must!!

I picked these pretty squash and cherry tomatoes on my walk to the garden this morning! I do not have good luck with squash here... Not sure why, but they usually die after making a few squash. I am hoping to get so many squash that I need to give them to strangers :)

I planted a very tiny (like 6 inches tall) fig tree in a really big pot two years ago.  This year, we have little figs!!  I really hope that they grow to maturity. 

I love figs!

One thing that grows well here, is lizards.  We have literally thousands of lizards here.  While I have been recuperating, I have been lying on the chaise in our bedroom.  It over looks the back yard, which has been very pleasant.  The brick window ledge outside my window is a lizard highway!  I know that I need to get up at about when, I promise, I can tell some of them apart...

A view of the back yard.  The big green tree (big bush) is the Meyer lemon tree that had about 500 lemons on it last year!! My husband cut it back a great deal, and we are worried that there will be no lemons this year.  It frosted when it was blooming, and all the baby lemons fell off.  I really hate to complain when we had such an abundance last year.  We do have a smaller tree near the back fence that has some lemons on it, so we will have a few for the holidays.

Wild flower area. 

I will try to take a better picture of it when the sun is in a better spot.  It is really lovely and wonderful to see the butterflies who visit the flowers each day.

 

I have a few crafts that I am planning on working on while keeping my leg propped up (in fabulous compression hose...).  I have also been catching up on all the magazines that I get and haven't looked at so far this year.  I have decided that I get too many magazines in the mail, and plan to cut back when the subscriptions expire.  We have a fabulous library near by, and I think I will go look at magazines there instead.

I hope that your week is full of peace, happiness, and perhaps a little cooking, crafting or gardening. 

What projects are you currently working on?  Send me a note and let me know!

~ Joeby