Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Trout

Fish!  We caught fish!  The husband and I each caught our trout limit this morning in a bit over an hour in a lake twenty minutes from our house.  We kept the biggest of the eight, six total were brought home.  They will be fried up in a pan outdoors over a grill fire for dinner tonight.



This is a swordfish.  I am on the left and Kathy is on the right, with the fish in the middle, in case you wondered. That picture was taken years ago when we had a girls' weekend in Cabo San Lucas and reminds me of our great vacation.  And no, we did not catch that sailfish.  We just rode on others' fishing experiences.  

And lastly, more painting on the fence.  Think maybe we are through with this effort.  It is getting too hot to paint outside anymore; we are expecting 91 degrees F today.



Saturday, May 10, 2014

More Flowers on Fencing

Now we have both the east and the west back yard fences painted with flowers, just in case the seedlings do not prove viable and flowers won't grow according to plan.



Above is the east side yard fencing, under a much pruned lilac.  We have had that lilac many years, and it really needed branches culled, especially around its base.  Out came the clippers, then the saw, and finally the chain saw.  The lilac was denuded, making the fence bare.  A bit of decoration was in order, so this time I added a spider and a cobweb to some echinacea flower leaves and petals.  The bee was cautioned about the spider web across the way.

Knitting

The Vogue Shawl was completely taken apart and the linen yarn rewound.  It just did not seem to be working, plus I found a huge mistake I had knitted into the pattern way back when. Thoroughly unsatisfactory, so it was dismantled in short order.

The organic linen was re-purposed into the start of another Shetland Lace Shawl, and the linen fiber is behaving much better with this pattern.  So far, I am about 10 percent through it, with mistakes at a minimum.  The first Shetland shawl turned out well, so fingers are crossed that this one will come up to muster.

Gardening

Blue iris were added to the back, thanks to a friend's pruning hers back.



Columbines are blooming.  This week has been very cool and the night temperatures are still going down into the 40's, so I have not yet put out the seedlings.  But I purchased one dozen geraniums and planted them this week. Several years ago I was getting three dozen geraniums for patio pots, but am cutting down this year. Those yellow iris are doing their duty and continuing with profuse blooms.  The amaryllis have been put out, a new black-eyed susan root and day lily roots have been planted, and the husband planted a lettuce variety, cilantro, corn, tomatoes and cucumbers, along with zucchini.  The basil that was planted last week, along with a rosemary plant, are perking up, and the cilantro is 1/2 inch in height.  We added a garden bench to sit under a Japanese maple tree for ornamental purposes.  We planted this tree about eight trees ago and placed the ashes of our sweet black dog, Grace, under this tree, beneath a statue of St. Frances.

This area is now called a "bethel," thanks to learning a new word from Zana this week on Words With Friends.

Cooking & Domestic Duties

New recipes this week include a flour less chocolate cake, similar to this one. This is for Mother's Day brunch, so will get busy on it in  a few hours.  Except the recipe I am using (again, thanks to Natalie) calls for baking it in a 7" spring form pan in a crock pot sans water in the bottom. Also, Natalie insists that the cacao percentage be over 60%, as good old Hershey's just will not do for this decadent dessert.  A raspberry sauce goes atop.  It keeps in the fridge for two weeks, so the left overs will be good on ice cream.

We have clean windows as of yesterday, as our friendly young men who run "First Impressions" did a great job of getting the dust and dirt off the insides and outsides.  The cleaning of windows necessitated the taking down of the accordian pleated cellular blinds, two that were broken and needed replacement.  After 16 years in this house, one of those blinds has been repaired twice, but enough is enough.  This time Home Depot will be my default seller, and I'll get vertical wooden blinds instead of the cellular type.

TV

Powering through Vera, almost through Season II.  Love this British detective series!  Ann Cleeves wrote this series, and since I have read all her books save the most recent one on my Kindle, it is no wonder this is a favorite.

This/that

We got a new car this week, a Honda Civic with all the goodies on new cars. It is silver in color and I love it.  My husband purchased a 2013 Honda Sport Fit and really likes his, so now two little Hondas share garage space.  I don't drive out of town very much, but the Civic handles the highway well and has plenty of zoom.

My next travel will be to Barcelona, Spain in October for a Scrabble transatlantic cruise directed by friends Barbara and Larry.  Remember when Barbara celebrated her 30th year of directing play a few months ago?

That's my update.  Tell me yours!

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Concentration

Concentration, or absenting myself from felicity (in Jean's words) while I start another round and adding an additional center panel to the Vogue lace shawl. That is what is needed: concentration.


The yarn is 100% organic linen from Quince & Co.  It feels fairly rough, being linen, and is smaller in circumference than I had envisioned, so the shawl will be smaller than the picture of the finished project shown on the published project sheet.  I am using a size larger needle to accommodate this difference in yarn size and hoping the yarn will soften after washing.  It is a bit like knitting with kite string at present.

If you are wondering what "organic linen" actually means, look here for an intense written presentation.  My take on what the organic blog says can be narrowed down to:
  • Lowest practical ecological impact
  • Fair Trade guidelines
That being said, on with knitting.  The Chart II repeat (middle) is now in process; it begins on row 49 and is repeated 15 times prior to adding the wings. I had difficulty in reading the chart, as it is different on the right and wrong sides, naturally, so I made a flip chart with index cards which made the changing charts easier to follow.  However, it took about 150 cards to make the chart. This is definitely my Magnum Opus of knitting.  And it may be the  last, God willing that I live long enough to finish the knit.

The center is beginning to look like hearts, and I wonder if this is because of the yarn.  Liking it thus far, but it requires concentration and cannot be successfully knit with the husband in the room providing side notes or asking questions, adding to the ambient noise of tv commentary.  However, it can be happily knit on while sitting alone and having an episode of "Pride and  Prejudice"spicing up the airwaves.  The husband will retreat to his den with the dogs when he hears Colin Firth.

It is cold here today, and I had to bring in all my seedlings last night because of the frost warnings.  Three more days of in and out with these little guys, and then the zinnias and cosmos


will be almost ready to go into their new raised bed.  More later on that project.  Three pots of marigolds are in the garage, and more pots of herbs are up by the back door that will have to go out again in the sun by 10 AM when the frost warning is lifted.  Three more days of this and then we should be free of frost.  One wonders at the efficacy of all this attention to planting when the local grocer provides plants already blooming.

Lastly, one new addition to the front porch: an urn with columbine and marigolds, reminding me of college colors:



Monday, April 14, 2014

A Spring Post

Noticing that time between posts is beginning to stretch out, I decided it was time to catch up with spring happenings here at the Urban Renewal Place, also known as the Center of the Universe.

There are Parties to attend:


More zinnia, marigold and cosmos seeds to be planted


Daffodils to enjoy 


Native wildflowers are starting to perk up after a long winter (columbines)


Lots of iris are blooming

And a fun wedding party attended on a beautiful April 12 Saturday:

 This is Verda, the bride, dancing with a guest; doesn't she look happy?

 Tables decorated with wildflowers and seed packets for favors, with burlap table cloths, a catered Mexican dinner, a three piece band, with denim being the dress of the day...fun!
Verda in her cute dress

Wedding cake with wildflowers atop

And Easter is less than a week away.  More to come!

Friday, May 10, 2013

Guy Rescues Hummingbird



source

This is a baby hummingbird I rescued after it was attacked. The song is "Better Together" by Jack Johnson.
UPDATE!!! when she thought she was ready to leave (and she was) she flew off to her favorite patch of the back yard, and her instincts instantly kicked in, and now she's just like all the other hummingbirds. for those that are concerned that she has imprinted on humans and wouldn't survive in the wild, don't worry, she is thriving. she has even successfully migrated and returned back to my yard. and for those who think i didn't know what i was doing, i did NOT feed her plain sugar water. i went outside 3 times a day and caught flies from my compost bin (be green people) in big bags, crushed them, and mixed them in as well. I also helped her learn to catch flies while flying (not in the video because the flies were too small). It was a pretty hectic but very rewarding experience and, in the end, i don't think it could have worked out any better :)

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Greenhouse is Alive and Well

Our Greenhouse on the Grand Lawn seems to be working out fine (the "Grand" references the husband's blog livingthegrandlife).  Last evening at 5 PM the ambient temperature outside was 64 degrees F but inside the greenhouse it showed 74 degrees.  And that was after the zippered flap had been opened and we peeked inside several times during the day.


Here is a picture of the interior and where you might find at least one occupant of the Grand House reading, tooling around, or smoking a cigar...not really, but that thought has been bandied around.  There really is not room enough for two people inside these close quarters, but one or two small dogs just might wend their way there if bribed with puppy treats.


Not to be pessimistic, but I wonder how these plants will look when it gets to be ZERO degrees outside.  There are two large black trashcans filled with water under the wooden planks to give humidity, and an inch or so of bark on the bottom of the interior to help mediate the temps. Plus the walls seem to be fairly heavy translucent fabric to aid capturing solar heat. We shall see.

Yesterday was a Scrabble day with six participants who seemed to enjoy lively challenges and debate.  Here are four of them playing.


The only guy there was Allen.  He and I have been playing almost weekly for ten years.  I  have three filled out journals of  scores for each of our games recorded since 2003. Nine years' worth of scores between us.


Here is the button on my Scrabble bag:


Hope your Wednesday is going well.  I'll try to keep my whining to a minimum.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

How To Prune Philodendrons

Now that seems like a silly post title, "How to Prune Philodendrons", but if you get as many Google referrals as I do, you will notice that the search term "HOW TO" is ubiquitous.  (I love that word.)  People constantly search for "how to" do something.  On my Google analytics dashboard page, that term of "how to" is everywhere, so this will be a test post just to see how many hits I get from this topic of how to prune philodendrons.  (Believe it or not, my post found here on pig feet is my number ONE referral to this blog! Who knew pigs would draw such a crowd?)

So even though this mundane chore of pruning household plants might not interest you, dear reader, someone out there on the world wide web might be searching for just this topic that will make me a long distance teacher.  Here goes.

HOW TO PRUNE A PHILODENDRON
If your plants are getting leggy, with too few leaves along the stem, or if the leaves are spaced out too far apart and it looks like the stem is becoming thick, scissor intervention is necessary.  Now is the time to be ruthless, all for the good of the plant.  See how large the plant is? See the stems?


OK: now for a closer look at the roots and you can really see those legs that appear anemic, woody,  and too close together.  Tsk, tsk.


Next step: get out some new potting soil, some jars with water for sustaining your cuttings, a pair of scissors, and an aggressive attitude.

Take out the soil and plant from the pot, cut through those roots, discard the old roots at the bottom of the plant, and start your cutting.
Ensure that you have a nodule at the end with a bit of a root attached as this will help the root cutting adapt to the new soil.

Discard all the leggy runners.  Keep the shorter stems, again ensuring that a nodule is attached.  You should cut off leaves close to the nodule because you do not want any green leaf touching the water where they will stay until new roots have developed.

From just one plant, here is a picture of the salvaged leaves now in water awaiting new roots to grow.

With those stems that have been trimmed, roots longer than two inches mercilessly cut off from the main stem, they can be buried into the new potting soil.  Add even more soil to the top to ensure stability of the stem.  Here are two of the newly potted plants, looking much healthier and with more room to breathe.


From three plants I re-potted yesterday, we now have five jars of leaf and stem cuttings in water awaiting their roots to develop.  One jar is on the kitchen windowsill and the other four are tucked away in filtered light awaiting the same fate.  Maybe we should go into philodendron farming since there are so many awaiting future planting.  Would you like to adopt a jar?  Free for the taking!

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Almost Officially Autumn

A scenic September day in Colorado


Aspen on the Mesa
Aspen by Jumbo Lake
wild daisies
I picked wildflowers and colorful leaves to dry for future crafts

Cosmos to Dry (now under heavy books to preserve)
One cosmos dried and one fresh from the stem

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf's a flower.
- Albert Camus


Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Now We Have a Greenhouse


First we started out with our dog run area which we no longer use as such because our fur babies are so spoiled they won't go anywhere without a human by their side.

Then, inch by inch and step by step, the Mr. followed all instructions given in the kit. And now it is ready for use.


This is the finished product with pictures by Amazon.


We are hoping it will keep all herbs, geraniums and begonias safe over the winter. 


 And next spring, just wait for those beans seedlings and other vegetables to come out of the greenhouse!



The Mr. and the Mrs. are happy gardeners.

(illustrations by Sara Midda from In and Out of the Garden)

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Butterflies as Photographed by C. Marley

Flipping through the pages of Christopher Marley's Pheromone coffee table book of bugs and other insect critters makes me gasp at all the colors they wear on their backs.  Philippine weevils don't seem to care that wearing bright red makes them look fat.

Yesterday I bought a 24"x30" canvas.  I'll paint three butterflies, side by side, mixing up spatial orientation.  Don't the colors seem unreal?  Here are my picks from Marley's book:





Marley's background was always white.  I am thinking a warm background of yellow/burnt copper. What is you favorite butterfly and which one would you omit?

This video was first published by Linda on her blog today, and it is worth a listen.

He Listens in Color