We came from here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1116911/
This thread can't be derailed because there's no topic. HA!
WARNING- there may be discussion of guns, tattoos, pest removal or other potentially 'horrifying' subjects. If you can't handle that, this is not the thread for you. Disagreeing about a subject is okay, flaming people is not.
Pony, I have to say that your dahlias are just gorgeous. I love all the photos you post of them. I have had some good ones in the past but this year has been a dud so far. The chickens dug them up right after I planted and they're taking forever to recover. If the weather holds, I might have good blooms in about a month.
Thank you, Gwen! I'm really enjoying all the dahlias, this is my first time growing from tubers and seeds instead of just buying plants, so I'm thrilled with how well they're all doing. :)
I think I would have had a big chicken dinner if I had been you... yikes. I hope you do get some flowers!
I will have to join the stick figure group. I can't even do a decent box with an Etch a Sketch.
Pony, congrats on your dahlias. They are beauties,
Gwendalou, It's a good thing you love your chickens!
Your dahlias are so healthy looking, Pony. It must be all that Tagro, along with your touch of course. You definitely have the touch for beautiful flowers.
To those who draw the stick figure drawings: you just need to change your audience and you artwork will be fully appreciated and admired! My first graders frequently tell me what great drawings I have made, stick figure or not, when I am demonstrating a project. They are honest also, and will forthrightly tell me that my sheep looks like a pig if it does or that I forgot the gills on the shark (luckily easy to add into the picture).
102 and miserable outside. Everything is drooping even after a good watering last night. back at it when it cools down a bit. I hate this hot weather.75 is good.
Woah! It's about 92 here- I thought it was hot til I heard from you, Bea. Yikes. I have to agree- 75 or even 80 is fine. Any hotter than that, and I just wilt.
Oh! And thank you, Lynn and Holly- I'm pretty sure the Tagro has more to do with it than anything I'm doing. ;)
Down to 90 now. Woopie! Everthing watered again and ran the drip & sprinkler system and extra time tonight too. Hope thinks are a little more perky in the morning. (including me!)
*squee!* the way the frog is sitting with the leaves- it looks like he's holding balloons... LOL! :D
Our weather is already settling towards that 'end of summer feel' - always so poignant. Days are gorgeous, but we are also sleeping under a blanket again (which I actually quite like - fortunately not a duvet yet! We've done that before in August - and NOT a feeling I like!). But the light is still good, and the evenings still mild enough to sit out and watch the meteor shower at midnight. Gosh it was spectacular, just one of those evenings when the air reminds me of that french word, doux (I think I am spelling that correctly, but?) - its more than just soft, its comforting soft. Sweet smell, soft puffs of air movement, welcoming temperature, and clear skies - the mind just drifts - doux.
Pony - lovely dahlias, mine are c&*p this year - just don't seem to want to get going. Even my lovely old faithful stand of flagrantly PINK ones, oddly named Requiem (look great with the dark, almost black sunflowers I grow for cutting) - hopefully next year they will do better. And it is that time of year too - the looking at certain plants and crops, and beginning to think "next year....." - ahhhh, gardening, it lives on the promise of next year. Even if we have to make that promise happen. Next year......
And drawing - I think it would be wonderful to have a drawing session at the next Round Up - my hand is in the air for wanting to see the results! Coloured in and not! I think there is something so contagious (positively) about drawing in a group (thus my eager beaverness about joining the V&A group - and Pix, I'm so pleased that you loved the VA!), I think it is that collective effort, the contagion of inspiration, of positive competiveness, that seems to add something to the individual - to know there can be critique without criticism is really enervatiing. I remember, this is YEARS ago, one of my drawing teachers constantly reminding us that good drawing came out of 'suspending knowing', that we had to 'draw what you see, not what you think you see'. I think I have come to see this as the difference between drawing and making art - I think the two are related, but different: art requires us to change back to thinking - to use our drawings to push forward what we want to think about: the drawing becomes the springboard of the artwork. I think that is where creativity lies. Oh, shoot, I think I have just taken this all too far - time for me to go back to gardening, where compost leads us to gardening which is more than just weeding. What a jump from Dahlias that was!
One of the hardest things to do with a pencil or brush in hand is to draw what's there and not what you THINK is there. My GD was complaining that she couldn't draw people and I told her that she needed to stop telling herself that and to stop thinking of them as people and just focus on lines and contours. Years ago I taught a summer art class for kids at our sailing club, and one of my first exercises for them was to have them draw a wooden soldier that was made up of parts stacked on a central peg. Its legs were narrower toward the base and then its hips were another section which ballooned out slightly. The task was to draw it exactly the way they saw it, and I monitored them and gave them tips as they worked. Afterwards I had them look at each child's drawing and see if they could tell where the child was sitting relative to the soldier from the perspective they were showing. With most of the drawings that was surprisingly possible.
Here is a quote, supposedly from Monet, that I have always liked:
When you go out to paint, try to forgot what objects you have before you ... merely think here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you.
Claude Monet
I got a good freebie off of Craigslist today! Gonna take him off the frame and put him in a flowerbed. I've been wanting one of these for a while, I'm so excited I got him! :)
That's great, Pony! Will he go up on a post or something?
Pony, that is so cool! I have been looking for one of those for you! We had the same idea. Great minds think alike.
I have one of those. I have debated on putting it in the garden, but as it's the one my kids played on (mil got it at a garage sale), I am currently saving it for the grandkids.
Been having fun canning this past week. I have not done it since my Grandmother passed away 30+ years ago. I have done garlic dill pickles, marinated mushrooms,artichoke hearts and today apple sauce & apple/blueberry sauce. Fun. I will be making soup this fall and canning that too. What's next?
Conratulations, Bea, on your canning adventure. Julie and I also do some of that and it is a very satisfying event for us. We do tomatoes, pickled green beans and bread and butter pickles. I have tried dill pickles in the past, but was not happy with the results Farnams does a much better job. We did tomato sauce last year and found that it took lots and lots of tomatoes but it sure is excellent. We save it for special dishes. We have some salmon we want to do, but think that will be a winter project as it will require using the pressure cooker.
I do pretty much just jams. This year will be plum jam and then maybe peach jam if I have enough time between EWA and my next bout of driving kids all over the place.
I would love to do artichoke hearts as I do use those throughout the year, but sounds like too much work!
I do tomato sauce but I freeze it instead of canning.
I think I will do some beets as I eat them almost every day. It would be nice to make the mess once and not weekly like I do now. I would love to make jam. My Mom made the best Santa Rosa plum jam when were kids from a tree on our property. They were the best plums ever! The problem now is that I don't eat jam or jelly anymore. I think I may do some spagetti sauce.My kids love my "french" spagetti sauce but now that they are out on their own I have not made it. It is a large recipe and I would rather not run the second freezer for this sauce. Jarred ..it is ready when they come and they can take some with them when they go. Ahhh..the possibilities..
I agree - SR plums are the best around. Unfortunately, my weeping SR plum tree never fruits. But I have an italian plum (few fruits on that one), a purple plum, and several trees of an unknown yellow plum (maybe shiro?).
I don't know if I could can tomato sauce without a pressure canner, which is why I freeze. Plus, our freezer, altho currently broken and am trying desparately to find someone who can come out to fix it this week, is always running since we keep our dog food in there, not to mention lots of other stuff (apple juice which we press in the fall, ice cream, leftovers, soups and things I cook in large batches and then freeze, etc.).
What is french spaghetti sauce?
My kids also raid the pantry when they come to visit. Jam, garlic mustard (that I buy by the case from Half Moon Bay, Calif), and bbq sauce are their favorites to take.
greenhouse_gal, I'm thinking I'll use L shaped rebar pieces in the holes on his side to hang him on like a rack, if that makes sense. I have the perfect spot for him, right in front of the porch there's a spot in the bed that has too many azalea roots for anything to grow well, and he would fit right in there to fill the blank spot. :)
Lynn, seriously? You're awesome. :D (Hey, don't stop looking... I'm greedy. LOL!)
I've never done any canning. My Mom did lots, but I never learned to do it. I'm kind of lazy, and it always seemed like soooo much effort just for a few jars of stuff.
My French spaghetti sauce has a secret french ingredient.Very simple..but a secret! I grew up in San Mateo which is not far from Half Moon Bay. I never knew that there was a special garlic mustard from there. I just remember the beaches and the pumpkins in the fall. Darn I bet that mustard is great.
Pony, yes, that does make sense. It's going to look super in your garden!
Love the rocking horse, that is a good one.
Great find Pony!! I used to do all sorts of canning when the kids were small......this year I'm thinking I will have a good bean crop for dilly beans. I have found the best pickles at Costco, Carnegie Kosher Spears
So Bea, is there garlic mustard in the French sauce?
I agree about the hot weather - too hot! It was so nice to sleep in the cool air last night.
My daughter does canning, and I was her kitchen slave one time when we made applesauce. I just freeze berries!
Bea, I grew up in San Mateo as well. My mom and sister still live there. I have a lot of family in the bay area. I went to St Matthew's, St. Bartholomew's, and Aragon High School.
OMG! I went to St.Barts and Aragon. Lived on Parrot Drive. You must d-mail me your full name. I was in the last graduating class of St. Barts 71 and Aragon in 75. Small world.
Can I come over and play in your garden Pony. I miss my rocking horse.
Just a few shots of Motorcycling in AK. These are pictures of several camping sights that I rode up to after work in Wrangell. I thought quite nice sites to have all to your self. The sunsets were beautiful.
And then grinding and starting my clean-up of my Alaska home. I am currently grinding off the paint and smoothing the bottom to have expensive bottom paint put on. $350 per gallon.
You should enter the sunset picture in the photo contest. You have quite the artistic eye.
Beautiful camping photos!
B-o-a-t = Bring Out Another Thousand
What a great boat, Soferdig! How long is it? And what do you use it for?
Awww But ain't she worth it?? Have fun.
$25,000 1980 Fisher 25 ft motorsailer. I use it when I am working in Wrangell, and Petersburg when I am working up in Alaska. I have owned 7 previous sailboats and the first two were bottomless pits, then I learned to clean sheets, halyards, sails, fix my own issues, take care of commodities, and most of all say no to TOYS on a toy. LOL
$70 bucks per month for my housing (moorage) and 1/2 gal / hr on my diesel to get where I am going, if wind much less. This is an old man sailboat that should last through my need to get away and survive on fish and potatoes if necessary. It is my planned retirement home when the bride of my dreams needs me to leave for a while. As I said to her this is for you Honey. LOL
She really has soul, Soferdig. And that's the only way to do it when you have a boat - learn to take care of her yourself! Otherwise it's just a rich man's toy, seems like. And you have to be rich to keep it. Or at least comfortable, and/or willing to give up a lot else.
My first squash! Yaaaaaay! :D
Beautiful squash! Wish it were mine, only tomatoes, beans, radish and carrots here. Still waiting on squash....
Was excited to pull my first carrots today. The first one was about 1/2" after much tugging. The two that followed were down right scary!! (pic below ) At least I was able to pick about a quart of tomatoes.
