The Finches Are Back!

We moved to our lake home last April...I wasn't really paying too much attention to the comings and goings of the birds at first...but came to love watching them at our feeders.  We have a population of resident juncos, flickers and chickadees...but it seems that the finches are only here for the spring and summer...

So...if the finches are back...that means summer can't be far off, right?

Deb

Potatoes Are Up!!

An update on the raised bed gardens...the potatoes have sprouted (next to the little red arrow). YAY!! I was worried that I had planted them too early...a local blog suggested that St. Patty's Day was the perfect day to plant but it's been pretty cold and rainy...I'm so glad to see that they made it!  And the first batch of lettuce is ready to pick...Pacific Northwest Gardening doesn't get any better than this! Thanks for making a garden for me, Mike, my love : )

 Farmer Deb :)

An Update On My Bucket Garden....

...2 buckets lakeside, 3 buckets in potting shed, 15 buckets and 1 tub in greenhouse...tomatoes (LOTS of heirloom tomatoes!),lettuce, eggplants, peppers,potatoes, basil, radishes, bush beans and more...all will go lakeside in about a month...

 Enjoy!

Deb

"Fossils" Big Hole Bead Pendant...

Did you ever let a gallery have a piece of your art work to sell and then really hope that it didn't?  This was one for me...I'm glad to have it back ...

Enjoy!

Deb

"Fossils" Big Hole Bead Pendant...

Did you ever let a gallery have a piece of your art work to sell and then really hope that it didn't?  This was one for me...I'm glad to have it back ...

Enjoy!

Deb

Gardens and Greenhouses...

I started planting what I'm going to call a "Bucket Garden" today...tomatoes, potatoes, and everything else I can fit...all planted in easily moved buckets.  I have my raised bed gardens, but not everyone has the space for them. I wanted to experiment with something that almost everyone, disabled or not,  could do...with very little space or expense. My goal is for all the plants to be organic, heirloom and or non-Monsanto.

My day started as Mike drove me to the Olympia Food CO-OP...

I knew they carried seed from local sources (Uprising Seeds and Irish Eyes Seeds) that had a commitment to preserving diversity in agriculture...

I started out with 4 buckets...Mike drilled holes in the bottoms of them for drainage and filled them with garden soil...

"All Blue" potatoes, Swiss Chard "Fordhook Giant", Lettuce "Merlot", Beet "Bull's Blood"....

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4 buckets planted..."All Blue" potatoes, Swiss Chard "Fordhook Giant", Lettuce "Merlot", Beet "Bull's Blood"

 We bought a "pop up"  greenhouse to house the more tender plants for the bucket garden...Mike will move them to join the rest lakeside after the danger of frost has passed...anyone can do the same without the expense of the greenhouse...all you need is a warm bathroom...set the buckets in the tub and hang a full spectrum light over them...

I'll be posting more as we add more buckets and work on making the garden pretty with flowers and some wood dividers....

Enjoy!

Deb

Raised Bed and Container Garden...

Last spring Mike made a raised bed vegetable garden for me in our back yard.  The raised beds make it possible for me to garden while seated on a small rolling cart...
 


We had four beds the first year and were amazed at the amount of food we were able to grow.  This spring we have added two more raised beds and are experimented with covering them to allow for earlier planting.

 beets, salad onions and bok choi

We are experimenting with other containers for growing vegetables, herbs and flowers inspired by a book I recently purchased:

I loved the thought of growing vegetables and fruit in recycled or easily made containers.  Here are my strawberries in an old crate:

We  made cages for the potato and lettuce bed...

We will continue to add more moss and soil to the cages as the potatoes grow to give the plants plenty of room for lots of great spuds!

 peas, carrots, potatoes, beets and spinach

the herb garden with pvc pipe supports for a cover

Mike even modified the old pump house so that I would have a warm place to start seedlings...

I'll keep posting more photos as we add more plants and the garden grows.

Enjoy!

Deb

Rainbow's End...

The storm did come in yesterday afternoon...the wind howled and the rain poured down...and then it cleared and I saw this across the lake...

Can you see in the photo that the rainbow comes down IN FRONT of the trees and ends in my own little cove?!!  I knew this was Paradise....

“The true harvest of my life is intangible - a little star dust caught,
a portion of the rainbow I have clutched”

Henry David Thoreau

Enjoy!

Deb

A new jewelry photo...

A wrap around ring with garnet cabochon and Keum Boo accent...

Enjoy!

Deb

A new jewelry photo...

A wrap around ring with garnet cabochon and Keum Boo accent...

Enjoy!

Deb

Ammonite Earrings...

I thought I would post a photo of these...I made them last fall, but never got a good photo of them before...

I layered a small molded silver ammonite over a slice of a real ammonite fossil and a textured silver circle and made a pair of sterling silver earwires to hold it all together....

Here's a photo of the back of one of them so you can see how the earwires are shaped.

Enjoy!

Deb

Ammonite Earrings...

I thought I would post a photo of these...I made them last fall, but never got a good photo of them before...

I layered a small molded silver ammonite over a slice of a real ammonite fossil and a textured silver circle and made a pair of sterling silver earwires to hold it all together....

Here's a photo of the back of one of them so you can see how the earwires are shaped.

Enjoy!

Deb

This Moment...

It is a beautiful sunny morning here on Paradise Cove....hard to believe that a big storm is moving in, yet it the distance I can see the clouds on the horizon.  Yet, for now, I sit here in the sun and enjoy the peace and the beauty...it is enough....

"To finish the moment. 
To find the journey's end in every step of the road,
To live the greatest number of good hours,
 is wisdom."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Enjoy your day!

Deb

Product of Where??!!

One of my Facebook friends, Gordon Uyehara, posted some information about the American Food Industry that really upset me.  I used to drive from Federal Way to Seattle to shop at Whole Foods, because I thought I was getting better, healthier food and doing my part to "shop local".  So imagine my distress when I saw this:

Whole Foods "Organic" Food Made In China!!

I went to the Whole Foods web site to see if they had any information about this, but couldn't find any...what I DID notice is the VERY FEW of the products in our local ad mention the word "local" ( actually, only three...one of them was for beer and none of them were produce )...

But I did find something that made me chuckle on their website, a statement that said:

"If you don't know the story behind your food,don't eat it."

I agree with that!!  I'm going to be working more and more on being able to say "Product of Deb's Garden"...and I will be sharing my learning process with you here on my blog...

And remember...

"The best way to change corporate America is with your checkbook!"

Deb

Storm Warnings...

We're supposed to get some ugly weather tomorrow...and my little onion bed is only half finished.  I got it almost filled with soil mix yesterday, but my stubborn arthritic leg gave out and I couldn't finish...so today, in between showers, I'm going to finish it up and plant the little onions...I'll cover all the beds tonight and hopefully all will be well...I can't wait to see if my little experiment in extending the season is going to work....

The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God's heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.
Dorothy Frances Gurney, "Garden Thoughts"

Deb