Proud Of My Garden

 It rained Saturday night. Blessed Rain.
Took the lingering smoke from the forest fires out of the air.

 I planted all of my sunflower seeds over a section of the garden and they ended up somehow, only in two places.


This fuzzy sunflower and it's 'friend', L'escargot, are in fine form today.

Thankfully, Peter Rabbit and his twin did not eat these seedlings. Or, did they dine on some?
They really liked my squash and pumpkin seedlings.  Good thing rabbits are cute.

 I'm really liking this dahlia and it's red spurs, randomly placed. I am a lazy gardener at best, and I don't dig my dahlia tubers for the winter. The blessings of living in the mild Willamette Valley.

Sometimes I lose some, sometimes they come back.

Everbearing Strawberries

  Look! at my amazing amaryllis.

I threw these used bulbs outside in this very sunny exposed bed in the garden years ago and they are thriving.
Since they are thriving, I meant to toss the last ones from Christmas here as well. But in the winter, I don't know where these pink ones are.

 My Fireworks Dahlia. I think I bought this tuber in the store in town and I don't think it's got a name but I might dig this one up for winter. Maybe.      I hope it comes back next year.

 Nasturtiums, cucumber vines and Dill. Yes, a weird combination. But they seem to like each other.

 I put this fence in over 25 years ago. My garden area is about 50 feet x 50 feet. The fenced area is about 25 x 25 ft. To keep the rambunctious dogs out. Haha. Those dogs loved strawberries, raspberries, peas. But it did keep them from running through new plants.

It does not keep Peter Rabbit and his friends out.

The bare ground is where I am digging my potatoes. The plants have died down and they are through growing. That's the hangar back there.

Anyway, I grow my peas and cukes on this fencing. The perimeter is not  whole anymore after many years of rototiller adventures and kids and dogs. Not to mention the wildlife I choose not to see.

 The runway is over to the left in this photo. Strawberries in upper right side. Sunflowers in upper back. Cukes and nasturtiums in front center

Garden path. We have pavers in front of the hangar which is to the right in this photo. The strawberries were all along the right edge of this paved path and jumped ship a long time ago to a happier place. Now I grow sedums where the strawberries used to be (righthand side of path).

Also a small Japanese maple tree.

 Strawberry leaves all dewy with rain with sunflowers and dahlias providing a pretty background. The raspberries are behind that providing a bit of a windbreak.

I don't always keep up with my garden but I rearranged things in my life a bit and managed an awesome garden this year. Usually the weeds get the upper hand *fast*.

I'm hoping all these cool sunflowers reseed themselves.

A Week Off

I sewed every day.

We are hiding inside because of near 100' heat all week and smoke from the wild fires trapped in the Willamette valley.

I knew it would be hot when I started  my vacation time. Perfect for doing my liver cleanse and sewing. My biggest plan was to sew in the cooler mornings and list items for sale in my etsy shops in the hotter (damp & sticky) afternoons.

  We still don't have the (orange) Piper J-5 airplane flying. Hubby is still dorking around on this and that. But look, They both fit inside the hangar. Our other airplane is a Stearman biplane.

 I had a little time before my hair appointment to take photos of the dahlia fields.
1:30pm and my iphone still takes awesome photos.

Yes, I managed to get my hair cut (not since october!) and I got in on someone else's cancellation to the dentist as well.

I usually set up my dental appt about 9 months out and hope for the best. My work schedule changes so frequently, I finally make it on the fourth cancellation. My dentist's crew know where I work and they will try and fit me in until an appointment 'sticks'.

Somehow, I don't think you should try this with your hairdresser. I needed a haircut back in April and here it is - September. Six inches gone.

I tried out some online selling places and was successful with my old Riccar. So nice to see it go to a good home. And clean out my garage a little. This machine does an awesome straight stitch but I have two others that do the same. I might still sell my Singer Stylist as I have my grandma's old Singer 301.
Not right now. The stylist sits in a nice cabinet with I put in the bedroom for a place to set down stuff.

So - what did I sew? A new pair of work shorts with all the topstitching and pockets. A lot of lipsense bags and a custom order of a doTERRA essential oil bag. I also finished two UFO's and working on a third.

I also listed a crazy amount of stuff for etsy but there is still a mountain in my garage that needs to be listed as well.

How did my liver cleanse go? Well - I'm finishing it up now. Basically, it was an elimination diet of anything with allergens and five days of being a vegetarian. No chocolate (sugar) and no coffee.

I failed.
On the chocolate.

I made it to Saturday -- about 10 days in and caved.

I disliked being vegetarian. Mostly because I can't eat beans (legumes - big allergen) and I can only tolerate rice once or twice a month. A lot of my allergens, I can tolerate in small doses but the effects accumulate and I can get really non-functonal fast. I can eat some nuts but they don't really get digested with my small intestine not behaving well.

There's a surprising amount of protein in dark leafy greens - which I juice. Each glass of green juice probably contains at least 8 grams of protein and I drank green juice 2 -3 times a day.

I was also taking  a product based on pea protein and I was reacting to that as well.

However, all the extra B-vitamins? Tremendous mental acuity and focus.
I didn't peter out around 2 or 3pm. I was good at the beginning about eating more to keep (chocolate) cravings at bay but slacked off if I got the wee bit busy.

If I do this again, and I will, I will skip the product and go straight to a liver cleanse without pea protein.

I had high hopes this cleanse would clear up some skin issues (yet another symptom of not getting enough nutrients because of my small intestine). Some cleared but the rest are still there. Less stress (no daily smack-down) helped.

My eyes seem to be clearer. Rested.

  My niece recently moved back to the area from living in Singapore, so I went and visited on Saturday. So much fun to see my practice grand-kids! The girls still remembered me and had to show me e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g.

I stopped at Ikea on my way and this button rug continues to taunt me. If I had a place for a white rug. I get so tempted to just buy it and stash it but I don't need more clutter.

I also took care of some clutter piles around the house. Bundles dropped with good intentions.

I cleaned the inside of my car after living out of it the past year, or so.

And I got my laser printer back printing after a year. It stopped working when we had a power outage and it took a year in the time-out closet for me to get up the time to sit down and uninstall and reinstall, fingers crossed, and it worked. Big smile.

Dahlias And County Fairs

 The dahlias are living the dream.

Bumblebees this morning looked like they were sleeping off a pollen binge.

The garden is behaving itself producing just a few raspberries for breakfast and a few tomatoes for lunch. None of that buckets of produce causing friends to turn and walk the other way when they see you coming with more zucchini. None of that pressure to can (haha - pun intended). Even the weeds are puny (knock on wood).

Time to see which items won blue ribbons at my county fair.

 This is not my quilt (I Don't Quilt) but I love the playful animals getting into adjoining blocks.

And this teal and aqua one? Yum.

 Through the display window - my chicken hotpad making tracks on the chickie wallhanging.

My Mr. Hedgehog lipsense bag was a fair favorite. I bought that fabric from my friend in Kyoto.

 And my only second place red ribbon.  I bought this tote bag as a kit. Determined to follow instructions, I disliked the size of this bag (giant towel bag) and the lack of color interest (beige blah). The night before I had to enter my fair entries, I conceived a brilliant plan of ironing on this Big Book saying. Ahem.

Yes, in my hurry, I ironed it on upside down. I had to rip out the whole pocket area and lining and re-sew the pocket so it could be read.  Even though it did not get a blue ribbon, that red is still worth two bucks!

I made $26 dollars this year - enough to buy another couple of yards of fabric.

And finally, my daughter was able to connive her way into another Denali flightseeing trip (third time this year!) and managed to get herself into the right-hand cockpit seat for a bird's eye view of the mountains in summer. Her aunt (my sis) took her family up to visit Alaska.