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.

Sunflowers Are A Sign

The garden is entering it's glory. I'll have enough tomatoes by this weekend to start canning them. I'm pretty simple - stewed tomatoes are simple and easy and QUICK. I use pint jars so if someone needs two cups of tomatoes for a recipe, we're good.

I tried really hard with the garden this year. A big plus is that my family crisis's got moved to the back burner. The forced overtime at work is still difficult, so free time is at a premium. 

I decided to try not blogging to free up some time. Well that was a fail. Pretty soon the photos pile up and I start hiding from dealing with them. Then my iphone told me I'd reached a cloud limit. Well, actually, it sounded like apple was threatening me. Solution was to deal with photos.

By blogging a little bit instead of a lot.

I don't keep most of these photos. I do have files set up on my desktop for Flowers, Family and what I've made. This makes it easier to transfer to the external hard drive. Still hiding, but a little more organized. The rest of the photos are deleted.

Wendy's Wish Salvia

The grapes are turning colors

I have this week off work. I'm trying a liver cleanse (2 -3 weeks) in an effort to get some relief from the SIBO bloating and inflammation. I was ready for some quiet to concentrate on this particular diet. I'm only on day five, so it's too soon to have an idea if it's helpful.

I already eat a very restrictive diet because of the Leaky Gut/auto-immune responses. This time, I am giving up chocolate (and sugar)for three weeks  and meat for the next five days. Vegetarian is not something I've tried as I'm allergic to some veggies and getting enough protein to get through the long work day is difficult.

But I don't have to work so I timed this part to coincide with days off.
I use chocolate for stress and for extra calories to get through my work days. I had wanted to try something like this for a while but... yeah.

In sewing news, I made another pair of work shorts. My red ribbon (fair!) blue shorts from last year are getting a tad faded and worn. All that blue thread on blue fabric makes my eyes twitch with all the top-stitching involved.

I will say, this new pair probably won't win a ribbon for even top-stitching. And I mixed up my pockets (six!). I put the side pocket on the back side. NO worries - not ripping that off - because the pocket flap on the side seam pocket mostly fit.

 After sewing miles of topstitching, I was ready for some fun sewing. These are my favorite M&M's, Peanut Butter. But have you tried the new coffee flavored ones? A customer brought in some he found at Walgreen's and they were pretty tasty. I had just started this diet so I ate two and passed the packet off to my co-worker with strict instructions not to show them to me.

Anyway - you just cut apart the bag and sew it  back together with some lining fabric and a zipper. Cute little pouches already destined to two nephews and one lucky friend.

 I pondered for a while on how much to charge for these in my etsy store but I'm not sure I would ever sell one. I sell my other zippy's for $18 - 22 dollars. Would you pay $20 for this small snack-size pouch? It will hold coins, other small stuff, two regular small packets of m&m's.

When I don't think I can get enough for my time or trouble, I gift my makes. Crazy attitude.

But do you know how long it took me to get to charging $18? Here in Canby, I'd be lucky to sell a small zippy bag for two bucks.

 I used the backs too with their UPC codes.

Inside is the bottom of the bag stitched on as a 'label'.

Sunflowers just mean summer is coming to a close and autumn beginning. You can already see the leaves turning.
It's hot here this week but the nights cool down fast - another sign.

I've got a long list of things to do this week, but I'm concentrating on sewing in the morning and listing on etsy in the hotter afternoons.
I still need to finish digging my potatoes and another basil snip and dry.
I am also trying to re-organize my stuff. Mostly with the thought of not looking at it where it got laid down with good intentions.

For this liver cleanse, I am also concentrating on eating more to keep certain cravings at bay. I've had many conversations with my docs about eating more to actually lose weight. I am relying entirely too much on chocolate so I am hopeful I can get that energy craving to a back burner. I don't eat sugar as a rule except in chocolate.

Happy End of Summer thoughts to you.