Down but not out!

Well, right after i made myself a promise to blog more, work more consistently and produce more things for my Etsy Shop and The Paper Sparrow, and to promote my little business more, my computer went down....(It is amazing how much i count on that little machine for just about everything every day...Maybe it's just tired?) We're not sure what is happening with it, but my son in law Ben, who is a computer Wizard Extraordinaire is on the job trying to figure out what the heck is going on...He also took pity on us and let us borrow his lap top so that we could keep up with correspondence, but without my address book, and the ability to download and prep photos, i cannot post anything much of interest to my blog or my Etsy shop... It has been frustrating to say the least....Hopefully it will be good as new and back to work here soon and i will have a lot to catch up on with you all. My cameras are full of new shots of the knitting and crocheting i've been doing, and we have garden updates and the usual family and dog stories....Oh and we have begun the Summer tomato count too! Lola picked 5 tomatoes from her cherry tomato plant i bought for her at the Troy Farmer's Market. So please keep checking in with me and i hope to be back real soon. In the meantime i am doing a LOT of blog reading from my daily reads list. It sounds like everybody is having an interesting Summer so far!

Bread and Jam for Mellon

I'm goin' out tonight folks and i am very excited about it! We're going down to a local cafe called Bread and Jam, to see one of my very favorite local performers, Sean Rowe. If you haven't heard of him yet, check out the little videos below. ("Wet" is one of my very favorite songs) If you're local, get yourself down to Bread and Jam Cafe tonight at 8ish. Sean's voice is very masculine and deep, a bit gravely, and absolutely filled with so much feeling and emotion. And his songs are amazing...Not to mention, Bread and Jam Cafe is also amazing! Good food and a comfortable environment. It feels like you are sitting in a good friend's kitchen eating good food, sipping good drinks, loving life....Enjoy....

Lavender! My First Harvest

After we got hit with the late blight in my tomato containers last Summer, i had heard on NPR that it might not be a wise thing to replant tomatoes using that same container/soil again. At the time, last year, they just weren't sure how or if this thing might winter over or whatever.... Not wanting to repeat that experience again, i decided to plant hardy Munstead lavender

Last year, planting it so late in the season, it was just a pretty but small set of plants in the container. Now in it's second year it is really coming along!

So pretty...and the bees seem to love it!

I love it too, as it brings back memories of my Grandmother Mary...
I remember hugging her and breathing in this scent...lavender....The color reminds me of her too. (i can hear my friend Kate T laughing as just about everything reminds me of my Grandmother!)

Now i have heard that the local garden experts don't worry too much about the late blight coming back thru the soil. But still i am happy with the decision i made to use this big tub as a lavender garden.

I'm hoping to make some sachets from my own flowers...

Everybody into the pool!

It has been brutally hot here in the Capital District! And when i have to force the dogs to go out and it isn't even raining, you KNOW it's not nice out there! But i've found a solution.... I get out there first thing, and fill up the new doggie pool with nice cool water, and they absolutely run out and jump right in!

Well...to be honest, it took a few days for them to be ok with the new pool. And still Gipetto and Zinnia have to be lifted in to cool off. Pollyanna isn't too good at jumping in either as she has those little short puggy/chi legs, and appreciates a lift in... But the Jack Russell Gang just jump right in!

Here's little Honey checking out my feet

And here comes Rubie Dubie!

Geeps likes to watch the younguns splash around

Rubie with a face full of pool water

and here's little Polly waiting for her lift into the cool water

The only down side to this is, those two little Jack Russells jump out of the water, race around the yard, and then wrestle and tumble in the only part of the yard that has no grass... Water plus dirt = mud.... oh well...

Here are Little Honey and Polly playing in the little bit of muddy water that is left in the pool.

When the day is coming to a close i use the leftover water to water the container garden, and set the pool on it's edge to dry for the next day! It's just an easy way to keep the doggies happy here on the Hot Dog Days of Summer!

Kids are Amazing

The Container Garden

A few friends have written and asked, "HEY! How does your garden grow? Where are all the garden photos this year? Honestly i am finding myself way behind schedule this year in just about every way. But i am catching up with myself day by day! There IS a container garden in the works, and here are a few photos i took just the other day.

As you step outside my back door into the dog's yard, and look to the right, you'll see my tubs with tomato plants and basil. (and Zinnia standing guard as always!)

We have some wee tomatoes forming on the plants here and there, but it will be a little while before we are picking and eating them. I hope this year we don't have to deal with the late blight we got hit with last year...

I am finding tho that i am dealing with another kind of blight...It's a little Jack Russell tomato plant eating pup named Rubin! So all the tomato plants are caged and various booby traps are set up to keep him from jumping into the tubs to dig them up!

tomato in the making....

This is not a very good picture but a while back in the early Spring i was at the market, and saw this wisteria in tree form! I couldn't resist it at the price they were asking. It was spindly(still is) but healthy and i planted it in the corner of the dog yard where it gets full sun. I am hoping i can keep it trimmed so that it remains in tree form and on the smaller size, to give the dogs some shade and add beauty to the yard.

When i first brought it home it was in rough shape, but i trimmed it up and there is a lot of new growth forming already!

From here if you turn around and face where you came from, you'll see the tiger lily bed, which the dogs have fun running thru and trampling...Maybe next year it will be less exciting to trash by the JR pups!

If you follow old Gipetto here (who just turned 17 on June 12th) you'll see more tubs and buckets of tomato plants and basil too...

Little Honey and the bins...

And here is my big bin full of lavender i planted last year after i lost the tomatoes to the blight. Only 3 plants made it thru the Winter but they returned to give me some lovely lavender flowers. I hope to dry the cuttings and make some sachets. The tomato cage laying in the bin is to discourage Rubie from jumping in and playing like he has his very own sandbox to dig in! Keep your fingers crossed for me! I'll be updating these photos soon!