I have baby plants! Yay! Does this mean that this year’s garden will be way more successful than last year’s? I’m hoping.

Last year, though, I had a problem with interlopers. A mamma rabbit decided that my garden would be the perfect nursery for her three babies. They stuck around for just over two weeks. I found them when I was weeding between the lettuce rows and couldn’t figure out why there was a small pile of grass clippings in between the rows but close to the lettuce. I’m thinking she may have preferred lettuce over kale, maybe?

When I found the grass I went to pick it up to put it in my weed bucket and it started squeaking. They were older than newborns and already had their eyes open and sassy dispositions. Mom must have had them there while I was up north the previous few days.  My trail cam was set up and it was rather entertaining seeing how often Mom came by and when she let them out at night to run around. She also popped up from time to time looking over the edge of the wood to check on them during the day.

We have another set of babies now under one of the arborvitae on the south side of the house. My trail cam has been watching and I’m finding that Mom is visiting more frequently than I’m seeing her and she keeps a tight schedule.

Today I was supposed to be working outside in the gardens planting the tomato and pepper plants along with the marigolds, portulaca and begonias. Four of the tomatoes are now planted in the big flower pot on the porch. The variety that I started from seed this year are the patio size plants. Last year I kept forgetting to pinch the plants back so they ended up almost as tall as me.

We were at the greenhouse yesterday when there was a noise coming from somewhere and it was a high pitch sound. I thought maybe there was some sort of alarm going off inside the greenhouse. It was. My cell phone was in my pocket screaming at me because of the tornado warning. Ah. We got through that unscathed as it was northwest of where we are.

I’m still waiting for the warm spring weather. Yesterday was near 80 but today is in the low 50s. Enough already Mother Nature.

It seems that I’m always popping in and apologizing for not being here for a while.  Didn’t I warn you?

Since my last visit April is over and we all thought that May would be so much more pleasant. How wrong were we on that one? Today, here it’s raining again and it’s going to be this way for another three days or more. Mother’s Day isn’t going to be a nice, dry and sunny day unless Mother Nature decides to turn off the faucet and turn the heat up a bit. We’d like that for just one day, at least.

I did manage to get my garden soil all turned over and added in some peat moss and compost. I’ve got a moss problem so it could be a lack of good drainage. We’re a clay community here so when it rains it often takes days for the water to absorb into the ground. Then, there are times where the earth just cracks wide open just a few days after the rain and flooding. It’s fun.

Yesterday I planted four rows of early spring seeds such as lettuce, spinach, pak choi, and kale. Within two hours of getting the seeds into the ground we had a 30 minute torrential downpour so I’m now wondering if my seeds are still where I put them. One other year I had a Garden of Confusion when something similar happened. There were seedlings here and there so I just let them do what they wanted to do where ever they chose to do it. I’ve got baby peppers and tomato plants to harden off yet and I’m afraid to take them outside even though they are in a mini greenhouse with a lid. It’s also heated so I can plug it in on the porch so they can stay safe at night during the temperature drops. We are going down into the 40s or lower. Today, right now, it’s only 48°.

I’m knitting. I’ve got 4 baby cardigans done and waiting for buttons, one in progress, a few bibs, some wash cloths and another sweater currently in progress. Along with the knitting, I’ve used some of my Old Navy Super Cash on baby clothes now that we know the grand babies will be boys. Oh, so much fun, but, I do have to remember to keep it under control. My girls, when they were babies, had enough clothes to wear something different every day – so did I. That’s the advantage of having a knitting and sewing person in the household.

Sewing doesn’t happen much these days but I’m hoping to get back into it as soon as I can get my sewing area in the basement to be comfortable. It’s either cold down there or it’s cold down there. LOL Not only that, it seems that my work space is the catch-all when there’s something dragged down there and it doesn’t have a designated destination. It didn’t help when we were sealing the concrete floor. That squished everything into my corner space.

Back to my knitting. I have some reading to do for my current online class as well.

Take care!

BLUE BALLOONS = BOY GRAND BABIES ARE ON THE WAY!!!!

Two of them. Did I mention before that my youngest daughter is having twins? Fraternal twins, that is. At least we’ll know who is who, right?

Yesterday was so much prettier than today so I’m using this photo instead. Right now there’s a heavy rain going on. They did say it was going to happen, so, it’s a Knitting Day!

Yay! I love Knitting Days. What day isn’t a knitting day anyway? I haven’t had one of those in a long time. Don’t take away my knitting or coffee. If you do it’s not a pleasant day for me or for whoever is nearby.

What am I knitting? I finished all the parts of my Gnome so now they need to be assembled. His beard is rather curly so it needs to be blocked to flatten it out. I might have used the wrong yarn so I might need to knit a new one using a thicker sock yarn. Then, time for a photo adventure, upload it and wait to see who wins the final raffle.

I won the Clue #1 raffle. The prize was two fake fur pompoms. The second I pulled the brown one out of the bag my dog came over and grabbed it from me. She must have thought it was a mouse or something.

Did I mention that I have a collection of old film cameras? The Lomography website sent an e-mail yesterday asking me (and all the other subscribers) if we’ve pulled out our analog cameras for some fun lately. No. I haven’t. So, I took my Minolta Hi-Matic G for a walk thinking that the roll of film that has been in it for a long time needed to be finished. I attempt to take a photo and it won’t click. Darn it all. The roll was already done. Back to the house we go since those old cameras weigh a whole lot and taking it on a half mile walk wasn’t what I wanted to do. For the next walk on the next nice day it’s going to be time for one of the Argus Bricks to go out. I have two of them and I think one has film in it. It’s never a good thing to actually open the cameras to find out if there is really film in them. Done that before. Although, it does give the exposed frames an interesting look.

If you want to know what Lomography is all about you can see my LomoHome here:

https://www.lomography.com/homes/reddeviltj

WAVE RIPPLES IS DONE!!!!!

One KAL/MKAL down and four more to go. The deadlines for the other two are coming up on the 31st and I think I can make it. Oh the stress of knitting. 😉 No stress. This is fun, exhilarating, challenging, and the list goes on.

No, I will never sign up for so many at one time and, as far as I’m concerned (we’ll see) I am not signing up for any more. There’s still the two year-long KALs that should keep  me busy enough. I’ve also got those babies to knit for.

Now, when it comes to knitting for those babies I’m hoping that my DD#2 doesn’t treat these baby sweaters the way she treated the shawl I knitted for her a couple years ago. When we visited to see their house I spotted it in a box of junk up in their attic that they were going to finish transforming into a bedroom.

Some people’s children……..

  We go through this mess several times each year where the creek that runs through our land overflows into the woods. We can tell that the creek has been here for a long, long, time and has etched a valley which adds to the beauty of the woods – when it’s not under water.

Over the years we’ve collected some oddities from upstream during these floods. Right now there is a soccer ball, volleyball ball, a Little Tykes small tugboat complete with the captain at the wheel, a child’s boot, several water bottles, beer cans, assorted pieces of wood and one year, a school of some really large ugly grass carp.

On our walk yesterday I saw new water bottles. If it ever dries out this spring I need to get in there and start cleaning it up. Along the banks of the creek we’ve also got some interesting old things from the farmhouse that used to be here. We  have a family who used to own the land and they now live to the north and own several hundred acres. One of the decedents who I call Uncle Fred told me that the original family farm house was on our land. The house was between the creek and the road. The old concrete steps are still here. Closer to the road and slightly to the south are several old rusty frames from old vehicles. Out in the back of our land, 1/2 mile from the road, we have an eclectic collection of glass bottles and old rusty metals since farmers used to just dump their trash on their own land. I would love to have a metal detector to see what else I can find.

We do have a nice pink bathroom sink back there. Need one?