Rain rain rain rain rain.....

Tis raining here. Tis a good thing I have wellies to walk outback or I'd get lost in the mud.  The dogs are quite a sight when they come bounding in from out there. We holler for towels before we let them in ...
              Punkers gets cold at night since he doesn't sleep in his kennel anymore  (he seems to be claustrophobic and he has some strange sleep habits that don't work well in the confines of a kennel...) and we find him shivering some mornings. So Violet (my older sister) decided it was time to make a sort of bed jacket/cape type thing for him out of fleece. It was not thrilled during the various fittings and he was even more not thrilled when it was finished and she suited him up in it. But hey, he'd be warm right? Well, it took him less than an hour to have the thing off last night , thankfully he didn't eat it. The first thing his brother did when he saw it was to take a nice big mouthful and try to yank it off for him. Alas... the Velcro held it fast...
I would give a picture here but it isn't working today for some reason . Stinkin blogger.....
               
            In other news, the whole yard and garden is now re piped ... we shall see if all these rains and the new water have any effect on the arsenic levels in the soil. I'm being overly optimistic and went ahead and ordered some seeds for next years garden in wild hopes of being able to actually , you know , stick them in the ground and be able to eat what grows ... instead of having to feed it to the ducks. Who , according to my doctor , have no problem with heavy metals and other toxins that would affect all of us... Anyway, at least the lettuce gets to go to SOMEone..... 

100 and counting

This marks the 100th post on this blog. And sadly , it is going to be pretty boring. I know it has been quiet around here for  a long time . That should come as no surprise now to my loyal reader(s) (haha... yeah.. you know who you are...) . I (Annabelle) have been sick for the past two weeks and I'm on strict orders from my doctor to "rest" ... which I feel like I've been doing for an eternity already. I don't like being run off my feet to the point of exhaustion anymore than the next person but also I don't like enforced resting for what seems to be eternal periods of time. To get the most enjoyment out of rest .... you have to have done something first. Hopefully something meaningful and productive. Anyway.... life doesn't happen the way you hope or plan ... not in the "real quotidian world " anyway.
                  Elly May has been kind enough to  take care of the ducks for me when I couldn't drag myself out of bed in a timely fashion. They didn't take to a stranger coming in at first. They are big on routine.... I understand that. I like my routines too and to have them majorly disrupted is always rather unsettling.... but they did enjoy eating whether I was there or not.
                          In garden news, cover crop is up and growing in the top bed .. as well as various salad greens. Only .. those aren't up yet, they were just planted.  We had soil testing done and the results were rather discouraging. We have high levels of arsenic of all things and we are now unable to grow root crops as they pick up too much of the toxic metal.....You try to do something good and healthy in the city and yet you are living in a toxic soup.... I'm assuming it comes from the power poles right behind our house that are treated heavily with arsenic and they come and spray them off each year to clean the transformers and the spray falls all over the garden. Nice huh?   The toxins were even showing up in the onions and squash that grew back there. Humph.
                
                    I was going through my picture stash and realized I didn't post any pictures from the photo spree I had last year with my cousin's camera. So here are a few shots ...

Happy Fall everyone!!

Woe to Me

Am I in trouble?

Dog Days

To rest your eyes... or stomach (after the last post) here is a dog post.
The boys were starting to smell doggish so Elly May gave them a bath... Doesn't he look thrilled?

After watching his brother and being locked on the other side of the fence (and thinking he was missing out .... though he loathes water ...) James here was kind of excited....

But he quickly changed his tune..

My blankie...

The slow desent.

As gravity pulls to the floor....

Is the couch melting?

Tis a Dog's Life...

Why do they do things like this too me???

Awww.. we look like a little pilgrim .. going somewhere. Actually... his only desire (besides getting that rotten thing off his head) is to head over to lick the dishes in the dishwasher.

Phew... life is so hard up here on the couch..

What a dainty man..

Sorry... just handsome. And he's all mine. ;-) Just look at those eyes!

Just Because

Not sure what is up with this but he looks kinda grumpy...

That ear back totally helps..

You don't look grumpy at all ..... but would you get out from under my skirt?? You're a little too old and big for that now...

Random Things...

Field peas make lovely greens for flower arrangements. So if you have some on hand....

This time it is Santa Cruz Lager. A very dark beer.

All the goodness dripping down.

It is almost like molasses.

Chillin the wort. This time I sped up the process by pouring several cups of salt over the ice. It chilled down in no time!

Elly May working wonders in the kitchen. This is a maple/rosemary chicken. You had to be there. Mmmmm.

I think Elly May has had snake on the brain lately. Mom was not pleased.

This one was more to Mom's liking.

It was a dinner party for Passover. We don't eat this much sugar usually... at least I don't think so.

More chocolate!

Stepping outside. The roses are all in full bloom. This is a David Austin rose by the name of Legendary Gold . It is breathtaking and one of my favorites .

Almost there!

He was cold so he wasn't moving around much. When he finally got heated through and through... he took off .

My back would hurt doing this .

Oh look , he is actually smiling for once in his sad , depressed , bored "why do you people do this to me" life .

Just because.

Just thought I'd share our skill and diligence as housekeepers. Actually, it is the latest green technology in moth catching. You should try it sometime.

Catchin' Up

It has seemed rather quiet around here but behind the scenes things have been happening. I just didn't have the energy to post anything about it. But , without further ado... here is a picture montage...
A baby quilt I'm working on for a friend's baby . She is having a baby shower in 2 weeks and I still have to get the binding on. This is just the top piece before my sister Violet quilted it all on her machine.

Field peas blooming.

Lettuce greens in one of the new beds .

Kale and more lettuce... the kale seems a little more eager to come up than the lettuce... but that side doesn't get as much sun so maybe that is why... or the seed was old .

Mustard greens.

After I made all those soil blocks I planted tomatoes and peppers. They sprouted in only 4 days!! I was amazed. Maybe it was where the moon was or maybe they really liked the heating mats or the soil mix they were in... who knows. But I don't think I've ever had things sprout that quickly before.

Onion sets... I need to plant more.

A couple weeks later and look how big they are!

They get watered every so often with a diluted tea from the fermenting nettle tea. It smells really really bad but they seem to like it. The boys seem to love it.. they still try to drink it whenever they can .

Someone has been pinching my field peas!!

He grazes... I guess I don't need a sheep.

Here is my noxious brew.. these are the killer wild nettles we got up in the foothills (Urtica dioica).

These are the common "domestic" or lesser nettle (Urtica urens. ) . They stink just as bad though.

When you stir it they foam!

Jean.. from Jean's garden. I don't know why but when we got this statue years and years ago and put her here, she just reminded me so strongly of the character of the same name from Keeper of the Bees . A Gene Stratton Porter novel. So that is what we called her. The Little Scout keeps guard over things while she is reading.

The Banks rose is blooming already.

The roses are leafing out.

The peach is blooming. Looks like it survived the rain we got a few days ago.

They smell so sweet .

Comfrey is pushing up.

Dew is on the peas.

And the ladies are back into the full swing of laying. Well, almost full swing.

My quilt top got quilted and I just thought this bubbling pot of cauliflower and tomato stuff was interesting. That's it for now.