Garden of your heart

The Garden at the Beginning of July

Our main vegetable bed.  There are strawberries here permanently, and we've planted beans, squashes and courgettes there as well.

Two tiny beans

A bean that's big enough to eat!

I suspect we may be able to start eating them next week, which is very exciting!

Vegetables in Pots

I've also got a few things growing in pots, owing to lack of space in the bed more than anything else.  I've got four large-ish pots of leaf beet (chard - perpetual spinach) growing, and they seem to be doing ok.  They actually seem to grow better if I cut some of the leaves of and eat them.

I've also got peppers and chillis growing in pots.  The pepper is actually in our bedroom, on the windowsill, chiefly because I need to keep the pepper and chilli separated so I can save the seeds.  It's got a flower or two on it now, which is exciting.  The chills (2 plants, in the mini greenhouse) also have flowers:

The tomatoes are starting to produce fruit, too.  We've got three plants in a "hanging basket" bolted to the fence a few feet up, and they're growing very well.  Lots of trusses of flowers, though only three tomatoes have appeared yet.  It's a Siberian variety, a yellow cherry tomato, which I'm hoping will make ripening more likely.  So many of our friends grew tomatoes last year that simply never ripened.

The "basket" with three tomato plants in it.

Tomato fruit growing and (hopefully) ripening

The Herb Garden

At the other end of the garden, on our patio, most of my herbs sit in pots.  We have chives, marjoram, lemon thyme, golden thyme and ordinary thyme in a herb pot, parsley in a pot and a third pot containing mint. 

Mint, growing like mad and thinking about taking over

Parsley

This is one of my (ordinary) thyme plants.  I'm really impressed by this, as I grew it from a cutting taken from my mother's garden in May.  There are three of them, and they seem to be doing really well.

We also have a basil plant.  This is amazing - it was meant to go outside (according to the label on the plant when it was bought), but it promptly withered and appeared to have died.  There were maybe two leaves left, both brown, and we thought it had had it.  We're not sure why - lack of water / too much water / not enough sunlight / too cold are all possibilities.  Anyway, we shoved it in the greenhouse, and a few weeks later it looks like this:

7-2-09 Up-date

Kristi was board earlier today and decided to play wii.  She played monopoly with Hope!  Hope is our soon to be 10 year old golden medical alert service dog.  We train the dog to all kinds of stuff some funny and silly but this is too much!

Titus is doing great in his service dog training.  We took him out for the first time to go shopping and he was wonderful.  If we stopped and looked or spoke to someone he would lay down with out being told to.  I thought it was odd, so I kept testing him.  I would walk and stop not look at him he would just lay down .  That is amazing for a six month old puppy to do on his first outing in stores.  I wonder if Kristi is going to teach Titus to play monopoly??

We start training them as soon as they are born.  Also having good parents helps too.  It took me two years to find his parents, to find the lines I was looking for.  Now we need one more female golden.  We might get one from Alex's breeder.

Blessings, Mj

Day 5 - the real work begins

I cannot believe how much we have gotten done in the past 2 days. The tile is all grouted and sealed and we are ready to begin the final work needed to put the bathroom together. If it wasn't for the sink pipes coming out of the ground instead of the wall, we'd be nearly done tomorrow. But my husband has to figure a way to reroute the pipes.

We have painted the dining room and sitting area, foyer and kitchen as well as installing beadboard in the rooms with chair rail and painting it and the trim today. The only area I still need to paint by Sunday night is the hallway to the bedrooms. We will also paint the living room and the master bedroom, but that will come another time. We also need to install more beadboard and chair rail to the foyer area and a couple of small walls, but that is also another weekend project.

All that is left to do in the dining room and sitting area is to hang some decor on the walls. Once that is done, I'll take pictures and share the before and after shots. I love, love, LOVE the yellow color we choose and the beadboard just looks fabulous! Even my husband says it all looks great and he hates change!

Well, it's late and I'm pooped - pictures coming in the next post!

Kristi and Mya's new adventure in pictures

Okay, Janet is in trouble she let Kristi and Mya run free on the mountain.  Worse yet with a camera .  Here are some pictures of the adventure.

1. Is Kristi finding out there are more than one of her:

2. Mya discover pine cones, do pine nuts come from pine cones??:

3. Is Kristi playing cars (she is the car)

4. Maybe I will be a better car sitting down??

5. Better yet I will play speed bump!! Did I send Kristi with her insuance card???

6. Mya discovers a cow and gives it a kiss !!

7. Milk comes from here ???? I know the poor thing , will she ever get over the shock???

8. Then they made friends with the locals:

JANET!!!!, we do not let the girls play speed bump in the middle of the Road!!! /.    We need to let the girls out of the house once in a while.  Poor Mya was so lost as to where milk comes from!! And did not know what a pine cone was!!!   Poor Kristi she thought there was more than one of her!!  Look at the locals nails on that local, see how long they are?? They could hurt the girls!!

Sorry but I had to write and show the pictures , they are so cute.  I will show more latter.

Blessings Mj

Leaving tomorrow for vacation

We are leaving tomorrow to go to Ohio with a stop in horse country.  My in-laws live in Northern Ohio so we go to see them only twice a year (Thanksgiving week and 4th of July week).  We leave tomorrow morning and will stop in Lexington where my sister and her family are meeting us.  The kids love to stay in a hotel so they are anticipating that!  Then Saturday morning we will head up to Buckeye state.  I hope to have pictures and details of our travels after we return on the 11th.  Y'all take care! 

Happy Independence Day!!!!

***If you are on Facebook, feel free to join me on my travels because I have it loaded onto my phone.  If you're not my friend on there let me know and I'll add you.  You can find me under Farrah Cook Ginter.

Nearly there....

Today I finished clearing the last bed, yeah! Of course this doesn't mean there are no more weeds on my allotment, but it does mean I am on the winning side.
I sowed green and runner beans, a lot more than last year, hoping to meet my canning goals.

The weather has been hot this week and I don't really like hot weather, but the forecasts say it will cool down after tomorrow. We'll get some rain too and that's badly needed, because I have to water the garden almost everyday.

I have some pictures for you to enjoy, of my allotment and some of my home garden.
This is the last bed I had to clear, but over half of my garden looked like this.

My onions, chard and lettuce:

My pumpkins, corn, cucumbers (far right) and my little greenhouse with pepper plants:

My kohlrabis and cauliflower in the front:

As you can see there is still some grass on the paths and on the edges of the beds, but I'll take care of that in the coming days.

A few pictures of my girls, first Clarabella and Betsy taking a dust bath:

and then in contrast, Henrietta the mud queen :

My elder tree in the back garden:

and the blackberry bush in bloom:

Foxglove, one of my favorite flowers:

Herbs drying in the kitchen:

Well I hope you enjoyed the little tour, see you soon.

blessings, Ellen

Big Families or Not?

Godly, Uplifting Reading Material

"A frequently overlooked or oft times neglected necessity in the proper training of our children is monitoring what our children read and providing in the home good Christian literature which will guide them to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, encourage them to serve Him and obey His Word, and will teach them honesty, kindness, purity, self-control, faithfulness, etc.  It is also important to inculcate in our children the life-long practice of reading good Christian literature and the knowledge needed to discern that which is not Christian and biblical."

~~~~~

"However strong and exalted your character, never read a bad book. By the time you get through the first chapter you will see the drift. If you find the marks of the hoofs of the devil in the pictures, or in the style, or in the plot, away with it. You may tear your coat, or break a vase, and repair them again, but the point where the rip or fracture took place will always be evident. It takes less than an hour to do your heart a damage which no time can entirely repair. Look carefully over your child's library; see what book it is that he reads after he has gone to bed, with the gas turned upon the pillow. Do not always take it for granted that a book is good because it is a Sunday school book. As far as possible, know who wrote it, who illustrated it, who published it, who sold it."

T. DeWitt Talmage (1832-1902) 

Now, I have to admit that several of the books listed are ones that have been on my Want to Get list for awhile, I just haven't done it.  Shame on me.  Once we have knowledge we are also responsible for what we do with it and so I am using this new knowledge/instruction/exhortation and will place an order today!

If you have children at home, I hope you will take a few minutes to read Christian Books for Christian Homes and give your young ones the very best not only in reading material but also the best example and testimony for their Christian walk.  I'm also compelled to ask - What do you spend your free time reading?  Serial books?  Magazines?  Do your children see you reading your Bible?  Do they know from watching you that reading the Bible is the most important book they can read?

"Give the Bible the honour due to it every day you live. Whatever you read, read that first. And beware of bad books: there are plenty in this day. Take heed what you read. I suspect there is more harm done to souls in this way than most people have an idea is possible. Value all books in proportion as they are agreeable to Scripture. Those that are nearest to it are the best, and those that are farthest from it, and most contrary to it, the worst."

J.C. Ryle (1816-1900)    

Menu Plan 1st-7th July

Ground Cherry Fruit

Good morning everyone,

I am slowly recovering.  I am still not sure what I have.  I am using coloidal Silver now and it seems to be helping.  I am up and around but on "limited duty" so to speak.  I went to two sewing classes this week.  I have learned so much!  So what if I had to rip out my side seams several times.  I had to get the tension set on my new machine and I had to sew straight!!  I have never had a problem sewing straight lines before..........hmmmmmm.  I learned plenty of things.  I am sure the things I learned are so easy for people who already sew.  However, they are very exciting to me.  I am learning to cut out a pattern, read a pattern and cut out a garment,  I am learning how to make a skirt!  This one is an A line skirt that includes a waist band, zipper and interfacing.  I bought enough material to make a matching shirt. Yesterday, I even learned how to change the foot on my new machine.  Everything is so much easier when you have someone to show you and let you just "do it".

Today, I must do housework, laundry and make bread. After two days if sewing classes and looking for a new washing machine...........I have things to do. Hubby is off work tomorrow for the holiday .  Our family plans to spend the 4th at the lake watching the fireworks display as we always do.

Here are the promised pictures of the ground cherries.  They are quite tasty!  They have a mild tropical flavor. 

May the Lord bless and keep you each and every one!