Day 14 ~ Flowers

Here's is long view of my rose.

As many of you know, I volunteer as a gardener for the grounds of my church in downtown Colorado Springs. I get my fix of flowers by performing a service to my fellow parishioners and experience the joy of watching the blooms come in their appointed time. I have planted over a dozen roses, countless Spring blooming bulbs, pruned all the roses every Spring, dead-headed, watered, planted annuals and weeded. I don't have much of an opportunity to create a garden at my home as my HOA frowns up me digging up the water wasting, to no benefit sod. That, and there is no outside water source available to the owners/renters as the HOA really, really don't want ANYONE washing cars in the parking lots... That said, I have a garden in containers that are currently producing carrots, radishes, chives, oregano, rosemary, lettuce, tomatoes and hopefully potatoes. There are also a rose, an Easter Lily, daffodils, grape hyacinths, nasturtiums, yarrow, violets and a morning glory. Most of my flowers are Spring bloomers but for the yarrow, nasturtium and the morning glory. My lovely rose is, I believe, an Elizabeth Taylor and it is on it's FIFTH bloom of the season. The deer haven't dined on it as yet, thank you so very much. Here's a close~up of a rain be~dewed single rose.

29 May - Maybe

Maybe:

It's Sunday and I forgot to post yesterday.

I had fun with Rebecca and Mary Beth at Territory Days in Old Colorado City, instead.

I got my picture taken with a Buffalo Bill Cody re-enactor.

I used some of my gift certificate from Mary Lou at Green Valley Weavers.

I bought a Polish Pottery spoon from Ginger Pokrant at the celebration.

I went to church this morning and looked at the gardens for the first time in weeks. Wowser!

I cast on for a Zig-Zag Pullover sweater in two shades of LBY Fishermen's Wool (brown and natural) and one of Paton's Classic Wool in Leaf Green today as I am at a stand still on the Water's Edge sweater due to lack of blue spots, as yet, on the very last skein of my custom dyed yarn that I need for it.

The month is nearly over and I might almost be back in the habit of writing to my blog again.

The Aegis of Supper

My dear friend Helen and her lovely daughter, Molly joined me this morning for the Daughters of the British Empire luncheon and brought me some lovely veggies from their home garden today. Lettuces, cilantro, spinach, zucchinis and a yellow squash along with new red potatoes picked this just this morning.



So, along with herbs (rosemary, parsley & lemon thyme) and tomatoes from my wee patch, I made Shrimp Florentine and Oven-Roasted Brussels and Potatoes for the supper. There are NO left-overs...


I am going to save the lettuces and cilantro for a salad tomorrow.

Saved - Garden Lovelies

Chocolate Iris and Dianthus from the McWilliams Parish house garden. We, the Grace Gardeners are trying to save as many heritage plants as possible from the garden in preparation for the restoration work about to begin there. We were awarded a grant to repair the facade and the work commences shortly. Hopefully the heritage roses can be rescued as well.

#101 of 365 - Watch Tower or A Day Spent Rallying Around the Town.

The first thing we did this morning was to head south to pick up Rebecca and the BOM pattern for guild. Then far out to the east of town for the guild meeting. Met our Cheryl's lovely mother, Violet whilst there. Then after, a quick trip back to Rebecca's for some packages she needed to mail. Then we headed back to the west and downtown Colorado Springs for a sushi lunch at Yoo Mae and then a wander along Cascade heading north to look at the sculptures all along the streets as we went. We saw 34 thousand plus Helios, a snowman with rocks in it's head, giant metal koosh balls scattered across a lawn next to the giant Spanish dancers on the lawn by the Money Museum.

Also there were stone plinths, metal and glass figures, stone carvings, bronze sculptures and Patrick Dougherty's woven wood sculpture on the Colorado College campus.

During the wander, we saw bulbs about to spring into bloom, checked out an herb garden behind the McAllister House and found out that I qualify as a senior citizen at the Money Museum. Le sigh... I showed Rebecca the climbing roses we, the Grace Gardeners planted yesterday along the ugly chain link fence on the south side of the church. Then it was back down Tejon to Poor Richard's Book Emporium to meet up with Erin again. We also noodled through the goodies in the front part of the store. Rebecca and I felt up some kewl journals, no, really we did. We talked yarn with one of the clerks after she admired my Summer with Ishbel. I also saw the coolest pair of half chaps that would so work as part of a Steampunk outfit.

We walked east back to the parking garage which is over the bus depot. Which is when we got a closer look at the Watch Tower, which I am looking through in the above photo. There were black Suburbans and dark sunglasses abounding when we got there. The exit to the depot was blocked off by a bus and there were ARMED TSA agents littering the sidewalks. We still don't know what was up with that. Erin could only say, Mother, you would leave a baggie of bay leaves on the front seat of the car, hah, hah, hah...


In the end, Rebecca and I had a loverly day of art for art's sake...and by the way, Rebecca, I was right, it was a hawthorn.

Erin and I hit the Sunflower and saw a red fox just chillin' on a neighbor's lawn on the way there. Spooked the USPS guy right out...

#98 of 365 - Big Pizza

Tonight was Pizza Night.






I made a fresh tomato and Brussels sprout pie for me. I used fresh herbs from my "garden" which lives in pots in the bathroom as it gets the most sun. It's still too cold for them to go out. Nevermind the fact, that there was 5 inches of snow on the ground when I woke up this morning. It was yummy tho, nom!

#64 of 365 - I Sat in A Garden Today

I would really wish that I had the space to garden this way. This is a raised bed with salad and herbs and gnomes, even. This is the garden I liked the most of all the display ones, it was done by Hardings. We got mixed flower seeds from them as well. Then there was the white bison from BBI.

Rebecca found her home on the road and we also found the tub we will be using in our old age... The last picture is Erin blanching at the price of the cookware we watched being demoed. Yikes!

Grace and St .Stephen's Episcopal Church Garden

Today was gardening day again. Every Saturday morning and Tuesday at some time we all meet to work the gardens and get them back into shape.
It has been a joy and a challenge to watch the gardens come back to life after a few years of neglect. The fountain of course is working again, the peonies, clematis and roses are growing like gangbusters. The dandelion, clover and thistles are being overwhelm by the sheer force of will of our amazing crew. Here's some of the folk that meet together to work the wonder and some of the gorgeous peonies and such.
I must say the peonies smell like heaven.

We had cool, cloudy skies this morning, I don't think the temperature got much over 65 degrees all day. Here are some of the folks that can out to work. They were as young as fourteen and as old as eighty.

Even Sadie came out to keep company with us.

Spoon Story & the Peonies About to Take Off

Here a link to the Spoon Story . It describes my experience better than I can. I still do what I can, when I can in spite of all. Thanks for the linky, Diana. She's also written about peonies today.

I spent a lovely day today. Knit club with Sheila and Shirley and the rest of the ladies. We did not have a "real" meeting as all the officers were elsewhere.


Some of the Knit club members..















Here's the Hairpin Lace Afghan.

We primarily did show and tell. Shirley showed us how to do hairpin lace. I haven't seen hairpin done in years, but apparently it is making a comeback like all the forms of needlecraft.

Progress on Fawkes Socks.




Then I paid forward a million gajillion mercies and kindnesses by giving Sheila a ride to the hospital to get blood work done.

After that, I drop Sheila back to home and went onto my LYS, Knitter's Kove and walked into CHAOS. They are re-arranging the whole store! Most of the stock was in BIG plastic sacks. I wanted some Brown Sheep Bulky, not on the shelves yet. Yikes, wonder what bag it's in, should I come back later? Saw a label for Bulky Brown Sheep peeking out of a bag and dug in and believe it or no, found the yarn I was looking for. WOOT! Hit the register and was out of there as there was too much chaos...

Off to the church to water the garden. Sun behind the clouds so it was not too hot. Communed with the birds bathing in the bath, looked at the robin's nest in the tree by the door. WRESTLED with the mighty black and green hose... Someone needs to learn how to coil a hose away, the nozzle was on the bottom of the coils (5, maybe 6 hoses strung together), what's up with that? Since the peonies are about to go full force in bloom, I couldn't stay upset for long. It smelled like Heaven and I was happy to just BE.

Of course, watering and the St. Francis Fountain burbling tend to trigger a certain response, so I was off to the Parish Office to use the Ladies. Marti, the Parish Secretary pointed me the way. I had never been in McWilliam House where the offices are, before. It's a Victorian and the wood work in the dining room is amazing!. I will get pictures of it at a later date. Father John, who retired on Sunday was there as well as a number of other members of the Parish. What a joy to see the church and it's grounds coming alive again. I even got the gift of hearing our magnificent organ being played as someone was there practicing on it.


This is one of the clematis vines tucked at the back of the bed. I took the picture through the lovely wrought iron fence topped with fleur-de-lis.










I don't ever recall seeing irises with these light green and white leaves before but they are a interesting addition to the shades of green in the garden. I want to find out more about them.

Gardening and Ravelry in El Paso County

Or how I spent my Saturday.

Today being the first Saturday of the month was also the regularly scheduled meeting of the El Paso County Crafters from Ravelry.com. We try to all get together on this first Saturday to learn from each other, share what is going on in our lives, show off what we are working on and listen to each other's problems. i.e. Stitch and Bitch!

Here's a picture of Sheila and me (in the hat).


Sheila has just got me started on the Knit One Below stitch which has been driving me buggy along with the Shawl from Hell. Sheila was working on a lovely ripple stitch afghan.



Here is a picture of the Knit One Below. It creates columns as you stitch. It's a kinda kewl technique. I am knitting this swatch from Noro Blossom and Encore Worsted in a mauve colour. I believe that it will be a sketchbook cover when it is finished. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Sheila. It all now makes sense.









Here's a picture of Jean and her sister in law, Suzanne.

Suzanne was working on a latch hook rug and Jean was knitting a washcloth.








Here's Sheila and Wendie. Wendie was working on a few things. A hat, I know for certain.

We did miss our Rebecca, who's away in the Flatlands (Illinois) awaiting the arrival of her grandbaby, and Anita, who is finishing up her children's game season and Wendie's Mum. eta: I totally forgot our Mel, another waiting on a baby to come.












Photo of lupins in the garden.



In the morning, I worked in the Grace and Saint Stephen's Episcopal Parish church garden and communed with the plants, sunshine, observed the many faces of Pike's Peak as the hours rolled by and said hello to the church's neighborhood dogs who were watered in the St. Francis fountain. What a joy to see so much activity occurring on our corner here in downtown Colorado Springs. There was also a student piano recital in the Nave and a quarterly Altar Guild meeting in the Taft Hall as well.





Stacey in the garden looking over her patch.

Some of the neighborhood dogs enjoying the St. Francis Fountain. The fountain had been inoperable since before we got the building returned to us, but was repaired and put back in service this week. Thanks Be!

25 April - Today is World Wide Pinhole Camera Day

I was cruising the interwebs yesterday and ran across this link. http://www.pinholeday.org/org/. It was a "oh cool, I remember those" moment for me.

Here's my Creative Every Day thing, as I will make a fabulously decorated pinhole camera. I shall start with one of these.



My Da used to make me and my sister Diana, any number of these cameras when we were growing up. He had a dark room a lot of the time when I was a kid. Therefore, we used to play around with film and cameras a lot. He even turned an old box camera into a Polaroid. He was the one that also taught me how to safely observe a solar eclipse with a pinhole camera. It was a lesson well learned. Funny story, this AA taught the Lockheed engineers she worked with that trick of observing an eclipse as none of them knew it. I also showed them the trick of a piece of paper with a pinhole in it held above another piece of paper, they didn't know that one either. I was shocked, shocked, I tell you...

I have printed out the instructions for building one of these cameras and will relive my childhood for a little while whilst building it. I will let you all know how it goes and try to remember to take pictures of the building process along the way.

On another note: 24 April



I really have been missing having a space to garden in. Not having a space is largely the reason that I have volunteered for the Grace and St. Stephen's Episcopal Church's new garden crew. Although, I don't really have the time with the festival season fast bearing down upon me. I just want to get my hands back into the soil for awhile, if just for the pleasure of seeing the efforts on a Sunday morning.

Here's a quote I found that expresses my current state of mind about it. I do have house plants and plan a few potted garden things like growing my own garlic.

“Just because you've only got houseplants doesn't mean you don't have
the gardening spirit - I look upon myself as an indoor gardener.”

Sara Moss-Wolfe



Arbor Day, here's the linky to the Arbor Day site: http://www.arborday.org/

Arbor Day was yesterday. It kinda slipped by me and I didn't do anything other than look at my aspen with it's cozy on (see post of 22 April). Today we are suppose to be planting a tree in the church garden. I shall count that towards making up for the lack of planting a tree on the actual day of Arbor. Of course, it is all contingent upon the weather, yet again. Last weekend, we were suppose to start on the gardens and we had two days of snow. So work was postponed until today. Of course, we are suppose to have thunder storms all the day long. I shall take my wellies and my sun hat..