…is EIGHTEEN! Last Friday, he turned 18. Oh my goodness. He graduates from HS this coming Friday. ::::gulp::::
Climate change means WEIRD weather
ALERT!ALERT!ALERT!ALERT!ALERT!ALERT!ALERT!ALERT!ALERT!ALERT!ALERT!
Weather Nerdiness & RANT ahead!
ALERT!ALERT!ALERT!ALERT!ALERT!ALERT!ALERT!ALERT!ALERT!ALERT!ALERT!
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When the last tree is cut, the last fish is caught, and the last river is polluted; when to breathe the air is sickening, you will realize, too late, that wealth is not in bank accounts and that you can’t eat money.
-Alanis Obomsawin (Abenaki tribe)
So last winter was quite warm, and this spring has been cold and wet and WEIRD. Last weekend, Friday thru Sunday, we got 6 & a half inches of RAIN. That’s a LOT of rain!
OH MY WORD! I won AGAIN?!?!
Ok, so now I know that life has gone completely SCREWY but in this particular case – in a benign way…..
Think back to yesterday – remember how I won a book & 4 patterns?
Well, yester evening, I got an email telling me I had won the same book on Nancy Zieman’s blog!
Friends & neighbors, this might happen to others but it just does NOT happen to me!
I mean….come on….. I was born on Friday the 13th after all…Lady Luck & I have a rather distant relationship. Wow.
So I guess the Universe is telling me to get SEWING. And I will….but I promise it won’t take over dis here blog.
After marveling at this truly unexpected and wonderfully weird happening for a bit,
I wrote back to the lovely Lois, who manages this kind of thing for Nancy’s blog (I love it that Nancy Zieman – the most unlikely tv star ever- has ‘people’), explaining that I am indeed grateful for being chosen and thank you, yet I humbly request that someone else be chosen to receive it. Lois wrote back and said that they would do exactly that.
It’s the giveaway. Turkey is the symbol for self-sacrifice – the give away. I saw more turkey buzzards (at least I think they were; they could also have been Black Vultures) on my way to and from a gig in Murfreesboro on Sunday than I have ever seen – they were everywhere! Several of which flew RIGHT in front of the windshield so I couldn’t possibly miss them. Go here to read a little bit about what the buzzard/vulture can mean. So, in a couple of days (once I find the books I have to giveaway), I will be doing another giveaway here at Knitting & Whingeing.
I’m still shocked.
I won?!? Me?????
So last week while I had “the plague lite” – the nearly-pneumonia upper respiratory thing so many have had this winter and early spring, I was enjoying reading Nancy Zieman’s blog tour promoting her new book. I got to read some new blogs that I like very much and I put a comment with my name on 2 or 3 of the blogs hoping to win a book or pattern or something – but I don’t often win things. So I was shocked to my toenails when I got an email saying I had won!
Read all about it here: http://mariemadelinestudio.typepad.com This is a new blog for me; I’d already decided to start reading it BEFORE they chose me as the winner. Check them out.
I understand that I win Nancy’s new book:
and her 4 new patterns:
Now NONE of these patterns actually come in my size so I will be upsizing them but I have to make changes to EVERY pattern that I have so no big deal. 
I was planning to get the book & all 4 patterns anyway, so I’m delighted that I will get them for no $ – Studmuffin will be happy when I tell him. Trust me – he will!
I promise that I will use them -yup, actually SEW them & not just buy lovely fabric- and write about them. I can hardly wait!!
Thank you so much Nancy Zieman & Marie Madelaine Studio!!
What a Diff’rence (10) Day(s) Made….
Slightly different angle, but you get the idea. I’ve NEVER had a tomato transplant recover from transplant shock & grow so quickly. AND, other than the initial watering in on planting day, I have not watered at all. More pictures to come soon; we now have a very sexy bean trellis…..
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Keyhole garden pictures
It’s a lovely day so this will be mostly pictures.
my homemade pea tower standing proudly
finished keyhole garden – The reed fencing surrounding the garden was suggested by Studmuffin so that the neighbors would not think I was building a garbage dump. The fencing cost about $25 and was by FAR the most expensive part of the process.
the Force of Nature’s Strawberry plant. The sides are supported by old electrical conduit (here on the property when we bought the house) wire fencing tomato cages (extra stuff from when we made them 10+ years ago) and scavenged cardboard. There are a few concrete blocks that I don’t know where they came from….maybe Studmuffin bought ‘em? Maybe they were here when we moved in? I don’t know….. Oh yeah and zip ties. I did buy those – like $4 for 150.
The “basket” – approx. 1′ diameter composting/watering tube – all of our compostable kitchen scraps now go in here
A view from above thanks to the Duke of Curl – oh yeah, the straw mulch – we bought that. but we buy between 2 – 5 bales every year, so I didn’t figure that into the costs.
“Juliet” grape tomato – planted on April 6th. It has DOUBLED in size in this week. I’ll try to take a picture today….. I did take a few more pictures along the way which seemed to have gotten deleted by accident (grrrrrrrrrrr). After saying over & over & over that I need to take more pictures – I finally gave that up when I decided to use my limited energy to build it, rather than document it.
one of 2 ‘border’ nasturtiums. I have difficulty in growing these from seed. But I love them: they trail, they keep away bad bugs AND you can eat them in a salad.
The caged tomato – the strawberry plant is on the other side of the basket to the far right (not in picture)
The Force of Nature’s foot…..ummm…yeah…the kids & I take foot pictures. We think it’s funny.
Extreme marigold close up : marigold are a wonderful thing to plant I think. I got these on sale, they help keep away bad bugs, and they reassure my husband that I’m actually gardening and not just hoarding cardboard.
Marigold <3
This garden is chest high on me. I planted a bunch of seeds too: cucumbers, sunflowers, zucchini, summer squash and corn. Some of the clever birds around here have already discovered the corn….so I have added a string tied from the side to the tomato cage with a dangly CD to scare them off. Hope it works - it looks VERY trashy….
The Force of Nature – almost 15 years old: one of my 3 favoritest things I’ve grown EVER!!!
How old is that in dog years?
So I was reading an article over at Fab Over Fifty by a woman ho lies about her age to everyone, including her daughter. I wrote a comment that turned into a short essay….so I thought I’d post it for your enjoyment.
You can read the original article here: It’s My Birth Date & I’ll Lie If I Want To….
… here is my reply:
I think Ramona can lie about her age – that’s her business. Lying to her daughter – well, that’s her business too. Neither of the above are the same as my choices. Since Ramona has written about this, she has opened herself up to comments – a slew of which seem very harsh to me.
I LOVE how old I am – 44. I have always looked older than my age – which was really groovy until I was about 19. Still, I had a misdiagnosed heart ailment that nearly took my life at 40. The cardiologist told me they don’t usually find what was wrong with me til the autopsy…. I thank God everyday for the chance to see my kids grow up. Last weekend, I sang at the funeral for my dear sisterfriend Tracey who won’t get to do that; she was only 5 weeks older than I.
Anyway, my mother has always looked quite young and I have gotten really sick & tired of the thousands of times I was told we could be sisters. Made her feel great (though she is not vain at all) which is good, but I’ve never told her it always makes me feel like crap on a stick. I look lots like my dad who, in his 70′s, more & more resembles a troll. 
) Still, I am grateful that though I’m no great beauty, I am not disfigured either. As a musician, great beauty or disfigurement would be yet another obstacle to overcome.
Aging is a process of detachment for me, so for me, lying about my age would get in the way of that and – more importantly, get in the way of what I am trying to teach my kids (ages 24, 17 and almost 15): that your appearance is not very important in the grande scheme of things; your character is far more important. Of course you want to be clean and look well but not to become the plaything of fashion.
I’d much rather look like this….
…than look like this. I mean, heck! It sure is CHEAPER.
My daughter, the almost 15 year old, asked me about 6 months ago to stop coloring my hair BECAUSE she loves my silver. I’ve got a lot of it and I earned every one of those suckers. I have stopped coloring my hair because there is SO little I can do to please her these days (ages 14 & 15 for me were no joke).
I guess as long as there is some perceived benefit to being young, people will lie about it….but I wish they wouldn’t.
