In which I go to Fibrations 2012

....and forget to bring my camera - FAIL!

BUT, I had a great time, hanging out with my sister-in-law and also my friend Melissa from MisoCraftyKnits. Fibrations 2012 was once again held on the St. Ann's Academy grounds in their beautiful orchard. I must say, I was really impressed with the number of booths; quite a few Bees were representing as vendors (Emma from Everything Old and Linz, who I'm not sure if she has a website, but is one of the fastest crochetters I know!). I also finally got to meet in person Rebecca from Nook, and her lovely handknit monsters (I so need to pick one of those up for Z for Christmas!), as well as Shannon from Luv in the Mommyhood fame ;). I met Jane of Jane Richmond patterns, though not for the first time as I met her a few years ago at the once annual Victoria Fiber Fest, which is now no-longer running (hence Fibrations). Oh, how I wish I had my camera with my today to snap photos of everyone's great booths! Jane had this great line hanging above her booth with all of her pattern cards attached and fluttering in the breeze, it looked great! Plus she had all of her patterns on cards kindof how you would see a paint sample deck, with the bare details (ie yarn requirements, etc) on the back... genius idea!

One of my favorite finds this year was Kattikloo Fibre Studio which my friend Melissa pointed out to me. Oh my goodness, what beautiful yarn she had on display. I was immediately drawn to this gray merino mulberry silk lace blend. It's tonal variegation was stunning going from a soft light dove gray to a darker graphite. I squished it with my hand and it felt cool to the touch. Turned out it had just been dyed last night and was still drying! You can't get much fresher than that! I bought a skein (over 800yds at $20, what a steal!), my friend Carol bought another, and when we swung by the booth only 45 minutes later the other two skeins were gone! Popular colourway indeed! Kattikloo also had stunning felted silk scarves. I would have loved to have purchased one, but I had to draw the spending line somewhere! Fiona Duthie (the artisan of Kattikloo) was very lovely. I'm so glad I got to meet her and enjoy her beautiful creations!

So, that was today. Yesterday the hubster and I (and Z) trucked it to home depot to get supplies for a little home improvement project. HD was disappointing, so we went instead to Lumberworld and were very impressed with their selection (and their customer service... plus I've been told that they're locally owned, so let's support them!). What did we buy? Well, our gutters have been failing at the corners (ah, homeownership), so we needed some caulking to fix those. We also needed another downspout as we only have one for the entire stretch of the back of the house. We also decided to buy a rain barrel to tie the new downspout into! So, with no more further ado, meet our new rain barrel!

 
Any name suggestions? And, of course, it wouldn't be a true update without a snapshot of my tomato plants. We're just starting to get some ripe ones (though hubby gobbles them up pretty quick!)

  

 

Breath before the end

Allow me to explain my MIA status - I have been teaching summer school. This has made me a tad busier, especially with the onset of Z cutting his baby molars. So far the bottom two are in, and the top two are mercilessly trying to break through as well. Whoever said being a baby is easy hasn't dealt with a baby going through some serious teething. It's been interesting going back to work. I like to think that I fell back into the swing of things fairly naturally. There are parts that I had missed, and parts that I think no teacher misses. Regardless, it's been a good way to see what it'll be like in the fall when I go back, potentially full time, and Z starts daycare full time. For now, it's one more week and then back to normal time at home with Z for the month of August.

But, enough about work, I want to focus instead on what I always seem to come back to in this blog - my garden! Allow me to present my tomato plants! They're HUGE!

I look out my living room window and they're there, more than halfway up! The hubby and I like to think of them as our tomato hedges.

cutesie little cherry tomatoes... this plant is called Sweet Million

As you can see, there are lots of green beauties on the vine, and a ton of little yellow flowers still in production. I actually pruned a couple of the plants today, as per a suggestion from my father that it may help the plant focus its energy on fruit production rather than growth. It makes me happy to see the plants so happy! I think this really is the perfect place for them.

Funny thing is, I've never been a big tomato eater. My husband loves them, but I always order my burgers and sandwiches sans tomatoes, and I don't like them in salads. I think this may be a good opportunity to change that. I have canning plans (I'm practically giddy about using my own canned tomatoes during the year), and may try my hand at making salsa. Aside from that, and making many tomato-based recipes once they're ripe, friends and family will probably be recipients as well!

Garden Update

It's a rainy day today in Victoria; a perfect day to take a few picture of my garden. I am so proud of how our tomato plants are doing (cue the deer eating them all up). I planted them right underneath our living room window in a bed that gets a lot of sun (south facing) but is very protected from the elements (including the rain). I made sure to really saturate the soil with water before planting them, and took the advice of another garden store patron and snapped off the lowest branches and planted them a little lower. He said that it would help them establish their roots. I think it has helped us remember to water them in that they are right out front and we pass them multiple times daily (plus the hose is right there).

My hanging baskets have also expanded from my original plantings. I decided to make my own baskets this year, as I always find them expensive and lacking in variety. I had two baskets left over from last year, and bought $20 worth of plants that I split between the two (so $10 a piece - not bad!). I'm really happy with how they've flourished. I also saturated the soil with water before planting them, and I've stayed up of watering them. I think the nasturtiums will be flowering soon; I've seen little buds!

I didn't take the chance to photograph the backyard, but the radishes are done now, and the kale, carrots and peas are growing well. We planted quite early this year, what did we have to lose? I think I will still plant some beans, just need to get out there and do it. We've got quite a few foxgloves, as usual, and welsh poppies of course, which have already started going to seed (and will continue to self-seed and grow throughout the summer), but none of the large poppies that we had last year. I remember collecting the seeds, and I think I may have been to efficient! I sprinkled some seeds around, but we may have been undiscerning in our mowing and chopped them all off.

Weekend Fun!

I had a great weekend. On Saturday I met up with a dear friend at the Journeys Victoria Quilter's Guild Show and Sale. It was absolute bliss to just walk around together, sans kids, and fawn over all the different fabrics and quilts. I should really save all my fabric purchasing for craft fairs and shows, the deals can be really good. Considering I still have fabric that I bought especially for Z, when I was still pregnant, waiting to be turned into a quilt, I was careful not to go overboard in my purchases. I ended up buying a panel of Halloween fabric from Satin Moon Quilt shop that will be perfect for turning into a trick-or-treat bag, and perhaps some decorative panels for the season. Z's first Halloween; I can hardly wait!

 
I also bought a jelly roll (I think that's what you call them) of Ten Little Things by Jenn Ski for Moda (from Hamels Fabric and Quilting). The colours are super cute, not too stereotypically boyish, and I think they would make the perfect bedspread for Zachary (or any other little kidlet that might be added to our family).

That was Saturday. On Sunday the weather was absolutely fantastic. Hubby and I decided to take advantage of it, and as soon as the little one went down for his morning nap, we were outside. Hubby washed the cars while I worked on planting tomato plants. We have this planter right below our living room window. Since our house faces South, the planter gets a TON of sunlight, but very little water as it's protected by the roof overhang. It's also gets protected somewhat from any late-spring frost. We're hoping the heat will help produce some great tomatoes, as long as we keep it well watered, and hopefully the dear aren't keen on coming that close to the house (I'm not banking on it).

As you can see, I need to get a couple more tomato cages. In other garden news, through the act of weeding our veggie garden, we discovered that we already had a crop of radishes for eating. Can I just say that there aren't a lot of recipes out there for radishes outside of the realm of salads? These grow great, not sure how the two of us are going to eat them all though!

By this point, little Z had woken up from his nap, and was outside with us, under the protection of a beach umbrella, watching mom and dad huff and puff in the sun!

 
Aside from that, my brother stopped by for a visit, and helped me plant two bushes/vines that I bought during the week. The top one is Star Jasmine. We planted it by the fence, and I'm really hoping that with minimal training, it'll take over the side of the fence (there's not much nice over there at the moment. The bottom image is a shrub called Golden-Leaved Mock Orange. All I know is, I like the bright green foliage, it's supposed to bloom in the summer, it can grow to 2m x 2m in size, and it only cost me $12.99 at the garden center. Score!

Anyone else get up to some fun over the weekend?

My garden, my oasis

Time to get a new post up! The weather has been great (well, at least better), so I've been out in the garden a lot more, taking advantage of the clear weather to tidy up and pull some weeds. Well, actually, a LOT of weeds. Every day I look out at my backyard through my kitchen window and see more of those blasted yellow dandelion flowers! I have half a mind to go into the dandelion greens business, because no matter how many I pull out, my yard still seems prolific!

daffodils and dandelions!

On nice evenings, I've taken to working for an hour or so, pulling out a bucket full of dandelions. Here's the size of my bucket, and here's my haul of dandelions so far. They're on a tarp because I'm going to take them to the Saanich Works, where THEY can compost them (the little buggers aren't getting into MY compost - no way!). I also have some invasive species that I've been working on controlling (without pesticides, just by hand): morning glory, ivy, holly (at least the holly is easy to see), and, most recently, violets.

my bucket and my dandelion haul... so far

violets... ugh

I recently cleared a back patch of my backyard of flowers (I don't know what they're called, but they are also prolific and self seed themselves into the lawn... I made the executive decision that they were spreading too far, so out they came!), and a couple weeks later rhubarb came up in their place! I had never had rhubarb in that particular corner (I have some in another corner) and have absolutely no idea how it got there.

cute little rhubarb plant!

Although I'm not a fan of picking weeds, it's still been really nice to get out in my garden and work away without thinking about time or other commitments; it's definitely a meditative sort of activity, though it wrecks havoc on my neck and back sometimes. I'm going to end this post with two nice pics from my garden, one of a sweet smelling hyacinth that just bloomed, and another of my favorite part of my garden - the side walk. There's something so lovely about a path down the side of a house that has flowers on either side. Even with all the weed pulling I have left to do (which is completely my own choice), I am so looking forward to the coming weeks and watching my garden come to life!