The Other Garden

So nice to savor a cup of coffee in our less-structured garden . . . 

(the one with the chickens :) )

Hope you have a wonderful week!

"Veiled Ovoid" in situ

"Veiled Ovoid"

30" x 40"

"Veiled Ovoid" is almost finished and I couldn't resist capturing it with these fabulous onion orbs from our garden.  We've never used them in a bouquet before, and although a mild onion fragrance permeated the air when my husband first brought them in several days ago, it has since dissipated and surprisingly, not a single floret (no doubt the wrong term) has fallen.

A lovely soft rain has brought relief from the heat to the west side of the Cascades this morning.  I am reluctant to look at the news to see how many wildfires were started by the lightning storms predicted in the central and eastern regions of the state last night.  Currently, the largest wildfire in nearly 150 years is burning very close to a tiny, favorite "hamlet" that is near the southern border.  

I've just spent twenty minutes getting caught up on these wonderful blogs:  Paper Ponderings, Printed Material; and Non-indigenous Woman.   Time to move away from the computer and get into action.

Cheers!

Apricot Poppy and Non-Stop Sun

 

Now that the "sun switch" has been turned on, our suburban vegetable garden has reached a nice state: The plants have come into their own but have not yet gone wild.  Well, that is, all but the flowering phlox.  The phlox (not shown here) is another story.  Phlox is considered a bit of a "thug" plant by perennial gardeners in Oregon because of its rampant spreading tendencies.  It has systematically crowded out our strawberries and is now threatening our few blueberry bushes.  Furthermore, it has paid no attention to our property line and has spread unrestrained into our neighbor's yard.  I have begun an earnest campaign to eradicate it but as my husband pointed out, it will continue to trouble us as it will simply march back across the property line! 

I am almost finished reading Barbara Kingsolver's 2007 book, Vegetable, Animal, Miracle. Even though I have been tuned into the local, organic, sustainable food movement for over ten years, and my husband has faithfully planted and maintained our vegetable gardens for twenty-seven years, I gleaned many new insights from Kingsolver's book, which also features contributions from her biologist husband and her grown daughter. I wouldn't say it is a particularly fast read; rather it moves along at an enjoyably leisurely pace with each chapter reinforcing the tenets set forth in prior chapters. 

While on the subject, I feel compelled to mention, again, the lovely book that Kerstin Svendsen edited, From Orchards, Fields, and Gardens, first appearing on this blog here.  Such a simple, beautiful and moving book. . . . .

Hope this week is treating you well!

And thanks for following!