yesterday

I've been sanding pieces for new pieces I wanted to do
for a while. Hope to finish the project soon.



In the garden I found some scarlet pimpernel (I found
out the name after browsing the web). So sweet! But
since my garden is already full with allsort of weeds
I grab them out and plant them in a pot (they don't
seem to like it though, since they hang the heads today).

Oh, and I added these two to the shop.


Have a lovely Wednesday!

alive

Hi friends! Just wanna let you know I am still alive - only
my laptop (or better said: the graphic card of my laptop)
was dead and getting a new computer was not so easy.
It took a week till I got my new computer. I'm working
with a desktop again now - no more laptop for me (it
was only 5 y.o. - what a short life!).

I am already a week behind my schedules and am still
struggling with the new OS. It doesn't support my old
peripheries and softwares - ack!! I'm losing time to
google for solutions. And of course one deadline after
another is waiting (so here I am to vent and whine -
what I often criticize on others who whine about not
having enough time instead of doing their work in that
time LOL).

No time for creating nor gardening too. I could have
had a bowl full of strawberries, if I had harvested them
earlier - the slugs and birds were happy for that fact
though, as well as the mildew (or perhaps I should
blame the rainy summer for the last.. ;)).



OK, enough venting and whining ^_^ Ironing before going
to bed should be a good meditation for today, I think.

Hope, you are all doing well.

a week gone by

.. and Etsy has been working hard to improve TEast.
Now we could link our lists using a single address and the
rank of hotness seems to change into a better one, even
if there are sometimes glitches regarding to empty lists.
If they will provide a button or permanent link from our
shop to our lists, TEast would be a great tool for our own
gift guides, wish lists, etc (this is my gift guide for mother's
day ;)).

The new T is coming and the old ones will probably be
gone. While it's great not to wait until the indexing is done
on Flash, I'll be missing seeing this though - I always see
a calm face in this, which always makes me smile.



But not only on the T scene, old ones have to make place
for new things. I've been working in the garden yesterday.
Haven't planted anything new yet, but I've removed dried
plants, cut plants in shape, weeded and collected things to
photograph.


More here.

Hope, you had a great weekend.

tuesday

It started with sunshine.



This one is especially for you, Akiyo ;) Right in the
middle is garlic, but the other greens are wheat!



Neighbor's gardens incl. the garden I admire because of
it's simplicity and the big tree.


Suddenly at around 4 pm the rooms were as dark as if
it was already 8 pm.


Hail is so brutal.


The back garden after about an hour. I haven't been in
the garden afterwards. I don't know, how it looks like
on the front garden. I think, I'd cry...


Well, I'm learning...
to be patient,
to accept,
to forgive,
to let go,
to enjoy as long as I can
and a lot more.
All those from gardening.

happy saturday

I was about to go to the flea market as I saw something
was waiting in my mailbox (can you guess, what it is?).
I was excited, but no time to go upstairs again - it had
to wait. Quickly I took a glance at my front garden. The
roses were blooming beautiful on the first plant and so
was the cotoneaster. It was full of bees and humble bees.
Mmhh... how I love the sound! bzzz..bzz...bzzzzz....



I didn't expect to find anything on the flea market.
Maybe you remember, I once said, flea market made
me sad. It did! The sad feeling was coming after I saw
a few tables. I already wanted to go back home, when
I saw something, that made my heart jumped. An
adjustable dolly!



My body doesn't have much curves, so that I could
never use a standard dummy. I was thinking of buying
this kind of dummy, but they were so expensive. So, I
was really excited, when I saw this. And somehow it
looked like a cage. I'm in love with the filigree of bird
cages, but I'm not fond of their purpose though (my
parents had birds in Jakarta, but they were in a big
aviary approx. 90 sqm with a garden in it - so it's not
comparable). This dummy is delicate, decorative and
useful - for 9 Euro: perfect!!

Back home I opened up the parcel. Have you guessed,
what it was? Yes, the happy package from Mitsy's
giveaway. I'm such an ace in the blog world *lol* I've
paused from the blog giveaway for a while, but as soon
as I attend one, I won again. But now I won't pause
anymore - why should I refuse my luck, right? :)
Thank you, Mitsy, for the isolated brooch, the scared
necklace (watch out this space - who knows, when
they'll appear there ;)) and the happy girls - my happy
girl is happy to meet her family ;) And thank you,
lovessunflowers, for your golden finger number! :)



After all the excitements I went to the DIY store. The
roses had mildew and the ilex has some yellow leaves,
with weird speckles on the back. I took a leaf with me.
The lady there said, my ilex must have fungus. She
handed me out a chemical thing, which would work for
both plants. As I asked her for something from Neudorff,
she said, that it won't work or one has to do it often, that
it's just as toxic as that other chemical thing. I hesitated
and came home with the chemical one. Ugh!!! At home
I regret it. I have to learn to stand behind myself and
stick to what I want to. Right? Yes! :)

Happy weekend to you!

P.S. Oh, talking about my luck.. I found a 5 Euro note in
the garden. But as I saw the daughter of my neighbor
standing there this morning, I was sure, it was hers. So
I asked her and she said yes. What a Saturday! :)

bindweeds

I went at 8:30 am to the garden. Actually I wanted only
to water the new planted ones. While watering I took
some photos. These are from the front garden, which is
looking beautiful, even if the tulips are already wiltening.
The roses are having small buds (I still need to cut them
- didn't do it at autumn), the aubrieta are just gorgeous,
the peonies are growing,... I love the colors there.


Does anybody know, what are those plants in front of the tulips?
Weeds or shrubs?


The part with the cotoneaster is looking better now. I've removed
some dead branches a few days ago. Does anybody know the name
of the shrubs underneath?


Does anybody know the name of the bush on the right?

But then moving to the back garden, I saw weeds all
around (of course!). And of course I couldn't just let them
stay there. So suddenly it was almost 1 pm as I went
upstairs again.



My weeding focus today: Convolvulus arvensis.
Remember me digging those roots last Saturday?
Those are the roots of those bindweeds. I think, if I'd
digg in the soil of my tiny garden, I'd find a dense network
of root. Yukk!! I should replace the soil thoroughly with
fresh, 'uncontaminated' soil, but I don't have the money
for that. So, my work today was like a drop in the ocean.
Nevertheless I thought, fighting is better than doing
nothing.

While weeding I have to think of life. How life is just
like weeds. Sometimes you have to fight, but sometimes
life just won't go the way you want it goes - you have to
let go and live with it. (Gardening) Life is never boring
for sure ;)

my saturday

Yesterday I only worked in the back garden the whole
day. In the end one can only see, that I've planted the
red currant tree and some strawberry plants. I've been
working around 10 hours on that blank spot actually.



The previous tenant had put a sandbox on that spot.
So, it was already quite free except of some weeds.
But those weeds have deep spreading root. So, I tried
to take all the roots out. What an act! They were so
deep and easy breaking, I don't think, I got them all.
Besides they are everywhere all around *sigh* My
neighbor thought I was crazy to do it by hand. Oh well,..
maybe I overact, but this act does help me to know
more about nature and it's like a meditation ;)

While digging I've also found some grubs. First I thought
they were caterpillars. So on Wednesday as I've found
them for the first time, I immediately covered them
again with soil. In the evening I did some research in the
internet and found out, that they are grubs of chafer.
Oops!! I wanted to plant the red currant exactly on the
spot where I've found them :/



So yesterday I tried to find them again. But I only found
two of them and two pupa. I'm not sure, if they are cock
or summer chafer grubs. According to the description and
the movement of one of them, they should be summer
chafer grubs. But the other one could only move on the
side - so two different types? I can't see the difference.
Well,.. anyway I let them in the pot saucer over night.
Maybe a bird or a hedgehog would find them tasty (even
if I had a bad feeling about this). And the red currant..
I've planted it on another spot after digging thoroughly
as you can see on the first photo :)

edit: I just found this photo. I thought, I should share ;)

7 things

7 days have gone by since my last post. Somehow my
mind was in a quiet modus. Even if I wanted to share
many thing with you, I was not able to put it in words.

But now, 7 things to share:

1. I worked in the garden with my boy lately. We filled
3 more buckets with weeds (this time from the garden
on the back part of the house), but still no end in sight.
I should work in the garden each day to get it done, but
my old body didn't want to (I need to do more exercise!!).
I sometimes only collected the dandelions from the garden
- looking nice to the other flowers. Weed or not weed they
look beautiful to me.



Yesterday I cut rose for the first time in my life. I've
heard often about it's difficulty, so I've read a pile of
books before I started. I hope, I didn't do it wrong.
The front garden is starting to look better now :)

2. I think, I'm more relaxed lately. I let the boys made
some breads without worrying too much as I would have
done otherwise. I helped them only with the dough at
the end phase. The perfectionist in me must have gone
a little bit ;)



3. Two spontaneous speedy actions lately (got the idea
and done it within a very short time): I've moved the
furniture in my bedroom around and made a new cover
for the swivel chair. It went so fast, that I didn't even
thought of taking photo from the very beginning. I was
surprising myself!



4. I've organized my reader lately and unsubscribed
some blogs, because it became too much to read. I often
opened my reader and more than 200 posts were
waiting for me! So, I practice myself in selecting. Not so
easy.

Two of my favorite blogs lately are Zen Habits and
Goodlife Zen. I forgot, how I've stumbled upon Brian
Kim's blog, but I found it worth a read. My journey is
still going on and these blogs provide me with food for
thought.

5. Have I told you, that I love comics? First I was just
following a link in a blog, as I suddenly discover more
interesting things along Jon Klassen's site itself:

• crazy dumbsaint
• the Flight
• Copper and the-making-of

A great video, made by Jon Klassen and Dan Rodrigues.

6. If you haven't done it yet, there is still a chance to
win a bookmark from Elizabeth (she will pick the winner
today) and a Kreativlink's journal in Megan's blog
giveaway.

7. I'm going to color some egg now (my son is coming
back tomorrow :)).

Happy Easter to you, who celebrate it :)