Thursday In The Garden ~ Snug In My Indoor Garden

Our sun room has three sky lights that make this a bright and light room all year round. It makes a perfect indoor garden room too. For most of the years we've lived here ( over 2 decades ) I kept caged birds in this small room with our plants but we moved the parakeets into an outdoor aviary this past summer and I have to say, I do not miss cleaning up scattered bird seed and feathers every day . This past week I finally acted on some plans I've had for this room to make it a comfortable room to read and do needlework in natural light whilst being able to listen to the sound of rain pattering, splattering, and sometimes gushing on the over-head windows. Rain is my favorite music and now I've created a space in our home to be able to listen to my music comfortably. ( A cup of hot tea or good coffee completes the mood ! )

My African Violets thrive here. This is an African Violet I have shown in other posts, and it has just this month bloomed again. This violet has reproduced and is now 3 violet plants in one pot, but look how healthy and happy it is, and it is an old African Violet, at least 10 years old, maybe older . I think this is the third time this plant has bloomed this year.

The other side of the sun room. Some of the plants in this room are almost 40 years old, most at least 20 years old. The white baker's rack holds not only plants, but my garden magazines and plant books.

My collection of bird's nests are displayed here too, some in little glass bowls , some perched in the bigger plants. Bird's nests, plants, a comfortable chair and books to read make this room all I want it to be especially now the rain has returned in great abundance. This also makes it the favorite room of our cats, but I think they appreciated birds in here even more.

My indoor garden requires a bit of work every so often. The plants require water several times a week, in the summer they needed watering almost every day. When I changed this room around last week I moved an old bird cage outdoors giving me more room for my antique chair (over 100 year old) and ottoman. I spent a lot of time pruning and dead-heading the plants. I know most of these plants are seriously pot-bound and dread the chore of re-potting them , but I am going to wait until after Christmas before attempting that task. Summer's over, October's almost gone. Time to be snug indoors while November begins her cold wet ways . Snug in my indoor garden, my music room ~ listening to my music, the rain.

Autumn Leaf Buntings

 These are just a few of the beautiful autumn leaves 2 of our grandchildren and I collected last week .

 Our daughter's two youngest children spent a few days & nights with us last week ( thank-you daughter ! ) and we had a special project to do together with autumn leaves.

 We gathered colorful fallen leaves and arranged them as desired on wax paper. Each grandchild was free to arrange the leaves any way they wished. Granddaughter chose her leaves ...



...then ironed the leaves between 2 sheets of wax paper.

Tah-dah ! Lovely, don't you think ?

 Grandson chose his leaves and did the same.

 Tah-dah !

 Both grandchildren arranged and crafted their bunting / banners by cutting the wax paper, arranging the leaves, and ironing the design by themselves.

 Beautiful autumn decorations hung by clothespins on twine. They took their autumn buntings home with the sugar cookies they baked . I must say, their handmade buntings look even better in the windows of their home and their mommy loves them ! ( the buntings and her children )

These two grandchildren also helped me with yard work and spent a lot of time helping their Grandpa with a very challenging jig-saw puzzle. Any day spent with these grandchildren is a very good day and we are so blessed. God is so good to us !

Thursday In My Garden ~ Living Ornaments

 This is what I saw today when I stepped out my front door onto the porch. My geese Ella & Fella resting under one of our Japanese Maple trees.

I never take the simple beauty around me for granted. My silly, frilly geese ~ the living ornaments of my glorious Autumn gardens.

Happy And Cozy in Autumn

The cooler rainy weather I love has returned. Not as cool or rainy as a typical western Washington fall , but I'll take any cooler weather than we've experienced for a few months . Now I have a bit of respite from our demanding gardens. The grapes are canned (56 quarts !) and I finally got round to making many pints of yellow plum jam from our Shiro plum trees ; plums I picked , washed, chopped up, and froze earlier this summer. The squashes, carrots, and beans are all harvested .Now I can get down to weaving and spinning the wool of my Jacob sheep.

Happy and cozy days ahead. Have I mentioned I love this season ? Autumn ~ I love you !

 

( Picture is of my loom in our upstairs landing where I can see my sheep out of the window as I weave.)

Sedums Planted In Recycled Farm Junk ~ Thursday in the garden.

I have so many old and rusty poultry watering containers. Many began to leak years ago so I piled them into the storage shed near my feed room. Last spring I decided to use them as Sedum planters. The planters are hanging on the outside of my goose pen where there is plenty of sunshine and they're easy to water since I have to replace the water in the goose pen every day. ( The geese love to play in their water troughs.)

I bought some of the trailing non-sedums when they went on sale in the spring. The sedums themselves flourish in many plantings I did years ago so I simply pulled them up and planted them in the old poultry waterers.

Sedums planted in old cans I spray painted sitting in an old freezer basket I nailed to a poultry shed wall.

The same poultry shed wall with old pots and pans and a basket of sedums.

This sedum planting is hanging in my Blue Bottle Garden. It thrives here and drops new baby sedums beneath it. All the more sedum starts for next year's spring plantings.

Olive Branch ~ Tea time Tuesday

 

My husband's sisters ( minus his sister Alice who lives far away in Minnesota ) arranged for a luncheon & tea to celebrate the birthdays of their brothers' wives. The brothers of these ladies are the husbands of me ( far left ) and Margie , sitting next to me. The other 3 ladies are 3 of my husband's 4 sisters. What a wonderful time we had catching up on things that matter to families and enjoying a spectacular lunch and tea.

 

One of the perks of this luncheon , besides spending time with family, was I discovered an amazing tea room and restaurant I believe everyone can appreciate , men and women ! The teahouse is furnished with antiques and food is served on old china, much of it looking like it came from my own china cupboard . Really... as I passed a set table on my way out of the tea house I noticed every single piece of china on it, including the salt and pepper shakers and table linens were mirror images of what I have at home. What I cannot mimic or copy is the delicious food , and really, it IS delicious ! Check out Olive Branch Cafe* online to see a sampling of what I am talking about. If you're interested in more about this café you'll learn about the chef and history of this amazing restaurant and tea room at Freight House Square * in downtown Tacoma, WA.

 

Sharing a meal and tea with like-minded people, be they friend or family is always a blessing. A blessing I never take for granted. Thank-you sisters in Christ, thank-you sisters -in-law, thank-you !

 

" Behold how good and how precious it is for brothers ( and sisters too ) to dwell in unity ! "       Psalm 133:1

Empty Nest

An empty nest found on my herb garden path a week ago . It must have been blown down by the very quick and short storm that blew through here. No more baby birds, no more parent birds. A nest that fulfilled a need and no longer required. An empty nest.

Chicken Stitchin'

 I love to embroider but my stitching skills are adequate. Just adequate. Unlike this exquisite piece of stitchery done by Kathleen  , many of you read her blog Eggs In My Pocket*. I bought this on her Etsy * site a few years ago and love this towel . I only display it because I can't bear to dirty it . I've considered framing this piece but it looks very nice accompanying my chicken teapot on the tea tray.

 This embroidered rooster struts on a table cloth I found at a thrift store. I couldn't pass up the embroidered chickens and hand crocheted edging on this piece in perfect shape at a good price. ( cheap ! )

 Isn't it a perfect table topper for autumn ?

 Here's another rooster stitched on the table topper.

 This rooster was embroidered on a dish towel and given to me as a Christmas gift a few years ago from my friend also named Kathleen. My friend has embroidered a few lovely things for me and her stitching is so tiny and precise and beautiful.

I have quite a few linens I have saved over the years that were embroidered by family and friends. I also have a few things I embroidered, but my embroidery is lacking and I hesitate to give it as a gift. I do keep a small embroidery project in my purse ( along with letter-writing stuff ) to work on when I find I have time on my hands. Time on my hands means stitchin' or writin' . I am going to include a few more flour sack towels with chicken transfer patterns ironed onto them for some more chicken stitchin' because I do love my chickens , inside and outside !