Space & Time

 A Space And Time

Perhaps we are connected within a space or realm that time holds the connection to, one which we have no control over and leaves us vulnerable to prey.  Maybe our existence depends on our ability to adapt and restructure and to overcome perils that are in our paths.

What happens when we can't adapt or restructure?  When we can't find it within ourselves to make the choices that will cause that reoccurrence?   Do we become like the lost city, or the people of the pyramids?  Lost but known that we were here because of some mythical story or a letter or maybe even a post that says I was here, in this place, that I was not unknown by many, but forgotten by some.  

Mother's Day Weekend

Mother's Day Weekend

Well after another flopped Mother's day, I can say I am through celebrating that holiday.  Of one thing I am sure, good manners and R E S P E C T are still positive things, unless you live in the Netherlands and have an obstinate dutch woman that has no manners or respect. 
After spending hours standing on my feet baking one layer at a time crepes to make a 20 layer crepe for her, I arrive to find she has gone shopping for a few hours to shop for a pie for Mother's Day.  ROFL 
Ok I'm sure there are some that their daughters don't bake or daughter in laws, but really you buy your OWN?  Pfffft  I should have just laughed and left it sitting there and gone on my way which was my first inclination, but my good manners got the better of me, so I stayed until she arrived.  Then I was told the "hostess" always provides the food, now mind you I've been baking a cake or a vlaii as they call them here for 8 long years, without fail, and there sits a beautiful whipped cream and apricot layered cake which by this time the whipped cream has fallen because it's suppose to be eaten straight away, not sitting in a house where the temperature was 90 degrees because Pops was cold and had the heater in there on and the sun streaming in all the windows.  To say I was not happy is a very mild expression of how I felt, so I decided to each his own, eat MY cake and go home as quickly as possible, but she continued with her rhetoric, so I cut myself a slice and put on my plate and started eating, she asked where is ours?  I said there and you can take what you want, or you can eat YOUR PIE THAT YOU BOUGHT FOR MOTHER'S DAY.  She said I don't like that, and I said, well I don't like standing on my feet while I am sick BAKING FOR HOURS and then it isn't appreciated, so I guess we are even there. 

Afterwards I went home and went to my happy place and I was suppose to cook dinner for HER and everyone, but my sister called me from the states and we talked for hours on the phone while I was in the garden and since we only get to do that when she has a day free, which is not often, THAT IS MOST IMPORTANT TO ME, so I talked and gardened and forgot the time, by the time my phone alerted the battery was going I was one and half hours late to cook and everyone was mad, thus what did I do?  I went home, drank coffee, took a shower, rested my back for an hour and returned to my happy place. 

So the moral to this story is, SOME PEOPLE ARE DIFFICULT AND MEAN and you can not please them, what you should do is just rid yourself of the toxic people in your life and move on, because honestly all they do is drag you down with them, you keep fighting to be the best person you can be, but ultimately they drag you down in the mud with them, and sorry but I like my feet clean and dry, even in the garden. 

Does my heart hurt?  Yes it does, more than most would understand, because I was taught good manners and treating Mother's with respect was the right thing to do.  However, I find that I am unable to comprehend why those do not matter to Dutch women, or that Dutch woman in particular.  I don't usually air my laundry out in the open, and was taught NOT to do that also, but there comes a time when you need to just let people see for themselves WHY YOU STRUGGLE.  I struggle because of the insensitive and utterly rude and mean people that surround me, and as my Mama said, if you lay with dogs you are gonna get fleas.  So I need to pick myself up out of the mire and spray some flea protectant and get away from these people.  Toxic pest ridden environments bring on health issues, worsen health issues and make for an unhappy life, thus sometimes we need to pull out the pesticide and start spraying.

 

Gardening This Week PRIMA

 Gardening 2022 May 1st Friday -- 

Because I planted mustard basically over most of one garden, and because we did not have the typical Spring rain that lasts for weeks, I had very few weeds, which was lovely, actually it is HEAVENLY.  There are some tiny ones, but so far that's been a breeze, and I could not be happier.  For the first time since having these gardens I could actually do things that needed doing without first having to clear paths (except one area, the area behind one garden where I have storage is under trees and full of leaf debris, but a good sweep should take care of most of that, I started that tonight after sweeping the other pathways and really over did my back, sweeping is not good for the back at all!  

So let's talk about what is growing, I have tomatoes already in the ground in the greenhouse, and some bell peppers.  I also have peppers and bell peppers planted outside.  My sage plant that is three years old is getting very large and is in full bloom.  My borage plants are starting to grow well, and the cat mint plant is also very large despite me cutting him back in the fall, as well as my lemon melisse herb.  The star of the show or stars I should say are the trees, the plum has alot of plums, the apple has alot of tiny apples, and sadly, my Russian peach tree nothing, I think I have to take it out, it had leaf curl and was not doing well, so I shaved him and I hope that and some meds and he will recover.  The other star of the show - my COMFREY, and lo and behold I have one that is white flowers and the others the traditional purple.  They did well overwintering, and didn't seem to have minded the temps here, or all the rain.  My Limburg spinach is coming up randomly, and the beans I planted a week ago are coming up.  The raspberries are growing rapidly despite the cutting back I did, and one has blooms.  My strawberries in their standing barrels with holes cut in and plants poking out have large berries already.  I want in a couple of weeks to build a wooden storage area for my pots and containers, fertilizers, etc., and something that looks presentable, not mix match.  

I need to turn the compost in the open bin, and check the other bins to see if there is anything composted.  I'm really not going to grow an extensive amount of veggies this year, just the things that I eat on a regular basis.  I do have a hundred plus leeks that went in the ground over the weekend, and a row of shallots, a row or two of peas, a couple of cabbage and salad fixings, and a few more paprika plants and tomatoes, I have those at home growing so I can water easily daily, but they are still too small to set out.  Of course a couple of courgettes, and cucumbers and I am hoping my tiny cucumbers do well, they are just now coming up from seed, a little late, but fingers crossed.  

I also planted a gooseberry plant that I stuck a branch down in dirt last year, he doesn't seem to have minded rehousing.  

Normally here next week would really be the week to start, so alot is growing ahead of normal, always a good thing.

All in all, the sun and the beauty of watching items grow, amazing!

A Gardener's Prayer

Thank you for all the beauty you bring into my world, 
Thank you for all the wonderful tastes that you bring to my table
Thank you for all the bees, butterflies, birds and other creatures that work to pollinate my garden.
Thank you Lord for allowing me these pleasures.  

Corona Free or Corona Dormancy?

 After nearly 3 years of Corona and it's variants running rampant around Europe and the rest of the world, being under quarantine and house arrest so to speak for months, it is really hard to believe the exhilarating feeling one has from feeling like perhaps we have reached some level of freeness, but at the same time I am still wearing masks in public spaces indoors although I seem to be frankly one of the few that is.  We are starting to see the crunch from Putin's war, as sunflower oil and flour are becoming rare to find in the shops, and fuel prices have escalated to the point of unbelievable prices, but in my world, spring and her wonders came early this year and gardening has begun, so whether corona again overtakes us, or leaves us, at least I have an early start to the grow season and have sunshine and warmth, and those two things make me a happy person.  Blessings from above, the bees working their magic on my rosemary, and the cabbage moths were flying blinding about searching for unsuspecting targets, their white butterfly appearance is really a cover for what they do to cabbage and cabbage family plants, but I still like to see them fluttering around.  I have not seen the dragon flies yet, but I am sure soon they will be darting around at high speeds.  Spring for me is a metamorphosis simply like the butterfly I come out of the winter fog of depression from having no sunshine to an eager to take flight person that can't wait to dig in the dirt and watch seeds come to life, plants put on new colors and blossoms that come in varied shades from different plants.  I am even happy to see the sunny yellow faces of the dandelions as they spring into action, their beauty which feeds a multitude with their blossoms and makes horrible rocky ground become a nice planting spot if one can uproot them from their habitat to actually plant something else.  So corona free or not, spring has come and for me, that makes my world ok.

Blessed be.

 

Blessed With Warm Weather in 2022

 AN EARLY SPRING 2022

I am ready to put tomato plants and bell peppers in my greenhouse in the ground.  They have been outside at home on the table for a couple of weeks now and have outgrown their pots to the point of getting root bound, so I am sure they will be happy to have their feet in the ground so they can spread out.  

I spent yesterday replanting a one foot cutting from my gooseberry plant that was broken last year and I put in soil and rooted (well he did all the work, I just stuck him in the ground and watered).  I hope he will like his new home, he liked where he was rooted, but it's in a corner where there is no room for him to grow into a large plant, so I moved him with my blueberry bushes.  They still look scrawny, so I think I need to invest in a couple of new plants and put those two inside until they recover from their lazy streak or whatever it is they are doing or not doing.  

That's actually the gist of this post, when something isn't doing well, sometimes it is just best to take him up and put him in some fresh gardening soil in a pot and tuck away and let it recover, I don't think the variety I have is conducive to the harsh winters here and I can't be certain it is the species that I purchased, because let's face it, mix ups can happen with planting sticks at nursery's, so sometimes we do all we can to make plants happy and it just doesn't seem to help, sometimes they need to recover like humans, a little time resting and rehabilitation.  Plant rehabilitation can be as simple as that, a pot and good soil and rest, other times we may need to treat an infested or diseased plant, and the same methods can be used, treat and in a pot and rest.  

My other issue is my Russian peach tree does not like the wet climate here, it is used to the sunnier temps that were in it's region, as well as the cold in the winter months, and I have plucked his poor leaves off and I am going to treat him tomorrow to a good dose of epsom salt water via his roots and a spray of waters of peroxide to kill any fungus.  I hope that perhaps that will help rid him of whatever fungal issues he may have and stop the leaves from turning into clubbed leaves.  There were no signs of aphids, and hopefully they don't attack him now that I removed so many of his leaves, fingers crossed.

I have planted one bed with green beans and yellow beans and a row of pole beans, scarlet runners and a blackish purple hull sort, I like the scarlet runners in soup dried, but honestly I grow them for the pretty flowers and because they attract pollinators (shhh that's an insider secret).  

At home my front tiny garden has yellow and orange calendula blooming and bell flowers hanging that are pink and purple varieties, and I have a few plants in my containers, I still want that cottage feel, but the entire front is paving stones and gravel, so my plants are growing in gravel or in between the pavers, not ideal, but it works, and I actually think the plants are stronger than those growing in my regular garden because their roots are wrapped around stones and buried deep in what dirt they manage to reach.  

I feel so blessed that spring was a month earlier, having a warm April is a God sent gift from above, and one I am thankful for.  Long winters and the cold are not my "cup of tea", and my body really doesn't do well with those, so sunshine and warmth are always welcomed by me.

I wish all of you a happy gardening season this year.

Type 1 Diabetes Insulin Pumps

 TYPE 1 Diabetes

One of the worst illnesses and diseases one can have.  
I would love to hear from people on how they manage theirs, and if they use an insulin pump.

2022 THE GARDENING HAS BEGUN

 GARDENING NEWS 2022

Today is Good Friday.  Efoundaster is this Sunday, and I was busy in my garden this week.  Yesterday I managed to clean the areas under the strawberry containers and cleaned alot of weeds and leaf debris away.  It was a good start, but I have alot left to do to get everything ready and planted.  I did feel happy when I went and found that planting the mustard seeds in the fall had alleviated most of the weeds.  That was a welcome reprieve, and I now wish I had planted in both gardens, but the other one isn't so bad, it will take a few days of pulling and digging out small weeds and cleaning in between the garden tiled walkpads to get it into shape, but nothing like last year.  So lesson learned, start early in the fall cleaning out beds and planting mustard seeds or covering with black perforated film, I did that in one large bed, and while it's more expensive than mustard seed, it is less work than pulling out all of the mustard plants, or digging them under.  I wanted them for green compost because previously I shared a garden with someone and they put mostly browns in the compost box, so it hasn't really composted much since last year, so I am hoping the mixing of all the mustard vines and leaves with kick start it.  

I have tomato and bell pepper plants at home growing to put in the garden, it's easier than having to go check everyday on them and it was too cold to start them before last week.  

I'm hoping for a hot and dry summer.  OH and I forgot to mention, my strawberries are already getting blooms and my apple tree is in full bloom, but my peachtree from Russia is sick :( . 

It's only in the low 50s here today, so I am pressure washing my garden tiles - a very nasty but necessary job :(