garden – Page 12 – Home's Cool!

Blessings of Habit, Cats, Homemaking, Husbands, Inspiring, Wives

Catch-Up Day

Posted on March 8, 2011March 7, 2011 by Katharine

Ooh, am I tired!

Yesterday was a catch-up day. Several jobs that had waited long enough finally got my attention. It feels so good to have some of it done.

I started the day with the very last of the lavender harvest from last June. You have to realize I had to be 500 miles away for a couple weeks in June, and on the night before I left, I realized I just had to catch the lavender or it would be blown before I returned. So my husband and I spent probably an hour cutting it and dragging it, in baskets, into the house.

Then I disassembled the daybed in our sunroom and lay the lavender stems over both halves of it to dry. I told my husband he would have to turn it every day or two, so it could dry completely. Bless his heart, he already knew it, from harvesting hay as a boy. What a relief!

When I returned, the lavender was dry and the stripping began. It is not hard, just time-consuming and it bruises your thumb. Now I’ve finally finished that job . It made over two gallons of blossoms, the really good stuff. I’ve already sold thirty dollars worth of it and you can hardly tell it.

Also, I worked at catching up ironing. No one likes when the ironing is behind, around here, but least of all me. I have devised a good way to catch up ironing and thought I’d share it with you, here. It’s not so hard and really works for me.

How to Catch Up on Your Ironing

Hurry. That makes it go much faster.
Set aside time to fire up your iron every day.
Iron twice what your family would wear, every day.
Continue until caught up.

That’s it—so easy. For me, since only my husband wears much ironed clothes, if I iron two shirts and a pair of pants for him each day, soon all is done. Now and then I insert something for someone else, but really, most of us wear no-iron clothing like t-shirts, sweats, and the softer denims. It may take a week or two, but it does work.

Another chore was making sure all the bed linens are clean, since we are expecting lots of company this weekend. Several will stay the night to worship with us. Lots of fun, and I cannot wait.

Lastly, I had a few outdoor chores to finish: mulching around newly-planted trees, bringing potted plants indoors because of a cold-snap, composting some waste vegetation, etc.

Here are a couple shots of our cat, Earl Grey, caught in the act of sampling the catnip. I’d been weeding it, and he caught the aroma. (It smells a lot like cat fur, to me.) Anyway, in the second photo, you can see his face better, in his irritated pose.

Earl Grey, irritated — Earl Grey, Irritated

Well, I’m off to do some more laundry! Then have an art class today, with a delightful girl with real talent.

See ya’!

Homemaking, Pre-schoolers

Weekly Photo Challenge: Shadow

Posted on March 7, 2011April 19, 2011 by Katharine

I am SO not a photographer.

If you know anything, at all, about photography, you know: soon as I planned to take photos of shadows, the sky clouded over, erasing them all. Later, as the clouds thinned, the resulting shadow quickly disappeared while I readied my camera. You know.

The sand pictured below lives in the shadow of our house, a northeast inward corner and a cool playground for kiddos in summer. In early spring, though, it boasts the abundance of weed seed it has collected since last summer. In this photo, I have just raked all the weeds away. Don’t like to spray where kiddos play.

Nevertheless, here is the sand area, complete with shadow but sans board to keep it all in place. We’ll get a new board; the old one was termite-ridden. This is the usual spring cleanup ritual around our yard.

If you know anything, at all, about sand areas, you know the gritty-squish sound my shoes made as I tried to step lightly into the sunroom where my camera is. Will have to sweep there, soon.

If you know anything, at all, about gardening tools, you know what brand these are, from the fragment of label revealing itself from the underside. The torturous-looking one is torturous in real dirt, but in sand it is perfect.

Isn’t it odd the sand looks more like sphagnum in a close up? It looks just like sand, in reality.

Thinking about shadows made me realize I have an early bloomer in the deeper shade. Between the well-house and the house grow some hellebores. These picky little ones love living in the shadows. They were camera shy and I had to prop up their faces with my green watering can. It is fun to realize they have come back to bloom for me.

I can be like that, sometimes. Although I do enjoy an outing, I am most comfortable at home, blooming in the shadows. I like my old comfortable places

Don’t we all, Sisters?

Homemaking, Inspiring, Wisdom

Another Abundance

Posted on March 1, 2011March 1, 2011 by Katharine

We have plenty of these little golden guys out already, too.

Dandelions are not daffodils, but children do not know or care. In their innocence or ignorance, they cherish dandelions.

I did. Didn’t you?

Moms know, however, that for all their cheer and good smell, dandelions do not make good cut flowers. They wilt and close up. Once I even had one re-open while living in a vase, and put forth seeds.

Ah, yes. The seeds. They do put them forth. And children, again, in their innocence, hardly dream we frown on the glorious fun of blowing seeds all over the yard.

But we do.

It’s not that we don’t like dandelions, but that they are not grass. Don’t we change as we mature! Suddenly we realize the great fragrance of the dandelion hides amazing skill at infiltrating.

So what is the lesson, here? I think we can say God made Mom and Dad older than the children for a good reason. He put children into homes for a good reason. He told children to honor their parents for a good reason.

That good reason is: the preservation and teaching of the children. Parents teach the children that not all that glitters is gold. We teach them that not every good smelling thing is good, on closer inspection.

If we are diligent, if we can remember all we know and teach it, our children will turn out better than we did.

That’s a promise.

Believe it or not!, Good ol' days, Homemaking, Inspiring, Wisdom

Weekly Photo Challenge: Abundance

Posted on February 28, 2011September 4, 2011 by Katharine

We have an abundance of daffodils. You may think this vase full of them is an example, but it so far falls short.

When we bought our property, it was a hot, arid summer. Few people would think of daffodils at that time of year. In fact, the lovely woman selling the property apologized for not having fresh flowers out that day. Amazing lady!

Come spring, this is what we found:

And, of course, as promised:

We were shocked at the abundance, marveled at the forethought of people now passed on, who planted and planted and planted for someone else ultimately to enjoy. And they did this just because that’s the way it ought to be done.

I want to think like that. Sometimes I do. I have given and planted untold times for my children, for their future, but I want to be sure I leave behind something someone can point to and say, “Someone was sure thinking about the future!”

I want to amaze someone with abundance.

Blessings of Habit, Coffee-ism, Homemaking

Here Comes Spring (Hay) Fever!

Posted on February 25, 2011March 16, 2018 by Katharine

Well after all the fun posting photos of snow, Spring has sprung, hasn’t it!

With Spring comes Spring fever. This is a malady that makes you feel like doing nothing. It attacks us, hand-in-hand with its old ally: hay fever. Hay fever makes us feel like yuck.

Itchy eyes, ears, nose, throat; runny eyes, nose; stuffy nose; and cough are just a few of the delights that visit us each year, if we are among the pollen afflicted.

Pollen is so tiny, yet can cause such misery!

Outside of chemicalizing oneself half to death, what can a person do?

Spring pollens do not bother me, but I have found several ways to beat ragweed, which possibly would help with any other pollen problem. I’d love to share them with you!

The first thing I always do is eat honey all year long. Not just any honey will do. It must be raw, as in uncooked. If the label isn’t boasting, it probably isn’t. It also must be native, as in from near where I live. Honey contains miniscule flower parts in various forms, and eating about a teaspoon of it daily helps me beat my pollen allergies, like an immunization.
Outside of that tiny dose of honey, I avoid all sugars. Sugar kills immunities, especially the super-processed sugars.
I take vitamin C. A lot. Vitamin C is supposed to help with the body’s immunities, so it is what I need. I also find that for me, the things I’ve read about C acting as a mild antihistamine are true. They say you can tell if you’ve had too much when you develop diarrhea. They say to cut back a bit if that happens. I usually get by with taking 2000 milligrams per day.
I wash my face a lot. Every time I think the pollen is getting to me, I wash it off. Have you ever seen a magnified photo of pollen? It looks prickly like a cactus. No wonder it bothers the sensitive tissues of face, eyes, and nose. After washing, I apply a coating of some light hand lotion to my face. As it dries, it seems to make a barrier between my skin and the pollen prickles.
I stay indoors and keep windows shut. I know, some of you cannot do this, but those who can may find it helps. After all, the pollen is out there, not in here.
If I find that I am just simply miserable, I use heat on my face. I run a bowl of hot water, as hot as I’d ever want a bath, and dip water from it with a washcloth and hold this over my face, renewing as it cools. Or I stand in the shower with the water hot, spraying on my face. It takes about 10 or 15 minutes, but this wet heat draws out the histamines in my body. Histamines are what cause allergic reactions, and are what anti-histamines are supposed to circumvent.
Anyway, as the heat applied to my face draws out the histamines, my face is itchy and my nose grows stuffy. Oh, but—when that itching stops, it means all the histamines my body could produce are out. Most bodies cannot produce any more for several hours, like four to eight. Hours. Of no itching, sneezing, stuffy nose, runny eyes, etc. It’s plenty of time to take a nap or go to a restaurant or visit a friend like a normal person.
If I go so far as to become wheezy, I drink hot coffee. Coffee is supposed to be a good emergency substitute for asthma drugs. I don’t have asthma, but hot coffee helps me breathe when the pollen count is high.

There you have it, what I do instead of taking pills. Sometimes, when it really is tough outside, I have to add pills to my regime, but not often. I love not being tied to chemicals and I think you will, too.

Inspiring, Sayings

Weekly Photo Challenge: Refuge

Posted on February 21, 2011August 11, 2015 by Katharine

These are my woods.

In spring, these woods beckon to me. I leave housekeeping, planting, and writing, and walk alone through my woods. I can feel the presence of those who have gone before. I think ancient people walked my woods. They were welcome.

In these woods is a small, natural chapel. Pines bent by ice storms form arches over a deep bed of straw. A trickling spring interrupts the palpable hush. Surely the wild things growing here have waited, their beauty unnoticed for ages.

Paths through these woods lead to a gravel road, which leads to town. No one coming from town would be able to find the outlet, the access to the paths; a charming privacy. There are no sounds except the ones God created; a calming quiet.

I go to these woods when they call to me, when housekeeping, planting and writing weary me.

Then I come back. I have promises to keep, and miles to go . . .

Blessings of Habit, Home School, Homemaking, Inspiring, Pre-schoolers, Who's the mom here?, Wisdom

Scream Carrot Gardening and How to Stay Alive

Posted on December 8, 2010May 20, 2016 by Katharine

In the summer, we still teach our children. You know we teach them all the time, right?

Really fresh carrots

One summer, we were all out in the garden learning about how hard carrots can be to pull up. It was fun, though, a sort of tug-o-war between children and carrots, with Mom along to man the shovel if the tops broke off.

So many Bible lessons happen in the garden. We constantly show them how well the weeded plants grow, compared to the weedy ones. They know a beet seedling from a pigweed seedling, although they so resemble each other.

And the buckets of rocks!

They have learned to love harvesting their own snacks straight from the garden, like a small, perfectly sun-ripened tomato, rubbed until shiny and popped into the mouth to dribble everywhere while quenching thirst. They know a small packet of seeds can make all those jars of wonderful food in the basement.

The most important lessons the garden teaches, though, is that when Mom says you have to do something, whether you like it or not, you have to do it. This lesson, in a grown child and transferred to other authorities, can protect job security.

In a young child, it can save a life or limb.

Most dangers in life are unexpected. We can teach endlessly and still miss the lesson that will be needed tomorrow. This was the case, one day.

My son, another fearless one, about age twelve, had managed to extract one carrot that housed a curiously beautiful spider in its stems. He brought it to me to see its beauty and I’m sure my eyes widened.

“Drop it!” I ordered.

He looked at me, saw my face matched my tone, and obeyed. Today I still think about it. He was happy with his find, happy in his boldness, and probably happy in anticipation of sharing and of my praise. What a big deal to older brother, to turn loose of this happiness! But he did it.

And that day, the garden yielded up the lessons of the black widow spider. God’s protection, parents’ obligation to protect children, children’s obligation to obey, and the continuing obligation for all to “FEAR NOT!”—all those lessons and more came from our garden that day.

And I am not afraid, but I still shudder. His right hand was two inches from destruction.

But God can fit inside two inches.

Last story in this series here!