in pictures

Well hello again! Its been a spell. Far too long...Grandmother Spider was reminding me many weeks ago when she crawled on my face one night, then the next night brought a light colored friend to visit as well, they hung out on the window sill above my bed. One dark one light. So for Spider I write!

Creating....

I'm not sure if you remember this blue bag, I made it for a beautiful wonderful friend in North Carolina, it was for her daughter for her birthday. She contacted me a while ago and exclaimed she wanted one too just like Natalie's but a little bigger. I was excited, I knew instantly what fabric I would use, one that reminded me of Paige. She loved it!! <3

Hand drawn and embroidered

 Worms...

 Did I ever tell you I have worms?? I do! And they make magical poo! These bins started with a hand full of soil and a mound of newspaper, and I slowly added chopped up food that I didn't want to eat, and the worms made it into yummy nutrient filled soil! However I need to rework my design, some escape to their demise on the cement floor... :(

The snow is gone! And the grass is GREEN!

My little altar that sits atop my window sill above my head as I sleep

Ferns sprouting in the Wisconsin woods

I went for a nice hike in the woods with a great friend and we spotted these ferns sprouting up everywhere! It was wonderful to be out in the woods, and it was such a beautiful day. I need to remember to make sure I get lots of outside time!

I have also recently started school again. I didn't think I would ever go back to school after college. But this is different, I am studying to be a massage therapist. It's so wonderful, I absolutely love being able to be so close with people gently communicating with their bodies to help them heal. Touch is so amazing, giving and receiving massages is a meditative practice for me as well. When receiving a massage I have to focus repeatedly reminding myself to relax, let go. I am always holding some muscle in tension. I feel love flowing when I give massages, warm and golden.

<3<3

-L

the buzzing of bees and flowering of consciousness

As I sit here I have the images of our garden flowers etched in my mind. Something about those cute Chamomile flowers reflects this bounding happiness within me. Flowers are somehow very connected to me........ perhaps we vibrate at similar frequencies (if you read this last line about frequencies and are perplexed, think of it this way, all matter is made of atoms right? and those little atoms have electrons zipping around outside of them (yes) so isn't all matter essentially moving or vibrating!?....i know right!?). Like feeling the buzz of bees right down in your heart. I can feel this buzzing sensation easily in my hands, try this: close your eyes, and see if you can feel your hands....not picture or imagine but actually FEEL them ....can you feel it, the aliveness and vibrations?

There is usually a flurry of winged creatures busily dancing about the blooms. Maybe I was a bee in a past life? It could explain my attraction to bright colors and flowers! ha Well I took a few pictures maybe you too can get a sense for my flower love :)

If you haven't you should click on the picture to enlarge them and see more detail.

 The Borage flower is beloved by bees, but check out that iridescent green guy..or gal!

German Chamomile

Candy Stripe Cosmos

Backside of the most beautiful purple Gladiolus!

Here's her face! Ms. Gladiolus! You may
recognize her from my tattoo!

Nodding Borage buds. Just waiting
to flash their blue petals.

Pink Zinnias! I love those
raggedy ones!

White Polar Bear Zinnia

Our Sugar Snap spoils! yum!

Baby Red Bell pepper

Bell Pepper flower, so beautiful!

How many cayenne's do you see?

The Tomato forest :)

Clouds have been very grounding for me....maybe the opposite of grounding. I'm not sure, but they remind me of the expanse of the universe and that I needn't get caught up in trivial matters....we (humans) are so tiny, yet can cause much change.... 

I look at them in awe and then become still, my mind empties.

I can feel the expanse of the sky.

My mind is rendered void and spacious.

Flowing with the currents of the universe.

Liberation.

New surprise friends!

Dorian and I were out perusing the garden the other morning as we tend to do. And we made some exciting discoveries. Dorian had spotted a tiny mantis in our broccoli on day, but on this day we found TWO baby Mantis...mantisess, manti...I'm unsure of the plural...Mantids? This one is so little the silver circle is a nail head.

This is my version of where's Waldo.... Mira Mantis? I think I've been watching too much Dora the Explorer with the tots I get to babysit haha.

 I'm not sure who found who!?

Beautiful.

 Of course we love the Ladybug, because they love munching aphids! This one is hanging out on my bolting cilantro, I didn't mind at all that the cilantro decided to go to seed. Bees love the flowers, and flowers make me giddy! I have buds on my stained glass flowers and a couple zinnia...talk about bugs in my britches, I don't want to pressure my flowers but I sometimes feel like camping out for a few hours to watch them.

 Damselfly hanging out on some lettuce. While I was working at Emandal I had a Damselfly land on my hat and stay there for almost a whole day! I took it into my room with me that night, and upon further inspection I found its wing to be crinkled :( The next morning it was gone. I'm certainly glad it came to stay with me a while. 

Yeah, I know. Super badass....right!? This plant makes me so happy! It's my Darlintonia Pitcher plant. Also known as the Cobra Plant and is native to Califorina whom also has 'cool root' requirements. Its a carnivore, yea it eats bugs! Hopefully not our friends mentioned above! This plant is so well adapted! Check out the windows on the bulbous head, once the ...lets say fly crawls in by that cool looking forked tongue and realizes it wants out, it flies up into those windows and can't find the hole it crawled in! Pretty narly... I am especially pleased because 2 of my other carnivores perished after some hard freezes and cat perils this winter, my beautiful white trumpet pitchers and my california sundew...

 the brassica homies, under their awesome shade structure.

 there she is looking nice and green!

Recently I have noticed my consumerist tendencies. I have also felt a bit of disconnect with my intuition and a general lack of focus. A bit hum drum if you will. Dorian and I made a trip to a local farm today, Raft Swamp Farm. Where Louie the proprietor lead us on a jacked up golf cart tour. It was so inspiring, he was truly a survivalist, using awesome cover cropping techniques, drip irrigation, and running things almost totally off grid! Who wouldn't want grapes, peaches, persimmons, blueberries, strawberries and mulberries! YUM! We also got to taste some purple passion asparagus! YUM, uh the mulberries were so delicious! What a wonderful place. Oh and the birds, he built tons of birdhouses for the birds and says they take care of all his flying insects, especially the purple martins they eat 3,000 bugs a day! Plus he has one of the only 3 registered natural apiaries in North Carolina! Yay for bees! and not using chemicals on them :) He also has I think eight 3.5 acre plots that farmers can come and use! He's a farmer incubator! He is full of wonderful ideas!

Louie was full of wonderful stories and even picked us some sassafras so we could make some tea...which reminds me its ready! Y'all remember what sassafras makes right?? I thought it smelled like licorice, and it does a bit but its root beer! 

Thanks Louie for a wonderful day! And for all you do!!

Much love xoxo

-L

New Roommates, New Garden Structures, someone is getting FAT, and I have to Pea!

Yep, I've been thinking about all of you and how much you have been on the edge of your seats just waiting for me to post again. WAIT NO LONGER!


I have been so busy this past week or so. Three markets last week, a custom bag order, tons of garden work....... My sentence length to busyness ratio seems a bit off..... Well I know if you are like me you just mostly want to see pictures anyway so take a look! I may have had my sentence/busyness ratio off but I believe my words to pictures ratio is much better.

A little peek of the Farmer's Market table. Ogle away.

 

On a Farmer's Market related note, I was requested to make this little number. It turned out awesome! And for size reference, I believe a mini schnauzer would fit inside....Thank you Katy & Justin!

I told you someone was getting FAT! haha YAY fat little blueberries!!

We built this awesome little hoop shade structure! We are so excited. We look like garden pros now! Hopefully the lettuce, brassicas, and spinach will like it! There were a few scary parts when we were setting it up and we definately would make some adjustments upon building another one but its not too shabby for a first attempt!

Dorian attaching the shade cloth.

BAM! Super cool! We might even be able to turn it into a greenhouse so this stuff can be grown during the winter. All we need is a thick clear plastic tarp to cover it, and maybe a little heater.

We totally pea-d! Dorian was telling me all about sugar snaps and how fast they grow. He said I should take a picture everyday to see how much they are growing. Well this was the best I could do.

The first clinger!!! Go pea go!!!

The peas are now 6-7" tall and haven't quite gotten the hang of our hillbilly fence yet.

 

Above and below are our new roommates! I had a Farmers Market event at the Cape Fear Botanical Gardens' Plant sale! Of course we needed and aloe.....we are going to be in the sun all summer, and have already had one little sunburn incident...

And the ORCHID! So beautiful! I wanted one that was a little different then most you see. This one reminds me of some of the ones I saw at the Berkeley Botanical gardens! It smells wonderful too! Yay Plants!

Clap your hands for orchids!!

a super quick update before the unofficial FARMERS MARKET!!

 Our little toddler transplants are going to market today! I hope people like broccoli and cauliflower around here....and the weather will stay cool enough.......

Chamomile! Such a wonderful tea/medicinal herb! You are coming to market too!

BASIL!!! Has to be one of the most beloved herbs! Though you are not quite ready for market...you need to get used to the outdoors first.

And one of the blueberry bushes has flowers already!!

Oh and I found out today that I'm IN for the farmers market...the official one. Yay, thanks to my wonderful brother and his lovely wife for the donation!! It got me in!! The official farmers market hasn't started here in Fayetteville yet but there's an unofficial one happening currently that I'm about to join in an hour and a half! So exciting! 

Keep on se(o)wing the love!!

xoxo