so far:
Yesterday Tulio and I went to a new Mexican/Salvadoran restaurant and the food was really good and the beer was cheap and there were Mariachis who (and this is very important) were paid by the restaurant owners so they didn't ask for money

Also, I got my awesome bag of fibers from hollyeqq

( click here to see fiber! )

Also, I just went outside and discovered that the hosta that I thought died came back to life!



The first columbine bud opened



And my pansies are still rockin despite the heat:



OMG! The mailman just brought me more fiber! now I can make more unicorns!!!!



and in a little bit I'm going downtown for the earth day celebrations so I'm sure I'll have more photos later on.

As usual, nothing much! Mostly I'm wasting time rather than getting my documentation done :)

I was going to go swimming again but the weather has been very odd all day (it's raining and windy and cool -- in the South, in August? very unusual!). I designed a hat (for the Ravelympics) and I need some pattern testers (send me a pm with your email address if interested)
Here's a picture of the hat:




I learned something new about my husband, namely that he is very enthusiastic about the Olympic games. He went to bed last night at 12:30 and was up again at 4:00 to watch the games! OH! We just had our 4th wedding anniversary, go us.

my moonflower continues to rock the house and be difficult to photograph.



I guess I don't have much interesting to write about -- I've been invited to participate in an art and craft fair in September, so I've been crafting in all my free time so that I'll actually have some stock! I'm going to Georgia next weekend to see my mom and sister and dog, and I'm looking forward to that! :) I did take a homeless guy out to lunch today -- he told me he was a vegetarian but then he ordered chicken wings.

I don't really have a garden, just a little strip of dirt that runs along my patio. But some of the stuff I've planted is just rocking out so I thought I'd share a couple photos!

Not too many but behind ( this cut )

In other news I went swimming in the river with my friend Lisa and now I am very very sleepy but I have to do my timesheet and billing stuff and whatnot. And Spot tried to catch a rabbit today! I chased the rabbit away to thwart her, but I was proud of her ambition.

2 weeks ago I planted a bunch of seeds -- purple queen zinnias, cilantro, 4 o clocks, and little tri-color violas (which I should have planted in fall I think, oh well). As I worked through the flower bed I smelled something funky but didn't think much of it. Then I got to the spot behind the little trellis where the sweet-peas grow (or, more accurately, where they try to grow and get munched by rabbits and/or deer) where I had been planning to plant my 4 o clocks, and discovered that the dog had dug a big hole and partially buried a baby bunny in it (his ADD did not let him finish the task, evidently).
So I got my shovel and threw the baby bunny over the fence into the neighbor's yard (which is my family's way of dealing with most revolting things; also, one year we set his tree on fire shooting off fireworks; fortunately, he doesn't go out in his yard much, but he'd probably not be too fond of us if he did)(I had debated burying the bunny, but didn't want to encourage the dog to continue digging in the flower bed -- although he enjoys doing so, since we are so nice and loosen up the dirt for him; I also debated directing the dog to grab the bunny and take it AWAY, but there was once a traumatizing episode where he brought a decaying chipmunk into the house -- my dad slammed the door before the dog could get in but he spit the chipmunk out and all the cats pounced on it, so my dad wrestled it away from them and threw it away -- probably over the fence -- and then the dog came in and was really upset because he couldn't find his chipmunk and he looked all around for it and accused the cats, and pouted).
Anyway, today I went outside to play with the dog, and he clearly wanted to play with me, he did the thing where he jumps around in a way that means "PLAY WITH ME!!!! playplayplay mememe PLAY with ME!" but he didn't want to play fetch the tennis ball, he wanted to play, lets run around the yard and smell chipmunk holes and dig, which I wasn't too into. And then he ate some grass and threw up.
So then I went to look at the garden, and all the seeds are coming up, along with some cosmos from last year, and some nigella that I planted last year and then never watered, so I'm amazed they're still alive. And the rose campion and irises are blooming, the bronze fennel recovered well from being eaten by caterpillars and looks gorgeous (and has a lot of babies too)(and has an allelopathic effect, so it grows in the only weed-free spot of the garden, which is very obliging of it). The gardenia is whiney and leggy because it wants more sun, to which I say "suck it up gardenia, you're too big to transplant." Last year I had a very similar conversation with some sage, and the sage responded by up and dying. There is something mysterious sprouting, that I have no idea what it is, but I am HOPING that it is the butterfly weed coming back to life, because it kicked the bucket at the same time as the sage. However, the four o clocks are NOT sprouting, because the dog re-dug his hole, presumably looking for his baby bunny. I also saw a rabbit there yesterday morning -- I like to think (because I am grim) that she was looking for her bunny, but probably she was just eating the sweet peas. There are also a lot of little green strawberries (it is a very random garden), but the dog always gets the ripe ones before I do.

Here are my first projects for 50 projects!
As I said, I want all my projects to be a "first" -- e.g. the first time I have tried a technique or succesfully completed something or something like that.
They are picture heavy so I will hide them behind ( this cut )

The butterfly weed (which I stole from a construction site several years ago, and which has bloomed every year but never set seed, has finally set seed!

So I dug up the dirt around the mother plant, and sprinkled about half of the seeds around. The rest can go their own way, I wish them well.

here they are:



and here are the wierd little houses that replaced the former meadow I stole the plant from:



what is the point of houses that are 2 feet apart? why not just build condos?

november 14th I bought a paperwhite narcissus kit and planted one of the bulbs. I then planted a bulb each subsequent week -- that way I should get at least 4 weeks of flowers! Anyway, the first flower opened today, ( here it is! )

I thought my fennel was starting to look a little thin, so I went to check on it, and this is who I found!




Swallowtail caterpillars!

there were 12 of them. Then yesterday there were 7, and today there are only 4. I'm hoping they've gone off somewhere to make cocoons!
They are so cute! see?



and here's a gratuitious picture of my favorite zinnia.

does anyone else think there are an abnormally high number of squirrels around this year? i'm thinking maybe the mild winter meant more survived winter to reproduce or something? anyway, there's a LOT of them around here!
one of the ones that sorta lives in my yard and partially in my neighbor's yard too DOESN'T HAVE A TAIL! just a tiny little nub! he looks like a small bunny! very cute. my sister claims that his taillessness means he can't climb as fast as the other squirrels (alhtough you'd think he'd be more aerodynamic without that big fluffy thing) and we tried to catch him the other day but we were unsuccessful.
i've also noticed that out where i live -- which is still relatively undeveloped with comparitively little traffic -- the squirrels still do that quintessential dumb squirrel thing when they see cars -- you know, run this way, run that way, fling themselves under the tires -- but in the downtown area, they see the car and run in the opposite direction! perhaps a super-intelligent breed of squirrels is being created in the downtown area, where they can steal food, escape feral cats, and keep from being squished by cars! who knows what they will accomplish next?
we also have a ballsy ass chipmunk living in the flower bed in front of the front porch. we plant things, he digs them up. he also lurks and stares, and probably whistles or throws piropos at us too. anyway, mom had a sack of walnuts and she put some out for him. then she left the sack sitting on the steps in the carport. so he snuck into the carport when no-one was looking, and stole all the walnuts! punk!

squirrels squirrels squirrels squirrels squirrels

Lately I've been conducting a compost experiment.

Here is the garden (and a flying pig). it's doing really well considering the soil is crap.



we sort of compost but not in a systematic way. all yard waste gets thrown at the back of the lot. it's a useful defense in case the neighbors ever turn on us, but we don't really get useable compost.



so my experiment was to take yard waste (primarily grass clippings and leaves) and put them in a heavy duty plastic bag, lightly dampen with water, tie the bag shut and put it out in the sun. every day (more or less) I take the bag and shake it and move it, to make sure everything is breaking down evenly, and to make sure the grass under the bag doesn't get killed. here is an exciting action shot of the inside of the compost bag.



OOOH! COMPOSTY!!!

anyway, it's working pretty well so today I started another bag! I get really excited about homemade soil amendments! I miss living in Honduras where I could just walk down to my neighbor's corral to get some nice fertilizer for my garden. I don't know anyone here who has cows, except for the university, and I think they feed them Bermuda hay, the seeds of which I do not want in my garden.