MORE LOVE THAN MONEY

Hello dear friends!  Hurray!  We finally got some rain!  The birds are merrily chirping outside my window as I write this.  I'm sure the farmers are saying a prayer of thankfulness.  Never have I seen such a dry spring .   The ground was so dry before the rain we needed a jackhammer to break the soil.  And that is only a small exaggeration!  In spite of the weather,  the garden is growing and this week we will be able to harvest the first of our lettuce and I spied one small cauliflower that is ripe for the pickings.  Of course, we are still gathering asparagus almost daily. I tell you, if you want to make friends, just plant yourself a nice plot of asparagus.  We've been spreading goodwill throughout the village with our gifts of free asparagus.  Besides the friendships, it has netted us free plants.  Just yesterday a friend swapped a bushel basketful of irises for some.  Not that we really needed anymore irises (but hey, who can turn down free plants?), here's a picture of one of several large clusters we have planted around the place:

If you want to make a big impact on your landscape, plant in large clusters.  When I was a beginner gardener, I would plant many different plants because I wanted them all, the results ended up looking a bit like a tossed salad.  Over the years I have learned that it is much more awe inspiring to see a field of daffodils (or irises) then many varieties of plants.  It is times like this, that I wish I were a better photographer for you all. But to be truthful, there is no camera that could capture the serenity of the birds singing, the church bells chiming in the distance, the lilacs wafting, and the feel of the sun on your face.  I guess you will just have to climb in your cars and pay me a visit! I couldn't bear to let the irises that toppled over to go to waste, so I brought them inside.  The made a rather ginormous bouquet, I had to use a crock for the vase because I don't have a vase big enough, but that's OK because I like rustic, as you can plainly see.

I've been rearranging this room to meet out needs.  It has to do duty as a sitting room, music room and sewing room.  Oh!  And also my dressing room, as it is the only room with enough wall space for the linen cupboard that houses my wardrobe. Speaking of which, I finally got around to painting said linen cupboard.  It was green and yellow before. Ugh! 

I'm still not satisfied with it.  Looks too plain and not primitive enough for my likings. I cannot abide perfection in furniture or people.  I'll probably sand it a bit and apply some antiquing rub  to it.  BTW, please ignore the broom in the corner!  When you have corgis the broom is seldom put away!

Living in a tiny house can certainly present some challenges.   Just yesterday Ran bought both a watermelon and a large jug of juice.  How to fit that into our apartment-sized refrigerator was a puzzler.  One creative way I save space in the fridge is to make lemonade syrup instead of having a large pitcher of lemonade.  You just add 1/4 cup of the syrup to 3/4 cup of cold water and you have lemonade. It's good added to iced tea also,

Old-Fashioned Lemonade Syrup

1 1/2 C. sugar
1 1/2 C. water
1 tablespoon of lemon rind, finely grated
1 1/2 C. lemon juice (6-7 med. lemons)

In a small saucepan stir together the sugar, water and rind,  Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes, stirring often.  Remove from the heat and let cool.  Stir in the lemon juice.  Transfer to a quart jar and refrigerate for up to 3 weeks.

Another painting project that I completed recently, was to paint a bench that I purchased at a garage sale for $15. 

For some  reason I'm attracted to red for garden structures, which is odd since red is my least favorite color.  But it does contrast beautifully with my white garden, which is starting to bloom.

First the bleeding hearts and the anemones, followed shortly by the lupines and lilies and ending  with the bridal phlox in August.  Oh!  Speaking of white flowers, here's a picture of Beauty of Moscow.

Since we are spending so much time outdoors, it was only reasonable to do some campfire cookery.  Saves on fuel and doesn't heat the house up.  Plus it's a fun inexpensive little adventure.  Make everyday fun!

This is the classic campfire tin-foil packets of potatoes, carrots, onions, hamburg and salt and pepper  wrapped in tin foil and roasted in the coals. Only we used a Dutch oven instead of making packets.  When we were kids, we would make up those packets and camp out in the backyard.  We were ones for camping and I'm sure our parents didn't mind that we were only a few steps from the house.  It was nice wholesome fun!

Speaking of adventures, regular readers to this blog might recall our Christmas morning adventure when we came across a pile of free lumber.  Well, we finally got around to using it up by making a mixed lumber wall in our back room.  This is the room that houses our woodstove and we spend most of the winter in this room.

This one a project that was way out of Ran's comfort zone as he like to make everything plumb and perfect.  Sticking up random boards without regard to how level they were and whether they butted exactly was pretty nerve wracking for him, but we ove how it turned out.  We even made a light fixture from an old farm funnel and parts that I picked up at an estate sale.  I always head straight to the workshop at estate sales.  Never can resist old hardware and as a result I always have those odd parts needed whenever we do a project like this.

Ran also used some pallets to make a table with a piece of zinc that we found thrown out in the vacant lot nearby.  He also made a workbench from some of the pallets.  Free pallets are a good thing.  If nothing else, you can always burn them for fuel.

Another little project we finished recently was making this stick fence from dead branches that we collected from our walks this winter

It's hard to get enough that are suitable, but maybe this year, we'll get enough to continue along the next side.  BTW, that's my rhubarb going to seed.  Three plants is too much, but I think its flowers are just as pretty as astilbe.  The yellow flowers are woad, an herb used in dying things blue.

All this to say, that if you do things with great love, you need very little money.  I must finish this post quickly because my computer froze at the end of the above paragraph and I borrowed Ran's to finish up.

Hugs
Jane