Photos, Lots of Photos

My, but I've been busy, and just to prove it I've taken a ton of photos. Last night I sat down and finished up the first bobbin of Junior.



I really, really like this fiber, and I wanted to move on to a new bobbin, but I decided instead to be good and actually spin up the fourth singles of the shetland x icelandic x g*#%^$%@d barn floor roving. I know a little vegetable matter is to be expected in roving, but not a full bale of hay per pound of roving, plus pieces of wood shavings, occasional twigs, what appears to be some bark, and heaven knows what else. Needless to say, I've learned a valuable lesson about looking closely at the roving before buying it. Now it needs to be washed, dyed, and plied.



After all that spinning, I finally went to bed for a few hours, but it was a woefully short nap, as I had appointments and things to do. It was a gorgeous day - sunny with a stiff sea breeze all day long - so one thing to do this afternoon was to buy plants at the local nursery and make a little container garden.



The wooden planters were a pair of window boxes David bought some time ago to use as display fixtures for shows and no longer needed. A few drainage holes drilled in the bottom and they work wonderfully. Being a practical sort, I like to stick mostly with herbs and edibles with a bit of color to liven things up. Here's the longer of the two boxes.



And here's the shorter.



And here's a planter I started a few weeks ago and added a new Basil and an oregano plant to today. The African Queen basil actually has a very Thai basil anise-y flavor. You can see that some of the nasturtium leaves are yellowed, as well. This is from getting a bit of shock from being transplanted into a south-facing container during a hot couple of days. It seems to have largely gotten over it. This particular planter is from Lunaform and is one I've had for a few years. I actually first read about them, I believe, in an issue of Garden Design and was surprised to see that they're only a few miles from my grandmother's house. This was one of their cheapest designs and one that I could actually afford, but they do some beautiful work.



And if you happened to notice the seemingly empty terra cotta pot, this is what's in that one (and in another container that's not very evident in the photo).



Can't place it? It's an avocado pit from the salad. Remember the salad? There have been some requests for a recipe. It's pretty adaptable, but the skeleton is this: tortilla chips, romaine lettuce, black beans, salsa, sour cream. For the one in the photo, I didn't use cheese, but I love it with cheddar (Cabot Seriously Sharp, preferably).

And lest you think my garden is all sunshine and happiness, I offer you this.



I set my aloes out a week or so ago to get some sun and fresh air, as I don't really have a sunny spot indoors for them. After all, they're native to Africa. They love sun, right? Apparently not when they haven't seen it for a while and they're out for a couple of muggy 90ºF days. So I figured they were probably toast, which was sad. They're one of the things I took from my relationship with S. A friend had given him a baby plant, which he had barely managed to avoid killing before I took it over, repotted it and nurtured it into a fine stand of parent and numerous baby plants. I repotted them before I moved and kept these and one other that Tolo destroyed. Before I tossed them on the compost heap, though, I figured I'd better wait and see what happened, and sure enough....



So while they look really sad right now, it appears that they will survive their sunburn, and I will know to be a bit more cautious about letting them work up to that degree of exposure.

One last photo. This is not my doing and is on the landladies' side of the yard. These flowers opened a few days ago and I thought they were Dianthus until I went over today to get a photo. The leaves are fleshy, silvery, and hirsute, and it looks familiar, but I can't for the life of me think what the name might be. Anyone?