Gardens | Love, Laughter, and Life

March 20, 2019
by Angie Leave a comment

Spring Cleaning

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This past (YAY) winter has left this bod in serious cabin fever shape.

It’s true. Being cooped up inside with record snowfalls does nothing for a hiking physique. I did spend quite a bit of time shoveling, but that exercise was offset by hiding inside away from frigid temps.

Take my walk today, for instance. Huffing and puffing, sweating and trudging at a snail’s pace, the summer hiking season seemed far from my grasp. After all, actual hiking is done up and down, over hill and dale.

That’s when I realized my self needed spring cleaning. Some sprucing up, working out, and trimming off the fat.

Spring cleaning is coming to this future outdoors woman.

Walking around the yard, I noticed several casualties of the heavy snow and resulting compact ice. Funny smiling face? Busted. Sage in clay pot? Needs repotting to an undamaged pot. Siberian irises in a similarly disintegrating pot? Same treatment. Gravel strewn every which way due to shoveling of snow.

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Spring cleaning extends to the garden and surrounding yard.

It also includes the cat, Monet, who is sporting more of a tummy due to forced lack of exercise, and her favorite pastime-hunting. It’s hard to hunt or pursue any fun activities when snow accumulations are higher than your head! The one time she tried, well, it was hysterical and a very fast trip. Monet is in much need of a tune up.

Spring cleaning has arrived for the cat.

Monet on her way up the pasture to the irrigation ditch (and future snacks)

The good news is she caught her ‘second’ first mouse of the season today. We thought spring was on the way in late January and early February. That was when she ate her first mouse of the year. And then Snowmageddon. There was much lying around, racing through the RV, climbing the walls, and sleeping on fuzzy blankets.

Inside the RV, blankets and rugs have been washed. Carpets love their new vacuumed look and floors appear a shade lighter after being mopped. Excess items are disappearing from cluttered sight. Spring cleaning is happening all over the place.

Let’s chat just a bit about the honey. In his jammies. And plastic shoes. Right now. Out smashing down mole hills all over the pasture. This mole has been a busy beaver, leaving a winding lane of black dirt mountains across the field. Soooo, honey does his spring cleaning by paying attention to signs of the season.

Spring cleaning comes to the Yakima Valley.

How about you? Have you enjoyed spring cleaning? What’s your favorite spring cleaning task?

March 6, 2019
by Angie Leave a comment

Happy Hump Day Haiku Challenge: again

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commence shoveling!

again, or still; nearly spring-

snow falls quietly

again by Angie Quantrell

Like Groundhog’s Day (the movie), this winter clutches our neck of the woods with the setting of repeat. Some movies have that choice, did you know? Especially for the younger crowd. I didn’t know winter had the same option.

But I LOVE snow! Even as green-starved as I am, gasping for fresh air and spring flowers, I feel giddy with joy when snowflakes dump steadily the whole day and into the night. Despite the need for shoveling, I gleefully glance out the window to make sure it’s still coming down in white blankets.

It is! Sheets, comforters, pillowcases, and blankets of the white stuff. Doomed I fear, according to weather reports.

But today. I shovel. Again.

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February 27, 2019
by Angie Leave a comment

Snow Day Part 57

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The title MAY be a bit of an exaggeration. But welcome to the winter that keeps on giving.

Congratulations! You are enjoying the longest February on record. Technically February is the shortest month of the year, in days, but not in the long drawn-out days of snow-ice-locked cold.

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It’s snowing as I type. Skies are heavy gray with a peep of pink along the eastern edge. The landscape is white with bits of black edging from homes, red from the stop sign, and gray-brown from fence posts. White is the dominant theme this winter. Our water resources are sure to be full and overflowing this summer. For that, I am thankful.

I love snow! Really, I do. But. As March edges closer, my thoughts turn to green and bits of yellow and floaty blossoms on trees. Where are you spri-ng? Why can’t I find you? (In my head that sounds like Cindy Lou Who singing “Where Are You Christmas?”)

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But today. We have snow. How about one more snow day’s worth of pictures? Come July and the season of sweat, I will bemoan the lack of lacy white.

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Celebrate the snow with children everywhere who pray for snow days, late starts, snow play, and hot cocoa.

February 20, 2019
by Angie Leave a comment

Happy Hump Day Haiku Challenge: mystery

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layers, patterns mix;

tightly furled, mystery

blankets secret core

mystery by Angie Quantrell

I spied this gorgeous tree and cones during a winter walk. With such fascinating texture, design, and beauty, I just had to climb a snow bank to get close enough and snap a few photos. So glad I did!

What mystery have you seen lately?

February 13, 2019
by Angie Leave a comment

Happy Hump Day Haiku Challenge: bridge

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Let’s take a little vacation to visit summer and Monet’s Giverny. (I think we can all use some sunshine and green.) Here’s #ThrowbackThursday meets Hump Day Haiku.

in white winter mope,

memories feed sanity

bridge to restful green

bridge by Angie Quantrell

Welcome to Hump Day Haiku Challenge. Join the fun and share a Haiku about bridges or winter despair. We’ll make it to spring!

February 10, 2019
by Angie Leave a comment

Haiku: Winter Snow Globe

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swirl wind, drift snowflakes.

secure; howl winter frenzy

living in snow globe

blow now, pile deep, chill;

blanket all, winter world, twirl-

alien landscape

frozen fingers ache

deep breath. calm. blue sky. storm rest.

living in snow globe

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winter snow globe by Angie Quantrell

February 7, 2019
by Angie Leave a comment

#TBT Annabelle and The Garden

My little girl, Annabelle! How she loved the garden and being outside and snuggles on my lap. I miss her mama personality. As you can see, Anna Banana owned the garden. The house. The yard. The couch. The bed. The chair. As any true cat does.

This Throwback Thursday flings us back to when we first started a little kitchen garden in our old house. This triangle plot used to be cement. TOTAL concrete. Ugh! After my honey worked his fingers to the bone removing icky cement, I went right to work, planting tiny rows of radish, lettuce, beans, peas. We added flowers, parsley, thyme, and even strawberries. And every year, I continued to remove bits of broken concrete that worked its way to the surface.

It bloomed, grew, produced, this little potager, and gave me hours of pleasure. It also transformed over time to include a fence (to keep tiny grands from trampling tender shoots), blueberries, a host of insects and pests, and a wide variety of vegetable experiments and floral specimens. The very best year of production was when our neighbor found and homed a swarm of honeybees. Oh, did we miss those bees when he moved!

Do you have a potager? A secret garden? A weed patch?

I’d love to hear.

February 4, 2019
by Angie Leave a comment

Monday Moments: The Weather App was Correct=Snow!

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Lately we’ve been required to take the weather app predictions with an entire shaker full of salt (instead of a few grains).

But not today! The app said snow, and snow is the happening event. I think they are quite a bit off on the amount of snow they predicted, as I spent over an hour shoveling and my tracks, trails, and cleared areas disappeared beneath more inches of the pretty fluff before I finished.

What is .2 of an inch anyway? Not the mountains of snow piled around the RV and shop. Do they measure snow AFTER they melt it in a cup? I keep sweeping .2 off the deck. And the next time I look, I need to do it again. Percentage of error seems to be quite high.

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Blowing wind, heavy snow, cold air. Winter is back. With near 50 degrees last week, I was thinking spring, bulbs popping up new flowers, pleasant walks, sunny skies. Wait. I thought the groundhog did not see his shadow and spring is coming early?

Winter or not, I love the white stuff. So beautiful. A bear to drive in (I watched a semi back down the hill near us when he couldn’t make it to the top). Slippery footing. Cold. So peaceful. Quiet.

No late start today. I think that is going to change tomorrow. Get out those snow clothes back out. It’s sledding time!

.2 melting on my glasses, soaking my hat and coat

What’s the weather in your neck of the woods?

February 3, 2019
by Angie Leave a comment

Irony: The Clothesline

Clothesline, Wash, Farm, To Wash Clothes

Image from Pixabay.com

Irony (noun)

2 a (1): incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (Merriam-Webster, 2019)

There are three options for rescuing neglected metal clothesline poles. Not the wimpy aluminum, bendy sort; but the solid, steel, withstand heavy-duty sleeping bags and families of wet jeans type.

I watch for these opportunities. For case 1 and 2, the clothesline poles are clearly not in use. Besides the lack of actual line strung between poles, each one of the poles in on opposite sides of a 6-foot fence. This is not conducive to the drying of clothes.

For case 3, the location of said poles is just off a parking lot, in the middle of, well, basically nowhere.

None of these clothesline poles are being used, when in fact, they would all be happy in my neck of the woods. I would be quite overjoyed to adopt a set of metal twins and bring them into my family.

I tell you this, but the man is not so sure we should knock on the door of individuals we do not know and ask for permission to dig up, haul, and relocate said harbingers of summer laundry season.

Here’s the irony.

In the backyard of our lower valley home, we had THE best clothesline. It served us well for many years. Until we sold our home and moved north. One doesn’t know to take along the clothesline. For future want.

Several years and moves later, we lived in an older home with a postage stamp backyard. No clothesline. Et voila! Our son and daughter-in-law, having purchased a home with some space, were the owners of a set of clothesline poles. Unneeded clothesline poles. How that can be true, I have no idea. But at that time, it was true.

We were gifted the clothesline poles. Yay for me! The man figured how to wrangle a decent clothesline in our minuscule backyard, tucked behind the old shed. Perfect! I loved doing laundry and hanging it to dry on my clothesline.

Fast forward. We sold our home, bought an RV, and moved to-wait for it-our son and daugther-in-law’s home. Not a permanent move, but in order to work on building our own small home. Our residence here has stretched longer than we planned, but that’s what happens sometimes.

And the clothesline poles? The ones that were originally here? They are there. At the old home. And I am back to not having a clothesline.

Funny thing, irony. If we had been slower to add the new clothesline at the old house, we would have a clothesline here. Read this post to see the ironic clothesline.

Anyone need to get rid of a clothesline?

Image from Pixabay.com

January 30, 2019
by Angie Leave a comment

Happy Hump Day Haiku Challenge: layers

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not just tree, but host

verdant layers, companions;

growing harmony

layers by Angie Quantrell

I took this photo while visiting Claude Monet’s Giverny outside Paris. I’m happy to see layers of life and co-existence in the plant world.

Welcome to the Happy Hump Day Haiku Challenge! Please join the fun by adding your Haiku to the comments. Maybe one of the following will spark an idea for you.

Things with layers: cakes, clothes, buildings, rock formations, sandwiches, paintings, the sky, the Earth, casseroles, make-up, gardens, winter beds . . .