Weekend Update

So this weekend was amazing. Saturday was a day of Roller Derby. I drove to Fitchburg, MA for a double header against CMRD. The Brutals may not have won, but they fought hard. Then DQ lost by only 2 points. Nail biting and white knuckles were abound.

I seriously can't wait to be voted in to the league. They should be finishing soon. I was itching to leap on the track while I was watching. I <3 my new Derby League. They really have been fabulous at making me feel welcome.

Then Sunday was a day of brush clearing for Rose. I love how my little community helps each other so much. I love her place and I want to replicate a copy of her office. This is why I need a Star Trek replicator. Stuff shows up for free that way.

Now to eat some dinner and keep knitting!

Wordless Wednesday: Best boyfriend ever!

Please excuse the phone picture quality. The item makes up for it.

A road of the past

Finally I got to adventure through the rest of the yard at my apartment. It had been raining when I've had free time so I had not had the chance to fully explore where I live. Well, today was beautiful after work and I had to take advantage of that.

The fenced in part of the yard is huge, but I'm more in love with what is past the fence. To give you an idea of what you see below, a local to the area told us a little about the valley we live in. There is a path beside the house that leads down to the beauty featured below. I have to say that location-wise, we seriously lucked out.



This path was actually a road at one time that lead to the bridge that you would cross the river on and through to the other side. The whole area was only a few farms but of course later generations ruined it. They parted up the land for developments. Yes, I'm glad I get to live here, but I wish greed didn't ruin country land. But anyway, I'm told the river is clean. I do see fish under that bridge. Now I'll stop babbling. Enjoy the photos below. :)

  

  

Smells like spring

First of all, to all that celebrate, Happy Easter!

Today is just gorgeous out. I've been up since 9ish sitting in my porch enjoying the view. The place we live in has a huge back yard with a small river running in the back. There are trees everywhere and they are starting to bud. All I can hear all day is the water running and the birds singing. The spring smells wonderful. The smell of new life. You really can't beat this.

Last night I tried to get my sewing done but the machine is going excessively slow. I'll have to figure it out. It may just need oil. I'll have to pick some up this week. From where? I don't know. What I did finish was my hair barrettes. They are adorable knit bows. I plan to make more in the near future. Below is a basic photo of how they came out.



Now we are getting ready to head to the boy's mother's house. It will be a nice day to hang with family. The nephews are big enough to enjoy the holiday so I'm sure they will have sugar coursing through their veins as they hunt for eggs. Enjoy your time whether it's with family or in your garden. Today would have been perfect but oh well. There are more days of spring to enjoy. Mmmmm....spring.

Rain rain, go away...

So it's a rainy day here in Kensington, CT. A lot has happened and not a lot has been blogged. *Kafail!*

I went to Niantic for the Rooney Annual Sanity Sabbatical. That means crazy times with some awesome ladies and a constant view of the ocean that looks like this:



I also sewed a napkin and totally need to sew the rest of them. That could very well happen today since I also have a curtain to sew. The reason behind one curtain is that we live in an in-law apartment. Between the landlords and their daughter there are roughly 6 dogs that they own. Two of them are, in my opinion, an equivalent to rodents. They yip and yip forever. The moment we step into our porch they come running and stand at our porch door yapping. A curtain may deter them a bit. If not, I'm putting up a baby gate so they can't stand in front of our door. Charlie tried giving them treats and inviting them into the porch. Nothing has worked. Cross your fingers.
The seedlings are doing fabulous and starting to look like the plants they aspire to be. Squash and cucumbers sprout huge! They are going to take over. We have the dirt and manure ready to be put in the beds as soon as it stops raining. Charlie set up the compost since we finally got the chicken wire. We had to keep it in a bucket till we got that done. That was fine in the cold weather but of course not now.
My knitting project that needs to be finished is the hair barrettes that I made. I knit it all but have not put it together. It's one of my bad habits. I also have a gift to finish and mail. My To Do list is growing. I guess I should get working on it. Toodleloo!

Seedlings update!

So the little plants are doing well. After all this time I only have one lemon balm so we will have to take very good care of it. I will probably pick up one or two plants at a nursery or farm so I have more. I really love lemon tea.

This coming weekend we will be setting up our raised beds. We scored lumber for free since it was the warped and unsellable stuff. We are going to get topsoil from a farm down the road, and finally some fertilizer from Shreiber's Farm in Oxford. I'm very happy to be getting stuff locally rather than from the big chain hardware stores. It will be a lot of work but totally worth it. I hope to be able to make it to the CT Rollergirls bout on Saturday as well. Another busy weekend from me.

Now on to plant photos. Of course you can click to enlarge.


  

Yay for spring!

My First Real Garden

Well it's about time. I get to have a garden! No potted garden that gets eaten by aphids. No teeny tiny garden that has limited sun. This time it's the real deal. At first, the boy listed the various scary expensive stuff we needed to do. It was an intimidating thought. But each hurtle has been jumped so far with savings and new knowledge.

At our place the landlords are letting us use the land at the end of the driveway. It will be quite a bit of work but I think we can pull it off. We have gravel and weed blocking plastic to remove, but we're hardcore. That is something that will be done soon. Right now though we got to start the new life.

The first expense that we were fretting was the fact that we may need a grow light. The apartment has very little light. If we didn't have the screen porch I would really dread the lack of sun in the summer. Thankfully I have a boy that labors over things that bug him and comes up with a great solutions. This nice high metal shelf that we had stashed away from the move takes advantage of our ONLY south facing window. It's in the bathroom and fits just right where it doesn't block the towel rack or get in the way, keeps them far from the cat, and gives our little seeds the grow-the-f-up notice with plenty of sun.


We also saved money by using newspaper for our starter pots. Not only are they pretty much free if you get the paper from your newspaper obsessed father, but they also bio-degrade safely in the garden so you don't have to mess with the root systems. The $10 of bricks of soil we got also expanded a ton and filled all the pots we needed. We still have extra.

 

Aren't they cute?

I'd like to thank my friend Bruce for saving us from starting way to early and possibly before the last frost. I have no sense of that since RI is all coastal and warmer. The middle of CT is a little different. I also <3 the farm and Bruce again for making it easy and inexpensive to get loam for the garden. Saves a ton of effort and money. I'm really excited to enjoy the fruits of our labor. Well now to get back to knitting. I'm hoping this loofah design works out. Night everyone!