Wednesday, March 24, 2010

No not me on a Harley this time

Spring has arrived and it is a beauty! Last year when we bought Jack a Harley, he said it made him feel 10 years younger just to climb on and ride it a little while. Well somehow buying tomato plants has the same effect on me!! Starting the year's kitchen garden brings on a surge of happy energy. I am thrilled to have them in our kitchen tonight, two kinds, and some lemon thyme and a packet of yellow squash seed, and a bit more to come in the next week when we can locate parsely and basil plants, and cucumber seed. We have cut down to just 2 narrow raised beds now, and hope we can keep up with the bugs better. Last year was a disaster for our veggies, as it was for many people here.

I have a sneaky plan... the pill bugs got almost all of the squash last year, I tried to raise the little things out of harm's way by shoving wads of hay under each one, but lost almost the whole crop. THIS year, we are going to stretch net wire across the bed, side to side, and coax the young squash plants up through the wire leaving all about 4 or 5 inches off the ground. The vines and fruit might bloom and grow safely up there away from contact with the bugs on the damp soil. We shall see! I have never heard of anyone trying that. If you see a strange figure in a straw hat and floppy clothes in our back yard, it is not a scarecrow really. E

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Lost in La la land

Dear Friends, I am without my computer, dear Mouseburger the 3rd has died. I am waiting on Dell to send Mouseburger the 4th and then must try to get all the familiar programs back up on it, so I can work with our camera, and email contacts etc. I am normaly one who is up part of every night on the computer, and in touch with it many times throughout the days. Just before the hard drive died I was working on an article for Dixie Redmond's site, Maida Today www.maidatoday.com
I hope those of you who enjoy antique dolls will find and enjoy that new site, up less than a month and already having 1000's of hits, literaly! Because some spammers got on with their unpleasant ads, Dixie has had to make it a members only site, just Say Edyth sent you and she will approve you and that is all it takes to get on and enjoy this mixture of doll related content. If the partial address above does not get you on, google search the web for MAIDA Dixie Redmond.
Today Jack and I drove out to the Willow City loop to check for Bluebonnets. I want to do some paintings when they are out good! We are off to the start of a glorious spring, i wish all of you the same, Warmly, E

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Early Rabbit sighting



The Easter Bunny aka the mail man, brought this lovely papier mache shoulder head shown standing by a book to give scale. The head is 8 inches tall.. She was in a stash of parts awaiting restoration, owned by Richard Wright at the time of his death. The doll head dates from about 1840, and was made by Andreas Voit. This type dates about 8 to 10 years later than her Sister doll shown in brown dress, made without the open mouth and teeth. When new, both dolls would have had human hair wigs, which at that period were often very elaborately styled. Now I will enjoy making a body for the new one! She will be about a 32 inch doll. They will be so pretty together! Have a great day, Edyth