A Day Off

Last Friday I took a day off work.  Not just for a little time off, but because I had to go to the dentist in Boston and get my last 2 teeth out.  I'm getting prepared for permanent dentures and needed to get that taken care of.  We woke up about 3:30 am in order to make it to a 8:30 am appointment.  Got there just in time.  Mr D. had an appointment too.  We were all done by 11 am and though I was experiencing some discomfort I decided that we ought to at least enjoy the rest of the day.  We stopped at Market Basket for some lunch stuff (soup for me), and drove to North Hampton State Park Beach and had some lunch and walked along the beach.  It was a cold yet clear and sunny day.  The seagulls at first were a bit interested, but not aggressive and finally fluffed their feathers and hunkered down to keep warm.  I had a little swelling in my face, but took some pictures anyway.

Beautiful day to enjoy with my sweetie.  Look forward to many more.

Grandma's 'Lil Peanut

MORNING GLORIES

Here it is the middle of October and my Morning Glories are still blooming. I've had to cover them up a few times, and will for the rest of this week, but they are little rays of sunshine to me and I'll try to keep them going as long as I can.

The little bee was a gift from a friend who gives me bees.  My sweetie calls me his "Honeybee" so that's where it started.  I have a small collection of garden bees.

See the "heart rock"  Doug and I found that on the land.  I kept it and used it in the flower bed.

Just a little love and sunshine from me to you.

God is good!

Just in case any of you doubted we were gardening this year... I'm giving a glimpse of the garden.  It is a jungle since we've had 3 weeks of rain.  This means that the garden is wet in the morning before I go to work and in the evening it has been POURING. 

This makes for wonderful growth in the garden... the plants we want to grow and the weeds we don't want to grow. 

The blueberries are plumped and blushed.  The strawberries rotted on the vine for the most part.  We were able to pick during one short reprieve in the rain and picked about 4 pints.


highbush blueberries



We picked a few peas last night to cook up for dinner, yum!  Also pulled some radishes for Mr. D... I don't eat them much, but he loves them and will snack on them all day. 



peas in back, rhubarb (gone to seed) strawberries in foreground

  If the weather holds we should have a few days of sunshine and maybe I can get caught up with the weeding.  I know these pictures don't look it, but we weeded for about an hour last night.

winter squash gone wild



romano




red runner



We pray that God allows a good harvest this year.  Got a couple months to go.

Sorry the pictures are a little fuzzy... I was in a hurry to get to work on time... the time on my camera is not right either.  This was about 7:10 AM.  At least the date is right.

I was thinking today of the many failures we've had gardening.  It starts out just like this, but something happens, powdery mildew, bottom rot on tomatoes.  We had a hard time the first year making anything grow except where we had burned brush and there in the ashes the soil was good for winter squash.  I was also thinking today of friends who had 5 goats shot by an angry neighbor.  I know they worked hard raising them and all the money they used that went into feeding them grain through the winter and three of them were kids born this spring.  I was heartbroken.  It's hard enough farming, but then to have someone shoot your animals because they got off your property and onto theirs?  That is just mean and not very neighborly.

I must remember that these things happen to all of us.  Good or bad, right or wrong, God is still good and He is still God and He will always be in control.  We can labor hard for our provisions, but it is God who gives increase.

Matthew 5: 44-48

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

No matter what the circumstances may be, that last verse sums it up  "... be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

Perfect here doesn't mean sinless, but it does mean we should strive to have the mind of God in all circumstances... whether we are dealing with grumpy neighbors or mold in the garden.   We know that God will provide what we need.

Praying that all our gardens produce well and that God will give grace to our friends who lost their goats.

God Bless! 

Lupine

The Lupine are blooming again on our hillside.  I wanted to take lots of pictures this year 'cause the dirt work being done here this summer may tear them up and they'll be gone.  I've tried for years to get these started in many places I've lived, but these all came about by sort of an accident.

I had a little box of wildflower seeds that I'd picked up from the Dollar Tree and they'd been around the house a couple years since I really didn't have the space to formally plant them.  One day I took the box outside to the top of the hill and just threw them to the breeze.  I really didn't have much expectation since I didn't think there were viable seeds anymore.  The next summer I had a variety of wildflowers blooming on the hillside.  Over the years the only ones to survive were the Lupine and Daisies.  They started small, but spread each year.  Mr. D likes to mow the hill and make it look better, so I let him do that once they have gone to seed.  I try to keep some of the weeds down a little during the early spring, but since he mows once a year, they really aren't bad.  There's a few dandelion that bloom early, colts foot and  paint brushes, but the Lupine are above them and beautiful. 

Thinking of the beauty of God's creation... it all points to the Creator, just as the Lupine spires point to the sky.  Although we love the beauty all around us and we do live in a beautiful part of the country,  it makes us love God all the more for giving us this to enjoy. 

We would not want to begin worshipping the beauty we see since all nature declares the glory of God.  Think of those who have done this.  Where does it lead?

Romans 1:22-27
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:  And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

Help us Lord to give proper praise to you when we see your hand in nature. 

Memorial Day Snow

Woke up Sunday morning to this...

then Monday we planted the garden.  Monday was a beautiful day, sunny, breezy, and warm.  I got the laundry on the line and it dried in no time.  It was cool enough so working in the garden was wonderful and the breeze kept the bugs away. 

Just a little achy this morning and had lots of leg cramping last night but all-in-all and very successful work day.

Hope you had a good Memorial Day Weekend.

Spring is in the Air

Winter seems so long ago today, yet the last few night have been down below freezing.  Checked the garden this morning and all seems well.  I have stuff in the greenhouse still that needs planting but don't do the tender stuff till Memorial Day, our traditional planting day at the Millett Farm.

Just thought I'd share a few little pictures with you today.

Here in our tiny perennial garden that is waiting patiently for construction to end so it can spread it's wings we find a fully blooming pink Barrenwort...

I've had this little plant on my blog before but it's a little bigger now and hope it will thrive until it is time to transplant to a permanent home.

This is my tiny bleeding heart started last year. 

This is my "old fashioned" bleeding heart that I transplanted here a couple years ago.  It's small, but mighty and yearning to be planted in a place it can thrive.

These little guys are surrounded by ladies mantle, tansy, phlox, daffodils, and some other varied and sundry perennials longing to be free.  Maybe this year.

Don't you just love spring?

When I see the beauty that God has created I just can't help but praise Him... and I do praise Him for the beauty of winter... I just like to garden and you can't do lots of that in the winter :)