Spring Gardening

It took a while, however, Spring has finally arrived in this area of the world.

Poster of calendula from my garden.

With the quantities of rain that we received, plants (read WEEDS) grew amazingly fast. I have been spending at least 3 days per week working on cleaning the yards up to prepare for the "real" gardening of planting seeds and watering, etc.  Currently, I have the front yard well groomed, although it does require that I cut the grass at least once a week. The back yard I am slowly conquering. I did get the second clothes line post dug out of the ground and moved to the back section. I plan to use these posts to create a climbing wall for vines, sweat peas, whatever. I have one more session to cut down the 3-4 foot high grasses that grew up between the house the the older shed. I can now see my piles of stone that remain for my next project.


Last year I set the flag stones for the path from the back shed to the lawn on the south side of the yard. This year, I plan to lay the stone walkway from the patio to the back gate. Then there is the NEW shed to build and the old shed to tear down. Oh yes, then the privacy fencing to work into or next to the chain link fence in the extended parcel at the back, before cutting down the fence between the yard and the garden. And then there is ... SO MUCH TO DO!!!

What's new?

It has been a while since I posted on this blog, so what is new?

There is the Earthquake/Tsunami/Reactor disaster in Japan, the various military actions in the middle east, more earthquakes in Burma and New Zealand, tornadoes in California (!), constant rains with flooding and landslides in California (!), life is exciting.

One can not do much as an individual to affect the military actions one way or another, however, one can assist in recovery from natural disasters.

The members of the Zazzle community are active in raising money for the recent disasters there, click on Japan Relief to purchase items.
Zazzle is now donating the $10 from their T-shirt and also matching the 10% royalty that comes from shopkeepers' designs as well.
Zazzle's T-shirt:

Japan Relief T-Shirt by japanrelief

One Zazzle member from Christchurch is raising money for the New Zealand Earthquake relief fund. All earnings from this will go to help Christchurch rebuild.
One of this shopkeeper's items:

Christchurch Will Be Back Shirt by RossHeywood
Browse Christchurch T-Shirts



I am certain there are other efforts worth supporting also.

Old interest revived!

BEES.

I first realized my interest in beekeeping while at Ortho Research Library and we did a hallway display on apiaries and the tools, clothing, books, etc. for the beekeeper.

Having spent quite a bit of time in the yard this year, I've been noticing the insect populations. I had my first close encounter with bees and pollination while I was taking closeup photos of my sunflowers. I noticed the flecks of pollen leaves beneath the object flower (so had to take a photo - at right). Then I noticed the bees and tried to get some closeups of them (really need to get a better camera for that).

This photo session of course led my mind to generating products for bee related themes. Thus, I began researching bees and beekeeping(again). I had a link to a supply store in Sebastopol, so I decided to take last weekend to devote to honey and bees.

Saturday I drove to Sebastopol to vist the store "BeeKind". It is quite interesting. The front is devoted to various types of honey in various size jars. Next is a small room with beeswax and items related to making candles. In back is a large room for beekeeping supplies (clothing, hives, extractors, etc.).

While talking with the staff, I was told about a free "beginning beekeeping" class for the next day. So ... I had to drive back on Sunday for this informative talk. (This was during our second big heat wave of 100+ temperatures - so I kept cool while in the air conditioned car and the auditorium had air conditioning also.)
Here is a video that was made of the speaker Doug Vincent setting up new hives.


I came home and continued my investigation as to what bee groups were on the internet, where local groups and suppliers are located, etc. I joined the forums at Beesource.com. Of course, I began making more bee themed products for my store.

Here are the most recent products I have made: