Who Can Take a Sunrise
Sprinkle it with Dew...
Well, my to-do list today (after watering the garden and landscaping...which usually takes anywhere from 1 to 4 hours of my morning) includes sewing a new set of curtains for the Apothecary Suite (made out of the same material as the couch I re-upholstered), cleaning the suite's bathroom, and picking up the clutter on the living room coffee table (currently my "herb reference area" - which is fancy talk for saying that I have taken over that portion of the furniture with piles of my many plant-related texts). Yesterday I made an enormous batch of homemade granola for the guests, and this morning I baked my healthy blueberry breakfast cake w/lemon & apricot topping. Ryan's picking up the Apothecary Suite comforter from the dry cleaners today, and getting some more Good Bean coffee (the only coffee we drink/serve here!) for the guests. Speaking of herbs, my plant babies are doing remarkably well! My sage sprouts are healthy and vigorous, and my madder plants are taking over. I need to transplant more of the sprouts (out of the germination trays and) into larger pots so that I can germinate my carob seeds! I am still on the waiting list for cinnamon seeds. The wait is projected at 6 months - they obtain the fresh seeds from Zanzibar twice a year, and I missed the most recent batch. My Mexican Tarragon (also known as psychoactive marigold) is doing well, and my calendula has so many blossoms that I can barely keep up with harvesting them all! Currently, I have racks and racks of them drying in several rooms around the property, as well as the wild chamomile we have been harvesting for months now (we probably have about 2 acres worth of the stuff). One of my juan canary melon plants has a teeny tiny yellow flower on it! Yesterday, I picked a handful of ripe cherry tomatoes and pineapple tomatillos and ate them fresh from the garden as I went about morning chores. I love harvest time! This year, I actually managed to get all of my tomatoes planted at the correct time (unlike last year where I planted too late and didn't allow enough time for the tomatoes to actually ripen ON the vine), so I am already eating tomatoes! Yay! We are between berry harvests right now: our first crop of ever-bearing strawberries has finished, and now we are waiting for the next batch of flowers to turn into fruit. We just finished harvesting our early raspberries and blueberries, and the blackberries are not ripe yet. Now we will have to wait for our fall crop of raspberries and blueberries. My non-remontant heirloom roses have finished blooming, but the modern ones are still putting out some gorgeous flowers. Some of my favorites are the Dragonsblood & Pinata varieties I have planted around the house. I need to cut some and put them in vases for the guest rooms...there are so many little touches I like to add to make people's stay here more enjoyable.
It's about time to move Cappuchino and Zatarra out of the foaling pasture and to move Chicklet in. Scary!! I don't think that I am ready yet to do another batch of weeks and weeks of staying up all night watching the barn camera (only to have the foaling happen in the pasture). Thankfully, this is the last baby of the season. We will be breeding our nigerians around September/October (which means we are drying off the does in August), for March 2010 kids. I don't know if we will breed any donkeys this year. That's still up in air... Well, off to work!
Well, my to-do list today (after watering the garden and landscaping...which usually takes anywhere from 1 to 4 hours of my morning) includes sewing a new set of curtains for the Apothecary Suite (made out of the same material as the couch I re-upholstered), cleaning the suite's bathroom, and picking up the clutter on the living room coffee table (currently my "herb reference area" - which is fancy talk for saying that I have taken over that portion of the furniture with piles of my many plant-related texts). Yesterday I made an enormous batch of homemade granola for the guests, and this morning I baked my healthy blueberry breakfast cake w/lemon & apricot topping. Ryan's picking up the Apothecary Suite comforter from the dry cleaners today, and getting some more Good Bean coffee (the only coffee we drink/serve here!) for the guests. Speaking of herbs, my plant babies are doing remarkably well! My sage sprouts are healthy and vigorous, and my madder plants are taking over. I need to transplant more of the sprouts (out of the germination trays and) into larger pots so that I can germinate my carob seeds! I am still on the waiting list for cinnamon seeds. The wait is projected at 6 months - they obtain the fresh seeds from Zanzibar twice a year, and I missed the most recent batch. My Mexican Tarragon (also known as psychoactive marigold) is doing well, and my calendula has so many blossoms that I can barely keep up with harvesting them all! Currently, I have racks and racks of them drying in several rooms around the property, as well as the wild chamomile we have been harvesting for months now (we probably have about 2 acres worth of the stuff). One of my juan canary melon plants has a teeny tiny yellow flower on it! Yesterday, I picked a handful of ripe cherry tomatoes and pineapple tomatillos and ate them fresh from the garden as I went about morning chores. I love harvest time! This year, I actually managed to get all of my tomatoes planted at the correct time (unlike last year where I planted too late and didn't allow enough time for the tomatoes to actually ripen ON the vine), so I am already eating tomatoes! Yay! We are between berry harvests right now: our first crop of ever-bearing strawberries has finished, and now we are waiting for the next batch of flowers to turn into fruit. We just finished harvesting our early raspberries and blueberries, and the blackberries are not ripe yet. Now we will have to wait for our fall crop of raspberries and blueberries. My non-remontant heirloom roses have finished blooming, but the modern ones are still putting out some gorgeous flowers. Some of my favorites are the Dragonsblood & Pinata varieties I have planted around the house. I need to cut some and put them in vases for the guest rooms...there are so many little touches I like to add to make people's stay here more enjoyable.It's about time to move Cappuchino and Zatarra out of the foaling pasture and to move Chicklet in. Scary!! I don't think that I am ready yet to do another batch of weeks and weeks of staying up all night watching the barn camera (only to have the foaling happen in the pasture). Thankfully, this is the last baby of the season. We will be breeding our nigerians around September/October (which means we are drying off the does in August), for March 2010 kids. I don't know if we will breed any donkeys this year. That's still up in air... Well, off to work!
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