Pleasure
My Wednesday yoga painting. 🙂 Much like yoga, my lack of expertise in painting does nothing to diminish the pleasure I find in it.
Dahlia Dawling
Was on the patio this morning and discovered this beauty. 
It has resurrected itself from the dahlia Jeremy and Abby gave me last year. (Was it for Mother’s Day??) Anyway, there she is, a ‘dawwwling’ dahlia! Gave her some water. She could be a good friend to keep around – doesn’t need a lot of TLC and looks so beautiful she makes me look beautiful too. LOL She really made me smile this Thursday morning.
Painting Today
Took a little time to do some painting today. I’ve been fascinated by the stick figures Jaruska uses when she draws a yoga sequence. I just did a quick painting of child’s pose. I think it will be inspirational to hang in my ‘office’ near my yoga mat. It was nice to get my hands into some paint too.
Oh, I should probably put a photo in huh? Tomorrow …
Finding Yoga
Last September I woke up one morning and had no idea who I was. Seriously, I saw myself in the mirror and, for an instant, thought, “Who is that woman?” Talk about waking up! So I started a campaign to reclaim myself.
After several months of weight loss and self-exploration I realized that I needed a mentor/model, someone who does a consistently good job of being true to self. As fast as that thought popped into my head, the answer followed – Julie. My friend Julie is so very good at remaining true to herself, and at taking care of herself. She’ll probably argue that she isn’t that good but from where I stand; she’s a perfect model.
At about this same time I was looking for more physical outlets. Walking is wonderful, I truly enjoy it, but I knew I needed something new. Running is out of the question; I won’t risk the knees again with that. Biking might still be in my future, but at that time I felt (and was) much too heavy to get on a bike. I also realized that I needed something I can do alone. I can’t always count on Robert, one of the girls, or a friend to exercise with. If I’m counting on anyone but me, at the slightest hesitancy on their part, I’ll bail.
So … Julie … physical … duh! … Yoga! Julie has been talking, for years, about yoga. Little did she know, I really had been listening. So that day, I walked over to Julie, told her I was listening, told her I was ready, and asked her to take me to yoga class. And shortly thereafter, off we went.
That’s how I found yoga. More soon on where it’s taken me.
Veggies #1
About a year and a half ago I decide I had to have a vegetable garden. I pushed at the idea until Robert bought in and we ended up creating two raised beds. Now we are in the middle of our second summer with home-grown vegetables and I’m not sure how I did without them!
Our first summer we put in 2 tomatoes, 3 peppers, green beans, onions, carrots, and zucchini. We filled in the rest of the beds with herbs and planted corn on the other side of the backyard. The tomatoes were yummy, the peppers OK, green beans a complete flop – looked pretty but were inedible. The zucchini went crazy, we still have shredded zucchini in the freezer from last September. The carrots were not so great, but the green onions did very well. The corn, like the green beans, was inedible, but I think we left it on the stalks too long.
For our Fall planting we put in more green onions, lettuce, and broccoli. The broccoli did well. We should have planted more! The lettuce was good but we put in so much of it that we ended up with more than we could eat. Found out the hard way that we shouldn’t leave lettuce in the ground too long, the bugs moved in big time! I’ve never seen so many earwigs and spiders! Yuck! Who wants to eat lettuce full of bugs – not me! I won’t be planting more lettuce.
Now we have herbs, zucchini, green onions, peppers, and tomato in the garden. The tomato has taken over. I’ve begun referring to it as ‘the monster vine.’ One plant is now between five and six feet wide! It has so many tomatoes on it I can’t count them all. Yesterday’s harvest was eight tomatoes.
Yes, that’s one plant.
Yes, that’s an eight foot by four foot bed.
No, I’m not watering anything in this part of the yard except the vegetable beds.
There’s a water shortage on people!
The zucchini are also doing well. We have two plants in this year and will hopefully have fresh squash into October. More photos soon of the rest of the veggies. But here’s some of yesterday’s bounty.
Orchid Thoughts
So they sure are beautiful but they seem to be a pain to grow.
I have these two orchids. One I got back in September from a child. The other I got, from the same child, in June. September is still alive, but not doing much. That could be because I was clueless and cut off the flower stem! Yes, I did say clueless, and yes, I was. June is still looking lovely.
Did I happen to mention that I really like orchids? So, in an effort to keep June from looking like September, soon, I began researching.
First I asked Jet. She had some gorgeous orchids the last time I visited her. Unfortunately she claims no expertise in orchid growing, in fact, she didn’t seem to remember those gorgeous orchids at all! She did pass on … a friend told her … orchids need humidity and heat. Hmmm….
I read up, online, and in the gardening ‘bible’, on orchids. Mine are apparently Moth Orchids, so named for the shape of the flower, and are supposedly the easiest of all to grow. They like bright light but not direct sunlight and temperatures between 40 and 90 degrees.
So, you guessed it, off I went to Lowe’s. I picked up supplies and headed home to put together humidity pans. 
Then I moved the orchids to the patio. They’ll have to come in when it finally gets hot around here but at the moment it seems like a good spot for them. 
Of course, after all of this, I talked with Judy on the phone and she says her orchid is healthy and happy sitting on her kitchen table with a diet of 3 ice cubes a week! LOL, maybe I’ll just give them to Judy!!
Passion Fruit Saga Entry #2
So these are the seedlings Jeremy brought to me. 
Gotta love the fancy container! But it did hold three healthy little plants, already looking gorgeous. 
I kept them in the kitchen window for a few days and then repotted them today. They are still looking great in their new, separate homes.
They have plenty of room to grow. According to all advice, from the web and my garden ‘bible’, they need to reach 10 inches tall before they are planted outside.
And speaking of outside…
the site needs a bit of work! 
I can’t wait to cover that fence with something more attractive than the neighbor’s plywood and dead grass! As you can tell I’ve only been watering the rosebushes. Bought some help 
at Lowe’s today. Hopefully, over the next couple of weeks, I can get the area cleared. Then, when the plants are large enough, in they go! Wish me, and those gorgeous little seedlings luck – I have a feeling we will all need it!
Passion Fruit Saga Entry #1
Jeremy brought me three passion fruit seedlings. I’ve decided to add them to the yard. I think he wants to see if they grow better here than at his house. I suppose that means he has confidence that I can actually grow them.
So today I’m going to start the process. Photographs of the seedlings, the future site, and my current prep plans will be posted soon.
ML's Whims 