among other things, an unexpected treat...

The postman came today with a small package for me, an unexpected present from my dear friend J. She has really been doing a lot of warm-glass work lately, and has all kinds of delightful things in her Etsy shop, like octopus beads, and amphorae, and this incredible necklace of the solar system.

Well just in time for my Sewing With A Plan projects, she decided to make me some buttons! The grey and black is just my style, and will be the perfect thing to set off a button-front dress. I love the random funky assorted designs, and am wondering, grey dress with black accent, or black dress with grey accent? And she included these tiny studded beads for me to play with. I have such a weakness for eye beads of most any stripe, or should I say most any dot!

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Today marks the first day that there are no homegrown hen eggs left. Don't expect any till sometime next spring. The young hens are all moulting, the backyard is scattered with black and while speckled feathers. Next year my intention is to experiment with preserving the excess eggs of summer to cover the egg-hungry gap in the winter.

≈ : ♥ : ≈

Look out the front window to see that it is not raining, not snowing, not terribly sunny - time for an immediate change of plans - instead of indoor studio work, outdoors for leaf raking! Not ever my most favorite activity, but last year not doing the final raking meant that the lawn looked even rattier than usual. Not that I am lawn proud at all, if wishes were horses both front and backyard would be all edible landscape with not a lawn to be seen, but that takes not only labor, but a fair amount of upfront cash money and access to a truck. What we have here is an incremental improvement plan, bit by bit as resources allow.

Nonetheless, the majority of the leaves in the front yard are now in the chicken yard, huzzah! As are quite a bit of the neighbors leaves, thank you both very kindly... Since the weather held dry, a bit of plant trimming happened as well, while I still had energy for yardwork. Tidied up the sage, and cut back the dead branches on the blueberry, which thankfully seems to still be alive.

Best of all, had just enough vim left to set up the planter box in the parking strip that had been imagined for months now. Dragged half the giant wooden box from the backyard, and set it atop some of the big cardboard (that I've been saving for just such projects) right next to the persimmon tree. Filled with soil and leafmold compost, then planted the garlic cloves saved from the few garlics that made it through last years feeble garden attempt.

Added a layer of raked up leaves for mulch, hopefully that will work as well as the wood chips I've used before. It is rather late to be planting garlic, but better late than not at all. To foil the furry tree rats (aka squirrels), a piece of wire mesh is tightly fit across the top of the box, and held down on the corners with bricks. Re-configured the brick border around the bottom of the persimmon to join up with the ends of the box. The long range plan is to have plantings in the parking strip, with gaps for those who park there to pass through. This is only a small start, but every bit makes a difference.