Pardon the Garden

Confessions of a lazy wannabe homesteader

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Let’s Get In Touch

We took to the woods

November 4, 2013 Marie Leave a Comment

tacos woods artyarn sky

Oh, the woods. That smell, fresh and pure and clean. That stillness – hearing squirrels rustling the fallen leaves, and the birds fluttering about, the tree branches moving in the wind – no cars to distract or intrude upon it. The pure and complete darkness that comes at night, with no street lights to brighten the unpaved road. Heaven for my heart and soul.

It was our 3rd annual knitting “retreat” – a weekend of food, wine, knitting, and movies. If you asked me 10 years ago if I’d ever have a group of girlfriends to go on a weekend trip with – not just once, but multiple times-  I’d have told you that you were crazy. I’d never had real, true friends and I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to be friends with me. But here I am, with 4 wonderful ladies that I call my friends. Truth be told, I still wonder why these ladies like me enough to spend time with me. I still don’t always feel like I “fit in,” and perhaps I never will. Perhaps I’m destined to be slightly socially awkward for my entire life.

There was LOTS of good food. Friday I made my family’s tacos and shared my love of corn relish with everyone. Lunch on Saturday was a delicious tortellini and spinach soup, baked potato, and cheddar biscuits. Dinner, homemade chicken and noodles over mashed potatoes. So much good comfort food for a single weekend.  We never took our hike like I had hoped, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed about that. I spent a lot of time sitting on the porch looking out into the woods to make up for it. Not quite the same, and I felt like I was ignoring everyone a little bit, but it’s hard to explain my absolute need for quiet time in the woods to people who don’t feel it, too.

Our ‘usual’ yarn shop in the area had permanently closed (though, honestly, I wasn’t too sad about it – the shop just… didn’t have a lot and felt a bit run-down), so on Saturday we made a long trek about 45 minutes away to visit a different yarn shop. I wasn’t intending on buying any yarn, especially since I just received a new skein of lace from Knitivity last week (shhhhhh, don’t tell the husband!). I’m still trying to work my stash down in between projects that require yarn purchases, after all. But I saw this skein of Art Yarn Regal Silk and immediately fell in love. It was definitely a splurge, at $24 for only 163 yards. I didn’t realize until after I started going through the few pictures I took that the yarn matches the sky from Friday evening, with the subtle blues and grays.  So perfect!

Featured, Posts fall, knitting, nature, out & about, travels

End-of-season garden thoughts

October 28, 2013 Marie Leave a Comment

fallgarden peppers beans

A good homesteader I am not. I like to say that every year we get a little bit better at this, but truth be told I’m not sure we’re getting better so much as we improve one thing and neglect another.

I canned blueberry jam this year, and a single batch of salsa (which tastes far more tomato-y than like salsa so it was quite disappointing). A lot of peppers and tomatoes and eggplant went to waste, and I feel horrible about it. I should do better. No, I can do better. I’m better than this. None of this food should be going to waste, and I know my depression-era grandmother would probably be upset by our waste if she was around to see it.

I like to tell myself that I’d do better if this was my full-time job. When I imagine having a farm of my own and trying to be self sufficient-ish, I don’t imagine having another job to go to for 9 hours out of my day. I imagine a farm being my job. Tending a garden and the animals, preserving things as much as I can… And truth be told, coming home from a day of work only to have to do more work to tend a garden is not ideal. Should I suck it up and do it anyway because it’s what I want for my life? Probably. Does the lure of snuggling up on the couch with knitting sound better? Of course it does.

We did things so much better this year than last year. We built raised beds so we had defined, contained planting areas. We bought compost for the beds (100% worth it). We laid newspaper down in the walkways in between the beds to combat the red-root pigweed we’ve been fighting for several years. We mulched. We staked and trellised. We watered and nurtured.

And then, when it came to harvest, we failed. It wasn’t entirely our fault – despite the compost correcting issues with the tomatoes from previous years, we still had issues with them rotting on the vine before we could get to them. We have some invasive morning glory vines that have crept their way into the bed we used for radishes and beets. My long, skinny eggplant never took off and I resorted to a store-bought purple variety despite my better judgement (I’m the only one who eats eggplant so the big ones go to waste regardless of whether I buy or grow it). Powdery mildew made its way from the cucumbers to the zucchini and then to the acorn squash. Critters munched on some of my acorn squash and the one watermelon we had growing. Despite all this, I still feel like the biggest failure lies solely with us. If I had just worked harder, paid better attention, knew more, did something differently, etc.

It’s funny how I’m so full of excitement and hope in the Spring, and by Fall I’m full of disappointment. There are people out there who make it all seem so… easy. So rewarding. Beautiful gardens and beautiful veggies, and blog posts on harvests and what they’re eating from the garden today and whatnot. And I’m so… disorganized. Forgetful. And, sometimes, in too much physical pain to function, let alone tackle weeding, or hours at the stove canning or cooking. But such is life – we all have our triumphs and downfalls, and we all spend our time how we see fit. Every year I’ve tried to do better, and every year I’ll continue to try to do better. I’m still growing and learning and doing. And I suppose that’s what is most important.

Featured, Posts fall, farm dreaming, garden, home

Hooking it.

October 26, 2013 Marie Leave a Comment

chiffon_cowlI’m taking a much-needed break from all the gifts I’ve been making and started something new for myself. My crochet skills are sorely lacking and I’m not even sure I’m doing this right. But these happy little squares are quite fun to make, even if my left hand does cramp up a bit. The colors are quite lovely, though, even if the wool is a bit scratchy. I think I might look around on Ravelry a bit and see what other crochet patterns I can find that I like now that I’m getting the hang of this a bit more. Or I might dig out the crochet snowflake booklet I have in the closet and work on some dainty little flakes for winter.

It’s a cold, grey, windy day today. There’s a giant pot of chili on the stove, cooking slowly until dinner, and I have supplies to make cornbread and a batch of homemade marshmallows later this evening. The niece and nephew are here for the day and are playing video games on the XBOX (first Halo, then Lego Star Wars) which is both frustrating and amusing at the same time. Days like this make me happy.

 

Featured, Posts crochet, fall

Family Photo Day

October 20, 2013 Marie Leave a Comment

IMG_1235_sm

Fall in Ohio. My sister, my nephew, and my niece. Perfect excuse to get outside and play with some photography. I think I came home with some good shots, and I know my sister will love them regardless. I’m far from a professional photographer, and I think Mother Nature makes all my photos 200x better, but I can’t complain too much honestly. They’re not perfect, and working with two bickering kids is a challenge. But we made it work, and I think the few hours I spent taking them and the subsequent editing are worth it because I’m giving my sister the gift of a family photo she’s never had with her children until now. ♥

Featured, Posts fall, family, gifts, nature, out & about

Feeling festive

October 14, 2013 Marie Leave a Comment

fall1 fall2 fall3 fall4a

 

I can’t remember the last time I decorated the house for fall. It was probably sometime around when the stepson was still living with us. Every year, when school started, it put me in the mood to decorate even though it was August. It took me a bit to find the box of decorations in the basement. I still have a collection of pumpkins I’m not sure what to do with. I don’t want to get rid of them, but at the same time I’m finding myself more and more fed-up with clutter so I don’t want them just sitting around looking all… cluttered. But, thus far, the house looks somewhat festive and I feel a tad happier coming home and seeing it decorated.

Yesterday was the day for restless project-hopping. I feel like I worked on a little of everything. Mostly, though, I’ve started working on holiday projects. I realize that this is October, and as far as holiday projects go I probably should have started knitting back in January. I also realize that I’m probably a bit delusional and have visions of completing not only gift knits but also knitting holiday stockings for the Mr and I. But in the meantime, let’s just pretend that everything I have planned is perfectly attainable at this moment and not worry about the fact that I’m biting off more than I can chew. Let’s also pretend that I don’t have a lot of mixed emotions about the holidays, because once I start acknowledging those I’m going to start down a downward spiral that I’m just not ready to deal with just yet.

Featured, Posts fall, gifts, home, knitting, spinning

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • …
  • 7
  • Next Page »

Welcome

Pardon the garden. A phrase I’m most likely to utter anytime anyone visits the house during the growing seasons of spring through fall. Sure, there are pretty flowers and delicious veggies in there somewhere, but they might be a little hard to find amidst the mess of overgrown grass, dandelions, and weeds that have found their way in there and haven’t been pulled. Read On

Favorite Reads

  • Beauty That Moves
  • Casey Knits
  • Chalk Legs
  • Chiots Run
  • Completely Cauchy
  • Dula Notes
  • Hygge House
  • Posie Gets Cosy
  • Pretty Gingham
  • Reading My Tea Leaves
  • Sheetar
  • Simple Cozy Living
  • Space Farm Continuum
  • Starving off the Land
  • Sweet Sunday Stitches
  • The Atheist Homesteader
  • Whole Larder Love

Looking for Something?

Recent Comments

  • Marie on Rainy Day quilt progress
  • susan on Rainy Day quilt progress
  • susan on Two.
  • susan on Little growth
  • Marie on Spring jelly
  • Faythe on Spring jelly
  • susan on March
  • DKnits on The tally

Tags

5 things Area baking beanie bags Buttercup camping crochet Current events december photo project dyeing embroidery fall family farm dreaming food garden gifts handmade wardrobe holidays home homebrewing knitting less link love literary little happy things Little Mr Me misc crafts Motorcycle Adventures nature out & about playlist preserving quilting recipe running sewing spinning spring summer travels tutorial winter woodwork

Pages

  • About Me
  • December Photo Project
  • Less Fluff, More Meaning
  • Let’s Keep In Touch

Copyright © 2023 · Pardon the Garden · Built on the Genesis Framework