Inspired by artist Frida Kahlo

In addition to reviewing beautiful art books, Mom and I watched a PBS home video together about the legendary Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. The story was very moving and it inspires you to try out a new craft from garden design, and beading, to drawing. How do you like the flamboyant colours in mom's new knitting project?

Disrupting our food supply

As I was taking these photo's I could not help wondering where all the bees were this year. Went online to do some research and found a recent Toronto Life article; the author states that Indian researchers released a new study that links cellphone radiation to the drastic drop in bee populations throughout Europe and North America. The radiation interrupts bees' navigational systems.

Think about this - about one third of the food we eat, such as apples, nuts, and squash, depend on these important pollinators!

Yummy Summer Berries

After going for an afternoon walk with my son and pup today, we came across two types of berries which both belong to the Rosaceae family. Chokeberries (Aronia) are often mistakenly called chokecherries. Earlier this year, the chokeberry bush showed off its gorgeous tiny white flowers. I've read that chokeberries can be used to make jam, syrup, and wine. We harvested some blackberries and used them in a yoghurt and smoothie treat ... yum!

Colour popping up everywhere!

Everywhere I look, there are happy colours popping up around the 'Workshop' gardens -from the rose-purple field milkwort and red poppies to yellow evening primrose, yellow meadow parsnip and multi-coloured zinnia's. I had never seen field milkwort before, so the Peterson Field Guide for Wildflowers came in very handy!

Through the Wild Garden and Wild Heart

Parts of my garden are starting to look a little wild with purslane growing where it wishes to (over the garden paths) and mugwort reaching far (over the garden paths). Just came back from a wonderful weekend at Blessed Maine Herb Farm where I met other students very young and 'old'! Gail showed off her beautiful new schoolhouse and I have just started to read her new book 'Through the Wild Heart of Mary'- teachings of the 20 Mysteries of the Rosary and the Herbs and Foods Associated with Them.

Aromatic herbs ready for harvesting

Actually, as you can see on the photo, I should have harvested the thyme a little bit earlier - but I just could not cut down the flowers yet... The mugwort will be bundled up later to create smudge sticks. Gail Edwards in her book 'Opening our Wild Hearts to the Healing Herbs' (see my book list) states that mugwort has an ancient history as a sacred and protective herb with special healing qualities. The down on its leaves makes moxa, used by Chinese herbalists and acupuncturists to stimulate stagnant energy. American Indians used mugwort to relieve headache and backache, rheumatism, and parasite infestations. It grows quite tall and I think it is quite beautiful!

Zinnia's already coming up!

The guys built a total of 7 amazing container boxes over the long weekend and already the zinnia seeds have come up! I also planted a variety of salad greens, squashes, carrots, a variety of flowers, and ofcourse herbs... We followed the method used in Mel Bartholomew's book 'All New Square Foot Gardening' - simple. Looking forward to doing less weeding work and more munching on greens!

Big cheers for catalogues!

A happy start of a new year with fresh green smoothies 'brewing', fresh sprouts growing, and fresh garden seed catalogues arriving in the mail box weekly - I can hardly wait to sit down and 'drool' over them with a cup of tea...

Moving the gardening fun indoors...

These pictures were only taken 1-2 weeks ago and you wouldn't believe how different the garden looks already after a couple of nights of frosty temperatures! So frosty that I created some gardening fun indoors today - I put up some alfalfa sprouts and then made blue elderberry syrup for the upcoming winter colds. The recipe is in Rosemary Gladstar's book 'Family Herbal' - she makes it very clear to never eat elderberries that haven't been cooked first - good to know! The finished product makes a beautiful colourful addition to my fridge...

yellow everywhere...

During this week, I took some pictures of our sunflowers and went on a couple of healthy bike rides with my youngest son - we saw lots of goldenrod growing in the neighborhood (even he recognized this plant!). We are trying to get a few more rides in before his yellow schoolbus shows up at the door - speaking of yellow, I made the pizza recipe in Barbara Kingsolver's book 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle' and decorated the pizza with an interesting combination of pepperoni, pineapple, yellow peppers, and herbs - yum!

It's been a green week!

You could call me crazy, but I just felt like knitting again - I am only a beginner knitter, but I decided to knit myself a nice cozy wrap in 35C (hot!) weather in a beautiful leaf green colour.

Speaking of green, I harvested some green beans for dinner and freezer. If you look closely at the photo with my green beans, you will also see some gorgeous swiss chard, which I will start using in future green smoothies - here is a photo of my very first green smoothie made with mango and baby spinach - it was quite tasty!

After hours of weeding in my vegie garden, I was rewarded with a first harvest of green beans! I made a delicious spicy potato & green bean salad from recipe in book 'ExtraVeganZa' by Laura Matthias. Then in the evening when I went for a stroll just in the back of our property, I found some beautiful pink-purple flowered plants with purple stems - used my trusty library Peterson Field Guide copy to find out it was sweet Joe-Pye-Weed.

Mosquito Shop

All the men have been working hard on getting our 'workshop' up - they are now putting up the sheets on the outside - not easy considering the mosquito's and black flies are trying to tickle them! I worked on the back garden area the last couple of days cleaning up areas where old firewood was stored (yucky bugs underneath, not the useful bugs), cutting the grass for the first time, transplanting some mullein and red clover, and I have been talking nice to my herb and veggie babies that are still in their trays waiting to be transplanted in the gardens...the weather has been iffy at night time and even dropping to freezing temperatures - hopefully all my plants will find their new 'homes' this upcoming week!

Black Tulip Beauty

Here is our oldest cat watching over the beautiful black tulips that are in our front garden - looking at both the cat and the tulips makes me feel at peace...