I feel seen

First off, I want to thank everyone who left a comment on my last post. I'm not sure which, if any, will end up being used, but they are all food for thought.

I saw this sign on Facebook the other day and had to share it. I don't think I've ever felt so seen in my life. This is definitely me. Especially the weird stuff on the curb bit. Far too many treasured possessions started out as weird things left on the curb.

What about you? I know I'm not the only trash picker out there.

Mother always told me

I'm looking for some input here. I'm moving along pretty quickly on my Depression-era story. The first draft is basically done, but now is the fun part, where I can start refining the voices of my two main characters.

The book is told from two different points of view: Ava, the slightly older sister, who stayed in the coal town and got married, and her sister, Clare, who married well and moved to Philadelphia.

They've lost their mother, and one of the things they do (separately and together) is remember her words of wisdom. Lillie's advice - good, bad, quirky, or otherwise - is scattered throughout the book.

Here's a snippet:

    Ava shook her head. "This is fine." She sat down heavily on one of the beds. "How did you manage this? You've been with us all week, helping with the move."
    Clare leaned against her shoulder. The baby sat solidly on her lap, reaching up to play with her hair. "I sent Harry home with a list, and Katie and her parents put it together. There are some clothes in the drawers for each of you. I had to guess at the sizes."
    "Oh God." Ava clapped her hands over her face and bent double. "What's happened to my life?" Her voice was muffled, but Clare didn't think she was crying.
    "It's like Mama said," Clare told her. "Sometimes you just have to relax and trust that the Lord knows what he's doing."
    Ava brought her hands down. "God doesn't give you more than you can handle," she quoted in return, "unless he wants to know what you're made of."
    The sisters stared at each other for a moment before dissolving into laughter.

Did your mother (or grandmother) have any sayings they repeated that you still find comfort in? They don't have to be religious (though my characters' mother was).

I asked on Facebook and got an interesting collection, some of which I can probably use, and some of which would shock all my characters (apparently my mother wasn't the only salty one in the bunch). If you have anything to add to the conversation, I'd love to hear it.

New addition

Don't worry, it's not a cat or another sewing machine.

It's just a little something to make life more pleasant. We sit out front nearly every evening, when the sun is at the back of the house, but there are plenty of mornings when I would like to take my coffee in a book out there after Mario leaves for work, or even have breakfast with him there on the weekends. And if it's hot and sunny, I can't get him to like that much of the Great Outdoors.

Enter my new umbrella and stand, courtesy of Amazon's evil empire. I had an umbrella at the old house, but it was much heavier and harder to get up and down. This one has a crank and I can bring it down easily so that it doesn't tip over when we're not out there enjoying the shade.

It even matches the trim on the house. Sometimes little things make such a big difference.

30 Days

What a difference a month makes.

That is all.

Sewing room update

I may not talk about it as much, but I still recycle sew and do craft shows, though I admit lately it hasn't been with quite the same enthusiasm. I think working so much from home has gotten me out of practice with my "on" personality. It wears a lot faster.

This is a recent batch of jointed bears. It's a duplicate batch - five are going to a downtown Philly shop and their twins are going to a show with me this weekend. They don't sell regularly, but when they do, it's fast, no questions asked, just "take my credit card "

Also, I give you Annie, sewing room supervisor. Yes, she sits that close. Except when she's sitting on my chair, with me perched on the edge.

It's a cat's world. We just live in it.

This a first

In my garden, anyway.

At the old house, I always wanted to plant asparagus, but I balked at the time you had to let it grow before you could harvest.

"Three years," I grumbled. "Who wants to wait three years before eating asparagus?"

Well, considering it was readily available at our weekly farmer's market during that time, it wouldn't have been a hardship. We bought it and ate it anyway.

And three years would have passed. Hell, eighteen years passed in that house.

So this year, I bought a pack of 15 asparagus crowns from an organic online gardening place. (Couldn't buy less than that, thought I was skeptical that I wanted 15 plants). Then I read the planting instructions and realized I couldn't have 15 plants, unless I wanted to dedicate 3 whole raised beds to their planting.

I gave away 10, planted 5, hoping for the best. Since my beds are raised, I can't plant as deep as recommended. But gardening is an experiment, so I ... experimented.

Lo and behold, many weeks later, there are two little stalks of asparagus waving over the soil. BTW, I didn't keep the bed wholly for asparagus. I planted lima bean starts in each corner with a trellis, so hopefully they aren't intruding too much. Nobody gets that much space in limited real estate. They'll have to fight it out.

Updates

New bed from the corner of the drive

First, because I guess this is more important, I had my follow up exam with the eye surgeon today. We're a little more than 2.5 weeks out from the surgery, and he was very pleased. More importantly, he was pleased enough to put my next appointment at the end of September, so other than twice-daily eyedrops until I run out, I'm FREE!

Second, almost as important, the front hedge is gone and I'm well on the way to having the garden borders I only dreamed of when we bought Sleeping Beauty's cottage-behind-the-hedge.

It's taken a few weeks, ten yard waste bags and a few trash cans full of debris, but the entire frontage is now clear of hedge, English ivy, and vinca (which I loathe almost as much as ivy for its ability to run everywhere and pop up where I think I've removed it).

I put in some plants that I split off from mine - I love coral bells' ability to increase magically during the season. Between those and hostas and a few lavender from the local garden center, and two Autumn Joy sedum picked up at a yard sale on Saturday, along with a puny hydrangea that I got at Aldi for $4, the beds are furnished and covered in leftover wood chip from the back yard.

The side bed was done last fall and some early spring

Large scale gardening is never a budget-friendly thing, but if you've got a strong back and patience, it gets done on the relative cheap. I figured out that between landscape fabric, raised bed kits, 2 yards of wood chip, 2 yards of mushroom soil/topsoil combination, veggie starts and seeds, and those few new plants for the front border, I've spent just under $500. It's a little ouchy to think about, but the bulk of that expense will never be repeated, and the plants will either give us food or more plants for next year.

So I'm calling it a win.

Obligatory before photo

And yes, I'm tired from all that digging. Mario helped when he got in from work, but since I'm home all day right now, I did the bulk of it because...impatient.

Serves me right.

Bonus tidy back yard status photo