Lately I've been very anti-work away from home. I hate driving or riding (depending on the weather) in to work. I hate the city and would much rather be a home knitting, sewing, working in my garden or playing music (or trying to). But since my office moved to it's new location my commute is more rural then it used to be. Before I had to go through the worst parts of town to get to my office but now, instead of gang bangers and hopped up cars, I get to see all kinds of farm animals. This mornings commute consisted of sheep, lamas, goats, horses, cows, and a few chickens. It's so nice to see them eating grass and chasing bugs...doing what animals do. It's much more relaxing.

Sadly, things aren't getting any better here as far as the economy goes. The Governor is threatening to give us an additional 5% pay cut on top of the 10% we already got back in February. They also sent out about 3500 lay off notices to state employees too. Thankfully for me all the notices went to people with 15 months of service or less. At this point I've been here for 37 months so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they don't have to go any further then 15 months.

But on the bright side, Hubs and I have been doing a lot of fun things lately. Sunday mornings have been devoted to going to the farmers market and getting a lot of fresh produce. We're also learning new instruments. Hubby is learning the banjo and I'm learning the mandolin. We've also been to a couple of BBQ's and of course I'm still working on my garden. The tomatoes are just starting to put on fruit, the beans are starting to climb the poles and the pumpkin is out of control.

So with the weather here in Northern CA heating up, I hope every has a cool and comfortable weekend.

For whatever reason, my work decided to block Blogger and Flickr for a few days and I wasn't able to update like I wanted to. Blogging at home is kinda tricky because Hubbs likes to ask every few min's what I'm doing and I tend to lose my train of thought (which isn't all that steady to begin with). Not much is new on my front lately. I did have a very nasty case of food poisoning a couple of weeks ago that left me praying for death for over a week. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. But I'm mostly recovered now except for being overly tired everyday after work. Not taking a nap around 6pm has become a fight but I did manage to make it to 9pm before heading off to bead last night.

While I was down with the food poisoning I wasn't able to knit at all because I couldn't sit up without vomiting so I haven't finished the shawl for my stepmom's birthday yet. I really need to get going on it this weekend because her birthday is coming up in July and I want it on it's way to her before June 23rd. I still have a month to go but I'm hoping that I can finish it this weekend since it's a long weekend and I won't be interrupted on Friday while Hubbs is a work.

The gardening is really coming a long. Everything has come up and is growing like mad. I put up poles for the beans to grow up and the pumpkin is trying to take over everything. It's got a lot of blooms on it and should have a couple of nice pumpkins for Halloween. The watermelon is finally starting to grow. I think it was waiting for the hot weather to start kicking in before it committed to growing. I'm hoping that it will have some melon's on it before too long.

I have a bit of work to do in the front garden this weekend but not much. I pulled up the old snapdragons that have been under the rose bush for the last 3 years. They've really started to look sickly in the last couple of weeks and I was able to find some at the Home Depot last weekend to replace the old ones. I need to get them in the ground before they decide to up and die on me while I'm busy doing other things. And of course there are always a million other things I need to do.

Not much exciting going on around here so just a few pictures to enjoy.

Since it's pouring down rain here (again) I don't have any garden pictures to show. But I did grab a bunch of oregano, chives and Sage from the garden the other day and now there in a vase on my dining room table. They make a lovely center piece and since I got them all for free, they're cheap! Not to mention how pretty they are and my house smells really good now.

The bloom on the chives is just beautiful.

The garden is coming along wonderful now. All the sunflowers, zinnias and morning glories are up. The Pumpkin is putting on new leaves like crazy and the watermelon is waiting for warmer weather before it makes it's move. Two weeks ago I planted lettuce, basil, carrots and pole beans. The beans came up last Monday and are making great progress. The carrots just started poking their heads up yesterday. I'm still waiting on the basil and the lettuce. If they don't make an appearance soon, I'm going to have to head off to the nursery and get some basil if my grand plan of fresh pesto is going to become reality. I'm hoping that the lettuce don't disappoint. I need some home grown greens to supplement my lettuce habit.

And now for some knitting. I've been working on a shawl from my step-mom for her birthday in July. It's a really simple pattern and is coming along nicely.

Pattern: Weekender Lace Wrap by Lisa Dykstra

Yarn: Knit Picks gloss in Woodland Sage

Start date: 04/26/2009

Her birthday is in July and I'm hoping to have it finished a few weeks in advance so that I can ensure that it gets to her on time.

Proof of actual knitting! I have it. Hubbs and I went camping last weekend with our off road club and I actually got some knitting done. Normally I take something but never actually get any time to work on it. This trip we mostly stayed in camp and relaxed. I even got to take a nap! Shocking! I actually finished the Pomatous socks that I'd been working on for the last month yesterday.

Pattern: Pomatous by Cookie A.

Yarn: Cascade Yarns Heritage Hand painted

Started: 03/16/09

Finished: 04/22/09

I also gots proof of actual things growing in my new garden!! When we got home on Sunday I was a bit disappointed that not a whole lot had come up while we were gone. But when I got up on Monday and went out to water a lot more had come up.

Morning glories.

Zinnias

Sunflowers

Now I'm just waiting for the pole beans, carrots, lettuce and basil to come up. Just planted those on Monday so I'm going to have to wait for a while longer. The pumpkin is putting on more leaves and getting a bit bigger every day. The watermelon is waiting for a bit warmer temperatures before it takes off but it's doing good so far! The only thing I'm missing right now is mint. I'm on the look out for some but I'm trying to find someone who's willing to give me some outta there garden.

This coming weekend is going to be a gardening, knitting & sewing weekend. I'm planning on getting some petunias to finish out the front garden and I want to get some fabric to make reusable grocery bags and I need to knit myself up a new scarf for using on the motorcycle. I've started riding to work again and it's still cold in the morning. Right now I have a scarf that I use but the dang thing is so long that it's more of a pain then it is anything else. I'm planning on knitting up a short scarf that will button in the front.

It's going to be another busy one! Hopefully there will be some rest in there too!

I know it's Wednesday and I haven't posted yet this week. Chalk it up to a very busy weekend of camping last weekend and wanting to get pictures of the garden. Every time I start to get pictures of my new plants pushing their heads up through the soil something gets in my way. But the good news is that all the plants are finally in. I actually have more space in the new raised beds then I know what to do with. Half of the space went to flowers. I planted 4 dahlias, zinnias, sunflowers and four o'clocks in one raised bed. The second bed has pumpkins and watermelons and the last one has basil, carrots, lettuce and pole beans. Next year I'm hoping to have learned a lot and can use my space a little better.

Boy, a lot has been going on. Between my office moving to a new location and stuff going on at home, I'm exhausted. Last week my office was being packed up to move to our new location, we had no phones, no computers and nothing to do once your area was packed. Thankfully we were given executive leave for Thursday. I spent all day on Thursday sitting on the couch knitting. I was feeling drained anyway and the weather was crappy so it was a perfect day for me to stay in my jammies and knit to my hearts content. I finished the soap bag that I had started and started and finished some baby booties that I had been wanting to make for a friend whose baby is due in June. Pattern: Melanie's Soap Sack by Melanie Thompson
Yarn: Lily Sugar & Cream in Corn Flower
Cast on: 04/07/09
Finished: 04/08/09

Pattern: Saartje's Bootee's by Saartje de Bruijn

Yarn: Lily's Sugar & Cream in Corn Flower (I know, 3rd project with same color but I had a lot left over from the Market Bag)

Cast On: 04/08/09

Finished: 04/09/09

I also started and finished a tiny purse on the 9th too but I have failed to take pictures of it.

I think I mentioned a while back that I wanted to expand my garden for more room. Well, I got my wish. My mom came over on Thursday night and between her and I and my husband, we pushed my garden out by 16 feet and added three more raised beds. Two of the raised beds are 3 feet x 16 feet and one is 3 x 12. I have so much space now, I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with it all. I already have a ton of herbs, three tomato plants and rhubarb. One of the 3x16 beds is all flowers. I planted dahlias, zinnias and sunflowers. The second 3x16 bed has 3 dahlias in it and nothing else. I'm planning to plant lettuce in there but I have to wait for the moon to be right. I also want to plant some basil and some pole beans. The 3x12 bed has a pumpkin, a watermelon and some morning glory's in it. Now I'm just waiting for the seeds to germinate and start popping up through the soil. I can't wait!

This is where the fence was originally. There is one 3x6 bed behind the fence. I have my herbs in that bed with two tomato plants. The third plant is a cherry tomato and it's in a large pot. Here's where the fence is after we move it out 16 feet. It was on the other side of the windows by the corner of the house. Here's the new beds (please note hubby in the picture, what a goof). The two in the front are the 3x16's and the one in the back is the 3x12. The rose bush in the middle will have to be moved over to where the new gate is. It's a climbing rose and I'm planning on training it to grow over the arbor that will go on the outside of the gate and also down the fence. And here's Hubby and I on Sunday after 3 days of very hard work. We had to dig up the old fence, dig new post holes, reset the fence, build the planter boxes, dig about a million post holes to set the planter boxes, and then haul the dirt that we had delivered from around the front of the house to the back. Thank god for my mom. Without her, it would have taken a week. Plus I have to give her credit for fixing the toilet in the guest room that had been running for over a year. It's not that I couldn't or wouldn't fix the toilet I just needed my mommy to make sure the work got done. She also installed the screen door that Hubbs and I bought 3 years ago and never installed.

The good news is that the garden is done and ready for me to grow tons of yummy homegrown food for my family and friends. The bad news is that our project list for around the house still had about a million things left on it. One thing at a time, one thing at a time!