God is good.

 Dear God,

When I am thinking straight

I come to know that I need You

more than I need 

Me.

 I ask You to help me put 

Me

aside

 And I thank You for hearing me.

The garden, July 1 and other ramblings (a RANT included)

 This is a happy place for me this year. I love weeding, digging, planting, and looking. I look every single morning at this place. My eyes are happy. My brain is happy.

 God has made so many different leaf shapes!

 Below is my new friend, Harry. He is blending in with the dirt. I think he lives under the rhubarb leaves. He is a very good fellow to have for slugs and bugs.

Thank you, Harry.

 The gardener's feet wore out...

 I have Mason bees filling the little tubes!!! I am so excited!

Now this is how someone behaves during a pandemic-they get crazy about bees using a bee house. 

 My fresh picked greens ready to be washed and some of them eaten for breakfast. I can feel the healthy stuff in my bones from this.

But here's the rant,

saved for last.

It's face masks.

Please tell me why people are not wearing them. That's what I asked my local Walmart manager, because I saw way too many people not wearing them, walking close by me, in an over-crowded store. I live near Watkins Glen, NY. This is tourist season, and you would never know there are thousands of people in the US contracting this horrid virus, with no real end in sight.

The manager said there's nothing they can do. Smaller stores can enforce mask wearing but he can't police the store, and frankly-it's too dangerous now to confront those who don't comply.

He was very nice, I was very nice.

But I am not going back there to shop. It's too scary. I've got an 88 year old mom in assisted living, and I do not want to unknowingly take this virus to her. She and I visit outside of the facility-with masks on, at 6 feet apart-no hugging-anything I bring to her has to wait 3 days before its given to her. I go through this with her so she won't get sick.

And some jerk can't stand to wear a face mask for - how long do you spend in Walmart? An hour? THAT'S taking away your freedom? 

Nope-sorry, I don't buy it.

I think you are totally selfish if you don't wear a mask until we know it's safe not to.

ohhhh, ok-back to my garden.

Have a SAFE Fourth of July.

Rose Petal Jam Recipe

 Chillin' bunny rabbit says it's time for rose petal jam!

 You can make freezer or fridge jam from your roses!

They must be organic-no sprayed roses and be very fragrant.

I am so blessed to have these pink roses that I transplanted from an ancient house I used to live in. These are antique roses-I don't know their name. If anyone can identify them, plese leave me a comment.

 You can see they are very double. I wish you could smell them. They are so fragrant it's crazy.

 I gathered about 3/4 of a normal collander's worth of petals. Take out any brown outer petal, and bugs of course.

 Put the petals in a blender, and use up to 1 cup of water to get a liquid. You really have to stop and blend, stop and blend the whole time-don't mix the petals down with the blender going. Add water a bit at a time until it looks like the above.

 I didn't photograph every step, but I'll tell you what I did, then give the recipe at the end of this post. Trust me-it's easier than it sounds. These photos show how much I got from this batch.

Ok-you've got the blended rose petals with some water added. Add the juice of one lemon. Now add 3 cups of sugar and stir that in the blender by hand-don't blend it. Let the blender sit while you stir one packet of Sure Jell into 3/4 cups of water. Stir constantly so it won't burn. Stir as it boils hard one minute.

Now pour this into the blender and stir by hand one minute.

Pour into jars. Must be refridgerated or frozen.

Rose Petal Jam Recipe

Packed blender of rose petals

1/4 c to 1 cup of water in blender with petals

juice of one lemon

blend until liquid-careful to turn blender off when pushing petals down in the blender

add 3 cups sugar-stir in blender by hand

boil 3/4 cup water and one pack Sure Jell

stir as it boils hard one minute

pour this into blender, stir one minute or untill pectin is totally mixed into rose mixture

pour into glass jars, seal and freeze or refridgerate

keeps a month or so in fridge

6 months in freezer

I've been making this about 30 years (I'm 65 so that's almost half my life!)

It's so good ontop of a plain baked pie crust, on top of toast, crackers, cake...

If you make this, let me know how you like it.

Any questions-leave a comment.

***

The garden in early June

 It's not sunny today, so the garden is rather dark looking.

 I've got purple cabbages planted with the potatoes. They will probably be elbowing each other for room.

 Bumbles love salvia.

 The rhubarb will be picked today for a pie.

Second story window robin.

The nest has been there a few years. I can take photos from the inside, as long as I don't scare her. It's colder today, so I'll wait for warmer weather in case she flies away when she sees me.

Have not been able to do a lick of artwork.

Been gardening like a mad woman though.

Pencil party

This is for Paint Party Friday-

not exactly Friday yet, and not exactly a painting,

but that's all I did this week.

Outside was sunny and warm so that's where I was.

I didn't have a model of course, or a photo so this came from my head and I know there's stuff wrong. I fixed some, but I could have done much more to make the proportions right, and I know that. Such as it is- I know I learned a lot from doing it, and that's what counts.

I hope she doesn't squeeze that poor bird...

Paint Party Friday time!

 Gouache on claybord.

"Woman with Red Earrings"

For me, claybord is a very steep, hard  learning curve. I have tried using acrylics on it-I hate it. So I tried gouache-using a bit of impasto technique, but more watery also. 

Of course, there's tons wrong with this painting.

On my scale of grading, I give it a Bleah.

Next up would be Meh.

Top grade-Yup!

I also whine

 Well, it's mid May and it's about 29 or so degrees out there.

 Our lilacs are still tight in their buds.

 My trillium bent over with frost...

 Before the sky cleared and the stars shone last night-it snowed.

 The weather here has been less than delightful. We had a blizzard a few days ago. Many mini blizzards. It snowed like crazy for a few minutes, then the sun came out. Back and forth like that ALL DAY LONG.

 Daffodils still not out yet. When ???

 Didn't want you to think I have everything under control here-yep-I'm doin' fine! Everything's AOK.

Bleah. Bleah bleah.

Sometimes I just wanna scream!

 This little old girl usually brings me back to a smile. She LOVES her cat box. It's so good for an all-day soak.

Oh yeah, I'm crabby about the virus and the weather-fir sure. Also crabby that I can't seem to draw or paint anything.

Just so ya know-I'm waaay not handling all of this so well.

:(