When it Rains it Pours

This time, I'm not talking about the weather, but about all the other things that can happen to get in the way of creating the perfect garden. Despite the rainy weather, I find Im incapable of staying inside. So, with the rain on my back and a sack in my hand, I planted onions and garlic rows yesterday. I also set up some of the seed beds which will be used to make starts out doors. I make a clear plastic greenhouse-ish cover, and plant some of the seeds I'll later have to move into the rows. I'm hoping that this will enable me to bypass the traditional nightmare of hardening my seedlings (the highest deathrate time in my garden most years).

I had my wonderful gifted madder seeds soaking (they have a rather thick and husky shell) so they'd germinate. The ones that don't swell at all need to be scarified (or nicked) in order to grow. When I went to plant the seeds this morning, I discovered the big mug they'd been soaking in was missing. I found it in the dishwasher. Just figures, a whole house full of people who don't even know where the dishwasher is, much less what it does... and my lovelies are gone. "Oh, you mean that mug of stuff that looked like tea?" my husband said. So, here I am at this late date searching for madder seeds. Yesterday, I was searching for Japanese Indigo and several other items that had also disappeared. Fortunately, I'm blessed with wonderful understanding Ravelry friends who are willing to share a little of what they have with me. I'll just be a bit late getting started. I'll live.

My pot of forsythia is still on the stove top. I added another armload of (starting to fail) blooms to the pot this morning. I should be able to do some dying with them soon if they work out as they're supposed to.

In the mean time, I'm using the little free time I have to scour wool and fiber. I did a big load of snowy white alpaca, a load of gold angora (goat), and I have a load of shetland in the sink as we speak. (I have a lovely ewe named Evening Rose whose owners sell me her fiber every year). The colors are amazing. Every shade from True black to palest silver with a bit of cream in '09 that was gone in '10. You'll get to see it later.

I'll be going on a gathering walk in a little while. I want to try using the inner bark of the white birch, and I noticed a tree down by the side of the road. Off I go!!!

Leah

8-)