ethaisa

Before it got too sticky out, I got to do a little work in the front garden today -- tore up more of the pitiful excuse for a lawn, ripped out a ton of feeder roots, expanded the main bed, added some sheep poo and compost, moved a few flagstones and soaked the whole thing down. I'll rake and level it some more tomorrow before adding the topsoil and going on to the next section. Not sure if I like where the path is going, but it'll be easy enough to change. It was hard to stop -- I wanted to keep going, but I don't want my back to give out before my enthusiasm for the project does!

My garden is full of spiders -- big orb and wolf spiders, and a few other smaller garden varieties. One particularly industrious lady keeps trying to spin a web in the front door; I think I've managed to move her over to the cedar, time will tell. Another has a huge web on the back patio, stretching from the clothesline down to my patio pots. It's been a good garden year for spiders and bees. Soon I'll need to start harvesting and cutting back herbs and bushes -- my mugwort and wormwort have gone particularly crazy, and some baneberry showed up, courtesy of some friendlly bird, no doubt, in a hanging pot along with my vervain and petunias. I've missed not being able to spend as much time in my garden as I'd like. I'm planning to move my geraniums and some tender herbs indoors; I really hope I can get my dwarf pomegranate and the laurel to over-winter.

Indoors, I used up the rest of the whole milk and made a rice pudding with saffron, almond and nutmeg. Now it's time to finish up the laundry, and then lunch, and then more work on a certain special lady's wedding dress. I love working with fine fabrics; they're such a delight to sew.