Garden tour

I have been meaning to post a tour of my garden all summer, the first of these photos were taken a month ago, when I had cucumbers still. They have long since been pickled.

I have just a small area of raised beds, but this year we added at least three more beds than last year. Plus we added a bunch of old tires filled with compost, where we planted herbs and tomatoes. 

Cucumbers and broccoli....

Carrots and onions...

Zucchini...it's finally all gone. We made zucchini fritters, zucchini chips, canned zucchini bread, steamed zucchini and I have one last one I have been meaning to make into zucchini Pie but haven't got around to yet.  Here's a link to my pinterest board for zucchini and/ or marigold recipes...

Basil, silver mound, lemon thyme, winter savory and oregano and lavender and orange mint....

A new bed; sweet potatoes...

I will post soon with all this week's harvest and what we made out of it all... 

 

in the meantime, here's a peek into my sketchbook. This page came about after the botanical sketches I did, and the gardening, it just naturally merged into a tangled web of flowers. I have so many new ideas for this... a new e-class (i know, I know... i haven't even finished the mandala e-class), a series of sketchbook pages and even acrylics. I have started about 5 pages already and will show you as I go hopefully.

oops, sorry, this seem a little blurry as it's dark inside now...

 

At some point I need to get back on track and finish the mandalas i have started. My deadlines have come and gone and been met for the book and I will let you know when it will be available!!!!

And I will have more details about the mandala coloring book edition of the heArt journal online magazine!!!!

5 things that make me happy.......

1. starting a new hobby that the whole family wants to get involved in....
creating walking sticks....
can't wait to get started now that we have the proper tools...
carving, woodburning, painting and staining...
so many ideas...

2. an abundant harvest from my small little raised garden....
 gathering what we have grown....

 3. Canning and pickling and making jelly and salsa with  our own vegetables....

next year I will get more creative with my labels...

4.Walking with my son on the dike around our town....

and searching for bees...

5.photographing old and  new rocks for my etsy shop.... I plan to add them little by little this week and next...

been making and eating pickles from my cucumbers this summer.......

I was scared of canning at first...

it made me nervous, 

it seemed like a scary process before you know what you are doing...

now it seems so simple.

time consuming, but simple!