The Essence of Spring -

 There is a particular "fragrance" about spring in the Pacific NW.  It's called Cottonwood.  Sweet, slightly musky, not really a fragrance you would necessarily wear, but it's oh, so enticing. 

More than any other, the smell of cottonwood really signifies spring to me.  And it reminds me of a walk in the woods, ostensibly to look for mushrooms, with a crush from one of my Soc/Anthro classes. 

Ah, spring fever. 

This little hawthorn is over 60 or 70 years old.  It was gifted to The Shepherd by a lady from our church who was dying of cancer.  She said she  knew he would take good care of it. 

And he has. 

I don't work at the salt mine on Friday.  It "used to be" my day off - Today we had Dr's appointments and hair appointments  - got groceries and took the wool over to our friends house for the Wonderful Woollies Wool sale that is happening tomorrow.  It is our 5th year of participating in this sale - of course I'll take pictures.  

Someone I know is pretty pooped out tonight.  Hopefully he'll take it easy tomorrow.

I hope you've enjoyed this little tour through The Shepherd's bonsai garden.

I have to finish getting things ready to take along tomorrow - we have a pot luck lunch for the people who are "selling" - I think there are about 10 farms involved.  I'm taking a chopped salad with chicken & sunflower seeds, plus some banana bread that I just baked up.  I finally found THE quintessential banana bread recipe - on Pinterest of course.  I'll get you the recipe here in the next week or so. 

Til then - have a great weekend! 





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Sunday's Sweet

"Top Hat" Blueberry

This loaded little blueberry plant is from The Shepherd's bonsai collection.  The beautiful little Japanese clay pot it was in broke last winter, but it seems to be doing OK in the plastic pot it's living in now. 

For some real Sunday Sweets visit my new favorite blog site Cake Wrecks.  My friend Trish at The Katnip Lounge talks about being addicted to Bejeweled 2.  - Cake Wrecks is nearly as addictive - I can sit for hours clicking on the links and being amazed and amused by this web site. 

Have a Happy Sunday! 


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It's a small world after all

Not a very good close up, but The Shepherd has this bright yellow forsythia blooming in the greenhouse right now.

He has spent the past couple of days root pruning and cleaning pots, getting everything ready to move out to the benches in the garden.






A pretty pine with a very gnarled trunk.
















I'm fascinated by the lichens that grow on some of the plants - they are about the size of a straight pin.













Or smaller...








This little weeping larch has the most intriguing looking little cones, and when the needles first come out, they are as soft as they can be.



















He moved this out of the greenhouse onto our front porch this afternoon. I always say -" Some people re-arrange their furniture. The Shepherd re-arranges his plants..."

The end of summer, "fall clothes" and good 'nip

Quoting an article from MSNBC: "In dozens of randomized, controlled experiments, people who focused on the things they were grateful for were happier, healthier and more successful. In her new book, “Thank You Power” (Thomas Nelson), TV journalist and author Deborah Norville marshals this research to advance the argument that a simple but consistent expression of gratitude can carry us a long way down the road to happiness."

I didn't have time today to really study this article but I've got it printed out and I'll report on it here soon. I do believe that gratitude is good for the heart and soul and finding Three Beautiful Things about your day can certainly make that trip down the road to happiness a lot shorter. I have been neglecting that in my life lately - sigh - so much to do, so little time...but here are my three beautiful things for this week.

We had a small patch of tomatoes this summer - they are shaped like Roma's but they are little - arent these green ones pretty?
















The ripe ones were very tasty - and not a one made it to the house - well, I actually only got 5 ripes ones and the temp is supposed to dip into the 30's tonight, so I suppose the plants will all be done for tomorrow. Next year I'll have The Shepherd put them where they will get more sun.




John's bonsai collection is beginning to put on it's fall clothes. He tucked this oak into the greenhouse to delay the inevitable - it is just gorgeous.







Neelix & Sinda found the 'nip bag that I got them last spring - if Sinda isn't sleeping on it (sort of like some kind of aroma therapy) Neelix is licking it. They have definately been two happy cats this week.