Best/Worse and What did I learn today? Friends pt.38

Ruby, everything is so pretty! You have a lot of space to work with and I am green with envy!

The mystery flower I think is just a tulip of some kind. Both the leaves and flowers look like tulips to me. Just probably an early bloomer. I've got some that have been up for a week or some and others that are just getting ready to bloom.

Well, raining again today. I know the reservoirs need the water but I am tired of this rain! Not only is the ground saturated but Murphy Become a big wet rag ever time he goes out. And trying to dry him off - UGH! It's a big game to him!! So, I think today will be a finish laundry, read a book or just veg kind of day!

I'll check back later!!

Jeannine

Thanks Jeannine. We have a two acre lot. Not quite an acre is fenced in. The other acre or so needs major attention in terms of clearing brush and lots of old pine trees that need to be cut down. The area outside the front yard has never been cleaned off and cleared so it will be very interesting to see how it looks whenever we finally are able to begin clearing it. We are very quickly filling up the fenced in part with lots of beautiful flowers.


I know what you mean about dogs and rain. Not a good mixture. Two of my boys love to be dried off with a towel and the older one thinks of it as a game too and trys to steal the towel. I took a picture of Lucky having his dinner yesterday, so there is no better time than now to make his debut. Introducing......Mr. Lucky Watts.

Ruby

Ruby, what wonderful pictures! Your memorial is wonderful and the plaque is superb! He's a keeper!! LOL Sorry, you lost all those lovely compliments, but I'd probably be blushing! NOT........LOL

OMG..is 'lucky' a new family addition...adorable..how old would he be..I'm not happy at this moment with Sailor, Anne dropped in for a visit, opened a new box of Girl Guide cookies, I had one, she 'none' but guess who had an entire box..she's looking so sheepish right at this moment...even when they age they have to be watched..

Love your yard Ruby, can't wait to see it in spring time with all it's color..I came in and I smell as though I've been 'smoked' picked up as much debris as I could and got myself into mischief I'm sure...the entire back porch was closed in with plastic for the winter, know I should have waited a few weeks but what to h..l, I took it all down..watch if we don't get a few more blizzaards.. love to see the green in your yard Ruby..quite surprised that under the snow there are touches of green here and there...one more week and that should be the end of snow..but everything look soooo ugly..yuk..

I've searched the entire house, closets/under the beds, under the deck, back shed for the big stained glass piece that hangs as a divider..no go, can't find it anywhere..surely I wouldn't have thought 'I'll make a new one in the spring' so I'll pray to St. Anthony - patron saint of lost objects and see what he can do...

Brought the light fixture globe inside and took a 1/2 hr. break so sat myself done with a bucket of glass pieces and glued them to the globe..tonight I just might do the grout..so instead of making it to my garbage it will make the garden...

Doccat5, we have similar interests..as Recreation Co-ordinator I started a seniors group called "Happy Gang" and bought 2 large kilns..one of the men was interested in pouring molds so the municipality bought many and he poured for us...it is still ongoing... I did porcelain dolls for awhile and now mom is heavy into it..she does beautiful work and not sure if DS gave her the idea if something happens to her I'll want an entire room full..lol..NOT..a few but not 50..I also did clay lifting which I enjoyed tremendously..my Uncle Jerry (2 years older than I) and his wife owned a large studio in Barrie and had teachers come in..but, as with all things, not many do it anymore or are there any studio's for firing...still have boxes/boxes of piece I did for Christmas and so has my DIL..

Would love to see photo's of your work...

better not stop or that will be it..talk later

Ruby,

GG beat me to it! It seems to be a dwarf tulip of some kind.

Feeling a bit under the weather yesterday and today. Just yuk! Haven't eaten anything today--have no appetite. Yesterday, my body was all hot--but no temp. A bit of a runny nose. Maybe just a cold------I hope that is all it is! Haven't had any sicknesses this winter so far.....

Gita

Hi Ruby..
I enjoyed your phtos.
I have some Toronto Tulips that are similar to your red ones. The centres are different but they open up wide like yours. This is last years photo.

Well I am beat! I have been working outside since my Son in Law left after patching with hydraulic cement..hopefully it will help stop the water leaking in.
I managed to get my little John Deere stuck in the mud ..I am so careless..I get excited and wanted to take a load of debris to the back..didn't think it was so muddy back there. Been raking leaves out of the beds..lots of bits of green growing. I phoned my son and told him to bring his rubber boots when he comes tomorrow to bring the old wooden furniture. Hopefully he and I together can get the tractor unstuck.

Need to go have ahot shower and relax now.

Cheers,
Carol

Gita, hope you aren't coming down with anything..perhaps it's because you didn't take enough time to recoup..even though you were feeling ok sometimes it still means 'rest'...

Carol, OMG you have your garden tractor out already...is it not muddy/muddy in your back yard..maybe next door neightbors will come and help out...

Love those vibrant tulips girls...

Just finishing working and got company, Kathy just left and now I feel chilled to the bones so that's it for me this weekend..I'm all for a bath and early tobed..

Darlene just called to say she and the girls will not be here tomorrow so that gives me another day before I have to tidy up the craft room..lordy, I'm always cleaning that room up..

Didn't find the stained glass hanging for the deck..almost sure I threw it in the garbage..the glass had been grouted and a few pieces fell out, I could see myself saying, in the garbage it goes that way next year you'll have to do a proper one..so another thing on my to do list..

Yawning, chilled so off I go..

Will show you just how much snow has gone this week..you can almost see green where the snow has melted, or is that something I'm praying to see and can visualize it..lol

Had my lunch out here with the sun shinning on..

Would have loved to get all the garden stuff out but will leave it for a few more weeks, at least the back deck has a roof for protection..

Won't be cleaning the pond and putting the water pump in for at least a week or so...lol

Betty, that chandelier is wonderful! Love your view except for the white stuff........LOL Get some rest, I'm off to try and finish another article. I got in on that gladiola coop, LOL now I need to earn some extra to help pay for it. But it was such a deal. And I love gladiolas so much!! LOL

evening all,

ruby, oh the pictures were just lovely thank you for sharing you do have a large area it will be just beautiful when all is in bloom.
i love your momument i to have that sign it is one of my favorite sayings ok here is the low down from mil she says it needs to be golden like a banana soft but mot mushy hope that helps you...

vicki, come on down im always up for a exausting day going everywhere and then some i get started and i wont even break for lunch just love to galavant everywhere:)

betty, omg you have ground finally oh i bet your so excited to get out and work the garden
ok so dont laugh lol....
but we acomplished 4 dragonflys by the fourth one we figured out what the problem was on the one before ect
fil watched me cut and sure enough it was me!! i was cutting at a angle not straight you could even hear the difference in the glass being cut
so after we packed the mini drill press( guess now i can finally get to the windchime) lol.
we stopped at a garage sale this old timer said he bought this house in 1962 and still has to go through the second story said he would be having a garage sale for two weeks so i picked up a interesting chinese bird feeder and the rack of spice holders and the mixed beads for 2.50 what a bargan. so now i have to finish planting now that dh fell asleep.

judy, did you finish the compost bin yet??? oh got on the scale lost three lbs so i remember the tools and tricks from w/w

carol, oh what a lovely flower, wow you had a busy day hope you can get the tractor out lol everyone have a wonderful evening

omg i forgot the pic

WOW, Liz you did good! That bird feeder is very interesting. Those are neat and you're dragonflies are lovely.

well, sweet ladies, I worked in my yard most of the day. Our temps yesterday and today were 65 and 70....to wet yesterday, but today was wonderful. Made a new small flowerbed, extended another one, planted, transplanted, weeded and got filthy dirty. sure felt good to melt into a hot bath. Supposed to be nice tomorrow too, so maybe another day outside.

Thank you for all your good thoughts and wishes. I had a good weekend, read a lot and got lots of sunshine. a couple of neighbors visited, one for a few hours and we sat outside and just enjoyed the day. Also slept well, which is unusual for me.

I will have flowers blooming by next week, tulips for sure. My redbud tree is blooming, pear trees are in bloom, forsythia is already turning green...lots of green. even my maple trees are beginning to green. sure feels like spring!

I do hope things have been great for you this weekend. Vicki...no more bad saturdays, OK? Carol, hope no more leaks...that one was enough, I think. Looked scary to me. I loved all the pictures, thanks for posting them. I am very nearly ready to fall asleep, so I won't try to write any more....Love to all of you.
S

Judy I had no idea how much loss you have suffered, it is amazing that you don't get in a fetal position in April or as it approaches. Looks like many of my friends on this thread have a real tough month in April. Prayers for all.

Ruby I love the pictures and it looks like your compost bin looks like my new planter. Funny.

We don't have a lot of greenhouses here.

Explain the worms Doc. worm bins. I don't know what that is? I assume you are raising worms for the yard or to sell for fishing or something.

Betty you do keep so darn busy that it is amazing what you can do with your time and still work.

Ves I heard a secret on DG and so far it has worked to fend off rabbits and I hear it works better on deer. Milorganite fertizer.

Starz you have had your share of fun lately ha? not!

Love Porcelein and would love to have a kiln, to make my own plant pots. I saw this cool yard that someone made hundreds of them and they had plants in all of them. I don't care for a lot of cactus and succs but this had them in pots everywhere and it looked so impressive.

We're doing an experiment with the worms, actually. i want the castings for my compost, but we want to try and sell somethings at the local farmer's market this year and think we might be able to see some of these for bait and for compost. I've already made up a little passout that explains how good these guys are for your flower beds and garden. I know a lot of people will buy by the container and I think we could do a nice little business by educating people on using them straight out of the box. It also gives me the perfect excuse to go into to my organic or "natural" methods of gardening. I've become a "tree hugger" in my old age.......LOL

You could make lovely plant pots with some molds and ceramic slip. It's not hard to pour, it just takes a little practice to gauge the thickness before you pour it back out of the mold. Kilns are not difficult to work with, but I'm a freak about safety using them. They are tools, but it can be dangerous if you don't take proper precautions when it's firing. Kinda got myself in trouble on another thread about this, but this lovely lady was a newbie and had no clue. She wanted to set this big one up in a laundry room, that's not a problem, since the floor was concrete, but you need to make sure you have excellent ventilation when your working with one of these. The materials and paints give of fumes that can be toxic. Any red paint contains lead! So you have to be extra careful when firing those. They can't make a red color without lead. You need it to set the red color. Things like that. One of the ladies on the thread got very upset with me and left in a bit of a huff. I wasn't trying to be a know it all, but I have had the training and am certified to teach how to properly fire and use kilns and fix them too. sigh I hate it when people act like that.....

Yuck, can't sleep. And here you are on one of my favorite topics. I have a potters wheel and kiln, tons of glazes. Well I have taught ceramics for 30plus years.....so. But I don't use molds. I either hand build or I throw on the wheel. I also love to do slab work. Cathy is right about ventilation. And the fumes can come from the clay as well, depending on whether or not it has been purified and harmful oxides removed.

Actually, it is the oxide in red that can be harmful...the most harmful being uranium. All the fumes are bad for you but I think the biggest fear was whether or not one should eat off a red glazed plate. Eating from such dinnerware is not a bad thing, but storing food in it is, especially if the food being stored is acidic, then it reacts with the chemicals in the glaze possibly. the Chinese used red in most of their pottery from hundreds of years ago. It has been tested and the results are what I just said. Fiesta ware is the one in the US I think that was most tested but in 1959, it was decided that the uranium oxide was safe to eat from but not safe if food was stored in it for more than 50 hours.
that's more than you ever wanted to know....sorry.....Cathy is right about the fumes, and not just the red glazes, other glazes and some clay as well. Anyway......now that I am wide awake......
When I was in college and taking I guess my third or fourth ceramics course I spent an entire semester making a set of dinnerware. Lovely stuff.....place settings for 8, cups saucers, serving bowls, pitcher, platter...all of it. I glazed it in what I thought was going to be a cream. Ended up being more of a camel color. I was furious, because I had spent months making it, part on the wheel and part hand thrown/built. So I gave it away to one of my sorority sisters who was getting married.
Duh! I wish I still had it.
I made a lot of pieces while I was teaching, but never a matching set ever again. I gave most of it away, but still have some odd pieces floating around. I wasn't into gardening in those days, so didn't do many pots.

I do have some big bowls though. Will post some photos tomorrow.
Well, you have had enough about that.....and I am wide awake again. Maybe I will read for awhile.
OK, will try one more time to go to sleep....
Nite.

2:29 OMG Shar, you'll be sleeping in this morning..Kathy dropped in around 4pm yesterday and once I stop, I really STOP so it was an early night and I did sleep fairly well..

It's a cold day out there..they are calling for rain a good part of the day so that will about do in the rest of the snow ..yeepee...

Going back to kilns, yes the fumes can be dangerous..I always fired late in the evening so no chance of anyone around..and the cad paints were certainly the worse and most difficult to get true color..can't even think how many red/yellow/orange/bright green ended up with black spots..just said that was part of the design..

Keep thinking of going for the course in Barrie to learn jewelery making..I've seen such pretty pieces and of course the firing is done in a short span..in a 3hr class you can make a piece, fire it and take it home..who knows, might be a light project this summer...

Well, better get ready, Suzanne called last night but I must have slept through the telephone rings, said she's stopping in Barrie tonight to shop so guess I have to decide if I want to wait for her or drive to Barrie and carry on home...decisions/decisions....

Oh Liz, what beautiful dragonflies...you did them flat which is different, I'll have to do a few as well..glad you enjoyed your stained glass lesson from father-in-law..now you'll have the bug..

Talk later, must run/coffee cup is empty..

My My..what a lot of talented ladies..you all seem to have similar interests.

Liz..good job on the dragonflys..
I remember there is a special way to cut mangoes..sort of halve it and dice the fruit while leaving it attached to the skin and turn it inside out..then nibble away at it...does that make any sense..LOL I saw this in Barbados..

Betty your deck lloks so pretty..I have been sitting on my deck too..
I planted a few pansies in pots yesterday..they can take a bit of frost.

Dawn..I think Doc wrote an article on her worm bins..click on her name and it should show you a link to the article.

Ahh....... Sharon...your garden doings sound wonderful..and to think you have gotten all 8 roses planted..wonderful..

Well I better get going..answer some e-mail..and then start my day..
it is a bit sunny here right now...

Doc was writing about worm porn, LOL Shameful, but interesting. I may yet do one on building your own bin. I've been keeping notes of these experiments in my journal. The worms, the Bokashi, the compost.......all grist for the writer's mill. Amazing what just "hits" you when your subconsciously looking for article material. And btw ladies, I'm always open for ideas, suggestions or something you might want to know about!!! Yep, big hint!! LOL

Sharran, figures you would have done thrown pottery. And Betty it doesn't surprise me you've played with kilns also. :)
There is a gentleman here in town who does fantastic thrown work. He's a throwback hippy type and I think he is the coolest. I met him when I was renting show space for my finished pieces in one of the shops next to his studio. I happened to park in the lot next to it and there he is out there with with this humengous and I do mean humengous pot (you could fit several active dogs and children in this thing) but it was bright cobalt blue with designs!!!! I was stunned! And of course I had to go check this out, since a. I love this kind of stuff, b. I love cobalt blue! He was just pulling it out of his homemade wood fired kiln. You would never know it to look as him, but he is a highly educated man with excellent credentials and has quite a following. We had a lovely chat about the kilns. He was in the process of building a propane fired one at the time. He wanted to try some different firing ranges and needed one that would go hotter. Just fascinating. The wood kiln was patterned after the one he had used while studying in England. Blew this little town girl away! LOL

Every time I went down there, I just had to drop in and see what he was up too. Lovely person, unfortunately a lot of people who do thrown pottery have a tendency to rather "look down their nose" at those who do molded ceramics, Dan isn't one of those people. All knowledge is valuable and I was able to help him with a glaze problem he was having on some pieces. He was just too close to the problem to see what was going wrong.

I use to do firing for him for small pieces and odds and ends. Not really enough to warrant firing his big kilns. It was one of the most flattering things to me. That he would trust me to fire his special work correctly :) One of those feel good moments!

Panick city, tried to access this site since 9am when I got in and couldn't, thought oh/oh what was I up to that I no longer can read/post..but here I am, breathing a sigh of relief..can be chatty again...

Carol, today is as beautiful out there as it was yesterday...pansies, you put them outside in this cold..are they called icicle pansies? hmm dying to have real plants out there, let me know and I'll pick up a few...and yes, I'm going to enjoy the back deck, problem with sitting and looking afar you see many projects that should be done, some I can do others will need manpower and $$$...never happy I guess..

Came to the conclusion that the beautiful stained glass piece that I had glued in a frame and then grouted which had lost a piece or two was thrown in the garbage..I can see myself thinking, if I don't have this one I'll be forced to do a real stained glass piece..see the logic, no?

Doc, you said you had an article to do, do you write for a living? Dan sounds like a fascinating person..we have a pottery shop near Hillsdale and I'm always agog at what they accomplish..if only there were more hours in a day, couldn't you just see what we could accomplish..could give up working I guess but don't know if I'd be as focused on what I want done...

Ruby went back to have a look at all your photo's, lots of land to keep maintained...I think my most favorite thing to do is 'cut grass' honestly, it gives me such a sense of peace and accomplishment..should be purchasing a riding lawnmower but I need the exercise..

It was so nice yesterday seeing all the neighbors out and working..this is the time of year I want to get into a car and go travelling around..day trips..

I'm a dabbler at writing, Betty. I've done some articles here at Daves and I've written several for our MG newsletter. Exploring doing some free lancing. I love gardening and all things related, but that's not the only thing I know about. :) I think I'd like to do some mental stretching. We'll see, I'm still kinda checking it out. Yet another iron in my busy fire! LOL
Dan is a honey bunny!

Now you must tell us doccat5 - what is 'mental stretching'???? Do tell..Judy just sent me a d-mail saying she couldn't access the site either and has been trying all morning so I'm going to try and start another thread to see if that's the problem..

Well DH will be home today and it will be nice to have him home. Having him gone for a few days always renews my appreciation for him and also all the single parents who don't have someone around to help. Ella was sick on Friday and Saturday night. She seemed to be doing alright during the day on Saturday so we went to a friend's house that afternoon. Within about 5 or 10 minutes of being home she threw up majorly. I put her in the bath and had Sonora watch her while I cleaned up. My clothes seemed to get the worst of it so it was into my pyjamas early and a load of laundry too. Last night Ian was complaining that his brain was hurting - his way of saying he has a headache. He didn't feel hot but when I checked his temperature he had a fever. Needless to say, he's home from school today.

Sonora and I started some seeds a couple weeks ago. I may regret it because I think it's still pretty early for starting them. We'll see how it goes though. She planted a pumpkin and it's getting huge, it will be interesting to see it's progress. We still have a lot of snow here. It's starting to melt though, of course that means that the roads will all be getting really muddy soon. Soon we'll be trading winter boots for rubber boots. Some of the community leaders are worried that the island will flood when the river breaks up and all the snow melts so everyone is talking about an evacuation. I can't really see that happening but I am thinking that I should probably get the basement in better order just in case we get some water in it. Our sump pump is only two years old and it works fine, the only problem would be if there was a power outage. I think that many are making a bigger deal out of the extra snow than there really needs to be.

The other sign of spring that is out in full force is the pussywillows and I heard a white-throated sparrow a few days ago too. I do have to say that I'm a little envious hearing about everyone's gardening pursuits. It's a good thing that I like the winter. I try to enjoy it while it's still here instead of getting too impatient. Starting seeds inside has helped with that. Well, I guess I better get lunch on the table.

Here we are...hoping we can access DG...

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/831735/