Sunday, July 25, 2010

a neglected garden, but another room done

 (Many thanks to Heather at Capricious Reader for hosting Saturday Farmer's Market!)

We actually missed the farmer's market altogether this morning...trying to get some chores done and then remembered we had to take Max to a birthday party...and well, it just didn't happen this week. :(

Our garden was a tad neglected this week as well. Just so dang busy with projects around the house. We did eat some more kohlrabi...sooooo good! And we ate our first green pepper diced up in scrambled egg burritos (thank you farmer's market for our ethical eggs). Annie's cherry/grape/whatever tomatoes have started ripening, too...and others have been enjoying them (I don't like tomatoes unless they're in something--I know, silly me). Anyway, here's a few pictures of what's going on in there as of this morning.

We've got lots of tomatoes hidden away amongst the plants, though none are starting yet to ripen.

 Our pole beans are finally flowering. :)

The cucumbers have oodles and oodles and oodles of flowers (the picture shows just a fraction of them), but we've yet to see any baby cukes at all.

And Annie's tomatoes.

And in the flower garden, I've no idea where this beautiful sunflower came from, but it is very welcome to stay as long as it would like. :D

And hooray! My black-eyed Susans are blooming! My favorite flower. Well, tied with daisies anyway.

*****
So, what kept us out of the garden this week. Lots of projects actually. But my biggie was the library...and I am just giddy as hell this evening because I finally finished in there. (Well, finished with what I had hoped to accomplish this summer, that is.)

The before shot (yes, it was a complete disaster...and this photo only shows part of it):



And the after shots (wish the pictures were better, but it was the best I could do):

 I'm so in love with the bookcases Rich built so it all now frames the window. That wall houses non-fiction...history, bios/memoirs, travel, the kids' non-fiction, general science, environmental issues, social issues, animals, natural history...and maybe some other stuff I'm forgetting.

Okay, this picture really sucks. :(  But this wall houses mostly Rich's science books. Everything on top of the side-by-side bookcases, as well as the top shelf of each of those bookcases, holds his evolution books. Science geek. He also has an entire shelf of brain books and an entire shelf of genetics. Science geek. A shelf of dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts. A shelf of ecology. Science geek. A shelf of earth science. And a shelf of animal behavior. Science geek. :D

And behind the chair on the left are some small bookcases which house collections by some of his favorite science/natural history authors...E.O. Wilson, David Attenborough, Carl Zimmer, Oliver Sacks, Richard Dawkins, and a few more I'm forgetting at the moment.

And finally, not showing in this picture (but I think it might show up in the next one), is another new bookcase Rich built. This one holds our house and garden type books.

The closet houses a sagging shelf of National Geographics, our reference books, two shelves of Annie's books (she has most of hers in her room), and Rich's fiction.

The big bookcase in the middle holds Gray's books (though he has a smaller bookcase in his room as well). The little bookcase on the top is also a new addition Rich built.

And finally, the skinny dark brown shelves hold some of Max's books. Our reluctant reader also has a bookcase in his room.

And the final wall...well, it holds my fiction. As well as a few of my favorite other possessions--my Poppets, my beautiful handmade Calpurnia (thank you again, Jason!), and my homemade folk artsy coyote (thank you again, Annie!).

Someday we will get the room painted and add molding and a few other things, but for now I'm just happy to be able to hang out comfortably in there again. :D

6 comments:

  1. Wow that's a lot of books! We're slowly, slowly getting rid of books, and they're in shelves all over the house - some in the living room, some in the bedroom, some on shelves in both the boys' rooms, some in the closet...

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  2. OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!! I can't wait to be there Debi :D The garden looks absolutely incredible!! And guess what? I found a little baby cucumber in that picture! I'm with you on tomatoes..I'm not a big fan of them either unless they're in something or diced on top of nachos or something like that :p

    The flowers are so gorgeous!!! I love the sunflower! I can't wait for mine to grow and grow! I so hope that they bloom. The black eyed susans are gorgeous as well :)

    And the library looks incredible!! I can't wait to see it :D

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  3. Amanda,
    You know, the sad thing is that we, too, have books all through the house. (Though, in a way, that's a happy thing.) Each of the kids has a bookcase in their bedroom, Rich and I have a small bookcase in our bedroom in addition to each of us having the bottom of our nightstands full of books, there's a bookcase full of cookbooks and antiques and collectibles books in the kitchen, a bookcase in the living that holds mostly the books we use for school, there's three small bookcases full of craft books in the basement, and Rich has a little office in the basement in which he has three huge bookcases full of books as well as piles on his desk and on the floor. So in actuality, we probably have as many books spread throughout the house as we do in the library itself. We are so pathetic. Sheesh, and I was feeling good about all the books we've weeded out in the past month (eight good size boxes of them), until I went and talked about how many are still in this house. :P

    Chris,
    You *know* I'm now going to have to go search for the baby cucumber, don't you? :) I can't wait to for your sunflowers to grow up and bloom, too--they're going to be gorgeous, I just know it!
    And I can't wait for you to see the library!!! I went on a cat hair removal rampage yesterday...and I plan on trying to vacuum the chairs in there daily. I'm hoping that by the time you arrive, it will be as "cat-clean" as it can possibly be. :D

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  4. OMG - you got a new blog and didn't tell me. You can't escape Debi. Glad to have you back. Love looking at those shelves.

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  5. Vivienne,
    I swear I wasn't hiding from you!!!! Believe me, you are one of the last people on earth I'd ever want to hide from. Just chalk my move to a new blog to a mental breakdown...which is only partly joking. :P

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  6. Beautiful! Garden and bookshelves, that is. I'm completely envious. ;)

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