Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Brief Hiatus

Luna Flower
Luna in a pot... guess there won't be any
strawberries in there this year. lol
With the nice weather and impending doom of summer (yes, I really feel that way), I've taken a brief hiatus to start/finish up some yard work. Once the heat settles in I won't be doing much of anything so I had to take advantage of the beautiful weather!

We are overrun with blackberries. Most people think this is the greatest thing in the world. Have you ever tried to control blackberries?!?! Once the vines hit the ground, they root. That bush looking thing behind Luna (on the left) is a blackberry thicket or the Fairy Fort. This year, do to downsizing, the fairies lost a bit of their ring. Sorry guys, we're all feeling the sting of the economy :/

How can I keep working on the garden when that's the 3rd time I scared this poor little guy?! Guess it's break time :)
Friendly little snake :)
Typically, I spend each spring ripping out blackberries, honeysuckle (which I love) and poison ivy. I've been told I should just spread some weed killer on everything but I can't bring myself to do that. Besides the fact that I don't want to poison the animals, (mine or nature's), we live on a peninsula and are surrounded by the Chesapeake Bay, Atlantic Ocean, the James and York Rivers, as wells as numerous lakes etc. I really can't justify polluting such a fragile ecosystem, which is already in danger, simply to save myself some manual labor. So... I spend weeks ripping, pulling, mowing, sneezing and cursing until I get the yards somewhat manageable.





Playing with some linen...In between the piles leaves and vines - and blood - I've managed to get in a little sewing. I'm currently playing around with some linen fabric. I love the look of linen but it does stretch a bit (perhaps I cut it wrong) so that was challenging for me. You can see in the photo how warped it looks. I think I rushed and should have slowed down a bit. I still have to make my Sewing Dare shirt that Leila assigned to me and that will involve using a knit. I'll definitely go slow on that!

Okay, back to the yard, or couch since I can't breathe...










2 comments:

  1. Blackberries are a nightmare! I feel the same way about weed killer (or chemicals of any kind) and it drives Kevin nuts. It was recommended to me once to rent a couple of goats to get the blackberries in check. I never did, but imagine it would work well as long as you can keep them away from the rest of your plants!

    As for the linen, I recently made a bag with it and I used pellon shape flex for interfacing. After that was on I had no issues with it shifting (and I usually hate sewing with linen). Shape flex is kinda pricey though so get it at JoAnn with a coupon :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I used shape flex. I bought a bolt of it for 65% off and a gift carzd :) I think I just need to get used to it. As far as goats... my suburbia would probably have heart failure. Lol

      Delete