T Stands for Tuesday & Gardening

  Hi everyone, How was your last week? Here the weather has been all over the place, rain, T storms strong winds, freezes a couple nights, and Sunday in the 80 degrees f with full sun. Monday cool with lots of rain. This is typical Missouri weather though with extremes in temperature changes. We retired in the fall of 2003 and the weather still surprises me-we moved down from the Illinois-Wisconsin border after retiring.

   This post also brings us to T where we share a drink related photo with friends over at our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth-find link in my side column You are welcome to join the link up

  Sunday was such a lovely day that as soon as it warmed up a bit I spent several hours digging out some weedy ground cover over in the area in front of the rock walls. I got most of it done. I also helped move some very heavy concrete pavers for the dock project. Hubs found what he needed used here at the lake. There is allot of them though. He had help loading them in the trailer but we haven't been able to get one of the helpers that he pays to unload them-so we have to do it. Very difficult for our ages and Larry's health but we manage to get it done just takes allot more time to do it.

  I ordered a few more seeds. Since I keep getting into this poison ivy mess-which is still not healed at all, I decided I needed jewelweed. This will grow near poison ivy and oak but I have never seen it at our woods property, and we had allot of poison ivy-oak there but I could see it easily and stay away from it. Here is a link about it and it attracts the pollinators too along with the hummingbirds  This can be a ground cover or a very weedy bush if the seeds are planted close. Needs to be planted in the ground as does not transplant well I also learned that the seeds in the pods are edible These do need a cold treatment-as I am learning most perennial plants do-I may just wait til fall to plant these seeds.

 I wanted to buy a few more of the hummingbird mint plants but the seller sold out quickly. Looking around online these are very expensive around $16.00 or more per plant plus shipping So I searched around for seeds-there are many colors available. The scientific name is Agastache Kudos Hyssop I purchased seeds of red flowers and a packet of mixed flower colors. They look like they will fill in an area nicely with lovely blooms-and the pollinators and hummingbirds love these too.

 My bottle greenhouse are doing pretty well. I still have many that have not sprouted yet-but I have many that have sprouted. and I was able to save up more bottles to finish planting the last of the seed I had for the creeping thyme.

  The ground phlox that I planted (and got the poison ivy and fiberglass) is growing well and even has a few pink flowers already.

  To take notes for this gardening adventure-replacing all grass with perennials here at our lake home- I picked up a Gardening Journal that I am excited about.  I have fallen in love with the flower fairies by Barker and found this 2004 copy for just $5.00 free shipping., said like new. Not sure if this is printed every year with different flower fairies but most of these older editions are selling for around $15.00 and up-I found several on Amazon for $50.00 each-I would say I found a good bargain. 😀  I had bought a lovely book last year that included all of her fairies with poems. I have really enjoyed her book so much.

  I don't have new art photos to share, I did  really enjoy my watercolor-ink exercise with the sheep last week though, and finally did not feel as intimidated with learning how to paint. (if interested can check previous posts)  

   I am liking the idea of using watercolor inks as they can be watered down for different colors too. I decided I wanted to pick up a few colors. I went shopping at a large online site for these inks which has good discounted prices on many art supplies I had been happy with them in the past. However,  when I went to check out what??   $22.00 for shipping just a very few items?   Contacting them about this-they are telling me that watercolor inks are hazardous materials so the companies are adding this additional fee. What??  Told them I won't be buying from them again. I ended up going back to Amazon with free shipping. I did look for and find this general information on the Windsor Newton site, anxious to get these inks now to see if there are any hazard warnings on the labels

  This is what I picked up There are many brands so I went with Windsor and Newton  Reading reviews many really liked these inks.  Also good for dip pens-I think there will be some fun with writing to my slow mail friends in the future with these ink colors. This brand also sells gold and silver ink.

  Update: Later this afternoon I just got my box of these inks in the mail-and there are No hazard warnings on the box or the bottles.

  During one of the days we had low temperatures with a freeze I was cold so decided to make me a mug of hot cocoa with the mix I made awhile back So this is perfect for my drink share.

We are feeding bird seed on the deck-early sunrise with bird flying off-this is from a week ago, I don't think I have shared this one yet.

Happy T and new week ahead