Good Tuesday morning. It looks cloudy again today, I am enduring but I prefer at least a bit of sunshine once in a while. Yesterday it was dang cold and it snowed, sleeted and generally was miserable.
I was in and out to the studio finishing up a special order sign. This one is super flowery and I enjoyed painting it. I tuned in to Pandora on my laptop and discoed out to 70’s music while painting and ignored the nasty weather outside.
While I was at it I painted on a couple more signs for my website. I have yet to list them so you get a preview. My Secret Garden signs are a popular item and I try to keep one or two in stock all the time. No two are ever exactly alike.
I am currently working on a different type Secret Garden sign. I hope it turns out, sometimes the design in my head does not translate well to my paint brushes but we shall see.
This one below is customizable. The customer can add the top wording.
It has been so cold that I have not wanted to get out into the greenhouse and work. I need to pot up my tomato and basil seedlings and I am waiting for a halfway sunny day so the greenhouse will heat up for me. I don’t do cold!
As you can see they are growing up into the grow lights. They are a little leggy, I need to rub my hand over them more to make them stockier, it releases an enzyme when you have a fan gently blow on them or you run your hand across them daily.
My Basil is looking thick and healthy. It smells like summer when I brush this one, it releases that oh so fragrant Basil smell.
I see a lot of Pesto in my future. Have you seen the price of pine nuts lately?? sheesh! Break the bank!
A friend suggested substituting walnuts. I need to try a small batch that way and see if I like it as well.
And an update on my Christmas cactus’. Remember how these just had little bitty tips popping out, look how big those tips are now.
And then there is the downside….I lost one of my little chickies yesterday. She was fine earlier in the day, I treated her for ‘pasty butt’ not uncommon with chicks not raised by a momma hen and she was fine once I had her cleaned up so I was surprised to find her dead by evening. And another looks mighty weak and most likely I will lose her too. Sniff…
So I assuaged my grief by indulging in a fattening dinner! I have been wanting to try a recipe I had seen online and of course I tweaked it for my own pleasure and it turned out FABULOUS!
The recipe was for pizza rolls but I did not think the extra work of individual rolls worth it. The recipe called for a frozen bread dough but I decided my oh so delicious baguette recipe would be better suited.
I whipped up a batch of baguette dough in my bread machine. (you can find them frequently in thrift stores, mine was a whopping $5)
I frequently make bread dough in my machine and I never bake in it, I much prefer the bread baked in the oven so basically I should call my bread machine a Dough machine.
I rolled out the dough, laid out the pizza ingredients on it and rolled them up inside, then brushed the top with butter and garlic granules and tossed it in the oven to bake. I used parchment paper on the cookie sheet as I figured the cheese would ooze out.
This recipe actually made two baguettes filled with pizza goodness but we had already devoured the first.
If anyone really wants the recipe (warning! it could be dangerous to your waistline) I will add it in a later post. I have to figure out the PDF downloadable thingy first.
Okay, enough of my rambling, I need to get busy and wrap that sign for shipping and work on the others.
The past week has flown by. I have been busy working, painting, cleaning and hosting some delightful guests, my brother in law and his wife. They left earlier today and I will miss them, such refreshing company. I was so glad they came, it gave me incentive to dig in and clean out an area I have wanted to for a long time but something always seemed more important.
This afternoon I am trying to update my website and figure out how to add Linky Friends or whatever it is called to my blog. I have meant to check out Google + as well, I just have not had time so today is dedicated to online chores, so to speak.
My seedlings and cuttings on my plant rack are growing very well.
Here is my geraniums when I first potted them up on February 7th.
And here they are today.
The yellow paper is a sticky trap for the fungus gnats. They come in the potting soil but the yellow sticky traps work great for keeping them under control.
This is a gorgeous Trumpet Vine, I don’t seem to have great success in growing it up here but I am going to put one or two of these in large pots and move them into the greenhouse in winter and out to my back deck in summer so I can get it to bloom for me. Just down the hill half an hour these flourish and can even become invasive but up here the winters are just too cold for it I guess.
And if you remember my Christmas Cactus post.. here are a few photos of how they are coming along.
It went from 2 having new growth to all of them. They were so easy to start, I did not expect success with every cutting but every one of them has taken off.
I do believe I have plenty of cactus now. I have another tray full of these as well from other cuttings.
The past two days were so lovely and warm, mid 60’s for a high, feels like Spring. I am still working on filling my raised bed, it is deep! Once filled though it will be great.
Now I need to get back to my online chores. Enjoy your fabulous Saturday!
Good morning, more snow has come down, we heard it pelting our windows during the night.
I am content tending my seedlings on my rack in the living room and enjoying each and every sprout. To see my post on my plant rack go here My February Garden
The first photo is of Showy Milkweed (I wanted a host plant for Monarch Butterflies)
this next one is Trumpet Vine (I got the seeds from an acquaintance whose vine I admired)
A zonal geranium seedling beginning to bloom, this is one I started last year and overwintered inside, it is called Rosy Glow. it has been blooming and is beginning to fade, I should’ve photographed it sooner, but it will bloom again.
This is Gabrielle's Horn, a Sinnigia (sp), it has been here struggling but once I put it under my grow lights it went to town.
Before the snow began to fall I was able to get a bunch of rose cuttings put down to root. I nearly have my propagating tank filled so I need to start another. I have more cuttings I wish to get and try to root.
Without the top, you can see all the cuttings. The one in here that I am most anxious to get rooted is Madame Alfred Carriere. In the past I have had a very good success rate so I have high hopes of new roses.
Go here for a past post on how I root cuttings: Rooting cuttings It was a post on rooting some lilacs but it is the same for my roses.
I need to find someone who has an Albertine climbing rose to get cuttings from, I lost mine in my past move and I want to get another started!
My days this week have been spent painting, I have several special orders for signs to fulfill and I will share them one day soon.
Have a great day!
