letters from the wilderness
Over the next couple of days, I am going to do a tour of what I've been working on this summer in our garden. As I've mentioned previously, this is our second summer in our Virginia home. During the first summer, I basically maintained the plants I brought with me from my old garden plus... Continue Reading →
My sister-in-law and I only have a few more weeks of our summer soul camp. Overall, I have found the challenge most beneficial for my health and fitness. I’ve struggled a bit with the creative goals, and progress has been slow on our home and garden goals. As I work my way through the MAPS... Continue Reading →
Recently we began hanging pictures in our breakfast room. My plan was to stick with a plant theme using my photography and prints I’ve picked up while thrifting. I found this tulip poster last fall at a flea market for $12. The frame is from Michael’s craft store. Silly me bought a frame slightly longer... Continue Reading →
With the lettuce bolting in my back porch pots, I decided to switch them over to pots of annuals. I haven’t had much luck growing plants from seed in these pots. I suspect the porch doesn’t get enough light. I decided to try the clearance plant section at Lowe’s. Whoever buys plants for the garden... Continue Reading →
Over the past week, I've been working on 2 projects. I decided that I had enough of the wallpaper in the office, and started removing it. Then, my daughter decided she wanted to paint her room. After some back and forth with colors, she went with Sherwin William's Intellectual Gray. We finished wallpaper removal in... Continue Reading →
Our local Kroger has a flower clearance section. I check it every Saturday when we shop. Usually I don’t find flowers in good shape. However today I hit the jackpot! There was a ton of flowers, many good size bouquets marked down to $13.50. I picked 2 of these, figuring that would give me enough... Continue Reading →
While this is the second summer in Virginia, I'm counting it as the first year of my 5-year gardening plan. I needed to live with the yard and see what others were doing in this area. In Pennsylvania, I had a different type of soil to work with along with full-sun conditions. Shade gardening requires... Continue Reading →
Yesterday we headed to Crabtree Falls in Nelson County Virginia for a family hike. The falls are the highest vertical drop east of the Mississippi with 5 big cascades and a number of smaller ones. The hike up would probably be considered moderate. We encountered a lot of mud and some water on the trail.... Continue Reading →
At about a month into our summer soul camp, my plan for household projects and food is going pretty well. breakfast room Household finish breakfast room work on office work on powder room hang pictures thrifting Add to list: my daughter's bedroom We finished the breakfast room AND hung pictures in the room. I've been... Continue Reading →
My sister-in-law and I started our summer soul camp about a month ago. For my fitness plan, I measured my body at the chest, waist, and hips on May 24th, and measured again on June 22nd. I've noticed that my jeans and shorts are fitting better, and I can see more muscle tone in my... Continue Reading →
2 dogs and a house 