Doctor Who ride and garden photos

Our friend Brandon is in town to study city planning and transit in Portland (check out his blog here) and what better way to check out a city than by bike? It is Pedalpalooza season and we went on their Doctor Who ride! They started at those blue boxes that look like the TARDIS near Pioneer Courthouse Square. I would have been there had I not gotten a flat tire. boo. I bought a new tube at Waterfront bikes to save the patching time. They were super nice! I met up with them at Ground Control where there is a Doctor Who Pinball. Then across the river to meet up with the Moz Ride at the Cemetery Gates of the Lone Fir. Yes, a Morissey themed bike ride complete with sound system!  Then headed to the Pizza Schmizza that, for some reason, has a giant Dalek inside.

After that we headed to the Rose and Thistle pub for Doctor Who Trivia! We met new friends and I had made a TARDIS image and “The Angels Have The Phone box” stencils that I was stenciling things with on the back patio. With Paul’s brain stuffed with Doctor Who trivia of course we won! We got a $10 gift certificate to Ground Control and that’s a lot of pinball.

Last night I had an IPRC shift and got a call up on the intercom asking about touring the Yeti Research Station. I didn’t really know what to say. I mean, the computer room has this new Big Foot theme that I don’t really understand how it has anything to do with zines so I guessed that’s what they were talking about.  It turns out that it was the Pedalpalooza cryptozoology ride and at least one of the people was on the Doctor Who ride with me. They all seemed interested in the stuff we had there and a few of them were actually interested in the IPRC so I gave a tour. I wish I had known ahead of time what was up. I kind of just stared at them when they came in.

Anyway, I have been busy making buttons and whatnot but my garden has been growing and growing. I have a bunch of pictures here on my facebook page if you wanted to see them. Here are some samples:

love in a mist

a huge bowl of strawberries from my yard!

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If you need me I’ll be in the garden…

I’ve been busy! Several large buttons orders and my garden have been most of it.

bleedings heards

trillium

comfrey

wild ginger flower

OJ in the garden

To check out more photos from my yard go to my facebook gallery here.

Also, I really need to redesign my blog but I don’t have the time so this is what you get.

Flowers, flowers, and more flowers!

There is a patch of blackberries that grows in the corner of my yard. Blackberries are crazy invasive but this bush and I have an "understanding". Meaning that, when it starts to grow out of the corner I will chop it up.

Some borage before it blooms

tops of blooming chives

My new comfrey that I picked up at the farmer's market.

more comfrey

delphinium

Just foxgloves…and a cat.

I love foxgloves! They make me really happy. A few years ago I planted some pink foxglove seeds and since then they have reseeded and filled my yard with a wide variety of colors. here are some current foxgloves! It might just be an all garden shots for awhile.

Foxgloves in the Hummingbird Garden. There's also a bit of a dephinium there too.

I saw some blue sky a week or so ago! This is one of the neat foxglves that changes from pink at the bottom to yellow at the top.

closer look at the color change.

speckled pink!

Ok, not all plants. OJ has taken to sleeping outside when it’s not to cold or rainy. I went out to put the mail in the post box and I found him curled up in the irises!

What? I heard it was a flower BED!

a yawning jungle cat!

Garden show and tell

The garden is pretty much in full bloom and I’m loving it. We had a cold and wet spring that kept me out of the yard but it seems like it has paid off. Let’s no confuse me with an actual gardener. I do not coddle plants or claim to know all about plants.. If they don’t grow well in my yard, they don’t stay in my yard. Fortunately, a lot of stuff does grow well in my yard. Sometimes I say it is because I have garden faeries. Who knows, maybe I do. I have plants that move in the winter, plants grow that I never put there and I also find random treasures in my yard.

I have spent the past two days working on things. Yesterday I turned the veggie garden, added compost, mixed it all together and planted some plants and seeds. Today listened to Fifth Hour Hero on my ipod and pulled out all my grass and started putting down some landscape fabric to keep the stupid grass out. I have also been amusing myself with the two hummingbirds that hang around…and so have the cats. I saw a 3rd once but haven’t seen it again. The two that hang around are pretty aggressive and even chase off other birds bigger than they are.

Irises on my fence line

yellow iris

Part of my veggie garden that backs up to the irises. That's an old bike frame and some old artichoke stalks for the climbing veggies to grow on.

Hummingbird garden in May

I live on a corner lot and I often find bottles, cans, trash and drug baggies in our plants. This time I found a radio shaped like a harp and two stained glass lawn decorations. I figured the garden faeries left them and I put them in the hummingbird garden.

The other lawn ornament and some delphinium that's about to burst!

Butterfly on a plant.

My other Columbine plant.

Borage flowers

One of the hummingbirds sitting on a fence. Did you know hummingbird eggs are the size of a tic tac?

they are also really difficult to take pictures of.

I found potatoes growing in my compost! So now they are growing in my garden.

The front of my house still needs work. The wisteria is starting to bloom and take over my porch. Only 1 of the three wisteria plants actually flowers so I'm trying to grow it longer so it covers the other ones. It still needs to be tied up better. This side of the house only gets morning sun so when it is super nice out I'd rather not work in the shade.

wisteria. Purple is my favorite color and these flowers always make me happy.

OJ the jungle cat who has been very good about not chasing the hummingbirds even though he keeps drinking out of te bird bath!

Jackie being gnerally aloof. They are pretty funny and like to hang out with me while I work in the yard. I have a theory that they think they are protecting me or something.

and me. This was a mid work shoot. By then end of both days I had dirt all over my face.

I guess that’s about it for my yard. The love in a mist and foxgloves should be blooming soon so I’ll post more when things change a bit and maybe when I clean up the front of my house a bit more. I planted some nasturtiums in long planters across the front to cover the dead zone in front of the porch. I have had years of smoker housemates who have ashed in the really shady area where nothing will grow so planters of nasturtiums above them should do the trick!

I’m just really glad we have had two beautiful days in Portland after the cold rainy-ness we have had. I’m not going to bet on the rain being over, but I am going to take advantage of days like today.

July 2009 Garden photos

I have’t posted any pictures of  food or my garden lately. So here are some garden pictures. My yard is winding down from the glory of spring color but new things are imerging in summer color. I left a lot of random borage growing in the humming bird garden to take up space but I took some out to make the morning glories, bee balm and other tubular flowers more accessable for the humming bird. You know the ones I haven’t seen yet but built an entire garden for.

We have lots of spiders eating bad bugs, lots of different kinds of bees, a few different kinds of butterflies, and even a couple kinds of dragonflies! I love the dragonfiles. I hope I can take pictures of them some time. But, no Hummingbirds!

Anyway, click here to see a slideshow of my garden in July. here are some photos:

Beebalm

Jasmine

black eyed susans and daisies

In the center of my garden I have 3 artichoke stalks from last year propped up. Growing on and up them are sweet peas and climbing nasturtiums. My garden is sort of messy. I like it wild like that.

I’m dog sitting for my sister so I’m currently sitting in bed with two dogs. The cats are not vey happy about this. They be gone soon enough.

Happy Birthday to me!

I turn 32 today! Right now I’m in bed uploading images from my garden to post here. I’m not exactly sure what I’m doing today. 32 is sort of an age that isn’t that important but birthdays are always supposed to be fun I guess. Paul bought me a super fancy Wusthof knife set. I’m in love with how sharp they are and well made. Now I just need  a huge meal to make and try all of them out! I welcomed my birthday in last night alone with the housecats and chamomile tea with real chamomile from my yard. It was seriously the best chamomile tea I have ever had.

Paul was playing a show in Salem and I wasn’t really into going down for it. It was nice to be in the house alone with the cats and the windows open with the evening air coming in. I got some writing done for a zine I have been waffling about putting out. Recent events that I thought would pass are making it necessary in processing for me. At least I’ll have a zine ready for the the symposium, eh?

Here’s a pretty good review of Brainscan 23. It seems to be by someone who doesn’t read a lot of zines. At least she gets the gist of the stories and the layout. That’s why I write zines. I’ m not aspiring to be an author, I’m a zine kid and that’s fine with me.

Here’s a ton of photos from my yard for you to enjoy:

Click here for a slide show.

infused vodka, asparagus and more garden shots

I have always wanted to infuse vodka…. but I’m not really a hard alcohol drinker so buying mass quantities of vodka is never really first on my mind. But, Paul got a deal on some good vodka while I was gone so I came home to find a glass jug of vodka sitting on top of my fridge. I thought that this must be my chance! I roasted some coffee and cracked it but didn’t grind it, pulled some strawberries out of the freezer and picked some mint from the yard and this is what I got:

hand roasted Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, Strawberries from our yard last year and mint from this year.

I let the coffee steep for 2 days, the mint for 5 and I’m going to take the strawberries out after 7. The coffee vodka smells amazing! Now I jsut need to figure out what to make with these!

Paul and I went to the Farmer’s market on Wednesday and picked up some asparagus and other things. The other night I made some spinach pesto pasta and topped it off with asparagus, onions, grape tomatoes, and olives cookined in red wine. It was yummy!

Spinach Pesto and Asparagus

I have also been working in my yard… as usual. Yesterday I decided that I don’ want any grass anymore and started removing some by my front door. Paul thinks it is just an excuse for me to buy mroe plants. Maybe he is right but working in the yard keeps me sane and we all like a sane me.

I bought a few more veggie starts and so far this is what is in the veggie garden: Carrots, chard, spinach, lettuce, beets, purple cabbage, celery, brussel sprouts, broccoli, about 3 different kinds of beans, 2 different tomatoes, pumpkin, zucchini, yellow squash, strawberries, eggplant, and corn. I also planted flowers in the middle of the garden because I think they will look nice so there are climbing nasturtiums crawling up some old artichoke stalks, sweetpeas and sunflowers. I think once everything starts growing well I’ll have a very pretty garden. I’ll take more photos when things take off!

I’m excited that  I came back just in time to see my irises in bloom. I’m really going to have to clean them out and trade them off in the Autumn thought because they are getting unruly again.

wisteria off my porch. It is a bit faded but still pretty

artichoke. Paul likes to talk to it and tell it how much he will enjoy eating it. It is sort of weird and also very cute.

first of many foxglove blooms! I love foxglove.

Cascade hops!

blooming sage. It has taken over the lavender plant that grows next to it.

little white moss flowers. There is moss growing between chunks of concrete that is my back patio. I love the tiny flowers they have.

Paul and I are taking off to the riverhouse tonight after my IPRC shift. I’m really looking forward to getting away for a few days. I need it.

Pictures of my garden from April 21st.

I took some photos of my yard yesteday. I have been meaning to document it more this year. I started to last year but then the year went to crap. It has been a slow spring this year and we had a hard cold winter that did kill off some of my plants. I’m afraid that I’m going to miss the irises while I’m gone. The irises are my favorite since they ring my whole yard in multi-colored beauty. But, as of yesterday this is what I have growing.

From the front of the house. The wisteria is growling nicely and I can see that some of the purple falls are starting to grow! Also, that's OJ the cat who likes th follow me around the yard.

to the right of my front door and porch.

flower containers to the right of my front door. I found the drawer on the street and thought it would look good with forget me nots growing out of it.

Hi OJ! Roll around on the ground some more you silly cat.

my mailbox and down the fence line looking south.

I love the way that Honesty (money plant) looks in the spring with bright purple flowers. They dry to weird flat seed pods and the whole plant dries out.

More Honesty around the corner

The corner of the yard with honestly, bluebells, iris fronts, tulips, love in a mist sprouts, walking onions, and the small hydranga I planted last year that seems to be growing well

inside corner with the birch fence I have been working on.

view of the veggie garden from outside the fence. It has a bit of a pattern to it with paths this year. I'm trying to get everything planted before I leave town.

This is a messy flower bed that I struggle with mint every year. There is yarrow, lupine, foxglove, roses, calendula, forget me nots, sweet alyssum, daisies and pennyroyal. Most of these are things that come back every year.

The future hummingbird garden that I have been working on for Paul since he loves hummingbirds. here's the flower list: foxglove, monkshood, beebalm, daisy, lobelia, nasturtiums, a couple different salvias, borage, and a few otehr things that are struggling to come back after the hard winter. In the background you can see some seedpots with lots and lots of more things growing like phylox, dartura, morning glory, sun flowers and more flowers. plus, veggies like corn, peppers and stuff.

That’s about it. I’m going to be gone for a month so I’m sure I’ll be amazed to see what is there when I get back.  I’m going to miss my yard.