Thursday

Growing my own healthy Greens...

 

I love Greens.  You know the greens that are so good for you.  Kale, Collards, Mustard and all the others that people seem to snub their nose at.
My yard has awful soil and although I've changed it in spots, just for veggies, nothing grows without the critters digging them up or the soil killing them.  So I went to a garage sale this past week and there was this LARGE flower pot.  Maybe it will deter the critters from climbing in but it's perfect for my greens.
 




 Did I tell you I only paid $5.00 for this huge pot.
First I bought some good potting soil and amended it with several goodies.   Where to put it?  Well the best spot was in full sun and somewhere I could keep an eye on it.  Right out back in my flower garden.  As you can see there are no flowers this time of year.  I might be in Florida but the weather is so wrong right now.
First I layered the bottom of the pot with styrofoam I had saved then added some bricks left over from my front porch.  This gave it some weight.  Can't have the critters tipping it over.

 

 Added some wood chips then several bags of good organic soil.

 All together I planted  27 baby green plants and it still has room to spare.  Last night I poked in a few garlic bulbs that were sprouting on my kitchen window sill.  Garlic might chase the critters?


 Since the back yard is so dark in the night I added a solar light just for fun.. looks good from my upstairs balcony.
It's so nice to run outside and pinch a few green leaves to add to salads or soups and I make loads of both.  If the kale grows as hoped I can make chips for a snack.  
From everything I've been reading buying greens from other countries is getting to be not safe.  They have so many different fertilizers added and the chemicals are damaging our systems and buying local organic is not always easy.  Have you ever read the tag on veggies in the grocers?  Peru, Chili, and who knows where else so I have been growing my own this past few years.  Using this big pot saves me both space and getting angry with my critters.


 Our weather has been going up and down in temperature for the past few months and right now it's on the cool side, in the 40's last night, perfect for greens.  But here, tomorrow might go up to the 90's,  I never know?  I'll be sure to post a photo next month when the plants get a big spurt of growth.

I'm linking up to

(((hugs)))

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Wednesday

Love, Valentines Day and what it all means....

Love is an emotion of a strong  affection and personal attachment,  Love is also said to be a virtue representing all of human  kindness, compassion and affection —"the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another". Love may describe compassionate and affectionate actions towards other humans, one's self or animals.
On February 14th we humans celebrate Love.




In English, love refers to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from pleasure ("I loved that meal") to interpersonal attraction  ("I love my partner"). "Love" may refer specifically to the passionate desire and intimacy of  romantic love,  to the sexual love of eros, to the emotional closeness of familial love, to the  platonic love that defines friendship or to the profound oneness or devotion of religious love   or to a concept of love that encompasses all of those feelings. This diversity of uses and meanings, combined with the complexity of the feelings involved, makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, compared to other emotional states.

Love may be understood as part of the survival instinct, a function to keep human beings together against menaces and to facilitate the continuation of the species.



The Letter "L" is celebrated over at Jenny Matlocks this week and what better "L" than "Love"







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Sunday

A box full of beautiful Irish linen, but they have years of stains on them. I need Help!


 My sister and I did a few garage sales this past weekend and when I see what looks like scrap fabric in a box I usually dig through it... to my surprise I found dozens of beautiful hand worked linens.  These linens were vintage.  Someones Grandma spent many hours doing the work and I guess after she passed on they went on the auction block only to end up in this lady's garage sale.  She knew nothing about them?

I pulled out 4 very nice pieces and asked the price... "$4.00 for the box.  I just want to get rid of them", she said!  
Sold!

I didn't even look at most of the items in the box, I just took it home and was so surprised at what I found! I knew most were stained but was even more surprised at the hand work some woman put into these very beautiful pieces.  It looked very European as I don't know anyone who can do such intricate work.

Then I found the words on one piece, "Irish Manufacture"  I could see and feel how different the fabric was from American linen and it had a sheen to it.
 


 The needle work on these pieces were  such tiny crochet, hand embroidery and tatting and all together there are 24 different forms of table covers and tea towels. Two are long enough and narrow,  to have been used on a mantel.  That was back in the 1800's into the early 1900's when homes used such decorations.
Look at the work of this pink one, the stitches do not show on the reverse side.  "She" put the needle through each teeny thread, without showing on the back. "Who does that"?
 My mind go's back to when a women first came to America many years ago, with the skills to do such work as the Irish women did.  If it was so, it's very exciting to me!


I am now on a mission to clean these pieces.  I did put them into a water soak as soon as I got home and left them for the night.  Today I changed the water and added Oxy Clean and will go back for a look later.
Does anyone out there in "Blogland" know of a way to clean these beautiful pieces? 
What will I do with them?  Not sure but there are two that would look really nice on a few of my tables.
Please leave me a comment or an e'mail,  as I'm now desperate to rid them of the stains.  Thanks to all who can help!
Have a wonderful week!


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