little sprouts

My blog has over 2,000 page views! I'm not quite sure how that happened, but hey, it's still cool! (To me, at least.) It makes me a little more motivated to post regularly.

Here's a basic update on me, what I've been doing, and what is on the horizon:

*I have been reading A TON! Which makes me really happy, because I always seem to drift away from books and reading, for whatever reason. Lately I've been reading books back to back. I've read a couple of Kingsolver books, and I just picked up my second Gaiman novel, among other things. I usually take a few days (or weeks sometimes) to digest and ponder whatever I finished, but lately I just feel a pull to move on to the next story. I've been taking full advantage of my library card and Goodreads.com. It's been so much fun!

*Packing is once again in the works for me. It seems like I'm always packing. It's not daunting or overwhelming anymore; it's exciting. It's a part of my life that I know will keep popping up, so why let it stress me out and bother me? Besides, it's a good excuse to go through my things and decide what stays and what goes on a regular basis.

*Preparing for school in the Fall. You read it right- I'm going back to college! It's been a struggle, between establishing residency in Idaho and financial issues, but now everything is resolved and I'm registered as a full-time student at a community college. I'm beside myself with excitement! Also a little nervous, but deep down I'm confident I won't have too much trouble adjusting to my new schedule and workload.

*Carson and I have a few day trips planned, since he starts working more days soon and will have 2 days off a week again! We want to go visit some local waterfalls and go swimming. We're lucky we have Lava Hot Springs, Heise Hot Springs, and Green Canyon close to us. Oh, and the museum has a Guitars exhibit that he's really interested in. I just plain love the museum so we're going to go there, too.

*4th of July. It's right around the corner, three of my loved ones' birthdays are right around there, it's big in Carson's family. It's going to be a big, busy deal this year! But I'm excited, nonetheless. Maybe I'll make some treats for the occasion and make a post about it ;)

*My little garden is doing pretty well. Some plants are happier than others. I should re-pot a few into larger containers soon... but for the most part they're pretty and green and make me happy. I'm growing a majority of herbs this year. The plan is to dry out the leaves to use in my own loose-leaf tea. I'm growing peppermint, lavender, sage, and holy basil. Oh, and I'm happy and proud to say that it's all organic. I also found out that there is a gardening club/community in my city which I plan to join next summer. I get 30 square feet to plant what I want and engage with other gardeners!

That's probably enough for today. Thanks for reading and have a great day!

BEING BROKE [prt. 2]

25 ideas. In listed form:

1.

Ride your bike in the morning (before the weather/heat pick up)

2.

Walk around taking pictures of flowers and blossoming trees

3.

Do an hour-long yoga practice

4.

Take a nap! (I bet you deserve it)

5.

Pick out a nail color you haven't worn for a while and give yourself a manicure

 6.

Bake! You could make a lot of breakfast and freeze it for early mornings, or you could stick with muffins, cupcakes, or cookies!

7.

Learn the basics of maintaining your bike (or another piece of equipment you use regularly)

8.

Repot your growing plants. I find this to be very grounding and I enjoy the time outside.

9.

Call your grandmother

10.

Learn something new. You could read about different art styles, the universe, a country you'd like to visit, marine life, the possibilities are endless!

11.

Take a walk around one of your city parks

12.

Volunteer at the animal shelter

13.

Organize your photos

14.

Organize your receipts and other paper stuffs

15.

Make a weekly cleaning schedule for your house

16.

Tackle the small repairs you've been putting off
(like changing that lightbulb, or fixing that button...)

17.

Plan out your meals for the next week

18.

Plan a fun stay-at-home activity for you and your sweetie

19.

Clear out some old clutter

20.

Meditate

21.
Go through the bookmarks on your computer

22.
Make some pinterest pins (crafts, dinner, dessert...)

23.
Wash your car

24.
Pick up that book you've been meaning to start

25.
Rearrange the house! Or just a room :)

hurry spring! i want to plant flowers for my niece's birthday!

Every morning that I've woken up this winter, the sky outside at 6 a.m. has been pitch black. I would drive to work in the dark and at 6:30 a.m. I would flip my neon "OPEN" sign on; it would illuminate the cold ground in front of it and the reflection would bounce off the window into the dusky cafe. It would be at least an hour before the sun peeked over the mountains in the distance. I waited so anxiously for that every morning. 

This morning I was met with quite the surprise when I opened the door at 6 a.m. The air was lighter, not like the density that comes with the dark night. There was a hint of twilight; a faint peachy glow on the horizon. The sun! I could see hints of the sun at 6:15 a.m. this morning! Hallelujah!

[This morning was especially beautiful because of the moon. The dusty peach overtook the eastern horizon, and on the western edge the moon sat just above the horizon. Big, fat, and glowing orange against the navy sky. It was magical, I tell you!]

When the sun comes up, the rest of the world wakes with it. I no longer feel so alone in my corner coffee shop at that moment. And I can't describe my happiness over the fact that the days are getting longer! It means spring will be here soon and I can get my hands dirty with my brother, his wife and the kids. My niece has requested California poppies for her 8th birthday. And a Minecraft cake, haha.

blueberries

blueberries are my favorite! my little plant decided to put most of its efforts into vegetating some new growth so it's been a while since i've been able to pick the fruit. when it started to build fruit again i had to be extra patient to wait for them to mature. they finally did. and i finally got my snack on!

Garden Center

It's summer! And a great time to start and enjoy the beauty of a garden. Isn't it just adorable to see little buds and new sprigs popping out all the time? I love it. Plants definitely have a special place in my heart.
I'm lucky enough to have small garden this summer, mostly herbs. It's a good thing, too, because it really comes in handy when I'm feeling a little stressed or out of sorts. It grounds me. It puts life in perspective. My plants motivate me toward the life I'm trying to live, and they remind me of everything I treasure on this planet. Seeing a plant grow and change, and being able to help that process, reminds me where I fit on this earth. It reminds me of the processes the natural world goes through, and ultimately, its beauty in duality. The balance is superb, nearly ineffable. It's Divine.
Those are the sort of things I think about when I'm in my garden. The past couple of weeks have been very hectic in my little world. I've been spending more and more time musing in my garden lately. I thought I would share my little bit of bliss.
Hmm... where to begin...?

Clary Sage

This is my clary sage. The big velvety leaves remind me of bunny ears; so cute! This guy smells really good, and he's super fuzzy! Check out the close up...

Ultimate Fluff

At the moment, this guy is around more for aesthetics than anything else. I'm fairly certain it's pot bound, since it hasn't grown too much in the past few months. I just don't have anywhere big enough to put him. So I just trim it when it needs it and water it. It still produces new leaves, but I'm not sure how to work with sage. I'm figuring it out!

Here we have little onion chives. I love how they spike straight up into the air with such thin little leaves. True strength.

My gentle onion chives

I'm actually quite amazed at the comeback the chives have made in the past year. When I first started gardening, chives were some of my first guinea pigs. Lets just say I was a less than nurturing mother. I don't even want to think about how long it went without getting watered (months, probably). Then one day I started thinking, "Wow, that guy is still sort of green... I bet I could bring him back." So I started watering him and gave him more light, and he's more than quadrupled in size! He tastes good on salads. And I've since become much more attentive to the plants, I promise!

Calendulas; my only flowers at the moment. Look how cute they are. There's no way seeing them couldn't cheer me up.

Mini sun rays

Apparently, dried calendula flowers can be used for medicinal purposes. I haven't tried it yet, however, because I'm a bit uncertain about what variety these are. The medicinal calendulas are a specific variety, otherwise they are just marigolds.

My field of flowers

These are lemon balm seedlings, and one of the two youngest plants I have. I actually need to repot them soon, so they can start spreading and bulking up. Dried lemon balm leaves add an incredible flavor to tea! 

I love lemon fragrance

I'm really proud of these because it took me two seasons to finally get the seeds to germinate and sprout! Now I have four or five little sprouts. Sweet!

No herb garden would be complete without basil. I put fresh leaves in nearly everything! My favorite is home-made bruschetta, mmm mmm!

My favorite smell! I wish my house smelled like basil.

Right now I have about 20 small basil plants in one pot. This is how it happened: When my first, and very large, basil plant matured and started to flower, I let it go nuts. Bumblebees and honeybees LOVE basil flowers, so I thought it might be nice to give them lots of pollen and nectar to stuff their cute faces in. The flowers attracted the bees, the bees did their thing, and all of my flowers went to seed. At the time, that large, flowering basil plant was in my boyfriend's garden. Everything was in containers because the soil at his old house was pitiful. So we had all these different plants in pots, and once my basil started seeding, the seeds went everywhere! Plants are really phenomenal at spreading their seeds and starting new life. There was an onion plant close to the flowering basil and it became covered with little basil leaves. I wish I had taken a picture then, because it was one of the most adorable things I've seen. The onion was ready to harvest, and when my boyfriend pulled it up he left the basil sprouts in there. Now the little guys, although lanky, are about 4-5 inches tall and since there are so many I literally have a basil bush. It rocks.

As much as I love my basil, I think I love my oregano even more. Oregano has been one of my favorite flavors since I was a little kid. I don't know many kids that go nuts over oregano, but I did, and still do. 

I love the leaf formation. Adorable!

Again, I put this in nearly everything I make. Sauteed veggies and couscous with fresh oregano makes me feel like I'm in heaven. I can use as much as I want, too; the more I take some for cooking, the more new leaves it pops out. The oregano grows pretty low and close to the soil, but as you can see he's spilling over the sides of the pot. It's wonderful. I hug him almost every day (I hug most of the plants every day actually....)

Not an herb: BLUEBERRIES! Oh, the joy I felt when my friend handed this guy over to me two summers ago. Blueberries have been my favorite since I was little, too. I remember my dad making me blueberry waffles when I was a kid. I'd eat two, just for the double dose of blueberries.

Almost ready to eat!

Too bad I almost killed this guy, too! It wasn't out of neglect, like with the chives, it was out of sheer ignorance to what blueberries like to grow in. They like very acidic soil. I had no idea when I first got him. When his leaves started to get floppy and soft, and turn a sickly reddish-pink color, I had my boyfriend help me with him. My boyfriend has two magical green thumbs. Really, the man can grow anything! So he did some research and fixed this little guy up in a matter of a few weeks. Now I know what to do if the soil pH is off, and I have the right kind of food for acidic plants; he's much happier now.

A gardener's snack

I pick the blueberries off and eat them as they get ready. Most don't ever make it inside the house! It's a competition between the birds and myself, to see who can get the most ripe berries first. I usually win.

The last of my little herbs is one of the newest, planted around the same time as my lemon balm. This guy we like to call lavender.

Baby lavender

It looks a lot like rosemary or thyme, but one sniff will tell you otherwise. I used to have two, but one didn't make it. This guy is doing really well, though. Every day he looks a little bigger. I can't wait until it flowers! I'm still figuring out how much sun it likes. I'm being really cautious because I don't want him to get scorched. That happens a lot in the middle of the summer in Florida; the sun is so powerful and hot it tends to hurt gardens quite a bit.

My little set-up is on a table in the back patio, mostly covered by the house. The plants get a couple of hours of direct sun during the day, but most of the time it's indirect. This works for me, because I'm usually gone during the days and weekends. If they were in full sun all day they would dry and fry... no good.

A garden is something I hope to have for the rest of my life. Especially an herb garden. I love the variety of flavors, shapes, colors and flowers. Plus their infinite uses; from medicinal, to culinary, aesthetic, teas, tonics, baths... Yes, herbs are wonderful!