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Friday, November 19, 2010

Winter Park Harvest Festival

The Winter Park Harvest Festival is tomorrow! This is a day long, and I mean day long 8a -9p, event celebrating our local farmers, gardeners, entrepreneurs and non-profits. I am excited! The weather has been great lately which adds to the awesomeness of this event! I can't wait! I'm so excited! 

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

spool down end of year time


This is Rogue. She lives with us, well, actually, she lets us live here, we just share the house with her. She and her sister, Wolfie, let us live here. Rogue is the prissy girl, but a tough ass prissy girl as she is the one that does most of the killing of rats around here. She is very soft, has beautiful color, and walks like a princess. She does, really. She likes to be looked at and adored, not so much touched and petted. Only petted when she says so, as most cats go. 


Wolfie on the other hand, is queenie of the house. She doesn't do much killing, although she has, I just don't think she likes to get her paws dirty too much. She, unlike her sister, LOVES to be petted. You start petting her and she goes into auto purr. No kidding. And it gets so loud too! Then if you dare take your hand away, she reaches for it. Yeah, she doesn't want you to stop petting her. She does run outside from time to time, and I have seen her climb a tree or two, so she is not totally devoid of animal instincts, she just thinks she's queen of the house. She really doesn't like her brother bothering her.


This is Moses. He's our foster turned adopted cat. You can tell from this picture that he only has 3 legs. He's missing his back right leg. He gets along just fine without it. He is one fast cat! He's a little over a year now and LOVES to be outside. He is always looking for lizards and squirrels and birds and rats. He's caught a rat too. I am very proud of him. He has come a long way since he has been with us. He is my baby boy. 

We are spooling down to the end of year here. This time of year I start to wind down, relax, and look forward to having some time off. I clean out the closets, the attic, start raking the leaves (since mowing season is over until June next year), brushing the kittens and dog, and clean out the psyche too. Getting rid of things that don't serve me, whether that's physical or mental. It's all good and I feel refreshed and ready for whatever the new year brings. 

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Friday, November 12, 2010

rain barrels, and composters, and compost, oh my!

There is a local organization, Mills50, that is hosting a green fest tomorrow. I really like this area of town. It's very quaint, is walkable with many local businesses and has a unique culture. There is a big asian influence in this part of town. Some of the best peanut sauce you can find anywhere! Anyway, at the greenfest they will be selling composters and rain barrels, and these are exactly the same ones that I bought through work for a charitable organization:
and the prices are even cheaper than what I paid for originally. We're getting there early tomorrow to buy 4 rain barrels. Since we didn't have much rain this summer, we have used up almost all of our water from the barrels. One is empty and the other only half full now. These will come in handy next year during summer, if we don't get any rain over the winter. Sometimes we have a short rainy season in winter. Not as much as the summer downpours, but enough to get us some usable water. Hope to see you there!

Monday, November 8, 2010

Coytown Garden

hot peppers from the garden
We have quite a few hot peppers in our garden. We actually only have 2 large plants, but they produce a LOT of peppers. Needless to say, I give them away to friends. I think Nate likes to plant things to see them grow, because neither one of us eats these things. It's fun to watch them change color, and they seem to go through grow spurts. For awhile there won't be any peppers, then suddenly, we have a bunch on both plants. It's a pretty plant too, as you can tell by the different colors of pepper. I wait until they are very red before picking. They just twist off the vine then. 

I saw an ad the other day for community gardeners wanted. There is a parcel of land that used to belong to the navy base that is being looked at for development of a community garden, Coytown Garden, it's called. I know that a mountain bike park is going to be put in part of that land, but the rest is left open green space, and the city is looking to develop it for next years spring planting. I'll have to ask Nate what he thinks about joining. It's not far from home, and we could learn a lot from being around others that garden. 

The weather has turned COLD here! For us that is. It was very chilly yesterday morning as we went for a motorcycle ride. Thankfully our coats are impermeable to weather like that. I didn't feel a thing. But my legs did. and my hands. I did wear gloves, but these are summer in florida gloves, we aren't used to this weather. It makes for going to yoga not so hot anymore. Which is nice, I don't feel so claustrophobic. I am not complaining about the weather, not at all, it is just a sharp and marked difference from what we just had. No smooth transition from one season to another. Just HOT then COLD. This too shall pass...

Friday, November 5, 2010

much cooler weather...

Rogue
It's been so much nicer and cooler the past few days that it is pure joy to work in the garden. The kittens are running around with so much more energy, as am I, it is so refreshing! The lettuce is still doing very well; I have a salad almost every night. The tomatoes are done for the season, and the catnip has come back! I haven't dried it, but I pick off some leaves and leave it in the living room for the cats. They get a little possessive of their leaves. Moses loves to rub all over it, Wolfie doesn't so much with it, and Rogue will eat it all if I give it to her. Here she is coming out of a bag of yard waste that tipped over. Kittens are so funny!

It's supposed to be 44 here tonight. I am not complaining, really, I'm just saying. We need a break. I hope you're getting a break where ever you are...