A Dragon Tea Party

I said my posting would be erratic this month.  And I really meant just that.  But First Communion and Confirmation have been celebrated.  The Grade 1-6 program concluded last Thursday, the 8th grade program concluded with Confirmation on Saturday and the 7th grade program will conclude on Wednesday, May 28th. So things should settle down soon into my summer routine of inventory, re-ordering and planning the 2014-15 program.  I start working the normal 9-5 schedule on May 29.  It will be a real pleasure not working crazy evening hours every other day.  Indeed, working a normal 9-5 schedule is very nearly a vacation in and of itself.  I get to take the last week of July and the first three weeks of August as a bona fide vacation.  Something to anticipate with delight.

During my free evenings and my time off, I have plans for renovating the small hall bedroom as a computer room/office for my husband as a birthday gift.  Now that he is retired, he has been volunteering as an archivist at the local historical society and an office would be an asset.   So far he has written an article for the society's journal on a local Civil War officer's service, served as part of a panel on our county's Civil War participation in an interview on a local radio station, and served as a moderator when the society hosted the Civil War Round Table's visit to the current exhibit on Lincoln and the region's Civil War regiments.  Currently, he is hard at work transcribing the diary of a county society matron in the years immediately preceding the Great Depression.  The lady is quite a character, the county's own version of Auntie Mame, and he brings home stories of her antics each week   I am very proud of his accomplishments and think he deserves a home office.  Besides, it will get the computer out of the master bedroom.

About stitching:
While I may not have been posting; I have been stitching.  I have made some pretty good progress on Dragon Dreams' A Dragon Tea Party, which I started on May 12.  I realize this is a little cartoonish and not in my usual style ... but it does combine two of my favorite themes, dragons and tea.  I have stitched a few of Jennifer Aiken-Smith's more realistic dragons, if I may use that term for a fantastical creature ... most recently, Stormbringer.  And I have her Dragon of the Winter Moon and Dragon of the Summer Sky in my stash.  These are a bit more to my taste and I look forward to working them into my rotation soon.  However, for the present, I am having fun with the tea party and it is certainly an easy stitch.  This is another piece that I am stitching on Silkweaver's 28ct Golden Promise linen.  Again, a change from my preferred 36 and 40 ct linens but oh so relaxing and easy on the eyes.  No magnifier lamp needed!  I have a fairly sizable stash of 28 ct linens remaining from the early days of my Silkweaver Fabric-of-the-month subscription back when I was still stitching quite a bit on 28ct.  I do have some charts that call for 28ct and will be moving them into the rotation until I deplete my supply of  that size linen.

And a little about gardening:
I have been experimenting with the square foot garden techniques of super rich soil [plenty of compost] combined with patio gardening.  In one of my large waist high planters I have planted eggplant, peppers, cucumbers and basil.

In two very large pots I have planted two different strains of tomato plants.   Here is one of the pots.

My chives have come back strong from last year.  You can see them here beside my one surviving mini Christmas tree and the second variety of tomato plants. 

I have added nutmeg scented thyme and Italian parsley pots to my collection of herbs.    I will probably add a few more herbs, perhaps tosemary and a lemon scented basil

And last, but not least, is a shot of my Van Houten Spirea in full bloom.  The pity is that the blooms only last a week or so but they are lovely while they last.  I plan on using my second waist high planter to start a salad garden of lettuce, radishes and carrots from seed but I need to pick up another few bags of organic soil to bring the soil level up to where I want it.  I really need to work on my front planter boxas well.  I want to plant a cutting flower garden there so that I can have vases filled with flowers all summer long.