such an infamous freedom, such a militant peace...

i just can't get enough of this (not at all recent) beautiful song lately. two gallants, "waves of grain."


and for more beauty, take a virtual trip to wyoming. i don't think my own eyes could see it this amazingly. eric hines, "wild wyoming, a summer of sunsets and dark skies."

Wild Wyoming, A Summer of Sunsets & Dark Skies from Eric Hines on Vimeo.

i also really freaking love green tomato hot dog relish, which i have canned a metric f*ckton of this summer.


and our new perennial garden is pretty rad, too. my drawing, of which i was very proud:


and the initial planting! we've put in a couple of bushes on the corners, and it'll look better as the plants grow.


i also recently made some new friends at the indiana state fair:








and chris ate a doughnut burger (the bun is two krispy kremes):


oh, and i made a friend at the zoo, too. oh, buddy!

things i like, house edition...

first, though, i want to BE this guy - the KO Hip-Hop Cello-Beatbox Experience: Julie-O.


and who doesn't need a beatboxing chipmunk in their lives? this has not failed to make me laugh yet.


also? our new house!!!


i brought a frozen pizza, prosecco, and strawberries for our first dinner at the house on friday.


i love the idea of handing cocktails and what-not through this little window. that's what i'm channeling here, at least.


chris putting together our lawn mower - a FANTASTIC push mower which i already love and adore!


pretending to examine our first giant lowe's receipt.


baby robin in the backyard:


my big sunday project: tearing up the turf (in the rain) to plant our ingenious (if i do say so myself) squash trellis area. we planted sunflowers in between, too.


my hair gets curly when doing hard labor in the rain.


and, for good measure, i finished a new mini-sweater.


knitting is fun.

watch my garden grow...

i can't remember if i posted a month or so ago about going crazy in my two little backyard garden plots. i tore the heck out of them, weeded, poured on new, yummy soil, and planted a bunch of seeds. well, late-march in southern indiana really isn't the time to plant seeds - at least, not outside of the house. we had some freezes, some ice storms. lovely, right? now it is fully sunny and warm out, and i decided it was time to reassess the garden. not much really survived the freezes - except for some little, baby sunflowers, which are looking rad. so i decided it was high time for a trip to the farmers market to get some stuff in the ground. ran into marc on my way between getting money from the cash machine and picking up some iced coffee, then forced him to stop at every plant stand with me. and there are a lot of those this time of year, people.

all in all, we have pansies (i think? or were they violets of some sort?), some flowery succulent whose name i can't remember, a gerber daisy, lemon verbena, a BIG BOY pepper plant, fennel, and monkeyflower. my original plan was to do coneflower, black-eyed susans, sunflowers, and a bunch of herbs and veggie plants. why are there no coneflower or black-eyed susans at the farmers market? hmm? they're native perennials, for goodness sake!

whatever. i will find them, and i will have them. oh, yes, i will.

here's one of my baby plots, half-planted with purty flowers. don't know what will go on the other side just yet.




look! baby sunflowers! grow, sunflowers, grow!


big boy pepper plant (big b!) and lemon verbena in the terrarium, waiting to get a little bigger. you can see out onto my back porch here, too, where the garden is. they can look out the window every day and dream of the day that they, too, are planted.


and finally, i stole a broken off piece of equisetum/horsetail when i was in san diego. this is one of my favorite california plants, and i had to have it. i didn't know if it would survive the trip home in my suitcase (particularly after i got stuck in denver and my suitcase probably sat on a freezing tarmac for 12 hours), but i plunked it into some water. lo and behold, it started growing roots and new shoots! i am so excited.