Iris reticulata
My beautiful new miniature Iris, thank you E & A!

Yesterday I knit myself a big, warm, soft, fuzzy cloak of depression. Perhaps not the most productive thing to be doing, but given the day I had previous I am not going to be too mad at myself. I think I needed to do that. I spent much of the day in pj's, under a toasty electric blanket, knitting my heart out and watching movies. Today, I am much better and am turning my focus back towards the positive again for the most part. Bought some more mulch to use on my vegetable bed and a couple more herbs to plant along with some bulbs. The lady at the nursery even gave me a ton (ok not quite a ton, but to this newbie gardener seemed like a ton) of bulbs for free. I also went to the bookstore and got a new book:



Knit Lit is a wonderful collection of stories about knitting and life.

Blech! I don't feel like blogging today. I am going back to rest in my Codeine induced haze.

See you tomorrow (or at least blog at you)!

Haven't you always wanted a monkey?

Ha ha ha who knew there is an actual need for knitting Biologists? ; ) Too bad my knitting skill needs so much work...ah well!

Feeling a wee bit stressed out about my morning plans tomorrow. I am having a hysterosalpingogram done and without going into too much gory detail, it is an often painful blue dye test to see if the tubes and such are in working order. Ten hours standing in an Organic Chemistry lab working with hazardous waste sounds like more fun, but what can you do? They say I need it done so off I go to the evil doctor's laboratory.

Yea! I carved out some time for myself tonight and did some knitting. I made some more progress on my scarf which by the looks of things I will get to wear next winter. It has been a while since I have been able to knit due to all the gardening fervor. I expect when the rains come in February and March I will have a lot more time for my knitting and a lot less for my gardening! Note to self: plant the veggies before the rains! = )

"Tiffany" rose from my garden



"Of weighty matters and dirty hands"

I discovered an added benefit to my gardening today when I found that I had lost five pounds! A win-win in my book, I get a beautiful garden and a svelte figure at the same time. *cheer* Even Yahoo Health is urging us to get out and garden in this blurb.

Today I worked some more outside first picking up debris around the yard from yesterday's wind and then pulling up grass and iceplant from the plot planned for veggies. Since I only have classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday that leaves my Tuesday and Thursday for studying and gardening at least until I become gainfully employed. Anyone out there need a newbie gardener-knitter-soon to be Biologist?? Mmmkay didn't think so!

The Santa Anas have arrived! I took this picture of the palm trees swaying in the wind near our house.

Thank you for all your wonderful comments about my new little garden. I am excited about the changes that are happening in our outdoor living space and it is fun to be able to share that here. I hope this inspires us all to take time to enjoy the beauty of the outdoors and reconnect with nature!

I went back to school today (sigh). I am ready to be done with school, but as I realize every time I have a break it will never be done until I actually go and finish. Sometimes I can be so darn slow in things. I actually enjoyed my Physics lecture today about conductors and insulators (it's all about the Chemistry, a language I can understand), so that is a good sign!





A parting shot of my wind ruffled furry companion.

Have a great week!

We did it! I have my first little plot developed and planted. Flea came over and worked very hard with us to make this happen and I absolutely love how it turned out! Thank you thank you thank you Flea, you are the best!

Check out the progress pictures below:

In the morning it looked like this.

After the initial mulching and the walkway was established then it was planting time.

Maddie was definitely enthralled about all the work that was going on.

Here I am with my beautiful new Huntington Carpet Rosemary.

After several hours of hot, sweaty work here is my wonderful new herban garden finished!

Even though she was dead tired Flea still had fun goofing off.

Here we are the gardening goddesses!

Even the dog was dog tired.


Thanks to Flea's guidance and hard work we now have a better idea of how to turn this jungle of ours into a real garden that is not only beautiful, but also useful.
Next weekend the second section will be worked. I will be extending this down more and be planting my kitchen garden. It is time for veggies!






~Sheila


As a side note: Hoorah! My comments section is working (not that I am expecting anyone to actually comment on my ramblings mind you). It has been a quest to get it to work correctly and now finally it does. Thank you Yariv at backBlog for fixing it for me!

Hmmm... my commenting system is still not working right. Not sure why it is that you can't actually leave a comment (sigh), but I want to say thank you to Jodi for sending me an email and letting me know.

Today we woke up at (quoting Dirk here)"an unGodly hour" to visit a couple nurseries in Pasadena with Flea. We spent some money to say the least, but we did get some nice plants to show for it. Now if we can actually keep them alive then progress will have been made. Let the planting begin!

Oh and did I mention it is hot as HELL here (ok maybe a slight exaggeration), but where the heck did my Winter go?? wtf? Guess Dirk will not be needing that scarf this year. Ok ok I know I live in So Cal, but I am still a Washington girl at heart and well I like some seasonal change at least. Mixing things up a bit is a good thing you know, and a two week Winter doesn't cut it. People back East are thinking about now "I can show you some Winter" lol. Oh well, time to dig out those tank tops again (maybe I should knit one of those for myself, ah on second thought sounds too difficult).

*Takes a deep breath and learns to embrace her Mediterranean climate* Ok, I am chilled ; )

Did some gardening today, with Maddie's help of course, so the first phase is complete. I cleared away all of the grass and other plant debris from my lil bit o'land except for the Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow bush in the back. Next I will be mulching and then planting. Woo hoo the beginning of Sheila's Herban Garden!

Being relatively new at the whole blogging experience I have had some fun lately checking out others blogs. You know you find one that fits your interests and then they have links for others they find interesting and pretty soon you reading this long chain of bloggers and can't remember how you got there. Today I stumbled across Jodiverse a wisecracking New York Jewish girl's blog. Her post on New Years made me laugh, oh and don't miss her gallery!

I also like to look at Crafty Bitch, another New York girl's blog. The section I like the most is called World in my Eyes, where she takes her digital camera with her all around NY snapping interesting shots and then posting them. I have never been to New York, but I feel like I have gotten a pretty good glimpse through the eye of her camera's lens.

Clean, clean, clean, organize, organize, organize...

Spent today getting some house stuff organized so that I have a nice peaceful place to study after I start back in with school Monday. Decided to boldly face my Physics demon and take not one, but two Physics courses this quarter including a lab. I hope soooo much that I pass them, if I do then that requirement is done and all I have left is one (yep one) math class. Ok, granted I have to test into that class when I take a placement exam on the 18th. Suffice it to say I need to study my tooshie off in between knitting, gardening, EverQuesting, doing the treadmill, and working on baby project 2003. = )

No problem!

I have the usual post new years eve festivity tiredness today. Dirk, Maddie, and I went to the annual Guadagnino new years eve get together last night and had fun hanging out, eating, chatting, drinking, and watching Mike kill innocent people in Vice City (a fun little evil game). While Mike was playing I took the opportunity to sneak in one of my famous self-taken pictures. After I took that one I liked it so much I decided it was a quest to get one with everyone there! See the gallery of friends below:

Nise

Mike (this is another one I took of Mike and I later on)

Paul Hey watch it with that tongue there Gene

Carol Well, it isn't a perfect science, sorry I cut you off there Carol!

Sean

Kristin

Me and my guy Ah... aren't we just the cutest thing well since this...
Me and my dog

I missed Indy bah... Next year!

I didn't get a chance to get a picture with Katie and CJ before they went to bed, but I did snap this one as they were headed there.
Katie and CJ

Maddie and Indy had a blast chasing each other all over the place and playing tug of rope together (which made for some fun photo opportunities).


Now for my first new years resolution... to get some sleep tonight (after a few rows of knitting on Dirk's scarf of course)!

I have given some thought to my new years resolutions (a tradition I like because it can help me to get back on track and remember that self evolution is a good thing).
One of my resolutions is the "typical" lose some weight and get in better shape. Which is an important goal, but I did see this quote today that I thought was very fitting especially on this day of resolution making.

"It's also helpful to realize that this very body that we have, that's sitting right here right now... with its aches and its pleasures... is exactly what we need to be fully human, fully awake, fully alive."

-Pema Chodron, Tibetan Buddhist nun, teacher, and author


We wish for all of our friends a happy, healthy, and peaceful coming year!

~Sheila & Dirk

Happy new years eve!


Goodbye 2002

Hello 2003!

Bah grumble grumble...
Been fighting with a javascript error all morning. I was hoping to add a comments script onto my blog, so simple (yeesh). I pasted it in where it should go, had a nice little link appear that when clicked did absolutely nada. I think I deleted and re-pasted the script in ten or more times, now it is time for me to step away from the computer before I hurt it or myself :)

Going to go take some deep breaths and have a nice cup of tea.


Ah, I feel much better now! I decided to do some cleaning and throwing away of some junk, which always does the trick when I am feeling frustrated.


As promised for 'Nise here are a couple of cute pictures from Christmas eve:
CJ and Dirk.jpg

This last one is one of my special self-taken pictures = )
Katie and Sheila.jpg

Today went out to visit the jungle and took some pictures (with Maddie's help).
Here is a picture of the area that is planned for development first
before.jpg

See Flea's sketches below for a glimpse of what is to come!

I decided to teach myself how to knit this year. Just as it is with planting something in your garden that you will later be able to pick and eat, knitting something that you can someday actually wear is pretty exciting. Talk about a sense of accomplishment! I have the knitting bug bad. I look forward to reading all the knitting blogs every day and have already printed out a bunch of free patterns of sweaters and such that I hope to make one day. Santa even put knitting needles in my stocking!



Yesterday D, Steve, and I went on a fun tour of JPL with Steve's dad (Don) and got to see the new Mars rover being assembled for its eventual delivery to the Cape. Tres cool! Click here to see it...Mars rover.jpg


Here is another picture of Steve and his dad, the mad scientist = )...Steve and Don.jpg


This made us all laugh...phases.jpg The arrow was moved as they progressed through each phase, those funny engineers!


Here is a picture of me pretending to be a JPL scientist (a girl can dream can't she?)...
scientist.jpg

After we got home I checked my email and was so excited when I saw that Flea had sent me the sketches she did for my herban garden design! Thank you Flea!!

Herb garden1.jpg

Herb garden2.jpg

I can't wait to get started! I can almost taste the fresh herbs (yum!) and smell the lavender now.
I will put up some progress pics as time goes.

Happy holidays!



I decided to give blogging another go around. With my new knitting hobby and with so many interesting knitting blogs around I thought it might be fun to add mine to the mix. Thus begins my online journal journey =) I hope to include here neat stuff about the hubby and the zoo and include progress notes on my knitting and gardening endeavors. So, sit back get a nice warm cup of tea, put your feet up and enjoy!

Maddie wishes you all a happy new year!