Happy May Day!

One of the last vestiges of the old regime is the May Day holiday. I prefer to think of it as an even older holiday and have a cookout in lieu of a Beltane bonfire! I'll be doing that today and hope it will be fun and the results will be tasty. Pictures later, perhaps.

Gardens R Us

I haven't posted any pictures in a long time and I was motivated tonight to get some shots of my ever-evolving garden and window boxes. The violas are self-seeded from last year and are everywhere. This is good - they're filling in gaps left from some things (like my lupines) that didn't overwinter this year.



This is a pretty good shot of the columbine and the foxglove. The foxglove is just starting to send up flower heads and I'm hoping it will be as gargantuan as last year's bunch.


The last, lonely tulip of the season!



This is the first look at the newly planted window boxes. The marigolds are starting to move along and the perlargoniums (geraniums to you Americans!)are all in bloom. I can't imagine what they'll look like when it's full summer. The bare wires you can see now will be covered with grapevines by August and heavy with fruit, most likely.

One down, more to go.

I finished my tunic/dalmatika/ overdress this morning. Now I am working on the undertunic/chemise. The tunic is wearable as soon as I can find or make an appropriate belt. Narrow red leather would please me best, but I think a woven one will have to do for the time being. As soon as I manage that, I'll see what I can do about getting a photo up here. (Beltless, I look like Friar Tuck and not in a good way!) I've got a good camera, but my arms are only so long.....

Cross your fingers!

I have fabric from my stash and a pattern worked out from measurements taken this morning. I'm off to cut out my first medieval tunic. Deep breath and off I go!

Only eleven days

You don't call, you don't write! That's what I've been hearing from friends and family. Okay, so I was wrong and the time-consumers weren't over. Well, they mostly are now. I hope! It's been 11 days since the last post and I've heard choirs, seen musicals, heard pianists, listened to presentations, written a board report, recruited students, solved problems, begged for visas and - oh yeah - done my job! It's Friday (Good Friday, actually) and I'm home, starting a three day weekend. It will be followed by 2 days of work and a six-day weekend, because Bulgaria has crazy holidays. Go me!

My garden is rocking along, even if my sewing isn't. The cool, wet weather has made things grow like crazy and the roses, violets, tulips, lilies of the valley, dianthus, and narcissus are all in bloom at once. Wow!

I window shopped for fabric today and will purchase some for my first SCA tunic on payday - Wednesday. Just in time for a six-day sewing marathon. I'll be using this weekend to make patterns for everything and figure out yardage.

Over for now

Well, all the things that have been sucking up my time are over - Honors Convocation, the Research Conference, and Commencement preparations. Now I'm just too tired to do anything. I did manage to come home early today and play with my garden. It has been raining so much that the yard was a green as Ireland. Unfortunately, there are no pictures, because they just didn't come out with the rain. I'll try again tomorrow.

I really enjoy gardening (as if you couldn't tell) and I also really like Susan Wittig Albert's blog and books about herbs. Well, the books are about murders too, if you want to be technical. They're mysteries! I bought a new potted rosemary today beacuse she inspired me. It smells wonderful and will move from my sunroom to my terrace when the weather improves.

Where does the time go?

It's been almost a week since I posted here and it's also been that long since I had a chance to stitch.

Working at a university sucks up all available time in the spring: convocations, plays, musicals (Chicago this year!), conferences, accreditation visits, and of course, graduation. I am living for May 19, when it will all be over!!