Topic #s 4 and 5

I am going to answer topic #4 even though that week has past, because it is something i love to dream about.

Topic #4
Let's pretend for a minute we all live in the home of our dreams, have land, and don't have to work so time is unlimited! It's Spring planting season! What would you grow? A little veggie garden? A bed of bright spring blooms? Or is your thumb so far from green that the only thing you'd be planting is your tushy into a nice chair on the porch to get some knitting or crocheting done in the nice breeze?

I could answer this one forever, and end up writing a book on the garden of my dreams, but really I hsould get out and plant seeds today instead. I can't wait to have the land to grow a huge veggie garden. I learned all about no dig gardening two years ago, and have since met some inspirational friends that are amazing subsistence gardeners, so this garden-in-my-mind has been a long time in the making. right now it is kept comtained to as many pots as i can fit inside the house wihtout it taking over (or taking up precious stash space that is), and our fire escape, which incidentally holds a lot of pots!

if i had all the time and space in the world, i would grow a beautiful big garden, chock full of delicious herbsm vegetables and fruits...and maybe some grains too,planted in succession so that i could make the most use of my garden. all around the edges i plan to grow comfrey as a living compost.

i also need to grow feed for my imagined flock of fiber animals - a few mohair goats, some angora bunnies and some sheep - rigt nowi'm thinking jacob, but that could change.

i would also love to have a seperate tea garden, and another dyeng garden. a small cut flower garden would be perfect for hostess gifts, as i mostly like living plants inside rather than cut flowers. on either side of the gate and front door would be huge rosemary and lavender plants, growing up over the edges of the path a bit, so that when you passed by they released their yummy scents. a small orchard of apples for cider (the hard kind - yum), and plums for stewing, which is may favorite sauce oer ice cream.

a huge native plant garden would round of my fantasy (for now) garden. blackberries are one of my favorite treats, and they grow rampant around here. there are also a lot of great local medicinal plants, like Oregon Grape, a good substitute for the over-harvested goldenseal, and many others. i would love a few mature trees around here - a cedar, an arbutus (madrone in the States) and a willow.

i could go on and on...can you tell i've thought of this a lot? :)

Topic #5

You know with Spring the famous saying goes "April Showers, bring May flowers", please tell us what you like to do when those April Showers are pouring down on you. Do you like to curl up with your knitting, take in a movie or crawl back in bed?

I grew up on the wet west coast, so I actually love the rain (I think your options are either that, or live rather depressed as it rains a lot!). I do like curling up with knitting or a good book in front of a fire when it's raining, but I also love to go hiking in the forest, as we have beautiful rain forests here that can actually stay fairly dry underneath all of the lush canopy. i like riding my bike in the rain too - that's something i haven't done in a while. i love hot bubble baths on cold, wet days too. it's actually sunny today though, so i think i'll head out into this beautiful day...must do some birthday shopping for my little bro today!