Weird Huh?

I know it's been awhile since I've posted....crazy I know....but I've been on facebook and running and working and gardening.....blah blah blah....excuses but darn good ones.

Well today something strange happened and I feel the need to chronicle it for safe keeping.

I am a very spiritual person but not overly religious. I am by faith a member of the Society of Friends, or a Quaker. For those who don't know this is a christian religion that believes very strongly in the spirit of God. I don't do much apostatizing and hope that my actions speak louder than words.

Although I do believe in signs, I try to pay attention to them. If I do, I am often rewarded by seeing a direct link from the sign to a manifestation - small or large, religious or secular, monetary or simply an action. I don't always see a response but I don't necessarily think I missed it or I misinterpreted it, I think I might have to just wait longer.

Well today I received some work correspondence from a man named John. Very ordinary. He answered many questions and in the middle of his response he asked for a meeting with me at 3:30. Preparing my response I erased his response and posted a prepared email response. As I was reviewing the response I got to the end of the email and say in very large bold letters JOHN 3:30.

I must say, I immediately associated this with the Bible. I looked it up. The quote is He must become greater; I must become less. If you use the New InternationalVersion. Or He must increase, but I must decrease. If you're a King James fan. Either way, I am puzzled. I'm not sure what I'm to do with the message. I'm not sure if it pertains to how I view God or place him in my life. Perhaps we're talking about loosing weight, giving something away....not sure. What I do know, is I'm open to receiving more info about this process. It's a pretty broad statement for the universe to just through out there. It also took some doing for the universe to make it happen and the universe would know that I would see a higher power in the revelation. The words were not together but were buried in the email and items on all sides had to be erased leaving portions in the middle. So I am left with food for thought for the weekend.

The Princess on Vacation

The Princess hanging with her cousin at Rock Creek Horseshow.

Here's what her cousin did to earn the blue ribbon....notice the puff of dirt behind the pony. They are bookin'!

Horse Showing

Well this year I am focusing more on hanging out with my sister on the semi-local show circuit.

Here's a few pictures taken at the Cloverdale Indiana Arabian Horse Show last weekend:

This one is Ashley aka The Princess on Tiny Tina. They are a good pair. Still learning to trust each other, but coming right along. Tina is an Arabian. I remember my legs being so short they didn't go below the saddle flaps - Ashley is following right in her mothers footsteps!

This is Ashley and Tina with Grandma. My mom is way cool with her sun glasses on indoors! Isn't she pretty in pink?

This is what happens between classes:

Soon will be pictures of the garden - got the salsa garden planted and the spring garlic bed with Silver Rose. The garlic is already up four inches in two weeks. I was concerned that I may have planted it to late - we'll see how it forms up. Not sure what stops it's growing cycle heat or maturity. I hope it can stand a warm summer because I don't expect it to be mature until July/Aug. Last year it matured in June. Over at Clayhill we planted hardneck in the fall - they are doing nicely. My hardnecks I planted in La Tres Belle got their feet too wet and haven't produced. I also ordered Pioneer garlic but they didn't seem to survive the shipping here and are moldy - I'll ask for a replacement be shipped this summer for fall planting.

I am getting ready to plant my seeds from Survival Seeds. I'll update you on how those grow!

Happy Spring!

Survival Seeds

Well, the bug hit me....or fever, or whatever trigger causes the need to play in the dirt long before it's safe. I ordered from the Gurney seed catalog this week. My hubby has been concerned that I didn't plant enough garlic last fall (mainly because I waited too late to order the bulbs from the dealer I like.) So I just reconcile myself to make do with planting what I put aside for seed stock. Turns out, with an unlimited supply on hand we used way more garlic this fall/winter than ever before and my hubby has developed an addiction so severe he depleted our years supply of culinary garlic by January - with no fresh garlic until June/July we were very susceptible to vampires! I resorted to using the garlic in the decorator braids hung in my kitchen window. Not to fear, this was home grown garlic I braided. Thinking I had such a plentiful supply when I harvested the garlic last summer, I made a yarrow and garlic valance - the garlic is totally edible and organic, but I'd have liked to preserve my window treatments a few more months!

As we were preserving our salsa last fall, Ashley - AKA The Princess, recommended a salsa garden . We put up 12 jars of salsa and it was gone within six weeks. The child absolutely loves anything with vinegar in it and downed a pint of salsa in one setting. This left the extended family members highly disappointed because she ran through the entire stock of "Christmas salsa" in said six weeks. The salsa was intended as gifts to those who loved it the year before.

Back to the catalog order... I was looking for things I couldn't find locally. With The Princess's idea in mind and thinking this sounds like a great project for a mother-daughter duo I ordered some interesting tomatoes - my friends will not be surprised to note that I picked a variety called Flamingo's....they are an undersized plum tomato with raspberry pink interiors....It just sounded like to much fun to resist! They come as seeds which I don't generally have good luck growing tomatoes from seed, but for $2.45 it's worth the gamble.

Can't have salsa without onions - so I found an interesting variety of those also. Candy Apple Red's - supposedly eatable raw although I don't know why people do this - the plant makes you cry when you cut it - what makes you think you should eat it raw? Go figure....anyway, it looks pretty and if it is mild with a good flavor, will do nicely in the salsa. I generally saute my onions and garlic for the salsa and have had good results with the flavor.

To round out the salsa garden order I found some softneck garlic still in stock. So I ordered Pioneer Whites and Silver Reds....I hope they come soon so I can get them in the ground while it's still cool. With the softnecks I already planted and these, I should have enough to last through next winter and give some garlic braids as gifts. Maybe I can even replace my window treatment! If not, I'll double the order in the summer and hope I have help planting it all!

With those items added to the cart I decided I'd like some tomato plants - to get a jump on the season. I went out on a limb and ordered Black Krim heirloom cherry tomatoes. I've never had heirloom's before - I guess I felt they were to delicate for me to grow - I've got a limited budget - both financially and time - and I generally don't like to take a chance on something that's not going to produce. I thought I'd give through caution to the wind...

Before I log off, I wanted to share with you another site on seeds - Hometown Seeds they have a grouping of seeds called Survival Seeds. Hormone free and packaged to last for an extended period of time. Once you plant the seeds the resulting fruit produces seeds suitable to save for next years planting. Sounds very interesting to me - especially the hormone free aspect.

Although it is not very warm today - I have a need to prepare homes for the soon to arrive seeds and plants. This means raised bed preparation - I'm off to the rock pile to start hauling them up the hill for a bed near the house.....

ThistleDew Crochet Lessons

Hurray - the dream of starting a craft haven at Thistle Dew Farm is becoming a reality.

My good friend Wendy has requested the inaugural crochet session. I am so excited to share my craft! I'll post more when we have a date and materials list.

Here's some samples of my work over the last few years to give an idea of what we can aspire to.