Works In Progress

When I first set about learning to crochet a few years back the one thing I had hoped to learn to make was the one thing I kept putting off due to a fear of failure. Thanks to my sister-in-law I have conquered my fear and mastered The Granny! Well, maybe not mastered, but I now know it's not impossible to whip one up. I rather enjoy the process now that I have a better understanding of the construction. I can forsee a potential addiction in making them and I imagine myself spending many an evening with my feet up on the couch watching Elizabeth Gaskell and Jane Austen movies whilst I churn them out to make all sorts of things...the possibilities are endless: cushions, blankets, scarves, potholders, ponchos, brooches, bunting, slippers, washcloths etc.
Gardening books form the bulk of my written works right now. I was pleased as punch when Daniel came back from the landlord's to say she had granted us permssion to plant a garden in our apartment's backyard. Our yard is unusually large for an apartment. I reckon it's as big as our old house's front yard. It's a blank canvas of healthy grass with plenty of sunshine. We decided to build a couple of square foot gardening boxes. After a couple of season's of failed attempts, we decided to go exactly by The Book. Other reads I'm referring to are the Texas Organic Vegetable Gardening Book by Howard Garrett, because gardening in the Texas heat ain't like gardening in New England. (It seems most gardeing books I preview are written by New Englanders and British gardeners.) We are also experimenting with an heirloom tomato plant in a pot so my copy of The Bountiful Container is finally getting some use. So far, what I've learned from this book is to read the book BEFORE I set about planting anything. It seems I may have omitted and done all the things that will ensure our little Brandywine plant will die before it produces anything. Oh well, It's an experiment. Lastly, I'm reading The Backyard Homestead. I found this book about about a year ago at Barnes and Nobel and Daniel gave it to me for St. Nicholas Day this year.