Back to Eden Gardening

Well....I'm finally back to writing on here....it's been a busy past year or two.

Now that the Mother Nature has finally started to cooperate and it's no longer so wet in the yard. I got the grass cut and started planting my garden. This year I'm trying the Back to Eden Gardening. It's a no till garden. A friend of mine sent me a link to a video at http://www.backtoedenfilm.com/. I watched it last year after I had already gotten most of the garden in. A brief summary.... is using cardboard or newspaper on an un tilled spot....then adding compost a few inches thick, then a layer of wood chips. Since my garden has been tilled for many years.....I didn't have to let it sit for a season. Last fall I did put newspapers, cardboard, straw......and I scavenged for leaves and grass clippings people  put out on the curb for pickup. Then comes the wood chips.....a few years ago we had the Derecho come thru and take out a large maple. The tree service chipped up everything and dumped it in another spot on the property. Last week I had a neighbor with a tractor lay all the chips on my garden. Yesterday...after fixing the fence (which a deer tore down last fall), I was finally able to start planting.  I did get in 18 broccoli (my 3 year old grandson's favorite veggie), 40 onion plants...which I still have about 100 more to go and 20 lettuce plants. I'm holding off on the tomatoes, peppers and such...due to the cold nights.

This type of garden is to reduce weeding and keep the soil moist...so less watering. Best of all you don't til. Wood chips tilled in the garden would zap the soil of the much needed nitrogen. Eventually, the wood chips breakdown and go into the soil. You then are suppose to add more when the old ones decay.

Aerial view of the garden

Onions

Broccoli

Lettuce

Lettuce planted.....Yeah the row isn't straight. :)

I've finally gotten my camera out of the moths balls.....

I've cleaned the lenses and am starting to take pictures again.

My dear neighbor and I try to walk a couple of miles as many days out of the week as we can squeeze in. After the main part of our walk we take a little stroll on their pier in the scenic Pomonkey Creek. The past few weeks this pair of Ospreys thought that the boat would be a great place to build their nest and lay eggs. After trying to discourage...Mr. and Mrs. Osprey won out. And they have 2 babies on the way. I think it takes about 5-6 weeks until they hatch.

Though I've watched ospreys I've never had a chance to watch them this close and this is such a better vantage point.

Yesterday, we did our normal walk on the pier to check on Mrs. Osprey. As you can tell she wasn't very happy with us. But she was able to provide me with a  wonderful photo op. :) .

Since the rain we had.....

The mushrooms have been coming up everywhere !

The year is passing me by

This year has been flying by at warp speed. I can't believe it's mid September already. Not wanting to be a negative Nelly, I don't feel like I've accomplished much of anything so far this year, yet I'm always busy (or I think I am...LOL).

I decided to dust off my trusty dusty camera and take a few pictures around the property. Here's a sign attached to one of our vine infested trees.

It's been 7 months.....

Wow ! It's been 7 months since I last posted anything at all. I thought after my move that I would have a lot more time to keep up with the blog among other things. Since the last time I posted, I've moved (only a few doors down), become a Grandma to an awesome little boy. When I'm not doing the 9-5 job,  I've been busy cleaning out sheds of my Dad's, repairing broken things, planting a garden (now picking in the garden).mowing grass for my mom and at my house, doing the occasional baby sitting and sometimes I even get a chance to get in the pool and cool off.

I'm finally getting back to taking pictures....I let my daughter borrow the camera for a while so she could take pictures of the baby....did I mention how adorable he is?? :) I've decided instead of doing the "picture a day" routine (which I'm terrible at), I'm going to do a "picture a week". Maybe just maybe, it will get me in the habit of 1. using the camera a bit more and 2. get me in the habit of posting again (not that I've been great at that either). Since, this is my first post in a very long time, I'm going to post a few pictures.

Laidback

Yeah...so I had to do a little Photoshop to the picture

September 2010 Sunset

Day 20 and 21 was a bust !

Well, I spent most of my weekend packing...I did take some pictures but never got a round to posting them. And, of course I forgot to bring my card with me today to post a couple of pictures. Hopefully, I'll be more on the ball tonight and or tomorrow morning get some photos posted.

Day 19 !

Last Sunday my family and I celebrated one of my brother's 60th birthday, Since he loves oysters...we decided to indulge in some. We enjoyed them 3 ways....raw, steamed and oysters casino......YUM !

I took this picture of the oysters while they were being washed off....thought it would be a great before and after.

Before

After

 

Day 18 !

Here is "Bear". He is one of my mom's dogs.....which are now her children.

Day 17 .... Here Kitty Kitty !

Today's picture of the day is of my old man cat "Binx". He's 17 years old. He's a lovable old cat, but not as agile as he used to be. Of course that comes with age....doesn't it?

Day 16 ! Shimmering Silver Sequins

I took this picture on Sunday. It was such a beautiful day. And I happen to notice that the river had all these Shimmering Silver Sequins on it.

Wow Half way there ! Photo of the day #15

I'm half way through my personal challenge. I took this photo last night of the sun setting. With the clouds and the colors in the sky...it was quite awesome to me.

Picture of the day #13 and #14

Well, I went out and took pictures yesterday morning. Then promptly came in and started to work on boxing up stuff in my room to get ready for my move. So needless to say, I totally forgot to post a picture. I'm making up for it today...and posting a picture that I took yesterday and one that I took this morning.

The Dock

Day break on the creek

Day #12

Wow...I've actually posted 12 days in a row ! Hmmmm....maybe I'll keep this up until the end of the year.
Another before and after...using the Content Aware feature in Photoshop and turning it into a sketch. The picture is of my daughter and her husband.

Before

After

Day #11

Another before and after ...... I cropped the photo....got  rid of the foot in the background, blurred the background and give it a bit of a painting feel using the Gaussian blur and darken feature.

Picture of the day #10

I decided I would try the Content Aware feature in Photoshop today. I took a picture of a morning glory a couple of months ago. I liked the photo...other than the blade of grass that was across the bloom. Instead of removing it the normal way (using the clone tool). I tried out the Content Aware feature....which I found is so much easier and a tad less tedious. I did do some color enhancements to the photo as well.

Before

After

Picture of Day #9

Yesterday afternoon I received an email from my neighbor. Attached was this wonderful picture of my Dad on his beloved tractor. It was such a wonderful surprise !

Day #8 Picture of the day !

So far so good....I'm a quarter of the way through the month and have made a post a day. I know at the beginning of the month I did say I would give it a shot to take a picture a day. At least I've kept up with the posting part of my challenge. Now, I just need to get my act together, get my camera out and take pictures everyday.

With that said....this picture was taken October 28, 2010.

Make up for Day # 7 - Lone Goose

Here is a lone goose. Seems that everybody in the community has seen him (or her...not sure) their yards, laying around. He can fly....cause after I snapped a few shots he flew off.

Well.....day 7 is a bust

I'm not at home today. Though, I did bring my camera with me. But the computer that I'm using won't read the card. So....no pictures today. I'll post 2 tomorrow to make up for today.

Day #6 - Picture of the day

Ahhh....so far my challenge is going well....6 days in and haven't missed a single day of posting.

This morning I decided to try taking pictures of water drops. I set up a red bowl in the sink, filled it with water, then had the faucet dripping and started snapping pictures. I found that I got a couple of decent shots. Here is one of them.