May’s First Year Anniversary

Went to the farm market last Saturday and found this hanging basket of petunias ready for sale. This must be a sign that the local frost danger is past? Also noticed lots of tomatoes but am still not buying my plants for another week or so.       It’s been an up and down spring with the weather here, but I believe this is normal I arrived May 1st to Portsmouth a year ago and I recall the entire month of May was back and forth between warm and blue skies and grey, cloudy skies with temps in the 50s. Yesterday it was both. Started out cool and grey and ended up amazingly inviting for outdoor activity. My former husband, Mr. Cartwright (Chance) is here for the summer again and we have been playing tennis every couple of days lately. Fun!

Here’s a look from a couple of days ago of my mixed lettuce bed, the one I planted at the same time as a row of peas. If you look closely you might see three kinds of lettuce (or more), spinach, arugula, kale, and cilantro. For some reason I like to plant an area like this randomly and then thin plants out at this stage to allow some to really thrive. The thinning is a lot of work but it get’s me out in the garden and up close and personal with the plants which I’ll soon be cutting leaves from with scissors for my salads (cut and come again).

The back yard of the house where I live is a treasure trove of trees, shrubs and perennials.  If you want to keep track of what’s going on you almost have to take a walk around every day. The tulips and the daffodils have come and gone now but I have a couple of nice photos I took I want to share.

This daffodil ended up in the windowsill of the kitchen sink and seemed to last forever. I finally had to take a photo, one if my best of that particular flower ever.

Here’s a photo I took of myself in the mirror at the farm market that shows off what’s blooming now around town. Love the bleeding hearts and the lilacs.

With Chance here for the summer I am feeling free to stay focused on my painting. I’ve been working on expanding the variety of my cards. As many of you have seen on my FaceBook posts I’m working on images of mermaids and having a lot of  fun with it. Today I start my first painting on a wood panel that will include a mermaid. I’m signed up for a holiday crafts fair that I attended last November and will be able to anticipate what I can offer there. Last year it was all very spontaneous and last minute and yet I did well. I continue to do astrology readings from time to time.

Of course the family is my reason for being here and that continues to feel gratifying to my heart. I’m continuing to post a New Moon blog each month and I’ve added a second FB page for my art business. Life moves along, steady as she goes.