Throwback Thursday: July 21 through the Years

 2005

2006

2007

2016

#throwbackthursday

Master Gardener at Work

Gardening is one of those skills I've attempted off and on over the years, but it simply hasn't clicked with me. Yet here I am, trying a few things again. Earlier I shared the strawberry starts that a neighbor gave me. Here are my latest efforts.

I planted some sunflower seeds last week. They germinated. I transferred them to these small biodegradable pots yesterday. So far, they're all still alive and thriving. 

I realize I'm very late to the game. My neighbors sunflowers are already five feet tall! But I figure sunflowers are a late summer / fall flower. So they might show some color before the frost sets in. They're growing very fast.

Another neighbor gave me some decorative pumpkins last spring, left over from her garden the previous fall. She said, "All I do is throw them in the dirt spot in the back yard and they grow." So ... hmmm. They sat in a paper bag in my garage for 4 months.

Our back yard consists of a slab of concrete. No planting there! But now that we have a gate that connects our back yard to the common area, we can get to the dirt easily. A couple of our neighbors have large gardens in the common area behind their houses. Inspiring! Last week Dale and I built this humble little patch. I cut up the pumpkins, scraped out the seeds, and stuck them in the dirt. I didn't expect much.

But they started growing!

These are the baby-size pumpkins. And since they have until fall, we just might get some on time.

But you see, this is why I take photos of my neighbors gardens. I'm a much more competent photographer than gardener. 

I'm perfectly fine with that.

Too Hot

High temperatures.

Lack of sleep. 

I've got ambition,

But no energy for execution.

I'm going to go read.

A June Sunset

I'd emailed this photo to myself to post on my blog. I'm attempting to clean out my email box again, and rediscovered it! Glad I did.

Throwback Thursday: Greeting Cards

Some of the cards I've made over the decades. I hope to get back to cardmaking before too long.

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2012

2013

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

#throwbackthursday

Repeat

I'm repeating this post from June 19th because this morning, this photo (and poem) became the Fan Photo of the Day on Nick Kelsh's How to Photograph Your Life Facebook page. Nick has been my photography teacher and friend for over a decade now.

This was a total "WOW! Oh wow!" moment for me.

Nick wrote:

The FAN PHOTO of the DAY is by Margaret Davaz

Margaret has added a big dose of class to HTPYL. She wrote a poem for her beautiful photograph.

……………..

Her name is music.
Wisteria.

She flows as a melody,
cascading over fences, undulating in the breeze.

Wisteria. Catch her quickly!
Her flowers are fleeting,
taunting me to stretch toward her,
to breathe in her scent.

 
Wisteria.
Dressed in a sweeping gown of purple and white.
The delicate dame,
releasing her petal charms, floating to my feet.

~ Margaret Davaz

Feelings ... Nothin' More than Feelings

Today is a "reasonably healthy" day. 

Slept well.

Took a nice long walk before breakfast. 

Did some meal prep for dinner - kebobs!

Had a plumber come by to replace our leaky food disposer. 

Spent the day watching the January 6th Hearing. Fascinating. Revealing. 

Dale and I had much to talk about, including the Federalist Papers. 

Never stop learning.

#snapshotofmyday

Oh, So Very Margaret

Want to get to know me? This project reveals a lot.

Over the last weeks ... (months) ... I've been sorting and categorizing my button collection. My maternal great grandmother and grandmother were professional seamstresses. When Grandma died, everything went to her only child, my mom. When Mom died, I inherited Mom's sewing and craft supplies. She still had some of her mom's and grandmother's collection. Last year when my mother-in-law died, I inherited her sewing supplies, too.

Among the supplies were buttons. Buttons and buttons and buttons and buttons and buttons. 

Plus, I have a stash of my own buttons. I have a habit of going to thrift stores and digging through the craft and sewing section, and bringing home beautiful or unusual buttons. 

Some have threatened to call this an illness.

Over the last ... some time ... (years, really), I've sorted buttons. But when my mother-in-law's stash was added, the collection needed a bigger overhaul. 

I sorted by color, by size, by number of holes, by shank. Then I converted this large metal box that used to hold garage-type hardware into a container for my buttons. This is about 15" tall x 10' wide x 6" deep.

I divided up the drawers. I added labels. I admired my handiwork.

My original thought was that I'd put the loose buttons in the smaller drawers, and the buttons that were still on cards in the bottom two drawers. But, uh, I forgot how many buttons I have on cards.

So the next logical thing was to sew matching buttons onto index cards, right? So more sorting commenced as I gathered matching buttons. I finally had to limit the sewing-onto-cards to four or more matching buttons. There were just too many sets of two and three.

So not only do I have my beautifully sorted and labeled drawers of buttons arranged into rainbow order, I also now have a big box full of buttons sewed or stapled onto index cards beautifully sorted and labeled and arranged into rainbow order in an oversized shoebox.

And no, I didn't count them.

Look at all my pretty blues!

Most of my buttons are modern, plastic, and round. In the coming days I'll share some of the more unusual buttons in the collection.

Among themselves, crafters joke that purchasing supplies is as much of a hobby as the crafting itself.

I'd like to amend that thought. For nutcases like me, petting and organizing craft supplies is just as valid a hobby. It's like shopping your own stash and getting the creative juices flowing again.

I do hope that my creative dry spell dissipates soon. I'd love to utilize some of these buttons and share the resulting creations with the world.

Being Neighborly

On Monday Dale and I got a knock on the door. Outside was a slightly frazzled woman who asked, "Would you like some strawberry starts?"

She's our neighbor down the street, who we met for the very first time. She said she's re-doing her yard, and doesn't need these strawberries anymore. The two folks she was going to give them to didn't turn up. So she was going door to door, finding out if any of the neighbors would like them.

Well, yeah! I've been wanting to grow strawberries for quite some time. I couldn't say no. 

She brought us three big boxes of starts!

Well, now we were in a bit of a pickle. We haven't built any raised beds yet (because we haven't desided how we want to configure our low-maintenance yard). So using what we had available in our garage, we came up with this idea.

We filled all the planters we have with strawberries and were still able to give one full box to another neighbor. We'll let these settle in for a while. When we're ready, we'll build that raised bed, and transplant them.

So far, they're acting like they're happy. Cross your fingers that they stay that way for a while.

Last Wednesday's Sunset

Moody!

Treasure Walk

A week ago I went on a "treasure walk." It's like a regular walk, but I pick up some natural treasures along the way. A couple seed pods. A rock. A flower. A piece of bark.

When I got home I decided to play a while. I took some time with a mirror. I manipulated the lighting. I used my macro lens. I messed with arrangements. 

In photo editing, I played with haze removal and color saturation and contrast and cropping and all manor of fussing.

Playing like this stretches me ol' grey matter.

Here and there, beauty emerges.

#flowersforfriday

Throwback Thursday: Coloring

I haven't done any coloring lately. I colored a lot when my mind was distressed. It's a calming, meditative activity for me: simple, yet challenging to get colors to flow beautifully and see what I can do with shading. I use colored pencils, then play with the scanned image in my photo editing program to get these results.

For today's #throwbackthursday, I've gathered some of my favorite coloring pages.

#throwbackthursday