Is it spring yet?

I think the answer is a resounding "yes."
Better do some weeding before my Buddha ends up totally overgrown.

Wish you were here ..................

............ so you could smell the sweet peas.

From the garden

From this - all from my garden - along with some fresh eggs courtesy of a friend, home baked bread and a few other ingredients (not homegrown or homemade) to a nice, simple dinner. The eggs, along with penne pasta, the herbs in the pictures and lots of parmesan turned into this. Easily enough for two meals. Lettuce and beans obviously were made into a salad. Unfortunately, I don't have any lemons ready to harvest right now, so those were store bought. The zest went into the frittata, the juice into the salad dressing.
Almost makes me look domestic, doesn't it? I'm not, really.

Not a lot to write about

Not a lot to write about - not because I haven't done anything, but because nothing I've done has been terribly interesting.
I've sorted beads all week and discovered that I have more size 6 beads than anybody could possibly use up in a lifetime. I've gone off the idea of transferring absolutely all of them into flip top containers. So, it's a mish mash of tubes and flippies. For now, I'm just fine with that.
I'm a bit stuck on the bead embroidery. The second half of the snap needs to be sewn on somehow but I don't remember how and am waiting to hear back from the instructor. My next bead embroidery project will most likely be a kit I bought from Beki - www.whimbeads.com - quite a while ago and never got to. Looking forward to it, though. I like kits - I don't have to endlessly agonize over choosing beads that go together.
There's been quite a bit of gardening lately. I'd put out lettuce seeds and the mesclun mix was growing beautifully. It was such fun to go out into the garden and collect lettuce for dinner - until I discovered most of the lettuce was arugula. And I really do NOT like arugula. I actually chucked it all in the yard waste and reseeded with regular lettuce. The artichokes are done for now, the second harvest in the fall is always much smaller. I still have plenty in the fridge, but, according to what I read just recently, they are past their prime. Could have fooled me, they still taste very good.
Yesterday, we went to the Gem and Jewelry Show in San Mateo. I was really hoping I'd find some cabochons. And I did - outrageously expensive gemstone ones. They were beautiful, but I don't need $85 tourmaline ones, no matter how great they look. So, I bought some inexpensive flat beads that'll work just as well and will try one of the Gem and Mineral Shows instead. I think I'll have a better chance there. The show was as empty (I don't mean completely empty, just nowhere near as crowded as it used to be) as it has been in the last few months. Still as many vendors, but fewer shoppers. And some of my favorites weren't there :-( I did notice quite a few more vendors selling "Bollywood" style jewelry. Many of the shoppers at this particular show have always been Indian women and the vendors are starting to cater more to them. As much as I like what I saw, it's not me.

Green

Two new patterns I've been working on. The first one needs to have the strap redone, two is one too many. The other one may well be okay. I need to test carry it a couple more times.

Everything else is from the garden - a bit of lichen found on a bush that isn't doing so well.

Various herbs, mostly basil and rosemary.

One of the citrus trees in bloom - I think it's the orange tree, although it could be the grapefruit. The lemons and limes aren't doing quite as well.

And the two varieties of artichokes we're growing. I think we'll have another bumper crop, just like the last two springs. Not quite that many artichokes in the fall crop.

I spent a bit of time this week planting and putting out seeds. Let's hope I'll have sweetpeas (flowers, not veggies) again this year. Last year, they refused to even sprout, very disappointing. This year, I'm trying green beans and lettuce for the first time. We'll see how that goes.