Garden: What a difference a year makes!

Before I head out to do a little garden clean up today, I wanted to see what the garden looked like this time last year…but in my wanderings I came across my photos from the first day of spring in 2014.

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Kinda greenish, just a little snow but things starting to warm up and peek through

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Aaaand this was the first day of spring this year, 2015.  The year of snowmageddon here in Boston.  Yep, no green to be seen.  It’s finally starting to bloom here and later this weekend, I’m going to dig around for more photos for this time last year as a comparison.

I’m keeping a new garden journal (started last year) for our new house.  My last journal was sketches and words, this time around I’m trying photo collages as well as written descriptions and adding in tags from plants etc.  My format is 5×7 which may be a little small, I may end up going to 6×8, we’ll see how it’s working out.

Around here…October 2014

Around here Shadow is relishing the autumn sunshine on the enclosed front porch…oh the life of a dog!

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Around here soccer is king queen

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Around here we just had our first frost warning…time to pull the last of the tomatoes

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Around here we just had our first nor’easter of the season

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Around here I’ve been using my silhouette for craft projects and to cut 1000 people shapes for our church’s “Imagine no malaria” campaign

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Around here, Dad is visiting and we have spent hours organizing, editing, purging and strategizing how to deal with the family archives of slides, negatives, photos, memorabilia and we haven’t even gotten to the films (!)

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Around here a big Project Life catch up was completed (2013 done!!) and 2014 catch up in the works

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Around here…life is very very good.

studio: and the cleanup commences…

I don’t know about you, but summertime around here is slightly less hurried (no school or  after school sports schedules), (supposedly) more time outdoors, longer days, beautiful New England weather and the promise of long days lazing in the warm summer sun at the beach or under a tree with a book.

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We love summer here in our house and it is less crazy than usual.  I strive for a balance of activity and inactivity with the girls, weeks of camp interspersed with weeks of “nothing”.   As I walked into my studio today…I realized that while I think the girls schedule is more relaxed… Charlie is still working hard, and there is still a household to run, and kids to manage.  Which lead me to this …

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yup…the dump it in the studio and close the door so the cat can’t get in.  So this morning, while the girls and their friends are still sleeping in from a late night sleepover…I will attempt to clear the chaos.  2 1/2 weeks until the big trip and I have some sewing to do and memory keeping to catch up on before we leave.

Cursory examination of the war zone has unearthed…  7 items in need of ironing, 1 pr of shorts in need of a button, 1 long finished knitting project in need of blocking, several piles of memorabilia and stuff to go through and organize into our Project Life book (still have to edit and print photos too),  magazines to be relocated, several pieces of luggage to go into the attic, cameras and phones to be downloaded and backed up, garden journal to be updated, supplies to be put away, a giant box of 700+ photos to be put away (note to self…buy more photo albums on amazon) 2 pillow covers to be sewn up and be stuffed with forms (8 seams!  that’s all it is!)  fabric for outfits I want to make before our trip to be found and pre washed in preparation for sewing, and  a table to be cleared

…I think I need a cup of tea and a shower

How’s summer going in your part of the world?  Any giant crazy messes to tackle?