Growing things

I’ve never had a rose bush before. I discovered that there was a small, barely alive one mostly hidden by the front shrubs and I decided to see if it could be coaxed back to health. I aerated the soil and added some rose fertilizer but as the weeks went by nothing really happened. Then I saw some tiny new leaves. Gradually there were more and last week I saw buds for the first time. A few days ago the first one opened and lo and behold: miniature yellow roses! There are four more buds. It’s been very dry lately, almost no rain at all in the last three weeks, so I’ve been watering it.

Some more things in the garden/yard:

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Making things

I’ve made a few dolls lately. Two were commissioned for a couple of sisters and I had a lot of fun with them.

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One I’m making now, using mohair weft for the hair for the first time. It looks like real hair. The wefts are not inexpensive, but I think they are worth it. I will definitely be doing this again.

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I admit, the sweaters are my favorite thing to make because I love knitting. Sometimes I just make a doll sweater and put it aside because it might work for a future doll. That’s what happened this time. I made a warm white cardigan out of a sumptuous bamboo-silk blend but ultimately decided to use the variegated green one I made last fall.

In more mundane news: I am hemming a new cassock for Father, darning a sock, mending a tiny hole in my son’s favorite sweater, cutting a full-size blanket down to a twin-size (and making matching doll blankets out of what’s left), and mending holes in two feather pillows.

Cooking things

I made bread using a new recipe recently. I mean new to me; it’s a very old recipe. It uses boiled milk, etc., to make a “plain white loaf.” It worked beautifully. I’d share photos but before I could take a picture it was all gone.

The only other thing I’ve photographed lately was this fantastic fasting standby, Thai peanut curry sauce from Melissa Naasko’s Fasting as a Family.

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Church things

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The sky

Naturally I can’t have a blog post without photos of the sky! These are obviously not all from the same day:

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The Children

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General Photography

(Because I just like taking photos.)

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