***Tuesday's Tip***

Vern is a wonderful, loveable, & mellow cat.  He is Runa's best buddy.  They love to play rough and tumble together and snuggle up and sleep with each other.  But Vern has one major fault.  And, no, it is not being a circus clown on the side.  He is a bird killer.  I am not talking about the occasional bird now and then.  Last summer it got up to a bird a day!  Part of Vern's story is that he was a stray for a couple of years before he came into our lives.  He had to eat, I understand, but he is fed now.  We weren't sure what to do.  It was heartbreaking to have so many birds killed and we didn't want to return him to the shelter.  So I did some research and found that bright colored collars can scare birds before a cat can pounce.  This my final collar design.  At first it didn't have the the mylar bird scare tape it was just the bright colored cloth but, birds continued to die.  So I thought about what I used to scare birds from my garden and it was bird scare tape!  So the frilled lizard look was born! (PS - I DID TRY ALL KINDS of BELLS - Vern is a very talented hunter & bells never slowed him down!)

It works like a charm!  I let him out once recently without his collar on a super cold day, thinking the birds would be safe..I was wrong :(.  That mistake will not happen again!  It is a pretty simple design.  I thread a quick release type collar through the casing so if he gets hung up on something the collar will come off.  I have 2 collars in reserve just in case he loses one.  Last summer I had to add more mylar once, it wore out a bit and Vern got a bird.  It looks goofy and I am grateful Vern is so mellow about the collar going on.  (I do take it off so he has a break when he is inside)  It is a much better solution than the alternatives and it really works~!

***Tuesday's Tip*** (late...again..better late than never?)

It is 346 steps to my mailbox from my door...round trip.  Those steps are a part of my Etsy process.  Sending mail and getting mail has always been a source of excitement for me.  And now in this day of electronic everything it seems even more exciting and, well, precious.  And here is Etsy, the best of both worlds, the electronic wonderfulness and the simple joy of mailing packages!  

Right now is the busy season.  Folks are getting a jump on their holiday shopping, I am grateful to included.  I recently heard on NPR (listen a lot while doing Etsy work) about how some big companies treat their shipping warehouse employees...not so good, I guess.  Made me even more grateful to be just me, myself, and I working in all my "departments".  Grateful I can take the care that I enjoy when I send a package.  I don't "pay" my Self for my shipping time at this point.  I consider it one of my delightful hobbies.

Here is my "Shipping Department", my Reiki table, I intend positive energy with each package I ship.  I give care and awareness to each parcel.  Everyone gets a hand written thank-you note and a little something extra.  I do it not because it may be good for business but because I want to connect in a human way to the folks who decide to purchase my wares.

  I suppose this post sounds more like a gratitude than a tip!  Well, there can never be enough gratitude!  But my tip is very simple and it will save you from hours of frustration over your lifetime!  See my roll of tape? I use one of those thingys that hold a plastic bag closed to hold my place on my roll of tape!  I used to use one from a bread bag...this one is from the bag that held the grout powder for the shower! Besides upcycling I love to use objects with meaning.  The board you see here was "made" by my Grandpa for me when I was in my early 20's.  I wanted a board to do various crafts on, so he just cut me out a bit of multi-ply.  I have used it as a cutting board, for gluing, soldering, you name it! I am grateful it has managed to stay with me all these years and I know my Grandpa would like that I am still using it today.

So instead a poem--->

 I will share with you one of my MANY favorite songs...all about tape & LOVE!

Have a GREAT Day!

Flight Of The Conchords - Sellotape (Aka Pencils In The Wind) Lyrics

Lives are like retractable pencils
If you push them too hard they're gonna break
And people are like paper dolls
Paper dolls and people, they're a similar shape
Hmm hmm hm

Love is like a roll of tape
It's real good for making two things one
But just like that roll of tape
Love sometimes breaks off before you were done

Another way that love is similar to tape
That I've noticed
Is sometimes it's hard to see the end
You search on the roll
(search on the roll)
Search on the roll
(searching round the roll)
Search on the roll
(search)
With your fingernail
Again and again
And again and again
And agaaaain.

Brown paper, white paper
Stick it together with the tape
The tape of love
The sticky stuff

Brown paper, white paper
Stick it together with tape
The tape of love
The sticky stuff.

People people 
Brown paper, white paper
Paper paper Stick it together with tape
Paper paper The tape of love
People people
People people
Pencil pencil
Pencil pencil
Paper paper
Put the pencil to the paper
Give the paper to the people
Let the people read about the sello tape
Oh baby baby
Yeah

Bret:
You know, Jemaine, I've been thinking about love. 
And I guess it's the very strongest adhesive.

Jemaine:
Oh sorry, Bret. Were you talking to me? I was humming. 
What did you say?

Bret:
Oh, just... nothing.

Brown paper, white paper
Stick it together with tape
The tape of love
The sticky stuff
Yeah
Ooh brown
Brown paper, white paper
Stick it together with tape
The tape of love
Say it
Sticky
Stick stick
Stick it together
Ye-yeah

Here is a YouTube if you would

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNUIDkCNjJA

***Tuesday's Tip*** (late)

This is how we left the shower mid September

What a long strange trip its been...Today's blog will be long on photos and short on words...I will admit to being pretty pooped!  We started this shower project at the beginning of September.  Then we took a "break" in order to get our wood in and the gardens to bed. 

With the outside work done it was time to dive in!

From Saturday - Tuesday we worked on the tile finally--->

I did not always look this happy!

It was a supreme group effort.  The group being me, my DH, Google Search, YouTube, & the Schluter Shower Systems 1-800 #!!!  I am filled with gratitude that we managed to do this job.  We did question our sanity on several occasions!  All is well that ends well~~~ahhhh.

We are short a few doodads that we need to complete the glass blocks.  Ordered them online.  Once the glass blocks are completed we can grout the whole shower.  Then shower!

Oh! Yeah! my tip....when I am going to do dusty, dirty jobs I like to coat my hair with coconut oil.  It makes a nice conditioner and protector.  I use olive oil too but, coconut oil smells nicer!

My FB status yesterday was ---> Shower nearly done ~~~ Marriage intact!  We had a few moments.  But after so many projects we have learned to find a way quickly past our little lackings of patience.  Today we took the day off and had a campfire.  It was just what our souls needed!

“Ah, to build, to build! That is the noblest art of all the arts. Painting and sculpture are but images, are merely shadows cast by outward things on stone or canvas, having in themselves no separate existence. Architecture, existing in itself, and not in seeming a something it is not, surpasses them as substance shadow.”

 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

***Tuesday's Tip***

Today's tip has a bit of a story...a bit of a winding path...

If you have been reading my blog from the start you would know that I am in love with swimming....if I could be a mythological creature I would be a.....



mermaid....

Well, it has been a bit of a struggle for me to swim this year...actually every summer I deal with some pain from an old injury that took place back in 1981 when we built this...

Yes! that is he and me...there is a bigger story here...I will tell that at another time.  Today's tip has to do with swimming.  During the building of this cabin I lifted too many roofing shingles and hauled them up the "cliff" we lived on...the land had no flat areas...this was the best spot to build...we paid $4,500 for 10 acres of slope back then.  Anyways, on one of my shingle lifting trips I picked up a few too many and my left shoulder went ###YIKES!!!  It has never been the same.  I have seen all manner of doctors and healthcare practitioners...but no one could do anything to "cure" it. 

So I have learned to do things in a way that keeps the 'old log cabin building injury' from flaring up.  Swim stroke have been a constant bummer...until....

This photo gives you more of a feeling for the slope and height!

...I found flippers!  Recently I was bemoaning the fact that my shoulder caused me trouble while at the beach with a friend.  She suggested flippers!  They have changed my swimming loving life!!!  I don't use my arms at all and with the mask and snorkel it is even more meditative.  I do have a stronger right leg so my laps may have a bit of an arc to them...but who cares, there is no one to bump into...except occasionally a turtle...I am having so much fun!  No Pain and Gain!  I highly recommend flippers as a swimming fitness tool for the shoulder impaired!

I think it is time for a swim now!  Not sure if I should confess to this...but I am a skinny dipper...quite a look~~~mask, fins, & snorkel~~~only!  Hey, what's the point of a private pond if you have to wear a suit!? 

***Tuesday's Tip***

I bought this boogie board for a dollar at a yard sale about 5 years ago.  I had every intention of it becoming my beach buddy.  But rather than ending up here....

It has only been afloat here....

Each summer I intend to spend more time at the beach.  My record is 3 times.  I only went twice last season during my Garden Sabbatical, how sad is that!  I have been twice this summer already...so there is hope!  In the meantime my boogie board has become one of my favorite garden gadgets instead, of my beach buddy.  Let's face it I will always spend more time in the garden than at the beach.

My boogie board is like my garden couch.  It is a fantastic device for kneeling & sitting while picking and weeding.  Great for a garden stretch too.  Very comfy in yoga child's pose or for lying on your back to stare at clouds for a bit of a break.

It also has this very nice webbing strap with a Velcro loop on the end.  I can hitch it too my belt loop and drag it along when my hands are full.

Maybe a boogie board in the garden reminds me to get to the beach and enjoy the waves before summer's end.  I want to be clear, I love the beach but, I love the work here more.  It is the everyday pleasure of accomplishment that feeds my soul with an emphasis on pleasure.  The work may be hard at times but, even a tired body is a reward when felt with relish and satisfaction.  There are so many sights to see if one just takes the time to look.  I do not seek the BIG reward...I don't even know what that is?  It is the everyday JOY that sustains me and fills me with the feeling of satisfaction.

Like an early morning with my coffee, boogie board, hand tool, and weeds...

....to a job completed before the shade was lost, with ducks in the distance and time for another cup of coffee enjoying what I had just done.

A fresh poem find....

Pleasures

BY DENISE LEVERTOV

I like to find   

what's not found   

at once, but lies

within something of another nature,   

in repose, distinct.   

Gull feathers of glass, hidden

in white pulp: the bones of squid   

which I pull out and lay

blade by blade on the draining board—

       tapered as if for swiftness, to pierce   

       the heart, but fragile, substance

       belying design.               Or a fruit, mamey,

cased in rough brown peel, the flesh   

rose-amber, and the seed:

the seed a stone of wood, carved and

polished, walnut-colored, formed   

like a brazilnut, but large,

large enough to fill

the hungry palm of a hand.

I like the juicy stem of grass that grows

within the coarser leaf folded round,

and the butteryellow glow

in the narrow flute from which the morning-glory   

opens blue and cool on a hot morning.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171229

***Tuesday's Tip***

Scape Time!

Garlic Scapes are the "flower stalks" of hard neck garlic plants.  If you grow garlic you will want to pick these flowers.  If you don't pick them the flower will continue to mature and take energy away from the forming bulb.  You can leave a few to mature and you will get little bulbils that can be planted (or eaten).  It will take a couple years of planting and replanting to get full sized garlic from the bulbils...best to save some of your big bulbs to replant.  Since you have to pick them all at once...what to do!?

Start a new jewelry trend that is sure to keep vampires away?

Bouquets?

Scape are just too yummy!  Time to crank the tunes and get chopping!

These curvy critters can be hard to tame.  My preferred method it the over the table method.  I snip off the flower pod and then chop into about inch long pieces.

Some I grind up with olive oil to make pesto cubes.  Others I blanch for 2 minutes and put in zip bags to freeze.  I am experimenting this year with some unblanched scapes.  Lots of folks say they have good results and the flavor is protected...blanching does seem to lessen the flavor.  This year I am made 2 jars of pickled flower pods.  I am just keeping them in the back of the refer for 6 weeks.  My son adores all types of pickles. Once they are ready they won't last long.  So here is my harvest...

Be sure to save some to eat right away.  I just saute them in olive oil...delicious!

***Tuesday's Tip***

It is such a busy time of year here at Gratitude Gardens (that is what I call my "farm")  I always wish to blog more.  I really do enjoy sharing with my readers!    The best way I get things done is to set up a schedule of sorts.  I have Sunday Gratitudes which I am happy to say, I have not missed a Sunday since I made that commitment with my Self!  I am getting going with Friday Etsy Shops News...which is something else that keeps me off the streets at night...4 Etsy Shops now...but more on that this Friday.  

As a manic maker I have plenty of ideas and projects I would like to share.  So I am starting...

<<<Tuesday's Tips>>>

With this "commitment" I can start getting all my ideas off those little scraps of paper that are floating about and let them start world wide webbing!  So for today something super easy, beautiful, and delicious 

                                    ~~~Chive Flower Vinegar~~~

Step One:

After you are done being distracted by all the beautiful butterflies, collect some chive blossoms.

Chive plants are super easy to grow.  They are perennials that grow nicely from seeds or find someone that has a clump and ask for a shovel full.  They handle division quite well!   My lovely row was started from seeds I saved, then I just divide each year to make the row longer.  Besides being yummy they are loved by pollinators.  That is why I grow so many...Easy, Bees, & Butterflies!  

Oh Yeah, collecting flowers.  I just pop them off in my hand.  But you could use scissors as well.

What you need includes: Clean Glass Bottles or Jars.  I run mine through the sani-cycle on my dishwasher.  White Vinegar is preferred to a brown vinegar.

Loosely fill the jars with Chive Flowers.  I do not wash the flowers.  They are grown organically.  I figure between clean jars and vinegar things are clean enough. (but I will eat a carrot right out of the garden that has only been cleaned by wiping it on my pants...)  If you want to wash the flowers do it gently and dry them thoroughly. 

NEXT:  Fill the jars with vinegar....then wait a week.......

Voila! Beautiful Pink Vinegar!

Some folks strain out the flowers, but I leave them in until they have completely faded.  They make wonderful hostess gifts (I have given away 3 bottles, already!)!  The vinegar has a nice chive-lively flavor

Of course, butterfly distraction = Haiku Thoughts

but if I held it...could I touch

the lightness of this

flutter butterfly?

buson

  https://www.etsy.com/listing/95136957/yellow-green-wedding-favor-wall-hanging?ref=shop_home_active

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