An overview on how my gardening experiments went this summer...

This summer I planted quite a few herbs, the standards like oregano, basil (a couple different kinds), rosemary, thyme (a couple different varieties), mint, peppermint, stevia, and so on and so forth. I also planted three different kinds of tomatoes, two types of peas, swiss chard, lebanese cukes, zucchini, parsnips, a number of flowers and the list goes on.

Some things worked out well like the zucchinis of course and although it took a while my smaller varieties of tomatoes were prolific. My basil went through some ups and downs and although the lebanese cukes did well, except for a dropping of the temperature one night seemed to hit one of the plants really hard and it didn't bounce back. The swiss chard worked out well and provided some consistent greens for a while and the mints/peppermints were up and down. Considering our crazy weather, wind storms, July hail storms and the like, things went relatively well. Some things turned out and some did not. I've learned quite a bit and I'm already planning for next seasons' garden.

Here are a couple more shots of the lebanese cucumbers.

Another snippet of Summer Gardening: The Zucchini

Filling in the blanks...

As my lovely sister pointed out...I have postings in April and then in October...what's with the gap. Well...basically I was doing "stuff" but not posting "stuff". So, here's few pics of my gardening adventures.

H2Oil

This past Friday I went to see a documentary of the oil sands and the detrimental effects it's having on peoples living downstream, water ways like the Athabasca River and the animals in the area. It really hit me hard and I'm really evaluating my choices in products, living habits and perhaps even my career path. We really need to stop talking and start acting on this one.

https://www.h2oildoc.com

Fall Harvesting: Collecting Seeds and Farmer's marketing....

The Dream home, the timberframe home...

So my partner and I have been talking for some time about our dream home. He has educated me a little more about Timber frame homes and we have been looking at books and magazines on the subject. We are both interested with a more "natural", traditional and warm look, but even a modest timber frame home can be quite pricey. So we continue to research, dream and save.

My concern with constructing or purchasing a new home, is it's carbon footprint, use of natural materials and use of recycled materials to create it. Is it more expensive to try to use recycled and sustainable product and what's the best way to go? These are my questions and I am going to spend a bit of time this morning, drinking tea and scoping out the internet: if you have some ideas feel free to post.

Here's two sites I'm checking out now...

http://www.thewholetree.com/eventsprojects.htm
http://www.roaldgundersen.com/Whole_Tree_Homes.php

A fresh start...my quest to live naturally...

This blog is in conjunction with my quest to live a much more "natural" life. Over the years, I've gone through periods of being a vegetarian, a wannabe hippy, to be more fit, to be more expressive, to be more artistic and so on and so forth. My hope with this blog is create a document of my current journey and attempt to live a much more natural, healthy and creative life. I also hope to connect with those who may be trying to do the same in our chaotic, complicated and seemingly unnatural modern life. I'm typically an active and visual person, so my blogs will likely not be extremely eloquent, but I'll do my best to communicate this journey effectively. If you have positive or interesting input, feel free to connect with your thoughts.

Sheila