February is for Finishing: Love the one you're with

Bentocat is much displeased

My week has been decidedly off-kilter.

The eldest child hasn't been feeling well and had to see the doc today. It's nothing serious, but it was helpful and good to visit the doctor.

But that's neither here nor there, except to say that it was important to put love and attention toward helping her feel better because that's what moms do.

This doesn't look much different, but as of now, I'm at 25/81 blocks quilted, so 30.86% and I feel like I'm picking up speed now that I'm closer to the edge.

I've finished another one of these and started yet another one in the silver yarn. I'm at 3/12 stars, which is 25%.

This week has been about loving the one I'm with. When I'm with the quilt, I try to think about how cozy and warm it is and how Iris is going to feel snuggling under it. I love it because I love her and it's all bright, happy colors.

I'm loving the stars just for the love of knitting and yarn itself. They're fiddly and difficult in places, but they're just so darn cheerful and it's really satisfying to see one finished and stuffed, ready to hang on a tree come December.

I have loved the needled arts since I was small and I wouldn't continue if I didn't still love it. February is for Finishing is an excellent opportunity to help me remember why I love what I've already started, which further feeds a desire to work on those over the shiny new ideas and projects. It's a good opportunity to narrow my focus and love the one I'm with.

Wishing you lots of love this week.

March isn't far off, and we'll be looking at different forms of embroidery. I might even do some cross-stitch, you guys. Brace yerself.

Gratuitous flower picture. These just bloomed today.

Not bad for having mucous for brains all week.

In spite of a pretty bad cold, or possibly because of it, I've had a pretty productive week. I've been working to keep the house tidier so it's not a huge mess or stressful to clean before we leave for our trip and a ten minute tidy at night combined with the eldest's help in the kitchen has been quite effective. I finished both of Miss Bu's Florida shirts (the second of which has yet to be modeled in its finished state), made a little progress on my legwarmers, and figured out where I was on Louise-- the sleeves, in case you were wondering.

And I've started a sock for the Eldest, too. This will be more or less a plain sock with a stripe of 1x1 ribbing up the leg, toe up so I can use all the yarn, and using Lara Neel's Thumb joint hat top heel from the Fork in the Road pattern. It only took a little bit of turning my brain sideways to make it work and I think she's going to love them.

In other news, I kind of tossed "gardening" into the Project Make excellence salad, not really knowing a hundred percent what I'd do with it, but I did prune some of the trees today so that we could get under them to mow a little easier, so I'll throw in some tree-pruning in for this week's technique. The trees I pruned are quite large and I only worried about what I could reach today, so this is a little more information than I really needed, but might be handy again when the cherry and peach trees get to be a little more mature. I probably should be worrying more about this in the fall, but I hardly took down any branches at all, so today's pruning likely won't cause any harm.

Of course now I have a pile of perfectly good oak branches that could be turned into something, but no time to really do anything with them before we leave the state.

By this time next week, I'll be in Florida, chilling on the beach, but I do plan on posting from there so that the fun here at Lace Maze won't stop. And I'm alonging with Bekah, who has summed up better than I what I'm up to. I kinda feel like I'm Stash Ambling instead of Stash Dash-ing, but I'm sure this is just a lull in the finishing. Once I card and spin the rest of the black alpaca (spinning from the locks was a no-go today), I've got some gradient batts waiting in the wings and will be jumping into the gradient-along, too. In the mean time, I've got some serious planning to do.

And I plan to focus the awesomeness into a laser beam of awesome.

So (Sew), Strawberries.

I love these. Five bags out of fabric stash in colors that remind me of my garden in springtime when the phlox are in full bloom. The strawberry one is my favorite, hands down, and while that's the last of that fabric, this bag was the perfect thing for it to be. There's a grosgrain ribbon attach me! loop on the side of each one and though they're pretty simple, they're sturdy and well-constructed. I did my best here to pay attention to the details, even though they're "just" project bags. This is the part of Project Make where it's about doing my best work.

I'm considering stash-diving for summer fabrics for a similar collection of project bags and I'm almost certain there are colors in my fabric stash that will speak to me of summer flowers and sunshine. My more immediate sewing concern will be two more shirts for Bu, but I need to be getting on with that pretty soon if I'm to finish before our trip to Florida (which still doesn't seem real and won't until we're there). The pink and blue fabric to the right is going to be something, but I haven't figured out what just yet. It's vintage silk sent to me from a far friend as an act of kindness and I can't even with how beautiful it is.

And then there's these.

Twenty-four hours ago, these little beauties were hanging out on a vine down the road a ways and now? Now they are jam. Jam season has officially begun.

Everyone helps at our house.

Strawberries don't last long, but I sure enjoy the heck out of them while they're around. The great thing, though, is that just when they're gone, there's something else new and exciting coming into being. The boysenberries and raspberries won't be far behind them, I've planted grapes, and the blackberries are growing stronger. The tomatoes will bloom and fruit, and with some luck, I'll also have peppers and basil and other things from the garden.

Dat cuff, tho'

In non-strawberry news, I finished the alterations for the four boys' dance shirts, the last of which will soon be delivered and paid for (hooray!). I sort of wanted to spend a little more time to make them perfect, but perfect was not the end game for this particular project. Expedient and good enough for two shows and a rehearsal was the goal and I think I got there.

I wouldn't want to do this sort of work for a living, but it was a good side project and some good learning happened, too. I feel a lot more comfortable with knit fabrics now and that opens up possibilities for garments like swimsuits or t-shirts. The possibilities are endless!

There is knitting happening, too, and there may or may not be a spreadsheet stolen, copied, totally plagiarized, inspired by Bekah for purposes of Stash Dash. As it turns out, if I were to finish everything currently on the needles, I'd be about 183 meters short of 3k. Fortunately for me, spinning totally counts. I may also be starting a sock if the yarn would like to kindly tell me what sock it will to be.

Recital week is next week, so I hope that means a little knitting time when I'm not actually dancing. (You guys, I'm dancing in the thing!)

May Flowers

I can't even with how pretty she is.

This week has been pretty busy and intense as those of us at the House are leading into Thargelia and the end of the school year. Dance rehearsals are eating up much of our weekends right now and I've been working on Iris' dress for Spring Formal most of the week. It's finally finished and she's totally and completely in love with it. Even while I was mom-scowling at her to get her to take it off, I was secretly giggling with joy that she loves it so much.

Her Aunt Erin and Uncle Bob are planning to send drones to keep ne'er-do-wells away, and I would just about let them, but she's strong, opinionated, has no tolerance for BS, and can kick like a mule.

It's nice to have a big project done, though. This is a discontinued Simplicity pattern from ages ago, #9484, the one with the very cranky-looking model in maroon on the left. The pattern was sewn more or less as written with some alterations for size and a few deviations in technique. Rather than attempting to pull the entire bustier through a small hole in a lining seam to turn it right side out, I stitched the top, bottom, and one side seam and then turned it right side out through the other side seam.The final seam is hidden when the back is buttoned, but since the other seams are top-stitched, it really doesn't look all that different from the others.

Shawl designing continues apace and occasionally takes up more couch than I do. So far, I'm liking what's happening with the first little test knit, though I'm going to have to get some appropriately-sized circular needles if I'm going to go any further on the actual knitting.

So far, I'm liking the denser fabric that's coming off of the 2's and it's showing off some of the texture a little better than larger needles would do. I'm not sure what it's going to do with some of the lace elements, but I think it's going to be alright.

So far, so good!

With any luck, I'll have a pattern at least ready to be tested at the end of Project Make. Even though the learning curve is kinda high here, I'm enthusiastically taking it on because it's all about learning how to do something to the best of your ability. I don't know what my ability is in shawl design and writing a pattern, but it's going to be interesting to find out.

Brickless and Leto have gotten a fair bit of attention during morning coffee time and some occasional nocturnal knitting has garnered me some progress on my legwarmers, too. There are some things that have necessarily been put on the back burner because of time constraints and projects that have deadlines, but I have been very productive this week. On top of all this, I'm maintaining my exercise schedule, laundry is getting done and I even tidied up in my room, vacuumed, and made dinner every night. This may not last, but I'm going to enjoy it while it does.

This week's technique is all about boning. There are several types, but I used Rigilene boning in the bustier above, which can be sewn directly to the garment and doesn't require a casing. The video below shows what I used at 3:57, but it's worth it to watch the whole 15min.

There's a lot blooming, both figuratively and literally, here at the House and it's exhausting, but beautiful, but exhausting, and awesome.

Project bags and Bu shirts are up next in the queue. Have a happy Thargelia!

Something old, something new, and something cool on the other side of fear

Every time I go outside, I walk around my yard to look for flowers and it always seems to me as though there are never enough. It really is a whole lot greener out here, but what I really want is more purple, more yellow, more blue, more red, more everything. So every year, I plant more. Some things make it, some don't, some just kind of barely hang on to dear life until they either throw in the towel or until I figure out that they need more sun or better soil or something of that nature. Where am I going with this? I don't know. Flowers are pretty. There should be more.

And I have a thing about irises. These buttery yellow ones came from Bekah and the ones that came from Mom are about to bloom.

There are also muffins-- lots and lots of muffins. I found a basic recipe that uses a tablespoon of baking powder, which is really great if you're trying to get rid of baking powder. It's almost Thargelia and I think one more pass through the cabinets and the freezer and I can get rid of most everything that's more than a month old. I never can get quite everything, but I do seem to get a little closer each year.

This is the perfect time to cultivate new things growing and to transform old things into new things. That's where I am in Project Make as well. 

The project bags I'd started are still sitting draped over my sewing machine, waiting to be stitched, mainly because I've started on the eldest's Spring Formal dress. It feels like I'm training for prom because the dress, which is really a top and a skirt, is meant to be beautiful and elegant. The color is perfect for her and she will be the most beautiful princess at the ball.

My only concern is that it's sleeveless and to be held up by gravity, friction, prayers, and a little boning. It's not so much that I'm not sure I'm up to the task as far as technical skill, but really more that my baby is thirteen and I simultaneously have the urge to purchase a firearm and feel a little like a bad parent for making a bustier for her. 

Of course, that said, she's a confident young woman and I'm looking forward to the challenge of this particular design. The pattern is an old one from my pattern stash and I'm glad she found one from there that she liked. I'm looking forward to watching this transform as I work. 

And I have new yarn. I saved my spending cash for quite a few weeks and managed to go to Stitches South with about three times my normal budget. This is the entirety of what I came out with, aside from a pear-scented Lo-lo bar from The Barmaids. The best part of the trip was hanging out with my besties, meeting the most delightful people that I'd only previously known online, and watching yarn vendors flirt with Bu. The yellow yarn on the far left was from such a vendor, A Hundred Ravens, and happens to be in a colorway named Apollo. 

When I started Project Make, I thought I might be tweaking my sewing skills a little, learning some more about weaving, or maybe trying a new heel or two on socks. I didn't think I'd be taking on something as daunting as planning a circular shawl. I've never done it before and have a great fear that it'll suck as a design, but I'm poking along anyway because there might be something cool on the other side of that fear. 

This week's technique is the cast on I'm using to start the shawl. If it has a name, please do tell. I just kind of made this up as I went. Because I wanted to work it from the center out, I started with just a few stitches and increased from there. The intended shape is twelve-sided, but you could make any number of increases with this method. For the dodecagon:

CO 3 sts

1. As though knitting I-cord, kfb in all three stitches (6 sts)

2. Continue as though you were knitting I-cord and knit all 6 sts

3. kfb in each stitch, transferring stitches to three DPNs as you go (12 sts: 4sts/needle)

4. And all even rounds Knit around

5. (k, yo, k) into each stitch (36 sts)

7. *k 1, (k, yo, k) into one st, k1* repeat around (60 sts) (If desired, transfer to four DPNs: 15sts/needle)

9. *k2, (k, yo, k) into one st, k2* repeat around (84 sts)

11. *k3, (k, yo, k) into one st, k3* repeat around (108 sts)

And so on, adding one to the number of stitches on each side of the increases.

I'm also working on transforming myself. Week 4 of couch to 5k hasn't killed me yet, so I'm going to keep on truckin'. I can't wait to see what blooms next.

Soon.

Seams, Madam? I know not "seams."

I'm so excited about this that I can't even. I was taking unnecessary trips to the garage just to look at her. My loom has been in pieces since we moved and I've only just put it together this week. That's almost three years of not weaving and I can't wait to sink my teeth into learning how to make her sing and dance. I never really learned how to weave; I just started doing it to see if I could figure it out. Like with spinning, I managed, but I know I can do better. The garage is more organized than it's ever been and though the space is still not ideal, it is at least workable and that's good enough. Hopefully soon, we'll get to the part of Project Make where I start weaving again, but I'm having a Da Vinci Disorder flare right now and I don't know when I'll actually get to it. I want to do all the things all at once, including petting my loom.

I'm also making some little outfits for little Bu and I've been working from this pattern. Even though about half of the items are just variations in trim, I've decided that I want to make one of each anyway, partly to remember why it is I sew the way I do, if I skip parts that are necessary, or if my way really is better or more efficient. I finished the two shirts I'd cut out last week and the process has had the fortunate side-effect of helping me work out some of my awkward work flow issues.

My sewing space is not ideal, but it'll do, and if there's anything I'm good at, it's efficiency. If the space I have isn't the best, I'll do what I can within those limitations to be as efficient as possible.

Say "rocks!"

This is one of the two that were finished this week and when she tried them on, she decided they were comfy. The other one is virtually the same, but with no ties at the front and a bit of lace at the bottom instead of ric-rac.

Of course, if there's any use at all for ric-rac, it's for little girl clothes and Starfleet rank markings.

I love that it's comfy and a simple enough pattern that I could put it together without fighting with it. The only problem I had was that since the sleeves aren't separate pieces, there's a corner to turn at the underarm that's a pain in the butt. Other than that, it was quick, easy, and an excellent use of some funky but cute stash fabric.

After this, I'll be working on the skirt and top for the eldest's Spring Formal dance, which is going to be a fair bit more complicated. There's boning involved and it's been a bit since I put boning in anything.

This week's technique is an actual sewing technique that has little to do with philosophy unless you want to apply deep meaning to which side of the fabric you want the stitching to be.

Flat-Felled Seams

I always finish my seams in a garment, unless I have a good reason not to. If a seam is hidden, I'm not necessarily going to bother, but generally, a finished seam just looks a hundred percent more professional and wears better in the long run. By and large, I just zig-zag the edges of each side of the seam, but I wanted to try something new-to-me. The shoulders looked like a good place to put something like a flat-felled seam:

For the shoulders of Bu's little shirts, the stitching is reversed from what's shown in the video, mostly because I did them from a vague memory of a sewing show rather than watching the video before doing it, but I like how they turned out and it looks very neat. I'm having fantasies of sewing my own jeans and this is a skill that might come in handy.

I've also been working on:

• Leto in Knit Picks' Shadow and Misti Alpaca Lace 

• Easy Ribbed Legwarmers in Opal Polarlichter

• Brickless in Alisha Goes Around Tracks of Bison

• EZ's Seamless Saddle Shoulder Pullover in Knit Picks' Wool of the Andes superwash
• Several rectangles that are meant to be project bags in the nearish future, though the Police Box got no love this week.

My violas and pansies are doing well  and the roses are leafing out nicely. The berry bushes look like they intend to flower and I'm aching to plant about a million more things. I wish I were as enthusiastic about running and housework, but you can't have everything. Also, I signed up for the mother-daughter dance for Iris' recital. She's the oldest kid there and taller than me. This should be interesting and challenging for both of us. In other news, her pointe qualification is this afternoon and she's both excited and nervous about it. Break a leg, kiddo.

A Passel of FOs

Gratuitous photo of spring flowers. 

I had almost forgotten what day it was and nearly put myself to bed without posting. It's been that kind of week and it's not been a bad week, just a busy and productive one. You see, it's spring break and I told Miss Fluffalo that I'd help her paint/organize/clean her room. This has been a long time coming and there has been a fair bit more angst about it than I really want to get into just now. When we got down to it, the actual painting and cleaning hasn't been that bad as far as cooperating with a teenager goes. Fluffalo has been diligent and hard-working, so she's been rewarded with frozen yogurt and will be with a trip to Goodwill later-- both to drop off stuff she no longer wants or needs and to look at fancy dresses just because.

I'm painting her sulking corner. I swear it was her idea.
(If I am very still, no one will see me.)

Her room still looks like a mess, but it's the mess of an organization project that's still underway. We'll get there and hopefully by the end of the day after this posts tomorrow (Thursday). Disney songs and a fair bit of mindfulness are the only thing getting me through this. I'll get to that in a little bit.

Last week, I had some FOs that I didn't post, so here they are:

This is Summer's Hanky, a commission work. I still need to pack it up and mail it out, but it's been washed and pressed and is now pretty much ready to go. This is hand-embroidered with various cotton and metallic threads on what was once one of my husband's work shirts. The 1/4" seams are also hand-sewn.
What I could have improved upon: I would have liked to have used a different stitch for the middle of the wing because the double herringbone made me go cross-eyed. I'd also liked to have done both wings at once instead of one and then the other. If I had to do it again, I'd try to make it more symmetrical.
What I did well: The hems are very neat and I'm very pleased with the color choices and the stitch choices overall. I like that the color isn't flat and how pairing different threads gave each layer of feathers a different look. Also, Miss Summer is happy with what she's seen so far and that's the biggest thing that matters to me. Overall, I like it and I'm pleased with how it turned out.

I've also finished a Paisley Fabulous Project Bag for Project Make that matches the DPN roll from late February. I'm very happy with this one, though I want to add a line of stitching through the middle of the casing at the top so that it looks nicer and closes more neatly.

It's actually reversible, but there's a big wide pocket that will just do better as an inside pocket than an outside pocket.

I loved using every single scrap of stash fabrics and I am absolutely in love with the red drawstrings and how they pick up on the red in the paisley. Because the green twill has a nap, the patchwork picks up light in different ways, depending on the direction of the fabric and which way you're looking at it. You can't really see that in the photo, but it really is very cool.

For this bag, I looked at some tote bags I really loved and figured out how the bottom was constructed. The lining tucks all the seams neatly away so that nothing is visible and the bottom of the bag is such that it will stand up with a couple skeins of yarn in it, though not completely on its own. This project was more about refining skills I already have than about learning new ones, but this particular construction is not one I've tried before.

And the Sheep of Unknown Provenance is finally finished! The left was dyed with privet berries and a few leaves and twigs. That's 4 skeins and 7.7oz of fingering weight, fractal spun using the natural colors of the fleece and then dyed. In person, the color is a rich bronze with a bit more warmth than the photo can convey. The right is 4 skeins and 8 oz of fingering weight, gradient spun. This one was too pretty to dye and so I've left it the color the Gods made it.

Because this one is also for Project Make, the making of it has taught me quite a bit: mordanting, dyeing, gradient spinning, fractal spinning, using a drum carder, patience, and persistence.

I'm also working on:

• Leto in Knit Picks' Shadow and Misti Alpaca Lace
• Genevieve's Tube Socks in Crystal Palace Maizy Print
• Iris' rainbow quilt
• A little something in TARDIS blue silk

Before I go, I want to leave you with This Week's Technique:

• Mindfulness of emotions.
  It's really hard for me to manage my emotions around cleaning and organization. There have been occasions, this week actually, where I have a complete and total meltdown about something that isn't clean or organized, particularly when it's a recurring or very large mess that I am not in control of. I have OCD and this is how it shows its face. I'm not "a little bit OCD" in the colloquial sense where I'm really neat and organized (I'm not, actually). I have to be very careful how I clean so that I don't binge-clean until I cause myself physical harm.
  
  That's a long set-up to say that anxiety feeds the compulsion and if I can manage the anxiety, I can manage the compulsions. The audio that follows is part of an introduction to meditation series from Audio Dharma and it's over an hour long, but this sort of thing has been very helpful to me and is worth a listen. This is the way I've been able to re-wire my brain so that I can keep my cool and prevent myself from tumbling into a full-on binge clean or meltdown. I don't always do a great job of it, but my emotions are no longer the boss of me 90% of the time and I've been able to keep the OCD under control. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. 

Marching on

Between the rain and the sudden appearance of flowers, I'm tentatively declaring Spring to have arrived. We've already got one of the cars stuck in the mud and then subsequently un-stuck, thanks to our very helpful and very nice neighbors. Yellow House Guy and Retired Guy were both awesome and are deserving of good things. Needless to say, we'll be parking in the driveway until we can get the secondary driveway sorted out with some gravel and a hoe and rake.

The Garage Project is about to move forward quite a bit and, if the gods favor us, we should have a brand new green door by the end of the day. I'm super excited about being able to open and close it by myself, but the windows and insulation will also be a plus. I'm strongly considering a celebratory leaf mulcher. (So many leaves. So. Many.)

We've also had sun and warm days. I may have spent the majority of those outside and I may have gotten a little pink from sun. I've had a vitamin D deficiency all winter and I'm half convinced that I actually run on solar power. Thanks to those sunny days, I finally got the embroidery done on Miss Summer's hanky.

While there are things I know I could have done better on this one, I'm generally pleased with the work as a whole. It just needs a hem, a wash, and a good pressing and it'll be completely finished. 

There's this crazy idea that if you work on something, it gets finished faster. Bekah is convinced this is but myth and rumor, but I'm currently testing the theory by actually working on my eldest's quilt. It worked on Summer's hanky and it's too early to tell, but I might be able to finish before she goes to college.

...which was funny when she was in grade school.

I'm also thinking about learning to quilt after I finish this one. Because I jump in and do before I learn something, I tend to miss things like "Heeey, you can make the corners match up!" or "Did you know that you could plan a quilt? Who does that?" For now, I want to just do what I can before the weather gets too hot. It's just straight lines, but I can't be crawling under that in June.

And hey! A Finished Object!

These are Fork in the Garbage Disposal from Fork in the Road Socks by Lara Neel, done up in Andey Originals Sock yarn in the Holy Crap! Bubbo's on Fire! colorway.

I. Love. This. Heel. I have never had a heel fit so well, much less an afterthought heel. Offering Fork in the Road for free is about the cleverest thing because now I really do want Sock Architecture. The only thing I changed about the pattern was doing a rip cord/zip line thingamy instead of the provisional cast on in the middle of the sock. That worked a treat and I wish I were clever enough to have figured it out myself, but Bekah was the one that helped me wrap my brain around it. 

And that's this week's technique:

• Rip Cord/Zip Line for afterthought heels

So, when you get to where you want to put a heel, whether you're going toe up or top down, grab a piece of scrap yarn, drop the working yarn, and use the scrap yarn as your working yarn. Knit across however many stitches are going to become your heel (usually half), drop the scrap yarn, go back to where you dropped the working yarn, and work across those same stitches again. Keep on keepin' on until you get to whichever end of the sock you were trying to get to. 

There should be a tidy little line right across half of the sock where your heel is going to go, as you can see in the sock on the left. 

For the next part, there are probably several ways you can do this, but the following is what I did: 

First, I picked up the stitches on either side of the rip cord.

You can see the brown scrap yarn between the needles here. Once I made sure that my count was right and nothing was going to be twisted, I picked out the scrap yarn. The first few stitches were a little challenging, but it got easier once I could open it up a little. 

When that was done, it looked like this:

I joined the yarn, crossed the stitches at the corners to reduce the dreaded corner gap, and proceeded with the heel. This worked much better for me than trying to fiddle with a provisional cast on and seemed much quicker and more intuitive. 

I'm also working on:

• EZ's Seamless Saddle Shoulder Pullover in Knit Picks' Wool of the Andes superwash

• Leto in Knit Picks' Shadow and Misti Alpaca Lace
• Brickless in Alisha Goes Around Tracks of Bison
• Easy Ribbed Legwarmers in Zwerger Garn Opal Polarlichter

And I made a rainbow pizza for Ultimate Pi Day:

Next on, "As the Seasons Turn..."

Last Sunday was one of those lovely September days and I spent part of it planting some recently-acquired berry bushes out by the back fence. I'm tickled pink that I can plant things in the ground in a space that's my own. I have plans of acquiring my Mamaw's irises and some irises and day-lilies from my BFF. One of these days, I'll get some native cane to plant by the road, but Sunday was for berry bushes and weeding the front garden. I've added some mums and cleared out around the existing mums that came with the house. I'm also inordinately thrilled that I have roses and my zinnia have just exploded after having planted them in the middle of a drought. I wasn't sure they were going to survive and now they're busting out in gorgeous oranges and yellows and white. I'd love to get some hyacinth, too, and maybe some tulips. I have some catnip in pots and some marigolds that, much to my surprise, survived the move.

There will definitely be an herb/vegetable garden out back and I've already got a rosemary bush just starting out. Next year, there will be basil, parsley, and thyme if I'm feeling adventurous. I've not had great luck with thyme, but I'm willing to keep trying until I find the right spot for it. There will also be tomatoes and probably odd little squashes or melons volunteering from the compost pile. I've got plenty of pots for mints and might also plant some in places John can't reach with the mower so that it'll crowd out the grass.

Here are some mums that came with the house, but were so covered up by the holly bush, the juniper, weeds, and the ground cover plant to the right (phlox, I think) that it only put up a few feeble leaves. Now it looks like it's going to bloom!

I can't not plant things in the ground. This is probably as much a part of my religion as prayer or belief in the Theoi. I find that when I spend time outside in the sun watching, listening, and working in nature that my stress levels go so far down as to approach nil. It's this that led me both to a career in Biology and to Paganism. I'm happiest in the garden or running around in the woods or chasing butterflies on the side of a mountain.

My dear Hellenic friend, Sean, discusses the intersection between Hellenic Polytheism and both the natural cycles of his Floridian climate and the festivals of the Great American Polis on his blog. And he's got the right idea, if you ask me. Imposing an Athenian festival schedule on a Tennessean climate is artificial and doesn't work. The gods are a part of nature and in order to really get the full experience of them, it's important to understand what's going on outside your window.