Picture heavy

 Here is my baby in the progress of teaching her bunnies to beg. They are truly adorable creatures, but no match for my girl!
I added several pictures of my parents' garden. I wish I could arrange the pictures better, but Blogger is really terrible in that respect. The pictures are difficult to position and they don't stay where I put them in the editing frame, so I have to keep switching to the preview. Next time I will simply add a Picasa slideshow but I just cannot bother now.

Introducing

Scented geranium

Rhododendron

These are my new plants. I love the rhododendron most of all. But don't tell the rest of them! They might be jealous.

 

Meet the survivors

You may remember my telling you that after a long time I have decided to try and look after a few plants. That was a year ago. Two of the four plants didn't make it, but I'm very happy with 50%. Especially because I know better than anyone else how little I cared for them in the past year. There were times when I forgot to water them for over a week. These were quite frequent times to be honest.

Somehow these two plants didn't just survive, they flourished. Look at these beauties!

I also managed to fall in love with a new plant. It's a beautiful multicoloured primula. I plan on planting a few more flowers this spring again. I hope my baby will help me tending to them!

Beauties of many kinds

First of all, thanks for all the nice words, whether in group/private mail or a blog comment. A fellow crafts blogger pointed me to the Blogging Without Obligation "movement" and you can find the logo on the right. The click will take you to the original post where it all started.

I also have Deepest Love back at home. Isn't she lovely in that beautiful frame? Fits her perfectly. It was by far the most expensive framing job, but it's for my mom's birthday, so what the heck.

I found some long forgotten WIPs as well. This one is called something like Butterfly on Bramble and it's a DMC kit. I started about two years ago, put ten stitches in it and put it aside. I found it last week and decided to make it my next project. Nice progress in two days, right?

I have finished a mini Lanarte kit that I just cannot find right now. Who knew that things can get lost for good in a 25 m2 apartment? It had a blue china teapot and a bunch of flowers on it. I think it is no longer on sale. I finished a pink teacup too, it was a magazine freebie, but it is also lost in the mess vortex. One day it will pop up on the middle of my dinner table when I least expect it, I just know it.

One finish I can show you is also a Lanarte kit I stitched almost a year ago. Only the backstitch was missing. At the time I got fed up with all the subtle, pale colours, but stumbling upon it last week, I decided to finish that project too. Here it is.

I started filling the gaps on my Dimensions tiger too, plus made some progress on Lady of the Thread as well. Not sure if I shared these progress photos before, but hey, I'm in a good mood and wanna show off my craft! So here they are:

 As far as non-stitching beauties are concerned: well, it's spring and the garden is finally in bloom! The tulip bulbs I purchased last year were the best buy ever! Look at these amazing colours! A dozen tulips to my daughter's delight. The loveliest flowers I have seen in a while. My girl is spending most of her time outside. Is she a diva in those sunglasses or what?

On the mend

Today I took a walk and suddenly felt drawn to the florist shop where I used to be a regular customer before my relationship drama.
I always had a green thumb and loved tending to plants, but my miniature garden of potted plants died a terrible death about a year and a half ago. I simply couldn't take care of them, didn't water them, could not even look at them. I was at a point in my life where I was not able to cope with the responsibility of having other living creatures depend on me, the knowledge that I have to look after the plants every day was no longer a joyful procedure but an unbearable burden. That was about the time I let my parents take over some other tasks, my mom did my laundry and cooked for me, and my daughter moved in with them, to my childhood home, 60 kilometers away from me. So I let my plants die and I died with them a little bit myself.
Funny, but I didn't even miss gardening. For 34 years I couldn't imagine living without live plants near me, but recently I didn't long for any, I talked my loved ones from buying me any. But today I felt like buying a pot or two, so I ended up moving in together with a sunkissed begonia and three minor green plants. It felt like the most natural thing ever, so I didn't even think about it until I brought them home, put them in the window and greeted them in their new home. Could it be that I'm getting back on my feet? My heart is healing?
I started wondering about what signs I should be looking for in my behaviour. I came up with a short list:

• Getting my creative mojo back. I used to draw, paint, cut and glue, bead and decorate every day. I even wrote poems and short stories. Now I "only" stitch but I don't think of it as the most creative of things I do, because most of it is following instructions.
• Hair care. I used to apply treatments and colour my hair on regular basis, nowadays I can hardly be interested in washing it. I used to wear a different hairstyle every day, braid it, curl it, iron it, and so on. I guess when I go back to looking after myself again (same for skin care except I never spent so much time on it, because my skin was always healthier than my hair), it will be a sign that I feel better about myself.
• Going to the movies. I love movies. Every genre. I could watch movies every day and still not get enough. Last year I made about four visits to the cinema. All year. And I can't even explain why, because I miss it.
• Doing chores. It shouldn't be a torture every day. It takes me hours to talk myself to do the most simple things. I feel weak and incapable of moving whenever I think of vacuuming or any other job at home. By the way, this is how I felt about watering plants before.
• Regular workout. I love it. I love doing it, no matter how much it hurts and how hard I sweat. I love the feeling of my muscles move and the knowledge of getting a little bit stronger every day. Back in the days when I visited the gym 2-3 times a week, I felt strong, healthy and attractive. If I had to skip a session, my whole body missed it and I couldn't wait to go again. I can't even remember the last time I was at a gym. Probably before my pregnancy.
• Laugh. I used to be a funny girl, cracking jokes and having a great time with friends. Now I can hardly smile and even my daughter has noticed.

That is how far I got today. I will keep you updated as usual.

Potted Paradise

Finally, it is that time of the year again! What time you ask? Well, that of gardening of course! I grew up in a small house with a huge garden. My late maternal grandma filled it with flowerbeds where she used to grow the most beautyfied flowers. There was barely any space for anything else, I could not walk the thin aisles between the flowerbeds without brushing leafs and petals. While I was little, several flowers grew much taller than I, especially the dahlias. And then, there were the huge rose trees, forming a fragrant arbour, and there were the lilacs, filling spring with the sweetest of pretty smells, and of course, the hyancinths.

Nowadays, that garden is much smaller. My grandparens have died, their son - my uncle - has built a small house. It is taking up half of the original garden. After grandma' passed away, no one really knew the little tips and tricks of keeping a garden healthy and beautyful. The flowers faded, dried and died. They were attacked and destroyed by various diseases and insects. The only thing left of what granma planted is the now huge tree-sized lilac. We still enjoy its smell in the spring and traditionally pick its flowers for the Mother's Day bouquet. My father now grows tomatoes and paprika and carrots in what's left of the garden. I give him some flower seeds and bulbs to plant. The only ones that last are the tulips. They're my favourites. I guess he grows them for me.

As for myself, living in a big city - I must do all my gardening in pots. As soon as March starts, I begin sorting my seeds and putting them in a cue based on their planned sowing time. This year was difficult though. We had health problems, mostly showing in my lack of energy. I also had some work to do, plus had some personal problems. But that is all over now. We wake up to the song of the blackbirds. We get sunshine every day. We are back on track. We even have a swallow couple above the house's staircase. They have moved in this spring. Tamara loves them. We see them regularly zigzagging through the yard, hunting for insects. We put out some leftover floss ends. Sometimes they grab it and incorporate it into their semi-finished nest. And best of all, this spring, I am not doing gardening by myself. Tamara joined me in the delightful action of getting jet black soil underneat the nails so deep that it cannot be removed without pain, as my sister refers to planting. That's OK for me though, and Tami doesn't seem to mind either. She also makes sure that every plant is soaked with water beyond belief, and so are her socks and shoes. That is also fine with me. It belongs to pot gardening on a concrete platform, I guess.