Since the last newsletter...
I continued to play with the Walmart set of watercolours, and the remains of my Dollar Store set, and finished my third pad of 4x6 watercolour paper. Near the end, I used the watercolours I won last year on one of the spreads (very vibrant colours) and my Inktense pencils (last page) - interestingly, I also discovered that the watercolours that I've been using all the time (and the Inktense), don't work as well on watercolour paper as they do on mixed media, or even regular, paper - who knew?! You can view the flip-through here: https://www.facebook.com/beth.richardson.10/videos/3917516788512401
I still need to set up a dedicated space for my bits and pieces so I can complete more mini collages on 4.5x6 mixed media paper.
In Beth's Garden:
In my family, we never planted the garden till after the May Long weekend. After I got sick in 2013, mom and I often didn't get the garden planted till the first week of June! Now, it IS Alberta so it can snow/freeze till the end of May, and there were some years we couldn't plant earlier, even if we had wanted to. In 2019, I shocked mom (by then she was in the hospital) when I told her I planted the garden on Mother's Day - I kept it simple and only planted peas, potatoes and carrots, because I was literally crawling around the garden (pre-labyrinth) to plant it as I was too weak to stand up! Even though I planted early, it took FOREVER to come up, though it was such a bumper crop that year, I was giving boxes and bags of produce away to neighbours, friends, and Sis.
This year, I wanted to try planting with the Moon. Well, that's easier said than done in Alberta! Even keeping it very basic and simple, the most optimal moon time was to be the full moon in Scorpio (a water moon) in May! I also still had a bunch of little jars of seeds Dad saved 25 (30? 35? 40+?) years ago and I decided I would plant them all and see if anything came up - at worst, nothing would, and I end up with more dandelions and weeds in my garden, and at best, I’d have some surprises.
May 9th I took my list and herb plant pot to leave at Tailcreek Greenhouse (Nevis) - my all-time favourite greenhouse, and had a quick look around. Then I went to P.J's Plantation greenhouse (Tees) - my 2nd favourite greenhouse. I saw lots of people I knew and visited with a couple. Despite my best laid plans, I walked out of there with seed potatoes, onion sets (which I did need), and two daisies for the perennial bed.
May 10th I made it out to the garden! I spent 1.5 hours pulling weeds on the west side of the garage - traditionally, that's been our small (extra) garden space, and I've used it as garden space since mom passed away. Now that I have a better idea of what I want to plant in my garden each year, how compactly I can plant in the labyrinth spaces (with companion planting), and as it's only me eating the majority of what I harvest, I don't need that extra space so want to turn it back to lawn for now. Maybe in the future, I'll plant fruiting shrubs back there, but that's just a dream at this point.
I also put in 15 mins pulling the quack grass from around my 2 grape vines. Then I spent 1 hr 25 mins pulling weeds from the tulip/perennial bed. Only half of my tulips came up this year, and those that did, didn't bloom at all!
Later in the afternoon, I spent 20 mins raking the west side of the garage before I tossed clover seed down. I planted hollyhocks (from Dad's collection of seeds) and the two new daisies in the perennial bed. I planted garlic chives on the west side of the grape vines - there are currently some on the east side of the vines.
May 11th I managed to get out of bed (it WAS questionable!) and outside at 5:55 AM. I spent 3.5 hours pulling HUGE dandelions, and planted potatoes, onions, half of the carrots, beets, and peas. The whole process would have gone much faster if I didn't have to pull those darn dandelions first. Half of the garden was done, and that was all I could handle for the day - I hoped because the full moon energy is around the day before and the day after the actual full moon, that it would still count as planting on the full moon. Also, it was to rain the next day, and I wanted the seeds in the ground first. I also planted pumpkin and sunflowers (from Dad's collection) in the perennial bed where the tulips didn't come up. May my garden produce abundantly this season!
May 12th we received an inch of rain - no puddles in the garden so it was really needed! May 16th I woke up to frost! I crossed my fingers, yet was sure the garden was fine as I'd planted root veggies and nothing too fragile yet. More rain (1.5 inches) May 20 and 21st.
I put in an hour the afternoon of May 22nd and pulled more HUGE dandelions. The mosquitoes sure love me - no matter what I put on to repel them, it just seems to attract them even more! Unfortunately, mosquito bites on me swell up to the size of toonies (without any scratching) and I end up sick if I get more than a handful of bites. When there are too many bites to count, I’m in REAL trouble. That makes it very challenging to do anything outside, unless I go out before the sunrise when it's too cold for them to be active yet - and you can't do everything at that time.
May 25th, I headed out at 5:05 AM and finished planting the carrots, and a handful of potatoes left from last year - still in the Waning Moon phase, and an earth moon, so it counted. Then I spent an hour weeding the garden.
May 27th, I bought more bean seeds (think I got the wrong variety, but decided to plant and see what happened - I'm only a fan of beans if they are yellow, and I'm eating them fresh as I walk through the garden). I went to PJ's greenhouse and bought 2 honeydew melon plants (plus a watermelon plant and strawberry plant!). I also went to Tailcreek Greenhouse and picked up my plant order - half what I purchased last year so I hoped I could make everything work out as planned. By the time I returned home, I was too tired to do anything more then put the pots by the house.
May 28th we were under a heat warning, so it was a good thing I was outside at 5 AM when it was still cool! I spent an hour and 15 mins pulling HUGE dandelions from the garden and the two beds along the house - everywhere that I needed to plant had been weeded!
May 29th I was outside at 4:30 AM. It was "just" light enough to see what I was doing, plus we were still under the heat warning, and I was surprised how warm/humid it was at that time! I spent an hour planting peas, beans, cucumbers (seedlings), pattypan squash, cantaloupe/honeydew/watermelon (seedlings), some petunias (seedlings), pumpkins, sunflowers, and LOTS of mystery seeds from Dad's collection. That just left the flowers still to plant. As everything I planted (not sure about the mystery seeds) were plants that produce above ground, it worked that I planted on a Waxing water (Cancer) moon.
I didn't get back outside till June 1st - put in an hour and 40 mins weeding behind the garage and around all my strawberries. I was quite surprised that the asparagus I planted last year hasn't come up yet!
I headed out June 3rd, from 5:30-5:50 AM, and planted flowers in only 3 flowerpots - much less than I had planned, but I didn’t feel physically able to do more, and I had to get the seedlings in dirt before they died. After that, I called the garden planting completed!
A neighbour very generously mowed my lawn June 2 & 3rd and it looks SO MUCH better without the foot tall dandelions!
In Beth's Kitchen:
On May 13th, I made up another quart of chia juice. I also mixed up a pint of overnight oats (milk, oats, chia seeds - in fridge overnight) as that's something I've wanted to try for over 15 years and for some reason have never managed to experiment. Turned out okay, and is something I'll do again, but not something I'd worry about making on a regular basis.
May 23rd, I made up a batch of cinnamon buns. I really love how quick and easy these are to make - though it didn't feel very quick and easy that day! I also made another quart of chia juice.
On May 24th, I wanted to make some rhubarb scones (recipe shared by Deanne Fitzpatrick of
hookingrugs.com) but didn't have any buttermilk. I decided to use a can of coconut milk instead (I find it easier to keep cans on hand for baking, than to make sure I have 2% milk, and so far it's worked in my recipes). I made a half batch and made the scones smaller - froze half of them. They were even better than Mom’s! This recipe is definitely a keeper!
May 28th, I picked some lilacs and prepped the blossoms for lilac juice and steeped them. I dragged myself out of bed on May 30th (body felt VERY stressed!) and finished making the lilac juice - ended up with 17 cups. I also quickly mixed up a 1/2 batch of rhubarb scones - tweaked the recipe a bit by also adding crushed dried orange + dried diced banana with the rhubarb (also cut the rhubarb smaller), and I used a can of coconut milk again. I froze half of them.
May 31st, I made more chia juice - it's been working out very well.
June 7th I picked the rhubarb - I was surprised that there wasn't as much as I thought - HUGE leaves on really skinny stalks! I prepped 1.5 cups for scones, 2 cups for a baked oatmeal, and the rest I prepped for juice. As I thought I was going to get more rhubarb than I did, I had more water boiling than I needed, so steeped some dried dandelion in it overnight and made a quart of dandelion tea on June 8th - popped in the fridge to drink as iced tea.
June 9th I was in the kitchen shortly after 5 AM. I drained the rhubarb - even less than I realized, but I still ended up with 9 cups of juice by the time I was done (which didn't take as long as expected because there was so little). Then I made a 1/2 batch of rhubarb scones - cut the rhubarb smaller - this was my BEST batch so far! (full disclosure: when I halved the recipe before, I miscalculated the amount of milk somehow and this time I did it correctly). I was on a roll and mixed up a rhubarb baked oatmeal. I ended up with a can of coconut milk exploding all over as I didn't realize it was actually labelled upside down till I was opening it with the can opener. What a mess! All in all, I managed to get everything done and the oven off before 8 AM as it was to be a very hot day. I also made another quart of chia juice.
As I was doing all that making and baking, I had a moment and asked myself why I was still using our OLD Tupperware mixing bowls when there was a rarely used set of 6 stainless steel mixing bowls in the basement??? Mom did use the largest one through the years when she was making a large quantity of something for a church supper. A couple of days later, I went through the cupboards and pulled out the Tupperware, and I now have the stainless steel set (plus 2 additional stainless steel mixing bowls in other sizes I found) in the cupboard to use all the time.
Jigsaw Puzzles:
Since my last letter, I completed two 750 piece puzzles
I also found a 175 piece puzzle that was a gift back when Sis and I were Highland Dancing all time, so I completed it too.
UFO (UnFinished Object) Update:
As May was a 5-Friday month, the 2nd last week was a week holiday from the paper. During the week, I got caught up on filing, paperwork, financials, correspondence and more that has been falling through the cracks for the previous 2-3 months. There is still a wee backlog, but not as bad as it was.
Courses and Challenges (free and paid):
Era of Dreamers (free) with Maria Aleandra and Sage Adderley: I've been exploring different themes in my journal - the watercolour play with wax crayon resist didn't do what I planned at all! Also, that isn’t all the books I've read this year, just the ones I really liked.
Deanne Fitzpatrick's (paid) Playful Joyful Rug Hooking beginner course: I didn't get a chance to do much rug hooking for a few days, so it wasn't until May 18th that I finished the hooking part on my 3rd coaster.
I completed the hooking part on my 4th coaster June 1st. This was an experiment with different yarn and ribbon.
June 10th I completed hooking a 5x5 mini landscape/coaster. It was fun translating one of my sky drawings into a hooked rug piece.
Kiala Givehand’s 7 Books in 7 Days course: I still have ideas for books I want to make.
Lou Reed's free Becoming Extraordinary year-long energy course: I had my first online meeting with my course coach on May 10th - 25 mins session, and it was a delight to meet her. The purpose of the session was to integrate the teachings and insights from the first 3 lessons, and it went very well. I’m all caught up, and recently finished the 6th lesson so it will soon be time for another meeting with my course coach.
Amanda Sophia's free mini Divine Woman Awakening course (Celtic Wheel of the Year): Bealtaine season certainly was one for the senses. I was out in the garden. I was baking and doing creative projects. I thoroughly enjoyed the scent of the blooming lilacs - my favourite flower - and the smell of fresh cut grass. I delighted in waking to the sound of birds singing. There was wind, sun and rain (sometimes in the same day!) to feel on my body. And so much more.
Now we’re just a week away from the Summer Solstice.
In Demi Fox’s Morgan Le Fay Wheel of the Year, the Summer Solstice is the time of the Healer, with a focus on the element of water and herbalism.
Physical Activity:
Rebounder: I'm back to 1 min at a time, every time I go down to the basement. As I've been more active outside with the weeding, planting and watering, I'm okay with only doing a 1 min/day.
Chakradance Full Moon - I missed the May full moon because I had used so much energy out in the garden. For June's full moon (June 11th) I did the dancing on June 10th - it was very different from other Chakradance sessions I've done before, so I do want to do again. I started my mandala in my Era of the Dreamers journal.
"Mystery activity” I have done a little bit EVERY day for just over 41 weeks!
Works in progress:
Currently, I'm working on...
- 13" round canvas (acrylics) - stalled for now
- painting (18-20?) ceramic Easter egg people from Gramma's craft kits (acrylics) - stalled right now
- Era of the Dreamers journal - this is where I'm playing with my watercolour for now, as well as my other creative explorations.
Featured Art for Sale:
For the month of June, I have three 5x7 paintings on canvas board available for sale for a Heart-felt Donation. I do ask that the minimum donation amount be $10 to cover costs of materials and possible shipping. Email thechautauqua@gmail.com to purchase. Thank you for your support.
I have inspirational card decks, journals, chapbooks, musical CD's and more for sale that would make gifts. Please contact me at thechautauqua@gmail.com or phone 403-352-3837 to make a purchase. Or visit 4910 47 St, in Mirror, AB. Items are also available for sale at Amy’s Bakery on Main Street in Delburne, AB.
Upcoming Projects:
