so far behind ...

When you get this far behind in posting to your blog, what can you do to catch up? Just ignore the three-plus months since the last post where I was waiting for spring? It's now mid-summer (although the weather for the last week has been divinely spring-like) and I don't know where to start.

Much of the intervening time was consumed with preparations for the Brown County Studio and Garden Tour which took place the last weekend of June. Gardens had to be designed, flowers planted, weeded, watered (not much) and deer-proofed. There have been years where the local deer population wandered in the week before the tour and ate most of the daylily buds, the roses and the hostas. This year, they were considerate and only ate beans off the fence of the vegetable garden ... I was very grateful. I suspect that they remembered the taste/smell of the home-made concoction I sprayed on plants last year.

In addition to the gardens, I was busy weaving rugs and clothing for the tour and for stores I sell to ... business is still solid, if not brisk.

During the tour, we had more than 350 visitors over the three days.

Spring in Brown County

Spring has come later than usual to our area (or so it seems). For me, that was good, because I was "snowed under" with computer work ... websites, taxes, copy editing. So now that most of that work is behind me, I am enjoying getting outside and uncovering the flower beds. The daffodils and narcissus (narcissi?) are up and beautiful ... we have about 20 different varieties. The other good thing is the deer don't eat them, like they do about everything else. The day lilies, tulips, hostas and hyacinths are eaten as soon as they pop up. We've tried various methods to deter the deer but nothing is foolproof. This year, I'm going to try adding some habenero hot sauce to their daylily salad and see how they like it. Today we're planting some trees that we got from the Arbor Day Foundation. I also want to start some seeds in our little greenhouse ... peppers, zinnias, maybe tomatoes. I'm ready for spring now!