Yes, I know it's late in the year to still be doing gardens, but I'll remind you, gentle reader, that the yard wasn't completely closed off until two weeks ago. Plus: this is the first summer I've probably had off since high school. I'm enjoying being lazy for a while.
Yes, I know it's late in the year to still be doing gardens, but I'll remind you, gentle reader, that the yard wasn't completely closed off until two weeks ago. Plus: this is the first summer I've probably had off since high school. I'm enjoying being lazy for a while.
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No, gentle reader, you did not hallucinate. I, Shannon H. have a garden. With tomatoes and peppers and brussel sprouts and...flowers. There are actually a number of edible things in the garden...and there are flowers, too.
Why is this such a big deal? The mister thinks it will take my mind off of worrying about real life and focus on the minutia of the garden plants. Water them and just zen out for a while. Eat the occasional strawberry...stop and smell the roses...ruffle the lavender plants a bit. You get the idea. In 'real life' I'm quite the worrier: will I be working on contract in the new school year (yes - good. Stop worrying. But it's a bitsy little contract - start worrying again), will we be able to move into our own place next year now that my (fairly sizable) student loan has been paid off? What will happen to my garden when we move away? Will the new people take care of it and love it as much as I do?
Do you see what he puts up with? These kinds of thoughts lead me to sleepless nights and stomach aches. However...the garden was a wonderful idea on his part.
It got me outside in the fresh air and working up a bit of a sweat while we were putting up a new fence (so I wouldn't have to worry about the llamas, alpaca and donkey tromping around and eating my precious plants):
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That's the view from the backyard looking north. The donkey is less than pleased that he has been cut off from his daily brushing now that he can't just come up to the sliding glass door and look in to see if we'd be available for a bit of attention.
The mister is not keen on the idea of having rocks as garden skirting (or whatever you want to call it). This is my little garden - the little garden needed more soil. The little garden got more soil and a darling little rock skirting to keep it all in. When he came home and saw my garden (then referred to as my 'poop garden' since I only had llama manure in it because we hadn't finished the most crucial part of the fence that would be directly BESIDE the animals), I asked him if he liked what I had done and that if he hadn't he could lie to me. After an: "I LOVE you," and a shake of the head, that was that.
It HAS been a while since I last updated, and I apologize for that. After I finished the SFU's PDP last year, I went into over-drive in trying to find employment in one of the local school districts. No excuse, I know, for not doing anything creative. However, my hard work paid off and I was hired on by Langley as a TOC (Teacher On Call) and actually lucked out enough to land a part-time continuing position as a Computer Explorations teacher at one of the nearby schools.
What does any of this have to do with doing glass work?
Nothing.
It does, however, have a lot to do with NOT doing glass work. Teaching, please remember, has been a passion of mine LONG before glass was.
That being said, it's also SUMMER! Summer means that I am out of work (though I did get picked up for another contract in September), and chomping at the bit for creativity!
Nathan and I have been working on the outside of our place when the weather is good and we are able to sock away some time together to get stuff done around here. We have already put up a new gate (the old one was falling apart). We are putting in a garden area just inside the front gate, put up new fencing around the area the llamas and donkey will be most likely to get their lips around something from the garden, new steps to the sliding glass door, planters, planters, planters...you get the picture, right? I snapped a couple quick pictures of the first two planters I put together. I'm pretty happy with the results. I'm a big fan of colour - bright and bold, if possible.
I've also been able to get some torching done recently. Are these all the beads that I've done? Heck no! I haven't had a chance (or the enthusiasm) to get outside and take a bunch of glamour shots of my glass work since I got back into the swing of things. No worries, gentle readers, I will be posting more and more pictures as the summer months progress. For now, please enjoy some eye candy... I've found a great affection for Double Helix's silvered glass. It's expensive, but it does the NEATEST things, especially if used sparingly.
1/3 of the day wasn't a waste.
Congratulations.
