Mercy for Animals

I grew up on a farm where we raised animals to eat, but our animals were well treated.  No one was cooped up, they enjoyed eating bugs and grass in the fields.  Today our supermarket meat comes to us through the suffering of the poor animals.  Even our eggs are laid by abused hens.  I eat more vegan meals and try to buy meat and eggs from local farmers that take care of their animals unlike the massive corporate farms.

abused chicken from an egg producing farm

Above is a picture of a poor hen that has been adopted.  She needs a knitted sweater to keep her warm because she has lost many of her feathers.  The commercial below was produced by a non-profit animal rights group and hopefully helps to educate the public on the treatment of animals destined for our supermarket shelves.  Let us all strive to be vegan at least one day a week!

A Matter of Taste

Today I had my feelings hurt by a clueless neighbor.  I moved in to my little cottage at the end of last August.  The inside was painted dark grey, dark taupe and dark brownish pumpkin orange!  Even though I work at least 40 hours a week and spend a little more than an hour a day commuting back and forth I painted the whole place myself.  I chose cottage white and daffodil yellow for the walls and a light blue called escarpment for the ceilings (I always like to look up and see the sky).  Since I am in the country and several of my windows are high I chose not to put up curtains.  I have such lovely views, a forest to look onto at the front, lilacs on both sides and a lovely garden at the back.  Today a neighbor from down the road came for a visit.  She looked around and then informed me she had very good taste and would be more than happy to come over and help me decorate.  I said rather sheepishly "I did decorate".  But to her no curtains, off white and light yellow walls, art posters of Van Gogh's sunflowers, sculptures by Fedak and a purple yoga mat permanently in the middle of the living room for my daily yoga amounted to no taste.  Well I have decided I do have taste, my own!  I may add curtains though in the living room like in the pic above.

How To Make Plant Supports

Busy Bee

The giant bumblebees are busy gathering nectar from the red clover in my yard and I am busy with putting in my first garden in 10 years!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patches of red clover came up in my rag tag back lawn and I decided not to pull them out but let them blossom.  It is just lovely and as you can see the bees think so too. 

The pea patch is coming along well.  The first row are early peas and they have little white blossoms already.

 

This day-lily has buds that should open this week and I tucked some red lettuce and a johnny jump up plants underneath.  If you look closely you can also see a chive blossoms peeking through the lily leaves.

Broccoli, kale, purslane, arugula seedlings

I still have lots of seedlings to pop in here and there.  

sweet pea and morning glory seedlings

The sweet peas are growing in recycled toilet paper rolls.

Tomato and Pepper Patch

Rose Peony

My neighbor has the most beautiful bed of peonies.

Pink Peony

Burgundy Peony

This is only a small part of the peony bed.  My neighbor let me take home a huge bouquet and the intoxicating scent of the flowers fills the house. I am hoping she will give me a good size clump for my yard.

While I work Poonie plays with her big pink ball.