Time Warps and Flowering Shrubs

How did we get from April to May?

We have had some odd weather this spring and I have not gotten my garden in. This may seem like the two statements are related but they are not at all. Nope. I have been working and I have a hard time transitioning from one thing to another. This means that no matter how hard I try I can't seem to get out to the garden.

My roses are blooming beautifully. Flowering shrubs are favorites of mine because they really are usually pretty easy care once they are established. Many of them are difficult to grow in my area so I pretty much stick with roses.
However, despite the fact that I adore roses you can't eat them all the time. Sure, a few petals in a salad are great and you canmake rose hip jelly but as a general rule it is better to buy tomato plants, okra, and other good stuff.
And that is where I am floundering.
Time management skills do not come naturally to me.
So, have you planted your garden yet? Whatcha go growing?
image (c)2011 Marye Audet

Gardening Bug

I love pretty gardens. You can't tell in the picture at the top but I have added a rose garden in front of the porch. I love the look. I love the smell when the roses are all in bloom and a breeze is blowing in the front windows but I hate the amount of work involved.

I just tend to feel like I am putting out fires, you know?
Sigh.

 Isn't it beautiful? Yeah, it's from my istock account. I don't really have that. But I would love to, wouldn't you?


Anyway, one of these days I want to have a front garden with winding pathways. I want an outdoor kitchen on the side of the house, with a huge patio and I want garden patios here and there along my winding pathways. And, most of all, I want a well muscled, tanned, male gardener to look after all of it for me, while I sit back and..umm... enjoy the view. Of all my flowers, of course, what did you think I meant?

The thing is, at this house... in this place... by this creek...I am always having to consider the potential of a major flood taking out all of my hard work. It could happen. It HAS happened. More than once.

I think raised beds are the key to it but I am not sure how to put them in with the available time I have. I'd love to have a cutting garden, an herb garden, and of course...my vegetable garden. I'd like to have paver pathways meandering from on to another and benches here and there to stop, rest, and watch the birds.

I get how to make raised beds, and paver pathways, and everything. It isn't that I don't know how to do it .. it is a time thing.
These ready made frames make it easier, but the cost is higher. :/ Decisions decisions...right?

Maybe someday?

I have totally blown off this blog for far too long!

Sadly, not much about the house has changed since my last post. I am still trying to work restoration here but it has been slow going. Just to catch you up before we move on .....
I was divorced in 2009 (yes, it has been that long since I wrote her..sad, isn't it?) After 30 years of marriage and 8 kids it was quite a shock but thanks to my relationship with Christ, and some very supportive kids and finding out who my friends actually were ... well, I landed on my feet. I met someone else very quickly and have now remarried. I am writing more as well, which has left little time  for  restoration and small farming/gardening. My ex gave my horses away and I had to get rid of the goats after the divorce because I was working so much I couldn't keep up with the dairying. I do still have the chickens.
There...
Now, the house.
Believe it or not I paid three of the kids $10 each to clean out the front garden so that my heirloom roses could actually bloom. They had been covered with poison ivy and some kind of green vine. Now the garden looks bare but the roses are blooming up a storm!

I have been looking for some perennials to put in there because I need something low care. Low care is kind of an oxymoron in Texas unless you are talking about cactus but I digress...Anyway, I happened to read a blog post on perennials for shade  and it got me thinking about what I could put in there with the roses.
I am not sure how shady it actually is, the garden in north facing but it is butted up against our veranda. I am thinking that Dianthus would work well and  be entirely appropriate for the age of the house. So now I am sitting here, when I should be working, searching  for new ideas for my shade loving perennial flowers.
It is prime gardening time in Texas. What are you able to do in your garden? Anything yet?

Hey, I have missed you...I hope you 've missed me, too and will be following my adventures with the money pit....

There IS light at the end of the tunnel!!!

Wow..It has been such a long time.
So many things have happened over the past few months that I have sort of lost my vision for Frozen Music and what I meant it to be. It was hard to come and write when I felt that I had nothing to write about and I was writing prolifically elsewhere.
I haven't felt much like a homesteader lately, or a home restorer. Mostly I have felt like a puddle on the floor. Irritating, and not much substance. :)
I think I have a vision again. I think I have a voice. SO..I am taking a deep breath and starting again. Rather than just being about my home restoration, though, this will be more of a diary of daily life. I will bring my homeschooling, my homesteading, my home-working, all together here, and try to assemble the thoughts daily into something readable and worthwhile. One of the changes is that I will no longer do pay for post posts. It was good money when I needed it but I am doing well with other things now. :)

Catching you up; Our oldest daughter and her family moved in in December. Marc lost his job shortly afterward. He then had knee surgery in January. He is working part-time for Home Depot, and meanwhile, the Lord has blessed my writing to the extent that I am making the major income. My daughter and son in law are not working.
Mentally and emotionally it has been a struggle but I have peace because I know that I am resting in Him, and that all things are under His feet.

If you are curious about where I am writing:
Baking Delights
Kettle & Cup- tea and coffee.
Home School Central- Homeschooling, free mini-unit studies that I create, and homeschooling helps.
Hub Pages- I write a lot of "green living" articles, and information on homesteading, skills, websites, etc.
Love To Know- I write for several channels there: gardening, herbs, antiques, home decorating, home improvement, green living.

Today, Marc is off. It it bright, sunny and cool. I don't have many plans at all.

• Marc and I are going for coffee (yay!).
• I need to plan the garden
• I need to lay out the subjects for the next week or so of blog posts on my other blogs
• I need to schedule my article assignments
• I need to do laundry
• I need to pray, again, about selling the horses because of finances.

Since church is tonight, even though there is s
o much more to do, I will be stopping there. If you are at the point of planning your garden you might like to read What too Plant: Planning Your Early Spring Garden

I think planning is the most fun, really. :)