Gardening Dreams

My neighbour Rita called on Saturday night, and it didn't take long for us to start discussing what we want to do with our gardens and flower beds this year. So it is nice today to see the sun out and the temperature warming up. But there is a strong wind blowing hard today.

I'll confess, I'm sort of glad of that, as I can't add to my many projects to go out and rake the front pocket-patch lawn and flower beds, nor do I want to go to the garden and bury the compost heaps that I buried in the snow drifts during the winter. They need a chance to decompose there - under the dirt, before the man with the rotortiller comes to fluff up my garden soil for me to make my garden.

But May - seeding time - is right around the corner. Just talking with Rita on Saturday has me itching to sort through my seeds and decide what I'm going to have where. (I also promised her a small off-shoot strawberry-rhubarb plant if mine has any off-shoots this spring.).

What's more, I've been reading about how important it is to eat raw fruits and vegetables for our health. I read just recently that those who eat only cooked foods are open-season for all kinds of illnesses. Only raw food have enzymes to help us digest and absorb food, and those enzymes give us immunity from all kinds of disease and illnesses.

Well, salad stuff in the stores costs a lot. But once my garden comes up I can dash out there when I start to make a meal and I can bring in radishes, lettuce, ...later cucumbers, and tomatoes, etc., So I'm keen to get them started!

Yes, I know... I'm getting to be an old-er woman. So I want to continue my plan of sowing/planting more prennial flowers along the fences and corners of the garden, so that they will take care of themselves for the most part. (Well, they don't weed themselves!) But if my main work is to weed and water the veggies in the middle I think I can cope - well, one summer at a time.

That reminds me - I haven't put many photos in here of late. But when those flowers start blooming I will be really motivated again to share those with you!

<*> TIPS & SOLUTIONS: <*>

How to Uncurl Old Photos

I had to search online to find a solution for those curled up photos. I watched two videos and have adapted this to my situation. (The videos showed using large bins, with wire racks laid in the bottom over shallow room-temperature water, but I'm using some of Mom's old Tupperware keepers big enough for large platters of food, etc.)

The idea is to lay the rack down in the bottom of the container, which should have a close-fitting lid, and then water at room temperature to a depth that does not come quite up to the rack.

Then you lay the curled photos on the rack, with the paper side down if you can. Put the lid on, and then leave them along for a couple of hours or more.

Come back to check them and if the photos have uncurled and are almost flat pick them up and put them between the pages of a big book. This is because the paper will have absorbed moisture from the water which helped it uncurl, but if you lay it damp with that moisture on a desk it will curl up again from the dry air in the room. Putting them between the pages of a big book, causes the moisture to go into those page, but the photo remains flat.

Because I have so many hands full of curled photos It is taking me quite a while. I'm experimenting now with cutting holes in some plastic lids and laying them over the shallow water in a smaller container. It works, but it gets less photos done at a time. I may have to find another way to make racks of adaptable sizes.

[Back to Archives Index ] ~~ [Back to Main RoseBouquet Page]