Hello Again! That photo is of my PEACH TREE in blossom!! I was a little bit worried about it all winter, but it is doing just fine, thank you very much. We may not get any peaches this year, but I think we will have many years of juicy, mouthwatering peaches ahead of us. I already plan on planting at least one more tree (or three!)

We've been using as much spare time as possible to work on the garden. This year, on top of all the food, I wanted to plant some perennial flowers, because last year I ended up buying all my cut flowers. So I got all sorts of beauties - hollyhocks, foxgloves, delphiniums, echinacea and soapwort, just to name a few. Plus I am feeling a little crazy in my mad passion for roses and peonies. Part of me is like a little kid - I just can't believe all that beautiful stuff comes from plain old dirt.

While I was planting today, I had a little garden visitor. He stuck around just long enough for me to run in and get my camera. I feel like our garden will be excellently protected by this little toad, so I hope he decides to stay. Later on I saw a hummingbird amongst the quince blossoms. I wasn't fast enough to get a shot of him (even with the camera hanging around my neck!) but I took some pictures of the blossoms anyway. They're so pretty, I had to cut some branches and bring them inside.

Our fancy new Dell laptop arrived yesterday. So now I can work on some programming for the CNC. There's a bunch of stuff I want to try out - like signmaking, and carving shells, and inlaying text. Jai, I think, is more excited about the prospect of watching movies in bed (ok, I admit, I am a little excited about that, too!) And, to top it all off, it's candy apple red.

In other work news, Jai has got several wholesale orders on the go with his spinning tops, so he'll be working like a madman to get them made by the end of the weekend. I have almost finished the portfolio I am making for a big American client. The book is so long, I couldn't get the pages cut in town - nobody had a cutter big enough. So I took the day today to drive three towns over to get my paper cut. (With minor detours at my favourite antique store, my favourite Frenchy's, and a couple of my favourite nurseries, plus a Pearle's Pit Stop ice cream on the way home. ) It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon.

I've also been playing with some new bindings. The photo (not the best photo) shows Coptic on the top and Secret Belgian on the bottom, which I am especially happy with. It's another one of those child-like reactions at the things you can do with string. I just got the book "Exposed Spine Sewings" by Keith Smith, so I am going to be experimenting a lot over the next little while.

And this week Sarah and I attended the first Bridgetown Farmer's Market. We both got some free range eggs, some homemade butter, and a couple of goodies for the garden. If the market continues to grow, it could be very exciting. I've never had homemade butter before! Sarah is trying to do the 100 mile diet, which I totally applaud her for. Jai and I make an effort - not buying stuff when it's not in season, and buying local as much as possible, but we still use things like olive oil, and paprika. Speaking of paprika - my paprika peppers are poking out! I am so excited about these peppers, I can't even tell you.
Anyway, it seems like there are a million more things I could write about, but I just don't have the patience. Next time, I will have to try not to leave it so long, so there's less news to catch up on!