Don't Be Afraid of the Dork: Saturday in the Garden

OUTSIDE
I'm sitting cozy in my living room listening to the rain fall outside punctuated by thunder. It's been a fairly productive day so its quite peaceful. I just hope it is not coming down so hard it's beating the crap out of my new sproutlings. (The peas and carrots made their appearance this week.) Looks like it is coming down just hard enough to give everyone a nice drink.

I was able to do some field work this week and got some more nice views of the bison on Dunn Ranch Nature Preserve.

Finally this BBC wildlife video was floating around this week making me smile. I love David Attenborough and the BBC is doing some of the most spectacular wildlife/nature film making that exists right now.

LIFE

I'm teaching a class next weekend on Landscaping for Wildlife. It's a 3-4 hour class I do every year and I always incorporate some kind of crafty project into the class. For the last 5 years I've done Toad Abodes.

They are simple, easy and fun but it was time for something new. So I've been scrambling to see if I can get my act together to do Insect Hotels with the one pictured below being close to what I'd like to emulate. Part garden art, part Insect hibernaculum.

Source

The problem is? I'm not crafty AT ALL. I have no natural talent or instinct for making things with my hands and being creative in that way. Every time I try something I just get frustrated with how poorly it goes so I don't practice a lot either. (This lack of handiness is also why it wasn't the brightest idea I've ever had to buy a 120 year old house. But I really like old houses - none of this open plan B.S. for me, lol!) Basically there is no way I am going to be able to put together 18 wooden shadow boxes by next Saturday. Nope. Not going to happen. That's why I spent some time today at the recycling center digging through a bin picking out milk jugs and getting the side-eye from the other folks dropping off recyclables. My idea is to cut the milk jug in half and use the bottom as the container for all the hibernation materials. I'm trying to think of some way to make it more attractive but in the end I'm just hoping it at least stimulates the folks in the class to think about the benefit of having insects in your garden and landscape and not just reviling them as pests. Yay bugs!

WATCHING, READING and BLOGGING

First things first - it was one of my favorite bi-annual events this weekend! The library book sale! For $7, I got all the treasures below.

Peter Lovesey is an older mystery writer I just discovered who I really like so was excited to find a couple of his books as well as another intriguing older mystery. Also some good fantasy and sci-fi, a Barbara Pym and a favorite MN DNR publication on landscaping for wildlife!

Continuing with books, I did finish two this week despite feeling pretty uninspired by reading at the moment. I finished my re-read of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling. I also finished Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. I totally get why there is so much love for this book but I didn't love it entirely and sadly I think part of that is just my mood at the moment. Is it fair to judge and review a book when you hit it at the wrong time? I made some progress in The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons today and picked up a couple of middle-grade books to replace the books I finished: Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins and The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood.

My watching this week has included a couple of movies which was a bit of novelty at least lately. I watched (and review -see link below) Interstellar directed by Chris Nolan and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy directed by James Gunn. I had astronomically huge expectations for Guardians so it not surprisingly didn't live up to them but it was definitely fun. Also Netflix has gotten the rest of the seasons of M*A*S*H so I've been meandering through season 6. Radar's gone for a big chunk of it which sucks. Frank Burns is also gone which is okay but definitely changes the dynamic.

On the BLOG LAST WEEK:
SUNDAY: Re-reading thoughts on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The start to this series is really almost perfect.
TUESDAY: TOP TEN TUESDAY - Literary Quotes. I completely ignored the "inspirational" part of the instructions from The Broke and the Bookish but I was inspired to list the quotes that I did:).
THURSDAY: Review of Interstellar directed by Christopher Nolan. I liked it!

On the BLOG NEXT WEEK:
SUNDAY: Review of The Last Detective by Peter Lovesey
TUESDAY: The Top Ten Tuesday topic is all-time favorite authors. Yikes! Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.
THURSDAY: The Tough Traveling Trope of the week is The Ace - that character that is good at everything. Jerk.

I may throw in another post or two in there but this promises to be another week of insanity schedule wise sooo.... we'll just see.

Hope y'all have had a good week tending your garden!