august greetings from the garden harlot.

long time no flower ? it has been an incredibly busy set of life-weeks for the garden harlot across the expanse of many jobs, but luckily, they are wonderfully fulfilling ones. 

in the meantime, here is a sampling from my tumblr page of positives, which i have also semi-abandoned for instead working on so many other projects. here, a night embers daylily from my garden graces oxygen and its other friendly elements.

i currently have a fun lil' 10 week series about farms premiering each wednesday on the limerick-royersford-spring city patch site. so far, beyond the introduction, i've featured discussions of the farm to school program, renninger's farm in royersford, and dream come true farm in spring city.

and i started writing for copper in the arts with the copper development association, recently featuring an artist named david burns from california with his rough and ready moniker, copper gardens.

this afternoon, i'm traveling down to spring city to photograph some sweet cows at kolb's farm store.

lots of fun and work is spilling me away from the blog, but news, not blues is still a monthly must.

thanks for stopping by, and remember to soak up the sky a good bit in your days.

hydroponic tomato-children are now for sale at butter valley harvest in bally !

all i have to say is thank lordisa !

after no available supply since the end of december, butter valley harvest in bally finally has some hydroponic (pesticide-free by default) tomatoes for the taking !

my adored quasi-grandmother kindly picks up salad greens for me each week now that i'm back to work with my seasonal full-time job because i can't get to the market during its hours. she noticed that these plump little healthy-for-the-popping reds were available for sale and amiably grabbed some for me.

i ate half of the container once i came home, with some pink salt and then crushed feta too.

feel free to test out some mimicry.

butter valley harvest is located at 1690 route 100 in bally, pa 19505. market hours are wednesday, 2.00 to 5.00 p.m. & saturday,  9.30 a.m to 1 p.m. a selection of butter valley harvest produce is also available at redner's warehouse markets in boyertown, freed's supermarket in gilbertsville, and other grocery stores outside of this little stretch of area.

the icy persuasion of grass & sky.

last friday, temperatures boasted loudly of 70+ degrees. this morning, snow packed lightly on windshields of cars, and my low and green set yard blades are littered with the icy persuasion of grass & sky. expect no less of nature ! she has her reasons.

it's more intense a bit up north.

a sunday morning deed.

this morning, i woke up bright and early (by my standards) and zoomed over to ott's exotic plants to pick up what would eventually be a nice and full kalanchoe in a flurry of pink, to drop off at the house of a woman in gilbertsville who just had a thankfully benign tumor removed from her brain.

the woman is a garden center customer of my brother scott's, and her stepmom from tennessee wanted to do something nice for her since she's recovering from a rushed surgery after a quick diagnosis following stroke-like symptoms. the stepmom phoned my work yesterday, and i said that while she wanted something of a spring reminder for the stepdaughter, who is in her 30s or 40s, our supply isn't too impressive yet. so i decided to visit ott's for a suitable and easy houseplant, and this delightful succulent won out with some assistance from nancy larkin of barnside mulch & compost who showed up to eye-peruse with me.

i also prepped a gift card from the stepmom for my place of work for the woman to use when she is better and would like to dazzle up her yard space with the therapeutic way of flowers or even new shrubs. i wrote a note from the tennessee-types too, and then i dropped it off at the stepdaughter's house this morning on my way home before heading out to interview the mayor.

the invisible lines of connection in life lately and helping people to help others has really had the healthy kind of hold on me lately. 

a quick lunch at raw can roll café.

with a rainy day upon us, i lucked out on the opportunity to avoid being glued to my seasonal day job for the wet hours this week. after visiting a consignment shop to attempt to make side money on old clothes, i ventured to raw can roll café, which i haven't enjoyed food-wise since maybe last spring or so.

i splurged for the first time in months on about $10 of lunch including white bean tomato soup, a garden salad with sweet balsamic dressing, and a carrot & celery pressed juice poured into a greenware cup made entirely of plants but designed to be clear like any ordinary plastic to-go sipping device. 

nom, a bit ! 

paper recycling & those retriever bins.

several months ago, i began recycling paper regularly in my home by gathering it in a plastic grocery bag slung on a doorknob. after a short stretch of time, i felt like a bit of a dud for not doing so sooner, realizing how much paper added up and how fast too. it really does multiply quickly, and my trash is now less and less per week. seeing the transformation in changing these habits has been so eye-opening, pecking at my perspective. the same goes for now diligently tracking cardboard into the trunk of my car for recycling. luckily, the service is free from my borough.

for the paper, i've been recycling it in a paper retriever bin at the friendship hook & ladder fire company (also called the hookies, especially by those who play bingo there, as my mom did, winning meat from freed's weekly) a few streets away. so that means it's also free, but  the fire company gets some money back from the paper retriever company, which is good because of the hookies being a nonprofit emergency services place in need of donations for funding.

i've always been all about using up paper as much as possible or saving tiny scraps to the point that it drives my brother matt nuts at work when i write a note on the tiniest pinch of paper or even half of an already tiny post-it. but i feel wasteful otherwise ! at least recycling reels in less guilt then, for tossing off a scrap snippet.

matt said paper of all kinds is also collected for recycling at his children's private school, and like the fire department above, this place receives money for the gathered paper also. i think i've seen a bin at the local high school and the hereford township building too. but i love that it's free, since at least with trash disposal, there are usually fees. so this is just darn multi-purpose in saving money and also giving a little more affection toward the environment and our usable materials on the globe.

sheron faye is positively preggers.

news recently floated along that sheron faye, the cow named after my mom at wholesome dairy farms, is on her way to becoming a momma herself.

i said, better her than me, that brave soul of a woman ! i will never envy a pregnancy. but hearing about cow babies is a sweet thing. lillee grace and i visited the mother-to-be while stopping in to grab some milk and raw gouda.

we eye-scooped two baby cows while at the farm.

this ham of a girl named trixy is sheron faye's little sister.

and the milk store goods are always a nice treat for home, after seeing the cows.

i've developed a recent habit of eating approximately half of the block of gouda on my drive home, at least in the past two trips, and have deduced that i should not cart myself on over to the dairy on an empty stomach. you know, i digress a bit.