Backwoods Babble

It's Saturday! And that means it's time for Five Senses Friday... Thanks so much to Abby Try Again for sharing this wonderful idea! Seeing: My art teacher's house at a BBQ tonight. It was such a lovely space. Smelling: Baked beans simmering in the crockpot. droool... Tasting: Cherries! Again, I know. But this was off the cherry tree in the yard! I beat the birds to one! Feeling: Content and excited for a move this fall. Hearing: The kitty happily purring next to me. Love that sound! Play along if you like (comment and let me know if you do, I want to see what you come up with!). I enjoyed this little experiment in the senses. See you for another next week! I'm off this weekend to Goldfield a bit north of here in Nevada. It's a restored ghost town, sort of. For the last few years they have been having a Memorial Day Weekend Rendezvous of sorts. Mostly lots of BBQ. Can't wait to get shots of the lovely old west buildings for some art projects I'm pl...

What it would be like if you fell asleep and when you woke up you were somewhere else? Kind of like what happens to Alice in... Alice in Wonderland. I don't know why I have been thinking of this so much, but it's there almost constantly these days. Maybe it is because I am trying to get back in the habit of writing... writing and actually finishing short stories. And possibly, even get on with some painting. Yup, painting. I have all these lovely watercolor supplies, I might as well get some use out of them. Maybe I could paint what that world would be. My first thought was what if you woke up and the world wasn't finished yet... like you arrived too early. Trees could be in various stages of completeness. Or, what if the world was where all the artistic images went to wait until they were finished? You know that drawing you did as a kid, maybe it's there, only since you've forgotten about it, not quite real yet. That would be weird. So, on that note, I...

It's Saturday! And that means it's time for Five Senses Friday (a little late, but I like it so much I'm going to do it anyway!) Thanks so much to Abby Try Again for sharing this wonderful idea! I love having a planned post, even if I forget to post it on the right day... LOL Seeing: My final grade for art class! I worked really hard this semester and even if I am not as good as the other kids in class, I make HUGE improvements. Smelling: Fresh sheets out of the dryer. That is one of my favorite smells ever. Tasting: Cherries! I love this time of year when are available. Feeling: Happy after an amazing nap yesterday. Hearing: The racket the quail make when the cat is near. It's comical even though they are upset. Poor things can't even look mean when they are scared. Play along if you like. I enjoyed this little experiment in the senses. See you for another next week!

The last one is tomorrow and I am drooling, drooling, drooling over the options for living this fall in Las Vegas. Have I mentioned that at times I feel like I am living in a black hole that sucks all the creativity out?? No? Well, I do. This particular spring was a special one for me, but as it heads into summer and the temperature starts pushing over 80, the old feelings are coming on back. It might be the heat, it might be that I am just a whiner; it might even be that I have stayed here longer than anywhere else in the last 10 years and I've got those itchy feet to moving on again. It might be all of those things, or none of them. I don't know. What I do know is that the change is going to do me aLOT of good. It's something new and will help with those itchy feet. And, lately, things have been a little strained around the house. I think we all need some space away from each other. I am praying, praying that I can find a job on campus to help make all these things...

Another random unrelated pic just because I like to have pictures.. It's Friday! And that means it's time for Five Senses Friday! Thanks so much to Abby Try Again for sharing this wonderful idea! I have been thinking about Five Sense Friday all week and I love that! Seeing: A big box full of my grandmother's recipes that arrived in the mail today. CANNOT wait to start going through them all! Smelling: Fresh lemons after I cut them up. I love that smell! Tasting: My first harvest of swiss chard - yum! Feeling: A little less stress when I saw that I have funding for school this fall when I checked online today. Hearing: The duet between Lee and Crystal on American Idol this week. Love that song! Play along if you like. I enjoyed this little experiment in the senses. See you for another next week! Happy Blogging!

Sometimes, especially around finals it seems that there are never enough hours in a day. However, if I did all my studying at the Hoover Dam and felt like I needed another hour, I could always walk over to the Arizona side. I just can't figure out how to keep from losing it when I cross back. Deep thoughts for a Thursday evening.

Today, a completely random thought post. Including a completely random photo that has nothing to do with what I am saying. I just like to have pictures in my posts, I think it makes them pretty...=) The wind has finally died down and I am really looking forward to a walk tonight after my second to last ever math class! Have I mentioned that I am excited to be done with the class!?! No, well I am! The professor is one of those people who thinks he is funny, but really is not. He is also one of those people who thinks jokes make the class more fun, but has not the timing for such a thing. As a result, the class is primarily uncomfortable and full of awkward silences. That is when he acknowledges that there are other people in the room besides himself. You know the ones right?!? I have been trying to focus on the positive and most of the time I can laugh about whatever it is eventually. And, eventually this will also be hilaaaaaaarious... yeah, right after I finish my final on Mond...

I love music and have always been a little sad that I was not terribly musically gifted. Recently, a cousin of my dad's visited and I had a short lesson with her dulcimer. I loved it! In fact, I loved it so much that I think I'm going to have a friend of mine make me one. She makes stunning instruments - a genius really and I cannot wait! As of now, I'm think it will be similar to the one above (sorry about the picture I didn't think to take one of the dulcimer alone) with some lovely inlay work. It's what my friend does best. DYING to get my hands back on one. **Here's a better picture. I can't remember where online I found it.** Hope you all had a lovely weekend. Happy Blogging!

Took a tour of the UNLV campus in Las Vegas. It felt so academic. Their library is amaaaaaaaaazing (really could not stop staring like an idiot) and I saw my first real lap pool in I can't remember how long (swooooon). I felt like I was walking through a little piece of heaven. I know, that sounds a little weird, but I'm very excited about this next step into what, I hope, will be a more challenging environment. I am getting a little bored here and that's never a good thing for me. I have been playing with some of the online photo storage sites out there (photobucket, snapfish and now shutterfly). Just exploring the fun options. I love this weird little edging on the shot below. Sort of jazzes up a rather bleh composition. I kind of like this one too... I noticed the other day when I was playing that I hadn't fixed the size correctly (so the shot was distorted and didn't fully fit into the blog post), so I'll have to keep working with that so I can use t...

Again, my apologies for the rotten photo, but his is just too exciting NOT to share. I planted some cucumber seeds a little while back just to see.. AND LOOK WHAT I HAVE! Seedlings. (you can see the remaining bodies of their predecessors if you look closely... doh!) They were literally not there one day and boom popped up the next. Fingers crossed that they continue to do well. I also planted a couple of zucchini plants and they are growing like crazy. In addition, a single survivor from the last great seedling debaucle (a beet) is trying to make an appearance. It has a single little leaf coming up. I made sure it is getting water and we'll see. The acorn squash is much happier also with this warmer weather. AND, oh this is exciting. The world's two ugliest tomato plants; the ones that had been planted right before a HUGE windstorm and got the tar beat of out them remember? BOTH have flowers and the yellow pear heirloom has 3 baby tomatoes starting! woohoo! Perhaps ther...

Kind of a cool image yes? I have been playing with a couple of different programs to give my pictures a new look. I like the idea of a picture frame. It's Friday! And that means it's time for Five Senses Friday! Remember I talked about this earlier in the week. I saw it over at Abby Try Again . So, here I go. This week was a bit stressful, but I did feel more aware of what was going on since I was going to be picking moments for this blog entry. I love that! Seeing: A lady bug on a walk through the neighborhood. Something about seeing lady bugs is just cool. Smelling: The faint smell of roses wafting through my bedroom window. I don't normally like roses, but these super faint whiffs in the night air were heavenly. Tasting: Frozen strawberries on a really hot day - it is such a treat! Feeling: A big chunk of stress melt away when I turned in my final for my literature class. Hearing: The sounds of happy quail in the backyard. This means we might see quail babies! Ya...

What are you going to be doing this summer? Any big plans? I have very few really. Mostly, I am going to be staring at the garden to see what's growing; what I have killed and what looks tasty on a given day. That, and stressing about how freaked out I'm going to be the first day of class at a new school. (No official word yet, but I'm trying not to focus on that either). My other plan is to work my way through the Artist's Way. Have you read it? I have heard a few people call it hokey and it can be, but if you are trying to work through a creative block or just want to get rid of the garbage in your head while working on something else - this is just fabulous! Okay, I think it's fabulous regardless, but I have yet to work all the way through it. I am not, by nature, the most free person. I tend to bottle things up and just put on a pretty face to get by in the day. What this does when it's time to do something creative is frequently I have blocks and I...

I made new button linky things to my other blogs? That's right... you can click on those pictures and they will take you to Backwoods Garden and Adventures by Jenna ... my alter egos. I could not have done this without the help of THIS fabulous blog! So many great tips especially for blogger! I think the ones I have now are just temps. Neither really represents the color scheme of the other blogs, but I just HAD to try it! I feel some changes acoming for Backwoods Babble. Perhaps an overhauled look? Happy Blogging!

I found this today on one of my favorite blogs... My Voice My View I thought it sounded like great fun and cheated a little. My ipod was charging so I just used the random setting in Itunes to get the tunes. Instructions: 1. Put your iPod or MP3 player on shuffle. 2. Press forward for each question. 3. Use the song title as the answer to the question even if it doesn’t make sense. NO CHEATING PLEASE! How do you feel today? Never Again by Kelly Clarkson (strange.. my favorite class met for the last time tonight) What’s your outlook on life? Rebel Side of Heaven by Langhome Slim (eek! I haven't even listened to this song yet... give me a second while I see what I think... not bad, the title seems appropriate I guess.. I am a rebel afterall... LOL) What does your family think of you? Go On by Jack Johnson (Are they saying I talk too much?!?!) What do your friends think of you? Wonderful by Rob Thomas (hee hee) What do your exes think of you? - Miss Independent by Kelly Clarkson (Hah...

About five leaves of swiss chard! Not even anywhere near a serving and I'm jumping for joy! Swiss chard is rapidly becoming a favorite. I am drooling just a little thinking about all the yummy dinners I had last year. This year there are about 6x as many plants - so that is 6x the yumminess! I apologize for the picture quality. My elph's battery was dead so I had to take it with my cell phone. An exciting day for sure. A couple quick updates. The peas are not doing so well, still slowly growing, but I think I may have planted them too late, they look pretty sunburned. I will probably try another round of them for fall since they are so easy to start. I will also have room once the head lettuce is harvested where they can get a little shade in the afternoon which I think they would really like. I have a TON of flowers on the roma tomato that we thought might die so this is great news! I just fertilized them again with what I call the fish guts. It is fish fertilizer a...

of becoming a REAL desert rat!?! How did THAT happen? I was sitting outside today on what I would have previously thought of as a really, hot nasty day and caught myself saying... ahhhhh... I think this is nice. I'm finding it harder and harder to resist liking it here. Whatever will I do!? It is kind of difficult to stay hardened to a place that produces a lizard running through your garden and quail that take dirt baths. Okay, not convinced? Well, I am finding that this spring in particular is winning me over to the darkside. I mean look at the pic below. I would have never even thought about trying to take something that showed the desert off this way a year ago. I may be doomed.

This is near Death Valley Junction. I adore old, busted things and have taken who knows how many shots of this one. That's an entrance to Death Valley in the background. There is a small herd of wild horses in the area that are fed and watered by the town - I love that! I stumble across blogs that I fall in love with all the time. This week it was Abby Try Agai n. I am especially partial to photo blogs or blogs that feature photos and this one is fabulous! While perusing through older posts, I found out about Five Senses Friday. It was started by Abby's friend Shari Altman and I think I'm going to add it to my list of things to blog. Each week you reflect upon what you enjoyed and either comment on Abby's blog or add it to your own. The senses: Hearing Tasting Seeing Smelling Feeling I have been looking for a way to increase my awareness of my environment. This is PERFECT! I will see you all on Friday with the results!