the pointy kitten of doom!

meet the pointy kitten of doom!

oh my isn't she cute with her fancy necklace of skulls? Very Kali, wouldn't you say?

She was made for a dear friend and a special party. Every year we take part in the annual Arty Party. What is this you ask? Well let me fill you in....

first you are given some whacky questions to answer, here is the list for this year!

The Questions:

1) What was your favorite class?

2) What is your favorite sound?

3) What is your favorite Crayola crayon color?

4) If you had your own winery/brewery, would would you name it?

5) X-Mas Mad Libs:

A) Verb ending in -in
B) Noun

C) Name

D) Past-Tense Verb

E) Plural noun

then you will receive your partners answers and create a gift out of the insanity. my partner named her winery the Kitten of Doom. Hence the pointy kitty of doom was born. I made my little lovely from this free wee wonderful pattern.

go make your own and send me the photo!

what to do with the remains of the bird?

so every year I end up taking home all sorts of weird leftover bits from the holiday feasts I attend. I bare to see this stuff thrown away. I think I must be channeling my depression era ancestors, it really is a compulsion. A challenge if you will! what can I create out of this mauled bit of turkey carcass, a few green beans and the leftover stuffing and potatoes???

i thought you would never ask!

my plan this week is to post a different idea everyday as to what you can do with all of those delicious leftovers...besides eat thanksgiving ..again....not that there is anything wrong with that. Just some inspiration for those of you who need a change!

so here is day one. A lovely stock recipe to get rid of that carcass in your fridge. I got this one straight Martha, the goddess herself!

Easy Turkey Stock

Prep: 5 minutes

Total: 2 hours 30 minutes

Ingredients

3 quarts

• Bones of 1 cooked turkey
• 5 quarts water
• 2 onions, quartered
• 1 celery stalk
• 1 carrot
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns

Directions

1. In a large stockpot, combine turkey bones, water, onions, celery, carrot, bay leaf, and peppercorns. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, skimming occasionally, about 2 hours.
2. Strain into airtight containers; cool completely. Cover, and refrigerate up to 3 days, or freeze up to 6 months.

happy crumb day

in our family the day after thanksgiving is called crumb day. We gorge ourselves on leftovers and start drooling over all the wonderful leftover receipes everyone is coming out with now. One of my favorites is a thanksgiving shepards pie! yummmmmmmy!

I trust you all had a lovely day filled with many things to be grateful for. We spent a relaxing day at grammie's house surrounded by food. I managed to get a lot of hand work done on a couple of xmas presents as well. Not to shabby.

Now the christmas preparations must begin in earnest! the decorations need to be sorted out and scattered about. Lots of present need to be made and hidden. A bit of shopping here and there of course. And one of our favorite traditions, our advent calender. Ours is filled with activities this year, one for each day. Everything from visiting santa at disneyland to simply putting up the tree! Homeschooling has been somewhat suspended for the month so that we can just focus on the holiday and really enjoy it to the fullest!

check back later for photos of some of the work that I have gotten done so far!

again happy crumb day!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

HOPE YOU HAVE A LOVELY DAY FILLED WITH GOOD FOOD, GOOD FRIENDS AND GOOD TIMES. LIFE IS DIFFICULT RIGHT NOW, LOTS GOING ON IN THE WORLD, BUT WE ALL HAVE SO MUCH TO BE GRATEFUL FOR!

BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL!

Las Vegas, the good, the bad and the ugly

So over the last week my darling daughter turned ten! I can't believe so much time has flown by. Well ten is big right, Double Digits and all. SO we got crazy and took her to Las Vegas. Las Vegas you say...really? For a ten year old????? Well yes of course! There are white lions and tigers to see, oh yes and an amazing dolphin encounter. Then there is the insane roller coaster at New York New York which ever thrill seeker must ride. All the amazing hotels to oggle, lots of pool swimming to be done. And the crowning glory, why Cirque Du Soleil of course! Our tickets were for our last night in town and it made for quite a finale. We took her to Mystere, which she choose after watching the trailers online. She was blown away. so much so that she wasn't even able to talk about it till the next day! Over breakfast the next morning she quietly informed me that she was going to be a costume designer for Cirque and could she have more sewing classes!



so that was the good. The bad you ask, what was bad....well how exactly do you explain "the anything goes in Las Vegas" idea? To a ten yr old???? so that was an interesting discussion. the ugly, so many people out of work and loosing everything there right now. Times are hard!

a huge thank you to my in-laws, with out the time share this trip would not have been possible!

thankyou!

catch up ...

oh my gosh it has been so long since we chatted. I am feeling much better although I am still hacking away. Apparently whooping cough is referred to as the 100 days cough. If this holds true I will be coughing for about 50 more days! But enough of all that :) let's begin catching up with photos. I owe you some right. we will start with halloween!

We had a very lovely halloween, filled with pumpkin carving and house decorating. That night we of course went trick-or-treating with our friends and made quite a haul, which was then sorted and appropriate offering made to the switch witch in hopes of toys in exchange.

so tired of coughing

oh my dear friend! this whooping cough is for the birds. I am having a very slow recovery. I am still coughing quite a bit, so much so that I have pulled the muscles (yes I do have some somewhere) in my stomach! So now every time I cough it is like a billion tiny razors all pulling in opposite directions in my gut! Lovely. I can't talk long or I start coughing. Eating makes me cough as well. And though I tire easily, I managed to take the kids for a short walk about this morning. Good mama! Sorry for the lack of interesting posts. All that is going on here is mama recoup!

happy Friday!
hope yours is germ free:)

my philosophy

summed up in a poem by mary oliver. I found this poem today while poking around over at pulling radishes.

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps his purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle pox;

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering;
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

a plague upon our house

seriously the family has been struck down by whooping cough. Now I know what you are thinking...didn't I get a shot for that? Why yes, yes you did and you can still get the bloody thing! Even if you just had the shot as my two year old has found out. For a tiny view into what the last three weeks have like here at Sleepy Hollow Hall, I will direct you over to my beloved's blog. Read his post titled "good thing kids are cute". As the only member of the family not to fall yet, he has been picking up the pieces as best he can. Poor guy!

The good new is that the doctor has just loaded us all up with serious drugs and we are on the mend. God bless Zithromax! may I still have a lung left in my body when this is over!

the giving season is coming

isn't she pretty??? I can't remember where I found her now... I am sure on some blog or another that I adore! I may use the image for to/from tags for the holiday season. It is fast approaching this year and with the current financial state of the world, it is going to be a very handmade christmas. Can I tell you what joy that brings me. Now I love presents and stuff just as much as the next girl! But I my favorite thing of all is a handmade present. One that shows that the giver really put some thought into who the receiver is and what they are about. Lucky for me I have surrounded myself with a group of friends and family that are amazingly talented!

I am planning on doing a lot of knitting and soap making for people this year so I had better get started. What are you planning on making?

many years ago my father-in-law suggested just such a handmade christmas. looks like I will finally get my wish!

life is a little screwy around here!

as you can see I am sure! please someone explain to me why it was 100 degrees in the shade at my house yesterday. Seriously I checked!

why oh why oh why!

Pinwheels in the breeze

a beautiful show of pinwheels at the Roots & Shoots celebration of the International Day of Peace.

Late September always finds our Roots & Shoots group at the local celebration of International Peace day. Sadly this year we did not have our beloved Dr. Jane with us. Instead we got to chat with Pierce (james Bond) about our big project for the year, re-usable lunch kits. Our goal is to throw anything away from our lunches. Both Re-usable bags.com and To-go ware gave us special discounts to pass along to our visitors.

for 20% at reusable bags = fecd29

for 10% at to-goware = ROOTS

Now, I challenge you to do your part! Go give your lunch kit a makeover! Re-think it all, cloth napkins to bamboo utensils.

along with rubbing shoulders with stars and walking our beautiful doves in the peace parade, Our kids joined with an organization called pinwheels for peace. They all made paper pinwheels with pictures and messages of peace all over them. We had planned to plant them in the ground before the stage but to our surprise and delight there was a small field of pinwheels waiting for the kids. They were so excited to plant their pinwheels along with the rest.

I have watched the children of this Roots & Shoots group evolve over the last two years. They came away from the first peace festival with magic in their hearts after listening to Dr Jane and Julia Butterfly Hill. The change I have seen gives me hope for the future. The children now feel like they are committed to something so important and so much larger than themselves.
A very valuable lesson in this egocentric world.

winter warmth update

to date Nest Maine has received 243 items! You may remember a while back I posted about this knitting project up in maine called nest. Well, I managed to send off 8 hats (was supposed to be ten but my kids ran off with two!) to the project. I wish I had remembered to take a photo of the pile for you all to ogle. It was so colorful and best of all I bought nothing new for this endevor. Total stash buster!

What a joy it was to participate in this project. To help someone without thought of reward other than your own self worth. Totally anonymous, that is how i like to operate. The good news is, it is not to late. You too can knit something for someone who will be cold this winter. It can be a close friend who is going through a trying situation or it could be nest. There are a bunch of chariety knitting groups out there. Here are a few to whet your appetite:

warm up america

mother bear project

Knitting for chemocaps

so many ways we can join together and bring a moment peace to someone's world.

happy halloween spirit

Isn't she cute with her full moon face!This is my very first dotee doll. All the rage all over swap-bot, I thought I would try my hand at one. I picked the halloween swap because it is one of my favorite days to craft for. My partner, too whom this little lovely is headed, is not into the darker aspects of the day so I had to keep it light. I think she is rather cute. I haven't named her yet any suggestions????

The end of never

as in it is never going to be nice and cool again! I just know it. Here we are at the end of September and it is still so flipping hot! Why??? when I cruise around to all of my favorite blogs, they are bringing in the last of the harvest and starting to batten down the hatches for the coming winter. I want winter tooooooo! I would settle for a mediocre fall at this point. But seriously I am starting to crave some real weather. I grew up in the great white north after all. This land of eternal sun shine becomes somewhat of a burden after a while. The endless gardening............

I really want to curl up with a knitting basket full of yarn, a nice fire and some hot drink.

where is the rain!

garden delight

well it august here on the farm (just barely) and the garden is moving into overdrive. Today I roasted a bunch of tomatoes and eggplants for future suppers. The house smells so yummy! The tomatoes are headed for roasted tomato basil soup from the vegan lunchbox book. The eggplants are destined to become eggplant fritters ala Martha Stewart! sooooo good.

This weekend I am off to a local u-pick operation. Roma tomatoes for .40 per pound. Just can't pass that up, plus the raspberries are in season. My beloved mother in law has a 1000 sq ft kitchen that I will be invading for tomato canning mania 2008. If you have to work, work in style I always say!

stay tuned for the results.....

all in my head

sorry for the delayed absence, this summer has been hot and I have had to run away. Far, far away to the corners of my mind. I am busy camping out in the Provence countryside, with my dragonfly compatriots. Aren't our gypsy wagons divine ? I even bought the children a pony to play with. They are so happy. here is a lovely shot of our caravan at dusk.

Jealous, yeah me too! sadly it is all a dream and these lovely wagons are far away. I don't even own the photos. They belong to a gypsy at heart in the french country side. Follow the links to the rest of her photos and create a dream of your own

it is over! Whew!

well I must apologize for the extended absence! My partners in crime, paper and belfry, and I signed up to teach a class at the California Homeschool Networks annual conference. The conference was held over the weekend so needless to say that up until now, we have been running around like chickens with our heads cut off.

What did we teach you ask???? Well Hogwarts at home of course! How to educate your young witch or wizard in a proper hogwarts fashion. I was an overwhelming success. What you missed our session?? Didn't have your time turner with you? No worries, just hop on over to our blog and catch up on what you missed. We will be offering prize drawings, posting successful projects and field trips and keeping you abreast of our hogwarts journey.

Don't miss the train!

Coffee Break!

Lately I have been really been thinking on how I can organize the many facets of our life. I want it to run like a well oiled machine. Up to this point our homeschool journey and our life in general has run on the "by the seat of my pants"methods and while never dull, it has become exhausting.
Now I am the first to admit, I tend to make grand sweeping changes and plans only to fall off the wagon at a later date. This time I trying to really consider what it is that I want to see happen and how to achieve that end. I am implementing tiny changes at a time, like our new bed time and wake up routine, which is working well.

Today, instead of doing my work for the homeschool conference this weekend, I have been all over the net looking at Home Management Notebooks. I think the fly lady calls it a Control Journal. Lots of good information out there. One of the sites I visited today had things broken down by day and Monday was baking day. SO I took that and ran with it.

I made the super delicious ginger cookies in the photo above. I made a batch of blueberry muffins and another loaf of that amazing oatmeal bread I posted about a while back. This worked very nicely so I here by declare monday as baking day.

homeschooling at its finest !

Where else can you lie on the floor face down and naked to work on your penguin counting book???

"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand."

-Confucius


saw this in someone's email signature and loved it

The animal underground railroad

I guess I have done it again. We were in the park last night, walking home from the post office, when a woman with a dog approached and asked if we could help. Sure, what do you need, says I. I can hear greg groaning silently at this moment!

-Well you see, some mean awful person just dumped a white rabbit in the other end of the park and I am asking everyone I see if they can go and rescue the poor little guy.

-m'am, I says , we will go and check it out!

so off I go, woman on a mission from the universe! Searching for the rabbit with my trusty sidekick desi buzzing around my heels! where is he mom...do you think he is ok mom? Dad, mom is going to rescue us a rabbit!!!!! Truly a scene right out of the cartoons. So we walk along at a brisk pace checking each white ball of trash for signs of bunny life, i.e. ears or tail...maybe a twitchy nose? No luck, no luck , no luck.....and as I come around one of the last trees in the park, there is bun bun waiting quietly for me to come and get him.

I calmly walked over, talking the whole way in the sooth the crazy horse voice. He let me walk right up, pet him a few times, he sniffed my hand. Then I picked him up and tucked him safely in my shirt. He rode quietly the whole way home from the park. Once home we found him a box and took a good look at him.

Who does this to animals!!!!!!! He is a bag of bones, no exagerating. If he was the only thing that stood between us and starvation, we would starve even if we did eat him ( I have no intentions of eating any of my animals now, or in the future!).His ears have no fur on them at all. They are super red and hot. Obviously an infection of some kind right, so I look inside. Oh My God! Who lets this stuff happen! His ears are filled with a nasty smelling crusty gunk ( this morning his ears are bleeding as well). Poor Bunny. Other than that he seems like he is happy to be here. He is eating well, although I am not sure if his front teeth are in good shape. It seems like at bit of a struggle for him to bit off some of the food. Either that or it has just been to long and he is not sure what to do with it.

So off I go on another crazy mission of animal rescue. How do they all find me???? I swear my animals are running an underground railroad or something.

sorry for the lack of photos, Mr. bun bun has asked us to refrain until he looks better.

old to you

new to me. Last night the family watched a really lovely movie called The Worlds Fastest Indian. Yes, it is about motorcycles but even if you hate the blasted machines, it is a really inspirational movie. It tells the story of one crazy old man following his dreams, no matter what. He really let nothing stop him, not age, not money, not heartache. Things that have stopped many of us dead in our tracks. Even my children were glued to this film causing both of them to be up way past their bedtime!

Do whatever you have to do but watch this film. It is worth it!

Did I mention that it is a true story???

Color me inspired!

winter warmth.....

so far from our minds right now as we swelter our way through summer. And really the hottest months are yet to come! Ack! So why in the world am I thinking ahead to winter warmth here in sunny California? Well, you can chalk it up to our current economy and how scary the price of everything is becoming. All of us are now having to consider how we spend our hard earned dollars a whole more carefully. The price of everything has gone through the roof. Many of us have re-invented the victory garden not only for economies sake but for our food safety. We are returning to our Little House On The Prairie roots. If you can learn how to do it for yourself. This has always been my mantra. As we learn how to take care of ourselves again, it is also time to look around and see who is getting left behind. Who needs a helping hand. Along this vein, I found the Nest project in Soulemama's post today. Nest has started a knitting ring to connect knitters with people in need in Maine. Coldest of the cold here in the contiguous 48, many people in maine are going to have a hard time affording their heating oil this winter. This is not a luxury for them and many may not be able to eat and stay warm. So do what you can, knit something warm for a complete stranger. The details are listed on the nest blog (follow the link) but the big one is the deadline is september 1st. Please help in whatever way you can. Not feeling up to knitting, donate some yarn out of your stash to someone who can.

I will leave you with this thought...

whatever you put out into the universe will return to you threefold.

Laundry Day

or at least it should be. How do I disturb this sleeping beauty? Can't do laundry with out the basket I suppose....I will just sit back down on the couch with my knitting. No one really needs clothes anyways right....it is summer after all.

mmmmnnnnnn! bread

I baked this bread the other day off the back of the King Arthur Bread Flour bag. It is called oatmeal bread and OH MY GOODNESSS is it good. I seem to have lost all of my loaf pans so I just did it free form kinda like a ciabata or something. It really was the best bread I have ever made and I have made a lot of bread.

Speaking of which, I am waiting for a new book to arrive. The Tassajara Bread book is on its way to join my lovely cook book library. Am I the only one who reads them like they are novels? Any way this book is supposed to be like the end all bible of bread. I can't wait.

happy 4th!

Hope yours was a day of fun and friends and an evening of sparklely magic!

What's on your needles?????

a secret present for a far away mystery friend.....hmmm what could it be?

toadstool caps for my felt playscape I am making for my class

the gnome house I am knitting from this great pattern I found on etsy! Stay tuned I traded AnnSpun a few bars of soap for some of her other great patterns.

Garden still life

a portrait of yum by desi

please stand by.......

Stand by for what. Kind of silly but all night in my dreams I became obsessed with those little red lights on various appliances around the house. Why do I need a light to tell me that said piece of equipment is waiting for me to come back. Please come back and turn me on, says the stereo with its weird dancing light display, flaunting all of it's different functions across the digital screen. Come back begs my television with it's special color coded light up logo. Orange if it is off and white when it is turned on. Do they really believe I need a color coded light to confirm that the T.V. is turned off......Luke, you switched off your computer is something wrong????????

I dare you to take a look around your house and count up all of your electrical gadgets that have a standby light of some kind. I counted everything that has some sort of light on when you are not using it like the clock on the coffee maker, the display on the stereo etc. Report back with your numbers and I will post mine.

believe it or not all of these little lights and displays add up to electrical drain, sometimes referred to as a ghost load. Somewhere down the line, no matter how small it may seem, someone is making money off all these tiny lights. At this point there are no light free options, that makes me a little crazy!

weekly harvest wrap up

somehow, blame the heat, i forgot to post our harvest tallies for last week. in my defense it did 101 degrees here last week. i don't survive the heat very well! i won't complain about it further as all my DA cohorts already posted about it.

this last week we harvested:

our first ever so lovely purple cabbage (2 1/2 lbs )
2 dozen eggs
greens for two salads
4 artichokes
1st cucumber
2 tomatoes


mmmmmmm, sure was tasty!

Construction update

Some of you may remember that my dear husband is building me a new studio, as he and all of his stuff took over my former studio. You have been asking me for progress reports. Sadly the progress is very slow! We are now waiting to be able to afford the electrician coming and sorting that all out. Most of the electrical is done, it just needs to be connected to the circuit breaker. Not really stuff I want to mess with...so I am saving my pennies!

Here is the inside view from the front door. You can tell the man has been here. See all the tell tale signs...tools all over the place and lots of sawdust!

The outside, I am happy to say is completed! Isn't it cute. My door is the set on the left. This studio will be much smaller than my former space but it has a lock on the door! Once it is completed we will be building a little patio outside the back door. I am planning a little bistro table and chairs to sit at and sip my coffee while gazing out over my little orchard!

we love our Dad!

Here is our dad! doing what he loves most....well at least one of the things.

we are so grateful that he chose to be part of our family!

we love you!

SHOP UPDATE!

This week the shenanigans shop is launching a line of t-shirts for kids. After much searching for cool stuff for our son, we finally decided to just do it ourselves!

here is the first design! It will be up in the shop today so go and check it out!

thanks!

The adventures of mama and mud boy!

hmmmmm, alaster has no clothes. What ever shall he do??
Oh what he knows, he will make a mud suit.
custom fit!

poor alaster! mama won't let him wear his new suit in the house.
brrrrrr it is cold now!

mean old mama, washes of the mud using cold hose water.
see poor alaster cry!

Back to basics Challenge!

The folks over at Path To Freedom have issued a challenge to all you gardeners out there! From the newbie to the veteran, you are invited to join them on the path to food freedom.

In a nutshell, it means growing what you can to feed yourself. You can read all about the particulars if you click the back to basics link on the left sidebar.

I am happy to report that this week we harvested:

2 1/2 dozen eggs
1 lb swiss chard
a handful of thyme
a handful of basil
1 oz of chamomile

it doesn't sound like a whole lot but it sure felt good. The rest is growing away. I am still working on my timing in the garden. I need to get things in the ground faster and work on the continuous harvest thing.

What is growing in your garden??

This is how we roll

as many of you have realized, gas is getting very precious. if you haven't realized this, I kindly suggest you come out from under your rock and check out the world around you. There is an awful lot going on. Many of us are having to really think about where we are driving too, and why. No longer can we afford to blindly dash out for a bit of this or a bite of that.

For my family this has meant a return to a simpler form of transportation.

This how we roll now.

yesterday, we left the car at home and went to the bank, P.O. and the farmer's market. On the way home we stopped at the park to play. Can I take a minute to tell you how rewarding this was. Yes, yes, we didn't drive the car hooray! But more importantly my two children and I spent two and a half hours together. I mean really together. no car stereo or images whizzing by the window to distract. No hurry here and there, buckle in and out of car seats. We chatted and watched birds and choose our fruit and veg for the week.

what a priceless moment in our very fast world.

on the road again

the view from our camp site

well, we are back from yet another successful camping trip. this time we were lucky enough to travel with our favorite homeschool group and boy, did we have fun. Nothing quite like having your best friends in the next tent for days jam packed with fun. Various mamas had packed craft activities to occupy the short crowd but they were fast forgotten. How can yarn and sticks compete with whales and dolphins. The only drawback??? The wind was something else at night! We felt like the three little pigs !

yummy dinner

The other night, I made the vegan cassoulet from Isa's book.

even the 2 yr old chowed down (he doesn't eat anything as nursing is soooooo much better). SO yummy. this was the first time I had ever done any vegan "baking" and it worked like a dream. The dish was a sort of leek and white bean stew with a dumpling toping. Today we all ate it for breakfast, it really was that good. I highly recommend this book.

I would have taken some lovely food porn photo for you all but we ate it too fast!

happy eating

It is official!!!!

the shenanigans etsy shop is now open for business! If you look in the side bar there is a link to it. Just click on the blue maltagirl line and that will take you directly to my shop. At the moment there is this lovely selection of felt play food (waldorf style) and some eye pillows.

yummy, a pita for lunch! the lettuce is hand embroidered and the pickles and tomatoes have needle felt details.

spaghetti with marinara strands. so full of fibery goodness.

Farfalle (bowties) and a marinara puddle.

ravioli with marinara puddle.

I am planning on creating a pasta set with all the different pastas I make. Keep your eyes peeled as soon the pancake and strawberry breakfast will be up. New items will be added weekly to keep your little chef well supplied.

Enough about shenanigans-kids what about the grown-ups you say????? Well at the moment I have the eye pillows up. Soon there will be soap as well and a slew of other lovely gifties for you and your loved ones.

keep checking back. Shop updates happen on Mondays!
thank you and good day!

how does the garden grow....

well the garden is really starting to grow now. the weather is still weird here. hot one minute and cold the next. My poor green beans aren't sure what to do. Here are some shots of what is growing!

lovely purple cabbage, almost ready to eat.

green tomatoes and boy are they getting big.

today I discovered tiny artichokes on my new plants. A pleasant surprise as I did not expect fruit this year.

Last but not least the rose I rescued from the yard next door. It has really taken off and the smell is heavenly.

So tell me what is growing in your garden???