First Harvest

I woke early, as usual these days and decided to get creative
and shoot some pictures as the sun was trying to pull itself up in the sky.
This basket of veggies was from Tim's trip into our garden after dinner last night. You really have to keep an eye on those zucchinis for they explode into mammoth things!

It's amazing how much food we are managing to make for ourselves in our garden! We seem to be doing very well sticking to that 100 mile diet (or as Tim says 160 kms) that everyone is yakking about. It wasn't planned or intentional to do it but it's relatively easy living here.

I went to the big gift and tableware show on Wednesday and that was quite amazing. It was pretty easy to speed past booths that I know won't work for us and our barn. Food, fabrics, smelly soaps and bath bombs are just the thing for the mice to enjoy which we are trying to keep out of the barn. Also all that high end glass, china, chrystal and ceramics don't work in our rustic venue. I did find a couple of new wholesalers which have some fab stuff that I love so hopefully customers will too. A couple of them are Canadian couples building things to sell which is perfect for what we are trying to accomplish. I found 2 different sources for those great birdhouses and outdoor items that use old recycled tin ceiling tiles and barn board and other found objects to make cool things. I ordered from the one place so hopefully I'll be receiving the items by Sept. 1st or at least that was the date they told me they are hoping to have it out to me. My Christmas items that we currently have had in the store for 3 weeks are flying out the doors and my other shipments of the big load of Christmas should be arriving any day! I wish that they would hurry up I can't wait to see what I bought! I know I had some really different things I found and I bought from another vendor at the show a few more Christmas bits that I couldn't resist! They had some really different metal outdoor xmas garden stakes of Santa or Trees, Snowman and an angel. They were metal with paint and some cute sayings and a few cut out stars with sparkle on it. Can't resist a bit of bling!
All this Christmas ornament shopping has got me completely obsessed with figuring out presents for the kids and trying to plan out some kind of budget. This year is going to have to be a bit more crafty and homemade than our usual Christmas. At least with the kids not having any TV channels to watch they have no commercials buzzing in their heads telling them they "Have to have it". I hadn't realized how completely TV jams down the kids throats all this stuff they need, need NEED! After 9 months of no TV but just DVD movies and videos they have no idea what stuff they are missing in their lives! Of course when they get back to school that will probably change rapidly.

I'm not in any rush to hook up a satellite dish or fix the TV aerial and no money for it either so Tim and I tend to watch either one of the 3 stations we do get in somewhat clear or watch a DVD or thanks to my mom, pop in a VHS with some TV program she has taped for us. It's shocking to see how clear our TV can be when you watch a movie after the fuzz of our normal stations!

Well my tea is getting cold and my tummy's rumbling so I better go and grab a quick quiet moment at the river before the monkeys get up and have some meditation time while I can.
Life is good.