My week

The more fun stuff happens around me the less I am inclined to write about it. Funny, eh? This week was full of good things: celebrating my mom's birthday, seeing first fruits of the labor in the garden, spending lazy evenings reading and playing piano ...
I was sure to have a stressful week, after all I had tons to do at work and was left with just one day to myself. Instead I had wonderful 7 days: I crafted, planned, cleaned, read, had fun, and didn't even think about taking pictures. So instead of the usual collage here is a picture of a pink poppy and a short summary of my week:

ENJOYING
                         doodling and drawing in my art book
READING
                         The Creative Habit and The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener
WORKING ON
                         2 new collections for Brass and Ruffles
MISSING
                         pink poppies lost due to wet weather
WELCOMING
                         first green baby tomatoes
PLAYING
                         Ludovico Einaudi's Nightbook
LIKING
                         light summer food and abundance of fruits
MAKING
                         fruit syrups for lemonades and iced teas
LACKING
                         sleep but I am sure to catch up next week


What kind of week are you having? Doing anything fun and exciting?
Anya

Weekly collage

This week had it all: good days and bad days, laughter and tears, time spent gardening and evenings spent crafting, pleasant surprises and unpleasant discoveries ....
This must be why today's collage looks mixed and matched: photoshoped ikebana arrangement from Monday class, pages from my Summer artbook, sleeping Sebka, and one of two pink poppies that survived the rain.

My week in pictures

I like how these weekly collages capture the tone and the mood of my weeks.  Last days of May were calm and quite. The weather was grey and I've spent a lot of time doing things I like: playing with pots and containers in the garden, watching flowers bloom, and working on the new project involving watercolours (I am hoping to share more details soon).

I made the first iced tea of the season, using herbs from the garden and received my Shoden ikebana diploma on Monday! What a wonderful way to finish the month!!!

Happy Sunday, my dear readers!
Anya

White and red garden

After the heat, the humidy, and a massive downpour the garden is full of blooms.  The first red poppy is out and white alliums are standing tall in the flowerbed.  Last week I accidentally bought a dahlia for my containers.  White lantana is already planted in a beautiful container and so are begonias and white lobelia.

More container gardening news are coming up soon!
Anya

My week

What a fun week it has been: lots of gardening, crafting, piano playing, and spending time with people I love.  I enjoyed creating a weekly collage last time and I am hoping to make it a habit.  So this is what my week looked like:

To capture the complete feeling of the week here is Ludovico Einaudi's DIETRO CASA that've been played a lot in our house.

xxx
Anya

Spring tea time

The shot was taken on one of the first sunny April days...

Colours of my week

I have lots of photos, a couple of recipes, and even a tutorial to share with you next week. 

Have a wonderful weekend, my dear readers!
 xxx
Anya

April hail

 It hailed earlier today

Luckily, I had enough time to bring in my seedlings.  I thought April is known for its showers, not hail!

Hope the weather is better in your neck of the woods.
Anya

Happy Spring!!!

I've been playing with Photoshop and textures, inspired by Suzonne Stirling's images.

Happy first day of spring!

xxx
Anya

February guest

A while ago, in November, we had a cute visitor on the balcony; begging for peanuts and teasing Sebka.
A couple of weeks ago another type of guest was spotted on our backyard.  I was lucky to have my camera ready and managed to take some shots of the beautiful February guest:

I think he was a little bit camera shy: every time I'd try to snap a picture he would turn away.

Eventually he got restless and decided to hide between tree branches.

The cute moment happened the day after when the same cardinal flew back with his girlfriend. This time she was eating seeds at the bird feeder and he was staying on guard to "protect" her. What a cute couple!

Snowy March

We are snowed in again. The light white snow keeps falling and falling, covering the whole city ...

Could it be the last storm of the season? Some say "yes", but living in Montreal for over 10 years I learned to expect snowfalls in March, April and even May.
The "weather people" promise +6 on the weekend and I even heard them suggesting not to bother shoveling since most snow will melt fast.

So instead of shoveling we take long naps on the couch.

Happy Friday, my dearest readers!
xxx
Anya

Visitors ...

The visitor from ANOTHER DAY came back.  This time he brought along his girlfriend: 

We are expecting a big family reunion on our balcony over the next couple days.

August happiness

I can't believe August is almost over.  Every year I am surprised how fast this month passes, I feel like it is shorter than February.  Lots of things happened during this short month, here are some that made me happy:

Wishing you all a happy end of August!

July snapshots

What made me happy in July?

... yummy food ...

... unexpected beautiful guests ...

... lazy afternoons ...

... pretty girls ...

... and handsome boys ...

... posing...

... daydreaming ...

... curiosity ...

... our garden ...

... craft projects ...

... first crop ...

... sleep ...

... love ...

Sister's photos

 

It's too hot to cook and too early in the day to craft. What should Anya do? GARDEN!!!

It's my first year taking care of our backyard.  My gardening adventures had some ups and downs and I am planning on writing more about it.  Today I am just sharing some photos MY SISTER took when she was over a couple of weeks ago.

I have planted herbs on the balcony: 3 types of basil, parsley, oregano, sage, marjoram and ....

Lemon thyme

It grows very nicely and has a pleasant lemony taste.  I have been adding it to SALADS and found some interesting recipes for thyme ice cream!

This pretty little bush was full of gorgeous flowers.  Unfortunately it seems like our balcony is not the ideal spot for azaleas.

Azalea which refuses to bloom

This poor guy (aka lemon tree)  has been through a lot: I got it several years ago from a girl whose apartment I was subletting.   It lived on the patio for the whole summer and was moved inside the house for winter.

Lemon tree

A year later it survived a move to another apartment where it was slightly neglected and even abused by my cat.  When I was moving (yet again) last year I was almost convinced to leave it, since poor guy was in a quite miserable condition.  Thankfully, I took it with me and it is now enjoying the sun and the rain and seems to be getting new leaves all over!  Who knows, maybe one day it will thank me with a tiny little lemon ... or two.