You might want to think about adding sweet potatoes to your garden center shopping list. Sweet potatoes are a nutritious change of pace from regular white potatoes. They are easy to grow since hardly any pests bother them but, you do have to do your part to help them along. In order to produce a good crop, … Continue Reading →
Turn that pile of junk mail into a useful form of art with ideas and instructions found in “Paper Made!, 101 Exceptional Projects to Make Out of Everyday Paper (Workman Publishing/$16.95) by Kayte Terry, a visual merchandising manager for Anthropologie and expert crafter. Learn things like how to make a paint chip mobile, pencil holder, … Continue Reading →
If you consider yourself to be an advanced knitter and you’re looking for new and exciting techniques to add to your finished garments then check out “Pop Knitting: Bold Motifs Using Color & Stitch” (Interweave Books/26.95) by knitwear and textile designer Britt-Marie Christoffersson. The book introduces the reader to numerous ways to create graphic knitted … Continue Reading →
I checked my apple trees this week to see if there were any apples left after that freeze we had a couple of weeks ago. I found only a handful of small apples that looked like they could grow on to maturity. Over 99 percent of the buds were frosted and subsequently fell off the tree. I found … Continue Reading →
Some of Michigan’s best-kept secrets are being discovered. The lastest jewel shining in the national spotlight is Traverse City. The Cherry Capital was named to National Geographic’s list of the Best Summer Trips for 2012 — along with such well-known destinations as Baltimore, St. Petersburg (the Russian one), Pawley’s Island in South Carolina, the Spencer … Continue Reading →
There are a lot of different ways to sow seeds directly into a garden bed. Sometimes I use a hoe to form a shallow trench, then drop the seeds in. Other times I use my finger to poke a hole into the soil before dropping in the seed. I find as I get older, my finger has … Continue Reading →
It’s truly a voyage of imagination this spring at the Globe Theatre in London, where actors from all over the world are performing some of Shakespeare’s most famous works in their native languages. How about Hamlet in Lithuanian (that would be Hamletas)? Or Much Ado About Nothing in French (Beaucoup de Bruit Pour Rien)? Some … Continue Reading →
We have a wild area on our property that we keep for birds . It’s about an acre in size and is home to a wide variety of wildlife. This spring, for the first time, we noticed a wonderful dogwood tree hidden in a rarely visited corner tucked in on the south side of a pine tree. … Continue Reading →