I haven’t taken time to write about my activities recently, but that doesn’t mean I’ve been quiet. I was able to plant a garden this year in spite of the cold April weather and it was off to a beautiful start. Now I just have to keep it watered in all this heat.
Here’s what it looked like a week or so ago.
It’s not very big, but it gives me all the tomatoes I can eat and delicious potatoes. I try cucumbers every year and I think this year I will actually be feeding myself instead of the deer and rabbits. You can see my rather makeshift fencing. Although a determined deer could easily jump it, it seems to be enough of a discouragement that they don’t bother. After I found a rabbit sitting inside the fence which has only 2″x3″ openings, I wrapped the bottom with chicken wire and that seems to have kept them out. There are lots of other wonderful things for them to eat on the rest of the property, so they have to stay out of my garden! 
There is a nearby farm that has U-pick strawberries and every year I plan to get some to freeze. It works out that I do about half the time! This year I picked 14 quarts and was very glad I did. It was a wonderful strawberry season. We had a lot of rain followed by hot dry weather at the perfect time. The strawberries were luscious! Big and sweet. I’ve found that the varieties that are huge can tend to be tasteless, especially when frozen. These are a variety called Sparkle and they have a wonderful flavor no matter their size.
Enough of food, so what have I been doing with my paper?
As I mentioned in my last blog, I’ve started making designer portfolios and last week I finished a set of four. Here they are:
I’m very pleased with these and there was only one real problem. On the red one somehow I made two left sides and so I could either throw it all out, have the cranes flying upside down or have the “pocket” on the wrong side. I opted for the latter. My next set of large portfolios will have replaceable pads on one side like the smaller notebooks do. Not sure I like this, but I’m trying to sell them in a local office supply store and the owner suggested that might help. We’ll see.
In mid-July I’m taking off for one of my favorite places – The John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, N.C. My granddaughter and I will be taking a course in wood carving, so that will be a whole new world for me! I don’t know how the blogging schedule will go for the next month, but I’ll try to pop in with pictures occasionally.