Bleeding hearts and Broken teacups

My bleeding hearts are finally blooming!  I thought for sure they would just grow leaves all summer--don't they all bloom earlier in the year?  But look!  Here they are.

Also, I couldn't resist including a little teacup collection, they are some of my favorites from trash beach.

I hope you're enjoying your summer!

Some new things

We recently dropped an order at Honey and Hazel with a few new items.  I'm excited about the new cylindrical icicle earrings; they're a little bit softer and a tiny bit more understated.  I'm also in love with these v-shaped rose charms that look so good paired with a sparkly chain. You can check them out in the shop right now, but if you're in the area, I suggest you visit them in person at Honey and Hazel!

Fiddlehead Ferns

Yum.  I had never had them before, so when we found some this weekend in Massachusetts, I got excited and grabbed a bagful.  And yep, they were delicious:  cooked in boiling water for about 5 minutes, placed into an ice bath, then sauteed with salt, pepper and olive oil until tender. Then served up with a splash of balsamic vinegar. It was a good first foray into fiddlehead territory.  But, alas, their short season is just about over, so I'll have to wait a year to have another taste.

Lights

We had a fun Memorial day weekend playing with sparklers and long exposures.  And writing our names in lights.  I know it's a bit late, but I thought these pictures were fun, and with the heat wave coming up this week I need all the happy summer thoughts I can get!

Chicken Rental

Meet Gladys and Clarice, the chickens who lived with us for about a week and a half.  Since my brother starting raising chickens, I've wanted some, too.  But we have significantly less space in New York City than he does in Arizona.  

Now that we do have an outdoor space, though, we decided to have a chicken test run--maybe it would work out.  We were ready: we built a coop, bought some hay and feed, then went to our friend's Connecticut farm to pick them up.  They came home and got comfortable pretty quick; we had our first egg later that day.  The cats were both excited and terrified, but were certainly fascinated about the new strange things in the yard. By the end of the week, however, Melvin was comfortable enough to lounge out under the coop.

Our first egg was Clarice's and it was blue.  She's the darker Ameraucana, and Gladys is the brown one. Poor Gladys  tended to get pecked by Clarice, but she was definitely the more friendly of the two.

They both went crazy for greens.  We donated our cilantro to keep them away from the ferns and bleeding hearts, and then we bought them some kale which they devoured with crazy intensity.

When the cats first would get too close for comfort, the chickens would start making this "get away" cluck, and then the cats would get scared and run off.  Eventually Melvin realized that the chickens were too big to be food, and he was allowed to be outside if he ignored them.  I'm sure that if there was a scuffle, the chickens would come out on top, though.

They were great to have, but they did decimate some of our plants (see above)  and while the mess didn't really bother me (chicken poop is way easier to clean up than dog poop), the flies it attracted did. There just wasn't enough open space to get away from the flies. So we took them home again and came home with easier to care for plants. But one day we will continue our adventures with chickens.

Rainy Garden

One reason we've been busy lately is that we've spent every free moment (and there haven't been many) on our garden.  When we first got here, it was a tiny concrete slab surrounded by warehouses. Remember the baby ferns from the first teasings of spring? Some of them have grown up, but some are still unfurling.  I've also been on a fern buying spree for the past few weeks; every time I see one I like, I'll snatch it up... but now I'm having a hard time placing all of them!  

We've been planting hosta, sedum, moss, impatiens and morning glory.  Hopefully it can stand the shade until it becomes tall enough to catch the sun--they all have string trellises to climb.  And I want to get some begonias, but I'll have to build some more wooden planters, since I'm out of container space right now.

We repurposed the planter in the back (it was an old media center that was about to get tossed to the curb) and we will be building benches one day soon, but my favorite place to sit is the swing:

It's the perfect place to sit and have a cup of tea in the morning. We made a small table that sits next to it and is perfect for a cup and plate of cookies. There's also a surprise that will be coming soon...

It's that time of year again

And another visit to trash beach.  I love the waste knob and the sugar tongs.  The pawn was a pretty fabulous find, too; it's solid iron! These were found on a miserable day a few weeks ago, but now that it's a bit warmer I'll have to go again soon...

 yay trash!

Spring Forest

I know, it's been a while, but there has been a lot going on lately.  Last Sunday we took a break from life in the big city and toured the forest upstate. It was a lovely day, and the weather couldn't have been more perfect: warm and sunny in the morning, cool and overcast in the afternoon.

It was so nice to spend time outside in nature (well, as nature as it gets around here)

a morel mushroom?  We didn't test it out.

I really did love the ferns--they were everywhere!

These tiny red ferns were growing on a patch in the middle of a stream;
I only saw them once and they were my favorites.  

Liverworts and moss (some of my favorites)

toad!

But my favorite was the salamander who was hiding in an old, rotten log. Isn't he cute?

Growing Ferns

Now that we have an outdoor space, it's been decided that we must take advantage and have a garden.  However, the "yard" is bordered on all sides by tall buildings and gets almost zero direct sunlight.  This had initially posed a problem to starting a garden, but luckily, there are plants that love the shade.  So far we have Bleeding Hearts, Lily of the Valley, and Ferns.  The ferns are all unfurling right now, and I am excited to have a summer outdoor garden in which to drink tea in the mornings.

Hopefully we'll be getting some Hosta, and I'm going to try to grow some morning glory up a tree. We want to find a french bistro table and chair set and build some hypertufa planters to fill out the space.  I am very excited for spring to explode, and with all this recent rain, hopefully it will soon!  I'm also looking for more shade-loving plants.  Do any of you gardeners have suggestions?  

I love the unfurling baby ferns.

Letterpress Studio

 I so love letterpress type.  I love type in general; I love design; I love fancy letters and especially flourishes.  It was fun to poke around the studio and look at all the old plates and type in all the drawers.  Now I want to make some text posters.