How are you doing? It's a busy season even though everything is brown. We should be resting and nourishing our bodies. I've been bringing in sprigs of greenery and burning my homemade tallow candles.
I've been printing out family pictures and crocheting and Lily has been baking. Today it was macarons. Tomorrow she will bake our weekly loaves of sourdough and some ciabatta rolls. I think she wants to make her sourdough cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning.
Family is in town, so this week we will enjoy our days cooking and baking, taking walks and playing dominoes.
December has been keeping me busy with the garden. If you read my last post, I told you about the spring flowers planned.
I got all the tulip bulbs planted in the garden boxes that my brother makes. I pre-sprouted the anemones and ranunculus corms.
Last week I got half the ranunculus planted in the high tunnel. Today I got the anemones planted in another large garden box out back behind my barn.
I still have the other half of pre-sprouted ranunculus to go into a row in the hoophouse, as well as start the sweet pea seeds.
Growing in a hoophouse has allowed me to get a jump start on early spring blooms.
The other bonus of the hoophouse is that some plants never died off last winter. I learned that eucalyptus and dusty miller survive under the hoophouse- even during very cold weather.
If you are looking for a few sprigs of eucalyptus, please get in touch.
I had two other projects this month. First was making something for a bride with pressed flowers used for their wedding. This fall I pressed some statice, queen Anne's lace and greens. I made a letter "J" for their last name and glued the flowers on it. She can put it in a shadow box or display it somehow. I think it turned out as an unique- one of a kind gift.
The other project was something I have wanted to do for years. I found some old boards and somehow figured out how to make a box with the wood. Then I collected my evergreens, holly leaves and dried florals and arranged them in my rustic box. I even tucked some of my fresh eucalyptus in this box.
Make sure you subscribe to my monthly email to get a behind scenes tour of what Free Range Blooms is up to each month. I don't think the Facebook and Instagram algorithm like my posts and don't always show them to you, so this is a way for me to reach out to you.
Take care- stay warm and enjoy time with your loved ones. (and I'll do all the cold- dirty work outside so that you can have fresh flowers this spring)....which you know I love doing!
Also stay tuned for Lily's baking projects- which I realize don't have anything to do with Free Range Blooms. She does use the eggs from our Free Range birds- who help fertilize our Free Range Flowers! We may start her an Instagram page soon.
Merry Christmas. Happy New Year!
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