Green thumbing

First harvest of the year - a Manitoba Tomato. It's not that big - about the size of a ping pong ball - but it's the first one that's managed to make it through a slight blight infestation that's attacked at least one of my plants. But it's a garden tomato... mmm.

And my lavender! Oh, my sweet, sweet lavender... this is the third time I've tried to grow lavender in my many years of gardening. This is the first time I haven't killed it within a month of planting it. It's flowering - as the photo shows - and sprouting and strong... and it smells so wonderful.

I'm already making plans on how to keep it alive through our winter, which may prove to be a bit more of a challenge for me than most people. Not only do I procrastinate like a pro, the way our backyard is landscaped (and I use that term very loosely), the lavender (and my only yellow rose bush) is in the lowest point of the yard. Our backyard is essentially a bowl-shape so everything tends to collect right where the lavender is; add in the windtrap that the backyard becomes in the winter and waist-deep snow and keeping this particular lavender plant alive - and thriving next year - will be a battle worth winning.

Today's a pretty hectic day for us - we're heading out of town this afternoon for doctor's appointments (yes, I live in a city of 50,000, but my family doctor is 45 minutes away in a small town of 1,500... yay, Canadian healthcare!) and supper at my parent's, so instead of listing a new piece I don't have time to finish properly, I'm going to have a surprise deal announced via Twitter - @nisseworks - this afternoon (within the next 5 hours). Follow me on Twitter and you can have a chance for an amazing deal on something in my shop.

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And a new design for the blog! I like it, after all the hiccups last evening... clean, not flashy, simple. I give it 3 months before I change it again :)