Image from HelloYarn I've always loved Adrian's work and I never seem to be on top of things when she updates her shop, so I'm excited to be on the receiving end of her fiber club....now then, I should probably make nice with my wheels and spindles in preparation...
Seems like a whole host of folk that I follow in blogland and Flickr are talking about their gardens - so far, I have not been brave enough to try to put in a raised bed garden in my back yard - the yard is quite small, and currently landscaped liberally with cactus. Also, having grown up in the northern Midwest, I can't seem to wrap my brain around the growing season down here in the desert. For those that don't have gardens, I've been enjoying hearing about their local farmers markets as well.
appears to be a nice introductory book in trying one's hand in small-batch preserving. The book touches on several varieties of preserving fresh foods including canning, pickling, freezing, preserving in oil and curing/smoking. The book is further broken into sections for fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts and fungi, and meat, poultry and fish (the last six being grouped together into two separate groups of three).
or you could try your hand at preserve making :) read on for the recipe. I can tell you that this tastes absolutely fantastic served warm over dark chocolate mousse cake and vanilla ice cream...just sayin' 
Our hike in started with shifting rain clouds - they'd move in, veiling the view of the canyon, then shift and offer some clear tantalizing views.
As the day progressed, the sky would clear, then cloud back over in seemingly random intervals. Often times the clouds would be accompanied by a very welcome brisk breeze, other times, they would drop some cooling rain. 
Plenty of wee rodents and brave birds to observe - the rock squirrels are a boisterous bunch - brave, and highly accustomed to seeing people, visitors are reminded to not feed or otherwise coax or entice the wildlife. In addition to plenty of rock squirrels and birds (they were not cooperating with my photography, I'm afraid - but in addition to the wrens and ravens, I also saw a few hummingbirds and a condor!), we also saw some mule deer, a few bighorn sheep, several spiny lizards, some whiptails and an elk with an impressive rack. The rodents and birds can be especially brave in established areas, so much so that while our back was turned preparing dinner, I heard a small thunk in the darkness - it turned out a rather portly mouse managed to vault into our open ammo box (provided for storing food and other smellables) - luckily, as soon as we shone our lights upon him, he lept back out!
I recently got a haircut - had to do something to get my hair up off my neck what with the 110+ (~45 C) temps here in the desert (yes, I know we have air conditioning, but still, any time spent outdoors is simply broiling!) Anyhow, I thought I'd do something different and add in some blue and purple (the matching shirt was just an unplanned bonus).
It isnt really a dye-job, rather it's a set of extensions - the salon suggested those instead of real colorwork because they are lower maintenance and a lot less stress on my hair. Indoors, they aren't terribly visible...
...but the color does pop out a lot better in the sun! In case you're wondering, these should be able to stay in 2-3 months, and they are seamless/weftless. The biggest thing I've noticed so far with them is the texture of the extension does not closely match my own hair - it's more fine and definitely more coarse (but I suspect that might be due to the color treatment). It took a little while to get accustomed to the join, but otherwise, it's been a relatively low fuss way to get some color into my hair :)
