Garden Fairy, Refrigerator Fairy

Remember the Garden Fairy? The one who put a yellow Asiatic lily in my flower bed sometime prior to 2018? Being caged has saved it from the deer (removed for the picture), and I don't know why the moles haven't found it. Anyway... it is blooming! Three buds, two of them open today. I don't know what variety. It doesn't seem to be one of the specialty ones. I wouldn't mind if this had babies.

And when I got home from the vendor event this weekend, another fairy had been in my refrigerator! Fresh strawberries! Thank you to whomever...

I sure did not get things done today at the rate I had hoped. Errands, paperwork from the weekend, inventory and ordering more books. There must have been other things because I was working all day long, but I can't account for them.

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the things I need to be doing. Hopefully, I can do a better job of getting my act together tomorrow.

And I updated my author web site with upcoming shows and programs.

See One Garden Fairy, One Garden Liar

Around the Venue

The Lakeshore Art Fair is held in and around Hackley Park in Muskegon each year. This is the central statue in the park, 80 feet tall, of "Victory." The park is to honor Civil War veterans.

These artistic sprinklers were being sold right across the street from us. Little kids had fun playing in the spray. I didn't price them, but they must have cost plenty since I think they rented three booth spaces to have room to set up the sprinkler.

There weren't any unusual plants in the gardens around Hackley Park, but they were nicely kept. Stella D'Oro lilies and Impatiens.

And the hanging planters had hot petunia colors. But they are nice and full.

On the other side of me was author friend, Michael Carrier, who writes thriller mysteries set in the Upper Peninsula.

And so that Kay-Kay could have a rest, Jean brought Laya today. Laya is an old hand at events and can be walked on a leash! I certainly never knew that chickens could be so calm.

The storm line held off until about 3:30. We all took down non-essential parts of our displays and held out until the last minute. None of us was willing to let books get wet! We all helped each other at the end. The only things of mine that got wet were the bare table and the canopy. I can dry those out this week. Many of us hadn't expected we'd even get as many good hours out of today as we did. The wind was gusty, and even with weights, we spent some anxious moments holding down our canopies, but all ended well.

I haven't added up the sales yet, but I did all right. Definitely some profit even with transportation and allowing myself that one junk food treat yesterday. Did I make enough for two days work and a day of prep? Hard to say. It takes forever to build up a reputation as an indie author. I did better than many. And I had some return customers. It's hard not to compare myself to author neighbor Michael, who is well-known, and who sells one or more books about every 30 seconds. But others had a poor sales weekend, and I feel bad for them. It's really hard when you don't even cover your booth space.

I do love the way our Michigan Author community tries to support each other.

See Bring Your Chicken to Work Day

Bring Your Chicken to Work Day

Meet Kay-Kay, a Silkie Chicken.

Not only did Jean bring her chicken to work...

...but she wrote a children's book about Kay-Kay!

So, it was yet another vendor event. How many pictures of canopies and stuff do you want to see? That's what I thought. I was sharing a tent with Melanie Hooyenga who writes young adult stories. I'll just show you this one.

Some authors did quite well, and some didn't do well at all. I did moderately well. At least I'm now in the black, so that's always a plus. The weather could be iffy tomorrow which makes me really glad that I'm out of the stress zone. One can never be sure from one event to another.

It's good to be back with my author friends, discussing author-y things... and chickens.

See How to Sell Books- Bring Your Chicken

Rock Garden Report - 2

Well, I didn't work on the hike statistics at all today. Mostly I was getting ready for the Lakeshore Art Festival this weekend.

My car still wasn't completely emptied from the hike, and stuff for vendor events was all over the place and not ready.

In between, of course I'm gardening. Here's what the rock garden looks like now. I now have about 19 out of ~80 numbered spaces weeded. I've added three plants, and found remnants of more that have survived.

Here's a closer view of the strip I'm working on.

Here's what it looked like on June 2, with 10 spaces sort of cleared just so you can see that I have made some progress.



Why am I starting on that edge instead of the outer edge and working in? Because it stays in shade till about 11 am. After that it gets full blazing sun, and it's a killer to work out there. Today was overcast until almost 1 pm, so I extended my weeding out from the wall a bit.

I'm also working on plant records. All my old notes are so far out of date- plants that died, plants that moved themselves- that they are worthless.

I've always said that the rock hill just swallows plants. You can't even see my three new ones. Don't worry. I'll show you one of these days. One huge find is that one of my favorite sedums has spread, so I. potted up some sprigs of that to put in a second space. One huge problem is that an autumn olive had taken root on the hill. I cut it down way earlier this year, but the roots need to be chopped out, and I'll be working at discouraging it from coming back...probably forever.

Rock gardens, when they are done "right" are stuffed full of plants that fill in niches and cracks. They are usually the kind of gardens that you stand around and study because you'll find new things every time. They usually aren't noted for big swaths of color and flamboyance.

I also did laundry.

Anyway... I'm beat. I still have to pack some clothes and fix food to take for the weekend's lunches. But I think that's all... oh yeah, wash the dishes.

See Last Garden Post for a While

Betty's Garden Fun

It's turning out to be a huge job to go all through the blog posts and make notes of who was there on which days, and how long I stayed at each host, etc. How about some more pretty plants instead?

This is a garden loosestrife (not the horrible purple loosestrife that takes over wetlands. Actually, this probably isn't even in the same genus.)

She still has a columbine in bloom!

These are some variety of "Sundrops," which is an evening primrose relative. Genus Oenothera. I used to have some shorter ones, but they all eventually died out.

Here's the one that takes my breath away. She can grow delphiniums! I have killed a few. This is a lighter blue one, but it's still stunning.

And how about those pots of coleus? They are looking great! But she has not escaped the deer eating her hosta. I'm not gloating... just saying.

Can you tell that I'm getting a lot of joy from plants and flowers and gardening? Very much so!

See Gardening with Betty