Two Siblings, Two Packages, Two Letters

I have some pen friends, actually a kind of pen friend family.  We send each other goofy postcards and miscellaneous stuff now and then.  I thought it would be fun to make up some 'perfect postal packages' like the ones I made for last Summer's wizarding event.  I made them for the two daughters.  

What is always fun is trying to match the package to the person.  Last Summer I knew the gender and ages of the kids involved, along with a few comments for a few of them. Mostly I had to guess, but I seem to have a knack there. 

For these two young ladies, I asked some specific questions of their parents.  Based on what I got back, I decided that one package would be from a magical universe and the other from a fantastical, expeditionary universe. 

The packages were sent secretly several weeks ago.  Monday, I hear, they were delivered and very much appreciated.  My knack for matching package to person held true, I am told; the gals were delighted.  Here are some pics of what I sent.  As this one is a private fictional correspondence, I won't go into detail on the letters except for an excerpt from each.

PACKAGE ONE

From a Wizardly Professor

PACKAGE TWO 

From a Traveling Explorer

RECEIVED: Just in from Boston

Somebody out there has one crazy typewriter!

 (Thanks!)

Urban Farming - 2nd Summer - Setting Up

Image source/credit

Last summer's community garden experience wound up being a bit of a science experiment.  Fun, interesting, but bit of a bust in terms of a substantive harvest.  So this year I am going to switch things up a bit.  I'd used our front porch for pretty stuff and some herbs.  This summer, I am going to try container gardening.  

The beginning set

Last weekend I cleared away the winter's stash of firewood and swept away all the old leaves.  Then during the week, when I took breaks from my remote database management job, I started to get the pots up from the basement and began testing out how I wanted to arrange them all.

Our upstairs neighbor/landlord is lending me some blown glass watering bulbs.  Last year we had some pretty hot days and I didn't always get out there to water the poor bairns.  Maybe these will help in case I fall behind again.

Always encouraging is this perennial I dug up from our shared backyard several years ago.  I just wanted something leafy that first summer when we moved in.  This beastie - have no idea what it is -- has been showing up every spring for 3 years now.  Yes, it's a perennial and that's what they do - but I have not treated this plant particularly well.  I thought it had died after Year 1 and just left the pot uncovered and unprotected out on the porch all through the winter. 

Last week I took an afternoon to get the first round of plants in.

 Two varieties of tomatoes, with protective chicken wire 

(we have many cats and squirrels who visit our porch on a regular basis).

 

The kitchen herbs (thyme, sage, 2 kinds of mint, basil & rosemary).
Plus 4 'sweet banana peppers' and 1 green pepper.

All the Pretties!

Porch garden at day's end.

Next week I'll be putting in some seeds: green beans, carrots, and several varieties of leaf lettuce.  As things get all 'bloomy' and stuff, I'll post some updated pics.