Well. I’m back on wordpress. I finally downloaded the wordpress app for my iPhone and thus, here I am!
As I’m using my phone, my posts’ll be brief 
June 8, 2009
March 30, 2009
Yes, I know I’m random. I just got the biggest kick out of this.
March 20, 2009
Well… Here it is. The first day of spring, and only 62 days away from the frost date in Michigan. At least the thought of spring is nice, even if I still can’t plant many of the things I want to. I guess I’ll keep at it as all northern gardeners do, this time of year: with planning, research, sketches and seemingly infinite daydreaming.
We’re moving to our new house at the end of April, which (theoretically) gives me lots of time to dig up the perennials that I’m longing to bring with me. I basically stuck them in the ground at our house now, knowing that within a year or two I’d be digging them up to go to a hopefully more permanent location.
Well, now that we’ve signed the lease on the little cottage of my temporarily modified dreams, I can start planning and sketching and… well… you get the idea.
Here are a couple of photos of the house. It’s a little sparse right now, but supposedly it’s planted with peonies and various bulbs. The photo on the far left is actually an arial shot of the house (bottom right) and the field to the north of the house. The field is full of beautiful apple trees and various little spots of black raspberries and wild rose (though it’s probably multi-flora rosa… phoo). My goal is to … well.. turn the field into a wildflower meadow. I’m not ambitious or anything…
I’ve been reading up on Tasha Tudor again. It seems like once a year, generally around the doldrums of February, I lug out my Tasha Tudor books and set my mind to daydreams. Unfortunately she died last summer, but she lived to the beautiful age of 92 in her handbuilt 18th century reproduction farm in Vermont. Her gardens are the inspiration for my meadow idea. I can’t imagine it will be too hard. The field used to house cows, so I’m positive the soil is wonderful, and the only thing really living there right now is grass, which with enough diligence can be driven from it’s place. My goal is to get a reel mower so that I can plan and mow paths through the tall grasses. These paths will probably later be solidified by dog and deer travel, so I’m going to try to plan them well
I have plans for a vegetable garden behind the house. There steel posts from an old swing set back there and I can’t help but think that they’d make great supports for climbing peas and beans and indeterminate tomato staking, they’re so solid. I’m going to use my peas and beans as a bit of a shade screen and plant cool crops like lettuce and beets to the north of them, while planting warmer crops (peppers, squash) to the south. In theory it’s a good idea, since the lettuce isn’t going to want as much hot summer sun as everything else… We’ll see how it works out in practice.
I also have plans for gardens up by the house, though I’m going to keep them a bit more modest than my wild dream gardens. It’s going to be interesting watering, this summer. The only exterior water at the cottage is run from a pump head that’s in the milking barn (that’s the little rust colored square to the north east of the house on the arial view). Ah well. Live and learn. I’ll see how it goes this summer. I may just run a hose off of an interior faucet and out the window… I can’t see any major problems with that. At least not now.
As far as plants? I’m going to venture into the world of roses. I have just recently developed an appreciation for roses, and since I’m going for a 19th century feel it seems like that’s pretty much standard. I’m looking at the Abraham Darby rose, which isn’t an heirloom (c. 1985) but it’s just so adorable that i want to give it a shot. It’s a mild climber, reaching roughly 8ft, and produces single complex blooms in apricot.
I’ve linked the above image to a great informational site.
In addition to the Darbies, I’m going to try my hand at vigorous climbing roses. I really want to trellis the side of the house (possibly putting a peaked arbor over the entryway, since it’s a fairly lackluster entry right now) for roses and morning glories.
Geez. Now that I’m writing this all out, I think I’m pretty lucky that I don’t have a lot of obligations. During the spring, I teach in the afternoons, 4 days a week. During the summer I work camp and teach 5 days a week, but I always have evenings and weekends to myself. The simple fact that we’re moving closer to the barn (within 2 miles biking distance!) will give me an extra half-hour to 45 minutes a day that I won’t have to spend driving. Whew.
Alright, so that’s a lot of gardening nonsense. I’m so excited. I’m going to start seeds probably this evening, and I can’t wait to get into the new place so I can get my hands into the dirt.
Below is a 10 minute special (in Japanese) on Tasha Tudor’s gardens. It’s really the only video I can find of her online, and it shows a great deal of her gardens.
Edit:
Also, this image:
I’m so in love with the way this looks. This is similar to the kind of peaked arbor that I want for the entryway to the house.
March 13, 2009
Jeremy and I went to the barn for a little while today and I asked him to photograph me while I worked Ffiona. It was only a 20 minute workout, but it was the first time I’d worked her under saddle since she’d been off.
She had some great moments, and Jeremy took like 200 photos so I was bound to find a couple that I liked! Hah. Below are various photos from the ride. I tried to post a bunch, even though there are some glaring errors in my position and her impulsion and whatnot. Ah well…
Groundwork, without a lot of stretch yet into the bridle, but nice and supple.
Time to move your shoulders over!
Nicely soft in my hand, slow, slow walk.
Slow, slow, trot. Not a lot from behind, but still very light in my hand.
A little more pressure in the hand, and a little more on her forehand… poo
Light in the bridle, very nicely balanced.
Please ignore my crappy wrists! She’s bending nicely here. It’s nice to have a horse with a long bendy back for once.
Here’s our 5th time cantering under saddle. Please excuse my tense and forward position.
Ffiona’s got some pretty high knees when she wants to. This wasn’t even the shot with the highest knees, it’s just the one where she’s fairly balanced and light in the bridle.
March 3, 2009
Whew… that was a long one.
We got in last night after a trip out to the San Francisco Comic Convention. It was a pretty nice Con. The food in the area was good, but expensive. It wasn’t until Monday that Jeremy and I got to go out for some real exploring. We went to the Ghirardelli square area where we found a beautiful bayside park to walk in. Naturally it was full of birds I’d never seen… it was like going to the zoo, only better! I added several birds to my lifelist
White crowned sparrow
Black Phoebe
Lesser Goldfinch
Western Grebe
Brewer’s Blackbird
Wilson’s Wabler was perhaps the most exciting sight of the walk.
What a petite and adorable little bird!
We also saw two types of hummingbirds: Black chinned and Broad-tailed
February 14, 2009
Whew. I’m sick. I’d like to think that I would be posting something long and meaningful if I were feeling better. Haha.
February 1, 2009
Jag tänker köpa en ny häst denna dag!
February 1, 2009
I guess it’s time for me to make another post. I keep forgetting to post on this thing until I’m sitting around going “Sheesh! Nobody is updating their blogs! What the crap?!” and then I realize I’m just as bad.
Jeremy and I are ordering pizza tonight. I’m pretty excited. We were going to cook and be healthy and domestic, but damn Jet’s pizza sounded good! Oh… and a quick note. Be sure to check out Jeremy’s updated web site. His publisher has taken over the site and it’s amazing! www.jeremybastian.com
I’ve been in and out of funkiness lately. Ups and downs. Mostly ups, but the down moments are pretty rotten. I keep telling jeremy that I just need a good shove out the door in the general direction of the barn. It seems like as soon as I get out of the city I feel better. This weather is really getting to me. The weather folks (who the heck are they, anyway?!) keep calling for warmer and warmer weather, always a few days off, and it seems like that warmer weather’ll never get here. Ugh.
Alright. I have to come clean. I’m buying another horse. Trust me, she’s worth more than what I’m paying for her. She’ll be living up at Lauren and Heather’s place for a few months until my student base picks up a bit again. I’ll also be posting Ffiona for sale some time in the next few weeks once I get some photographs of her under saddle. Fio’s old trainer sent me an email this past week asking how it’s going with her, and honestly it’s going well, I just think she’s going to be happier with a home where she won’t be used in lessons. Maybe if I could get a leaser or two on her things would be different, but she’s not cantering under saddle yet, and she’s just working on trotting poles so it’s not like she’s really ready for that. Meh. We’ll see…
Anyway, the new horse will likely either be called Sprout, Brigid or Esme. I’m not sure on the names yet. She’s registered and incredibly sweet. She’s really conformationally adorable, too, and has a great little spring in her trot (it reminds me of Copper-the-pony’s trot.) She’s really simple to ride (though sitting her trot will take some getting used to) and she just seems really nice. Her owner is starting a family, and just doesn’t have the time for horses anymore.
She’s going to be staying up at Roheryn for a couple of months until spring lessons pick up and then she’s coming down to Constantine to be a lesson horse. She should be tons of fun to show at emaa since she’s a flashy mover.
She’s had a few babies, too, and her conformation and head are such that she would make a great broodmare.
I’m excited, and I know that I don’t Need-need-need another mouth to feed, but I figure she’ll be great for lessons and camp, and when summer leases pick up again I’ll have enough horses to supply to most of the kids wanting to lease. Right now each of my horses has a decent amount of work, but there’s no way I could make it through the summer without overworking them if I didn’t have another set of legs to carry some of the burden.
The closer I get to camp season, the more and more excited I get. This year is going to be awesome!
January 21, 2009
Owl and Jackdaw.
I’ve got a migraine, so I’m just going to post the images for the most part.
I improvised on the owl’s wing, as the photo reference that I have was difficult to decipher. It shows, definitely. Ugh. Oh well. Live and learn.
I’m quite happy with the jackdaw… It’s got a very european bird appearance Haha.
Oh. And. I’ve got my professional web site up for the most part. www.emilymjenkins.com Woot.
Lemme know if I’ve screwed anything up. I’m sure some of my spelling is off. It’s a lot of … well… professional development stuff. Ugh. Still working on my training philosophy, and training page.
Oh, and what do you guys think of the name Sprout, and the name Stelmaria (stel-MAR-ia)? Just curious. Ah. Ive decided I hate Ffiona’s name. It’s a snobby name for a snobby horse. Is it wrong to change her name?… it might be. Hmm.
