Fingering Zen

My blooming, growing world

It has been a while since I’ve posted an update to Fingering Zen. The main reason being – I birthed a baby. Since that makes three, it’s quite lively here over the past couple of months. And now that summer finally appears to have graced us with its warmth, there are lots of things happening outdoors, which means I’m rarely at the keyboard. My garden is in bloom, and lots of veggies and herbs have been planted. Having a little one attached to me pretty much around the clock means that I have to find 15 minute windows of time here and there to take care of the garden.

Peaceful imagery, challenge added by irregularly-shaped pieces. Good lighting is a bonus, especially for the sky.

Lovely puzzle, brought to me by a friend. Wonderful to do in the early hours of the morning when the less-than-two-week-old baby decides to welcome the sunrise instead of sleeping. Beautiful rendition of Peggy’s Cove.

Bright and uplifting, this puzzle is an eye candy. Some challenging areas where similar colours are blended in slightly different ways. Easiest places to start are the green leaves, the pink tin, the bright red berries, the white plate and the chocolate tart. Large areas of uniform pattern and colour would benefit from good lighting.

Bright, cheerful puzzle with vibrant autumn colours, depicting a village surrounded by trees in the fall.

Great Britain Cumbria Lake District, National park. Lovely easy-to-assemble puzzle with a serene country-side landscape.

A fun puzzle depicting a landscape with a great tree in four seasons. Great to do with other people sitting around the table, since a part of the puzzle will face each of four directions.

A lovely serene scene of a countryside in autumn. Good lighting is a bonus for the subtler transitions of colour among the trees and grass.

It’s been a while since I’ve written in the blog. Life has engulfed my family with many changes and challenges: we are expecting an addition this spring, my oldest has started school, my youngest has gotten really involved in dance and painting. I’ve gone through an emergency surgery during the first trimester. The garden beckoned with its bounty to be harvested and structures being prepared for winter. Two children’s birthdays and Halloween have been celebrated, and now I have a craft fair to prepare for. Boredom does not get a foothold.

I’ve just listened to a thought-provoking podcast by Katy Bowman, and realized I have to write about it. Katy takes the discussion on nutritious movement further to the concept of movement ecology. The core idea is that if you don’t have to move to achieve something, someone else does/did/will have to.

Small bright puzzle easily put together in an evening, with elements distinct enough in texture and colour to be easily put together.

With a bountiful garden, comes a need to harvest. It takes planning and time to start plants (especially from seed), harden them off, transplant them into the garden, weed, water, feed the soil, trellis. When things are finally lush and green, we tend to sigh with relief and let the garden grow. Soon however, we need to consider harvesting. After all, that’s the primary reason for growing edibles. This year, I’m determined to harvest frequently and in small quantities.

A wonderful depiction of the Grand Cascade fountains in the Petrodvorets (Peterhof) Palace in Russia. I’ve visited this beautiful place in the 1990s, and it was a pleasure to assemble this puzzle almost 20 years later.

With our fast-paced life, many of us tend to skip or delay meals, resulting in feeling depleted and exhausted. Often, it also makes us reach for less-than-optimal snack and meal options. Fortunately, there is an easy addition to daily meals that provides additional nutrient-rich foods your body needs: smoothies.

Lovely vibrant puzzle with lots of intricate details. My five-year-old loved it so much, it is now decorating his bedroom wall. A kremlin is a major fortified central complex found in historic Russian cities.

Once a year, our neighbourhood hosts a garage sale. This year we decided to participate. We had a few things to sell, and kids just got a toy cash register for a gift, so this was a perfect opportunity to teach them about counting money, offering items for sale, and bargaining. It takes more than laying things out on the driveway to create a good experience for everyone involved, maximize your sales, and, most importantly, have fun. Here is how to host a successful garage sale.

We spend lots of time in the kitchen, which has a splendid view of our back yard. This year, as part of my edible landscaping project, I’ve decided to shape the back garden to maximize planting spaces, make the best use of the sunny areas and have an easier time during harvest. I’ve incorporated raised beds, trellises, herb spiral and ponds, and I love the resulting oasis beyond my kitchen window.

One day, I was looking for instructions on building raised garden beds with river rock borders, when I stumbled upon an image of a front yard river bed. It caught my breath, so beautiful was seeing a flowing river in the middle of an ordinary city lawn, with plants growing among the rocks. It’s almost as if a rift opened in the lawn with a glimpse of a forest spring. From that point on, I was inspired to implement this idea. Here’s how to build a river bed on your lawn.

Last week, we went for a walk in an affluent neighbourhood nearby, to explore. After our own edible landscaping project completion, I was curious to see what people do with their front yards, especially those people who have more land to sculpt. To my disappointment, most front yards were lawns, with barely even a flower to be seen. Some even had fake grass (this one is beyond me). This year, when I finally had a chance to shape my own space, I’ve decided to not only create spaces to grow food, but make the entire front yard into a flowing garden around a river bed.

It’s wonderful to be able to stroll along a row of bushes, plucking a ripe berry from a branch and popping it in your mouth. When I was a child, I would raid our cottage raspberry patch, collect gooseberries and currants, and roam the strawberry ground. As part of our edible landscaping project, I have incorporated blueberries, currants, strawberries and raspberries where only grass used to be.

Often, we have quite a bit of space available on the sides of houses – space occupied by unsightly bulging appliances, window wells, utility meters, and seeded with dying grass. I see a great opportunity to convert these unused areas into bountiful growing space. Reclaim this land to grow your own food.

My blooming, growing world

Lamplight Village

Peggy’s Cove

Raspberry Tart

Labistide

Lake District

Apple calendar

Spring Field

Movement ecology

Central Park, New York

Harvest frequently

Petrodvorets outside St. Petersburg

Exhausted? Have a smoothie!

Postcard from the Kremlin

How to host a successful garage sale

Back yard edible landscaping – raised beds, herb spiral, trellises, ponds

How to build a river bed on your lawn

Front yard edible landscaping and dry river bed

Convert small lawn strips into berry bushes with edible landscaping

Reclaim small spaces – edible landscaping between houses

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