[Kdestra]

Les Fleurs du mal or the English translation: "Flowers of Evil" is a volume of poetry by Charles Baudelaire. His poetry greatly influences me so it's only fitting that this be dedicated to him. The first post should also feature the erotic "Pomegranate"
#1 reason why I grow it is because of its bold sweet-tart taste
#2 The Greek myth of Persephone, the queen of the underworld. She was dragged to hell by Hades. While she was gone her mother Demeter (goddess of fertility & the harvest) searched for her in vein and turned the world to ice. She wouldn't let anything grow until Zuess made Hades return her. But Hades tricked Persephone into eating a few seeds of the Pomegranate. That is why we have the winter months.

Enough history
I hope you enjoy the Pomegranate pictures. The tree is now 7yrs old. It produces hundreds of pounds of beautiful fruit. So much so I started freezing some

 

[Kdestra]

More Pomegranate pictures: Pomegranate Lemonade and the tree filled with ripe fruit.
Just behind Hocus (kitty) you can see I'm trench composting the Pomegranate skins.

 

[Kdestra]

Decided to make Pomegranate Margaritas. Turns out 100% Pomegranate juice doesn't fully freeze .... it congealed

 

[Kdestra]

Starting in early winter I dream about pumpkins: red, orange, grey, white, bumpy, lumpy & smooth. Then I spend the rest of the year growing, failing, regrowing, fighting bugs, sweating & sometimes succeeding. After Halloween is over I cant just toss my babies into the compost so I make pumpkin stacks & topiaries. Also being the pumpkin hoarder that I am I drive around after Halloween and take pumpkins off the curb left for trash. Ooojen (pumpkin Growers comrade) identified the greenish/white striped pumpkin as "One Too Many"

 

[Kdestra]

A few people asked about my garden witch so I thought I'd share a short story about her.

When my children were young I'd write them stories. One of those stories was about a witch that had a magical garden. Then we would sit my garden shed & I'd tell them all about her silly crows, foxes (we call them "red cats") flowers & vegetables. One day I decided to paint her on the wall of the garden shed. We loved her so much hubby put her into a CAD then had her laser cut out've steel.

 

[Kdestra]

Most people put up holiday lights this time of year but my pagan heart desires something darker, something ethereal.... something hauntingly beautiful.
So for the past few weeks we've been working on the Winter Solstice Urn
(Like every tombstone maker on the HW forum) we have lots of insulation foam board laying around. I cut the foam to fit snugly into urn, then cut out holes for flame lights, twisted willow branches & berries.

The pictures do not do the urn justice. The urn plus branches reach over 10ft. The flame light is perfect (not bright or garish) I'm so happy with the way it turned out I'm going to do my small oval urns tomorrow.