Tag Archives: food

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The Summer Slow

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There’s not a whole lot going on besides the usual craziness.  Paul bought yet another box truck so he wasn’t home this past weekend and I barely escaped Saturday and Sunday with my sanity intact.  The kids have been bugging me non stop to take them over to the community pool, but I just don’t have the energy to pay $25 and haul all of our  crap over there; especially when we are not allowed to have floaties (not cool when you have a toddler to wrangle) and there’s really only about 30 minutes of swimming per hour (they make everyone get out every 15 minutes for 15 minutes for these awful “rest breaks”.  Waste of money and makes for cranky kids.  We need our own pool.

The chickens continue to grow at an almost alarming rate.  They should be laying eggs by September sometime – we are looking forward to it!  We have also determined that the one we named Prudence is in fact the rooster, and Homer is a hen.  They’ve been re-christened “P-Roo” and “Homie-D-Hen”.  We also really really need to get our butts in gear and make them their movable run; they’ve picked the earth clean next to their coop.

The gardens look like crap thanks to the almost non-stop rain we’ve been experiencing (along with everyone else up and down the east coast).   The front vegetables seem to be faring the best of all of them, though the tomatoes are taking over and the Japanese beetles are eating my basil.

06.18.09 005

My hanging baskets look awful.  I can’t seem to keep them watered well enough – it’s that straw – like lining their planted in.

The front herb garden is choking in weeds and the herbs have been all but drowned to death.  I’ve decided that come fall when the tomatoes die out I’ll transfer all of the herbs to the raised beds and I can plant the tomatoes out back next year.  That way the herbs will be happy.  And speaking of the back garden – of the approximately 832,000 seeds I planted I have barely anything sprouting to speak of.  I think it was just too wet and cold for them (except the peas – they are doing gangbusters).  Out of frustration on Saturday I poked a few dozen zucchini and yellow squash seeds just barely into the soil and now they are all sprouting – thanks to it being sunny and hot for the last several days (finally!).  I think a trip to Lowe’s for more seeds is in order.

I also got me a new Le Creuset stock pot, courtesy of Paul getting a bonus from work for all of his hard work.  I fit about 8 corn cobs in it comfortably!

06.23.09a

Of course looking at this site made both Paul and I think of a good seafood boil.  You can really tell how different we are based on the fact that he was thinking “crawdads” and I was thinking “Lobsters”.  Alas I had neither so we simply had corn on the cob with our dinner and I made my famous blueberry gateau.  This has been a favorite seasonal recipe for at least 10 years now.  I can’t even remember where I got the recipe, but I make about a zillion and a half of them while blueberries are in season.  After that it’s just too expensive.

06.23.09c

See?  Two cups of fresh blueberries tossed with sugar and flour and tossed on top of a nice cakey batter before going in the oven.

Then it comes out like this:

06.23.09b

It’s Paul’s favorite dessert ever.

Anyhoo, now that I’ve made myself hungry……that’s all I’ve got.  It’s summer, and it’s slow.  Hopefully there’ll be more to regale you with soon!

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Passing it On and A Summer Flashback – A Blog in Two Parts

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Marie Grace did a post last week where she mentioned me and a few other bloggers as a way to spread the Blog Love, so I figured it’s only fair that I pay it forward and mention some of my favorite reads.  It’s really cool that Marie mentioned me because, as I’ve mentioned to her, she was my “gateway blog”.  Back in the day I was poking around the internets looking for some free knitting patterns and stumbled upon her site.  I was instantly hooked by her wool and child stories and not only became a regular lurker, but branched out to other blogs she mentioned, and others those bloggers mentioned, and so on.  As it turns out, Marie has dome it again by mentioning this past Friday yet more blogs I hadn’t known about.  So without further ado, here is a list of a few of the blogs that have provided me many hours of entertainment and vicarious living, as well as tips. tricks and crafting inspiration.

Marie Grace Designs. Obviously!  She lives on a budding farm in PA with her kids and chicks and geese and goats.  You had to know I’d love that.  Check out her original knitted designs – very classic and elegant.  She’s also the one I blame credit for getting me back into sewing – she mentioned the Favorite Things patterns.  I checked them out, and the rest is history.  My sewing bug came back out of retirement and bit me.  Hard.

The Pioneer Woman.  Not really a crafting blog, but way inspirational nonetheless.  Ree married an honest to goodness cowboy, got married, moved out onto a cattle ranch and had some kids.  The pictures are breathtaking and her stories are always fun to read.  My friend Melanie recently alerted me to her site knowing I would love it.  And I do!

Coal Creek Farm.  Another recent find – she’s mentioned on Pioneer Woman’s Page.  Lots of great stories and pictures.  Her chicken butchering story made me realize I do not want the mess and hassle of raising meat birds.   She doesn’t take herself too seriously and I imagine she’d be a hoot to hang with.  Highly amusing!

Maine Island Knits.  She lives (and knits!)  on a tiny island 8 miles off the coast of Maine and is married to a Lobsterman.  Dudes.  Need I say more?  You know I was a salty New England sea dog in my last life, right?  I just found her thanks to Marie Grace and I am remembering why I am still such a Yankee despite 12 – odd years in Virginia.

Martha’s Vineyard Fiber Farm Blog.   Martha’s Vineyard.  Fiber.  Farm.  Blog.  Sheep, wool, Martha’s Vineyard.  Hudson Valley, too.  That’s all I’m sayin’.

If you check out my blogroll you’ll notice a lot more links to fabulous blogs, some very well known ( you all know I love the Yarn Harlot, and who doesn’t?)  Check ’em out if you’ve got the time.

And now to part 2 – where I salivate over pictures from summer 2007, when I was pregnant with Oona.  Reading the Maine Island Knits blog made me all heartsick for Martha’s Vineyard and I don’t think I’ve ever posted pictures from that trip here.  We only had 2 days – but it was a glorious 2 days without children (except the one in my belly!).

06.11.09a

There’s Oona!  Hanging out, about a month away from her debut!  And those stupid shoes, let me tell you.  I got me some Birkenstocks because everyone always says how comfy they are, and don’t they make orthopedic shoes?  Anyway I needed all the comfort I could get at that stage so I bought some.  Not only were they NOT comfortable (still aren’t, despite 3 years of trying to break them in) but during a bout of bad judgment trying to quickly cross a busy street one of the shoes came off and tripped me.  I fell face first into a bush.  On a busy street.  Eight months pregnant.  People stopped their cars to ask if I was ok.  I actually cried of embarrassment.  Not my best moment.  It was the only bad part of an otherwise perfect weekend.

06.11.09b

People, this is somebody’s back yard. I kid you not.  Their house is to the left of this picture.  I could just about die of jealousy.  Check out that fog.

06.11.09c

It was pretty overcast and grey our first day on the island.  I loved it.  The beaches were EMPTY.  It made exploring and picture taking that much more fun.

06.11.09d

Martha’s Vineyard is covered in blue hydrangeas.  They are everywhere.  I wish I could get them to grow all around my house this way.  They must love that salty sea air.

06.11.09e

Menemsha fishing village.  I heart Menemsha.

06.11.09f

We went early in the day to check out that little nugget of a village when it was still pretty overcast and foggy.  We had heard that it was kind of the “thing” to go back in the evening  and sit on the beach to watch the sunset.

06.11.09g

Lucky for us the sun came out right around the time it needed to in order to make it’s nightly descent.

06.11.09h

We got to the village with plenty of time to spare – though the beach was definitely getting crowded by then.

06.11.09i

I love the boats.  I checked them all out before picking a nice spot on the beach to watch the sun go down.  Families and couples were having evening sand picnics – chilled white wine with steamers and lobster, courtesy of a little sea side shack called The Bite, that must have been fantastic, given the amount of traffic it had.  Had I not been pregnant (and with better planning on our part) I would have totally done the wine and clams.  (We did end up going to the Black Dog Tavern where I unwisely ordered a 3 lb. lobster.  Oy.  )

As the sun went down a fishing boat put out to sea, gulls flocking all around it.  People toasted the end of a beautiful day.

06.11.09j

Just about the most romantic thing ever.  When I win the lottery, I am totally buying a second home there.

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Hi Ho Cherry – O!

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I meant to have this posted earlier. but certain people don’t really appreciate how selfish I can be.  And they’re right.  I mean really – a whole 5 minutes to myself every few weeks is an awful lot to ask.  Poor Oona.  She’s sleeping now after a nice evening ride in the car.  But this post isn’t about my sleepy Oona.  It’s all about cherries.

Yesterday my friend Veronica and I took our collective kids and drove an hour out into the country to a new cherry orchard.  It got kind of scary for the last 10 minutes or so of the drive as we ventured further and further into nowhere and the roads got increasingly bad (as in we left pavement, then left gravel, then practically left dirt as well).  There was a brief fun moment when we passed slowly by a large bull grazing in the road.  He was almost as big as my van.  Then the crater – filled “road” mercifully turned and we were there  (let’s not forget that as used to farms and country as I am, being from the upstate portion, Veronica and I are aat heart still New York gals).   The view was worth it.

06.08.09h

See the Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance?

06.08.09g

The girls simply could not wait to get their bags and get down to some serious picking.  So we globbed on the sunscreen, got our bearings from the nice lady at the farm stand and headed into the trees.

06.08.09i

Oona squeaked along with Veronica and Natalie.

06.08.09b

And there they were – trees and trees of luscious cherries.  And nice wooden ladders to schlep around to each one (told you I was from NY.  Can’t have too many “y’alls” around these parts without the occasional “Oy” or “schmutz” or what have you).

06.08.09f

Oona kept Natalie and Amy busy, and I kept getting confused by Veronica talking to Amy.  No, I’m not tired.  No, I don’t need to pee…..oh wait you meant your kid.

06.08.09c

Neve was busy accusing me of “hogging the ladder”.  Not that she helped carry it from tree to tree or anything.

06.08.09d

She did enjoy sampling.

06.08.09e

My monkey Emily couldn’t tolerate me climbing higher than her.  It’s too bad she didn’t have a camera  – her view across the valley was much better than mine.

I think we stayed about 2 hours before the kids had had enough and were hot and hungry.  We had our haul weighed (Veronia bagged about 15 lbs, I bagged about 12 lbs), bought some cold drinks and headed home.  Oona was out like a light, the older girls sang cartoon theme songs all the way and Veronica and I admitted to liking The Nanny with Fran Drescher (hint: the handsome Englishman doesn’t hurt.)

Tomorrow I plan to make a pie and some muffins.  The rest we’ll eat as is.  If not for the hour drive I’d go back this week for more.  Cherry season is all too short.  But there’s light on the horizon – the peaches at the local orchard will be ready for picking the first week of July.  I am SO there!!!

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Summer Trash

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I’ve been amassing my trashy summer reading pile, and it has been waiting patiently on my night stand for me to break into it.  I discovered the virtues of buying used books on Amazon so I can satisfy my need to read.  Plus this fits the bill when I’m too tired to knit or sew but too awake to sleep.

06.05.09b

This is my idea of some good summer reading.  Some Stephen King (there is precious little left by him that I have not read), some Jeffrey Deaver (I like the Lincoln Rhyme series), some spooky New York and New England folklore, some Umberto Eco, and Amy Sedaris, who cracks me up.  I also have Davisd Sedaris’ When You Are Engulfed in Flames on order as well.    What’s your summer trash look like?

There’s also the pile o’yarn that’s been growing all winter, waiting for me to make time to turn it into socks and such.  For now it just sits there and mocks me with its glorious presence.

06.06.09a

Yes, it’s all from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. They are my dealer of choice, after all.  However, don’t be fooled into thinking that I am no serious yarn horder.  Don’t for a second let yourself believe this is the extent of my stash.  Or even a fraction of it.  Oh wait.  I think Paul may be around here somewhere.  I take it back! This is my whole stash!  In its entirety!  I swear there is no other yarn anywhere, and certainly not stuffed into the dark recesses of the closet or hiding out in the piano room! ~Insert innocent smiley face here~

Ahem.  Moving on.

I realized recently I have neglected to mention Mr. Poppy, our new hot air popcorn popper.  My girls were consuming mass quantities (channeling Jane Curtain here…) of microwave popcorn and I kept thinking about how expensive it was and how there’s lord knows how many chemicals in it.  So I got to thinking about the popper my grandparents had when they owned the hotel and decided to procure one for us.  Then we set out to buy straight up kernels and wound up buying a 50 lb. bag of them from Sam’s Club.  It’s a sickness, I know.  But Mr. Poppy makes lovely fresh popcorn and fills my kitchen with a nostalgic and lovely aroma from my childhood and the girls love it, even plain.

05.04.09c

Believe it or not, in the 3 or 4 months since we got Mr. Poppy we’ve managed to plow through about a third of that 50 lb. bag, and considering there’s usually little to no salt or butter on it when we make it that means my kids are snacking healthier.  Between that and the spinach brownies I am feeling a tad less guilty about all the ice cream we’ve been snorting since summer began.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you about the cherry picking trip we went on today and all the fruit my children voluntarily ate!

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The Taj Ma-Cluck (Or is it Cluck Mahal?)

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Our overdone coop is complete and in place, waiting for the fencing to be put around it so the chicks will have a nice area to roam around when they’re not helping de-bug my garden.  We’ve situated it at the back side of the house where there clearly was supposed to have been a deck built (there is a door in our living room that opens onto a good 8 or 10 foot drop).   It’s a fairly sheltered spot weather – wise and I think as close to the house as it is it will help deter some of the predators a bit.

06.05.09d

There are advantages to having a big Bobcat.  Even though it hardly ever functions properly.  I’m just sayin’.  Paul built the coop in the garage and then hauled it into place via heavy machinery.  The red was my idea – I like it.

06.05.09e

Getting it into place was a tad tricky considering the slope of the land in the back.  We also scared away a bunch of blue – tailed skinks during this operation.  Having them around is a good thing – they’ll feast on any termites that might decide to set up residence in your home.

06.05.09c

Ta da!!!  Chicken palace!  (See the “door to nowhere up there between the two big windows and to the right of the hanging birdfeeder?)

06.05.09f

Why Yes!  Room service and maid are included in this luxury suite!  And look!  Snacks!  Those little ants that unwisely decided to converge on the food dish were dee-lish!

Finishing touches aside, this project is done! And speaking of dee-lish, check this out:

06.05.09g

I have been on a bit of a cooking and baking jag of late, and this was one of the successes.  The crust is from Smitten Kitchen, the pastry cream is from the Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, and then I just sliced up some strawberries to top it.  We polished it off in no time!  I can’t wait to make more, but I am sure my waistline doesn’t really need it, considering I’ll end up eating more than my fair share of it.

The last gfew days have been slow in the kitchen though, due to it being abnormally busy around these parts for a rainy week.

Sunday we went to the ice park in town for a birthday party and the girls spent a good 2 hours skating and goofing around with their buddies who live just across the road from us.

6.05.09h

Let me tell you, I adore these girls (and their parents!).  They are so well behaved, and it really rubs off on my girls so that we can have easy play dates with no one fighting or whining or crying.  What a relief!  You know.  Until we get home and their evil streaks reappear.

Wednesday we went for a walk and picnic with them and Oona insisted on walking all the way down the trail rather than ride in her stroller, and since she has squeaky shoes (“Wee Squeaks”) all we heard was squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak. She had so much fun, and really wore herself out.

6.05.09i

She fell right to sleep as soon as I put her in the car to go home.  As it turns out, we left just in time weather – wise.  Just after we got back to the house we had a nice bit of hail.  Fun fun!  It’s been chilly and raining ever since.  I’ve been working on getting all of my leftover fabric scraps in the green range together for a quilt that I hope to get to one day before I am old and senile (Senile may come first at this point, between the kids and the animals).

06.05.09a

Jasper’s not making it easy.  Mostly because he decided to have bloody diarrhea and need to be taken to the vet.  I had to leave him overnight (all night without my boy!!!!!) for tests and observation and he came home very happily today – all medicated and waiting for some lab results.  It’s always something in this house!!!!

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Rainy Tuesday

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It feels like a Monday, though, thanks to the long weekend.  It’s raining, it’s dark, it’s gray, and I’m achey all over.  Feels like a good day for sweatpants and a book.  Thank goodness it was such a long and productive weekend!

It started (and actually pretty much ended) with the back garden.  If you’ll recall, I had asked for a large patch out back to be tilled up so I could plant all of the large squashes in a place where they’d have room to spread.  Then I thought maybe some humble chicken wire could be placed around it a bit to delineate it and keep it free from four wheelin’ kids (hey, we live in teh country….it happens now and again).  You know, nothing fancy.  Most of you will know better than that, though – my husband cannot ever do anything simply and easily.  Not that I am complaining this time.

The problems with my simple garden patch started when we began clearing out the land and getting ready to till the earth.  Paul had assured me it would be a “piece of cake” getting it all turned up and he could haul down the remains of the giant dirt/compost pile from out front all with the Bobcat.   Then the Bobcat broke.  We looked into buying a tiller outright to hook onto the non – operational gravely we have (and then we’d have to buy another gravely for parts…..starting to get the picture of how things work around here? ).  That turned all of one weekend into a total bust.  Then we rented a tiller from the local hardware store and spent the weekend trying to make it work like it was supposed to.  No such luck.  The earth still needed a serious amount of work before any planting could be done, and as it was nearing the end of May, I was beginning to panic, especially when Paul informed me that the leftover dirt and compost mix pile was not going to be enough for this project.  So on Saturday I placed a call and ordered 6 yards of compost to be delivered.  In the midst of that phone call Paul up and left for his friend’s place – to borrow his tractor.

Now I know what y’all are thinkin’.  (Notice the “southern” I threw in there?).  Most men’ll lend out their wives sooner than they’ll lend out their tractors (at least, that is what my husband tells me.  Hmmmm.  Maybe I best not let him buy his own tractor……..).  But anyway, Mike is a really good friend.  We’ve known him and his family since we moved to Virginia in ’97.  So Paul borrowed his tractor, and voila!  Tilling done!

05.26.09b

Now that my simple garden project had run into weeks and weeks of “how do we get this all tilled up?”, all that remained was for the compost to be delivered and a makeshift boundary to be put around it.

BUT WAIT!

Makeshift is forbidden in these parts.  I would’ve gone totally rustic (bordering on ghetto, I’d say) if left to my own devices.  Paul had other ideas.

05.26.09c

Heavy duty wire, heavy duty posts, majorly heavy duty dog – pen gate (I won out on one piece – I secured them all together with nylon wire ties rather than bailing wire.  It was easier).

The resulting garden spot is much more “high – tech” than I originally envisioned, and Paul claims I seriously owe him one for all of the work he put in.  But, you have to admit it came out really great.  An added bonus is we’re able to let the chickens roam freely in there and they’re relatively safe.  Call it a chicken playpen if you will.  Once the veggies have come in the chickens will be my natural pesticide.  They are quite efficient bug vacuums.

05.26.09d

The compost came yesterday and I spent the later part of the afternoon raking it and getting my seeds planted.  Back – breaking, but rewarding, work.  There’s sugar snap peas, green beans, sugar baby watermelons, butternut squash, cucumbers, petit pickling cucumbers, sugar pie pumpkins, lumina pumpkins,  regular pumpkins, and birdhouse gourds.  The chickens followed me the whole time.  Maybe they like me after all.

05.26.09e

Check out that black dirt!  Decomposed plant matter never looked so good.

Amazingly I still made time to turn out several loaves of sandwich bread, dinner, and a lemon tart.

05.26.09f

I know it’s an awful picture, but I had to share.  I am in love with this burger and I may have to run away with it.  It’s smothered in barbeque sauce and cole slaw and topped with chopped dill pickles.  Mmmmmmmm.

For dessert:

05.26.09h

A lovely lemon tart.  Actually it was very bitter.  I couldn’t find any Meyer lemons locally, and clearly the ones at Food Lion are inferior (as is just about everything one gets from Food Lion).  Otherwise it was a complete success texture – wise and crust – wise.

Now I am sore and lazy and tired and I am going to spend the rest of this dreary day with some coffee, a book, and, if he’ll let me, this guy:

05.26.09a

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I Said I Would, So I Did

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05.19.09c

I bought it.  It came today.  I have yet to crack it open, due to the absolute insanity that is my life the last few days, but I am looking forward to learning how to make my camera would like it is supposed to.  Maybe when Oona’s 30.

Yesterday was spent returning the craptacular tiller we rented from the local hardware store (I had to drive the box truck.  It was not a picnic.  Paul’s lucky I used to be a bus driver or there’s just no way I could have managed it. It was like driving a giant rattling metal lunch box that’s loose at all joints.  But I digress).  The tiller barely scratched the surface of what I really need done, even with the wet and soggy ground.  We pulled up some massive roots, though.

After the tiller return I spent a  good chunk of the afternoon at the doctor’s office having a biopsy done (don’t worry, it should be fine.  Oh, and Oona stayed here with my mother, who did my dishes for me!!!  Thank you!!!).   Then I had to fly back home for Neve’s Brownie ceremony.  She bridged from being a Daisy Scout and is now officially a Brownie Scout.

05.19.09b

Look at that wild hair.  She won’t let me near it.  She also insists on wearing the most outlandish creations to school.  I fought her all year, determined to make sure she dressed in an appropriate manner, both for the weather and the day’s activities.  Last week I gave up, since their last day is Friday.  Plus I talked to her teacher, and she knows I am not dressing Neve in the pink Hawaiian print cargo capris with green striped top, purple socks, fuschia crocs and cheetah print fur coat.  Apparently she’s seen much worse.

Today I eeked out a finished object – a handbag from the Oh Fransson! blog.

05.19.09d

This, my friends, is my one small victory for today.  Oona has been particularly out of sorts lately, and today was no exception.  She was so testy I put her in her car seat and drove around aimlessly for 45 minutes so she’d take a nap.  Even now she is wrapped around my ankles screaming.  I don’t know why – nothing I’ve tried makes her happy.  I think it’s just a case of the “WAY over – tireds” and she refuses to concede.  Mighty frustrating to watch.  Especially in light of the newest drama unfolding here in the house of woe.

05.19.09e

I took this picture an hour ago in my closet.  Looks like hamster poop – except both our hamsters are serving their time in their luxury condos in Emily and Neve’s room.  So why is there all this rodent poop all around the empty suitcases in my closet?  I tore through all the suitcases, shoes, and other miscellaneous junk all over the closet and found exactly zilch.  The cats have not seemed particularly interested in the closet, which is a good sign.  Last year for about 2 weeks before we discovered we had mice upstairs Sushi sat guard in the hallway, all day and all night.  And just this weekend Jasper alerted me to Sherbert the hamster’s escape by standing guard outside the girls’ bedroom closet all day.  Sure enough, there was a hamster roaming around the shoes in there.  It does then both comfort and confuse me that despite the presence of a fairly large quantity of droppings in my closet none of the cats has been poking around in there.  It does serve to remind me how incredibly badly I need to clean out the dark corners of this house.   Every free corner  has been stacked with stuff that needs to be put into storage and  I simply have not had a free hand to put any of it away.  Good thing I had my moment of baking Zen this weekend while making a strawberry – rhubarb pie.  It was yummy and gone (sorry Rachel!)!!

05.19.09a

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It’s the Little (or BIG) Things

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So I had this idea that this post would be about appreciating the little things, like the funny little chickens in our garage at the moment, or the pretty little primroses that just bloomed in the front garden.  But I realized that someone around these parts (who may or may not have fallen asleep on the window bed with Jasper and then fell victim to a drive – by picture taking) would not agree with me that these are little things. Not because I have in some way underestimated their size or importance in the scheme of day to day life, but because how much work and money it cost to get to these little things. Of course, my take on this is that if you look at things that way all the time then pretty much nothing is a little thing.

I had to stop working, birth a baby, wait for her to be old enough to reasonably manage and do a bunch of research before I could get my little chickens.

We had to save up a bunch of money, buy a Bobcat, wood, a bunch of dirt, stone garden edging, pea gravel and lava rocks (and other various and sundry supplies)  to get those little primroses.

Still, I like to think I am all about the little things. Maybe it is more appropriate to call them simpler things. I don’t know, but  I can’t even tell you how excited I am to have basil and tomatoes growing right now, because it means PESTO!  Those 6 little chicks?  Four of them are going to grow up to  reliable egg-layers!  And that makes me happier than any new shoes or cars, let me tell you (don’t tell Paul that last bit about cars…..I’m still waiting for my poor deer – smashed sedan to be up and running so I can be at least occasionally rid of the van).

You know what else?  I am smitten with Smitten Kitchen. If you haven’t checked out her blog, it’s rather stellar, as far as I am concerned, and I am happily in the midst of trying out her chocolate babka recipe.  I cannot wait to see how it turns out.  I’ll let you know…..but I love babka, so I can’t promise I’ll be saving any to share!

Adding to my list of simple pleasures:  I finished the Yard Sale Skirt from Weekend Sewing.  I am really liking the Heather Ross fabric I used (which is sadly out of production now) and though in the picture I look a bit Oompa-loopa-ish (blame the photographer) it is very comfy.

05.10.09a copy

Okay so I cropped most of myself out of it.  Call it blogger prerogative.  Maybe when I order my copy of Digital Photography for Dummies I’ll pick Paul up a copy of Photographing Your Wife And Not Making Her Look Huge and Lumpy in the Process for Dummies. I’m sure they stock at least one copy of it at Amazon.

Anyhoo…..the spot in which I am standing in this photo (not like you can really tell, actually) is where we have staked out the veggie garden.  We have all the chicken wire, a new spigot post and hose,  and stakes, all ready to go.  We would’ve had it all complete and planted this weekend except that with all of the rain we got the darn ignition got shorted out on the Bobcat, and well…….you can’t till up huge square footage of earth like that without equipment.  Well, you can, technically speaking, but we’re not gonna. Instead we’ll be renting a nice big tiller Saturday and getting it done.  Finally.  Before it gets too darn late in the season to get my squash, peas, beans and watermelons into the earth.

And as for that person who thinks that my little, simple  things are actually large, complicated things ?

05.12.09a

He’ll be needing a nap first.

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What I’m Like

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With all of the changes and new developments around here I was feeling like I need to take some time to “shore up” my inner reserves, to reaffirm “me” as a person.  I”m not usually inclined to ask for help even when I am sorely in need, and I was feeling pretty down about things the last few weeks (and lonely, to be honest) when help found me in a few different forms.  New friends, new pets, new tasks and I am feeling more like myself again.  And it’s a great time for it – SPRING!  I couldn’t be more pleased with where I am right now, which is this:

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I am a gardener!

This is a new one for me, actually.  I’ve never had much of a green thumb, and over the years I am sure I’ve killed WAY more plants than I’ve grown.  The older I get the more I realize I should’ve been a farmer.  I’ve heard a lot of negative talk from people when I’ve said this before, along the lines of “That’s really hard work – it’d be way too much to handle!” or my favorite, “YOU?  Are you kidding??” Well, heck.  Do I really come off that lazy and incapable?  Just because I am no good at handling a typical office type 9 – 5 doesn’t mean I couldn’t hack farm life.  It has to do with what you find rewarding in life and what makes you happy.  Of course, I am not a farmer, and we have no plans to buy a farm anytime soon (I kind of married the wrong guy for that, I think – I doubt Paul would be too interested in owning a farm!) for now I am a gardener.

These front beds have been planted with several types of tomato and pepper, and basil.  I’m absolutely dying to get out back and get the squashes and beans planted.

The other front garden has plenty of flowers and herbs, including 2 types of thyme, rosemary, pineapple sage, cilantro, oregano, tarragon and lavender.  There’s going to be an abundance of fresh salsas and pestos this year!  Hooray!

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I forgot to mention the massive amounts of lemon balm, too.  It’s taking over.  Anyone want any?  Please?

Somewhere down the road a bit we’ll be putting in a small-ish greenhouse and I’d like to put one of those neat strawberry pyramids next to it.  That, however, will have to wait until the greenhouse goes in (for landscape planning purposes), and the greenhouse, well, that ain’t cheap, and as it happens, we’ll need a chicken tractor first, because guess what?  We have these:

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Need a closer look?

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There are 6 of them, 5 girls and one boy, and we are smitten.

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I am a chicken lady!

I got these babies from a local chicken farmer who helped me pick out the friendliest, most docile breeds.  In chicken speak, we have 3 Gold – Laced Wyandottes (1 of these is the roo), 1 blue Cochin, 1 gold Cochin, and 1 black Cochin.  I can’t even tell you how happy I am with them!  Which reminds me, I am also

A Bad Influence!

My friend and neighbor got some as well.  I think she couldn’t take listening to me go on and on about the impending chicken arrival any longer!  All of our kids are just over the moon with their new pets, and Emily has plans to keep a “chicken journal” to document their growth and development.  Insert wide smile here.

Really, for me, this is the life.  I love being domestic.  I love growing things and caring for creatures and my kids (even though certain days I might not say that – like when Oona decides she cannot be any more than 2 milimeters away from me).  I love old fashioned and vintage farm things – if I had the money and the space I’d collect antique tractors.  I love wearing dresses and skirts with giant rubber wellies to work in the garden, and I don’t care if it all gets dirty.  I love cooking and baking, especially giant fruit pies that are way too fattening but it doesn’t matter because they are yummy and good for your soul. (you know, until your soul starts gaining too much weight…..then it’s time to cut down on the pie)

I love sheep and their wool and knitting it.  I will knit just about anything given the time to do so, but my favorite thing to knit is socks, because let’s face it, sock yarn is way cool.

I love to sew clothes for my kids on my 2 vintage Singer sewing machines.

I love to paint with oils.  I also love taking pictures but I am still learning how to do that.  I need to get a copy of Digital Photography for Dummies. I was pretty good with my trusty old Canon A-1, but film cameras seems to have gone the way of the dodo, and it is so much easier to unload your instantly viewable digital photos.

I am all of these things and far more, and I am always adding and subtracting as I grow and change and age.  I think we should all strive to be like a good wine – getting better and more nuanced as we age.  Don’t you?

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This, That, and The Other

by

First let me start by wishing Maddie a Happy 14th Birthday today!!!!!!  Time flies, my little spud baby!  Next year she starts high school, and I feel old.

We got word that our trip to Mexico will be happening November 12 now, so I have 6 more months to make sure I can pull off a bikini.  Whew! Seriously, I am still rather mushy in the middle, and I was really just going to be “winging it” this week.

We managed a day out in Williamsburg without the kiddos (and Oona did fabulously with her grandma – she barely noticed we were gone).  There are some great outlet stores out that way – some are still way over priced, but we had fun looking around and having the luxury to be all casual and mosey about with no screeching and emergency potty trips.  For dinner we went to PF Chang’s, which is just this side of heaven, let me tell you.  I could eat their Mu Shu every day for the rest of my life and never complain (though my blood pressure might – it’s pretty sodium heavy).  The great thing is that the restaurant is at a really pretty outdoor style mall in Richmond and we spent some time after dinner at the Starbucks there watching people and their dogs go by (it’s a very dog friendly mall, despite -or maybe because – all of the very upscale stores there, like Louis Vuitton).  They had Louis Armstrong playing, it was overcast, the flowers were blooming, there were white lights strung in the trees,  I had my triple grande black and white mocha………..it was lovely and relaxing.

Now we are back to reality, however.  We’ve had rain for ages now, whch was great at first because the pollen has such a heavy presence on everything you could swear the world was going to be a gnarly greenish – yellow from now on.  Now that it has been raining for what seems like an eternity (actually I think it’s been like 4 days) it’s getting a bit tiresome, and this is coming from soemone who enjoys a good rainy jag.  I just want to get the kids outside and do some gardening without getting drenched.  And speaking of kids – they are done with school on May 22!  Time to get down to some serious mapping out of vacation plans and activities to keep them busy through the hot months!

I myself have been quite busy, though I do not have many pictures to show for it yet.  I finished the Summer Blouse from Weekend Sewing for myself yesterday, and since Paul cannot take a good picture of me to save his life (seriously – how do you make someone who’s a size 4 look obese?  Just ask Paul!) I had to take it myself.  So excuse the craptastic-ness.

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The photo might be awful, but I love the blouse.  I had to add some length and take it in on the sides to make it fit right – the pattern has it rather short and boxy – but I am happy with the results.

I also finished the Everything Tote from the same book.  It’s HUGE.  I knew it owuld be a rather “roomy” bag, but I didn’t realize it would be HUGE.  I also had a bit of trouble getting the binding strips and handles to turn out the way they are written in the book so I had to improvise a bit.  Either way I am still rather pleased.  It’s always good to have a nice tote when you need it, and I love the Joel Dewberry fabric I used.

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Other projects from the weekend include:

– dress and skirt for Oona

-dress for Emily

-strawberry layer cake from scratch.  The recipe is in this month’s Cooking Light.  It’s kind of old fashioned and perfect,  with pureed berries and a cream cheese frosting.

– got 2 new Japanese sewing books to drool over!

And finally, while Paul and I were relaxing at Starbucks we thought up a lovely plan for Neve’s birthday (which is at the end of this month) so as to avoid having to throw a big party again this year.  We thought it would be perfect to take her and Emily along with their best buds across the way (and their parents) out to Build A Bear Workshop for a bear – building party and then over to Cold Stone Creamery across the way and cap off the day at PF Chang’s for dinner.  But you know what?  That little booger said “no”.  She wants a big party at the house with the water slide set up.  And when Maddie chimed in that she couldn’t believe Neve wouldn’t want a day at Build A Bear and Cold Stone you know what Neve said?

If you like it so much you can have YOUR birthday there.

Booger.