We're trying to soak up all of the warmth and sunshine that we can this weekend.
The last of the flowers are fading fast and the trees are getting bare.
Winter will be here soon.
I hope you are also enjoying a beautiful weekend.
Future Fruit
Miss P and I journeyed around the property this afternoon and found that we have home grown fruit in our future. I love the fruit trees because we don't really have to do anything for them. Did you hear that? NO WEEDING for all this fruit! We won't mention the state of the garden. No, let's not go there.
apples
pears
plums
grapes
We also found that part of a tree had fallen in the middle of one of our paths. I guess we get firewood too!
We look forward to a busy August of harvest, food preservation, and fire wood cutting. Yeehaw.
Do you have any exciting weekend plans? The kids will all be here for the Fourth and we've planned a cookout with smores!
Tealorange - quilting progress
I decided that the Tealorange quilt needed simple quilting. I started with stitching in the ditch between all the blocks and then added some parallel lines close to the ditch like I did on this quilt (but only in one direction).Then, I decided that I needed to fill the whole space with lines.
I have to say, I think the result is well worth the hours it took. I am thrilled with the results on the whole quilt.
I'm going to put a scrappy binding of orange and teals around it and will share a full view photo when it's really finished.
It has finally gotten warm enough to be outside without sweaters so we've also been working on some outdoor chores. Yesterday we went out in the fields hunting for morels and asparagus - we didn't find any of those but we did come back with a big load of garlic mustard. Today we'll plant some more things in the garden any maybe even have a field fire. I tell you, the fun never ends around here!
Flashback Skinny Tee
P is a skinny girl. Seven years old and all of 40 pounds. Usually when a shirt or top fits her in the shoulders it is way too short and doesn't even reach the top of her pants. Not a great look. So, she usually wears shirts that look a bit big on her.
Enter Rae's Flashback Skinny Tee pattern. It seemed like this pattern was made for Miss P. I cleaned out my dresser on the weekend and found an old shirt of mine that P liked. We cut it down and made a great new shirt for her. This is the first shirt that has actually FIT her in years! She loves it.
The pattern is super easy and I was able to keep the existing sleeve hem and neck finish of the original shirt with careful placement of the pattern pieces.
She likes the top so much that she had to wear it for the rest of the day - which was spent threshing the black beans that we grew this year.
A few weeks ago we pulled up all of the black bean plants and wrapped them in old sheets and put them on our upper porch to finish drying (we didn't want the beans to fall from the pods into the garden). Yesterday was the perfect crispy warm fall day for threshing.
First we wrap a big bundle of plants in a tarp. Then, P's favorite part, we thwack it with a stick to pop the beans from their dry pods.
Then we pick out all of the plant parts making sure there are no beans left in the pods.
What is left on the tarp is a pile of black beans mixed with chaff.
On a breezy day we will pour this mix from bucket to bucket and let the wind carry away the chaff and we will be left with black beans to store for future meals.
Yesterday was a perfect fall day!I also found the perfect pattern for the top of P's Elf costume for Halloween! She'll be a skinny elf in a Skinny Tee!
A Bit of Green
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
It seems that we may have skipped spring altogether. The calendar say's it's still winter but we have been having summer temperatures. We've started work in the garden and today we planted four rows of peas! Yes, we are enjoying a bit of green today.
Someone really enjoys using the shovel - and it's NOT me!
Thoughtful Sunday
"Don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden: your Father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor."
The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter, 1902.
Behind
We are feeling a bit behind.
We should have frozen peaches and canned pears by now.
We haven't picked them all yet because our counter is covered with un processed fruit.
We have our first batch of grape juice in the refrigerator ready waiting to be canned. I'm trying not to think about the rest of the grapes on the vines, the raspberries it has been too wet and mosquitoey to pick, and the potatoes still to be dug.
Yeah, we're kinda behind.
I even told the boys I'd bake a pie if they came home this weekend. They didn't fall for that.---Why did I spend much of today making a larger back pack for Miss Petunia who says that her kindergarten back pack is too small for a first grader?
Wordless Wednesday - anticipation
Now We're Talkin'
They just don't make them like the used to. That is so true. Some of the old things are much better than new. This little beauty now sits on my freshly cleaned desk. How can I have a cluttered desk with THIS sitting on it? I tell you this will change my desk keeping habits1 - or so I hope. I love this "new" phone. It makes such a satisfactory sound when you dial up a friend and it is heavy enough that it doesn't move when you use it. Someone please call me so I can hear it ring!! It replaces this less than perfect but still fun phone.
While cleaning my desk, (I did a deep clean involving the drawers!) I found the box of 64 crayons I had as a child. I remember wanting the 64 color box for a long time. My sisters and I had lots of crayons that we kept in a shoe box all jumbled together. Many were broken but we still loved to color with them. I remember visiting my friend Mary and when we started to color together she got out her crisp new box of 64 crayons. Those crayons were lined up like little soldiers wearing pointy hats. Oh, that is when it hit. Crayon envy. I finally did get a new box - much later. It was so special that I made sure I labeled that box. My name is written on it in at least three places. And as you can see, I was old enough to write in CURSIVE!
The box in the background is the box I bought for the 64 colors project. (The colors have new names and I had to make sure I was finding the right color for my photos.)
I think the old box graphics are much better.
Maybe I just don't want to grow up. Whatever it is, these things gave me a little thrill today.Oh, and look what I found at a rummage sale this weekend - a flower shaped hankie!
Fun stuff.
I'm off to do some food preservation. We have garlic scapes and strawberries coming out of our ears and the peas are coming on strong too. We'll be shelling peas till the cows come home later in the week. I love it when the freezer is full of home grown garden bounty!
Merry May
We had a great weekend. It was finally warmish and we spent a bit of time outside and saw lots of signs of spring. Our bloodroot is in full bloom. The redbuds have a tiny hint of red and forsythia are blooming. We have several kinds of daffodils blooming all around the yard and lots of grape hyacinth.
The frogs are making noise in the wetlands.
We have plants coming up in the herb garden. Rhubarb and parsley are making a good show.
We also spent some time pulling up garlic mustard, an invasive weed which has gotten started in a few areas on our property. We pull it each year before it goes to seed. Hopefully we can eliminate it.
Now I need to gear up for the business that is May. We are always busy with planting and weeding and general outdoor activities that have been neglected during the colder months. Everything grows so fast that it is hard to feel caught up with it all.
May is also full of end of year school activities and will be even busier this year with M's graduation. The first of the senior activities will be the Concerto Concert this Wednesday. I am really looking forward to it. This year there will be thirteen performers. A few will play with the full orchestra back up. It always a great show and I love watching the kids who I have known since they were in Kindergarten or even preschool. P is also having her first concert this week, the Kindergarten spring concert.
I hope I can fit in some sewing and crafting time this month.
Fresh Picked
Nothing says August like fresh picked sweet corn.
Attracting Fairies
This spring P and I started a flower garden over by her playhouse. She has been hoping that the fairies would like it well enough to move in. She has been working to attract them.
She has put interesting rocks in the garden.
Most recently she added a shell.
The plants have started to fill in a little.
She is thrilled that some of the plants are getting more "fairyly".
Just look at these Jack-in-the-Pulpits. How could a fairy NOT like that?
And don't these hosta flowers look like little dancing fairy skirts?
The other day we found THREE mushrooms and the following flowers that we didn't even plant!
Johny Jump Ups must be very fairyly. Just the name sounds like it.
Little Miss Petunia is VERY encouraged.
I'll let you know if we have any fairy sightings.
How the Garden Grows
We didn't get off to a great start with our gardens this year. The mosquitoes and then heat wave meant that I didn't spend much time fighting the weeds. We only got a handful of peas earlier but now we are having a little better garden success. We have onions ready for harvest
and have already pulled all of the garlic.
We have some green tomatoes
and the promise of more to come.
Our chard is doing well but the carrots and beets are still small. Patience. We just need patience.
In the mean time the local u-pick farm has some really great blueberries!
Thoughtful Sunday
"A seed is wonderful. It grows. Something comes out of the ground. A green stem comes out. Little leaves get bigger."
Seeds and More Seeds, Millicent E. Selsam, 1959.
Spring Transition
Spring means clothes dried outside on the line,
playing in the dirt,
planting,
and tending the gardens,
and generally spending a lot more time outside.
An early bedtime for small children is not to be seen again until fall.
Gratitude
I am grateful that my daughter wanted to plant picking flowers in the garden. They have lasted a very long time. Their burst of color is very inviting and brings joy every time we go to the garden. Sometimes we go to the garden just to pick the flowers.
Gratitude
I am grateful for the abundance of food in our garden.
Harvest Time
We have been in full swing with our fall harvest lately. Last weekend we picked some pumpkins and pulled the onions out of the ground.
This weekend we focused on the black beans. First, we pull the bean plants and let them dry in the sun on a tarp. Then, we put a bundle of plants in a smaller tarp and whack them with a stick to pop the beans out of the shell.
The last step is to separate the small plant bits from the beans. On a slightly windy day we can pour the beans from bucket to bucket and let the wind blow the light dried plant bits or chaff away.
We have also been eating lots of fresh pears from our trees and last night froze several peach pie fillings. Our raspberries will continue bearing fruit until the first hard frost. We pick the berries every other day.
I know we will appreciate our preservation efforts come January. That is what I keep telling myself.
Next on the food preservation plan - grape juice. B says the grapes are ready.
I know I will enjoy my quilt retreat next week!
Picking Flowers
August always gets to be very busy around here. Much of our garden bounty is ready to harvest in August. We spend a lot of time picking, preparing, and preserving food. Sometimes we forget to slow down and enjoy the beauty around us. I am glad I have P to remind me of that. She picks a little bouquet of flowers EVERY time we go to the garden. Luckily she has a long row of flowers to choose from each time.
I like growing things such as fruit trees, raspberries, and rhubarb that come back every year. We are getting our first peaches this year from trees that we planted.
We also get fruit from pear and apple trees that were planted long before we moved here.
This is the time when I start to think about what I want to do differently in the garden next year. What new things do I want to plant? I think about which grew easily and which things are easiest to preserve etc. First on the garden list for next year - picking flowers.
Weekend Projects
After three weekends away from our gardens I spent a little weekend time catching up. There is a lot of weeding to do but at least parts of the gardens are pretty.
We already have a few pumpkins ready for harvest. As soon as those apples are ripe I'll start making pumpkin muffins again!
A friend and I toured the University of Michigan with the traveling Barbie camper.
Our weekend was a mixture of work and play.
What are your weekend projects?
