The weather was just wonderful today! Sunny, not too hot, and the wind seems to have blown the mosquitoes away! It was a great day for a mini vacation - in the back yard! Of course, Miss Petunia came prepared with all the essentials for a fun time under the plum tree.
I brought a book to read too!
Take out dinner, books, markers, paper, crayons, a magic wand, and a pink umbrella - just in case - THIS is summer relaxation!
What have you done for a mini vacation this summer?
"If you become a bird and fly away from me, " said mother, "I will be a tree that you come home to."
The Runaway Bunny, Margaret Wise Brown, 1942
Sometimes I feel like our garden gets overwhelming. The weeds get out of control, some of the plants don't "keep" in the garden and you have to keep up with picking every day. It is great to have fresh food from the garden every day for supper but the extra time for harvest and processing to keep for the winter can get to be drudgery.
Just look at all those weeds! The about to give up pea plants are in the back of the photo below. In the foreground there are parsnips, carrots, and beets. There are a few more rows to my right. This is one of five garden spaces that we have this year.
Here are Little Miss P's tips to make gardening fun:
1. Wear tights to the garden so the bugs don't bite your legs.
2. Plant picking flowers so that you don't get in trouble for picking flowers in the yard.
3. Take good care of your flowers. You have to dust them with garden dirt and then fluff them with a bit of grass.
4. Use the proper kitchen utensils. This makes the pea shelling REALLY fun. Make sure you have a spoon that is just the right size for ONE pea so that snacking while you work is enjoyable.
5. Plant pink food. It is always fun to have pink food on your plate. Beets are fun because they also turn rice and noodles pink when they are on your plate together.
(I think I weeded most of that light pink variety out thinking they were the radishes that we planted with the beets to mark the row. I pulled a "radish" the other day that I thought I had missed. I bit into it and--- it was a beet. Too bad.)
For our latest pair of socks in the two make a pair project we used some yarn I spun in the early spring. We whipped up a pair of crew socks to show off the color in the yarn. There was enough of the yarn left that I knit a pair for P too! Now we have matching socks. The roving I used is an interlacements superwash merino.
The sky was such a pretty blue we felt we had to capture that in our photos too! But we got a little itchy, and the sun was in our eyes so we had to be quick.
This weekend we enjoyed our first raspberry harvest- more than a quart!We rushed in to make our favorite raspberry dish, raspberry ribbon pie. The original recipe calls for a regular prebaked pie crust. Several years ago I tried it with a graham cracker crust and we like it that way too. D suggested that we make our graham cracker crust with the recipe we used for our crackers but just roll the dough and bake it in the pie pan. That sounded like a good idea to me. D mixed up the dough and let it chill in the fridge. After rolling it and putting it in the pan I realized that we didn't have any dry beans to weigh it down while baking. Our black beans are here:
I looked around for something to put in the crust and settled on some baby/child silverwear and put the crust in the oven.
That worked out pretty well. The giant graham cracker crust was a hit.
The crust recipe is here. (this makes enough for two pie crusts and a bunch of crackers)
Raspberry Ribbon Pie
1 quart red raspberries
1 small box raspberry jello
1 tablespoon lemon juice
4 oz cottage cheese
1/3 cup confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup whipping cream
Dissolve raspberry jello in 1 cup boiling water, add lemon juice. When jello starts to set gently stir into raspberries.
Whip the cream. Beat 4oz cottage cheese with the confectioners sugar and vanilla. Fold into the whipped cream.
Layer into a baked shell. Refrigerate.
——
I also had to try yet another recipe from the smitten kitchen. This is the cinnamon chocolate chip cake. It was delicious!
And just so you don't think we only eat sweets.... this is the purslane I picked and added to our salad yesterday.
Yes, to most it is a weed. Well, to us too. But it is edible and adds a lemony flavor to the salad. P was also eating some lambs quarters while we were weeding.
"Just living is not enough...One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower."
Hans Christian Anderson
It seems that the last few weeks have been full of celebrations for us!
B's birthday was while he was in Maine so we waited to celebrate until he was home. He has always liked pineapple upside-down cake so, I splurged and got a fresh pineapple for his cake. I haven't bought a fresh pineapple for a very long time as any pineapples that we get have been brought to the states on a plane, a very fuel intensive mode of transportation. I still have a little guilt about that but the cake was very good. I used the recipe from my new favorite food blog, the Smitten Kitchen.
I hope your weekend is full of celebrating fun.
We have been trying to do better about using all that our garden produces and not let things go to waste. So, after clipping the off garlic scapes I thought we needed to use them instead of tossing them in the compost as we have done in the past. After a little research on the web I found a collection of garlic scape pesto recipes.
I chopped and processed and ended up with some pesto for dinner.
It was good but pretty strong. So strong, in fact, that I had to get up twice in the night to drink water! The rest of the family did not think it was too strong. Next time I make this I'll add a bunch of garden greens before processing to cut the intensity a bit.It is fun to try new things like this. What new things have you tried lately?
Yesterday was another beautiful day. We weeded in the overgrown vegetable garden and harvested LOTS of peas and a few beets.
For dinner we fixed a pasta dish that included peas and beet greens and served it with cooked beets. Delicious.
After dinner we baked graham crackers from the dough D made earlier in the day. The crackers turned out great.
We had a happy end to a busy day. B came home from Maine in time for dinner and we all enjoyed smores from our homemade graham crackers and the marshmallows we made earlier in the week.
"Aren't they beautiful?" the girl asked, as she breathed in the spicy scent of the bright flowers.
"I suppose so," answered the Scarecrow. "When I have brains, I shall probably like them better."
"If I only had a heart, I should love them," added the Tin Woodman.
"I always did like flowers," said the Lion. "They seem so helpless and frail. But there are none in the forest so bright as these."
The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum, 1900.
We have been working on renovating our old farm house since we moved here more than twenty years ago. It is a slow process. We try to fit in the house projects as we go along with the rest of our lives, but when the weather is nice we do spend much more time outside working in the yard and gardens. Sometimes, we feel a sense of urgency and can get through a project more quickly.
D has taken on one of those projects this summer. We noticed in the spring that the outhouse was leaning much more than it used to. Should we let it continue to lean and then fall over or should we take action? What would we use it for?
Why do we need an old outhouse?
Not wanting to watch it fall, we decided to take action. It would make a fun playhouse for P but we need to get it fixed up quickly so that she can use it before she gets too old to be interested.
D spent the day yesterday shoveling out sand and straw from the inside and jacking up the low side so it is mostly level.
We will have to give it a foundation and a floor, reverse the door to swing out, spruce it up with paint, and make it cheery inside. I think maybe some pink curtains will be in order. It is nice to see enthusiasm for this project!
M and I were busy in the yard yesterday too. We were renovating in the gardens-dividing plants and weeding.
After a full day of hard work we rewarded ourselves with a quick stop at the A & W drive-in for floats and then went to the lake to cool off.
It was a great day.
We have been enjoying summer break for two weeks now. We like having some time with no deadlines and not much scheduled. Summer is a time for recharging. Each of us can do his or her own thing.
We have time to do things at a slow pace and choose our own agenda. D has refurbished the bike he bought for M at the rummage sale and now they can both ride at the same time. D uses my old (30+ years) bike on the left.
B has been at a two week woodworking class in Maine. I am eager to see the project he has been working on. The rest of us have been sleeping in and recharging our batteries.
We have been playing a lot of games too. Badminton, rummikub, cards, anagrams, matchbox cars, soap bubbles, swings, coloring...
We have also been working a bit to recharge the freezer.
P has really been enjoying the green peas. She pretty much eats them as fast as she can shell them.So far, the basement freezer contains 15 strawberry rhubarb pie fillings, 7 jars of strawberry jam, 8 bags of green peas, and 3 bags of strawberry sauce for shortcake. I think that is a good start on food preservation for next winter.
I am still trying to find a little time for some needlework.What do you do to recharge?
"You spotted snakes with double tongue,
Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong,
Come not near our fairy queen."
A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare, 159?
June brings great things each year such as summer vacation, fresh local strawberries, three family birthdays, bare foot weather, new baby chicks, and the highly anticipated Mother of all Rummage Sales. I kid you not; this sale is HUGE! We have learned to attend this sale with a wish list. We plan out which "department" to visit first based on the priority of the items on the list. When the boys come along we can divide and conquer.
I am not sure what I am going to do with these orange crates but I had to have them.
Look at the labels!
Here are a few of the books I found.
The sewing supplies table had a few boxes of patterns. These are my favorites of the twenty or so that I purchased.
I also found some old quilt blocks - hand applique butterflies on feedsacks. I love the way the seamstress placed the fabric in that upper left butterfly.
There are quite a few plaid, stripe, and check fabrics.
These are P's favorites, of course.
Other finds of the day were a nice flower pot, a set of vintage floral sheets, shiny blue glass Christmas balls still in their box, a bike for M, and two old suitcases which I have used in my sewing room tidy up project. I have eliminated two big plastic tubs and replaced them with fun, vintage suitcases!
Now we can say that summer has officially started!
We are still having fun with the new chicks. It has been rainy, though, and they haven't had much outside time. We took them out during a dry part of the day today.
We are easily amused.
The big girls come around to see what the excitement is about. They come up on the porch where they are not welcome, and knock things over just to get a better view.
P chose two different pink flowers on different trips to The Potting Shed in town. D planted them in the same pot for her today. She really enjoys watering them. She also thinks it is very funny that those large pink flowers are petunias, as that is her internet code name!!! She never knew she shared a name with a flower!
The birthday girl and graduate got some lovely handmade gifts and cards so I thought I'd share a taste.
P got this adorable little mushroom house from my sister Millie. She used the pattern from The Little House by the Sea. The house is the perfect neighbor to this house all of the little woodland creatures and fairies will be quite at home!
My other sister sent her the most perfectly pink card! and a little quilt that P has squirreled away in her room somewhere for one of her little friends. And that little beaded bracelet was made by Tracy, B's sister. Pink and perfect!
D got some creative handmade cards for his graduation. My sister, Glenell, made the card on the left along with some hand stitched thank you notes that he has in his room. The paper cut card on the right was made by my friend besomom. She also made P this cute bookmark which is currently being used as a blanket for a little princess doll.
We love all the hand made goodies that remind us of their makers.
I didn't order new chicks this year because with all of the other things we had going on this spring I just didn't think we could handle 25+ new chicks.
Well, yesterday B sent me an email telling me that there was someone in Ann Arbor with chicks listed on craiglist. They had ordered fifty!.... I think you know what happened after that. I contacted them and told them I would be interested in five chicks. On the way to town I thought I might get seven. I left their home with ten chicks in a box!
P had been asking about us getting baby chicks again. I do enjoy the fun of the new chicks. It is cool here today but we did take them out for a little fresh air. The big hens, last years chicks, came over to see what all the excitement was about.
And so the cycle continues.
We have some other farm chores in addition to tending the new chicks. I bought a flat of Michigan strawberries yesterday and have started refilling the freezer with strawberry rhubarb pie fillings. Our peas will be ready for harvest soon so we will be having some pea shelling evenings soon. I hope the weather clears off so that we can shell peas in the evening by an outside "camp" fire. Ahh, family time.
We had lots to celebrate over the weekend.
The flurry of activity included class night on Friday with awards and scholarship presentations, the Chelsea House Orchestra graduation party for the ten seniors in the group, and the graduation ceremony on Sunday. We had lots of visiting with family and friends.
P also had her fourth birthday on Saturday. We have been spreading the celebration over several days. Saturday morning she had birthday blueberry pie and a few presents. She "shared" the graduation party Saturday evening with her brother. The kids did a super rendition of "Happy Birthday" for her from the stage and there was cake!!! She thinks the party was for her!
It was such a busy weekend I hardly got any photos! So, this is what you get.
I am glad things are calming down.
I have some projects I need to work on and I would like to fix the spider web tutorial for you.
I also have something really special from my friend, Kim, to share with you.
Not to mention that the garden is practically overgrown with weeds.
What is keeping you busy these days?
"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose."
Oh the Places You'll Go!, Dr. Seuss, 1990
"If one had to live in town, Miss Hickory had always said, take a house under a lilac bush."
Miss Hickory, Carolyn Sherwin Bailey, 1946.
Instagram Photos
