Life With The Crew

Thankful Tuesday - 8.29.17

Today I am thankful for...

~plenty of food.  Garden soup - heirloom tomatoes, a couple of sweet peppers, and garlic.  Roast and blend with some herbs, salt, and pepper.  Easy peasy.

~a husband willing to forage for elderberries with me.  Not a good year around here - we somehow missed the bulk of them already to the birds, though some berries are still green.  I'll check again later this week.

~the long awaited blooming of the garlic chives!  Last year I commented that I really wanted some because they are so great for pollinators and a super awesome blog reader, Regina in Maryland, sent me some seeds and actual plants in the mail!  The plants took, are blooming beautifully, and are buzzing with winged insects!

~a healthy babe with room to roam.

What are you thankful for today?

 

On the Needles - Cotton and Fringe

Since returning from Maine a month ago, I have been working on three knitting projects.  The first one that I started on vacation was the Auger tank top from Quince & Co.  I was branching out of my comfort zone a bit because it called for 100% cotton yarn.  I have used cotton once before for a tunic for the little babe and I wasn't a fan.  It stretches SO MUCH and I knew that going into this project, but I thought it looked like a fun top for summer.  I chose the correct size according to the pattern and the tank straight off the needles would have worked.  But as soon as I put it on, it started to stretch.  And that was before blocking it.  It might be the style today to wear tank tops with the armholes down to the waist, but that is not MY style and I felt that by having to wear another tank top underneath was defeating the point of a lightweight summer piece of clothing.  

It doesn't look so bad in this photo, but I wore it for two days to try it out and it stretched even more.  Plus the body could have been an inch less on each side.  I just wasn't feeling it.  So I went back to the drawing board and am currently working on a wrap/scarf with a lace pattern.  I am really excited about it, even though the lace means I have to do it after the little babe goes to bed - no mindless knitting and playing with her.  Luckily I had a skein and a half left over from the Auger, so I didn't have to frog the top right away - any day now I'll have to dive into it.

But for the good knitting news, I completed a one skein shawl for the little babe that was to her specifications - pink, fringed, and not itchy.  We found one skein of Berroco alpaca/wool in the sale bin at our local yarn shop and I was pretty sure that on size 10 1/2 needles, I could make it work.  And I did, with literally no yarn to spare.  I even used the little piece that I cut off the tails for the fringe.

I wanted to try something different from the typical centered triangle shawl, so I followed an easy asymmetrical recipe.  I cast on 3 stitches and then only increased on one side every right side row.  The little babe liked the simple garter stitch row pattern on my fringed shawl, so I did a variation of that.  It was fun to see it knit up so quickly and the make-it-myself pattern meant I didn't have to think too hard.  I really like it and I think she does too. 

Friday Snapshots

A quick evening pick before it rained.  We already harvested the tomatoes earlier in the day and I had pulled a couple of red onions.  I actually managed to save three sunflower plants from the chipmunks and they are just starting to bloom.  The one stalk has 21 blooms on it!

And here is just a pretty one from the arboretum earlier this week.  Happy Weekend!

Thankful Tuesday - 8.22.17

Today I am thankful for...

~the honor of being a bridesmaid in my surrogate sister's wedding and to have my daughter have the opportunity to be the flower girl.  It was a beautiful day in every way - weather, location, family love, and of course the bride was beautiful!

~a relaxing morning at the arboretum with the little babe.  We haven't been there since early summer and it is amazing to see how the landscape has changed.  The pond was filled with lily pads of different shapes and colors.

    ~a bonfire, a book, a little babe, and a good Dad and husband, giving Mom a needed break.

 

What are you thankful for today?

Flying

Sometimes life seems like it is all uphill...

and we humans don't have physical wings to help us along...

so we have to find other things to lift us up, help us to soar, to find the energy to keep pushing.

And when we're at the top, let's take the time to stop and enjoy the view, to feel the joy.  Wahoo!

Thankful Tuesday - 8.15.17

Today I am thankful for...

~the goodness in my life.  As parts of this world seem to be falling apart and sometimes the questions are overwhelming - Why is this happening, How did it come to this, What do we do now, What if...? - there are still constant reminders that life is good and worth living and cherishing.  

~a kind husband who appreciates our everyday lives together.

~Airbnb renters who are respectful and appreciative.

~a little babe who is entertained by simple wooden blocks and handmade paper toys.

~time for knitting.  I realize that it is such a luxury to sit in the middle of the day and do something for pure pleasure.

~nice August weather - not humid and sticky.

~a loving, generous, and strong mother.  I love you Mom.

What are you thankful for today?  Come one, we all have something.

 

Homegrown Tomatoes

Every time I pick up one of these hulking green and maroon tomatoes, I marvel at the fact that they started from a tiny flat white seed.  Only as big as one of the letters that I am typing right now (font 11 pt).  I do not record what types of seeds I planted; I'm just happy if they grow.  Next year, I'll try different ones that catch my eye.  This is the first year that I have had success growing tomatoes from seed - I started all of the ones in our garden.  I am a hearty, multi-colored, odd shaped heirloom tomato kind of girl.  Beefsteaks are not for me.  I want to see some color other than red.  We have tiny yellow pear, medium sized round yellow, beefy green striped zebras (slow to ripen), these beautiful red and green hulks, and also purple shouldered rounds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds that start yellow and then ripen through the rainbow, with the purple shoulders staying.  On my counter I have a brown bowl full of ripe tomatoes, a green bowl of unripe tomatoes that I picked to save them from the groundhog, and another bowl of half ripe tomatoes that are missing a section.  I found them with bite marks and just cut off that part.  Oh, and I forgot the small round maroon with green stripes.  Homegrown tomatoes make me smile. 

How about you?  Do you have a favorite variety?

Thankful Tuesday - 8.8.17

Today I am thankful for...

 

~hummingbirds in the garden.

~the ability to read.  I was up late last night reading a novel - what a luxury to lay in a warm and comfy bed, being entertained by a really good story that cost me nothing from the library.

~big juicy colorful heirloom tomatoes from my garden, even if I do have to pick them when they are half green and have a large bite out of them.  I just cut away the bite mark and curse the buggers.  Today I'm breaking out the aluminum foil - maybe large pieces of it strung on twine with scare off the groundhogs from climbing the fence.  I am rather desperate.

(An old photo from last August - the computer is acting up today.  I have the same type this year, a self seed from this one.  Next year I'd like to get some knee high cosmos - these are over my head and get too leggy.)

 

What are you thankful for today?

 

Just A Spoonful of ...

butter?  Helps the Monday morning rainy day blues. 

Actually, I don't mind a rainy day in Summer once in a while.  It is good for the garden, it gives me a day off from yard work and dog walking and lets us get some inside things done.  So I think a trip to the library is in order to stock up on some new books and then hopefully I'll be able to get a little knitting done on my latest project.  It is a tank top, and with the recent temps we've been having - it is in the 60's here this morning - I am trying to finish it as quickly as I can so that I can at least wear it a couple of times before I have to cover it up with a flannel shirt.

I opened up the gallon carboy of milk this AM and we had a super thick layer of cream.  It wasn't enough to put in the mixer or butter churn, so I threw it into a small mason jar and started shaking.  I wasn't sure what I was going to get - I sort of wanted whipped cream, but the butter queen was hoping for the fat.  Fifteen minutes and two jittery arms later, we had a nice separation of butter and buttermilk.  A little pat of homemade butter in a shiny 25 cent yard sale dish makes for one happy babe.  Now bread making has been added to the list for this rainy day.

Stay dry and if you can't - don't fret, you won't melt.

 

Three B's

Butter:  Today was a bad butter day.  We bought cream yesterday at market and left it out over night like we normally do.  In Winter, our house is so cold that we have to keep it near the woodstove to warm up.  Apparently in Summer, our house is too hot to leave it on the counter that long.  So it was a bad butter day, which is always a big bummer.  The little babe refuses to eat store-bought butter and she hasn't had homemade for about two months.  After I collapsed onto the kitchen table with burning arm muscles, I did some on-line research to figure out the problem and discovered that this is a common problem.  So I learned something new and next week we'll leave it in the cooler entryway.  50 degrees sounds like the ideal.

Birds:  As the little babe and I went into our room for quiet time, a large moving shape out the window caught my eye and I actually heard a loud movement of air.  Realizing that a hawk had just been sitting on the chicken yard fence, I ran outside.  I followed the bird to the large pine in the back of the yard and it was bold enough to allow me to walk right up under it.  It was gray, with a distinct barred tail with a squared-off bottom.  It was a Sharp-Shinned Hawk, which is similar to the Cooper's Hawk, but the latter is larger with a rounded tail.  Luckily the tiny bantam chicks are protected by wire and the other seven ladies were hiding under the brush.

Beautiful:  Every year I wish that I had more cut flowers and this year is the same.  However, I managed to find several new hydrangea blooms on the back of the bush - the rest are fading to blueish-gray - and the spiky penstemon is just starting to bloom.  Add that to some echinacea and my white mystery bush, perhaps a hydrangea variety judging by popular opinion from you blog readers, and it makes a decent bouquet.  

Learning, adventure, and beauty.  It was a full day.