Summer is winding down

Despite the cool weather this summer, it's been a pretty great year for the garden--loads of tomatoes, beans, cukes, nasturtiums, chard, swiftly growing basil, zucchini, squash, and plenty of fresh herbs.  And beyond the weather, it was nice to have the time to really tend to the garden.  I stuff an awful lot of food growth in to a teeny tiny space and so weeding and trimming and staking regularly makes a huge difference in yield and overall garden prettiness.

Spending time gardening is curative and restive--both things that, frankly, I needed quite a bit of.  It makes a small sustainable peace within me. The joy of stewarding the land (even such a small plot). The connection to my family and my family's history of gardening and farming. The pleasure of--for a few short months--eating food that tastes deeply like food and that I know is chemical free and sustainably grown. The pride that comes from feeding that food to my friends and family. Gardening can truly fix what ails you.

There was a moment while picking beans in July and throwing them into my rubber trug, that they made this sound--a little hollow thump and roll--that I suddenly remembered so clearly hearing as a child when helping out on the farm. It was a moment that made me nostalgic and glad. It's a pleasing sound and I felt lucky in that moment to have heard it and remembered for a moment weeding and picking in the garden in the bottomlands with Mom and Dad and Rich and Grandma and Grandpa Stewart.

And so, a wonderful summer, and somehow it's already coming to a close. This may be the best summer I have ever had. I suspect that Dan might say the same. But the hyacinth beans are blooming and the cicada are grinding long and loud during our front porch Scrabble games and butternut squash are beginning to show up at the farmer's market--all sure signs that things are winding down.

 

In honor of the close of summer coming, I thought I would borrow from Pip from Meet Me at Mike's, a fun way to take stock of what is happening right at this very moment. . .
Making : Animal head pillows, hoping they turn out.
Cooking : Just found a recipe for California Roll Nachos.  Yes, please.
Drinking : Iced Tea, by day.  Gin and Tonics by night.
Reading: I don't think I want to admit to what I am currently reading, but David Mitchell's new book is on its way to the house.
Wanting: More core strength.  My new thing is not worry about thinner, only stronger.
Looking: at all my favorite blogs as I do every weekend.  a great mix of design and farming/cooking sites. One of my faves is Whole Larder Love--farming, hunting, gathering in the Down Under.
Playing: Scrabble with Dan, but also trying to learn ukulele
Deciding: What to do with my life.  How at 40 can I not know what I want to be when I grow up?
Wishing: I could have all the dogs
Enjoying: Dan's and LP's company.
Waiting: For a match with a birth mother.  I am ever so ready to mother somebody.
Liking: Lots of cool kid's stuff on pinterest. While we wait, I am planning.
Wondering: where I will be this time next year
Loving: Dan, LP, everyone, life, being creative, reading, being settled and centered
Pondering: How to make a cloth totem pole and beautiful tailored wool clothes for dolls
Considering: inviting people over while Dan is out of town--pretty late notice, though.
Watching: whatever I want. Dan goes to Hopscotch later this week.
Hoping: that I will continue to be happy and well
Marvelling: At what a difference a year makes.
Needing: Cool weather again so that I can start cooking fall food.
Smelling: So sad. . . I don't really have a sense of smell
Wearing: A new Boden tunic--far too often
Following: Steve Mulcahy on facebook. He cracks me up.
Noticing: the signs of the impending end of summer.
Knowing: that soon turning forty-one-derful will be lovely
Thinking: about what big project to knit next.  Need a trip project.
Admiring: This Naterade cartoon. being good too each other is sooooo important.
Sorting: through critters for posting on etsy.
Buying: A small boost to my fall wardrobe from Boden.
Getting: ready for our fall vacation to the Outer Banks.
Bookmarking: Library books.  having a library card and using it has been amazing.
Disliking: Ebola. . . there should be a much harsher word for this, but is this freaking anyone else out?
Opening: An Amazon box soon filled with books for our late September vacation
Giggling: at old Frank Sidebottom videos.  So joyful and weird.
Feeling: Lucky
Snacking: On cherry tomatoes. They're coming out our eyeballs.
Coveting: Moleskin Livescribe Notebooks, check it.
Wishing: That I get to go to MFK for my birthday dinner.
Helping: Hopefully, my friend Piper with her new teeny boy when her man returns to work
Hearing: Dan practicing in the basement.

You should try this.  It's fun.  Thanks, Pip!

LP in late day sun

I was playing with sir fluffy pants late in the day, sun slanting low over the garage. I was being blinded as I was throwing him the toy, and while usually not great light to photograph directly into, I snapped blind shots of LP running around anyway.

I got a lot of bit of nose and toy, washed out back paws leaping out the frame, black and white blur against larger blurs.  But then I got this picture:

 LP and I have become close friends this summer, maybe closer than we have been for the eleven years we've known each other.  He's with me pretty much all the time and it's hard not to drop everything and cuddle, scratch, or wrestle with him. Dogs are pretty much the best thing in the world--along with husbands and gardens and family and friends and good food--and LP is easily in the top 2%.

I also got this picture, which I had to share.  It's just his butt, but the way the sun is lighting it up. . . it hardly looks real.  Am I wrong?

Seriously. It's lit like an aerial shot of the Swiss Alps.

August

It's getting to be that time of the summer, when I start wishing summer could stretch on forever and ever and ever.  By the end of August, I'm usually dreaming of wool sweaters and crisp cool walks with Dan and the pooch.  But right now, cicadas revving up at sunset every night, lightning bugs winking off and on across the lawn, the distant hoot of children playing the last round of tag before their moms call them in. . . it can feel like the most perfect time of the year.

Sometimes I wish I could read his mind. . .

Other times, I wish I could escape into his noggin and think the way he does. The world is a rough place right now. There's way too much to think about, worry about, get worked up about. But this little guy pretty much just worries about meals and who's going to throw the ball for him next.

Turkey, Pork and Potpies, oh my!

Last weekend, Dan and I threw a dinner party. . . a big, wander around and chat and graze on the food and drink and laugh party. I have almost no pictures from the actual party at all. This is unconscionably lame, but it might also mean that I was having far too much fun to take many moments to remove myself with a camera.

But we had loads of good food and, happily, loads of good leftovers. I smoked two pork butts and Cicero's annual free turkey. All turned out well, but I brined a turkey for the first time ever and it was worth it. I have no idea if that turkey was any good at the start, but by the end of brining and cooking, that thing was miraculous--juicy, rich, yummy. (easy peasy folks, 2 Qts. apple juice, 1 cup kosher salt and enough water in a big container to fully cover the bird and leave it over night. To cook, I just stuffed it with a cut up honeycrisp apple, lemon, head of garlic and onion, then put it in the oven and literally left it alone until it was time to come out.)

So, with leftovers, what to do?


Turkey potpies!


Everyone heartily approved except for L.P. because he didn't get to share.

Sunday

L.P. should get to have some fun.

dill seed from the garden, finally ready for harvest

paella is magic

summer is awesome

I've been so caught up in work and my artwork and my friends' good news and tragedies, that I've been more or less ignoring the garden. Luckily, it's been raining every few days and the husband waters pretty faithfully. So, it's been chugging along without me.

But I decided to take stock today--do a little weeding, plant basil in back (for pesto!) and hostas out front (for curb appeal!) and give the whole thing a once over. And this is what I found:

out of nowhere. . . zucchini

My first nasturtium flower.

tiny baby green beans.
we'll be rolling in them soon.

and l.p. thinks gardening is pretty serious business.

L.P.: in a gang?

I don't know what "L.P." stands for in sidewalk/street maintenance land. So instead of figuring that out, we decided that, in a town with its share of gang problems, our boy L.P. has started to act out and stray from the straight and narrow path.

Maybe he sneaks out of the house in the thick of night and tags the neighborhood while we're sleeping.

He certainly stood next to his spray-painted name with enough pride today to make us suspect our imaginings to be true.

Mucho Gardening

The husband and I prepared our backyard garden plots for spring and I planted onion sets--red, yellow and white.

and L.P. helped.

P.L.P.

Tidying up my computer's innards today and came across this picture of our boy LP when husband and I first lived on the second floor of a three flat in Lincoln Square. So much salt on the sidewalks that the wee LP couldn't hack walks without booties. But caught him with a flash and he turned into an alien pup. . . a pup with magic powers.

Butternut Squash Soup

Last night, I

decided not to fight against the cold weather anymore. We're still in the thick of winter and there's nothing I can do about it.

And I have had a Butternut squash in the pantry since the last farmer's market in late September of last year. Ah, the wonder of root vegetables and gourds.

So, I cut that bad boy up and then made a pretty fabulous creamy squash soup without using a recipe. Lots of ginger and paprika. . . some bacon (because seriously? if you start with bacon, you can't go wrong after that). And partnered with a yummy mixed greens, blue cheese, vinagrettey salad. . . that just might have included candied walnuts.

It tasted like winter food and it was yummy and waking to snow this morning was a little less sad.

Stoughton, WI

Just back from a short Valentines getaway to Stoughton, Wisconsin. Around Valentines Day every year, the man and I cross the invisible cabin fever threshold. On one side of that threshold, we are enjoying the coziness of winter, we like our house and are enjoying being homebodies. On the other side of the threshold is total stir-craziness, disliking looking at any of the walls inside our home, and needing spring desperately.

So, this year we did something about it and left town for two short days to visit a little town in Wisconsin that we've never been to. Stayed in the Naeset-Roe B and B, where Carl, the owner tried to overwhelm us first with the cuteness of his sheltie (Zack) and then the size and deliciousness of his breakfasts. Successful on both counts. Thanks, Carl! Amazing!


Lots of time spent outdoors--hiking, sledding, eventually playing with the pooch on the frozen Lake Kegonsa--and lots of time spent antiquing and eating. It was nice to be elsewhere for a few days.