Out of the Weeds

It looks like I've let the weeds grow here on the blog over the last six weeks.  Hopefully not as bad as they've grown in real life in my dad's garden this summer.  They are ruling the world over there, let me tell you.  More about that in a bit, but for now I'm here with virtual hoe in hand to make amends for this neglected space on the Interweb. 

Working on machine applique.

Behind the hedges, so to speak, I've been doing a few things.  Finished a quilt, made a bag, fixed some "not-shoes" that my niece is going to wear for her wedding, and started a string quilt. 

Hobo bag commissioned by my niece.

Quilt finish - made from bonus Christmas fabric HSTs.

String-X quilt pieces, string pieced on phone book pages.

I've also been enjoying the summer in other ways—biking, walking, reading, etc.  

One of the many bike rides we've enjoyed.

I would add gardening, but that's been a bit of a failure, it seems.  Turns out gardens are a lot of work. Not just requiring outright sweaty labor, but consistency.  I'm not able to get over there daily and tend it, and I swear it knows.  It knows.  Nature knows the shopkeeper isn't minding the till(er). 

Dad has been the master gardener in the family through the years, until the present one.  But he's still laid up with his broken ankle from January and some healing complications from that.  So with the help of a couple other family members, we got his garden planted (in some pretty boggy soil), but the crops haven't done very well.  The radishes and parsnips washed out.  About a third of the onions came up, about a dozen beets are still thinking about it, and a handful of green bean plants are struggling to push out some pods.  The peppers, nada.  The tomatoes?  They may be okay eventually, barring an early frost.

Wildflowers (grown by Nature, not me)

The weeds, however, are THRIVING.

If you can't beat 'em - eat 'em?

After whacking at the thousandth specimen of one weed, in particular, I got curious about it.  So I asked Google what the heck it was and ultimately identified it as purslane.  That's not what Dad called it, but we won't go there.

Purslane

A little more investigating revealed it was edible.  Not only edible but very nutritious and supposedly good tasting.  Apparently, various cultures actually enjoy eating the stuff and even pay money for it!

And here it was in spades.  I won't go so far as to say manna from heaven, but Nature's gift, at any rate, or consolation prize.  A veritable and vegetative "participation trophy" for us amateurs.

You think you can grow peppers?  Not this year, lady.  But have some purslane.

So I ate it.  And it was good!

It tastes like baby spinach, only better.  Brighter tasting, a little lemony.  I chopped some up and sprinkled it in a salad.  I added it to soft tacos for a tasty crunch. 

I didn't eat a ton of it—you never know when my touchy stomach will decide that everything must go—but I gave it a fair shot and enjoyed it, and it didn't cause me any grief.  So there's that.

What kind of adventures have you had this summer—gardening, gastronomic, or otherwise?

Going Fourth

I hope those of you in the States are having a magnificent 4th of July! It's been a pretty low key holiday for us, and that's just fine.  We did do a little grilling at suppertime, since the weather was not just cooperative but spectacular.  After I get done with this post, I'm looking forward to taking a walk at sunset and enjoying the beautiful evening.

Are you a cloud watcher?  I sure am.  Is there a better word for someone who likes looking at the changing sky?  (No, not an airhead or space cadet, thanks brain.)  We live in a fairly level area but with some gently rolling hills.  My favorite walking route takes me up a couple small hills that are great vantage points for cloud watching or sky-gazing, and, in the fall, noticing the changing colors of foliage.  It's a highlight of my day, strolling along, feeling the breeze or the humidity, as the case may be, the warmth of the sun as it sinks toward the horizon.  Listening to an audiobook or sometimes just the birds...or barking dogs...or the highway...or the lawnmowers...or the Med-Flight helicopter...

Although I haven't blogged for a month, I have taken a lot of pictures.  In general, there hasn't been a whole lot of quilting and sewing, though there has been some.  There are plenty of other things to engage and distract me this time of year.  Here are a few of June's highlights—in alphabetical order, how about that.

Backing - Baking (with Beets!) - Biking - Bird-watching:

Family (Father's Day) - Flora:

Listening:


Mini-Making - Mural Marveling:

 

Planting - Picking:

Quilting:

Reading - Relaxing:

 Watching (Wrestling!):

Sunday Sundry 7-6-15

I know it's not Sunday anymore, but as I intended to post this yesterday as an installment of my irregular and random "Sundry" posts, I'm sticking with the theme.  Things like that happen when you procrastinate.  Sunday turns to Monday, the days to months, and so on.

It's amazing that we're smack dab in the middle of summer already.  I notice the stores are starting to get back-to-school stock on the shelves and that seems way too early.  But I'd be the worst retailer ever with my tendency to put things off.  Where are the spiral notebooks and pencil cases, you ask?  Oh, we'll have those out by Halloween.

Let's climb aboard the random roller coaster, shall we?

Dialing back a month or so ago, my chives were in blossom and around that time, I saw an interesting blog post about how to make chive blossom vinegar.  So I did.

HERE is the link to the instructions I followed, but basically I snipped a handful of blossoms, put them in a pint jar, and covered them with vinegar (I used rice wine vinegar, but I think any clear vinegar would work).  

Put a lid on it and set it aside for two weeks, then strain it, and voila—pretty pink chive blossom vinegar!  It has a mild onion-like flavor that goes well in oil and vinegar dressings, etc.

Some other recent snapshots of the flora and fauna around here include this pair of goldfinches having a breakfast of seeds from the spent purple-flowered spiky things in my garden, the name of which I don't recall.

And this little dragonfly resting on the hostas.

Last week, we took a mini-vacay to Galena, Illinois for a couple days.  It's an historic, once thriving old mining town whose downtown area has been nicely restored and features many shops, antique stores, boutiques, and restaurants.  It was also the home of Ulysses S. Grant, as well as a number of other generals and officers during the time of the Civil War.

We visited the local museum, which houses the famous 14-foot original oil painting entitled "Peace in the Union" by Thomas Nast, depicting the surrender of General Lee to General Grant at Appomattox.

A lot of interesting history, including that of the lead and zinc mining industries so vital to 19th century Galena.

The streets are steeply terraced from the river valley.  We learned that twice a day, at noon and after work in the evening, Grant would walk up these steps from his family's leather shop on Main Street to his house on the hill.  (We also learned that he stood 5'8" tall and weighed 135 pounds, and his wife wore a size 4 shoe, which was average in those days—wow, people were smaller then).

Later that day, I coaxed Norm into making the same trek.  We only went up the steps once, however, which was enough to make my leg muscles feel jittery for a while afterwards.

This view is somewhat deceiving, as we had already walked up one street level when I took this picture, and beyond the end of the steps you can see, there were another couple dozen we climbed to the next street level as well.  I counted 245 steps on the way down, give or take a few.

We drove up to Chestnut Mountain Resort a few miles outside Galena for a view of the Mississippi River.  

On the way back to town, Norm spotted these barn quilts, so I pulled in for a closer view.

As I was walking back to the car, I noticed these huge thistle blossoms, the largest almost the size of a tennis ball!  

Beyond the thistles, a few sheep grazed lazily along a stony creek bed.  Such a lovely bucolic scene.

Back home, I've started another kennel quilt.  I'm making big half-square triangles for this one, which will end up probably 42 x 70 inches, the largest one so far.

Did a little thrift store shopping this weekend, where I found a vintage paint-by-number to add to the collection.  A dollar ninety-nine, what a deal.

I took it out of the frame to clean the glass, where I noted the toy company and name and number of the panel.  This one probably dates to the late 1950s and is in really good shape.  The somewhat shaky execution of the paint job is all part of the charm!

Now it's back to a normal work week for us.   How's your summer going so far?

It's Monday...It's Miscellany

Overheard at the Flea Market
 "See this hat?" said the woman in charge of the pie booth, pointing to her head, "We Amish and Mennonite do not lie."

I didn't catch what the customer had pressed her about, but I had to chuckle.  Gotta love that Anabaptist sense of humor.

We came home from the flea market with nothing more than a couple pounds of bison from a friendly farmer (who wore a baseball cap, in case you're wondering).

Grateful for the Growing Season
The friendly farmer in my family, a/k/a Dad, has had a good crop of kohlrabi this year.  I think it's my favorite vegetable.

If you've never tasted kohlrabi, it has a mild, cabbage-y flavor, and the texture is kind of like a radish.  I enjoy it peeled, sliced and eaten raw alongside a sandwich for lunch.

The beets have been doing well too.  My favorite way to eat those is in the chocolate beet cake recipe, which I shared last year.  Can you freeze beets, do you know?  I'm wondering if I could just grate and freeze them in Ziplock bags, like you do with zucchini.

Media Musings
We watched Locke starring Tom Hardy last weekend.  I liked it very much, despite its mixed reviews on Redbox.  If you love your action flicks, you may want to pass, but if, like me, you'd like nothing better than to stare at Tom Hardy for a couple hours, then by all means, see it.  I found it fascinating and compelling the whole way through, as the viewer comes along for the ride and eavesdrops on a man trying to keep a handle on various situations threatening to spin his life out of control.

I'm still working my way through the Outlander series of books (in the middle of book five, The Fiery Cross, at the moment), but have taken a short break to read something different.  

A Wilder Rose by Susan Albert is right up my alley.  I loved the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, but on discovering they were, in essence, ghost written/heavily edited by her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, I was curious about Rose.  Many years ago, I had read the biography of Rose Wilder Lane, A Ghost in the Little House, and then enjoyed one of Rose's novels, Free Land, after that.

I'm really enjoying A Wilder Rose.  It's been a terrific summer, weather wise, for grabbing some time to read every day out on the deck with my lunch.  I am savoring these days of sunshine and warmth and only wish I could soak it up and store it like a battery for those long winter months ahead...when the deck will look like this again, GAH!

(Okay, it is kinda pretty, I have to admit.  In pictures anyway.)

Palate cleanser/back to reality photos:

This little plant, whose name I forget, is doing well on my semi-shaded front porch.  And the barrel out front is a-blooming with some red and white star-like impatiens I tried this year.  

Note to self:  Forget about planting the begonia in the center of the barrel next year.  It got entirely swallowed up by the impatiens.

How is your summer winding down?  Are you grabbing the gusto of these last days before school and schedules?