Anticipation of heat, and garden starts

I got out walking early this morning, to get bitten in good time before the heat came on. It's high 80s, not bad but also pretty high humidity.  The biting bugs enjoyed their breakfast on me. 

At the pond turtles slid rapidly into the water, which looks really dirty, but they don't seem to mind, frogs either. Maybe it's something natural. 

After all the rain we have fungi 

This was odd, the sunshine made a spotlight for this battered looking one

Here my shoe for scale. Those are minute mushrooms.

At home the potatoes are sprouting 

And the coleus, descendant of seeds I bought years ago. Gary has quite a big plant I gave him, too.

And Chris, look, the morning glory are going with no help at all from me. I just let the seeds fall at will last year.

I think I'll have multiple blooms on the hibiscus this year, but the buds are too small to show up in a picture.

And today I set up a weaving.

See the slit there. I'm pleased with this, remembered from making tapestries. I do like to have a work going, and weaving is easier on my hands than knitting. Definitely getting my loom money's worth.

This one has a longer warp, in fact it used up all the orange thread I had. 

I'm also thinking about doing a bit of drawing and painting. I often get the urge in summer, the light being so good. So this enforced indoor time might be good. The bouquet is a nice model. And maybe early morning outside, despite bites. Despite Bites could be a travelogue title.

Happy day everyone, soldier on. It's an anxious time and I'm an anxious person anyway, so art is my liferaft.  

Planting the back forty, weaving done and other diversions

 I was up and out early this morning, tottering I mean pottering, about the patio, watering, listening to birds, admiring the scenery, lugging about potting soil and planting potatoes.

I did add more soil but forgot to take a picture 

For the nth time I blessed the day we bought this place. It continues to be a good place to live.  It's small enough to be manageable, and big enough to have different surroundings in different rooms.

Speaking of views, Mary will like this. When I changed the bed yesterday I decided it was time to retire the warm quilt for the season. 

So I tossed it over the child's rocking chair where Bear with Custom Boots and Pink Rabbit sit. Then I thought it would hurt their feelings to be all buried, so I set them on top, and they both gave me that well I should think so look.

Then I finished the weaving, cut it off the loom and made a thing. See how the design works on both sides. The fringes run down the stitched side of the thing.

Now I have a hardshell spectacle case to spare, and any suggestions on what to keep in it are welcome.  I'm now studying my next project. And, for my next trick..

Next door a new influx of Gary's family and friends is loading another UHaul. It's a blistering hot day and I saw an older relative wisely get into the shade inside the van and find a chair while the younger generation flung furniture hand to hand.

Despite the weather I fancied a hot lunch, red onions, yellow potatoes and rainbow chard, fried with salt and smoked paprika.

Yogurt and cane sugar for dessert. Pot of tea, little dish of raisins and chocolate chips. 

Then I spent a while with peaceful podcasts on Spotify, about textiles and poetry and pollinators and dogs. Here's a few I like, a wonderful contrast to the State of the World. The poetry on today's podcast is demanding and difficult to hear, but it's not a manufactured anxiety. It's a coming to grips with reality.

Aside from all this I wrote to HUD protesting a new proposed regulation barring trans and LGBTQIA people from homeless shelters and domestic violence shelters. 

Comments open till late June. Please do likewise. These populations need more not less, protection. You can see the reg you're protesting in the receipt below.

Happy day everyone! Do all the things you feel like doing, and maybe a few you don't. 

Holiday on the deck, baked tofu katsu

Memorial Day was mild and sunny, perfect weather for decking. Reading, dozing, listening to birds. 

Also being nearly dive bombed by a pair of crows who zoomed past at the exact moment I stepped out, missing my head by inches. I'm guessing a courtship dance, as I watched them in sync,  up and down the sky, skimming the fences.

And when I repotted the bigger coleus I broke off a couple of branches, coleus being brittle. It looks fine anyway, and the chipped teapot is back in service rooting the small pieces in water.

Meanwhile in the kitchen, 

here's a celery heart in water, ready to sprout for a bit of instant salad.

About the tofu sticks. I always get the tofu block very dry before slicing. And to bake, I just battered and breaded as usual. I preheated the toaster oven to bake at 400°f. 

Then I spritzed a flat shallow metal pan with avocado oil, arranged the sticks then spritzed them with a drop more oil, not much. Baked for twenty minutes, turned them over, ten more minutes. Done. And just as crisp as fried.

The rest of the uncooked sticks I covered and put in the fridge. Today I had a second helping and they were still crisp.  

They're pretty much fast food, and they've reintroduced me to the pleasure of dipping sauce. 

This morning wasn't exactly like a holiday around here. I took care of the recycling, and the garbage, three trips, swept the kitchen floor, reorganized the outside storage area, where I found a broken old garbage container, another trip to recycle. Shook out little rugs. Swept the front steps and the patio. I got my steps in.  Gardening was quite restful in comparison.

Happy day everyone, if you get the urge to rush about organizing and sweeping and tossing, lie down till it passes.

Ted sez 

Memorial Day 2025, garden update

Today we remember and honor our troops who died in combat, without glorifying the wars.  The price is too high.

Yesterday I did make those tofu sticks, with a dipping sauce. I baked them with minimal oil and they came out just as crisp as fried. No pictures, because they looked the same as the last time I made them. More for today.

And while I was sorting out pots for my flower seeds, Gary got involved, supplied me with some pots, carried my bags of potting soil through to the patio, and set up the pots for me to plant. 

So I got to do the fun part. I scattered forgetmenot seeds, gypsophila, and mixed wildflowers, and gave small and large zinnias their own pots, also snapdragons and California poppies. 

And I transplanted the coleus you saw in the teapot to its own container. 

So now I watch and admire. And maybe water a bit.

Meanwhile I'm reading a Grantchester book and I like it much more than the TV series, so I think I'll continue. I much prefer my imagined Sidney to the actor in the series who looks like an awkward knitting-pattern model to this biased observer, and about as interesting.  But you do you, I know he has admirers.

Happy day everyone, if you're in the US, be aware of our debt to our people who died in war, and let's work for better solutions than combat.

And though you'd never know it from most weather around here, summer is officially under way. Shore resorts open, pools and tennis courts, too.  Golfers never stopped except in snow. 

Happy day, all, Ted sez.

Gardening with an assist

A bit more planting today. I managed to grabstick the container into place without bending far. Wildflowers just scattered to take their chances, and zinnias in the pot, with squirrel deterrent installed.

I discovered another bag of potting soil in the process, good.  More planting when I recover.  This is definitely piecemeal gardening, but I'm glad to be able to. 

Back in March, when I got the seeds, I hoped I'd be able to do this by late May, and I'm a bit ahead of that hope, yay me!

I walked earlier, carrying but not using Carol Cane, and admired neighboring plantings. A bit wet, after all the rain, for much walking on the grass, though I did some, and got wet feet, shoes now drying out.

Down the street, my neighbor's area is just booming 

Happy day everyone! Doing just a little bit is happier than not getting to it at all.

Now for reading, plenty of good books loaded and ready. And maybe I'll watch the latest Atomic shrimp on YouTube. 

He makes the most ordinary things interesting to follow.  Who knew I'd enjoy an entire video on can openers?  Today he's setting up a small irrigation system in his yard. It's a must watch!