Nancy, a Freecycler from way back, posted an urgent invitation to come and help with her massive Golden Delicious apple tree which has thousands of apples ripening all at once, a positive tsunami of them.
So I went over with a bushel basket and in no time had about as many as I can use -- they're small, were not pruned out to reduce the crop, but are as their name implies, delicious -- and had plans to spend some time processing them for the freezer. A winter's worth of crumbles and sauce. And an invitation to go back and continue if I would like to. I dug some iris divisions, the purple and white bearded heritage ones, that I'd promised her way back, because her mother used to grow them, so I finally made good and took them over in the same apple quest trip.
Before I cut them up, though (no peeling, way too small and fiddly) I used them as the model for the day's drawing, too tempting, a bushel basket full of apples, how often do I see that.
And after a couple of hours steady washing and chopping and pushing about and labeling and bagging, while listening to a Peter Wimsey murder mystery, the freezer now has paid its way, since I couldn't have accepted them before having a freezer like this to house them.
That was yesterday's Freecycle bounty. And here's today's picked up from a different town, different direction, it's all go:
In line with my home-decor-without-money theme, I really like the idea of setting up a vignette like this, with the easel, which was the Freecycle item, holding up a charcoal drawing which I had standing on the floor for lack of a home on the wall.
The two paintings on the wall are my locally dyed works, and one will be in a group show as of next week. And the easel will house a rotating display of art that I fancy seeing better, or just giving it a turn. You see the Dollivers supervising the whole thing from the vantage point of their apartment in the bookcase.
This month's Bite Club is about Rozane Gold, her three ingredient approach to cooking, never used her books before, so I got the 123 book and plunged in. Since our fearless leader, Diane, strongly suggested that instead of finding familiar themes to cook, we venture into things we haven't ever made.
So I ventured totally, and used the current two redskin potatoes to make latkes! yeah, I know, very familiar to some friends, never encountered by me. Very very good, fun to make, too. Quite time consuming but there was no hurry. I made about half the recipe, I think, judging from the weight of my potatoes.
I felt very historic doing this one. See it in the background, cooking, while I show off the dessert
And while I was at it, I went back to an old favorite, to use up some prune plums, and made Marian Burros Plum Torte (Tart in some books), and liked it yet again.
Dinner looked like this, end of a wildly active and successful day
One of the latkes is destined for tomorrow's breakfast, just showing you the whole output here. Nice glass of merlot, of course.
Planning on sitting down this evening. After I have a walk, that is.
After a dramatic thunderstorm during the night, which kept on coming back and doing an encore, woke up this morning to find the patio all decked out in diamonds. I noticed, since the old cherry tree branch was weighted down with water, and I could see into it, that there's a great crop of wild cherries starting. The birds will love this in fall and winter. Not good for humans, though, too tiny and bitter, all pit no cherry. Birds and squirrels also eat the thorns on the wild cherry, in the depth of winter when food is at a premium.
So here they are, sparkling, and the houseplants thrilled with their shower. Click to enjoy better.
I've been realizing that though the patio is not spectacular this year, full of wild flowers and marigolds and various unshowy plants, it's proving to be a much better nature center than when it looked a lot more exciting. The petunias attract clearwing hummingbird moths, actual hummingbirds, several species of butterfly, all kinds of birds rummaging in there for insects,the herbs are a big bee magnet, and all in all, it's a Good Thing TM.
And because of their visits, the general feeling around it is one of more peace and ease. I wander out with a cup of coffee in the morning and just enjoy. That's when I often do a daily drawing, too.
August, now that the heat's abated a bit for now, is amazing. The mornings are perfect to be outside, everyone's so happy! and the food's not bad, either. Also my friend did fix the shower faucet in no time flat, once he'd shopped for the right one, doh, I had not realized I was trying to fit a square handle onto a round faucet, so to speak, very slightly wrong, but enough to not work. And he gallantly refused even to be reimbursed for the new faucet and the trip and the work.
Here's today's lunch: farmfresh tomato salad, just doused with fresh ground black pepper, together with salt redskin potatoes, a la Deborah Madison, spritz of olive oil, champagne vinegar. I'd already made inroads on it before remembering to take a pic.
Dessert is totally ripe cantaloupe chunks with baharat (see here ) from my Ottolenghi adventures, sprinkled over. It just gets better in the jar. You open it and the scent is so many layered. Sprinkle it over practically anything! Or just breathe the scent, for instant calming. Better than lavender.
Today I spent the morning, at least until I got too hot, drawing with me mates in a plein air session. Very small group this week, since the heat's difficult for a lot of people. We consisted of one watercolorist, one photographer (who took pix of me at work, I believe, and promised to send them!) and moi.
To see the drawings, if you're interested, go here
But to see pix of the actual place, here ya go.
Bridge also seen in drawing on Art the Beautiful, interpreted of course! bridges over water a favorite subject.
Elizabeth painting
Towpath where a lot of walkers and bicyclers pass by and show an interest
Elizabeth working so intently she's unaware of my sneaking up on her.
Surprise discovery of the day: a fresh sheepskin drying, pegged out at all corners, and we wonder whose project it is. If any local readers know, please tell us.
I seized the day and went to the garden center to see if there were any petunias to rescue, late in the season, I know, but I tend to have this urge to prolong the flowers. The petunias I brought home a couple of weeks ago have been very happy, but their neighbors left behind at the center a bit sad looking. I picked out the best looking ones, and got a deal on it, late season.
And brought them home, stripped off their withered foliage, planted them in new potting soil and they're in place on top of the fence, at least some of them are not yet, since I ran out of steam after a bit. The established petunias I brought in from the outdoor place, figuring it was time I got to enjoy them, too. I moved a pot of marigolds and lavender out there instead.
Extreme light contrast defeated my tablet's abilities, but you get the gist. The marigolds and other plants on top of the fence are looking tired and a bit ragged, so I put them down on the ground in honorable retirement, and now the fence looks cheerful again.
I got the natural version of a standing o as I worked on this - while I was still potting up the new petunias, a hummingbird clearwing moth started work busily on them, then once in place on the fence, a pair of Carolina wrens, a monarch butterfly, a cabbage white and Mrs. Cardinal showed up to play among them. My nature preserve seems to be doing well.
Since I was on a roll, the antibiotics are kicking in, feeling better, I dashed off a little drawing of the end pot of pink petunias, pilot pen oh, alliteration, on Bristol, and at that point sanity overtook me and I came indoors.
The heat index was nearly 100F. so it was time to stop and come in to brag about what I did. And to remember that I'm still getting well, not totally there yet, and I should sit and read a good mystery.
My genius handyman artist friend is going to come over later and as he put it, "see what's up" with my shower faucet, meaning probably fix it in about 30 seconds.
I was felled a few days ago with what turns out to be two things at once, I got lucky, a tmj flareup, first I ever had, and strep throat, again first I ever had. Both of these things cause wild pain in your throat and jaw. I will draw a veil over the last couple of days, the impossibility of sleeping at all with that level of pain in your throat, gah, and the higher pain level that happens when you try to swallow. And since I am now safely onto antibiotics and various other things my doctor rxed, I'm hoping for better days.
I'm glad I insisted that I thought I had strep (having studied on the internet at 4 a.m.) despite the nurse and doctor and assistant all assuring me it was unlikely in adults. But Dr V. swabbed my throat anyway, and did a rapid test. Called me back half an hour later to say, well, I got a surprise, you do have strep.
At this point things is a bit better, still wobbly, but that's okay, it's moving in the right direction.
To prove it, I got back into doing a little drawing for #drawingaugust, namely the little native cherry sapling I planted in the spring for the wildlife, and to succeed my old cherry when she finally falls down. Glad my hand has stopped wobbling enough to do this! click to see better.
But alas, I'm infectious, so I have to postpone being around people for a few days, out of social responsibility. That includes asking my friend next door to help me with the shower faucet.
This is one of those simple if you can manage it things: I noticed that the shower was only going to lukewarm, wondered if my water heater was giving out, but the other shower and various places for water were all heating nicely.
So I got brave and popped off the front plate of the faucet, unscrewed the handle, praying water wouldn't gush out, and found that the inside of it was broken, the piece lying in there. No wonder it wasn't turning. Sent away for a replacement, and yesterday attempted to install it. Well, when you're running a fever, and generally well under the weather, it's probably not a good time to do this.
So I installed it once, and when I pulled it out to start the water, it came right off in my hand. Oh. Did it again, and now it worked lovely, changing temps just as needed, and when I went to push it back in to turn off the water, it wouldn't turn off. Removed the tap and went in search of a tool to bang on the stem to turn it off. Which worked, but isn't a good method for daily use.
At this point I think I've reached my level of 1. patience and 2. ability to do a simple task. So when I feel better I'll ask G. to fix it, which he will do in thirty seconds, laughing the whole time. Anyway, I do have another shower to use.
And that's the big dramatic news chez Liz this morning.
So today, since I still have pesto galore from last year, still good and still usable, in the freezer, no need to make more, I decided to pick and freeze herbs as they are. I left them on the stems, since I often want to just lay stems on top of roasting vegetables, and anyway I can always chop and process them when I'm using them.
The Dollivers claim to have done all the gardening and harvesting and picking and wrapping and labeling and so on, and here they are, sitting on the little chest freezer newly installed in the kitchen and filling up rapidly, panting and holding their scissors and tape and pen.
I picked basil, sage, rosemary, tarragon, oregano, peppermint, thyme, chives, parsley, and probably other herbs that escape me for the moment. Then I wrapped them in ziplocs, tightly, rolled each labeled one in a rubber band -- this is proving a great way of freezing so as to retrieve items -- and arranged the lot in a kind of cylinder so one band holds all the bags, and you just turn it to find the herb needed.
Not alphabetically, since my ocd doesn't run that far! I pretty much picked as I remembered where the herbs were, and bagged them the same way. But I did write the labels on scotch tape and stuck that on instead of labeling the bag directly. I have too many containers with so many crossings out as they're re-used that it's hard to tell if I'm opening squash or shredded zucchini or apple dice. This way I can take off the label when it no longer applies. Gosh, I'm clever.
Anyway, the Dollivers are proud of their expertise and made Greensleeves stay back in charge of the dogs in the D Kennels, since dogs are banned by them from freezer prep. G. was perfectly happy for a quiet afternoon for once, with just bears downstairs and dogs barking. And the Ds left their hats behind, so she's been trying on, but don't mention it to them. Elton also took the afternoon to practice a few chords and changes. I suspect he couldn't think of any songs that fitted with the freezing of the herbs.
Though this sounds like a real enterprise, in fact it's about a five minute drive away, and said lake, fed by running water like most lakes around here, is at the foot of a municipal park. It was a favorite destination to drive HP when he was still more or less on his feet. I have pix of him happily sitting by the water enjoying the views and birds.
here's a view taken from the bench he liked to sit on.
Oddly enough the bridge you see in the pix is not a rustic footbridge -- this is NJ, and it's a major highway with an endless river of traffic and noise. But the sound of the moving water is a great antidote to the traffic sound, and it's a peaceful place to sit.
I found a new feature since I was there a while ago -- a Rain Garden. New to me, this is a great device for rendering runoff water from parking lots and streets, clean and filtered, returning it to the freshwater streams clean.
Here's the explanation and diagrams.
This one is near a parking lot, and consists of a sunken bed, with a lot of rocks and gravel and a pipe system for runoff to the lake (or the street if you're a homeowner and put it in your front yard) and the rocks avoiding standing water. Good growing soil then mulch follow, and it's planted with natural shrubs and flowers. This is a great idea, particularly since we have an ecological treasure under our feet.
About an hour south of here, in the Pine Barrens, or under them to be exact, is the largest freshwater aquifer in the western hemisphere. Yes, surprising if your knowledge of NJ is derived from the Sopranos and corny NY comedians! but nemmind that. We are reminded all the time that the storm drains feed directly back into our freshwater streams -- the water table around here is only about 30 inches below the surface, which becomes very obvious in times of great rainstorms, when it's well above the surface.
A while back our local Girl Scouts did a nice stenciling project, with a turtle and a reminder not to throw anything into storm drains. Every storm drain had its little motif. Now they've been made permanent, with metal plates saying the same thing.
So here's how it the Rain Garden, another part of the freshwater conservation effort, looks, very subtle, fits right in.
And the lake no doubt is most appreciative. This is a good fishing spot, which you can tell from the numbers of heron and cormorants and the occasional egret to be seen often diving and catching. The Rain Garden was financed by our state water company, yay, along with the work of garden clubs and the local municipality.
I did a little drawing of one view here while I was there, which you can see here
Many things to think about today: Handsome Son's birthday (celebrated last night with a big Italian dinner and chocolate cake, with afterdinner mints and prosecco to celebrate him) dinner courtesy of Liz's Kitchen, and a lot of fun it was to prepare and serve it to us both. Very merry evening.
Also Handsome Partner's fourth anniversary, or possibly ten minutes, at times it seems to be so recent. We celebrate him on his own birthday, so as to reserve today for son. Seems fair! It would amuse him if he knew.
And since the birthday dinner is done, and the son is off to the shore, I went to the farm market and the farmstand and came home loaded down with tomatoes and peaches and eggs and chicken sausage and energy to prep the tomatoes and peaches for winter use, or at least fall use..
I celebrated with a little drawing while waiting for the water to boil for peeling the toms and peaches.
But I did remember to keep one tomato and one peach for lunch, there is nothing better than a New Jersey tomato, right from the farm, just sliced and a bit of salt. Followed by a Jersey peach, likewise, with a dash of ginger. No need to fancy them up, they're fancy already.
And my new kitchen toy is getting massive use: the chest freezer I've been banging on about for years, and finally bought. Less than 24 hours from deciding and ordering to actually starting to fill it! It's about 5 cu ft, plenty for my purposes. Lightning swift delivery.
The bottom is all natural dyes, so I can use them in the winter when there's not much foliage to get, and the rest is rapidly filling up with fresh fruit and veggies. In the course of organizing my freezer from the top of the fridge I found all sorts of nifty items I'd forgotten, sauces and things, so that freezer is all about pesto and herbs and sauces and various other condiment type stuff. Amazed at how many little packets of curry leaves I found in there, now all in one bag. Just bursting with gloat over all this. And now when I make soup I can store it without risking life, limb and toes when I open the packed freezer to find it..
The title takes care of the narrative for this blogpost, so I'll just cut to the chase and show you the ex pants skirt, dyed, altered to work as a skirt instead of pants, and with a pocket hiding the walnut stain! quite happy with this outcome.
The zipper is now at the back, and it works quite well this way round. Note the little walking slit, front and back. All clever stuff here!
Late July, height of the farmshare season, needing ingenuity to make meals of veggies as well as prep and freeze them, to keep up with the supply. Roasting is a great way to do this, particularly since I've been using balsamic vinegar to sort of sprinkle over.
And the salt potatoes I learned from Deborah Madison's book on farmmarkets, redskins boiled with a ton of seasalt, took their place in this dish. I had Handsome Son come to dinner the other night, and help me eat the zucchini quiche with a big side of roasted potatoes, squash, onions and corn, and the rest of the frozen lima beans from an Ottolenghi recipe.
The corn went in the dish raw, but I steamed the others, and boiled the potatoes in the saltwater. Tossed the veggies in a mixture of olive oil, seasonings, black cherry balsamic vinegar. Roasted them at 475F for about 45 minutes.
Dessert was a peach crumble, fresh farm peaches, done the way Rose Levy Beranbaum does them in her Bible of pies and cakes, this month's Bite Club selection being desserts.
And HS pronounced the potatoes great, were there any more, the squash okay, the quiche hm, is there any ketchup. But the peach crumble vanished in short order.
The different way Beranbaum does the fruit is to macerate them for a while in sugar, drain off the juices to make a reduction, while mixing the drained fruit with a mix of spices and cornstarch, mainly ginger and cinnamon. Then the reduced liquid goes back on the fruit and into the pie dish. I didn't want to make the fancy pastry shapes for the top, so I used Martha's old standby oat crumble, and very good it was. Not too juicy, but very flavory.
This week there were, among other exciting things, peaches and peppers and corn, berries in the farmshare -- farmer explained apologetically that they ran out of cherry tomatoes the previous day, and had to sub with berries. NO problem here with that!
So here's a berry and Granny Smith apple crumble, as per Beranbaum, using ginger and cinnamon, and the crumble part as per Martha, using oatmeal and ground oats.
This is the kind of thing that's making me lean toward investing in a second little freezer for the kitchen, so I can have this sort of thing in the winter.
Since we are in a heatwave, with those heat index things zooming past 100F there are those who might question the sanity of a person who bakes on such a day, but I had to use the fresh fruit, and well, I was just needing activity indoors.
I finished the window sail for my neighbor, who came over last night to see, and was mad with joy, big hugs and thanks and it went down well. His house is in an uproar, with wiring and tiling and workmen all over, so he asked me to hold onto the sail for the moment until the dust settles, literally. I'll post a pic when it's installed.
And the dyeing is moving on, with black walnut dye on what was linen pants and will be a linen skirt with pockets, but that adventure's in Art the Beautiful, here http://beautifulmetaphor.blogspot.com/2015/07/transformation-from-linen-pants-to.html
Another chapter in my long running, mostly failing, saga, with my clever little opponents, the squirrels. When I was doing all the dyeing back there in Art the Beautiful, I mentioned black walnut dye. And how we have black walnut trees out back, and how I've made totally indelible ink and dye from them, beautiful brown.
The squirrels also love the black walnuts, and can open and eat them. This puts them ahead of humans, whose best best for cracking black walnuts is as follows: go to a neighbor's driveway, scatter down your black walnuts in their shells, put a big board or door over them, drive back and forth in your car over the board. Result: opened and pulverized nuts, permanent stain on neighbor's driveway, suggest they refinish it all to match. Don't try this at home, folks, you'll ruin your own driveway.
The squirrels just casually pick up black walnuts and bite holes in them.
Alas, they also digest them, as I just found out. Came home the other day, sank gratefully into the lounge chair on the patio, reading and dozing, long day, and when I went to bed found that I had some brown oily stains on the sitting-down area of my best linen pants. Oh. Ran over in my mind where I had sat all day, been in a number of places, but none of them had oilstains. Next morning I went out and checked the lounge chair and found a little patch of brown oily stuff, gah. Wiped it up, easy to do off plastic, not so much off linen.
And still not knowing what it was, applied every stain lifter known to man or Boud to remove the stain. The pants are now lovely and clean and the stain is forever.
That's when I recognized what it was. Some dear little squirrel after a nice meal of black walnuts, probably eaten on top of my fence, favorite squirrel picnic spot, had, um, deposited the results on my chair...
Sooooo, unless I can figure out a way to rescue the pants -- no the stains are not in a place I want to decorate with embroidery (!)-- perhaps I have to dye them with black walnut.
Anyway, short of that it's squirrels 1 Boud 0. Again.
But on the good side, since the zucchini are coming in like maniacs now we're in late July, I found another way of using some: a quiche. This is a straight swipe from Diane's crustless spinach quiche, except I used shredded zucchini instead, and it worked a treat.
Seen here in the cast iron pan in which I'd sauted the onions and garlic, stirred in the zucchini, then added in the seasoned eggs and grated cheese, all on top of the stove, and then transferred the pan to the hot oven. And sprinkled over some leftover crumbs from a batch of hot biscuits. After it cooled, I sliced and moved the pie to a pie plate, since I can't be putting the pan in the refrigerator until the pie's finished.
So on the Side of Good, it's Zucchini 0, Boud 1.
It all comes out even in the end. Like the joke about the judge who reflects, well, some times I give a poor guy twenty years and really should have made it less, then sometimes I give a guy one year and it should have been more. But it all averages out!
Since glossy mags are all about advertising and selling lovely products, usually wildly expensive ones, they don't cover much if anything in the way of the sort of totally cheap, very satisfying diy I do everywhere I live. Partly it's because I've always had a limited income, but mainly because it's so fun to do a thing you invented and have it work.
Over in Art the Beautiful you'll see a kitchen cabinet door in its new life (ages ago in here I entertained suggestions for how to use two little doors I removed from the kitchen, and dogonart swept the pool with the rolling plant stand idea, which I still have and use. That left me with one door). See here: Tablet weaving technicalia
Anyway, this post is not about doors, and you may wonder why I'm banging on about them, then, but it's because I'm making a point in my confused and undirected way. Which is that you don't have to spend a ton if you can think around it. And it's more fun.
Soooooo, finally to the point: my attic fan, which is set in the roof, was an aftermarket thing, when the HOA years ago replaced all our roofs completely, meaning down to the rafters, all open.
And the board had a very good idea, a contract to let anyone buy an installed attic fan at a group price, easy to install while the roof was open, no need to pierce anything and compromise the tightness of the roof. So we jumped at it and have been pleased we did. Once the roofs were on, nobody else could do it, can't punch a hole in your communally owned roof, you know.
However, the contractors never claimed to be Einstein, nor to realize that it would be more useful to have a register in the ceiling below the fan to allow house air to blow out there, too, not just keep the interior of the roof cooled. And they put in place a mansized panel, see below:
18 x 22, nice to get through the opening and work, and they did put a molding, but there is no sign of any ventilation as you see.
Soooooo, when I got the fan motor replaced by kind friend yesterday, I figured out a way of handling this situation, since without benefit of fan open to the house, the third floor is unusable in July. I used to just lift out the panel and leave it open, but after I found a dead squirrel, and had fiber glass shreds falling on me, I rethought that notion, not wanting to invite s or fb into my studio.
Research and conferring with my friends at Smith's Hardware in Princeton Shopping Center, they deserve the plug, showed that there is nothing manufactured on the market in the way of metal registers big enough for this opening.
So I came up with a picture frame I found in the studio among my frame debris, about the right size. Bought some aluminum screening from Smiths, cut it to fit, stapled it on, duct taped all the jaggy edges on the back, exactly like stretching a canvas, and installed it yesterday in place of the solid panel. Installed sounds very posh for climbed up, slid it in and climbed down again. The solid panel will go in again at the end of summer, because it's insulated and is good in the winter for that purpose.
Bloated with pride over this triumph. Cost of total venture: $8 for roll of screening which can be shared around. If I want to hide the fairly visible fan up there, I can add a layer of screening (Smith suggestion when I explained my plan). Easy to do if I decide to.
But it's a workplace, not a living room, and I don't mind an industrial effect.
Bee sitting for a long time on this daisy flower.
Too cool and damp for him to get liftoff, I think. But a great chance for me to get a pic. Shortly after this, it went pitch dark and we had a large and noisy thunderstorm, which saved me from watering plants today. Again.
About this time of year I get so tired of cool food, and summer dishes and all that magaziney deal, and I long for a hot dinner. So today, since the temps are moderate and the humidity likewise, I did a lovely veggie and sausage bake, celebrating the farmshare and the local farmers' market.
Chicken sausage flavored with tarragon and other spices, from the Griggstown Farm people at the local farm market, expensive and totally worth it. You can really skin these sausage, made by them, and make them into meatballs or patties or whatever you like. Or, as here, into little chunks put into the baking dish with your veggies to flavor everything.
Zucchini from the farm, mad hot onion tops from the farm,cilantro bought locally, mushrooms remaining from Kennet Square splurge at the farmers' market, and frozen for such a use as today. Big sprigs of sage from my patio laid on top to be removed at the end. Hot red peppers from local store, not sure where they grew, but not far, I think.
And when I served this seriously hot and spicy dish, some mashed potatoes were the calming principle of the plate.
Three dinners from this one cooking.
For my Bite Club, I tried a few dishes from Deborah Madison, the cookbook current pick, including a fig and ginger jam and they'll be lucky if there's any left to share by then. And salted boiled potatoes: redskins boiled with a TON of salt, then drained, and they are wonderful with no further ado. Also yellow squash sauteed with a handful of herbs, not a recipe, really, more of a procedure. None of these is very picturesque, hence no pix.
Taken in pouring rain, juggling an umbrella and a tablet, here's rather washed out pic of Rose Golden's first rose! much yellower than you see here, but the contrast with the wet fence, beautiful in rl, is hard for the camera to take, despite all my adjustments.
We are so proud! In fact we will entertain name suggestions for this little rose!
I found this moth, well, half a moth, on the sidewalk during my evening walk, and brought it home to identify. I'm assuming it's a moth because it has a furry area near the head, or where the head was before it fell afoul of a bird or something.
I wonder, is this a clouded underwing? if you know, please chime in. I made two pix, one of what was probably the upper wing,
one of the underside,
this being much more colorful, and likely to be the underwing, which keeps the colors concealed unless in danger. As far as I can tell, without being able to stretch out the wings without damage, it's probably about 2. or 2.5 inches across when in action.
Anyway, here's the result of my nature walk, and I would appreciate expert insight on this. I have a couple of other moths and butterflies found similarly and identified, resting in the appropriate pages of my moth book, and this one will too, once I establish what is the right page! We have so many species of deciduous and evergreen trees around here that you might find practically anything.
Lunch today was roasted vegetables, zucchini and onions from the farm, plus carrots, with sprigs of rosemary and a couple of sprigs of dill, plus a pinch of spice mixture from Ottolenghi. Seen here before going into the oven, 350 F for about an hour.
The dill is a foster plant, staying with me while her parents are away, and having a good time with my herbs, flourishing in fact.
Dessert zucchini bread, zucchini from friend's garden, made with sliced almonds and chopped walnuts, wholewheat and oat flour, top is plain yogurt, raspberries from the farm and a large pinch of brown sugar.
This afternoon I'm invited to two art openings, one further away, one near. Guess which I might be found at..and I'll do pix if I make it there, because it's an exciting show of felted art which I've seen and liked. Great fun for a summer event.
I suddenly thought it would be good to learn to make videos and upload them, and to see if the equipment I have could do it, so I spent part of very late last night, in the throes of an allergic eye attack, and needing some distraction, finding my old digi camera and remembering it had a movie function.
Also testing to see how to use the camera on my laptop. This only makes a talking-head kind of thing, not interesting to the viewer unless you're selling something.
Your humble writer cracking up at her own image on the computer cam. Picture taken with tablet seen there, sent to email, uploaded to thumbdrive, downloaded to here. Quite a hike. The artwork in the background was exhibited a couple of years ago, and now occupies this guest room.
In order to save the talking head thing I did, very dull stuff, I had to do all kinds of obstacle jumping, which I did in case I ever want to save anything. Haven't managed to save anything, but I have the function set up. I think.
Maybe if I want to hold items up to show them to the camera, needing both hands free, that camera would be useful. But for the moment the digi camera was the choice.
And I made two tiny videos panning around the bedroom (I used to work in tv, not as a producer, but related to them, so moving a camera isn't such a mystery), and with sound. Also got my toes in the frame by accident, and recorded a burbling sound,talking to myself, such snappy dialog as oh, I wonder if this will work, oops got my toes. And so on.
And this morning to my astonishment, was able to upload them. It takes a long time to upload video, but it got there. And I could open and watch them and admire my toes.
But there they stick until I figure out how to get them to transfer to my blog, which my system doesn't want to do, even with QuickTime enabled. In fact the photo software crashed, but never mind, I'm much further on than I was last night, when I was musing with Handsome Son about the need to at least try out video.
I'd like to have a bit of moompitcha about my garden, that kind of thing, the Preserve, the Island. Anyway, maybe that will come to pass. And maybe I'll just have a lovely personal collection on my computer that won't agree to go anywhere!
Considering the great age of the camera and the operator, I'm very impressed about how far I came. Particularly since yesterday morning I had the cook's own job just getting my computer to work at all, many crashes, many reuploads and reinstalls later it seems to be back in good operation. After the struggles with the weaving, I had a titanic struggle getting the blogpost posted.
I think I'll do a bit of cardweaving, just to come back to tactile work. And to earth!
I've been having a little drama with the power company over a misreading of my meter, to wit, in May the reader entered it on my account with 100 therms too many, which is so far beyond my monthly usage as to be impossible, and I reread the meter, submitted my reading and they agreed to accept it. Then they sent an assessed reading for June, nearer my usage but still 100 therms too many.
Then they sent a letter saying the meter was not registering correctly (!) and they would replace it. I expect someone had finally looked at my billing history and found that about ten therms total is more like my monthly usage. Fine by me, since the replacement is the kind you can scan, no hoping the meter reader man would read it correctly then battling when he doesn't. Same mistake same month last year. Translation: our meter reader is a glackity guy who is not registering correctly.
So a very nice man arrived, hours ahead of schedule, luckily I was home anyway, and in no time at all removed the old ugly meter, replaced it with a fetching modern one with a dial you can see by digits, scannable, and read the old one for me, confirming that I had my numbers right. And checked to be sure all the appliances were back in working order. Yay. And then painted the whole thing to match the surrounds.
Of course Duncan watched the whole thing closely to make sure he did a good job. I expect he'll inspect the next bill, too, to see what they did for me there.
The Dollivers greet you on a rainy cool Fourth of July, and wish you a great day, whether or not you celebrate, from their new reviewing stand in the flower boxes.
View from the cheap seats behind the Ds
Their view, from the royal boxes.
Elton declined to bring his piano out in the rain, so we had to hum along America the Beautiful, Oh You Beautiful Doll, and April Showers, a bit out of season, but the weather doesn't think so.
I love praying mantises, and often find one or more on my plants, devouring bugs for me at this time of year. This year it's quite a small guy, but none the less welcome. See him there, giving us his better profile?
I find that the plural of mantis is mantises, how disappointing. I was hoping to find a more exotic one, such as mantok, or mantim, or maybe mantids. Other languages have more interesting plurals.
When Handsome Son was a little guy, we sent away for a nest or chrysalis or something of praying mantises, and we had them hatching all over the vegetable garden, lovely. Often we'd see a couple of babies hanging onto the back door screen, where they were quite able to withstand even high winds. For years after, their offspring attended to bugs in the garden, very obligingly.
I love all the insects I ever met, because their architecture is so stunning. Some really good artist made them..even the Asian stinkbugs have a wonderful sculptural shape.
I realize that it's not everyone who gets excited about things like this. Such as the friend who looked at me pityingly the other day when I pointed out a lovely miniature colony of fungi on the crossbar of my garden gate.
You do realize, he said that this means it's rotting, no? He's a contractor in real life, so fungi and that sort of thing on wood are not the same attractive items as they are to me, as I look at them through a magnifier!
Fireworks tonight, weather permitting, but flowers today anyway
