That Was Quick - Sweet and Savory Bows.

.

For all my boo-hooing yesterday, Flock went and got the huge job done in only a couple of days. Maybe they were giving all of us addicts a worst-case scenario so we'd be even more grateful for this browser when it was fixed.

Anyhow, I'll play a little catch-up.

The day after the flood we were having a movie night here so Michael and I worked to confine the chaos to the sun room.





All the Betty Lukens flannel boards had gotten wet, so we set them out to dry during the day.





I love these things. A leftover joy of childhood that I love sharing with children.









Of course, we played with them as we worked.





So the front room was cleared.





And the family room was filled with any sort of seating we could drag in.





And we watched... what did we watch, anyway? The perks about forgetfulness with movies is that you can watch the again and again!

It's coming back to me now. Alice in Wonderland. Everybody get enough popcorn? There seems to be a little competition going in in this photo.





We were also very happy to share our first harvest of blackberries. We had a band of pickers come on over and it was done in short order. 3 days later, it took Michael and me three hours to pick 5 gallons. We froze most of them.

With the drought, the grasshoppers went through my garden. They are all over the place, a few got in the house, they are on the screens. Just look at what they did to our Swiss chard. Happily, the rains have brought green back to the landscape and they should be kept busier and away from the garden.





A little archery to top off blackberry picking. Of course more time is spent searching for arrows than actually sending them through the air.





Michael and I made this recipe up. The goal? Eliminating leftovers. We judged it to be very tasty.





SWEET AND SAVORY BOW TIES

Standard bowtie pasta, cooked al dente
Fresh blackberries
Milk syrup
Parmesan cheese

Here is the recipe for the syrup.

Get a very large pot, as this bubbles up a lot. Turn heat to medium. Place inside of pot in this order:

1 cube butter
3/4 cup milk or buttermilk
2 TBL corn syrup
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda

Stir and bring to a boil. Simmer for 7 minutes and remove from heat. Stir in:

2 tsp vanilla

That's the syrup recipe. Mix the berries in some syrup and cook down, spoon over pasta, and top with the Parmesan cheese. Surprisingly yummy!

We went off on another blueberry jaunt.





This time the berries were more numerous





and sweet.





And we could not resist the grand opening of the new Dunkin Donuts. Small town adventuring at its best.





I'd only been to one once as a child. I sampled a plain bagel, and Michael had a Bavarian cream doughnut - one of our very most favoritestest treats.





Good rest, chatting, and the young people never seem to be without a deck of cards. Challenging the notion that poker is, in and of itself, evil.





A visit with my folks.





Led me off to a simple macro wonderland.









They want to know if this is a poisonous tree. They were told it was some sort of wild cherry. Anyone know?









I got to steal one of my 'daughters' to go shopping.





We got Seth a dog tag.





Then we took off for a Pampered Chef bridal shower.

I was the only one who does not own a single piece of Pampered Chef ware. That stuff is quality; another word for expensive. Call me the WalMart Budget Girl, but what a lovely way to outfit your kitchen!

Gorgeous and delicious cake, made by my too-long-between-visits friend, Pam. She needs to open a bakery. Really. Seriously.





Pam, and the bride to be, wearing an apron made by another of my 'daughters'. She needs to sell these beauties.





Where do guys go when girls are at showers?









Swimming, and....

More archery.





I think we'll be shopping for more arrows soon.

~Faith

.

Beds 10 through 12 - of 24?

.

Yeah, I'm not sure we're going to make it, but we are going to give it a shot.

We waited on so many things with this garden. Here it is, halfway through May, and we've got very little planted.

What we DO have is a good start on some permanent raised beds. Even if we don't get them all planted this year, they will be ready next spring, with hopefully NOT much work to do. I'm really looking forward to a spring that we are not tied to working the earth as much as we have been for the last two years.

The hope is that the hay will be mulched thickly enough to prevent weeds, even from the seeds that will be IN the mulch itself. If not, we are in the same boat anyhow, so it's worth the try.

Here is the first bed we mulched with hay, the lowest future melon bed, which we hope to seed tomorrow.

This is laid down at least 6 inches thick, and it's partially decomposed already.





I found my summer squash being attacked by mangey little striped beetles, which I picked off and squished in my fingers. I didn't used to do that, but the harder I work on this, the more vicious I become in protecting it.





And here is the area we needed to work on for the last three beds on the first side.





This has a really bad area right above the peas. The dirt was turned over, toward the downhill direction, leaving us with a sharp bank heading straight into the pea bed. I was not sure how we were going to level it all out.

But I left Michael manning the rototiller...





... and I went on a walkabout down the meadow way to where we'd been hunting for rotten hay bales the neighbor said we could have.





I was dying to get some photos of this flourish of wild daisies we'd traveled through.

















Ooooooooh, look at these!





Here are some of the places we picked up hay from where he'd stored some bales.





And tucked back under the trees and a wild grape vine...





...was this wonderful find!





I hope we can get a chance to eat these grapes. Usually they are so high up in the trees you can't get to them.





We are so blessed to live by this meadow. Can't see the house from here.





Some sort of fiery weed.





A vivid red clover blossom.





Heading back home.





Michael getting his shoes back on after going in for his drink igloo.





While pulling a few weeds I found these sweet potato surprises! They must have very prolific roots, because these were a good 8 feet uphill from where they had been last year. I haven't decided whether to leave them, pull them, or move them, so they are still down there.





We decided to really make the garden straight and neat, so we marked it with string and recut the top border in a straight line to till it in. It was a lot of work, but we are so glad we did it.





Then we needed a shovel. We'd been working with only one shovel, and trying to make do with a spade and a trencher, but our backs have been screaming for weeks. So we took a trip into town to buy a super-duper shovel, and we also invested in a super-duper lopper. We are really going to be blessed by this! Every year I struggle with loppers that barely cut. Now we are set!





Ready to get back at it?





Ready!





There is a very naughty dog on the end of that chain. Twice he has been caught laying on top of our summer squash seedlings. He's going to be kept from the garden until they are much bigger. He gets to be tied up where ever we are working outside so he doesn't feel lonely.

Three beds marked out and digging begun.





All done.





And look at that beautiful straight top, where we plan on placing the cold frames.





T.I.R.E.D.

Tomorrow we hope to mulch all the beds we've done so far. Then we can call the garden beds half done.

~Faith

.