Favorite Things Friday

Bread and Water could so easily be

Toast and Tea. 

  

Alexandra Stoddard

                                      

Observations After a Day at the Amusement Park

Dear Mom,

1. I am too old for "Intense Amusement Rides". Despite the entertainment value my screams and eyes-squeezed-shut grimaces provided the rest of my family, Monday's visit to Kings Island was probably my last. All those twists, turns, heights and inversions left me wobbly and dizzy for several minutes after the ride ended. I spent much of the day on benches with other old ladies waiting for their families.
I should have packed knitting.

2. America is seriously, disturbingly, grotesquely overweight.

3. I hope the ink from tattoos is not a carcinogen, because if it is there are going to be alot of very sick people one of these days. Too bad my children are not medically inclined. The plastic surgeon or Whoever it is that invents a tattoo erasing procedure will become a bazillionaire.

Love,
Kim

Favorite Things Friday

Michigan

Dear Mom,
Last week, the Men in this house had their annual multi-generation, Boys Only, Family golf reunion, where they play golf, probably tell the same jokes, play cards and probably watch the same movies. In the past, the Young Lady and I have stayed home to enjoy the peace and quiet, but this year we had an invitation to a cottage in Michigan. Olive was invited and Grace could take a friend.
Mr. Anderson, my Toyota Matrix, was stuffed full of dog, girls, groceries, bed linens and  beach towels, knitting, my spinning wheel and the bare necessities of clean clothes, swim suits and pjs. I am pleased to report that Olive is an excellent traveller. And for the first time, I was able to lock up and drive away without making arrangements for a caged critter to be fed.
While at the lake, Olive discovered that getting her feet wet was not so bad after all. She jumped around in the water and fetched sticks. I was struck by her beauty as she stood wet and sparkling in the sunshine.

The girls paddle boated and tubed and giggled and sketched, and I talked and did a bit of knitting and a bit of spinning. The weather was cool- perfect for a sweatshirt and shorts in the evening and for knitting on the deck until it was too dark to see. The trip was short and sweet- we had to be back Saturday evening in order to have the Young Lady packed and off to camp at 6:30 Sunday morning. ( And while she is away, I am giving her room a serious cleaning. Seems a more clear definition of what "Clean Your Room" is in order.....  okay. yes. I hear you chuckling. I deserve a teen with a messy room. I get that. Payback for the music and albums and whoknowswhat MY bedroom was cluttered with.... 

Love,

Kim

Favorite Things Friday

Dear Mom,

Tomatoes. Freshly picked from my vegetable garden.

Love,

Kim

The Doctor is In

Dear Mom,

48,944 stitches

9.34 feet ( not counting the fringe)

It is DONE.
And The Young Lady loves it, making it all totally worth it.

I used the pattern found Here, and modified it by slipping the first 3 stitches of every row, purlwise, thus creating a little tube for hiding all the yarn ends. Much neater and faster this way, than weaving all those ends in after all that knitting. 

Love,
Kim, who is now knitting something for herself that is not 9 feet of garter stitch.

Favorite Things Friday

Dear Mom,

ZINNIAS!

 Love,
Kim

Not a paid endorsement

Dear Mom,
My dear sweet Olive, the best puppy ever, my tetherball-loving, devoted, fireplug of a dog is afraid of LOUD noises. Very afraid. Hide under the bed for hours afraid. The poor dear. And before hiding herself away, we could literally see her quaking and shivering from across the room.  Sad and pitiful. 

I was worried about what our July 4th celebration might do to Olive.

We needed help.

Having heard about the Thundershirt,  I decided it was worth trying.

It works! The theory behind the Thundershirt is similar to swaddling a baby, and while it does not completely eliminate the fear, Olive is able to endure fireworks and loud claps of thunder without shaking and shivering or hiding under the bed. She sticks close to her mama, but calmly. And now that she knows her Thundershirt, she is very cooperative when I put it on her.

And remember the Underdog Theme song?
 There's no need to fear! THUNDERSHIRT is here!

Love,
Kim

Bounty

Dear Mom,
Our nearly idyllic summer is evident in the produce I am harvesting from the vegetable garden. On Saturday I went out to check things, as I do daily, and found green beans that had either grown over night or had been hiding themselves under the healthy, bushy plants.  I easily picked over a pound of beans and could probably pick another pound today.

I have also been experimenting with growing potatoes. My potato tower did not do so well last year, but it wasn't a good summer for growing anything. I decided to ignore last year's poor showing and try again. This time I planted in the ground, in my compost bin ( a potato tower of sorts) and in a flower pot. The seed potato bag said the taters would be ready for harvesting when the vines yellowed and started to wither. That pretty much described the condition of the vines in my compost bin, so after harvesting the beans I overturned my compost can and was thrilled to discover the most beautiful red potatoes! I was scrabbling through that dirt like Scarlett O'Hara did in when she was starving and found a carrot in the soil. - Right before she declares that she will "never go hungry again". I could almost hear music playing in the background.

this is not my hand
this hand belongs to Brother

I will let the potatoes keep growing in the ground and in the big flower pot- the vines there haven't started to die back yet. Needless to say, we had potatoes and green beans for dinner Saturday night!

I found a very delicious recipe in a special publication by Taste of Home magazine. This issue is dedicated to Diabetic cooking. I purchased my copy late in the spring and don't know if it is still on the newsstands. I tried out this green bean recipe last night and it was delicious. I filled my plate and made it my entire dinner.

Green Beans Provencale

1 lb. fresh green beans

4 green onions, sliced

2 T. minced shallot

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 t. fresh rosemary, or 1/2 t. dried rosemary, crushed

1 T. olive oil

1 1/2 c. grape tomatoes, halved

2 T. minced fresh basil, or 2 t. dried basil

1/2 t. salt

1/4 t. pepper

Place beans in a steamer basket and steam in a large pot of boiling water for 4-5 minutes or until crisp tender.

In a large skillet, saute the onions, shallot, garlic and rosemary in olive oil until vegetables are tender. Add the beans, tomatoes, basil, salt and pepper. Saute 2-3 minutes longer, or until heated through.

Love,

Kim

Favorite Things Friday

Dear Mom,
I think it might be nice to try posting some of my favorite things on Fridays. It might be places, stuff, something from my week, or things from the past.
This week- one of my favorite places ( maybe even The Favorite Place)- my back porch.  Perfect for knitting, spinning, napping, visiting, relaxing, reading, sipping. My Heaven on Earth.

Love,
Kim

Winner!

Dear Mom,
Cross "Never Winning Anything From A Blog Contest" off my list. Because last week I won a button give- away!
The charming hand-crafted buttons from Fastenation Studio arrived and I am delighted with them. Actually, I could not choose between two sets, so chose one set as my prize and purchased the second set.

It was difficult to get a photo of these sweet yellow buttons. They are perfectly named "Sunshine Girls". Look closely and you will see a happy girl on the buttons. These would be adorable on a little girls sweater, but they are so cute that it might break my heart to give them away. I may just have to put them on a sweater for me.....and smile every time I look at them.
These buttons should get some credit for waking up the designing knitter in me. I've been distressingly uninterested in /uninspired by my knitting. (Part of the responsibility for this may be the current project on my needles- eleventy-two miles of striped garter stitch - a Dr. Who scarf for the Young Lady. All I can say is, Thank heaven for the stripes. Stripes are the only thing marking my progress.  I suppose eleventy-two miles of garter stitch is good for cleansing the pallet. ) Anyway, I woke up over the weekend with an Idea percolating...

Oh. I have lots more to say! But little time to say it and do a halfway decent job keeping up with everything else. And the grass is waving at me in the refreshing cool breeze this morning. Off to take a ride on John, Dear.
More later.

Love,
Kim

All dressed up

Dear Mom,
Donna Reed (my Baby Wolf loom) is dressed up. It took me a few days to get from winding the warp to weaving. I am such a rookie at this, that this time I derailed myself when I ran out of 8/2 cotton while winding the warp. Detour to Tabby Tree Weaver for more cotton. I haven't the skills (yet) to judge whether that cone of fiber is enough to do what I expect it to do. But I am learning. And this time I am taking careful notes and writing my own recipe for kitchen towels. I am so in love with the few inches of weaving on the loom right now, that I may only weave towels just like this but in different colors for the rest of my weaving days.

The inspiration for these towels came from the book Sixty Scarves for Sixty Years. I figured I could double the 11 inch wide scarf and turn it into a towel.

I moved Donna Reed into our family room about a month ago, in an attempt to reclaim the dining room as a (mostly) dining room. ( My sewing machine and a corner for knitting still reside there.) Now when I walk past and see this it is hard not to stop everything and sit down to weave another pattern repeat or two. Or just stand and stare at it, marveling at the magic that is weaving. Seriously, when I started weaving this, I stopped My Hero and the Young Man as they passed through the room and had them take a look. I was like a 5 year old riding her bike the first time.... watch me!!!!! See this? Look at what I can do!!!!

I am also thinking that this pattern would be nice napkins. From Day 1, My Hero and I have used cloth napkins- with our only exceptions being huge cookouts and lunch boxes. (But modest cookouts? Cloth napkins) Some of our cloth napkins are looking a bit exhausted and until now I really hadn't considered weaving their replacements, but yes! I think I will!

There is no logical explanation to the contentment I've felt the past several weeks. I should be crazy with school out, but I am not. There is a quiet to my days. My garden is growing well, the days have been sunny, mild, with just enough rain. Laundry dries on the clothesline most days and our windows are open. We've enjoyed good, simple, healthy meals at home, and while the house is never spotlessly clean (we do live here, after all, and with a big black dog) I feel like I am maintaining my daily chores and keeping time for my creative pursuits. I have given myself the freedom of not assigning imaginary deadlines to my knitting, spinning and weaving projects, which may be the biggest factor in this inner calm I feel. This feeling may not last long, but I am enjoying every bit of it and I'll hang on to it as long as I can!

Love,
Kim

One Year Ago

Dear Mom,
One year ago today, in the midst of heavy grief and under a cloud of worry, a very happy thing happened to this house at the end of the cul-de-sac.

Olive came home.

She met Bumper.

Bumper was  happy.

We didn't know it when she came here, but Olive turned out to be the easiest puppy I've ever had the pleasure (or misfortune, depending on the day and the dog) to raise.  (For the record, Bumper was the naughtiest and, as we all know, Patsy was off the charts.) Olive was exactly what this house needed. Something happy in the midst of our sorrow and worry. Our reward for all the hard, horrible stuff that happened with Patsy.

In too short a time, she became our Only Dog. She has helped my broken heart to (mostly) heal. 

Olive had her moments. She is the first dog in this family that needed the Cone of Shame.

She grew up quickly,

June 2012

June 2013

 and learned to play tetherball...

 

She likes to chase squirrels, and checks the trees frequently.

Tennis balls are her favorite toy.

Our happy dog.

We love her.

Love,

Kim

The Shawl

Dear Mom,
When it comes to lace knitting, blocking is magic. Fresh off the needles, lace looks like a hole-y rag. One could look at it and wonder why she fussed over it for so long. But when it is blocked and off the pins....oh my.
I am unable to take any photos that do this shawl justice. And photos cannot let you feel how whispery soft and light this shawl is.

I used one of my favorite yarns- Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool. The pattern is Claire's Shawl.

This shawl is intended for a most knit-worthy soul sister-in-law. I cannot wait to put it into her hands.

Love,
Kim

Sharing the Love

Dear Mom,
Button Love.

I offered a Shrinky Dink button class at the yarn shop on Monday. Only one person signed up, but she made some very cute buttons for her Alpine Tweed sweater.

Outlander Love,
For a cherished sister-in-law and fellow Outlander fan.
Claire's Shawl (inspired by the books)- off the needles and on the blocking wires as I write this.

The shawl measures @ 62 inches, square. I had to clear floor space in the Young Lady's bedroom to block this. I needed a spot behind a closed door. I could just imagine Olive deciding to nap right in the middle of it. A large fan is blowing to speed up the drying process. This pitiful photo was taken with me standing on the bed. I'll take much nicer, detailed photos when the shawl is dry.

Labor of Love.
The Young Lady wants a Dr Who Scarf. The yarn has been purchased. The scarf is started. Eleventy two miles of striped garter stitch. The only thing worse would be eleventy two miles of plain garter stitch. Thank heavens there is no deadline on this one. I've fallen asleep twice while working on it and I've only managed about 8 inches. Not even photo worthy at this point.

Gardening Love.
Not Rabbit love.
Apparently, the peas, spinach and lettuce I planted were for the rabbits. grrrrrrr.
Yes. Those beautiful, healthy, 18 inches high pea plants are nothing but naked stubs. The spinach? Gone. I don't know how those varmints got in, but they were rewarded for their efforts.

Love,
Kim

Why I Cried When I Cut The Grass on Thursday

Dear Mom,
After two summers of drought, and the extreme heat we had last year, it has been a pleasure to mow healthy, green grass this spring. With all the rainfall, keeping up has been a bit of a challenge.
But that is not what made me cry.

After Daddy died, his John Deere tractor (I like to think of it as John, Dear) came to live at my house. Mowing has fallen under my half (?) of the division of labor in this household since the late 80's. Obviously, I didn't mow during my pregnancies and I somewhat reluctantly turned over the responsibility to the Young Man during his high school years (the deal- we pay for gas for the car, you mow the lawn), but now he has full time summer employment and I am back on the tractor.
John, Dear gets his annual check up every winter and is always ready to rev up in the spring. Paying for the annual maintenance gives me a little insurance should anything go wrong during the mowing season. I've never needed to bother the service department at Reynold's Farm Equipment until Thursday.
But that is not what made me cry.

At 4:45 pm, in the middle of a relatively straight patch of mowing, the mower blades stopped turning. I stopped the tractor dead, turned off the blade switch and tried re-engaging them. Nothing. Noting the time, and worried I might not get reach anyone in the service department before they closed down for the day, I drove John, Dear up near the house, jumped off, ran in and put my hands on my service invoice, locating the phone number. I was relieved when the call was answered. I was immediately transferred to the service department.
Jessie quickly diagnosed the problem and I ran back outside (with the phone) to confirm that "Yes, now that I look, I see a loose belt. Is this something I can fix? Can you talk me through it?" Jessie did believe that it was something I could manage and gave me some verbal instructions, took my email address, and sent me a page with photos of how the belt should be attached. Very nice. Very patient. He even told me he would be in the office until 6 and to call if I ran into difficulty. (I think we spoke three times before it was all through.)
Now, I've been known to cry when people do nice things for me, but this was not one of those times.

I didn't cry because my arms were black and my fingernails were even blacker when I was through.
I didn't cry at the bruises or scratches on my forearms from pushing my arms into hard metal places.
I didn't cry because the belt was stuck under a pulley and I couldn't pull it out. (That just made me MAD. Incredible Hulk mad. I may have even said 'dammit'.  But Mad enough to pull on it real hard- so hard, in fact, that I un-stuck it!)
I didn't cry because I was sweaty. Or that it took me over an hour to finally get it fixed.
Nope, I cried because when I took the cover off the mower deck, I saw this:

Daddy had drawn the belt attachment configuration right there on the mower deck. I thanked him right out loud. Right there, with dirt and grass and grease and sweat and tears in my eyes. His diagram was much easier to follow than the emailed photo and I didn't need to look away from the mower deck to refer to it.  I finished attaching the belt, with help at the end from My Hero - I needed his muscles to get the belt over and around that last pulley. While I was mowing the rest of the yard, I realized, once again, that the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. I thought it was just me- but now know where it came from. Because, strategically located on the walls in the garage are the following:

furnace filter reminder

above the water softener pipes

above the water softener tank

And on my new skein winder-

Why go to the trouble of looking in a manual or for an instruction sheet or taking the risk of not remembering when the info can be right there, where you need it?

Thanks, Daddy!

Love,
Kim

The Gardens

Dear Mom,
After working hard in the 85 degree sunshine to get my garden planted last weekend, with my feet dirty in garden clogs, knees muddy, and shirt soaked in sweat, the seeds and plants are probably shivering in their lovingly made dirt beds today. Temps got down into the 40's last night and our forecast is for a cool weekend with highs barely into the 70's, if they even get there.  The Weather Forecast is a Big Deal in Indianapolis on Memorial Day weekend, so anything less than a perfect race day forecast is cause to take note. Despite admitting it may be "chilly" on Sunday, they will never come out with anything less than "a slight chance for rain". A big, bright, yellow and green blob could be swallowing up central Indiana on the radar and they will still tell us there is a "window in Terre Haute".  Still, I do hope it is a nice day. Our race tradition is to sit on the screened porch and listen on the radio. I must hear Florence Henderson warble her way through "God Bless America" and listen to The National Anthem, to Jim Nabors sing "Back Home Again in Indiana", to the prayer and finally the call for the drivers to Start Their Engines. We run outside like children sighting Santa's Sleigh on Christmas Eve when we hear the Air Force pilots fly over the house, excited to see them every year. We leave the race on as our soundtrack to the day, but we go about our business as we listen occasionally.

Ok. Back to the garden, because this started out to be about my gardens.
Everything is planted. Hopefully still alive and/or germinating. Despite my failed Potato Tower from last year, or maybe because of it, I have planted potatoes in three different contrivances, as an experiment of sorts. The first is the way potatoes are meant to be grown: in the ground. (imagine). Second, I used my compost bin (which is a metal can with holes all around) to plant them much like I did my potato tower, but just in a single layer. And third, in a big flower pot. The flower pot is already a damaged experiment as Olive decided to unearth the plants on Wednesday evening. She has not shown remorse nor given me an explanation as to why. I found no buried dog treasures in the muddy mix. Just a happy dog who, it seems, has added digging to tetherball on the list of her hobbies. I replanted what was salvageable of those potatoes. My purpose in conducting this loose experiment is to see if there is a marked difference in potato yield and to compare ease of harvest between the three methods. Already (and yes, it has been a very wet spring and much, much cooler than last year, and I started earlier) the plants themselves look 1000 times better than  the Potato Tower plants ever did.

I also got a jump start in March by planting spinach, romaine lettuce and snow peas. We've already enjoyed spinach from the garden. In Sunday's heat, I sowed green beans and lined the garden with zinnia seeds. I've also planted some melons that I started from seed, indoors. The seeds came from melons CarolWho'sHouseGotStruckByLightening sent me from California. These are varieties of melons she had never seen (or eaten) here in Indiana. We shall see how those California varieties like the midwest.

My last experiment of sorts is the way I am growing my tomatoes this year. When I think about it, I get a tiny bit nervous, because if this fails and I have no home grown tomatoes....... well, perish the thought!

I am growing my tomatoes in bags of garden soil. There are two reasons why I am taking this risk:
1. Our Brother has done this and swears he gets a greater number of tomatoes. ( I do believe he keeps track of these things.)
2. This is a way of expanding my garden space without really expanding it.

I wrapped the bags in landscaping burlap and tied the burlap with ribbon to make it all look prettier than  it would if the bags were just setting there all plain and bright plastic-y. As an added bonus, when I am cleaning up the garden next fall I can just add the bags of dirt to the garden for next year.

On top of all that- the plants, the seeds, the lavender in my flower box and the pots on the front porch- I sprinkle my home made organic fertilizer mix. One thing I am not is a Fussy Gardener. I like things to be low maintenance and other than watering, I want my gardens to take care of themselves. I mix up this fertilizer in the spring, put it where it needs to go, and that is the end of that. It works. I don't need to worry about over fertilizing or burning out seedlings with it. I found this formula years ago in an organic gardening book and after working on the math and making pounds and pounds and pounds of the stuff over the years, I have boiled it down to this easy concoction. When I first started making this, one of the ingredients (greensand) was not easy to find. That is no longer the case with the push towards chemical-free gardening getting stronger. Here it is:

All Purpose Home Made Organic Fertilizer
10 lb. bag of Greensand
2.75 lb. bag of Blood Meal
4 lb. bag of Bone Meal

Combine ingredients and mix well. All ingredients can be found at a good nursery. Support your local garden shop!

Have a Happy Memorial Day weekend!
Love,
Kim