April Fool's Day Came Late

We woke yesterday morning and today to snow on the ground and.  All the jonquils and daffodils that had been blooming so cheerfully are now sad and sorry wet shreds  ... like so many tattered battle flags at the Confederate surrender at Appomatox.  [Sorry, but such images come naturally to anyone who has spent 47 years with a Civil War buff.  My oldest son has always maintained that my husband can bring any conversation around to the Civil War within three sentences.  Seven degrees of separation is for winps!]

The daffodils and jonquils usually provide colot until the Van Houten Spirea blooms but not this year.

Catching Up

It's been a month since my last post and I really can't imagine how the time managed to slip by so quickly.  It was a busy month.  There was a family wedding: my niece/goddaughter married a very noce young man.  My husband and I took my mother on a four day Fall foliage vacation.  I finally got my glasses and all vision problems have been corrected.  And the usual routines seemed to speed up.  Halloween came and went.  I'll take things in chronological order.

First:  My niece made a beautiful bride and the whole family is delighted to welcome Steve into the fold.  The wedding ceremony itself was beautiful in the fine old church of St. Ann ... a Romanesque building with lots of gorgeous stained glass windows.  The weather was perfect, sunny but not too hot.  A beautiful Indian Summer day!    It was a truly joyous occasion.

The reception was a different story.   At the beginning of the month, my ever so slowly healing eyes did not do well with the dj's strobe lights and the photographer's and videographer's hot white lights [on poles, yet, the better to blind everyone across the room].  My husband and I ended up leaving the reception early because the pressure in my eyes was becoming intolerable.  I am getting to be quite a crank about wedding receptions. One would think it  a great time to reconnect with scattered family and friends but the incessant loud music makes it impossible to have a conversation without shouting at even your nearest seat mate.  And while it is fun to watch the energetic young dance to hip hop and rap music, that pales after a while, especially since I don't really care for that sort of music.  Since none of my remaining single nieces and nephews [5 are married, leaving 14 possible brides/grooms] are likely to plan a sedate reception featuring an elegant meal with a string quartet playing chamber music in the background, I expect I'll just have to endure.  I do have a year's reprieve before the next one in October of 2016.  I'll be popping Ocuvite daily in preparation. 

The next weekend we took my Mom to our favorite spot in the Catskills, the Bavarian Manor Inn, to enjoy the fall foliage and some peace and quiet.  We did a lot of driving through beautiful country with spectacular views overlooking valleys and rising hillsides and Hudson River vistas.  Unfortunately, I was so busy enjoying the sights, I never once pulled out my camera.  I did remember to take a few shots at the inn, though.  The first is a shot of the porch, all dressed for Fall.  We spent a lot of time on the  porch, sitting, reading and talking.

I took another shot of the lawn but that's about it for the Fall color photography.  A pity since the color on our mountain drives was so much more dramatic.  We took Mom to a few antique and collectible malls.  And we ate like lords at the Inn's wonderful German restaurant.  As usual, the schnitzels and wursts were fabulous but the potato pancakes outshine every other item on the menu and are a small taste of heaven on earth.

And, of course, I have been stitching.

I finished the small PS promo design, started a week ago on Sunday and finished on Monday.  This was stitched on 30ct WDW Periwinkle linen using two strands Belle Soie Poison Apple, Oatmeal Scone, Ocean Tide, Espresso and DMC 783.  I'll finish it as an ornament.

Then I went on to do a lot more work on The Goblin Market.  When last seen, it looked like this.

But several hours of stitching daily have yielded this progress.  I am more than halfway through the piece.  The last project that I stitched to have such an extensive color palette was The English Band Sampler.  I must say I am really enjoying all the color in this piece.  To describe a goblin-themed chart as bright and cheerful must seem odd but that's the way this design strikes me.  Please excuse the poor indoor photograph.  I'll do better with the next one.

Then, I took a break with this one day wonder from Prairie Schooler, a 2013 complimentary chart of a Queen Bee. It was meant to be stitched on 18 ct black Aida and I did start it on some 36 ct black linen.  It was slow going till I decided to spare my eyes and switched to a 32 ct raw linen.  Then my needle flew.  I substituted Belle Soie silks for the recommended DMC cotton, using Buttercup, Creme de Menthe, Ocean Tide, Old Crow and Vanilla Pudding.

And, while not quite another one day wonder, the PS Year round for October is stitching up relatively quickly.  I am using a 36ct natural linen and Belle Soie silks: Carrot Cake, Collard Greens, Old Crow and Wheargrass.  I have only the leaf and stem to stitch, making this year round entry a two day project.

And finally, here's a photo of my last harvest: enough spearmint to make a large pitcher of iced tea, enough basil for a quick pesto sauce, some eggplant and some tomatoes in various stages of ripeness.  There was  enough eggplant for a small tray of eggplant parmigiana.  The green tomatoes ripened on the kitchen windowsill, keeping me supplied for two weeks.  The days are still relatively warm but the nights are getting colde.  I was afraid to leave anything on the vines much longer.

Gremlins At Work

It's been a week of 13 hour days at work and gremlins dancing about at home, gleefully creating chaos ... hence the lack of posts.

When I last posted, I showed a blanket I was making for my expected grand-nephew.  I was diligently continuing work on this project Sunday evening.  I set it down for just a moment, very carefully, I thought.  Even so, the crochet hook slipped from the last loop I had worked.  I heard the soft splat of it hitting the plastic bag at my feet containing my yarn.  Now, you'd think a 7" long pale grey crochet hook would show up easily against a dark maroon carpet, wouldn't you?   When I couldn't find it, I emptied the yarn bag, turned it inside out.  No luck.  Then I did the same with two stitching bags beside my chair.  Still no joy.  I started moving furniture and opening closet doors in case the silly thing had rolled out of sight.  I am sure the household gremlins were dancing about, kicking it away every time I glanced in the right direction, playing a madcap game of soccer.

The result: I couldn't continue the project because I didn't have another hook in that size.  I ended up ripping back what I had done.  I'll start again when I've a chance to start with a  hook one size up or down, after which I will promptly find the lost hook, no doubt.  Still in the mood to crochet, I worked up this baby blanket for Birthright instead.  It will keep some other baby warm as my way of honoring my great nephew.  Now, I'd best get back to making his blanket.



And, since I no longer trust the night time temperatures, I harvested the remaining tomato crop.  The sad and sorry truth is that only four tomatoes ripened on the vine this year.  Not enough sunshine, not enough heat.  And, even adding these 24 partially ripened and green tomatoes to the tally, that makes only 28 tomatoes from four plants.  The lowest yield I have ever had.

Final Fruits

While we are not expecting an evening frost for another week or so, I harvested all the vegetables that are ripe:  a whole bunch of eggplant and the only three red tomatoes to ripen on the vine all summer.  It has been an unusually cool summer and overcast at least half the time.  The tomatoes didn't even set fruit till mid-July.  There are more than a dozen or so mid-sized and very green tomatoes on the vines but I hold out very little hope that they will ripen before first frost.  I will have to use the old brown paper bag and apple trick, which rather defeats the whole purpose of growing you own tomatoes.

At least the local Farmer's Market has been a great place to fill in the gaps.  One of the booths has organic produce and each Saturday morning I buy two ears of the sweetest corn I have ever tasted.  Both my husband and I have to watch our carbs, so that one day a week indulgence is all we can afford.  I have found local peaches and plums, and the vegetables have been wonderful: potatoes, tomatoes, onions, radishes and peppers.  I have even bought a local Reisling and some jams and preserves.  The only things our local market lacks are a booth with artisan breads and rolls and a booth with flowers.  Otherwise, it is well-nigh perfect.

Further Progress on The English Band Sampler & Other Stuff

On Friday, I spent a bit more time on the patio in the pleasant late afternoon and early evening light.  I am currently working on this very fiddly satin stitched double helix sort of border done in three colors.  One of the spirals is supposed to be done in the same fawn [DMC 3770] that drove me batty during the great eyelet episode.  Since I really don't want to go totally blind, I have decided to stitch the spiral charted in dawn in one of the greens used in the vining [DMC 732 or 3011]instead.  I need a little contrast between floss and fabric in order to place my stitches accurately.  I may go ahead and use the fawn to stitch the centers instead of the called for light coral [DMC 352].  Band 5 had a similar border and I spent a lot of time frogging the darn thing.  So I am being particularly careful about counting and checking the border against the placement of other design motifs as I go along.  So far so good.

Saturday morning I emptied my stitching bag of all the flosses left from my last few finishes and put them away properly.  It took nearly an hour.  That will teach me to clean up after myself as I go along.  It's a tedious enough chore after just one finish but after three or four, it is just plain deadly.

And, because I wanted the relief of something easy, I pulled out a Prairie Schooler promo card Christmas ornament and started working it in Belle Soie silks on 36ct blue linen.  Between the beads on The Dragon of the Winter Moon and the border on The English Band Sampler, my brain fried.  I need simple straightforward cross stitch for a little while.  I figure a day of easy stitching will allow me to recoup my energies for the tough stuff.

As you can see, I didn't get very far along with the ornament either.  A trip to the Stony Point Farmer's Market and another trip to the King's Daughters library took up a good bit of the morning and early afternoon.  I should have taken photos at the farmer's market.  I'll remember to take my camera next time.  While there were only ten booths, they were almost all very interesting.  There were two farms, one dairy [raw milk products ranging from milk, cheese and yogurt to soaps made with milk] that also had free range chicken eggs and organically fed hormone free pork products, a baker, a honey stand, an upstate NY vinyard, a jam and jelly maker.  The other three were crafters [crochet and quilts] and cosmetic stands, not of much interest to me given I do those crafts myself and don't need any lotions or gels at this time.  At the farm stands, I bought some fantastic green beans, some blue carrots and a wild blueberry pie.   At one stand I saw some of the most beautiful onions or leeks I have ever seen: glossy red and white bulbs below perfect greenery.  They looked like they ought to be immortalized in a still life oil painting, they were that beautiful.    There were five different kinds of potatoes, including baby blue potatoes.  By the time I got there, just before noon, all the sweet corn was gone.  Next week, I will go earlier.

Between the Farmer's Market and my own harvest, we are eating very well.  I harvested some basil,  another three eggplant and another three cucumbers this morning.  The tomato plants have finally begun to set fruit and I am hoping to have my own tomatoes fairly soon.  Today, I prepared an excellent lunch using my own eggplant, some chicken, peppers, onions in a chicken broth sauce thickened with Half & Half and served over pasta.  I also prepared a cucumber and onion salad to serve with tonight's light supper of Italian confetti salad.


I haven't done any stitching today having spent most of the morning and early afternoon in the kitchen, preparing the above-mentioned salads and sauces, brewed some peach iced tea and starting some refrigerator pickles.  Other than that, I just been lazing about watching some old X-file episodes with my husband.

Progress on July Goals

As the month winds down to a close, I am moving along on all of my July goals.  Here are a few progress photos to document that claim:

Dragon Dreams' The Dragon of the Winter Moon.  She now has firm ground on which to stand.  I have finished the mountain ranges, all but the beading.  And I have finished work on the castle in the background.   Though the chart does not call for back-stitching the castle, I am considering doing so.  Switching the fabric from the charted Zweigart Colonial Blue to Silkweaver's Sudden Storm has lessened the contrast values somewhat.  I think some back-stitching is needed to restore the balance.  Opinions, anyone?  Otherwise, since I make it a practice to back-stitch as I go along, I am caught up with the back-stitching of the dragon's body.  Just the wings with backstitching, the moon and the beading to go.  I am debating whether I want to stitch the moon in the Kreinik Vatican Gold Very Fine Braid [106] as charted.  It just doesn't seem right.  I am considering doing the moon in Kreinik Opalescent White Very Fine Braid [032] or in the Marlitt white [800].  The moon I see in the night sky is white not gold!

SANQ's The English Band Sampler  The first two motifs of Band 7 are complete, as well as the garland that ties together several more motifs.  For now, this sampler will be part of a three project rotation.  But as of August 1, I intend to make it my main focus until it is finally done.  I began working on this sampler in August of 2012 and intend to have it finished in August 2014.  I can't remember when it has taken me so long to complete a single piece, not counting class projects.  For some reason, I seem to lose interest in class projects almost as soon as I get home and unpack from a retreat.  I don't know whether it is because I am incredibly fickle or because I just have so many other projects going at home that require my attention.  Go figure!

Indy 2006 Town Square Series' The Silversmith Shop.  I made a start on this on 7/26 and it is moving much more quickly than Cafe du Monde.  Happily, there is not a confetti stitch in sight.  For the most part, this piece is stitched in blocks of color, with all the shading accomplished by using over dyed floss.

Sewing and Assembly Finishes.  I plan on spending a few hours at the sewing machine after breakfast.  I have a dozen or so ornaments, a throw pillow and two small pin pillows in my finishing pile.  It remains to be seen how many of these projects I manage to get to today.  I will post photos at the end of the day.

IN THE GARDEN:
I had a tidy little harvest this morning: three cucumbers, 5 baby eggplant and a good sized sprig of miniature basil.  I'll be using the eggplant and basil at lunch, sauteed with onions, peppers and pignoli nuts, moistened with a bit of chicken stock and half & half and served over farfale [bow tie pasta].  The cucumbers will be thinly sliced with onion and dressed with a light vinaigrette as a salad to accompany lunch.

A Very Mixed Bag

Thursday, I took a sick day because I either had the flu or heatstroke.  The symptoms were stomach and intestinal distress, light headedness, headache and nausea.  So I pampered myself indoors with a/c, lots of decaffeinated beverages and ibuprofen.   Didn't feel up to driving to work or concentrating on things like registrations and writing family catechesis programs once I got there.  So I stayed home and I  did only the simplest of activities, which included reading Catherine Coulter's new FBI thriller, Power Play, and making some light meals.  I wasn't feeling much better on Friday and repeated the pampering routine.

A highlight of Friday afternoon was the arrival of my package from 123 stitch.  It contained an additional portable stitching lamp, some clip on magnifiers [1.5x and 3.0x] and the threads I need to kit up The Dragon of the Summer Sky and The Silversmith's Shop as well as one Caron Waterlily, Blue Lavendar, that I need for The Dragon of the Winter Moon.  I still need to order the charm for The Silversmith's Shop but I'll be ordering that from a not so local needlework shop here in NY state.

I was feeling a bit better by Saturday and did get some stitching done..

I got quite a bit done on The Dragon of the Winter Moon on Sunday.  I learned something new from a blogging friend, D.B., who stitched some models for Jennifer Aiken-Smith of Dragon Dreams.  All of the Dragon Dreams dragons are female.  Just an interesting factoid I am passing on to you readers.  I have to apologize to all the dragons I have stitched in the past and to whom I have referred as male.  Yesterday, I received a skein of Marlitt white from Linda, so I will begin filling in the body of the dragon.  Linda was one of three lovely stitching cyber friends who offered to give me a skein.  Two other lovely ladies did a search for sources in Britain and Australia.  The stitching community is a very generous one.  There is always help to be found when needed.

And Monday morning, it was dry enough for me to get in an hour of stitching on the patio before heading to work.  I used the time to work on The English Band Sampler.  I worked on Band 6 and finished up the sixth block of eyelets and satin stitches and then continued on to stitch the satin stitches on the remaining two blocks.  Now all I have to do is stitch the eyelets on those last two blocks.  We are expecting thunderstorms through Wednesday but I am hoping for another dry morning or two.  Even with clip-on magnifiers, I need good strong daylight to work on this phase of Band 6.

 As to gardening: my patio pots of chives, thyme, rosemary and basil are doing pretty well.  I have already harvested my first cucumber and there are three more ready to harvest within the day or so.  Some of the eggplant blossoms have set fruit, and the tomato plants have a fair amount of blossoms but haven't set fruit just yet.  The pepper plants are not doing much of anything, which is a disappointment.  One of my flower boxes is coming along nicely but for some reason all but one of my marigolds up and died on me.  I will probably plant some peas for an early fall harvest on Thursday once the thunderstorms pass through and maybe a row or two of radishes, lettuce and carrots.  I'd like to keep the salad stuff coming.

Here is a shot of some tomato plants guarded my my garden dragon you can also see the lone surviving marigold and a pot of small lavender flowers, whose name I forget at the moment.  I picked them up at the nursery just because I thought they were pretty.  I am afraid I am not one of those expert gardeners who remembers all the botanical nomenclature and can reel off name after name with the greatest of ease.

 I am going to have to call in the landscapers again very soon.  The trees above the retaining wall are blocking the sun.  It's been three years now since I had them come in and cut away some of the lower branches.  It would seem it is time to do so again.

In this shot you can just make out a very tiny eggplant to the left and to the right, my miniature basil is thriving.

In this shot, you can see that my patio pots of chives, thyme, and parsley are doing pretty well.    To the right of the herbs are my mini-Christmas tree which has grown from one of those 12" potted trees tp it's present 2 1/2 feet and one of my tomato plants, a new variety to me, with a very un-tomato like leaf.

Gardening as Salvation

I am looking for a small spot of calm in the eye of the storm and actually feel ashamed to use that metaphor when the folks in Oklahoma have been dealing with the reality.  Nevertheless, it is true.  I need to decompress, de-stress and defuse.  What I'd really love is a spa day complete with a calorically correct and beautifully presented luncheon plate, a facial, a full body massage, a haircut, a manicure and a pedicure.  I can just see myself, swathed in pristine white terry cloth, delicately sipping cucumber water.  A foolish dream since I can afford neither the time nor the cash for such an idyll.

When stressed, I tend to eat all the wrong things and consequently, really have messed with my glucose numbers.  Type II diabetics need to be careful and careful is precisely what I have not been for the past five weeks.  Now I have to restore a proper balance ... happily, it is summer and fresh produce will help.  All the lovely fruits and vegetables currently available will go a long way toward correcting the over-indulgence in bagels, Dunkin' donuts and quick meals dependent on pasta or processed foods.

Soon, I'll even be able to harvest some lovelies from my own garden: fresh peas, mesclun lettuce mix, baby spinach and radishes.  The zucchini, pattypan squash, green beans, carrots, and tomatoes will come a bit later on.  But there is nothing better than vegetables still warm from the sun ... I go out to my garden every morning, literally willing my plants to grow and ripen.  I talk to them, surround them with good thoughts and positive vibrations.  It's become a morning ritual ... before you know it I'll start planting according to the phases of the moon and strategically placing crystals round about my garden.  I don't know what it is about gardening that brings out my inner pagan ... perhaps it is my Celtic heritage that leaves me particularly sensitive to the pull of Mother Earth.

Planting Peas on Palm Sunday; Oops, Make That Wednesday

In the Garden:  I usually plant my peas on Palm Sunday since peas are a cool weather crop.  This was one of the years I would have had to brush away the snow to do so.    And braved low temps as well.  So I put it off a few days.  But I plan to plant a nice little crop today, reserving half my seeds for late August so I can have another harvest in the cooler month of October.  It will be nice to work the soil again.  I'll have to check my gardening "bible",  the old Victory Garden manual, to see what other early crops I can plant.  Probably radishes and lettuce and maybe carrots.  Mmm, baby carrots ... I can just taste the sweet crunchiness.  When my youngest son still lived at home, carrots never made it to maturity or to the table.  He pulled them out of the garden, dusted them off on his jeans leg and ate.  Other people had garden pests called slugs and birds and aphids; I had one called Dan.

On the stitching front: Yesterday's rotation piece was The Cross Stitch Shop from the Town Square series.  I frogged the brick stitch done previously since I felt 2 strands was too heavy for 32ct and obscured the desired brick effect.  I re-stitched with one strand and am liking it much better.  As you can see, I've got  the brick facade done.  I actually like the way the floss fails to totally cover the blue linen; it looks like the mortar between the bricks.  I started to stitch the windows with a very pale blue silk, Belle Soie's Bahama Breeze, one strand, over two, half cross.  I tried it with a full cross first but even with just one strand, the window glass over-powered the window frame.  The chart leaves the window glass unstitched but I think that leaves the whole piece looking unfinished. Once the windows are done, it will just be the over one sign and a few specialty stitches making up the flowers in the window box ... and one more ornament will be ready for an assembly finish.  Since I am so close to a finish with this, I'll continue to work on it today.  Even so, I hope to get a bit of stitching time in on the Wednesday rotation piece, Mystic Smalls, in the evening.

And an update on the stitched gifts that I mailed out to the grandchildren for Easter:  My daughter-in-law told my husband that the children were delighted with the chocolate goodies but loved the stitched items as well.  Piper carried her tote around all day and filled it with flowers [probably dandelions and violets] that she picked during her wanderings and Liam was equally pleased with his tooth fairy pillow using it as a headrest for a quick nap on the lawn.  So some solid granny points earned!!!  My son also mentioned that Liam carries last year's bunny beanbag just about everywhere ... like a security blanket.  I do so love grandchildren with the perception to appreciate stitched articles.  My daughter-in-law is high in my good graces as well after joking that she has so many beautifully stitched gift totes that she'll never have to buy paper ones ... the only problem being that she doesn't want to give any of her gift bags away.  Gotta love her for that!  I consider this greedy hoarding of my handiwork a worthy compliment.

For the Birds

My daughter-in-law, the environmental educator, came through with an identification of the plant pictured in yesterday's post.  Here is what she wrote:

You have native pokeweed.  The young spring leaves are edible when cooked, the berries, older leaves and stalk are all very poisonous.  The taste is likened to that of collard greens.

Pokeweed berries crush purple and dry tan.  Early settler children used to make an ink out of the berries in the summer.  Birds like American Robin, Northern Mockingbird, Mourning Dove, Gray Catbird, Eastern Bluebird, Northern Cardinal, Great-crested Flycatcher, Eastern Kingbird, Eastern Phoebe, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, European Starling, Brown Thrasher, Cedar Waxwing, Red Fox, Virginia Opossum, Raccoon, and White-footed Mouse all eat the berries.  This fact is exactly why I teach kids that you can't just watch the wildlife to see what's edible and safe for humans to eat.  Oh...and expect purple poop from your birdy visitors!

It's not a highly aggressive plant and depending on what you want to do with your space, you can tame it and have it there for a nice native addition that will attract birds.

It's so nice to have a reliable resource in the family.  I grew up in NYC and have a very limited knowledge of my natural environment up here in the suburbs.  Armed with this knowledge, I will try and establish this plant above the retaining wall.  It is really quite pretty both in flowering  and fruiting stages.  And I quite like the notion of providing a native food source for the local birds.  We do get robins, mockingbirds, mourning doves and cardinals at the bird feeders and this could make a nice supplement to the seed I put out.  I'll risk the purple droppings if I can add a little variety to the diet of my backyard birds.  And I wouldn't complain if the plants attracted a few more unusual visitors to my bird feeders.  I love watching the birds and am always excited when I spot a new-to-me species.

Endless Zucchini

What to do with the huge zucchini and its only slightly smaller cousin, that I found hiding under the foliage when I began cleaning up the garden for winter?  Your average zucchini bread recipe requires two cups  of shredded zucchini, which used up only a third of the largest zucchini.  I was running low on olive oil and eggs, so I only made one recipe [Mom's Zucchini Bread] and baked it in a spring-lock tube pan.  That was yesterday.  The only change I made to the recipe was doubling the amount of chopped walnuts to a full cup. I tend to like my tea breads to be rich with nuts

To the left is a shot of the second zucchini, which measured 11 1/2 inches long beside the zucchini bread  and a plate of Fig and Bleu Cheese Scones.  I just had to try a recipe for Fig and Bleu Cheese Scones that was in a recent Tea Time issue, while I was doing all that baking yesterday.   Fall always makes me want to bake.  The cool weather just calls out for a cozy kitchen smelling of spices.  Usually, I find myself making fresh apple cake or New England gingerbread at this time of year.  But I have yet to visit the local orchard ... maybe next weekend.

Today, after an early trip to the grocery store for more eggs and more canola oil and more olive oil, I will be making zucchini "cakes" - not really a cakes at all, more of a starter like a crab cake appetizer.  I found both the Mom's Zucchini Bread recipe above and this recipe on the allrecipes.com website.  Still, this will only use up the largest of my zucchini.  I guess I'll be making zucchini muffins tomorrow.  Or maybe the Zucchini Souffle that I downloaded from the same website.  I'll have to freeze half of the zucchini bread and half the scones.  At least, I'll be well provided with goodies for afternoon tea for the next little while. That's the problem with being a two person family ... finding freezer space for all the cooking and baking!  However, there will be a bit more room since this morning I am also making 10 dozen cookies for the catechist meeting tonight ... using the boxes of pre-portioned frozen cookie dough that were samples promoting our Fall Fundraiser. 

Since I'll be working late tonight, I took some time to chop and saute the onions and peppers and defrost the chicken for chicken quesidillas that can be assembled quickly for supper and washed some greens so I can throw together a quick salad.  Sometimes I wonder about these days when I don't have to be into work until noon or one.  Waking up at 5am with my husband, I tend to put in a full day of work at home before heading into work at the office.   And then I wonder why I am always so tired.  In the immortal words of the Lethal Weapon duo, "I'm getting too old for this shit!"

On the stitching front, I did get a little more done on The Primitives Shop ornament yesterday but not enough to warrant a photo.  I am hoping to finish it up today.

Free-associating on Friday

The only time I have had for stitching this past week has been the hour between breakfast and getting ready for work.  It's a pleasant hour with a mug of tea, the local radio's morning drive time program and a project from my current stitching bag.  I've gone a little off goal while waiting for my Tokens and Trifles cards to arrive ... I fear the shop I ordered them from did not have them in stock, as I was told, and that they had to order them.  In the meantime, I have been working my way through some small and nearly finished projects in the stitching bag.  I figure if I can't work on goal, at least I can work on projects that will swell the list of 2012 finishes.  That's how Riona's Book Nook saw a cross-stitch finish earlier in the week, though the final sewing finish will likely come today. And Wednesday & Thursday mornings, I picked up the Prairie Grove Peddler Lighthouse Candle Mat again.  I figure just four more hours of steady stitching ought to see that project ready for a sewing finish.  I am hoping to get that accomplished today, as well ... another opportunity to play with my new sewing machine.  It is a miserable and overcast day, and I really have very little to do besides catching up on housework, one or two errands, and sitting around this afternoon waiting for a delivery. So another cross-stitch finish will be most welcome.  I am feeling a bit disappointed in myself this year with my rather paltry 8 finishes thus far.  I console myself with the notion that most of the class projects and 2010-11 WIPs that I have made it my goal to complete this year, are BAPs of the first order.  And after all, they will take longer and be fewer in number but no less satisfying for all that! But I foresee going off-goal every so often to do a quick little small or medium sized piece just to keep from feeling like I am on an endless treadmill.  I do seem to crave variety and tangible progress in my stitching, being fairly equal parts process stitcher and project stitcher.

At work, Thursday was a busy day preparing for the two Confirmations coming up on May 12 and working on the registration mailing.  I want that in the mail by Monday morning, Tuesday morning at the latest.  There seem to be a thousand details to manage and juggle as I move through the usual May chaos of final exam schedules, progress reports, sacraments and registration at this time of year.  And, though I am more comfortable in the routines after having been on the job 18 years now; conversely, I have less energy and seem to be worn done more at the end of the day.  It's getting harder and harder to find the will to stitch of an evening ... not good since, I seriously need to do some exchange stitching.  Well, I will have some solid blocks of time this weekend that I can devote to stitching on the exchanges.

On the gardening front, I am hoping that the weather will warm and stay warm, that we will have seen the last of the frost warnings and that I can spend at least part of Sunday working on my second large planter box.  Recently, I turned the dead leaves with which I half filled it several weeks ago and exposed the rich leaf mold forming beneath the surface.  I am amazed at how quickly it is composting down into honest-to-goodness soil.  It's breaking down beautifully.  I am getting such pleasure from the process.  I may even celebrate by buying myself an genuine composting fork with which to work.  Currently, I am making do with an ice breaker that I use rather like a giant mixing spoon.  Oh, to think that rotting leaves could make me so happy!  Taking the kitchen waste out to the composting bin has become a morning routine.  I save all the vegetable and fruit waste, all the tea leaves and coffee grounds, all the egg shells, etc. in a mesh strainer set in the corner of my sink.  But I think I have hit a new low, or high, in my enthusiasm for composting.  Yesterday at work, I tucked the banana peels from my fruit serving back into a Tupperware in my VB cloth lunch bag to take home for the compost pile.  I may not be completely normal but at least I am never bored.  Bor-ing to others, perhaps, but never bored myself.

Garden In Progress

Square Foot Garden Planter: Zucchini, Cucumbers, Broccoli, Tomatoes, Thyme and Basil

Basil and Chives, The poles are for Blue Lake Green Beans that have yet to sprout

My Garden guardian and a small Christmas Tree

The Van Houten Spirea in bloom above the retaining wall.  It will need some serious pruning this fall.


Just a few shots of the garden that has been consuming my time and energy for the past week or two.

Wednesday's Tale

Monday morning's rain prevented me from turning my finally filled planter box [4 feet x 4 feet square x 32 inches high] into a square foot garden a la the old PBS gardening show.  But I managed to screw in the i-bolts Tuesday morning before heading to work.  I hope to lay out a string grid and start the planting today between work and the Parish Advisory Committee meeting.  I bought a variety of vegetable flats over the weekend: three kinds of tomatoes [sauce, sandwich and snacking], some zucchini and cucumber sets, sweet peppers, broccoli, and some herbs [thyme and basil].  I'll pick up some eggplant when it becomes available.  And that should pretty much cover the first planter box.  The second one will be planted up in mid-May with lettuce, carrots, radishes, a second round of green beans, and some lima beans.  In early August, I am hoping to put in some late September/early October harvest items: peas [since I missed the boat for a Spring planting] and spinach.  This coming weekend, I'll hit the nursery yet again, hoping to see some eggplant flats and picking up some stakes and tomato cages.  I'll also be making the final payment on a wicker chair for the patio that suits my husband's taste and comfort requirements, an early Father's Day and birthday gift.  I can't see making him wait till he's lost a month of patio sitting weather just because of a few arbitrary dates on a calendar.

As to stitching, I am anxiously awaiting my Tokens and Trifles cards for my scissor keep exchange.  In the meantime, I am continuing work on The English Band Sampler.  There hasn't been quite enough progress to justify another photo.  In light of my recent activities, I'll have to scale back my monthly goals considerably as the weather warms.  There are so many other things to do in Spring and Summer: gardening, barbecuing, reading on the patio, taking day trips to flea markets and antique malls, picnics at the various parks along the Hudson River, enjoying membership at the town pool.  Somehow, life just seems to open wider in late Spring and Summer.  I don't abandon stitching totally but it does tend to take a back seat to other interests.  So the tone of this blog may change a bit: fewer entries a week and those entries may be more diverse in subject.  The occasional run of rainy weather may restore stitching to its more usual priority but for the most part, things will slow down a bit till Fall.

Photos to Go With Yesterday's Post

The new planter boxes

Here are the promised photos, now that my camera battery is properly recharged.  I am very pleased with the new planter boxes and will be even more pleased once I have finished filling them sometime this weekend.  I expect I'll be haunting my favorite nursery over the next few weeks, purchasing topsoil and peat and sand, checking out the vegetable seedlings as they arrive, picking out my stakes and trellises.  I am also anxiously awaiting my package of heirloom seeds so I can get some seedlings of my own started.  There's still a bit of work to do in the backyard.  I never did get around to painting the back door and frame and remounting the bird feeder.  And I would also like to get to work on the concrete retaining wall [at my back as I took this photo], scrubbing it, sealing it and painting it white.  Next year will be soon enough for doing something about new fencing.  One major investment in this space at a time.  This year it was the planter boxes.

And below, my current progress on the English Band Sampler: the Redwork section is complete and I have nearly finished work on the leaves of central tree motif.

English Band Sampler from SANQ

Weekend Progress Report: April 15, 2012

Things have been a bit hectic here this weekend.  The garden is coming along.  The raised beds are assembled and one has been half filled and I need to buy more topsoil and peat this week to finish filling it.  And I have made a start on filling the second one by filling it 2/3rds of the way with leaf mold.  I figure I'll let it season till  early May and then top it off with a mix of top soil and sand and peat for my lettuces, radishes and carrot crops.  I ought to be ready to do some planting next weekend.  I ordered some packets of heirloom seeds for a number of vegetables: carrots, cucumbers, zucchini and eggplant; and a few packets of wildflower seeds for the front yard planter box.  The flowers are billed as "often self seed" so there is a chance that if they take this season, they may return next year.  I filled three of those heavy duty paper Lawn & Leaf bags with the remaining leaves and swept the patio.  No sooner did I get everything nice and tidy then a breeze sprung up sprinkling everything with tree pollen and tiny little yellow green florets.

As to stitching, there has been some progress there as well.  The English Band Sampler has gotten some quality time and Part I is closer to a finish.  The Redwork section is done.  Though I like the look of it, I am not sure I'd ever want to do a whole project in Redwork.  And I have worked steadily on the tree in the center of this bottom band, nearly completing all the leaves.  A lot of that stitching was done out-of-doors yesterday.  It is always nice to stitch in natural light.  I don't need a magnifier even for 40 ct when I stitch in natural light.  The weather was a very pleasant mid-70 degree day with light breezes every so often.  I had been diagnosed with a Vitamin D deficiency at my last physical and had been making it a point to spend at least 15 minutes a day in the sunshine.  But yesterday I spent most of the day outdoors.  The simple joys of Spring!  And I shall have my breakfast on the patio this morning.

But it is time to get cracking on my stitching goals for the month.  Having spent the last week on an off-goal project has put me a bit behind.  I intend to spend the entire coming week on the Kogin Tea Cozy.  It is my goal to complete that monthly goal during the week since I spent so much time off-goal in the earlier part of the month.  And since I haven't found my Token and Trifles triangles in my stash, I'll have to order some from 123stitch.  I have one last place to look but I am not optimistic.  I figure I won't find these elusive little cards till I have ordered the replacements!  Happily, 123stitch tends to mail quickly since my scissor case has to be stitched and mailed by early May.

Photos will have to wait till Tuesday since my camera battery needs a recharge.

Wentzler Wednesday is Back

After a week hiatus, the Faerie is back. But what with all the other activities on the agenda, I have to admit that the poor dear is just limping along. When last seen it looked like this.I only managed an hour or so on this project, stitching in the evening. Unfortunately, some of that hour was spent frogging and restitching that last little bit of scarf to the right. Poor counting resulted in it being stitched a full three rows higher than it ought to have been. I had seriously considered just leaving it that way and fudging over the area where it is supposed to meet the skirt. But I knew it would irk me everytime I saw it. And it is intended as a gift and gifts should represent our best efforts, oughtn't they? So all I managed to get done on Section III was a start on the leaf in the lower left corner and the back-stitching on the inner circular border. But I plan to work on it a bit more on Thursday and Friday. I'd really like to see a substantial amount of Section III done before May 1st and the entire project finished and beaded and ready for the framer by May 31st. The Queen of the unrealistic goals strikes yet again.

I did manage to finish the stitching on Martina's Easter Rabbit freebie. I have to admit all those tiny flowers in the border, with five color changes for each, got to be a bit of a drag toward the end. I plan to do the sewing finish tomorrow evening at which time I will post a photo. After going through my rather extensive sewing/quilting fabric stash, I decided on using a plain black cotton backing for the pin-pillow finish. I like this chart enough to revisit it, though, I believe I'll stitch just the central rabbit as a scissor fob next time out.

Day light was reserved for gardening and working on the front of the house ... with just a short trip to the hardware store to get all the supplies for working on the retaining wall in the backyard.

The weather here has been most strange: more West Coast than East Coast. We start off each morning with a pre-dawn drizzle, then a fog that burns off about mid-morning and finally, sunshine and somewhat humid low 70s. So, the weather isn't exactly cooperative. Yesterday, I purchased all the plants for the front planter box. I spent a very pleasant hour at the nursery with my new gardening guru, Tina, picking out plants that will work in a very sunny, warm space. They are all perennials and, while initially rather expensive, they will pay for themselves over the years as they return each May and June with lovely blooms. There is still enough space left to plop in a few annuals in mid-June for some July and August color. And the six mum plants I put in last year survived the horrid winter and will provide some color in September and October. I have several types of dianthus, some coreopsis, some lavender, some creeping phlox and some foilage plants. The main colors will be white and pink. It should all make a splendid showing through early summer. Here is a "before" photo of the general set up for the box. Since the vile contractors, who found every way to cut corners last year, used the back fill from excavating and leveling the area for our backyard patio to fill the planter box instead of the top soil as promised, I took delivery of five bags of top soil and 3 cubic feet of peat moss this morning. Next, it was a matter of emptying out at least half the poor soil and replacing it with decent soil that holds moisture. Then, and only then, could the planting begin. As I said, The weather isn't exactly cooperative. It has been unseasonably warm and humid, making physical exertion that much more taxing. It slowed me up a bit. Okay, to be honest, it slowed me up considerably. I console myself with the thought of how many calories I must have burned off. The word for the day was rehydrate. Tomorrow, I hope to finish setting in all the plants and spend some time raking all the dead leaves in the backyard and scrubbing the retaining wall so I can apply the concrete sealant before on Friday. With any kind of luck, I 'll have time to apply two coats of white paint as well before returning to work on May 2.

And, apropos of nothing, I must shake my head in mildly disgusted amazement at the gadget obsession that has overwhelmed this consumerist society in which we live. A housewares online shop that sends me e-mails sent me a real winner the other day, offering me a great bargain on ... get this ... a banana slicer. I can't imagine why anyone would want a gadget solely for slicing bananas cluttering up one's kitchen when everyone with a kitchen is quite likely to own a knife! Voila, bananas sliced quite neatly. Are we so obsessed with saving time that we must have a gadget that slices the entire banana in one operation. I mean, really, just how long does it take to slice a banana? Less time than it took to write this paragraph, I am sure!

Easter Monday

One whole glorious week off. And I have such plans ... in fact, my plans far exceed the time I will have to accomplish them all. But that's okay since some are dependent on weather and some are alternative indoor projects if the gardening plans get rained out.

There will be visits to the nursery to get annuals for my planter box at the front of the house, new patio containers for the backyard patio, and more vegetables and herbs to fill the new and old patio containers, as well as a bit of manure and peat moss to enrich it all. I'll also be checking out their patio furniture department looking for a wrought iron bench to add to rather eclectic set of patio furniture. And a visit to the local hardware store to buy a steel brush, some concrete sealer and some outdoor paint [white] suitable for refreshing the ugly old concrete retaining wall.

And of course, before I can even start that project, I'll have to rake all the leaves that spent most of the winter buried under several feet of snow. I'll be storing all those leaves in a bin to make lovely leaf mold to add to the rock garden I plan on constructing in front of the retaining wall. Rockland County is well named and over the years I have dug up many many rocks while gardening in my very small garden. More rocks were uncovered when the patio was put in last summer ... the ground had to be excavated and leveled before the Belgian stone could be laid. So I have lots of rocks with which to work. I hope to make my rock garden a herbarium of sorts. I am currently researching the herbs I wish to grow, the types of soil they will require, etc.

Thre are some stitching plans as well: returning my attention to the neglected Autumn Faerie, finishing up the little Rabbit pin pillow whilst the Easter season is still upon us, and doing a bit of sewing finishing.

And housework ... oh, the mountains of housework I have been neglecting as work has demanded more and more of my time ... I'll even try to get a bit ahead of it since the next three weeks at work will be consumed with First Communions, Confirmation and 2011-12 registration.

And, on another topic entirely: reading in Mainely Stitching's blog today about geese will have me searching out my old VHS copy of Gary Cooper's Friendly Persuasion. Barbara's post brought flashback's of the scenes in that film of the younger son's private war with his mother's pet goose and of her own valiant defence of said goose from pillaging Rebel soldiers, her own Quaker pacifism notwithstanding.

Well, I am off to begin the day with a pot of tea, some English muffins toasted to perfection and some coddled eggs ... the right sort of breakfast with which to start my vacation week.

The Promised Photos

The digital camera battery is now re-charged, so here are some photos of my latest Thanksgiving ornaments.

Prairie Schooler's Pumpkins from the promotional card for Farmer's Market, stitched on a 28 ct country french latte linen using Belle Soie silks Carrot Cake, Creme de Menthe, Enchanted Forest and Glissen Color Wash Silk 536, a progression of yellow to pale orange.

The Kreinik's Cornucopia using a 32 ct Silkweaver linen called Mississippi Mud and the called for Kreinik silk mori.

Today, I'll work on finishing up another Prairie Schooler ornament, the turkey "medallion", from the Harvest Time leaflet. It feels good to be working on a September goal: catching up on all my ornament starts. I expect it'll feel even better when I tackle the backlog of ornament goals. I have to come up with a June, a July, an August and a September Quaker Style ornament for the Bride's Tree SAL and I am still two ornaments behind on my monthly Thanksgiving ornaments, even after finishing the three mentioned in the post.

On another front entirely, I bought 6 pots of mums from the church sale and will be putting them in the new stone planter box in front of my townhouse tomorrow afternoon. Now all I have to do is find time to get down to the nursery and find two small "Christmas" trees for the backyard patio pots. Some three foot or four foot cube planters are also on my to buy list before Fall advances much further. I want to start filling them with alternating layers of garden soil and fallen leaves this year so that I have wonderfully leaf mold enriched soil for Spring planting in 2011. I also need to do some much-needed pruning of old wood on my Van Houten Spirea bushes above the retaining wall ... they didn't bloom this past spring since all the old wood has choked out new growth. My husband and I really missed the lacy white blooms. They don't last more than a week or two but they make a gorgeous show while they're here. Having a townhouse means not having much of a garden, but I do enjoy putterring with what little I have.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary ... How does your garden grow?

Several weeks of light rains and high humidity and relatively warm temperatures have resulted in considerable growth in my container garden. Here are a few photos. I have even brought some of the houseplants out. I get a lot of plants as teacher gifts and I thought I'd repot some of them for backyard color. I put two of my geraniums and one primrose into one of those rubber black "kettle" planters. The geraniums are thriving but apparently the primroses have already flowered for the year though the foilage looks fabulous and adds a nice texture contrast to the geraniums. Once the planned patio extension has been done, I plan to make up a little rock garden up against the retaining wall. I'll transplant the primrose and a few "volunteer" violets to the rock garden for some Spring color next year and fill it in with some of my other favorites: wood hyacinths [another Spring bloom], sweet williams, pansies, Irish moss and impatiens [for Summer color]. Spring and summer is also the time to lavish a little extra loving on my indoor plants. I have brought out my bamboo plant which is looking very sad indeed. Over the weekend, I will have to get a new container and fresh stone and repot it in a pristine environment in the hopes of reviving it. The iron plant arrangement [which by the by is at least 10 years old and started as a small potted plant from a florist - a birthday gift] needs a new pot and a trellis for support - it is growing by leaps and bounds. I have a few other plants I'll be re-potting and bringing out as well - two miniature rose bushes and a Kalanchoe. There's also an aloe plant and another iron plant at work, both pot-bound, that need some TLC and roomy new homes. As things grow and thrive I find myself making plans for the future. Next year, I'll add a large strawberry barrel to the container garden ... I love fresh strawberries warm from the sun, perfectly ripened, plopped into my breakfast cereal bowl literally minutes after picking.

I have always loved gardening but when I returned to the work force when my youngest was old enough for middle school, I just stopped ... always intending to return once I adjusted to my new schedule. But that never seemed to happen. Now that I am an empty nester, I am returning to gardening in a manageable way: containers for vegetables and herbs, the planned low maintenance rock garden, a few pots of colorful flowers, bringing the houseplants out into the yard for the summer. It works for me ... satisfying the agricultural impulses of the Mediterranean side of my heritage. [I satisfy the creative impulses of my Celtic heritage by writing poetry, by designing stitchery and with the occasional foray into the arts.]

The Container Garden:

The fig tree has actually started to set fruit, I have plucked my first cherry tomato, some chives and basil and even a few blackberries from the canes by the fence. My one regret is that I never got around to planting some cucmber seeds and it is now almost too late for plants to mature before the first frost ... I'll try and plant some this week ... a bit of a gamble ... but maybe I'll get lucky! And, according to my Victory Garden handbook, it will also be possible to plant some peas in July to mature in the cooler weather of late September.

Considering that my little container garden looked like this just four weeks ago, I'd say Mother Nature has been doing right by me ... but I would welcome a little more sunshine, please! Nevertheless, I do believe my garden dragon has been doing a pretty good job standing guard on my precious plants. He'll have a harder time riding herd on them all soon, though. We are extending our little patio and putting in a center circle of pavers for a small table, some chairs and an umbrella ... think summer stitching, expecially in the cooler mornings and evenings ... so I'll be rearranging the containers. They'll have to move from their current central spot to lining the paver path from the main patio to the central circle. We'll also be dismantling an old decrepit shed, so I shall have to find another place to mount my birdfeeder ... but I won't have to worry about that till September. I feed the birds during the fall/winter/spring since there is plenty of food readily available in the summer. Next year, I'll replace the old and unsightly chainlink fence on either side of my yard with nice white vinyl fencing ... perhaps with built in flower boxes along the top ... to add some color to my tiny backyard which is just the width of my townhouse and about 1 and 1/2 times the size of my living room. I'd love to resurface the concrete retaining wall with a brick or stone surface treatment but I fear that would be too expensive but it would certanly make my little backyard so much more attractive. Maybe just a coat or two of white paint will improve its appearance.