Funny Magic

Reasons to Love Summer :: 5

How can I dare speak of Fall in the midst of Summer? Here's how:

New fall knitting magazines arrived in the mail yesterday - I love paging through them and dreaming about what I'd love to knit (just as soon as I finish-up all my UFO's).  I think that first sweater is the bomb.

Wishing you a happy weekend!!

Reasons to Love Summer :: 4

Rhubarb crisp in the morning, for breakfast. With Redi-Whip. Here's the recipe:

Topping:
1 C. flour
1/2 C. rolled oats
1 C. brown sugar, packed
1/2 C. butter, melted

Filling:
3 C. rhubarb, chopped
1 C. strawberries, sliced
1 C. sugar
1/4 C. flour
1/2 tsp. cardamom
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 C. water

In a large bowl combine the first three topping ingredients and mix well. Stir in the melted butter and mix until crumbly. Press half of this mixture into a greased 8x8 pan; Reserve the other half for the topping.

In a separate bowl combine all of the filling ingredients and mix well. Pour over the crust in the 8X8 pan. Sprinkle the rest of the topping over the filling. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, or until the topping is light brown in color.

Cool, squirt with Redi-Whip, and enjoy!

This recipe used up the last of the rhubarb from my garden for the year. Dear, not-so-sweet-but-highly-versatile rhubarb, I'm a'gonna miss you!

(More great recipes using local, seasonal produce here.)

Reasons to Love Summer :: 3

Plant a couple purple coneflowers in your garden and watch 'em multiply year after year after year. Then dig some up and transplant them to new or existing flower beds and watch 'em propogate like mad once again. Excellent.

Reasons to Love Summer :: 2

In the warmth of the sun, near a body of water, on my deck, on the front stoop, while waiting in the car to pick up kids from summer programs with the windows down...

For pics of the finished armwarmers (nothing fancy, mainly just pretty yarn and mindless knitting) they're here.

Happy Tuesday to ya!

Reasons to Love Summer :: 1

Look out - I'm planning to post every day this week; first time for everything, right? I couldn't resist Lecia's open invitation to play along, so here's Reason Numero Uno why I love me some summer:

Feel free to play along this week, and be sure to let me know if you do!

Flower Power

Hey there, what'cha been doing? Me, I've been enjoying the days of summer. Like yesterday, Juliet spent some time picking flowers from the front yard while I watched from my favorite chair on the front porch. When she'd come to the front door I was instructed to close my eyes and pretend I was sleeping; then she'd "wake me up" with a rooster call ("Cock-a-doodle-doooooo!") and I'd find this:

That's right, flowers in the mail. Seriously, sometimes when you let the little ones take the lead with their imaginations your day can go from ordinary to totally colorful and fun. Before long I had amassed a sweet little row of flowers on the windowsill:

...it doesn't take much more than that to make my day...

..

I do have some finished knitting to share, but could I get a decent shot of the armwarmers? Sadly, no. Will try again this weekend.

Speaking of the weekend, I know it's gonna be stellar because hubby and I are finally gonna get to watch season 2 of Mad Men via Netflix tonight and I cannot wait. I don't get too excited about tv these days, partly because I have little time to watch it, and partly because we don't have cable, but Mad Men??

Don, I know you're one hot mess, but damn have I missed you!

Have a happy weekend!

Go Local :: The String Bean Edition

This past Friday my mom dropped off a big bag of fresh string beans from my uncle's garden:

Sunday I cleaned 'em, blanched 'em, and stuck 'em in the freezer for eating at a later date. (A good bunch of instructions for freezing and canning fround here.)

I saved some, though, for eating right away.

I like 'em best this way: boil the green beans for 3-5 minutes, then drain and return to pan. Add some freshly grated lemon zest, a little buttah', and a sprinkling of coarse salt.

Yum!

These are the tomatoes I've got growing on the side of my house...all's we need is a few hot, sunny days and then they should ripen-up real good.

Can you guess what these are?

Onion stalks with flowering heads, again from my uncle's garden. Who knew the humble onion was such a beauty?!   Happy Tuesday, folks. I'll be back later with a bit of finished knitting; until then, Heather's got more Go Local stuff here. Toodles!

Happy Thursday!

Today, some Nasturtium love.

Not only are they edible, but they're fragrant, too.

Juliet and I picked a couple and brought them indoors for some amateur artistic interpretation.

I'm no expert, but I really love the watercolor pencils - just draw and brush with water. So dang fun!   In other news...

Hubby got a job yesterday! While I'll miss his Mister Mom-ness and having him home with me sharing kid-duty (which he excels at, btw), I'm also happy that he'll be rejoining the workforce, and grateful that he was offered a job, especially considering these highly competitive and stressful economic times.

So...Happy Thursday to you! Tonight I'll be taking my son and some friends to the drive-in movies to see a double-feature: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince; showtime starts at 9pm. Please pass the caffeinated beverages my way!

We Heart Hart Lake

This past weekend we made a quick trip up north to my dad's property on the lake:

We set up the tent right away,

and then got busy hanging out on the little deck outside the camper:

It is an extremely peaceful place to be...very quiet and remote, just a couple other people with places on the lake. Most of the time, it's just the five of us and some chipmunks, woodpeckers, and deer.

After supper hubby got into Skipper mode and we went out in the boat to explore the waters.

The water level is really low this year due to our lack of rainfall - not too low for trying to catch the big one, though! Here's Charlie doing just that:

He was fishing rather shallow with a leech on his hook while hubby was slowly paddling when suddenly a big 'ol fish jumped and splashed and took his bait - while he was reeling it in, though, it spit out the hook and swam off. Lucky fish!

Juliet wants to learn how to fish, too, and I felt bad because we forgot to bring her little fishing pole along. But we'll be heading back there next month, and I'm gonna teach her how to fish for sure. Lunkers for everyone, I say!

After fishing we had a campfire, and at one point, as I was making my way in the pitch dark to the outhouse, I noticed a bright little light flickering ahead of me, then a couple more, and more and more....and they were fireflies! I couldn't remember the last time I saw a firefly, so I called for the kids and we spent some time watching them flit about in the darkness and even got close enough to see one sitting on the leaf of some tall grasses. And then I continued on my merry way to the outhouse, while the kids rejoined grandpa and hubby for some sticky-messy marshmallow roasting before bedtime.

I heart Hart Lake. I hope you've had some good getaway times this summer, too!

This is How my Garden Grows

A bit of garden on the boulevard:

Nasturtium, Lady's Mantle, Hosta, Lilies, Sedum, Russian Sage.

This year I planted Nasturtium from seed for the first time, and I'm so happy I did; I totally dig their leaves.

I also love Lilies for their bright colors, and they're so prolific! Plant one and before you know it you'll have a whole gaggle of 'em:

Here's a flower bed near the front of the house: (You can just go ahead and ignore the weeds in the sidewalk cracks, ahem.)

More Nasturtium, a creeping ground cover, a mess of other stuff that hasn't bloomed yet, and some hostas that I transplanted.

But oh, those Nasturtiums!

And tomato plants!

(Note to self: Stake them up some more tomorrow - they've fallen and they can't get up!)

Also loving these little yellow daisy-like things that I've forgotten the name of:

My flower gardens have been a continual work-in-progress since we first moved into our house over 10 years ago, but I love it; while I've watched stuff wither away and/or refuse to come back the following year, I've also learned what works for me (novice gardener that I am) and my soil. I'm the sort who thinks getting out there and pulling weeds and watering is good entertainment, but who can blame me? We spend half the year indoors fighting off cabin fever and insanity, after all! 

(Another note to self: get out there and weed that sucka' pronto! Like, yesterday!)

How's your garden, however big or small, growing?