How my garden grows.....

We kind of cheat with our garden and put in starts. The last weekend of April or the first weekend of May the Tualatin Valley Gardners Association has their annual plant sales. We've been going for many years now to get our veggie starts and sometimes blueberry plants, flowers or trees for the yard.

We have been having a rather wet spring and early summer. So things were slow to get started. In fact I had to get new zucchini and winter squash plants because the slugs got to them and killed them. Home Depot's garden center fills in what we don't get from the plant sale.

This is what it looked like before we went to An Tir-West War:

Shelia got a whole bunch of the Swiss Chard (I planted them because they were supposed to be rainbow colored.) Spinach went into bags for the freezer (you can see them at the far right in the photo below.) I used some in the quiche we had for breakfast at War. (Yes, I planted nasturtiums in the veggie box.)

This is the pepper box with some nasturtiums planted here too. The ones on the far right are still small due to the slugs, but I think they'll have a chance to come along and do something in time.

Last year we had broccoli but they were kind of small wimpy heads. This year I got two HUGE heads to make some broccoli-wine-cheese soup out of. I also got two HUGE heads of cauliflower, with a third coming along (it was being overshadowed by the others). The two red cabbage plants are finally acting like they're going to produce heads.

The other one looked like this too.

Wonder if purple cauliflower starts were nearby? Notice the purple tints to the head? The other one didn't have much purple.

Artichoke. I've never grown one before. No idea what I should be looking for other than it seems to be healthy.

Roma tomatoes now taller than I am! Along with the cherry tomatoes, yellow again.

This one is a little slower but starting to grow tomatoes. I can't remember what it is, just not what the other two are. ;-)

Second zucchini plant and winter squash. There's some potatoes and onions in there also. The lemon verbena came back in the back right corner. The sage didn't come back but Brandon admits he could have accidentally ripped it out.

Both cherry trees provided lots of fruit. The asian pear and the Chehalis apple tree are both loaded with fruit. The blueberries are starting to ripen and the strawberries are still ripening. There are a few gooseberries, but I cut them back pretty heavily last year. The summer squash has starts and flowers loaded down and the zucchini not far from it has a bunch of flowers, so some of that coming soon.

An SCA friend is going to Italy for a year and so I got a bunch of her canning jars. I think I'll be putting them to good use this year! I think I'm going to miss the raspberry season, so may have to substitute in Marionberry and Blackberry jams in its place. Very good substitutes!

So while things I think could be producing more, the cloud cover and humid days don't seem to be hurting the garden terribly. How does your garden grow?

Mishmash

What's been going on.....
We had another Gem Faire the weekend after the County Fair. I knew I wanted to find some silver crimp beads and found those. I also thought about adding some beads the Ishbel that is languishing in my project basket and found some pretty red ones that may still be used with it. Rachel met me there and I showed her where I found my red 6/0 beads and then she tempted me with the $1 strands of swaroski beads. I restrained myself and only bought a couple strands. Lots of lovely things to tempt, but unless I had a specific project in mind, I didn't want to spend the money. I wished afterward that I had picked up more than two of the little glass hearts, they were .25 each.  He's local so I'm sure he'll be at the next one. There's another Gem Faire in November and I may definitely have more ideas then.

There was a Spinning Bee at The Knitting Bee where an idea was hatched out further with help from friends. I'm going to tease you with that and there may be an explanation later. ;-)  After the Spinning Bee a group of us went to Goodwill to try to find sweaters to re-purpose. There was some success, but I didn't come home with a sweater. Instead I came home with some cream brocade, a wood tray and a salad bowl set - all that I can use with our SCA adventures. There's enough fabric for a dress and only $4.99, the tray was $3.99 and the set was also $3.99 (large bowl, three smaller ones and the fork/spoon). The fabric will be dyed, I'm thinking of a nice burgundy color.

Items taken to the Washington Country Fair were also entered in the Oregon State Fair, except the yarns. They have different handspun yarn rules, that I might try to compete in for next year, but not this year. Not sure if we'll actually get down for the Fair. I might have to wait until September 9th when I pick up my items to find out how they did.

I finally finished the Pre-Literate Socks that I was making for Brandon. This weekend is Shire's Defender's Tourney.  We're going down for the weekend since its at Willamette Mission State Park.  He'll try out the socks with his boots at the event. I have a snood (thumbnail in the sidebar) started that I'm going to bust a stitch to get done so I can use for the weekend.  Here's the socks:

Leeloo turned six months old and a couple days later had her spay surgery. I've spent this week trying to keep her from running around and overexerting herself per the vet's orders. She was on board for this idea the first couple of days but the last few she thinks I'm a terrible person for not letting her run and play the way she wants to. Her spay was done a few weeks earlier than I had planned because she had three baby canine teeth that hadn't fallen out and weren't acting loose. One was coming inside towards the palate and would affect her bite so why there was a push to get it out before it started to fully touch the top. The night before her surgery she was really mouthy and must have been when she lost one of her baby canines because when I picked her up they had only removed two. She now weighs six pounds. 

At spinning I took advantage of the Grange's long table to cut out another surcote from the the one that Brandon had cut out for me out of muslin. The cream muslin will need to be dyed tonight, but I have it sewn except for the hem. I'll sew up the second surcote tonight after deciding if I do the center gores. I have chocolate zucchini bread made up from garden zucchini that we'll take along. Brandon will be making up some of the family recipe of beans for the Friday night potluck. I'm trying to figure out a way to reheat stuffed pasta shells or if its too much of a hassle. My fall back idea is to take chicken curry. I get lunch with the family on Saturday. My stepmother turns 70 and my brother-in-law turns 40 this month so there's a family get together in Salem. I'll just leave the event for a couple of hours to participate. We'll do oatmeal for one breakfast and I think I'll try to get some blueberry (fresh from our garden) scones to take too.

ETA: If you like babies, check out this blog where the mom has been posing her baby while she naps.

Of Ears, Yarns and a flower

Leeloo is five months old now and I have her puppy black almost all cut out. She's all silk blue and tan now. She's still in the process of losing puppy teeth. When we left for West War she went without any bottom teeth between her canines. Today, she's lost one of the bottom canines, finally. The other 'new' thing is her ears. The right one will consistently perk up at attention, then fall over. Sometimes both will pop up, but that's harder to catch. Here's some pictures of the ear and how she's looking right now. I think she may be close to five pounds but won't know until tomorrow when she goes in for blood work (its in prep for her spay in six weeks as a check):

I finished up the Mt. Doom yarn, the lovely Dicentra Dyeworks BFL in red, fuschia and purple roving. I ended up with 466.3 yards of a lace weight. I chain plied it, so its a three-ply, just not sure of the wpi yet:

After I got done with Mt. Doom late Wednesday, I switched back to some unknown dyer's 50/50 Merino/Silk that I received from Morgaine when I bought my Lendrum last June. I have the first two ounces spun up nice and thin:

One of my new tiger lily's had one of its last blooms last night and it was looking particularly pretty. We pulled out the tripod and Brandon played with the timer and settings and we used natural lighting (one in the collage had flash). Since it was out and set up, Brandon played with a flashlight and made a heart for me too. ;-)

This weekend involved lots of yard work in the front and back yards. Lots of weeding and pruning, things look different. I found out that the lemon balm under the willows was kind of choking out my gooseberries. Hope they rebound next year. We'll wait for the fall to move blueberries and a crab apple tree. I think we'll also be taking out an apple tree - small spotty apples for the last few years means - outta here! The peach is trying to show that it might rebound, but Brandon thinks its definitely out. I'd love another one, but this is the second one in that spot. Wonder if one would do better where the apple coming out is? The asian apple may also be coming out or a severe pruning. He let it get a little overloaded last year and it almost uprooted. It was propped up and thinned, but I have concerns about a tree that needs propping. The little fig will also come up front now that it has some growth. It's under the shadow of the Chehalis apple tree. Lots more yardwork to look forward to in the fall I guess! 

I harvested some of the broccoli this last week and had it for a couple of dinners - yummy! This afternoon I picked two zucchinis that will make a nice lunch/dinner side. My early blueberries are the ones that need to move, so just starting to enjoy the middle blueberries that are ripening. Like the cherries, I get a handful each day to enjoy off the plant. I've never grown patty pan squash before, but I think I have one or two of them ready to pick and eat too. There are tomatoes growing, but still green and the hot peppers are getting ready to produce. We are fruitful. ;-)  How is your garden growing?

ETA: I forgot this cool page I found for those old tomato cages that you may have in your garden shed. We have a couple of them that I'm going to try this out on.

Gardening fun

Saturday afternoon Leeloo, Brandon and I went to the Tualatin Valley Gardeners' Association Plant Sale at Washington County Fairgrounds. Brandon found an awesome cart to collect our plants on and soon there were tomatoes - Sweet Golds (yellow cherry tomatoes that are supposed to be sweet like candy), Beef Eaters (I think is the name) and Romas (for salsas), four kinds of chilis - jalapenos, sweet banana, anaheim and a new one -telica ; four kinds of squash - green zucchini, patti-pans, delicata, and buttercup; a few herbs - chives, dill, and parsley; daisys - yellow, cream, and two fancy purple ones; a little lavender shrub, a Colorado Columbine to go with my others, and a new viola to also go with the others; a couple of hostas and another shade loving shrub for under the front window.

Leeloo insisted upon walking around and meeting people there. She has a preference for meeting men, the little flirt. She got to see a pug, a chihuahua, and a beardie. She was also outside helping to get everything all planted until my migraine got to the point I needed to take a nap, so she joined me in bed for that.

Leeloo is helping me get lots of yard work done by going out into the back yard to get her some exercise between downpours and while out there I've pulled weeds, trimmed trees and shrubs and figured out empty spots. Hence the additional daises for the spots under trees that still get some good sun and the need for another Columbine. I still need an oregano and another yarrow. I'd also like to get some carrot seeds to put in the vegetable box.We're also getting Norbert outdoors a lot more than he used to do. He likes to keep an eye on what Leeloo is doing but also is doing a lot of squirrel watching, checking out the edges of the yard for squirrel access and being dive-bombed by a kamikaze Leeloo biting at his butt and legs.

Leeloo is twelve weeks old today. Monday she had her second vaccination injection and a couple hours afterward she's crying in pain whenever she moved. She cried until 2am when things seemed to settle down. Thankfully, I still had some pain meds from when we went to Dove Lewis, so gave her one of those to help get through the experience. I'm going to make sure we come home with some for the next one and definitely making sure that she doesn't get her rabies at that same visit. Weighed in at 2 pounds 14 ounces. I think it was 12 or 14 weeks that its been said you can double that weight for their adult weight. This hopefully means that she'll weigh in over five pounds and we might be able to do the laproscopic spay. 

Wednesday I made it to spinning, Leeloo came along since Lily was under the weather and so Kim thought it best to skip the planned visit. I brought knitting and actually got a few rows done. Leeloo got to eat a few of Hazel's dropped Cheerios and lay on her blanket, but napped on her fuzzy blanket at my feet for the most part. Leeloo stayed home and was puppy sat by William so I could go to the Wednesday night Whole Food's knitting group. It was Tiggywinkleknit's birthday and it was nice getting to talk with people I hadn't talked with for a few weeks. More knitting on the footie!

Autumn, Camel and Cookies

I finished up the Autumn superwash merino sample from Abstract Fibers this weekend. I soaked it and dried it this afternoon. I really need the smaller niddy-noddy for skeining up yarns. The n-plying kept the colors clean for the most part. I did get some muddying while spinning some of it and that still shows through. I think I would have liked a crisper purple color in it. The yellows, oranges and reds are pretty. I did have a bit of green but it didn't show well I think. I ended up with about 48 yards of fingering weight yarn to play with. Not sure exactly what, but nice to know that since it's superwash it won't felt!




I also started spinning the camel up. Boy this stuff is incredibly soft! Fluffy too!


I checked the back yard and the crocuses and daffodils are starting to peak their heads out of the ground. These are the crocuses, they'll be lavender and white streaked when they bloom:

While we were at the New Season's Chocolate Tasting on Sunday I found a cookie that reminds me of our family recipe called 'Wagon Wheels'. I have absolutely no idea why they are called this. New Season's calls them 'Crinkle Cookies'. A darker chocolate is used, or possibly less sugar but very similar to the family recipe. I can get a mini-fix with one or two cookies and not need to make a whole batch, or wait until Christmas and my stepmother bakes.....
Don't wear clothes that will show up the powered sugar sprinkles that you end up wearing. ;^)

Domestic Goddess & Day 14

Today has been busy and productive, all without leaving the house. ;^) A blog post in progress throughout the day:

Get up, wash dishes, see that the potatoes really need to be used up before they go bad. Only three left so add those and eggs to a pot of water to boil away for potato salad. Decide that I'm on a roll so make pancakes for breakfast. More dish washing.

Have towels that need to be washed so check the drier, those clothes aren't ready yet, so start another wash load. Since sink is now clean and empty grab one of the Cascade Lizard Ridge blocks and get it wet so it can be blocked. Pull out the fabric pad that I got for quilting and using the mini-iron that has handy grid lines on it to block the block. Set outside to sun/air dry. Please don't tell me this is bad for the yarn!



Grab camera and take pictures of some of the backyard, the dried first block, and the finished BFL from last night. Come back in and make up the potato salad and a pastrami sandwich. Get second block blocking.



Brandon had dropped a piece of wood on his foot Thursday. Doesn't think anything is broken. That night has a lovely bruise from where it hit that he does ice a bit. Spends Friday outside doing stuff around the yard and more time upright on the foot than he should have. Today, instead of gaming with Luke and Will, he's got his foot finally elevated and icing (RICE - Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation). He'd been using his shoe for the compression, but totally skipping all the rest until I strongly suggested that he do that. Foot looks worse with the bruising around it that probably came from being on it yesterday. Men!

Since he's not gaming I'll watch some shows with him and spin. The boys are on the xbox gaming until their 4:10pm showing of Wall-e. Off to eat that sandwich....

A few hours later....I've done more dishes, the second block is done drying and I have a third one drying. I've divided up the BFL into eight little bundles and have spun up two and started a third. Good progress there.

ETA: sorry, the photo that was here was deleted to make space on Flickr, I refuse to pay for the Pro service when I'm already paying for a web site....

Put on my landscaping hat, really clippers, and finished up the bushes in the front yard and moved into the backyard. Trimming up berry bushes: blueberry, honeyberry and gooseberry, as well as the grape vines that were running rampant. Speaking of rampant vines the hardy kiwi was also running amok so trimmed it back as best I could. When Will mows the lawn tomorrow he'll mulch all that into the grass.

The CLR blocks are blocking out at 10"x15" so a little longer and narrower than gauge. Well the three so far, and since they lay like the others, I imagine they all will block this way.

I've heated up the leftover Papa Murphy Chicago Stuffed Pizza for dinner, off to eat that and continue spending time with Brandon and spinning the BFL. The boys are back from the movie and in painting their figurines.

Not a bad day.

Day 12 Tour de Fleece, KiP, Dark Knight

Wednesday was a busy day!

Work in the morning, come home and eat lunch. Spin a bit on the BFL and then change clothes. Go outside with Brandon and trim up the dogwood shrubs, fig, my black currant, roses, thyme, and the privets. It was just a bit warm too. I still have a couple of bushes near the front window that need to be trimmed/shaped up. Those are for Friday or Sunday depending on schedules.

Took a quick shower and read a few pages more of Small Favor, before taking Brandon to his mom's house for dinner and grandfather socialization. I headed over to Hagen's for dinner and knitting with the PDXKnitBlogger ladies. The chicken terriyaki was just a little salty, so only nibbled at dinner.

I had already planned with Sharon (Stitchjones) to buy another merino roving from her, that Hydrangea I pointed to a couple weeks ago. I got to see the 'Never Not Knitting' go around, but never actually get to hold it. As well as the The Eclectic Sole book. Bobbie did flash a few of the socks shown in it, enough that I'll see if I can talk the library into getting a copy. I worked on block 19 of the CLR.

Dreading that blocking and seaming that is rapidly approaching....

Thursday I put in another hour or so on the BFL. I just have four little bundles left to work on and that one will be finished. I think I can get it all on this one spindle. I have another spindle I can do the second BFL with and then work to ply them together. I'm getting into the flow of the thin spin, so might end up with a lace or fingering weight yarn out of this if things go well.

I was distracted by a prolonged phone call with my mother. My grandmother had gone in to get a pacemaker yesterday and mom had an argument with her this morning about me. Grandma just turned 84 on Sunday and has lung cancer that was diagnosed last fall. Throw in that she was also diagnosed with Alzheimer's not too long after that. (Little background for what happens next). So mom called me this morning, but I'd left my phone at home while I was at work. Turns out that grandma was pretty adamant that she had seen and talked with me this morning, in Reno, in the hospital. So I gave grandma a call and said that while I would have loved to have been down there more than in my thoughts, I was at home in Hillsboro. I had to go through this a few more times that I hadn't been down there, but that it was good to hear that I was looking good. ;^)

So I didn't get the spinning in that I wanted but I did have an entertaining afternoon.

Tonight we're taking the boys to a midnight showing, courtesy of the Rick Emerson Show, in Tigard. I'm going to go take a nap so that I'm not yawning through the show. I have a hand towel using my Knit Picks peach colored Cotlin planned as my entertainment since Brandon wants to be there by 10:30. We have the tickets from Fandango, so I think its all about seating.

ETA: All of this has changed once we found out they had doubled the price of tickets to $20 per person.

Not happening - Saturday we plan on heading over to Gresham for the Portland Highland Games for our third year in a row. Nick & Jesse apparently are low on funds, live in Gresham and so want Brandon, Will and Luke to come over to game over there. Me? Not so much. I'm in search of a place to hang out for a few hours knitting or spinning that won't cost me a lot to hang. I may need to check with the Aunt who also lives there and see if I can freeload off of her.

weeds, reading, knitting, school

So Brandon and I took advantage of the overcast skies this weekend to get some serious weeding done in the backyard. The previous days of such weather had caused an overgrowth in grass and other weeds since the last time through and areas that didn't get hit the first time were really lush with the pesky buggers.

One problem we also have is the hazelnut (filbert) orchard behind us. It has rampant blackberry vines trying to encroach upon our property and we have to keep hacking them back. We have maybe another year before this is no longer a problem and they start building monstrosities behind us in the forms of those two store housing developments they are fond of creating. (side note: must get better paying job so we can afford to buy a minimum of two acres with neighbors at least that far away.)

There's one section under one of the apple trees that did not receive some attention. It also is housing a HUGE rhubarb that Brandon says he needs to cut back. It's his plant to play with so I don't ask. I just make it into a pie with strawberries or raspberries. We also may have lost the apricot. It just has not done well in the two years that it has been in. We'll give it another year to see if it can rebound but don't have high hopes for it.

I let Brandon do what he's been wanting to do for the last six years, rip out the roses and not relocate them anywhere in the yard. I still have some roses, wild ones in the front yard. The ones in the back were in a bad place where I couldn't see them and so were neglected. Easier to just have him clean the area out and we'll figure out something else to do with that spot.

I finished another book, Embrace the Night, this weekend and started another that I've had in my 'to be read' pile for at least six months since it has a 2007 publishing date. I have a few coming from the library but hope to get some more reading in. Still need to read those pesky dog books - after school gets out.

Knitting - I made a new black scalloped choker necklace and this version came out perfectly following the directions. It helped that I had my uber bright light shining down over my shoulder to see all the stitches clearly. I worked on it while watching movies from the library - Catch & Release I think. I worked more on the fingerless gloves but have hit the stumbling block again with the pattern directions. I was watching Georgia Rule while working on those.

We watched Beowulf as a family Sunday night and the only project that I had going was my Peace of Mind shawl and I didn't want to worry about losing count of stitches with it.

I need to pick up some pink yarn tomorrow early, so I can try to whip out a Breast Cancer Awareness scarf I found on Ravelry. Think I can have it done either by Thursday or Friday night? I have a couple hours of possible knitting time for sure Wednesday night for the Track Banquet.

School - there's only 7.5 more days left. I'm not working on Friday, so that leaves me 6 working days left of the school year. I'm not sure I want to sub next year.

knitting, plants, beads and prom

We were up early enough to arrive at the Tualatin Valley Garden Club plant sale and purchase some large tomato plants. Last year by the time we got there, there were a few of the larger tomatoes, luckily a couple of the Romas I like to plant. Brandon picked out a third one that I can't remember the name of to add to the two Romas I picked up. We also from that vendor got a pumpkin, crook neck squash, green zucchini, colossal pepper, egg plant, anaheim chili, and giant jalapeno. There are a few other plants for the yard but for the most part we held back from making any purchases for things in the yard. I want to do a major revamp of flower beds so it didn't make sense to buy anything when I'm not sure where they would live.

From there we went into the Gem Faire that was in the building close to the plant sale at the fairgrounds. Brandon found some coins he can string and make a bracelet that he has been wanting. I found a a nice selection of stone donuts that I can make into drop spindles. I do need to make a few additional purchases before they can be put to work though. I don't have any pictures of them yet, but I'll post when they are available. I also found a nice selection of size 6 beads that I can use with knitting. My bead needle broke so I'll have to get a new one of those too. With the beads I was able to get I think I figured out $32 worth of beads for $17. Pretty good savings!

I also checked out the new location of Kathy's Knit Korner. They were supposed to be having a Grand Re-opening sale but the two skeins of yarn I purchased weren't given any sale price and I didn't see any signs on particular yarns to know if I should have asked about it or not. I was also disappointed that no one could answer my questions about the cotton-soy blend. No one knew if there was a smell issue with the soy or not, I thought I had read somewhere about it possibly being smelly with body heat. Since I was planning to use the yarn for a couple more Scalloped Edge Beaded Necklaces as gifts, I didn't want 'smell' to be part of the gift.

Sunday morning Will mowed the lawns, Brandon got the veggies planted and I attacked the weeds in the flower beds in the back yard. Brandon too attacked the weeds and mistook my day lily as a weed. I'm now owed a day lily replacement. We just now need to get some bark dust for the flower beds after I decide what is staying and what is going. I suspect there are a number of things going or moving. The rosemary didn't fare well over the winter and it is gone.

Will and I met Luke and Jyneal over at Men's Warehouse for tux rentals. They are both dateless through no fault of their own except waiting too long to ask a girl who didn't already have a date. It does make it a cheaper event for them though. Will went with a red vest and tie and Luke with a navy vest and tie. They'll both look pretty snazzy. Prom is next Saturday at the Melody Ballroom downtown. Jyneal offered the boys the use of her car since they don't have dates, so they'll just have the joy of trying to find parking in that area.

Today and tomorrow I'm subbing at Evergreen Middle School as their In-school Suspension officer. Means I get to watch kids how got in trouble but not enough to have a parent come get them. I knew it was going to have the potential to be terribly boring so brought along a book and my sock. I did get a lot of work done on the sock as well as a lot of pages read in my book. I may even get the sock done tomorrow, so I'll have to be sure to bring my written instructions for kitchener stitch with me.

Tonight Brandon is going with Sean to finally see Ironman. Will and Luke went on Friday as part of a group. Luke went again on Saturday with his parents, and Will went again on Sunday with his dad. I have had absolutely no interest in seeing it, so frustrated Brandon. I told him I'm totally signed up for the new Indy movie later in the month though. I have a Grad Nite Party meeting - graduation is a month away!!! Plus Will wants a haircut before prom, so it's a busy evening all round. I'm even going to try to squeeze in a walk around the neighborhood with the dogs tonight if Brandon is up to it after the movie.

I forgot that I was supposed to have an author start at the beginning of the month. I tried adding her to the group last night and sending out a welcome post, but nothing else has been posted to the list. This is a popular author so I need to check in with her. I also still need to read a few dog books that have come in to be reviewed. Sigh. It interferes with knitting. ;^)