Monthly Archives: June 2015

Knee Deep in Summer

I love Summer. Always have.  My first memories of Summer is playing with my brothers in the yard on the swing set I believe Daddy had built.  It was made of wood which is why I believe he built it. I would sit in a swing on that swing set waiting for the school bus to bring my brothers and sister home from school.  Under the big walnut tree, swinging back and forth and watching for the yellow school bus.  Then when I got to go to school, I looked forward to Summers and all the freedom we had as children on the farm to play and explore and help Daddy and Mother with chores and gardening.

I remember one Summer strolling down the gravel road to my sister’s , who lived just about a quarter of a mile from our house, singing “June is Busting Out All Over” from the musical State Fair.  Dogs walking beside me about half way and then they would turn back and go home.  We always had dogs which is why I think I love dogs so much.  Mother did not have to worry about anything happening to me with the dogs along.  My sister lived across from a big woods and anytime I went to visit her, I always made sure I was home before it got dark because the woods spooked my at night.  I just knew something or someone would run out of them and catch me.

Summer was picking strawberries in the garden, gathering eggs,  helping Daddy with the hay bailing by helping put the bales in the big red barn.  He would drive the tractor and wagon stacked with hay bales in through the big center doors of the barn and my brothers would throw the bales up into the hayloft.  I would help by dragging the bales to where they were to be stacked using a kind of hook to grab the bales.  Summer was hours of badminton,  weeding in the garden, playing with new kittens in the barn, playing baseball in the barnyard and taking hikes with my brothers.  It was time for swinging in the porch swing kicking it back and forth as I read a library book.  Playing hide and go seek and kick the can and battle stations( a game my brothers made up where we ran  every time we saw a car coming down our road.) Oh, Summers were wonderful.  It was catching lightening bugs in jars and taking the jar to my bedroom at night and watching them flicker off and on.  It was swimming in the little pond my brothers made by damming up a little stream that ran through my Daddy’s woods.  I never thought of snakes or anything else in the water, it just was fun to play in it. It was playing Davy Crockett at an old cabin behind Daddy’s farm where my brothers and their friends threw walnuts at each other as I hid in the cabin pretending they were Davy Crockett fighting the Indians.

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My mother was a gardener and I got the gardening gene from her.  I love the flowers of Summer.

We have had so much rain the flowers have grown big and blowzy  all over the back yard.  See the new fence David is building to keep Molly Marshmallow out of the garden?  It almost disappears with all the flowers around it

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Bonnie stays near the water bucket on these hot Summer days.  She is twelve years old this Summer.   Seems like we just got her as a pup.

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And what does Miss Molly Marshmallow have in her mouth?  I hope it isn’t another baby rabbit.  She keeps all wildlife out of our backyard which probably is a good thing with all the flowers and vegetables growing there.

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It’s pretty big, isn’t it?

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It’s her chew bone that weighs about two pounds and she carries it around like it was nothing, but as long as she is chewing on it, she isn’t chewing on something she mustn’t.

Because it has been raining so much, I have had some time in my shop working on a few projects.

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This barn quilt.

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A chicken in the barn door.

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Chickens marching across my shop.

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And more chickens.

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I especially love this polka dot chicken.  Everyone needs a polka dot chicken.

 

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Or two.

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I bought a retractable clothes line, they call it a dryer. Ha.  Just have to find some place to hang it now.  I have yearned for the smell of sheets fresh off the line on our bed for a long time.  I will just have to hang them where Molly Marshmallow cannot get to them.

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I baked bread the other day in tiny loaves.  Six of them.  Three were regular bread and the other three were these….

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Cinnamon bread.  Yum, yum and yum.  It didn’t last long around here with David’s sweet tooth, or mine for that matter.  I plan to bake again this Saturday.

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I will leave you with a picture of a big spider web that was built at the top of our back door.  Big enough for David to walk into.  And a poem.

COBWEBS

By E.L.M. King

Between me and the rising sun,

This way and that the cobwebs run;

Their myriad wavering lines of light

Dance up the hill and out of sight.

 

There is no land possesses half

So many lines of telegraph

As those the spider-elves have spun

Between me and the rising sun.

Bye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Fun

Summer.  Lazy days when you lie around and do nothing, read a book by the pool and just have some time to daydream.  Oh, is that how your Summer is going?  That’s nice.  Mine has been less than relaxing.  There is so much to do.  So little time.  We mixed Grandma’s Camp with a weekend in Cincinnati at the Creation Museum and going to a lacrosse game our grandson was playing in.

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Got to spend some time with the grandkids which is something I always love.  They are growing so fast that soon I will be having Great-Grandma’s Camp!

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The Creation Museum is just outside Cincinnati in Kentucky.  There is so much to see and do there.  It all centers around God’s creation and Noah’s Ark.   There are vignettes all around like this  with scenes from the Bible.  This is Adam naming the animals.

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This was Cain after he slew Abel.   The first murder.  Mankind didn’t take much time in starting to do criminal activity.  This is where the famous quote, “Am I my brother’s keeper,” came from.

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There were dinosaurs there.

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Don’t throw him to the dinosaur!

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After Adam and Eve were sent from the garden where they had everything they needed, they had to learn to till the land and raise their own food.   Why did Eve let satan talk her into eating that apple and why did Adam join her?

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The tree of life.  “Don’t eat of the fruit of this tree, ” God told Adam and Eve, but they were tempted by satan and sinned against God and mankind has lived in a fallen state ever since.

There was a petting zoo where we laughed at a guinea hen chasing a peacock around and around the pen until the peacock finally flew out.  There were camel rides and all the grandkids rode a camel.  I told them that now if anyone ever asked them if they had ever rode a camel they could say, “yes.”  One of my grandsons asked me, ” When do you think that question would ever come up?”  “You never know, ” I answered.

They are building the exact size replica of Noah’s ark on the grounds.  You can take a drive out to see the process, but we just ran out of time.  I guess we will have to go back some time.  It was a fun day.  The next day we watched a lacrosse game.  Our grandson’s team lost their first game, but won the second.  He was in a tournament and had three or four more games to play, but we needed to head home.  First, we had lunch with our son who lives in Cincinnati.  He gave our grandsons some money to go play games while we waited for our meal.  They were so happy.

Back home it was pool time.  We had bought a big blow up turtle and it was enjoyed by the grandboys.

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Molly enjoyed the boys being there.  They are making friends although I do have to watch her because she can get a little rowdy.

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She and Foster are becoming good buddies.

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She spent most of the time just watching.  Hard to believe just about a year ago, she was a tiny puppy.  Time goes so fast.

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The three “boys” had a great time in the pool.  It was really hot so the water felt especially good.

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We watched a mother bird feeding her babies next to the pool area.

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“Where’s the food, Mama?”  Almost big enough to leave the nest.

I will leave you with a walk through my garden.  It’s in its yellow period now.

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Yarrow.

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Hollyhock.

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Coreopsis.

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Hollyhock.  I made a quilt called Hollyhocks Around the Barn and this color was in the quilt.

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Asiatic  lilies.  They are so beautiful and so easy to grow.

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I just planted this Rudbeckia.  It is different from my other Rudbeckias.

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More Asiatic lilies with Autumn Sedum Tapblow Blue behind them.

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We have Stella de Oro all over the garden.  They multiply and it looks like this bunch is ready to be separated.

Hope you enjoyed the walk and hope your Summer is wonderful.  Bye.

 

 

Rhubarb, textiles and a Really Cute Quilt Book

Enjoying your Summer?   I am enjoying it so much, except for the really hot days that seem to sap all my energy.  We are going to be in the nineties for the next few days and I am not looking forward to it.  That is possibly why I love Alaska so much.  I was never hot while I was up there.

We have had a bumper crop of rhubarb this year.  For years I tried growing it, but never seemed to be able to until the last three or four years and now it is growing very well indeed.  We had rainy, cool weather earlier, which rhubarb loves, and it grew and grew. I think all the chicken poo and composted cow manure I put on it last fall helped too.  I have made rhubarb pies before, but this year I tried something different.  Rhubarb and strawberry crunch.  I have used this recipe for years to make apple crunch.   Now it is David’s and my favorite way to eat rhubarb.  Here is how you make it.

First you go out in your garden and cut several stalks of rhubarb.

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Wash it well and then cut it up into small pieces.

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Doesn’t look like much after this, does it?  But then you do this.

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You get these luscious strawberries that your husband found at Aldis and wash and quarter them.

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You mix them all together with sugar.  I used one and a half cups for two pies.

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I also mixed in about a half cup of flour to thicken it because rhubarb makes a lot of juice when it is cooking.  I think I could have added just a little more, but David says he likes the juice.

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Then you get out your pfaltzgraf? pie plates.  Don’t have any?  Well, just any ol’ pie plate will do.  I spray canola oil in them, but you can butter them if you want to add even more calories.

Now for the crunch part.

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Mix one and 1/2 half cups of flour,  3/4 cup of sugar, 1/4 tsp. of salt,  one tsp. of baking powder together.

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Take two of your disproportionate eggs that you found under your free range chickens.  Don’t have chickens?  Any chicken eggs will do.   Break them into the flour mixture and stir with a fork until well mixed.  Then add 1/2 cup of canola oil.  (Do not use olive oil in this.)  I have always used canola oil so that is the only thing I can tell you will work.

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Your dough will cling together which is exactly what you want it to do.

Now here is the tricky part.(Or not, but you may think it is.)

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After filling your pie plate.  And I mean full, you pat the dough all over the top of it with your bare hands.  Try to cover everything.  You will think you don’t have enough dough, but it will cover it all if you work at it.

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Now it is ready to bake.  Wait a minute.  I like to sprinkle sugar over the top as this is not sweet enough yet.   When I make apple crunch, I sprinkle both sugar and cinnamon on the  top. Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 to 45 minutes or until top is golden brown and dry to touch.

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Now I doubled this recipe because I had enough rhubarb to make two pies.  Doesn’t this look yummy?  Sorry, both of these are gone already.  We had company and someone really loved this enough to eat two helpings.   It’s really so good.

If you have been reading my blog for even a short time, you know I love fabrics.  I have been in love with textiles ever since I was a girl when I sewed my first doll from an old sock my mother gave me.  I have been in search of fabrics and things to make with it ever since.

I also love ironing.  I was cleaning out a dresser this week and found some old handkerchiefs I forgot I had.  I have collected old handkerchiefs for years and have a lot of them.

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I washed them and ironed them.  I love to iron.  Yes, I know, I am a throwback, a crazy woman, someone you must think has too much time on her hands.  There is just something about taking a wrinkled piece of cloth and making it smooth.

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How could I have forgotten these beautiful handkerchiefs?  How could women blow their noses on them?  They use to, you know.

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Also found some curtains I bought at an auction years ago.  I think I will hang these in my shop.

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I washed and ironed this fabric I have had for years that we sold in our quilt shop years ago.  I am working on doll quilts and this will be the backing for some.

 

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I am using a lot of 2 and 1/2 inch blocks for these doll quilts.

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I got this perfectly darling, wonderful quilt book in the mail the other day.  I have been looking at it a lot the past few days.  There are so many wonderful projects in it.

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It is written by this very talented lady.  I have been reading her blog for years and she has written some of the cutest quilt patterns and designed some really pretty fabric.   She is a farm girl like me and her book is right down my alley.

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Sorry for the poor quality of my pictures, but if you can see, this is a really, really cute barn quilt.   Inside each block is another smaller block where the barn door should be.  I am loving this.

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This is another version and this is the one I am working on now.

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This is another one.  There are many quilt blocks to make.  Boy, am I going to have fun.

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This is my  attempt at my first barn quilt block.   A lot of tiny pieces.  This is going to be FUN. Did I already say that?  You are probably thinking, this girl needs to get out more.  No, I just love quilting and cute patterns like this.

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Oh, oh, oh, look at this darling chick quilt made with one of the six inch block patterns.  What a cute baby quilt this would be.

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This pattern was worth the entire cost of the book for me.  A chicken quilt.  I have made a chicken quilt before, but this one in pastels is just so, so, have I said cute enough?  This one will get made by me.

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Here are a lot of 1and 1/2 inch squares cut ready to make this six inch block.

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Inserted into a barn block this will be, well, CUTE!!  Have I gushed enough about this book and the cute patterns?  I am just so glad I decided to buy this pattern book.  It has already given me hours of happiness.

Now to the garden.  My vegetable garden already looks like a weed patch although you can see the tomatoes, pumpkins and sunflowers above the weeds.  I go out occasionally and pull a few weeds and a few hundred more grow up to take their place.  I have never seen weeds come up and grow so fast before.

My flower gardens give me so much pleasure.  In my little kitchen garden(kitchen garden used loosely as the only edible plants growing in it is the rhubarb.)

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I am not sure what this is called anymore, but I know it just keeps spreading more each year.

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Hiding among the foliage I found this lily reaching for the sun.   Behind it is perovskia and love in the mist.  This garden holds mostly blue flowers and this lily stands out like a sore, but pretty, thumb.

Here’s to rhubarb crunch, textiles and a quilt book that sends me over the moon.  Bye.