Around the Farmette

Farmama is hosting a farm tour each Thursday and we are joining in today...

Slowly the garden grows this year.  The cool weather has kept most of of veggies pretty small, but it looks to be warming up.  The breeze blowing through our kitchen window at the moment though is calling my bluff.

I planted three varieties of cucumbers this year: pickling, slicing and a funny lemon cucumber variety.  They took a while to sprout but are growing happily now alongside some nasturtium transplants.

Our carrot patch is a funny, tangled mess, but they are faring well so far.  I am not sure when to harvest carrots.  I picked one the other day to see how they are faring--it was about three inches.  Any tips?

I planted our buttery garden in a particularly bad patch of dirt in the middle of our yard.  I have been slowly trying to enrich the area with our compost.  Our bee balm seems to be happy about that.

We just added two baby chicks to our growing flock of chickens.  Our Barred Plymouth Rock loves meandering about the garden.  I have a sneaking suspicion that I know where all of our caterpillars are going this year.

What is growing on your spot of land this year?

Yarn Along: 29 June

Summer is finally here in Northern New Jersey and I am {re}knitting a one hundred percent wool sweater out of Rowan Big Wool.  I have had the materials for this piece for over two years and I chose now to begin.  Hmmmm.  I wonder if there is something behind that...

Anyways, I finally gathered the courage to rip this disaster and to cast on the Hurry Up Last Minute Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmerman.  The ripping process is a mighty one--making the whole thing even more painful.  After going through it, I am vowing never again to knit a seamed sweater--seams are even more tedious to rip out than they are to put in.

And as for the reading, there has been so much and none at all.  By this I mean that I am reading little paragraphs here and there from so many (too many) books that are grabbing my attention (never mind those awaiting pick up from the library)  but gathering really nothing from those bits and pieces.  It's time for focus, Sachi.  Come on.

At least the kids are focused.  Seashore reading for the beach goers.

Trouble Dolls

One long {rainy} summer day in the middle of last week, I suggested that we make walnut boats to "sail" in one of the many puddles forming around our neighborhood.  My daughter knew that she would absolutely have to have a tiny little person to sail her tiny little boat.  I thought for a little while about how we were going to make this happen and then remembered the trouble dolls from my childhood.  Did you have these?  I loved mine.

I decided that we would make a couple of our own.  Using this tutorial, I (not we, this is definitely not a five and under project) wrapped toothpicks with embroidery floss and secured it with a glue gun.  I don't have an eye for detail and some of the wrapping (around the arms and legs in particular) requires just such an eye.  

They are rough, rugged sailors on sinking walnut boats and we love them still.

Nature Study Monday: Gray Catbird

One morning in late spring of this year while walking to school, we heard a very loud meowing sound (like that of a cat) from the bushes.  With no cat in sight, we walked on, confused.  As if to quell our confusion, the answer arrived at our bird feeder later on that same week.  

It was the first visit (that I noticed) of this beautiful bird; the Gray Catbird winters in Central and South America (or the southern US).  It spends the summer in North America munching on insects and berries.    They nest in shrubs, usually 4 feet or so off of the ground (but evidently they can be up to 60 feet up).

The habitat of the catbird is threatened and those catbirds that winter around the Florida are depleting.  Coastal development of their habitat is to blame for this.

Yarn Along: 22 June

Joining Ginny again today...

Knitting plans for 103 degree Texas weather have to be carefully thought out.   Knitting plans for 103 degree weather outside and 70-something (air conditioned) temperatures inside can be too complicated.  I find that my Texas knitting projects are of the... unconventional kind.  A couple of years ago I made these; during our trip to Texas this summer, I knit fruit.  Lemons, strawberries, a peach, and two carrots.  I used some leftover Blue Sky Alpaca dyed cotton and green hemp yarn (all from the stash).

Not much reading took place on our travels, but I have picked up a couple of great books since we have been back.  The first, Bringing Nature Home, about the benefits of gardening with nature plants, is a fascinating but lofty read (and a little untimely as I just planted our first honeysuckle before we left).  Sunflower Houses is much lighter and so much fun to read.

All in all, good knitting, good reading, great vacation.  I can't wait to read about what you are knitting.

Returning Home

: from a visit with some of the ones I hold dearest :
: from great Tex-Mex fajitas, margaritas, queso, and hot sauce :
: from my alma mater :
: from bats and caves and much that makes our four year old wide-eyed :
: from the hot, hot, hot :

: to a garden that is overgrown and growing still more each day :
: to sugar snap and shelling peas that saved some very tasty (last) morsels before they are gone for the year :
: to hens that looked more like chicks when we left them :
: to a half-finished quilt and sweater in waiting :
: to friends coming in and leaving out of town :
: and mostly to a sweet (and sick) husband in need of love :

Little Blog Vacation

I am going to be away from this little home until the end of next week, and I really look forward to returning with the return of summer!

Yarn Along: 1 June

Joining Ginny (although I am pretty sure with the new baby that she will not be posting) again today...

I am actually not sure why I am posting either as my camera is out of commission (hence the same photo from two weeks ago).  SO SO much fun knitting and reading this week though that I wanted to share in the wonderfulness of it all.  I have finished my third Elizabeth Zimmerman hat (one Ganomy and two Maltese Fisherman's Hats).  Her patterns take a little more work on my part but they are turning out well worth the trouble.  I just started the Hurry-Up Last Minute Sweater and I am knitting it out of some Rowan that I ripped from the first sweater I made for my husband (that desperately needed to be taken apart).

I returned The Dirty Life to the library and was so glad I sent it back.  I was sleep-deprived and grumpy nearly the whole time I was reading it because I read until way too late, just simply could not put the book down.  A wonderful read and a good reminder why I need to stay away from memoirs and fiction--they are too hard to put down at night!