I took the last antibiotic for my lyme’s disease last Wednesday morning. The night before, feeling my old energetic self, I cleaned up some of my flower beds from the last big storm. I hacked back the flattened daisies, ripped out some weeds, picked up alot of sticks and definitely did not notice what all I was grabbing, nor did I wear gloves. Came inside, wiped the sweat off me and watched a movie with my girl. Took a shower before I went to bed, but it was too late. By the next night, I was covered – arms, legs, belly, behind my knees, inbetween my fingers and worst of all, all over my face. The next morning, bright & early I was at the doctor’s office to get my steroid prescription, which then had me all over the place. The week before it was all I could do feed my family. This week? Well, I can’t sew or knit because of the poison and frankly, with Nature 2, Becky 0, I’m not itching to work in the yard right now, no pun intended, but man oh man, when that doctor warned me I’d be fighting the urge to clean out the attic at 2 am, she wasn’t kidding.
Instead, I’ve been cooking and baking up a storm. Gumbo, zucchini bread by the batch, cookies, ratatouille….and finally catching up on some reading. Someone dared me I couldn’t finish “Infinite Jest”. I’ve been picking it up and putting it back down for long periods of time over the last year. This last week, I have read almost 400 pages of it, almost 200 of them in one day.
Not alot of crafting going on, but I have been enjoying sitting under a tree reading. Which might possibly be my most favorite thing of all to do and something that feels incredibly lazy at times. Maybe nature was telling me I needed to do that more.
Don’t mess with Mother Earth. Clearly.
Pretending we’re not in a heat wave.
Last winter was a record winter and it just felt like it wouldn’t stop snowing. I remember we were all worried about how hot this summer was going to be as a perfect follow up and we are now apparently in some record (or soon to be) heatwave.
I have gone to my happy place and have gone through all my winter pictures. I think I feel 10 degrees cooler just looking at those icicles.
Growth
Well June, you flew by. Between crazy microbursts and roadtrips that started out as a 3 day trip and extended themselves into a week and a nice case of Lyme’s Disease, June became a blur.
However, the oakleaf hydrangea definitely sprouted some new leaves. Every other plant I’ve put in recently is struggling thanks to no rain and hot temperatures for a few weeks now. They’ve been babied and watered as much as the hydrangea but this is the only plant to show the love. Maybe because this plant knows I was dared I couldn’t make it grow….
Sentimental Garden
I just find something so therapeutic about digging in the dirt. How I got through last winter was telling myself I was prepping for spring’s digging by ‘digging’ that snow. I just love to dig. I’m not the sort of person who thinks ahead of time what a spot should look like, I just decide I’m going to go dig it up and will sort it out later. I’ll move a little of this and a little of that there and just see how it goes. Because that is how happy digging makes me. My dear husband has finally figured this out I think, as he now points out where he thinks we should focus next time I feel like digging.
When I dig up a spot, I generally don’t think too hard about what is going in it. I dug up the front bed last spring and I can say, it has since become a catch all. It has yet to develop a definite plan, but it does have some anchor plants with the oakleaf hydrangea (it’s growing thank you very much) and the rose bush and some ferns in the shady corner. I like to move things around. I rearrange alot.
Most of my plants have been gifts. We’ve bought some good stuff, but being the sort of person who digs a spot and then has to fill it in, I tend to try to notice what does well (and where) in other people’s gardens. And when I meet fellow gardeners, I ask alot of questions. Take alot of mental notes. And sometimes get lucky enough to be handed something they just rip out something extra of and say, “Here, try this”. This year has been a banner year for gift plants. Both the vegetable and flower gardens have benefited from friends. I’ve gotten any number of good things and I must admit, I’ve improved my gardening knowledge a great deal along the way.
I got to visit one of my most favorite and inspirational gardening friends recently, and came home with a most glorious haul. I stuck some of her red bee balm among my pink. I also stuck some russian sage near my pink yarrow that I moved (It was getting choked out by the red echinacea. Which really isn’t red, but more orange. And I think that’s getting choked out by the daisies, so I’ll be moving that soon no doubt. I like to rearrange.). And some chocolate joe pye weed I put near the ferns in the shady half of the front bed catch all.
I think what I like the most about my gift garden is that I remember fondly when I acquired each plant – I have some of my most favorite people growing out there. I love that I have hostas from Andoreda, mint that was on the table at Jamie & Laura’s wedding, Anna’s bee balm, tomatillos from William & Sally and pepper seedlings from seeds that Kevin sent me. We have trees that were our Christmas tree the month before Edie was born, when it was just the two of us, and the tree we had for her first Christmas. We have azaleas and blueberry bushes and hydrangeas and rhododendrons that were Mother’s day gifts. There’s a peach tree to celebrate a wedding anniversary and for the life of me, I cannot remember what the cherry tree was for, but it marked some occasion.
Come to think of it, what I think I like the most about my garden is the amount of love planted in it.
Making things grow.
Once upon a time, in a land far away, Pat planted an oakleaf hydrangea. Everytime we pass by the old house when we are visiting friends there, he sighs. He talks about how he’d like to get another one. So, in swapping some plants with a friend, I noticed he had an oakleaf hydrangea. And it had a tiny offspring next to it. So, I grabbed it. It had the tinest root, but it was a root. I brought it home and stuck it in the ground. It didn’t do much, but it didn’t die either. Pat looked at it rather skeptically, telling me they are hard to get established when they are that small. I have been watering it every day and when Pat emptied the compost bin the other night, I took some and dumped it on the hydrangea. It has noticeably perked up since. It’s still small, I am not declaring victory yet, but, I haven’t killed it yet either. When it sprouts new growth, I’ll let you know. And then there is the rose bush. It was a gift when we bought the house. We have alot of shade and what sun we do get, I prefer to use for things like tomatoes. (Priorities you know.) I’ve moved it over the years, hoping this spot will be sunnier than the last,but then trees grew and turned out that spot wasn’t sunnier. I noticed that since losing some limbs this winter, a spot in the front bed that might work. I ripped out the entire bed (it was covered in looseneck goosestrife) and in the process, moved the rose bush again. I cut it back hard and replanted it. It did nothing. I watered it every day, nothing. A month passed, nothing. I gave up and started ignoring it. Then, when I was out checking on the nearby hydrangea, I noticed the tinest new leaf on the stubs sticking out of the ground. Each day, it’s gotten a little bit bigger. This one I will declare victory over. I didn’t kill my rosebush after all.
Of course, the zinnias and cosmos I planted nearby are now taking alot of it’s sun. Maybe that’s why it came back – it got used to shade.
I think that’s what I like the most about gardening. It’s all a giant experiment.
This year’s cake.
Every year, I bake a cake for my dear friend Betty’s birthday. It’s always chocolate, usually something over the top, almost always a work of art. This year’s was no exception. I asked Edie to help me pick out a new recipe and she opened the Martha Stewart Desserts cookbook right to this. A devil’s food cake. It looked easy enough, the ingredients list was relatively short, I figured why not?
Things I learned? Transporting a triple layer cake is no easy feat. Next time, I’ll assemble it there. I thought the cake itself was a wee bit on the dry side – it may have been slightly overbaked, but it was still good. And the frosting. Oh my. It took 2 and a half hours to make, stirring it every 15-20 minutes. Worth it. The recipe makes enough for you to assemble a three layer cake and fix just about every shortcoming with a mound of frosting. Now, that’s a good recipe.
Start AND Finish.
I love that my daughter has her own sense of style. And has had it since the very beginning. Unfortunately, that also means she can be very picky about what she wears. And lately, she’s not been content with alot of her clothing choices. So after a few mornings of going a few rounds about what she was wearing/not wearing to school today, I offered to make her a new shirt.
I used this pattern last summer and made it out of a white tissue weight linen. It was an easy pattern (a must for me) and it really flattered her. And, most importantly, I started and finished a project in two sittings, in less than a week. I don’t know why I like to stretch these things out, but that’s what I do.
I’ve had the ladybug fabric for a while – I know it came from the remnant bin at JoAnn’s eons ago. There wasn’t quite enough to make the whole blouse, so I used a plain white cotton on the yoke and it works. It works so well Pat didn’t even notice I had used two different fabrics. Most importantly, she couldn’t wait to wear it.
When I don’t feel like cooking, I come up with the best stuff.
I just didn’t feel like cooking the other night, so I sent Pat up to Mona Lisa Pasta to grab some dough balls for pizza. Because somehow, that makes me feel like I haven’t cooked. Go figure.
I pulled some artichoke lemon pesto out of the freezer, thawed it and slapped it on there. I roasted some asparagus and threw that on one of the pizzas, the other was definitely an experiment. On his way home from grabbing the pizza dough, a neighbor flagged Pat and handed him a handful of baby red cabbage greens. He wanted to eat them and he wanted to eat them right then. Having no clue if it would work out, I sauteed them in some bacon drippings with onions & garlic, then threw some bacon in at the last minute (also from the freezer. I do love my freezer.) That combo went on the second pizza.
And I just want to say, it turned out beautifully. I’m in awe of my culinary genius.
Here’s my recipe for the pesto. If you’ve never had artichoke lemon pesto, it’s great on pizza and as a spread for a nice grilled tomato/fresh mozz/basil sandwich. Try it.
Artichoke Lemon Pesto
1 can artichoke hearts
2-3 minced garlic cloves (or more)
1/3 cup olive oil
Juice & zest of a half to a whole lemon
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup walnuts
Salt
1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese
Throw it all in the food processor and pulse until it’s a nice creamy pesto.
Enjoy!
Yard Sale Season Rocks.
I have a thing for vintage cookbooks. But I have a thing for books in general, so when I saw this set of 18 circa 1972 McCall’s Cookbook Collection at a yard sale this weekend, I almost passed. I’m supposed to be on a no-net gain of any books and I just got a new salad book for Mother’s Day. These didn’t look like they had ever really been used and part of the thing I love the most about vintage cookbooks is the notes the previous owners left behind. But then I started looking. From the “Show Off Cookbook”, I present:
It seems that even in 1972, women were still trying to trap a man by her cooking. I know it worked for me…(Well, it did. I only learned to cook because I told that cute boy I knew how and I then proceeded to learn just as quick as I possibly could.)
The Book of Merry Eating.
Look at those illustrations from the Cookie Cookbook. Very “Lonely Doll”. And the only one like that in the whole set.
The Show-off Cookbook. With instructions to cook your way into that Man’s heart right there on the front cover.
I love that the cover of the salad cookbook is a molded castle jello salad.
This is the one that sold me on the entire set. A pineapple fashioned of cheese & olives? An entire cookbook on finger foods? Oh yes please. Not to mention a whole section on hibachi treats. And dips that are ‘definitely different’.
The whole set came in the original plastic box and really, doesn’t take up that much room at all. Turns out I did have room for them in my cookbook cupboard without getting rid of any cookbooks!
They were published in a cross between a magazine and a paperback and are a complete treasure trove of ideas and recipes. A whole book on ‘Marvelous Meats’. Cookies, Desserts, a few party cookbooks, it’s going to take me weeks probably to sort through them all. Eighteen cookbooks….. it seems slightly excessive, but I had to have the set. Don’t you agree?
And bonus, in the back of the index book, I found a handwritten recipe for fruit cake. I know have at least 4 hand written fruit cake recipes from my vintage cookbooks. I think I might need to try one this year. After all, it was the one handwritten note in all 18 books…..
And a handful of garlic to go with it.
Last August, I assisted in this canning class down at the Charlottesville Cooking School. I’ve been canning for years and have taught a few friends, and always have people ask me where they can learn to can. I had suggested to my friend who owns the school that she should consider offering a canning class. To me, if you like knowing where your food comes from enough to grow your own food, you should know how to preserve it, right? So, she found this completely amazing woman to teach it and I got to help. I really did mean to keep in touch with Leni, but let’s face it, keeping in touch with anyone not on my everyday path of school and work can sometimes be a stretch. Honestly, even people ON that everyday path I have a hard time keeping up with. *sigh*. When I went to the 2 year anniversary party of the school last month, I ran into Leni again and she gave me her card and told me to get in touch with her. I finally did and spent the evening out at her house with a very lovely group of women discussing gardening and food and just life. I just feel so inspired now to work in the garden, to get serious about building more vegetable beds, about increasing the diversity of what I grow among a few other new projects. (Somehow convincing Pat to build me an outdoor oven after he paints the house and builds me a chicken coop.)
I didn’t take my camera along, why, I’m not exactly sure, I do tend to carry that thing everywhere. So, no pictures tonight, but, I did come home with a handful of elephant garlic seeds to put in the dirt somewhere, to go with my inspiration and that counts for something. Next time I’ll take the camera, definitely.
Chicken Wire & Paper Flowers 
