visions of love...

  The other day I was finishing up some work pictures, feeling more than a little taxed/stressed/kinda (ok totally) caffeinated, and I spotted a little wisp of something in pale chartreuse flutter by my feet. I put my finger down and it lumbered on. maybe a little tired from a busy day of flitting about? This moth/butterfly creature was stuck to me like glue and my tension instantly evaporated under the weightlessness of her velvety body. I tried to find a few good spots for her to rest on but she didn't want to remove herself from my finger.

   I walked about the yard for a couple more minutes trying to find a suitable spot for my winged friend to relax and then when I showed her my growing garlic patch she sauntered right in and flapped her wings a few times in approval. I was so elated and filled with such a strong feeling of love for hours.
  There is just so much beauty to behold when I chose to see it. 
I am so looking forward to spring and garden times. Happiness! xo m

postive summer love

    Awesome summer times are being had. Spending so much time with our new sweetheart lady friends and doing all sort of lovely summer things...

  I found this little push bike for $2.99 at the thrift store and she LOVES it so much. Tried to get Domino to ride it. Domino was not pleased.

 

*Making these dangerous little no bake cookies (which are pretty much more candy than cookie but dang they are gluten free!) and eating too many.

*spending afternoons foraging for blackberries and rosehips.

*picking green (and yellow) beans and checking the progress of the drying garlic (almost done!)

*going to the library pretty much everyday and loving it. Reading so many new books to the little lady and getting to order cds and dvds from the computer.

*Going to the plants store and bringing home new plant friends every week. 

*watering the garden at sunset and checking on the squash and cucumbers.

*planting seeds for the fall garden and walking around the neighborhood gathering seeds here and there (giant sunflowers, lupines, fennel).

  Enjoying amazing sunsets night after night. In love with these summer days. Tomorrow we're heading out early for one more outing to the blueberry fields. We might actually get sick of blueberries this winter! Hope your weekends is warm and wonderful. xo m

how does your garden grow??

   So there is sun now. And everything's growing. Really growing and it makes me so happy. I took these pictures a few days ago and already the squash has pretty much overtaken the new bed. Good! We didn't get a spring this year or much sun, this summer was so slow to appear but now... I hope it stays a while.

   Our green beans are so delicious. Steamed with a little salt and some red pepper flakes... mmm.

 the scarlet runner beans look so pretty, They've yet to produce a bean yet so we'll see...

Tomorrow we'll be having more beans and beets too. Our lettuce got mostly munched down to nubs because I forgot to shut the fence and the hens snuck in for about 5 whole minutes and chomped away. They are so quick at destroying plants... How does your garden grow? xo m

garlic!

   I've learned, this summer, that with certain things (potatoes, garlic...), when they start to look ugly and sickly it means they are ready to harvest. Our garlic was looking pretty funky (and I happened to notice that farmama had a garlic post up) so I started carefully digging them up. They were all ready. It was real exciting. We got well over 30 heads of garlic from a little 3x3 patch.

 Here's my gal bringing me the clothespins to hang it up in the shed to dry out. Things are growing. Our new raised bed is looking wonderful. I need to add much more soil and compost to the older beds after summer's over.

  I need to clean the shed. So much to do outside in the summer, none of the cleaning projects are getting done. I think we're off to go berry picking again. Happy Saturday. xo m

i love blueberries!

  Well, not just blueberries but ALL berries! Strawberries, raspberries, huckleberries, boysenberries, blackberries... I love how the berries are all at their prime at different times, one after the other, so there's always a wonderful berry perfectly ready to be picked. I need to go down the road and see if the wild blackberries are ready... Last weekend was all about blueberries. There were ripe raspberries at one place but the filed was so darn crowded and I honestly like blueberries better.

   We found a few sweet heart shaped blueberries.

  It was a hot weekend and my kids aren't very into farm work in the sun so we only did a short picking but still ended up with 30 cups in the freezer (plus the blueberries I used to make a batch of jam and popsicles and a bowl full to snack on). We're heading back in a few days to get a bit more. It will be so wonderful to have plump blueberries, that we picked ourselves, come mid-winter.
  My list of garden chores is crazy long tomorrow. I'm really going to go to bed early (hahaha... yeah, right!) so I can get up and at least get started before the sun gets too high. It was nearly 80 today (don't laugh) and it's going to be in the 80s for the rest of the week. Our summer has been nonexistent up until now so even a bit of warmth feels super hot. xo m

there will be food...

  The quality of the food I eat now is just a million times better (and fresher) than ever before. It's really important to me that we eat nourishing fresh, (mostly) animal free, non-processed foods... And fancy foods are good too... Vosges chocolate is sooo very delicious! Sweet and salty and perfect.  My friend took me to the store in Chicago and it was heaven...

 We usually end up at Red Mill about once a week. The guys always want a burger fix. I'm in it for the sauce. They have this smoky mill sauce (just a chipotle mayo) that is amazing and the fries are good. I get a veggie burger which is a regular garden burger but the sauce makes up for it... It was so exciting last week because it was their anniversary and Papa won a free meal.

 love, love these two...

 And... A new quilt! So pretty and it was crumpled up in the back of Uncle Donnie's Jeep being used to cover up stuff!! I saw it and he said I could have it if I gave him an old sheet or something to cover up his junk. um, ok! I washed it and it's in perfect condition and the loveliest little squares of printed 30's & 40's fabrics.

 date night chandelier...

 Wonderful Thai food lunch combo, this sweet thai grandma makes at her family's cafe.

  The new raised bed is growing. Here's a view through the fence. Now we're off to run a bunch of errands and pick up new orders from the library. yippee! I also really need to find a few models. My shop is neglected and Big Brother is on vacation with his Dad so no one is home to take pics of me... Oh my. so much to do... xo m

dirt

 We finally filled up our new raised bed. We had to borrow a friends truck and go to the dirt exchange and buy a truckload of soil. This giant claw picks it up and dumps it right into the bed of the truck while you're sitting in the cab watching. crazy cool. Then we went to the hardware store and my man bought me a wheelbarrow and a tarp. I was so jazzed. My idea of a really great date. Serious.

   Oooh, I want a truck SO BAD. I really want this one. yeah, that might be Tim Riggins in it... Dang, 1985 Chevy Silverado... A girl can dream...

 Everyone helped unload. Dad wore his weird white suit.

  The chickens were in super love, until I put up the new keep-out-hens-chickenwire-fence. They were mad. Now it's all planted up with squash and needs a few other starts and seeds.  ok, time to try this new $5.99 wine. I was convinced by the name "Velvet Moon", sounds like  bandname. We'll see. xo m

p o t a t o e s

  The other morning I was outside sipping my tea and picking up around the backyard and I kind of tugged on one of the potato plants (they kept falling over and I felt sort of annoyed and thought they were dying-I had no idea they were just ready!) to try and get it to straiten up... and... It came out in my hand revealing tons of little potatoes!

  We pulled and tugged, and collected and dusted off a good 8 or so pounds of potatoes (from only 5 little seed potatoes). It was incredibly satisfying and dang, they are sooo good! The best potatoes ever!  I'm going to try a late planting of some blue ones tomorrow. we'll see... xo m

spring flings...

Guess who finally got an iphone?? yep, big girl time. instagram is crazy fun! loving it big time!

 brother and sister love!

 cousin love!

 kimmy & e.

 Senor Moose has the most amazing Mexican food. I always end up getting the same thing which is kind of savory potato pancakes with green chiles... so wonderful!

  The light outside it flickering and the day is trying to decide what it will be. I need to plant so many beans so hopefully it will be a sunny day. So many gardening projects to get done. This is the coldest spring here EVER. I'm going to think SUN and radiate that it will be warm and hopefully the weather will just cooperate. happy weekending to you! xo m