Song of Summertime

A few weeks ago, I showed you this picture:

Now the rasperry bushes look like this:

and this:

Yum!

We've been picking black raspberries for a week or so now.  The bushes are all over our property.  They pick and scratch my bare legs when I mow, but it's well worth it, come June and July when the berries are ripe.  Our Robby is a very good berry-picker, and I hope he'll be here this weekend to help.

We've had some storms here. Twice in less than a week we lost power. There are branches down in the yard and HUGE old trees down everywhere around us. 

I have always promised myself that I would stop coloring my hair when I had enough silver to make it sparkle.  That time is coming closer and closer.  I thought maybe this time I'd try a gray rinse or some gray highlights when my darker roots grew too long, but had no luck finding those things.

So, I did this, once again:

Maybe next time!

Savory Pie
(with thanks to my friend who named it for me)

I am not one who does a lot of cooking according to recipe.  My mother wasn't, either, and I did learn a little bit by watching her.  I will follow a recipe for some things, but many of my favorites are done in the old way: a bit of this, a pinch of that.

This is one of those things.  I have always liked pot pies...and the first time I served one to my grandson, he was overwhelmed.  "Mmm...mmm...mmmmm....That's my FAVE-WIT, Bamma!"  Not bad for a cheap, frozen Banquet pot pie.  I started learning then to bake my own.  I've gotten pretty good at it, but they turn out differently every time, because they always start with leftovers, 'a la Maison' to quote, once again, my friend.  That's just a fancy way to say, 'with whatever I happen to have on hand'!

Here, then is more of a road map than a recipe, and it's a favorite way of using up leftovers at my house.  You'll need some stuff:

• Pastry for a two-crust pie, and there's nothing wrong with buying it out of the dairy case at the grocery store!  Years ago my mother, who was well known for her pies, served me a slice and said, "This is a new crust recipe...what do you think of it?" to which I replied, "Mom, I think that's the best piecrust you've ever made!"  "FINE," she said, "It's PILLSBURY!" 
• Leftover cooked meat: pork, chicken, turkey, beef.  My favorite is pork tenderloin and I always buy a much-larger one than we need, just to make sure there is some left over.
• Pan drippings and some flour and milk, or leftover gravy. You might need a jar or two of ready-made gravy to be sure you'll have enough. Remember, this is about making something good to eat, and making it as easy as you can.
• Your choice of vegetables.  My choice is usually fresh-sliced carrots, and frozen broccoli, peas, corn, and pearl onions.
• Seasonings to taste.

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees F.
Place one crust in a pie pan, and prick the bottom a few times with a fork to allow the steam to escape.
Heat gravy in a large pot, or make gravy from drippings (see below).  Stir in cubed meat and vegetables until the mix looks 'right'.  Only you know what proportion of meat to gravy to vegetables will make you happy. 
Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, etc., and heat until bubbly.
Ladle filling into the pie crust. If you made too much, freeze the extra for a future pie. If too little, add more stuff!
Cover the filling with the second crust, seal and crimp the edges, and cut a few slits in the top.
Bake at 350 for approximately one hour, or until crust is nicely browned.  Oh, and remember to place an old cookie sheet under it to catch the drips, if you filled it too full!
Take the pie out of the oven and let it rest for five minutes or so before serving.
Yum!!

My hard-and-fast nearly-foolproof method for making gravies and white or cheese sauces:
Heat your drippings, butter, juices, etc., in a large pot.  Add the same amount of flour as you have liquid, that is, if you have three tablespoons of liquid, add three tablespoons of flour, stirring constantly with a wisk or perforated spoon until the mixture is thickened and smooth.  Add milk or water a little at a time, continuing to stir until your sauce/gravy is the desired consistency.  Add cheese if you're making au gratin, stir until cheese is melted, and remove from heat.
Shhhhhh....a little secret of mine: if I'm making a cheese sauce I like to saute a little fresh garlic or garlic powder in the butter before adding the flour.

Bon appetit!

For Shelly...and on behalf of fireflies

I don't know how it happens that in all of my years growing up and sleeping in an upstairs bedroom I never looked out at night to see the fireflies.  I look forward to seeing them every year, and count their appearance as assurance that summer is really here to stay awhile.  I have caught them and put them in jars, made them into 'jewelry' (I know, it's cruel to do that, but it's a rite of childhood, isn't it), shared them with my grandson...but I never looked out from a second-story window to see them lighting up the world below.

Late last night I got out of bed to turn the window fan down a notch, and saw strange lights in the yard.  I checked out the road to see if there was some sort of odd traffic, but the road was empty, quiet.  I grabbed my eyeglasses from the nightstand so I could see better, and that was when I realized that what I was seeing was fireflies...lightning bugs...hundreds, maybe thousands, of them.  They were in the grass, in the air, in the highest branches of the trees. There were so many of them, twinkling, flashing, it looked like a faery dance in the darkness.  I was transfixed, enchanted, in awe of their beauty.  There were so many! far more than one would see standing on the ground.

My friend, Shelly, is in Germany, mobilized by the Navy Reserves to work with a medical unit on an Army base there.  She left last August, was back briefly this May and June for her daughter's high school graduation, and has returned to Europe for another eighteen months.  They don't have fireflies in Europe.  She hasn't seen any since she left Indiana last summer.  How sad it is that such a simple and beautiful part of our summer landscape is missing from the European continent in its entirety...and how odd and perhaps even frightening it must seem for visiting Europeans to see them here for the first time.

What a wonderful world this is.
Firefly images were downloaded here .

Not Enough Sense...

...to come in out of the rain.  How many times have I heard that over the years?  I grew up on a farm, and in farming the right amount of rain at the right time is like money in the bank, and so I have always enjoyed a good rain.  You can drive the woman off the farm, but you can't drive the farm out of the woman...or something like that.

I mowed today, and it was hot. Not unbearably hot, but hot enough for a Yankee woman like me to raise a sweat.  So after mowing for several hours, when it started raining, I checked the sky for lightning, and when I didn't see any sign of that, I decided to stay out and enjoy a nice summer rain.  I turned my face to the sky and felt the soft, cooling drops.
I had some things to plant, a lilac bush and some strawberry plants.  I planted the lilac next to the new back porch and the strawberries around the well head. After I finished my 'farming' chores, I strolled down to the stream to rinse my muddy hands and feet, and then just sat on the bridge for a little while to enjoy the shower. 
There is something calming about rain. 

In other news, I've finished some more socks.  These are in Kroy Socks in "Cascade Colors".  I like working with Kroy. It has a nice hand, is affordable, and is not too splitty.  Its one drawback is that the yardage seems a bit short. Do you see the darker blue toe in the picture on the right? That's how close I came to having enough yarn to finish the pair.  There's a tiny spot of blue from my scrap yarn basket on the toe of each sock.

The pattern is one of my own devising, and I'm afraid it doesn't show well in these pictures.  I like the long color repeats, and I just wanted something to add a little texture without taking away from the stripes.  I call the design "Stumbling Blocks" for the little trip-ups that life always seems to throw in my way. 

I have also finished Ms. Nina's socks from the Hailey's Roses pattern.  I need to get them in the mail soon...I'd have been in a bigger hurry to do that, but I'm pretty sure there's not a big need for wool socks in Alabama in the summer.  These are from my "Haley's Roses" pattern in Red Heart "Heart and Sole" Ivory, and Opal Uni-Color Pink.  This is the first time I've used the Red Heart sock yarn. It's inexpensive and nice to work with, but it looks as though the yarn is going to pill rather badly.  I may be replacing these for Ms. Nina fairly soon. :(

 

Have a wonderful day, and if it's raining, have sense enough to go out and enjoy it! :D

Life Continues...

I was standing in the yard this morning, trying to find a good signal for my cell phone...yes, our coverage IS that bad out here...when I spotted this female turtle preparing to lay her eggs.  I think she is a snapping turtle, or 'snapper' as we call them, but I'm not fully conversant on the many types and species of turtles.   Her shell measures maybe nine or ten inches from front to back.  When I went back out a few minutes ago to get an accurate measurement, she was nowhere to be seen, so I suspect she has buried herself in the sandy soil, and is laying her eggs right now.  There is nothing visible out there right now except for a hole in the ground measuring about an inch and a half.

How cool is this? :D

The Bridge

I have always loved this bridge. It crosses the St. Joseph River in the little town of Mottville, Michigan, not far from where I grew up.  It's narrow and old, the longest surviving three-hump camel back bridge in Michigan, and until twenty years ago it was THE only bridge to get from one side of the river to the other on U.S. 12, also known as the Pulaski Memorial Highway.  I crossed it countless times when I was growing up, and it gave a real sense of adventure if you met a semi while on it! 

The bridge was closed to vehicular traffic in 1990 and a new, wider bridge was built.  Local groups fought to keep the old bridge from being razed.  It was preserved and is now open to foot and bicycle travel only.  For those like me who are passionately in love with all things watery, it is a place of great beauty and peace, even with the rumble of traffic traversing the new bridge just feet away.  It's not uncommon to see people fishing from it in the summer.

In the river to the east of the bridge there are the remains of a piling from a much-older bridge that was torn down when the camel-back bridge was built.  My father told me that the hand-hewn beams that were salvaged from the destruction of that bridge were used to frame up the barn where we raised sheep and stored hay and farm equipment at my childhood home.  When I was a little girl, the owner of a restaurant beside the bridge on the banks of the St. Joe would go out just before Christmas and moor a rowboat with a Santa Claus mannikin sitting in it to the old piling, We always looked forward to seeing the Santa Boat when we'd drive past, for we knew that its appearance meant that Christmas would be here soon.

There is a set of wooden stairs leading down to the water from the bridge.  Last fall we stopped at the bridge with friends visiting us from Texas.  We walked down to the water and crossed below the old bridge on the huge boulders that lie beneath it.  This past winter, I stopped one snowy day and got some wonderful pictures.

Here is the same view, photographed yesterday afternoon on my way home from work.

 We've had a great deal of rain lately, and the river is just about as high as I've ever seen it.  I walked down the steps to the water yesterday and found that the rock-strewn pathway we used last September to cross under the bridge is completely submerged.  If you look very closely, you can see the boulders under the water in the picture above.

This is a wonderful place...come visit it with me one day!

I love to mow...

I know that sounds odd, but I really do enjoy mowing the lawn.  It's good thinking time.  I have long conversations in my head with friends and family who have passed on and with loved ones who are far away.  I remember and re-live special moments in my life and dream of special times that I hope will come to pass in the future.  I hear my mother's voice and feel her touch.

 I love the repetition of making passes around the yard, and the clean swaths of fresh-cut grass.  I love the smell of mint that rises into the air when I mow the low ground near the little stream, and the scent of wild onions that grow beneath the cottonwood tree when I mow out near the barn.

I love seeing the red and white clover blossoms and the tiny yellow wildflowers that grow just shorter than the lawnmower blades cut.

It's a good time to take stock of how things are growing around the yard and in the woods.  Right now the wild roses are blooming, and the wild irises, too.

And if I am to judge by the number of buds on these bushes, we'll have a bumper crop of raspberries in a few weeks.

One of the best things about mowing is that when you're all done, it looks like this:

And this:

Then it's nice to take a few minutes and cool my toes in the stream...

... and to take a look around and enjoy the beauty that surrounds me...

We had a tremendous thunderstorm yesterday, bringing us buckets of rain and pea-sized hail.  Our little stream nearly overflowed its banks, and the low-lying land at the bottom of the yard is still squishy wet today. Some new bits of broken crockery washed downstream from the old dumping place, and I fished them out of the water.

We were so lucky to find this beautiful place.

Sunrise at Sunnybrook

There is a millpond at the end of the lane that runs past our house. 

Every morning, the mist rises from the water as the air is warmed by the rising sun.

I was sitting on the porch this morning around 7:00 a.m. and was treated to this sight. 

The mist drifting through the trees was dramatically set afire by the sun.

What a wonderful way to begin the day!

Funny... :)
http://bigtrev.blogsome.com/category/1/  This is a very funny and REAL ad from Ebay.  Read and enjoy until I get the time to write up something new... :)

It was time to go for a ride...

Every year for the past few years, we have looked forward to the Tennessee Lunch Run as the first ride of the spring. It's a time to dust off the bike. to head south, to clear winter's cobwebs from our heads and to meet up with our riding friends.  
We missed the lunch run last year, due to layoffs and reduced working hours at Rich's job.  We are still without a motorcycle, since Rich's wreck last fall.  I didn't think we'd make it this year.

But we are blessed with good friends.  Ross, our dear friend from Logansport, Indiana, has three motorcycles. He owns a Goldwing, a Kawasaki Nomad, and a vintage Honda.  When Rich was in the hospital after his wreck, Ross insisted that we WOULD be going to Tennessee this spring, whether we had replaced our bike or not.  Rich and I would ride Ross's Wing, and Ross would ride his Nomad.  
Steve, our friend (and some time drywall mudder extraordinaire) from Ohio, planned our route.  We loaded up one Tuesday evening and headed for Ross and Joyce's house, ready to ride out Wednesday morning.  Steve was already there, and after a great supper and some time to catch up on the events of the past winter we headed off to bed to rest up for the coming day.
Wednesday was a day to ride easy and get the feel for being back on two wheels again.  We rode back roads all day, stopping for a giant tenderloin sandwich along the way, and putting in for the night in Madison, Indiana, where we met up with Jay and Marian from the Indianapolis area.
On Thursday, we rode from Madison, Indiana, to Madisonville, Tennessee.  We hadn't planned on making it that far, but the roads were good, the company was even better, and the weather was perfect for riding, so we kept going until we arrived at our Friday destination.  Gail and Joyce, Rickey and Denise were already there, having spent the week traveling and riding from Oklahoma and Arkansas.  
On Friday the rest of the gang began arriving, from Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, and many other places.  The weather for our weekend was pretty craptastic, for the most part.  We had rain, and lots of it, although it was very nice for riding on Sunday.  Pics from our Sunday ride:

It was a wonderful trip, right up until about 10:30 am Monday.  We were traveling near Berea, Kentucky.  Steve was leading, but did not have his helmet on, so no CB contact was possible.  Ross was behind Steve.  Rich and I were following Ross.  Traffic was heavy, and there was a steady drizzle of rain falling.  
We may never know exactly why, but Ross's bike took a sudden left-hand turn, and in the blink of an eye, Ross was sliding on the pavement, with the bike sliding and tumbling and throwing sparks ahead of him.  Ross stopped sliding at the inside edge of the highway, with his feet toward the concrete barriers and his head toward traffic.  Somehow he managed to get himself up on his feet and to safety against the barrier.  A woman stopped to hold an umbrella over us and to wrap a blanket around Ross as we waited for the emergency vehicles to arrive.  Because Steve had no CB and had been separated from us by traffic, he never knew about Ross's wreck until he arrived at home in Dayton, OH, and got our messages.  He just thought we'd turned off to head north and west, as we'd discussed.

All in all, Ross was a very lucky man. He had some road rash on his elbows, knees, and backside, a sprained ankle, some cracked ribs, a night in the hospital...and a badly smashed-up bike.  Bill Kelso, another friend from the forum, came down to pick up Ross and his bike on Tuesday, and bring us all home.
I finished Ms. Nina's socks in Bill's truck on the way home, all but working in the loose ends.  I started another pair, in Kroy this time, Cascade Colours.  I think they're going to be very pretty socks.  Pictures to come in the next entry. 

Spring is here!

The marsh marigolds are blooming, with a new riot of bright yellow appearing almost as you watch.  My grandson calls them "Marshmallow Flowers" and he loves to go down to our little stream whenever he is here, to see them and to look for 'fishies'.  As I walked along the bank yesterday to take pictures, I could hear frogs PLOP! into the water at my approach, but was never quick enough to catch them in action.  I could see that we have some cleaning up to do, after the winter melt and runoff.  There's trash in the stream, some of it new, but some from previous generations, usually hidden under the streambed and surfacing when there is an especially large rain to wash away the sand.  Old bits of crockery, glass jars, rusted cans are uncovered, and require some caution when we wade in the shallow water. 

Rich has been tossing rocks of various sizes into the stream as we clear them from the lawn, and we're beginning to get a nice burbling sound as the water tumbles around and over them.   It's quite relaxing and mesmerising to spend a few moments watching and listening.  Sometimes we're lucky enough to spot a crawdad sunning himself in the shallowest parts of the stream.

The birds are nesting and calling to one another in the marsh. Yesterday I caught a glimpse of a red-winged blackbird and a week or two ago I lay in bed in the early morning and watched a robin building its nest in the walnut tree right outside my window (a friend pointed out to me that the bird was probably disdainful of my laziness!).  I've been cleaning up the fallen walnuts...that job should have been done in the fall, but I was distracted by Rich's motorcycle accident and then it was too cold and snowy to get the job done.  The squirrels have had plenty to eat over the winter, and they're quite fat and luxuriantly-furred this spring!  The ground beneath the walnut trees is littered with walnut husks and empty shells to be raked up.

Still keeping our friend, Loren, close in thought and prayer.  He passed a critical 48-hours-since-surgery mark last night and is making some small improvements.  It will be a long, long path to recovery for him.

For Loren, in Arkansas...

Keeping you and yours close in heart and prayer.  Keep fighting, friend...get well.  As I just told another friend, you're a cranky old curmudgeon, but you're OUR cranky old curmudgeon. 

A picture from our ride after the Tennessee Lunch Run, 2007

 From left, Steve, Loren, me, Rich, Ross

"The time has come," the walrus said, "to talk of many things.."
Lewis Carroll "The Walrus and the Carpenter" from Alice in  Wonderland

Of weight loss and sewing machines that don't work and keeping one's disagreements with the world private wherever possible...

I know, that doesn't rhyme. 

• I have set out, with a friend in Arkansas, to lose 100 pounds.  To that end, I have invested in an inexpensive bathroom scales.  It's time. It's necessary. It will be very, very difficult. Keep me in your thoughts.  My question is, if I reset the starting point on the scales to -10 pounds, does that count as a weight loss? Ok, ok....
• The Pixie II sewing machine has been returned to the store from whence it came.  It was a bad, bad sewing machine,and we did not get along at all well. I shall be having my good machines repaired.
• Today I had to referee a domestic disagreement between two people who mean very much to me.  You know who you are.  Please, please, please, make it your goal to keep all disagreements just between the two of you and NOT public ok?  I don't want to read about your fits and problems with one another or with anyone else on Facebook or MySpace, I don't want to hear about it on the phone, I don't want to know about it in person.  Your parents and family don't need to know you're fighting, your friends don't need to know you're fighting, and your children don't need to know you're fighting.  See if you can go an entire week without posting/telling/whining about your fights and disappointments in any sort of public venue, ok? Ok.  Thankyouverymuch.
• We have steps leading down from one of our exit doors now! HURRAY for my husband and master carpenter!

Spring Stuff...

I bought a new sewing machine...I have a good one that just needs to be cleaned and serviced, but this one was only fifty dollars, and it would cost me at least that much to have the other one worked on. It's called a "Pixie II" and is made by Singer.  It's slow and loud and I think a bit temperamental.  We'll see if it makes the grade.  Since most of my sewing stuff is still MIA in packing boxes, I picked up a few doodads and gizmos and patterns and fabrics, too.  I'm going to do some sewing for the grandkids, and maybe for myself, as well.

I sewed a valance for Robby's room. It goes well with the quilt, I think.

I've done some knitting...finished up this long-languishing pair of socks.  I think this is Fortissima Socka.

And this pair. I started these while Rich was in the hospital recovering from his motorcycle wreck.  Need to find the ball band. I can't remember what the yarn was but it's lovely stuff.

I made some progress on Ms. Nina's socks. I hope to have them done in time to deliver them to her at the Tennessee Lunch Run in April.

I found this yummy sock pattern in this book, Easy Knitted Socks by Jeanette Trotman. I mentioned the pattern in a previous post.  They used Kidsilk Haze for the model, but I think I'll try something a little more affordable.









The job at Hobby Lobby proved to be a mistake, both for me and for the company.  I am going back to my old job in Shipshewana, beginning this Thursday.  I am very sad to have failed at this, but glad that my former employers want me back. 

We had the granddaughters over for the night last Saturday, for the first time.  All I can say is girls are really, really different from boys! 

Dude!
I have the BEST big brother!  Greg has lived in Canada for nearly thirty years.  I asked him about the wonderful Olympic Flame-Bearers' mittens from the recent Olympic Games in Vancouver, BC, Canada.  I had tried to order some online, but the Internet source I found was sold out.  A few days later, I got these in the mail!  
He sent me a package of five pair of the wonderful mittens, three adult-sized and two child-sized.  They are beautiful, fleece-lined, and warm.  I love them, and I love my big brother...but then, I love him whether he sends me mittens or not.

Dang, that's a lot of red in that picture! = )
 

FAIL :-(

I didn't quite manage to finish my KnitOlympics socks...the cuffs are done, and I got maybe a third of the way down the legs before the Olympic flame was extinguished last evening.  A weekend full of company (while wonderful) and the loss of pages one and two of the pattern (which is not such a good thing, when it's your own original pattern and the digital file for it is lost on your crashed hard drive) slowed me down just a bit. I had to go back to Barbara Walker for the pattern stitch, then figure out how I altered it to work in the round.  Then I ripped back my first attempt at figuring it out and tried again. Much better the second time!  So here is what I have finished. They're going to be lovely, and I know Ms. Nina will be very happy with them. I'm going to have to try to find another ball of the Red Heart sock yarn. I think I may run a little short of the cream color.

This is the hat I knitted for our friend John, for his visit here from Louisiana last weekend.  You will note that I still HAVE said hat...John didn't make it here.  He has a few cracked ribs and didn't feel up to making the trip.  He will tell you that he injured his ribs while rescuing a woman and her child from the crashed and flaming wreckage of her car.  Don't believe it.  The truth involves a fairly large quantity of Maker's Mark bourbon, a Mardi gras parade, and a wrecker that stopped moving in the parade just before John walked into it.  That's a lovely cashmere scarf under the hat. It would have been John's, too.  I'm just sayin'... = )

We had a nice weekend without him, but it would have been great if he could have joined us. Friends from Indiana were here to celebrate their 37th anniversary, as well as my sister and her husband to celebrate her birthday, and our son and daughter-in-law and grandsons, too.  The friends spent the night, as did Robby, and we had a wonderful time! 

We missed you, John.  Hope those ribs heal quickly and that you'll make it up here the next time.

Citius, Altius, Fortius
(Faster, Higher, Stronger)
I have decided to participate in the Knitting Olympics this year, as a challenge to myself and as a spur to get going on a pair of socks that I promised to a dear friend nearly a year ago.  In honor of Ms. Nina in Alabama, and in memory of my little great-niece Haley Rose, I cast on a pair of Haley's Roses socks during the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC, Canada. 
Ms. Nina's socks will be in Red Heart's Heart and Sole sock yarn in cream, and Opal Uni-Color in pink.  I designed the Haley's Roses pattern to help raise funds to fight neuroblastoma.  ALL proceeds from the sale of the pattern are donated to Lunch for Life.

In other knitting, I recently finished a hat in Lion Brand Fistherman's Wool.  I'd never worked with this yarn before, and I found that I really enjoyed it.  The hat is for our friend John, who will be visiting us next week from Louisiana.  He is a Southern Boy, through and through, and is afraid that he will  freeze up here in our Northern winter :)  Maybe the lovely, warm hat will help a bit to keep him warm during his stay with us. 

The new job at Hobby Lobby is, well, it's a job.  I am frustrated with my apparent inability to accomplish all that they expect from me in the time allotted.  I hope that will improve as I gain experience.  I do get to play with a lot of yarn.  I have two projects going that I keep in my locker at work: a simple shawl in a yarn called "Epais" from Yarn Bee and a pair of socks in "Walk Away" sock yarn.  Both of these yarns are new to me. 

I found a pattern that intrigues me in one of the knitting books at the store.  It's for a pair of over-the-knee stockings that tie with sheer ribbon...I have no idea where I would wear such things, but I am oddly drawn to them.  I may end up having to knit a pair, just because.  Maybe I could hang them artfully on the wall in the bathroom or drape them over the back of the bedroom chair!  :D  

This will be a weekend of frantic housecleaning, as I get ready for an onslaught of company next weekend.  My friends are all familiar with my aversion to housework, and never expect much in that area, but I do like to surprise them every now and again with a mostly-clean house... :)