Sunday, May 14, 2017

an ordinary Saturday



Every time I think it's getting hot enough out there that working outside all day is no longer an option and I start to stare at the slab of wax on my work table, another front comes in and cools it off for a few days and I'm right back out there. I'm done with all the major projects for this spring...new raised bed and improving the area of the garden, get the garden planted, get the blueberry bed in, new flower bed, remake the end of another flower bed, so now it's just maintenance...watering, weeding, getting new things acquired in the ground, repotting others into bigger pots, digging up all the pecan trees the squirrels planted, trimming around the beds, cutting the dead wood out of the shrubs, that sort of thing.

Yesterday, I finally completed a task I started last November. I didn't start out the day with that intention but since my path across the side yard has changed the scattered mayhem of the sandstone paving slabs, which I had traversed several times already that day, finally got to me. 


Depending on the season when I am walking over to the shop, I either walk down the driveway to walk in the sun or I walk across the grass close to the house to walk in the shade. You might remember that last fall I unstacked the sandstone slabs and laid them out helter skelter in preparation for reconstructing them into a short walkway. Short because the original walkway that these comprised was at the city house and it was a short cut from the sidewalk to the front door and the driveway. Anyway, yesterday I found myself putting together a jigsaw puzzle with no picture to guide me. Wouldn't have been too hard a task except that the pieces were all really heavy.


There's always small open areas where the stones don't fit exactly so I drug out my glass doorknob collection and rummaged through it and selected some to fill in those spots. We used a lot them in the city house but since moving out here we haven't, so far, bothered to change any out. 



I have one old glass doorknob that was an exterior knob and probably faced west and has turned purple from the ultrviolet rays of the sun.


I going to get up in a minute and start to make some tomato sauce and maybe put up some of the peaches I picked up on Saturday. The local orchard didn't have enough to open but if you messaged them they would hold some for you to pick-up. I'm happy to now be on their call list. These are the white flesh peaches and so sweet and delicate. I made a pie yesterday and still have too many to eat before they go bad so I'll be putting some of them up in the freezer too.


But back to the tomatoes...Marc made a great tomato pie and we've been having them with lunch and I've been giving them away and cutting them up for the freezer and still I am overwhelmed with tomatoes. My daughter took a whole window sill's worth home with her yesterday and I replaced them immediately with that day's pick and then some. I thought I would only get about 6 or so but I actually had the biggest pick so far.



It was late when I relinquished the kitchen back to Marc, too late to come up with or fix anything for dinner so we settled for this...





13 comments:

  1. Ellen, you put me to shame in a million ways!
    We walked through a garden and outdoor art place yesterday in Apalach. They carry a lot of Talavera pottery and I guess they get a lot of breakage because one of the paths through the garden area was made of rocks and broken bits of the Talavera. It was beautiful!
    I am so jealous of your tomatoes. Yum!

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    1. I don't know about that Mary, you do a whole lot of stuff I don't.

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  2. That's a wonderful idea, and the knobs look like diamonds set between the slabs. The purple one is made with magnesium, hence the color when left in the sun. My mother used to collect bits and pieces of them. They used a lot of it for the glass in oil lamps. I am amazed that you could lift those slabs.

    Ahhh....peaches, be still my heart.

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    1. the biggest ones I basically just rotated into place.

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  3. no that is my kind of dinner.Your slabs look like limestone more than sandstone. Tough to pick up, but nice when finished.

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  4. How wonderful, peach pie for supper!

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  5. That looks like a really good dinner! Good idea to use the glass doorknobs in the walkway. I've never seen one turn purple like that.

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  6. I remember old-time medicine bottles that would turn that pretty purple: sometimes really pale, but sometimes deeper. I can't believe your tomatoes. I haven't been able to find a single home-grown tomato yet. Can it be that we're so far behind you? Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places -- wasn't there a country song about that? "Looking for Tomatoes in All the Wrong Places?" :-)

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    1. I planted my tomato plants mid-February during that week we were having temps in the 80s. the Hungerford feed store already had plants for sale. I was afraid we weren't going to have much of a spring so I rushed them in. I have never had tomato plants do this good. before I had them directly in the ground and they were in shade by 2 PM with some lat afternoon sun. so I put in 12 plants only now, I have raised beds over at the shop and expensive dirt and full sun. OMG!

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  7. I love the glass door knobs between the slabs. They do look like jewels. Pie for dinner is just the best. I miss pie; we don't have an oven, so no pie for us!

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  8. You did a very good job on that stone path. I would never have thought of glass doorknobs! Now I must go make pie, perhaps strawberry as this is what we are now picking.

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  9. I love that walkway - good job! And oh man I would LOVE to have some peach pie right now...

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