food prep, dramatic skies, and flowers

Wednesday...I guess our spate of pleasant weather is over for now, at least until the next front comes in. I did two things outside, trundled the garden cart over to the burn pile and emptied it and then picked up the piles of pruning from Monday, tossed them in the truck and then on the burnpile and I am hot and sweaty. Checked the weather app on my phone...89˚ feels like 99˚ and high humidity. Maybe I'll just sit in the house and read all day. Or I could vacuum the floors if I get too antsy (I didn't). Another front is supposed to come in Sunday for a week or so in the 70˚s with one night in the 40˚s!

Thursday was SHARE day and a food delivery day and just plain busy. Not so busy the baskets that I refill stacked up but as soon as I was finishing one up they would drop another, all morning long.

Well, this little bird feeder is not working out even with the perches I added. I noticed that the birds were not showing up so I went out and looked and the only thing in the little trough was millet, the sunflower seeds jammed up because the slot at the bottom that feeds the seed into the little trough is not open enough. I shifted the plexiglas sides up and taped them so hopefully the sunflower seeds will fall out but obviously this little feeder is not meant for large seed. I'll have to get a bigger one.

Yesterday evening my neighbor brought me six ears of sweet corn from her husband's brother's garden. I was glad to get them because we'd already eaten the corn she brought me earlier in the spring. So today I shucked it, blanched it, cut it off the cob, vacuum sealed it and put it in the freezer. I was glad to see this little guy as I was shucking the ears, it tells me the corn is safe to eat.

All six ears had a little damage at the top with three still having a little worm. I used to get my corn from a farmer who came to the market every spring. I asked him if it was sweet corn hybrid or GMO. Hybrid, he said, if a worm won't eat it neither will I. That's pretty much my position too.

While I was at it I divided up the family size package of mushroom ravioli into five portions that I bought Tuesday and vacuum sealed and froze those as well. Makes for 5 easy meals when neither of us really feels like cooking.

There was some rain around us Thursday but not on us. The sky was pretty dramatic though with towering puffy clouds and darker ones. (The first picture is through the windshield of my car so the color is off.)

This is from Wednesday I think, the fallow field at the end of my street.

The confederate roses are blooming prettily. One of mine opens light pink and darkens to dark pink by the end of the day and the other, the flowers open white and turn pink as the day progresses.

By end of day it was completely pink.

And the orange cosmos is starting to put on its display with monarch.

Well, dinner is on me tonight (Friday) so I'd best walk the dog and get in there.

Tonight's sky.

 

another day of labor and a needed break

Sunday, one of the times I was in the big backyard pondering my next move, a red shouldered hawk flew across the Wicked Bitch of the West's vacant property, swooped under the low branch of one of the pecans trees I was standing near, zoomed back up and directly over my head by about three feet and up into the air and into the Wild Space at the back of my property. Whoa! Wings outstretched they are big. I also stood and watched the migrating hummingbirds and butterflies several times as they helped themselves to the porterweed.

I ticked 5 things off my Sunday list and then dug up the monkey grass from under and around the beautyberry and started replanting it under one of the yew trees on the corners of the house. Didn't get that finished as I was done by then.

This was not exactly what I planned for Monday out in the yard and it wasn't even on the list. So much isn't.

What I planned was to fill the spray bottle with brush/stump killer and go around and cut down any hackberry and pecan sprouts that I couldn't pull and treat the little stumps so hopefully they won't come back. Which I did. I did the back, the west side and the front and kept bumping my head on the low branches when I was working around the photinias in front and then I took the long handled pruners and had at it. There are more branches I want to take off but I need the chainsaw for those. Still have to get the little trees on the east side.

So far I have not seen a squirrel trying to overcome the hood and get to the bird feeder but neither have I managed to attract any birds. I think the hood might freak them out a little as the wind causes it to sway. Edit: Finally! Tuesday morning a female cardinal hogged one side while chickadees flitted back and forth on the other. The perches worked! I guess word has gone out because now a titmouse has shown up.

Monday night was a yoga class night and as I was on my way there I got a call from Abby asking would I mind leading the group, that she just really needed to be in a class and not leading it and so I did. She's had a really hard year this year and it looks to be getting worse before it gets better so I was glad to do this for her.

It's Tuesday and I'm kind of glad it is because after 4 days in a row of physical labor out in the yard I am bushed, or as my friend Kathy would say, 'toast'. Tuesdays are busy with other chores, the weekly grocery shop and providing dinner.

Here's Cat. She generally hangs out wherever I'm working in the yard.

 

tackling the long list and a new flower

More yard work Friday. I emptied the garden cart and truck on the burnpile and torched it as a burn ban goes into effect on Monday. Then I took the now empty garden cart and went around the yard picking up all the pots that were laying around, some empty, some with dirt but the little plant died, some broken. I repotted and staked up two dragon fruit plants that grew a lot this year, moved the clump of iris that Joanne of Cup On The Bus sent me to a sunnier spot, planted the bearded iris bulbs? rhizomes? that I bought this spring that have summered over in pots in the same area, pulled up the last of the zinnias, watched two hummingbirds on the porterweed. Then I walked the dog and came in and fixed dinner...smothered steak, mashed potatoes, green beans.

Saturday I went to the Farmer's Market and bought some egg noodles and some velvet okra. The people I buy honey from weren't there and the woman who sells microgreens had just sold her last two containers so two of the things I wanted I didn't get. Then I stopped at the feed store for some lobelia, marigolds, and a new bird feeder but all they had was a little one. Then I stopped at Tractor Supply for what is supposed to be a squirrel proof hood that you hang your bird feeder from.

See the little perch sticking out from the bottom? I added that and one on the other side yesterday after watching a male cardinal try and get at the bird feeder. He would fly at it and then flutter in front and fly back to the photinia. I figured the perching area was too small for him so we'll see if he has better luck today.

Then I repotted a succulent cactus, 3 small pots of begonias into one, and a couple of plumerias. 

Speaking of plumerias, one of my light pink with a yellow throat makes seeds every year and my sister Pam sprouted one and it grew. Apparently plumerias don't seed true to the parent or they crossbreed because the one she grew bloomed this year...small white flowers with a yellow throat.

So maybe it's a cross between the pink 

and the white bridal bouquet plumeria about 6' away. 

The flowers on the new plumeria similar, rounded petals instead of pointed, to the bridal bouquet plumeria with the spade shaped leaves and thin stalks that grow upright but with more yellow in the throat but the plant itself grows like the pink, thick stalks that spread out with tapered leaves.

Then I dug up and moved some clumps of day lily from the middle of a flower bed to the outside edge, watered everything in, walked the dog and called it a day.

More work out in the yard today. I need to mix more dirt and compost, pot the lobelia and plant the marigolds, weed a section of flower bed, spread out some mulch, re repot a plumeria from yesterday into an even bigger pot, dig up the white butterfly ginger and find a better place for it, divide the bird of paradise and plant half in the ground, plant the bougainvillea in the ground, treat the camellia for whitefly, caulk the seams in the gutters. I won't get it all done of course, it's just my running list.

The cooler weather has perked things up so I'll leave you with flowers. The confederate rose is blooming,

the first flower

as is the yellow bells. I watched a bumble bee going from flower to flower

which is what inspired this piece several years ago.

And the white philippine lily.

 

cool enough to get some yard stuff done

We're back to having no rain again and everything is horribly dry. Consequently I spent the morning Monday moving the sprinkler around every 30 minutes and same yesterday and so far today. I did get most of the back flower bed weeded Monday. I'll be able to get more of that done now that I've watered and the dirt isn't hard as a rock. The orange cosmos are putting on buds as are the confederate roses but no flowers yet. I had the sprinkler in the midst of one stand of orange cosmos yesterday morning and it was filled with birds playing and bathing in the water, even a hummingbird was flitting around in there.

Later, I got the newly released 6' ladder (the one the chandelier has been suspended from) and used it to get high enough to pull dead fallen branches and dead canes out of the crepe myrtle with the climbing rose all intertwined and then used the ladder and hoe to drag more dead fallen branches and leaves off the roof next to it all. There's still a lot more up there but it's going to take someone getting on the roof and that won't be me. I'll dare a lot of things still. I'm limber, have good balance, still strong enough and I have been on that roof a few times. But I am also acutely aware that if I fell off, it would be devastating. Maybe if I went and got the 8' ladder from the shop...

The rest of this post is just some miscellaneous pictures.

Minnie and her dog buddies at the other end of the street.

A little brown tree frog sitting on the top of one of the wind chime tubes.

Another quick and easy one dish meal...orecchiette pasta, broccoli, garlic, italian sausage.

Porterweed bloom, hummingbirds and butterflies love it.

The mistflower is blooming and the bees are all over it, though not in this picture taken late in the day.

The confederate rose buds mentioned above.

the prep, the wedding, the fun afterwards

Last Monday night a cool front came through and Tuesday morning I woke to temps in the 60˚s. It was almost chilly! It eventually warmed up to about 90˚ but low humidity made for a really pleasant day. We opened the doors, I opened the windows in my bedroom that night and woke Wednesday morning to another cool morning and it has continued all week. Down in the 50˚s last night and next week highs in the mid to high 80˚s. This has been such a relief from the brutal summer.

The rest of this post is long as it covers three days.

My sister Pam, niece Denise, and I left Thursday late afternoon for New Braunfels and the little rental close to the event center for my great-niece's wedding. The bride, Vickie, is the daughter of my sister's other daughter, Shannon. Anyway, the rental was a little two story duplex and we had the top story; two bedrooms, small bath, small sitting area that opened up to a small kitchen/dining area. It was very cute, perfect for four people that the rental said sleeps six so we assumed the couch pulled out into a bed but with six it would definitely be crowded. With just us three it was perfect.

My sister had made a large batch of cupcakes for the reception so after we got to the rental, had a very good pizza for dinner, we iced the cupcakes and went to bed. Denise works remotely so that's what she did on Friday until it was time to get ready for the wedding while Pam and I went out for breakfast, topped the cupcakes with half a strawberry each, and delivered them to the event center. On the way back we stopped at an outdoor place that sold Mexican metal art, pottery, but mostly tala vera decorative ware. The place was huge and a maze with narrow aisles that wound all around between high shelves and racks solid with stuff. I considered getting an 8” round ball but they wanted $48 for it which I thought was pricey since I only paid $70 for my tala vera birdbath. 

Then it was time to get ready for the wedding at 3 PM. Here we are dressed and ready to go.

The wedding was small, about 50 attendees, close family and friends who could make it on a weekday afternoon, the ceremony short and sweet in the gazebo at the event center, their friend officiating who started out with “Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us togeder today” from the Princess Bride. I asked him later if they knew he was going to do that and he confessed that yes, it was planned. So Vickie and Josh. These two have been together for 12 years and Josh has been asking her to marry him for years and Vickie finally relented. The reception fairly unconventional as wedding receptions go but they did do the first dance and here they are. It's the only picture I took while there.

After Pam and Denny and I left we went back to the rental, changed clothes, and went to a German biergarten for dinner. I had barbequed Gulf shrimp with andouille sausage and bread and a selection of four dark German beers. It was all very good. 

That night though, we were all awakened about 12:30 by a big ruckus in the rental below where four men were. Lots of thumping and bumping from perhaps getting shoved into walls or furniture and angry yelling most of which was profanity, inside and outside, yelling leave, you're not wanted here. It settled down about 1:30, no gunshots which, this is Texas y'all, so it's to be expected, no bodies on the grass in the morning. We packed up our stuff as soon as we got up and left.

Saturday we planned to explore New Braunfels and Gruene, a small town merged with New Braunfels. The whole area has grown so much since the last time I was there years ago, new housing construction everywhere there had been open land. New Braunfels is near San Antonio and is a big tourist destination. It's a sweet little city in the hill country with two clear water rivers running through it, the Comal and the Guadeloupe. 

It would be a wonderful place to live except for the tourists that descend on it.

So after meeting with Vickie and her mother and Vickie's best friend/maid of honor for breakfast tacos (Josh was still asleep), we headed to the Saturday Market that was set up next to where we had dinner the previous night, not much farm produce as it's in between growing seasons here but lots of cool stuff like natural homemade dog cookies (I bought Minnie some), home grown mushrooms,

botanical skin care products, hand printed t-shirts and dish towels,

microgreens, potless plants in dirt but encased in moss,

and then we walked around the old town downtown before heading to Gruene, home of Gruene Hall, the oldest dancehall in Texas,

where we walked around some more and then settled on the porch of a bar for a beer and people watching before we headed home.

(I don't know why blogger won't let me get rid of all this empty space at the bottom but it won't.)

you'd think I'd never done this before

I started on my skirt Saturday afternoon cutting out the front, back, waistband, and pockets; stitched the front and back together, ran the gathering threads and started to gather one side when I put it down for the night. Sometime that night I woke up and remembered I hadn't sewn in the pockets which has to be done when doing the side seams so Sunday I had to tear out the gathering threads and rip the side seams down to where the pockets would go. Damn, you'd think I'd never done this before.

I probably could have finished it on Sunday if I hadn't had to start out undoing nearly everything I did on Saturday. Then it took me three tries to figure out how to put the pockets in, again, you'd think I'd never done this before. Pinned one side, stitched it, then checked my work. Wrong. Pinned it a second time differently and checked it. Wrong. Finally got out one of my skirts I made last year and examined the pockets from the wrong side and finally figured it out.

I was down to finishing the waistband, inserting the elastic, and doing the hem. This is where I quit on Sunday as my back was complaining.

You'd think I would have had plenty of time to finish on Monday but it took forever to get the waistband and elastic done. I couldn't find my note for how long to cut the elastic so once more I consulted a finished skirt and got a good enough measurement, three tries to get the elastic in, too much trouble to explain why the first time was wrong, second time the safety pin pulling the elastic through the casing opened halfway through. Third time I taped the safety pin shut and got it in right. I got the length for the skirt measured and the excess cut off so end of day Monday all I had left to do was the hem and it was off to yoga class which Abby called late in the day that something came up and would I...yes, I'll lead the class.

So now...ta da! Once it's washed another half dozen times or so the gathers will fall more softly but it'll do for the wedding.

Here's the recipe for the Coconut Cashew Chicken (from emeals.com) I wrote about a couple of posts ago. Since there's just two of us, I cut all the quantities in half (my amounts in parenthesis):

2 lb (1) boneless skinless chicken thighs, cubed or use chicken breasts
2 1/2 tsp (1 1/4) curry powder
1/2 tsp (1/4) salt
1/2 tsp (1/4) pepper
1 (1/2) onion, chopped
2 T (1 I think, I might have used two) olive oil
1 T (1 1/2 tsp) minced ginger
3 (2) cloves garlic, minced
1 - 13.5 oz (7 oz) can coconut milk
1/2 c (1/4+) roasted salted cashews

Sprinkle chicken with curry powder, salt, pepper. Cook chicken and onion in hot oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat 4 minutes or until lightly browned.

Add ginger and garlic to pan,cook 2 – 3 minutes or until fragrant. Add coconut milk and cook 7 minutes or until mixture has thickened and chicken is done. Top with nuts.

Side dish:

2 - 8.5 oz pouches microwavable jasmine rice (I used 1/2 c basmati rice and cooked it on the stove)
1 – 6 oz (3 oz) pkg baby spinach
2 T (1) lime juice
1/2 tsp (1/4) salt
6 T (3) chopped fresh cilantro

Cook rice according to package directions. Stir in spinach, lime juice, and salt tossing to wilt spinach. Sprinkle with cilantro. (Not everyone likes cilantro so eliminate that if you want)

still no dress but a new book

Yesterday I made one last attempt at finding a dress for the wedding next Friday at the shopping mecca in Rosenberg with no success so knowing this was the probable outcome, I brought my light green tunic top with me and went to the other Evil Empire (Hobby Lobby) to see if I could find some fabric to make a simple gathered skirt to wear with it and I did.

The other thing I was looking for was some plain black flats and I found some at Famous Footwear, Naturalizers, which I love, but they only had sizes 7 and 8 and I need a 7 1/2. I'll order them online but they won't come in time for the wedding but I remembered a pair of blue suede sandals I bought at a resale shop and haven't worn since I quit working at the antique store that will do just fine.

Also yesterday I received my copy of a new book on Pate de Verre, the glass casting technique that I employ and am represented in in the contemporary artist section. Only 20 artists were selected internationally, only 7 of which are from the US (with two of those listing other countries as well) and I am one of them. I'm thrilled and honored to be in such a gorgeous book when there are so many artists here in the US that they could have included. I know one of the authors personally, we got to know each other back when I was more productive and had more galleries that did Glass Collector's Weekend and SOFA, but had no idea that the other author who lives in the UK knew of me. As I've mentioned before, I'm not very prolific, making only a few pieces a year and some years none at all and I'm only represented by one medium tier gallery and not really looking for others.

Between the etched glass and the pate de verre, this is the 10^th book we have work published in.

Now I have to vacuum the floor so I can lay out my fabric and start cutting the pieces for the skirt.