over the weekend we put up a stake system for our fast-growing peas. it's very beautiful and--with the help of jon's expertise--structurally sound.  i helped wrap the twine. i can't wait for these bad boys to be producing. all i want is to munch on crisp snow peas in the afternoon or to sautee plump snap peas for dinner. they are still a bit too expensive at the food co-op, so i'll have to wait patiently for the harvest.

in the meantime--pea shoots. any good recipes? so far, i'm just adding them to my normal kale sautee.

67 miles south

i was so happy with how my pictures from my trip to olympia turned out, that i couldn't bear to break them up. instead i am inundating you with a whole lot of pictures. isn't the land my friend lives on beautiful? a big garden, and goats and chickens, and greenhouses and more.

happy august to you, i'll be back later in the week with an august list.

summer solstice

happy longest day of the year! yesterday we were really turned around. the sky was low and gray the whole day as if it was january, but it didn't get dark until 9pm. i'm hoping summer will truly be here soon. my basil plants hope so, too.

to celebrate summer, hop on over to words to shoot by. there are a lot of great summer triptychs there. 

have a good monday...

edible plants

a couple weekends ago we finished up our garden shopping at the seattle tilth edible plant sale. every year i look forward to this sale. seattle tilth stocks so many unique varieties of edible plants that it is hard not to resist wanting to get creative in the garden. seattle tilth is also a really great resource for gardeners in the seattle area.

we ended up with a box full of eggplant, two types of peppers, basil, edible flowers, broccoverde, two heirloom tomatoes, herbs and more. jon and i rode our bikes to the sale and we took jon's cargo bike, which was able to fit our box of edible plants plus a bag of compost. it was such a fun adventure!

now the plants happily sit on the window sill waiting for warmer weather.

p.s. graham, i have more pictures of the sale for you. let's talk.

little vintage bits

hello. i am stopping in today to share these pretty bits from an antique store downtown. the life magazines were from the 40's-60's and so so cool. they were shrink wrapped, though, so i couldn't see all the pages of what i imagine to be amazing american lifestyle pictures.

tonight i was treated to drinks at tavern law a mock saloon/speakeasy with a historic and rich cocktail menu. their bent is that they want to make a cocktail that suits you exactly. the bartender even came over to ask a few questions about flavor preferences, which led to a cardamom-lime gimlet. floral, sour, spicy and delicious.

this weekend we biked to the edible plant sale and picked up heirloom hot weather plants: fish hot peppers, jaune flamme tomatoes, thai basil, broccoverde, the list goes on. i will be sure to have more garden details soon.

my goal this week is to catch up on everyone's blogs and say hello again.

spring gardening

the garden is in! we dug up three beds in our grassy front yard, tilled in some good soil and compost and, finally, this past week we put in our seeds and starts.

what we are planting this spring, and how

~one of our housemates put russet potatoes that sat too long in our pantry right into the ground. i have never planted a sprouting crop, so we'll see how that goes...
~green and red lettuce from starts (we are getting our fill of tending to lettuce now because in the summer our csa gives us so much, that it is not worth planting it)
~chives from starts (my favorite!)
~beets from starts
~sweet peas from seed
~arugula from seed

*we went with more starts this year because the weather has been so finicky, it was hard to know when to start.
*i missed the boat on planting my favorite flowers, which i was able to do at our other house last year. if i had planned ahead, i would have put in: dahlia bulbs for late summer, a peony plant, poppy seeds, and cosmos.

what i am looking forward to planting come hot weather

~heirloom varieties of peppers, hot and sweet
~heirloom varieties of tomatoes
~italian basil, thai basil
~mint galore! (that can probably start now)
~eggplant

*all of these, except for the mint, will have to be starts and i am going to experiment with working with a cloche until high summer heats.


what are you planting this year?

picking onions in my yard

 

one red onion was ready to pick. jaala helped me pick it and she got to eat a little  of the juicy green end, for all her help. tomorrow is jaala's birthday, happy birthday jaala! the red onion is now sitting on my counter, ready to be sliced. 

there is a special visitor coming to seattle this weekend, who i am meeting tomorrow. should be fun! and on sunday, i'm having an open house for my photo show. i'm very nervous about that.

i'll see you on monday. have a great weekend!

farmed food

we got out first CSA yesterday!! we get ours from the boistfort valley farm in chehalis, wa. today i ate the purple kohlrabi and it was crunchy and spicy. i also made a semi-pesto with basil from our garden for dinner. i chopped up a bunch of basil and swirled it around in olive oil, garlic flowers and parmesan. then i mixed in some penne pasta and put that whole thing on a huge bed of lettuce. the lettuce and garlic flowers were from the csa. i also sauteed beet tops with chopped garlic flowers. it was a very green meal, if you can imagine.

this season's deliveries will be our first summer csa. deciding to sign up was not a hard descision. i had been wanting to do a csa for awhile, but didn't feel like i had a stable place where i could consistently eat the produce. i also knew i wanted to go with boistfort valley farm both because i had worked a few farmer's markets with them so i knew they had a fantastic range of vegetables, and because they had recently been devastated by the 2007 flood, so i wanted to give them support. it was last november when i felt like i was ready. we got a large winter package of onions, potatoes and lots of roots. it was so fun and delicious, but now that the warm weather is here and the first deliveries have arrived on the doorstop of our 'drop spot,' i can't wait for flowers, berries, peas and summer squash! i hope to tell you more about it as i go

these pictures above are, obviously, not my csa. they are from the seattle tilth edible plant sale that i volunteered at a while back. imagine a huge field of plant starts: all edible, all organic and mostly diverse varieties of the usual garden vegetables. the tomatoe section was huge because of all the varieties! after awing at this beautiful sale, i ended up getting: two types of hot peppers, basil, chocolate mint, sage, edible flowers and lots of onions. yum!

sun tea

i've been making sun teas each weekend, putting them in the fridge and drinking them as iced tea during the week. it is the easiest thing to do and has been fitting perfectly with my weekend activity of gardening. i just put a pitcher of water and some tea bags on our fence ledge--next to the potted oregano, sage and mint--and then i work in the garden, watching the tea slowly brew and turn the water into a burnt orange color.
since this is an overcast saturday in seattle, i will post about sun teas instead of making one. for me, the fun in making them is creating different types of flavor combinations. i just look at whatever teas i have in my house and think of yummy concoctions!

here's what i've done that you might like:

combo #1
2 bags lemon black tea
2 bags ginger tea
5 sprigs of mint (from the plant on the fence ledge)

combo #2
2 bags good earth spiced black tea
1 bag cranberry flavored black or herbal tea

combo #3
3 bags moroccon mint tea
1 lemon round
5 sprigs mint
optional: ceylon tea or lemon black tea

-fill a clear glass pitcher of water
-add tea and herbs
-let sit out in sun for about 6 hours, depending on sun intensity.
-refrigerate pitcher and drink tea cold

**green tea:
i'm not a big green iced tea fan, but making a sun tea with green tea and drinking it warm sounds amazing.

**sweetened tea:
i haven't been adding sugar because the teas have been tasting flavorful enough without, but if i were to sweeten them, i'd use agave because the flavor blends well and it disolves easily.
or, the icing on the cake would be to get a stevia plant. my mom has one and it is sweet just chewing on it! i would love to add a few stevia leaves to a batch for natural sweetness. maybe i'll sneak into my mom's backyard....

any tea concotions that you really like?

hope your weekend has been wonderful and long. i wanted to post this photo because i love love love it. these daisies were just calling to be photographed and i am so happy with the way it turned out. this is the last of my holga shots for a while and i will be back on tuesday for a new inspired photo and some photos from yet another new camera. i can't wait to share, there are so many inspiring things going on!

second roll

second roll, lilac shots. this time i found that the focus on the holga's plastic lens does funny things. most of my pictures were really sharp on the outside and blurry in the middle. but check out that second lilac picture, the focus is on some random leaf. i wish i remembered what i had it set to. these are what my options look like. more to come and more on flickr.

i just remembered! a year ago today: i drove home in a new car and got offered a new job (the job i have now)! that day was a big day and really catapulted me into this new 'grown up' life i have. i was a few weeks away from college graduation and had been months into worrying about my next steps. the car signified growing up and moving on and the job secured what i would be doing for the next few years. i can't believe i've come a year from that exciting day. i feel so settled and comfortable in my job and my big girl life and i've also learned so much from it. i can't wait for the next steps.

may day!

surprise!!

a may day surprise for you!

i thought instead of flowers that you would love these beautiful succulents left at your doorstep! i took these pictures not looking because my succulents are on a ledge of our fence above my head. i rose my arm up high and let the camera and sun do there thing. i love the patterns in these plants and i love that the sun was so bright on the fence, but it only makes them more vibrant. i also love the shadows...did i just say everything about these photos and now you have nothing to say? oops. well, anyway, they are for you to celebrate spring!

a question for those of you outside the U.S.: do you have the may day tradition of leaving flowers on people's doorsteps? is there anything special about may 1st for you?

today i am listening to (more) leonard cohen. this song was sung by the webb sisters at his concert, and i have the leonard cohen i'm your man soundtrack where antony sings it. you know how i like antony, right? here's some lines from if it be your will:

if it be your will that i speak no more
and my voice be still as it was before.
i wont speak no more
i shall abide until i am spoken for,
if it be your will.

if it be your will, that there is a voice
from the broken hill
i will sing to you from this broken hill
your praises they shall ring
if it be your will to let me sing.

i think it's beautiful.
check to see if your favorite local record store carries the soundtrack, it's great.

happy may day!!

Welcome to the First Day of Spring!

Can you believe it? Flower buds and colors all around!

Today I was thinking about when I should plant my vegetable and flower seeds. My tulip bulbs are already in full sprout and some of the iris bulbs I put in in October are poking their heads up. I hope more reveal themselves. I need to prune my rose bush. And learn how to prune it. With the house we are in now, we inherited a nice plot of land. Mainly it is inhabited by a lot of overgrowth, but there are scattered flowers and herbs. I think there are more things there than we know and once the sun comes out, we will have some surprise visitors. That's why I don't know how to prune a rose bush--I never planted one in the first place. We also inherited dahlias and in the late summer last year I learned how to take care of those. But for now I am excited for spring plants! We cleared a big portion of the land for a vegetable garden and yet another area for wild flowers. I can't wait for arugula and onions and sweet peas and basil! Tulips and irises, lilacs, then poppies, peonies...oh! What plants are you excited about?

New Additions

Please welcome my two newest plants. The first guy is a little cactus and the second looks like a baby tree. It will, in fact, grow into a larger, tree-like plant. I didn't intend to buy anything that grows large (my house is so small) but maybe it will take a while. Plus, for now it's a cute little tree with beautiful shades of green.

I was very inspired after I got my new plants that I painted! Actually, to be more accurate, I crafted. I made a little card for my dad's birthday with a plant on it. Do you see that little potted plant next to the water colors? That went on a brown square and then onto a larger square card.

***
Last night I went to a fabulous show. Have you listened to Antony and the Johnsons? Do. Grand piano, bass, cello, sax, clarinet, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, drums, two violins and a deep soaring operatic voice.