Time Marches On

What happened to January and February?

Well, January started out with a big mess.  Day after day the front yard and most of the block would be littered with fallen leaves from the larger Liquidambar tree. 

On New Years’ Day granddaughters 1 and 2 spent some time raking the front lawn for us.  They filled two trash cans which we then emptied into the compost bins. 

After that I was on my own, so every few days I would rake the leaves from the lawn and the street into the gutter, then bag them up. 

The compost bins couldn’t handle them fast enough and now the bags are piled by the side of the house waiting until they are needed.

January also meant the start of orange season.  We have two trees:  a Washington Navel and a Valencia.  The Washington Navel is ready first and is supposed to be for eating but I use most of the crop for juice because I don’t want to wait for the Valencia which isn’t ripe for another month or so.

We always have way more than we can use but every year I vow to try.  This year has been a real challenge because most of the WN oranges are too high for me to reach without a ladder.  I think I need to get Mr. B out there to pick what he can reach and, when the danger of frost is over, we should prune the tree quite a bit lower.

Later in January Safeway had a good price on Foster Farms whole chickens so I decided to make Chicken and Noodles.  Daughter’s family was coming for dinner so I prepared the noodle dough and the granddaughters helped me roll it out and cut it. 

I learned to love Chicken and Noodles from my Midwestern husband.  Mr. B’s mother, grandmother and aunts all made it for family get-togethers.  Each one had a slightly different take on it.  The only recipe I have is from his Aunt Georgia and I had to stand next to her and try to estimate the amounts of flour etc. she was using for the noodles because nobody used a written recipe.  I was never any good at rolling out such stiff dough so I long ago bought this Italian pasta machine and it rolls out the dough as thin as I want it.  Unfortunately, the noodles just don’t have the same texture as the old family recipe.  But they are still good served over mashed potatoes on a cold winter’s day. 

Mr. B is coming along well with his recovery.  Every day he spends some time walking up and down the block using the rolling walker lent to him by our neighbor.  Then he rides the exercise bicycle we bought over 30 years ago.  Every time we moved there was much discussion about whether to get rid of it since we hardly ever used it.  Sure glad we still have it!

In February the almond tree bloomed, for all the good it will do us.  We planted it almost 20 years ago and we have yet to get any almonds.  They all get harvested by the doggoned squirrels before we realize it.

Every year we try another squirrel deterrent but so far nothing has worked.  One year it was human hair from the beauty shop, another year it was moth balls (which are surprisingly hard to find these days).  I suggested trapping and releasing him out in the country but Mr. B thinks it would be cruel to separate Mr. Squirrel from his family.  What are you gonna do?

That’s My Boy!

Even 46 years ago he had a consuming interest in produce.  Here he had crawled into the pantry and found my potato bin while I was fixing dinner.
Now he is gardening in his own backyard and is doing very well.  His house is on an average-sized suburban lot which, in California, is not that big.  Plus his backyard is mostly downhill.  But our boy is persistent and has been terracing the ground to get level areas for planting vegetables.  This year all that work is finally bearing fruit, so to speak.  They are making salads with their own lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes.  And yesterday he arrived at our house with this:

13 ears freshly picked.

Tender and sweet

Two of the ears weren’t developed properly, but the rest made a very good dinner last night.  Mr. B managed four ears, I had two and Mom ate one.  I stripped the kernels from the remaining four and added some of them to today’s zucchini.  Yum-yum.  Son suggested using the leftovers in a salad, so that’s what we’ll have tomorrow.

Speaking of Zucchini, this year we planted two squash plants from Wegman’s Nursery in Redwood City.  The reason we drove that far to buy squash plants is that we were hoping to reproduce last year’s zucchini experience.  We planted a Romanesco that, while it didn’t look like the images I found of that variety, was so prolific that we ended up with over a hundred squash from one plant.  And it was the most delicious zucchini we had ever grown.

This spring we bought one Romanesco and one Ronde de Nice.  The Romanesco looks like its images and is just as prolific and tasty as last year.  The Ronde de Nice is also very tasty and even more of a producer than the Romanesco.  We are eating squash several times a week but still haven’t grown tired of it.

Tally as of August 1: 

Romanesco = 43 

Ronde de Nice = 69

Our tomatoes are singing a sad song this year.  We planted them in May and they grew well, producing lots of tomatoes.  However, they just sit there looking green.  So far, out of 7 plants, we have only had three red tomatoes.  In addition to that, at least two of the plants that we bought from Costco have what looks like verticillium wilt.  So their days are probably numbered.  The four tomato plants that we bought at the Santa Clara Master Gardeners sale seem to be okay.  We also have a few volunteers coming up here and there from last year’s seed.  One, in the squash bed, is a yellow pear so I’m looking forward to that, if any of them ever ripen.

The exception is the little currant tomato that we planted in Mom’s waist-high planter on the patio.  That didn’t go in until early July and is rather sparse as to foliage.  But it has several clusters of ripening fruit.  Of course, being currant-size, if I picked them we probably wouldn’t even have enough for one person.  But this variety is supposed to keep its fruit until all tomatoes in the cluster have ripened.  We’ll see.

The peppers are all doing well.  We planted mostly sweet peppers this year, although I did throw in some Fresno and Jalapeno at the last minute. 

Happy Mother’s Day

 

 

 

 

 

To my mother, one of the stars of the Greatest Generation, who is still sharing her love and guidance with us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To my mother-in-law who is no longer with us but who remains fondly in our memories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To our daughter, who has given us the gift of two wonderful granddaughters and a fine      son-in-law.

 

To our lovely daughter-in-law who has given us two beautiful grandchildren and who brings joy to our son’s life every day.

 

And to all the other mothers out there.

Keep up the good work!

Friday’s Child is Loving and Giving

Fifty years ago  our second child was born.  We named her after both her grandmothers – my mother’s first name and The Husband’s mother’s middle name.  She was a happy baby and I found her a lot easier to take care of than her older sister.  To be truthful, 99.9% of that was probably due to the fact that by this time I knew what I was doing .  When our first daughter was born I had never changed a diaper or even taken care of a baby before.  Back in those days, not much thought was given to preparing the new mother for the job ahead.  Thank goodness for the Dr. Spock book that somebody gave me, not sure just when, but certainly not soon enough for Daughter 1’s comfort.
While I was expecting, I decided to learn to sew.  I bought a used White in a cabinet for $40 and made myself some maternity clothes.  Then I decided that the new baby would need her own Christening dress and that it should be entirely hand-sewn, with white-on-white embroidery.  I don’t remember where this idea came from but through the years I’ve been prone to similar crazy ideas from time to time.

This is the pattern I chose.  Then I went to The Emporium in downtown San Francisco and bought batiste and lace, both imported from France.  Those were the days when big department stores sold a full line of fabrics and notions.

Ornate Glass Dome from The Emporium        Photo from Wikipedia

I then proceeded to cut out the fabric and stitch it together by hand.  I used french seams, which are fully enclosed, for most of the garment.  Unfortunately, the set-in sleeves defeated me.  No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t get the gathers to lay properly.   I finally gave up and stitched them in using the machine and then overcast the seam.  I did not do a very good job overcasting the parts where the lace edging and insertions meet the fabric, so now there is a certain amount of fraying in those areas.  Also, the insertion in one area has deteriorated.  The rest of the ensemble includes a long slip and an embroidered bonnet.

 

detail of pintucks

detail of embroidery

Where Has the Time Gone?

Summer is almost half over and I don’t feel as if I’ve accomplished even a tenth of what I had planned. I don’t know where the hours go.

This sunflower is one of at least a dozen that popped up as volunteers this spring. I don’t remember ever planting sunflowers in the backyard, so they must have come from birdseed. I hate to pull up volunteers if I know what they are, but next year I’m going to have to get ruthless and yank them out as soon as I see them. Most of the plants are single but this one just keeps putting out the blossoms.

The tomatoes are finally starting to produce. Not enough to make Gazpacho yet but I haven’t had to buy tomatoes for over two weeks now. I’m thinking about Panzanella for dinner tomorrow. We have some leftover Pugliese bread from Costco that should be perfect for it. The amazing zucchini plant has now given us at least 5 dozen fruits, ranging from 4-5 inches to “too big for stuffing even.” I haven’t let many get big because this is the absolutely best zucchini I’ve ever grown. The plant came from a nursery in San Carlos and was part of the batch of plants our son gave me for Mother’s Day. The label said it was an heirloom variety called “Romanesco” but it doesn’t look much like the photos I’ve found online.

I planted a six-pack each of lemon cucumbers and Armenian cucumbers. However, the Armenian must have been mislabeled because we now have twelve lemon cucumber plants, each producing what seems like several fruits a day. I swear, you lift up a branch and the cucumbers are growing in clusters, like grapes only a lot bigger. Thank goodness they are so good – we are eating two or three a day and have been able to find takers for the rest.

I didn’t get any beans planted this year although we do have some volunteers that sprouted from last year’s crop. I think I might try to get a small batch in next week if I can find the space. The moon is waxing which means it’s a good time to plant beans. I’ve never tried planting by the phases of the moon but I’ve always wanted to experiment with it.

The Husband picked our first apple this evening – no photo because he ate it too quickly. It was an Early Summer Red according to the label. There are several more that look ready, so I’ll probably try one tomorrow.

The Blenheim apricots were very small this year. I think we should have thinned them. Also probably should have pruned them last winter. I checked a book on pruning fruit trees out of the library this week. It appears to have a lot of information on the kinds of trees we are growing, so maybe we can improve our harvests.

Our friends brought us a box of their wonderful Blenheim apricots a couple of weeks ago, so I tried making jam for the first time in many years. This is the first batch. A few days later I found a recipe for Apricot Riesling Jam and decided to try it. I didn’t have any Riesling but I did have 1/2 cup of Grand Marnier so I used that. I got 2 small jars and a bit extra from that batch. We had a little of the extra over some vanilla ice cream the other night and it was pure heaven.

I’ve rearranged my sewing room again and now have room for a cutting table. It’s so nice not to have to use the dining room table when I want to cut something. All this is so that I can make GD1 and GD2 summer nightgowns. I’ve been planning this for weeks and was just about to put it off until next year. But when I asked one of them if that was okay, she said she would really like to have it this year and it didn’t matter that summer is half over, she could wear summer pjs all year, no problem. After that, I couldn’t not make them.

Some quilting has been going on this summer. Big Busted and the twin-size POM are ready to baste. I pieced the back of the POM quilt, so that took longer. I’m going to try the Sharon Schamber method of basting. I’ve read some good reviews on my Yahoo quilting groups. I’ll probably try it on a catnapper first.

Catching Up Part 1

Not much blogging going on around here, but lots of other stuff happening:

FAMILY

Mom has come to stay with us again, so life is a lot more structured – 3 proper meals a day, no peanut butter sandwiches with hot chocolate for dinner. But we are settling in just fine (and definitely eating better).

It has taken about a month but we are now into a workable schedule as to baths and laundry. We replaced the bathtub in the family bathroom with a new shower. Big improvement in looks and comfort. The shower in the master bath is quite small so The Husband prefers to use the front bathroom. I didn’t get a before photo but here is the new shower.

GD2 made her First Communion in early May. She was able to wear her sister’s dress with just a few alterations to the underslip. We thought the crowded church would be too much for Mom, so she and I stayed at the house. That worked out well as I was able to help with the meal preparation.

I did not make the cake but forgot to get any photos of the other food. The purple roses were very much in demand among the children present.

GARDENING

The summer vegetable garden is partially planted. Our son came down the day before Mother’s Day with a box full of plants.

There were 3 different kinds of tomatoes, a summer squash, 3 six-packs of lettuce and a variety of peppers, including one habanero.

We had already planted 4 tomatoes, 6 eggplants, 12 cucumbers and 6 Anaheim peppers. There are some volunteer beans in with the Costco tomatoes, Santa Maria pinquito I think. Still need to plant more beans, onions and some more squash. Also mesclun and arugula for summer salads.

Mom wanted to give me a pomegranate tree/bush for my birthday, so we caravanned out to the nursery on Southside Road. They had two very small plants, each in a 5 gallon can. We bought the taller one and it is now planted out by my greenhouse. Probably no fruit this year, but we are hoping for some next year. When I was a child, I remember visiting my step-grandfather’s sister Marie Trescony. She lived in the old adobe house on their ranch near San Lucas and the walled garden was very old California. The big attraction for me was the pomegranate. As a city girl, I was really impressed about being able to pick something off a tree and eat it. In those days it seems I was always hungry, no matter how often I was fed. Actually, I guess I haven’t changed that much…

For Mother’s Day 2008 we gave Mom a self-watering planter box with a rolling stand to raise it so that she wouldn’t have to bend. She grew tomatoes, peppers, onion and basil that year with pretty good results. This year we did the planting for her: a cherry tomato and a mild green pepper. We’ll probably add some basil seeds and maybe a few green onions.

The sunflower seeds we planted in April are growing up nicely. They need to be thinned but I just can’t make myself pull up a healthy plant. I know it needs to be done for the health of the remaining plants, but it’s so hard.

We also planted over a dozen dahlia tubers on the other side of the front walk. They are almost all up and growing fast. We should have a good supply of cut blossoms for the house this summer.

GENEALOGY

Nothing has been done in this department but I really need to get my Spencer Stout info together because I hope to visit Montague Co, TX and Cedar Co, MO on our vacation this year.

I cancelled my Ancestry World Deluxe membership and went back to the US Deluxe. There is just so much information still to find in this country, that I don’t see myself using it enough to warrant the price difference. I need to check with the Gilroy library to see if they have World in case I need it on down the line.

Knitting, Quilting and Sewing catch-up will follow soon.

Apple Pie Time

My contribution to Thanksgiving Dinner was dessert: Pumpkin and Apple pies. The Husband used the apple peeler-corer-slicer that KAS and EAS gave him last Christmas. The first few apples were not quite perfectly peeled but, after that, it was a breeze. We had enough apple slices for the pie in about 5 minutes. Clean-up was easy, just a quick rinse and then I let it drip dry.

The spiral peelings look really interesting - like maybe we should steam them to use as a garnish. Needless to say, we just put them in the compost. We'll try something fancy another day. I saw a video on You Tube showing a similar instrument peeling and spiraling a potato but I'm not sure how we would get past the corer.

Mom's 101st Party

The big day actually isn't until next Thursday but this was the weekend we could get everybody together. All five of her great grandchildren were there as well as two of her great-nephews and a great-great-nephew.

It was a surprise until the guests started arriving; then she caught on right away.





Mom had a lot of help opening her gifts. She doesn't see too well, so EAS read all her cards to her.
TCB borrowed a little video camera from my nephew and flitted around recording all the activity, with a running commentary. Unfortunately, she didn't realize that the camera needs to be moved slowly, so most of the video is just a blur. But we all really enjoyed watching her in action.









Amongst all the activity, there was time for some deep thought; or else there was something really interesting going on out in the street.












This is the end of Clue 5 on MS4. There are about 50 rows to knit in Clue 6 and then the first half will be complete.

The weather in SF was cool but very clear, no fog even at sundown. This is Fleet Week in the City and the Blue Angels were performing. We actually heard them flying at one point. I don't think they went over the house but they are so loud that you can hear them even when they're not very close.


Last night the low temp was in the upper thirties. Very unusual for early October.

County Fair

Granddaughter EAS spent Friday night at our house and this morning Gpa took her to see "Beverly Hill Chihuahua" which was a big hit with both of them. Then we all drove out to Bolado Park for the San Benito County Fair. After a quick hot dog for lunch we headed straight for the barn section so that EAS could get her animal fix. She saw the horses, the cavies (which you and I would call Guinea Pigs), the cows and sheep and finally the rabbits and fowl.





I sat outside the Rabbit/Poultry building with Leo since we didn't think the bunnies and chicks would take kindly to a rat terrier in their midst.
I think EAS was most impressed with the turkeys. I'm not sure she had ever seen one except on the table at Thanksgiving.













After we did the barn area, we headed for the commercial building where there are always lots of free things. The children always love this part of the fair - all the pencils, fans, candy and little doodads they could want, even bags to carry everything in.


This is where we ran into cousin David who was manning the Pinnacles National Monument exhibit while the ranger was taking a break. Doesn't he look distinguished with his new beard?

EAS and I visited the Quilt exhibit but, while there were many nice quilts, there was nothing really exciting. I couldn't even choose a favorite. Maybe I was spoiled by last week's show in Morgan Hill but this one was very disappointing. It's not that the quilts were bad, just not inspiring.


We had some rain during the night and lots of clouds most of the day but we managed to avoid any rain while we were at the Fair. There was plenty of mud though. Usually it's all dust, so this made a nice change.

I finished my green eyelet socks this morning and started on a pair of self-striping socks this evening. I'm using a very easy pattern, so these should go pretty quickly.

Knitting and Quilting

That's what I've been doing lately.

The Mystery Stole 4 is moving along nicely - I completed Clue 2 Friday, the day Clue 3 was released; I started Clue 3 on Saturday evening and knitted about 10 rows before bed. I thought it was going really quickly and that I'd finally progressed to the point where I would be able to keep up with a knitalong. Then I realized that all these clues will need to be done a second time for the other half of the stole. Some of the knitters are doing both halves at the same time but I thought that might be too confusing for me, especially with having to learn to knit with beads. Oh, well. At least I've learned some chart tricks, such as writing in the number of stitches when there is a long run of knit, and highlighting the symbol for a stitch and also all those stitches. That really helps when there are both left-leaning and right-leaning decreases. I'm highlighting the ssk in orange and leaving the k2tog alone. I've also rescued a metal bulletin board from the grandchildren's toy box and am using it for my chart. I cut a magnetic strip the length of the chart, attached a piece of ribbon to the sticky side and use that to mark my row. All of this really speeds the process. There aren't any beads in Clue 3 so it should go even more quickly.

Friday evening the granddaughters arranged my Burger Queen Mystery Quilt blocks for me and I sewed them together on Saturday. Today I added a 1" rust-colored inner border; still need to add two more borders before the top is finished. I'm still planning to piece the backing - need to keep using that stash!

Centerville Sights

Luckily we were in Centerville on Friday, so we were able to take this tour.
We were the only customers so we had a two-hour private tour for $5 each.
What a bargain!

The driver was very knowledgeable about all things Centerville - history, residents, business - you name it, he knew it.

This is the Appanoose County Courthouse on the Square. They say it's the World's largest town square. I don't know if that's true but it certainly is an impressive piece of traffic engineering. You drive clockwise if you're on the inside lane and counter-clockwise in the outside lane; there are four rows of parking: one by the courthouse sidewalk, one by the outer sidewalk and two between the lanes. Sounds complicated, but it works.








Most towns in rural America have one of these water towers with the town name on it.










This abandoned building was once the Ashby Bakery, owned by relatives of the Husband.
It is in an area of Centerville know as the levee (I hope I'm spelling that right!) I always thought a levee was something built along a river to keep the flood waters from the town. There's no river near this area so I'm not sure what's going on here.








This was the Centerville train station when the Husband was a kid. It's also in the levee area and is now the VFW building.








Many years ago this building was a button factory. According to the husband, they brought in shells from the Mississippi River to make mother-of-pearl buttons.