Swirl Flowers Stamped Kit

I had the three big tasks I wanted to get done: clean the garden window in the kitchen, weed the garden and tidy the porch. Yeah. Mostly I just hunkered down in the air conditioning and watched the last season of Six Feet Under on dvd. I sobbed during the finale. Sobbed, I mean great big gushing weeping. I'm really glad I was home alone.

I got some laundry done and keep up with the dishes. I did manage to get the garden window cleaned. It is quite the acrobatic feat to get up there, perch on the counter and windowsill beside the sink and not go out onto the overhang. I'm sure it looked lovely from the street. But it needs to be done once or twice a year. Usually I give it a thorough cleaning in the spring when I take the plants out to the porch- you wouldn't believe all the dead leaves and plant litter that accumulates over the winter- and a quick wipe down before I bring all the plants back in late fall.

But I never got out to the garden, other than to water my plants. No weeding got done. And it really needs it. Nor did the porch get cleaned. I feel bad. I had such resolve; this was going to be the weekend I got that porch tidy. I kind of let things slip last July when I changed jobs. It looks awful. My ghetto porch. Okay, I'm trying to tell myself it has been bad for nearly a year, what is one more week?

So what did I do? Aside from the above mentioned general housekeeping, I started a new set of pillowcases. I'm really excited about this one. I don't usually show you stuff before it is finished, but I'm curious what you'll think.

I've had this kit for some time. It is Swirl Flowers from Bucilla. I like the design- it has lots of neat stitching, but I was never really wild about the color combination. I was flipping through google images the other day, looking for inspiration, and I saw a white skirt with a floral embroidery. Done in all black. And the design reminded me of this kit. Can you tell where I'm going with this?

I'm going to stitch the entire design in all black. I think that could be called blackwork. I've also seen whitework, redwork and bluework. I guess you could do any pattern all in one color and call it whatever that color is-work. Does anybody know?

Overgrown Already!

Thanks to some volunteer tomato plants- around 15 I lost count- and some volunteer malva plants, my crescent bed is getting a bit unruly. I spent a few minutes yesterday pulling out some of the crabgrass and a few volunteer tomato plants that didn't yet have fruit. I'm hoping this picture is going to become a "before" and that I will have a nice looking "after" to show next week.

This bed is in the sun until around 7:00, so it is nice to work on in the evening. I'm thinking of getting a bag of mulch to cover some of the black landscape fabric. By this time last year you couldn't even see it, but the flowers I put out front haven't spread out as much as expected. Maybe I should get a flat each of yellow marigolds and purple petunias instead. Yeah, that would be prettier. Hmm, I see a trip to Noggle's nursery in my weekend plans...

Quick Non-Progress Report

My little tomatoes still aren't ready. I was away again for a couple of days, and was hoping for a pleasant surprise when I got home. The tomato plants have gotten taller, some of the flowers have filled out a bit, but I still have nothing to harvest. I know, I'm being impatient.

The bell peppers have sprouted more peppers, but none of those are ready yet, either. I'm really looking forward to my green beans. Mmm, mmm! Lightly steamed, salted and buttered. Nothing better.

I really need to get out there and weed- the crabgrass is taking over. It is just entirely too hot during the day. I need to wait until at least 7:00 in the evening to go out. Luckily, that still gives me two hours of daylight at this time of year.

Blue Daisies Embroidered Pillowcases

This is the Blue Daisies pattern from Tobin.
I think this pattern is just so lovely. I am mostly happy with it, but I don't care for the dark blue that I chose. Again, I was trying to use colors that I have on hand, but I think the dark blue called for in the pattern would have been better- more of a cornflower blue, not quite as dark. Oh, well. Next time.

I used DMC cotton perle #8 in these colors:

Royal Blue #797

Light Baby Blue #3325

Medium Yellow Green #3347

Light Topaz #726

and a white/cream that was probably bright white 60 years ago, but has aged to a soft, antique white by now

Bell Pepper Crop for 2010

Our first pepper appeared this weekend: It will probably be several days before it is ready, but that's okay. Our pepper plants seem to be off to a good start.

I think mom usually buys "gypsy" bell peppers for me. Mom and John plant tons of peppers, both bell and hot, but I'm not interested in messing with hot peppers. Besides, if I should need one for something, I know I can just get a pepper from their crop. We do eat quite a few bell peppers, though, and since our small crop didn't produce very well last year, I'm giving the peppers extra attention this year. That includes, a better location, some shelter between the tomato plants, plant supports and veggie food pellets mixed into the soil.

This year I selected these varieties:

Purple Bell Pepper
Golden Summer Bell Pepper
White Bell Pepper
Sweet Pickle Bell Pepper

I don't really know much about any of these varieties, but don't they sound pretty? I think they will be a nice colorful addition to the veggie tray at this summer's parties. I'm sure I can bum some regular green and red ones from mom to fill things out.

Tomato Crop for 2010

Last year Lewis and I fell in love with heirloom tomatoes. Their smell and taste! Like tomatoes are supposed to be, like the tomatoes our grandparents grew up with. Not your grocery store variety, although we have seen a tiny selection of "ugly tomatoes" at our local Giant. And we were able to pick up some at a local roadside stand last summer.

The guy at my local nursery gave me a few sad tomato plants at the end of their selling season last summer. I nursed them and they produced a few fruits. They were amazing, and even planted beside my usual standby varieties like "better boy", the heirloom varieties did not suffer from the tomato blight like the hybrids. I think we had a "black heirloom", "green zebra", something small and yellow whose name I've forgotten (maybe lemon?) and a "Cherokee purple". I think we liked the flavor of the black tomato best (it isn't really black, just a dark purple) and it is a very meaty tomato. Maybe they aren't all heirlooms, but they are certainly flavorful and unusual.

There were so many varieties to choose from this year, and I kind of went overboard, buying 7 different kinds of tomatoes.

Burgess Stuffer
Tigerella
Cherokee Purple
Yellow Pear
Green Zebra
White Beauty
Black Heirloom

I'll post each one as we try them and note what we like about them. This will also help me make better (or more) selections next year.

One thing I skipped this year is my usual "sweet millions" which is a super sweet cherry tomato. I have several dozen volunteers coming up here and there and I'm sure at least one of them will turn out to be a "sweet millions". We usually have more fruit from them than we know what to do with anyway. I can always pop them into one of the large planters and keep them on the edge of the porch or beside Oli's door. I left room in each bed next to the door because Oli- and his rope- are usually pretty rough on the plants closest to the door!

I was extremely tempted by the Tomato Chocolate Cherry from the Park Seed catalog that arrived in late winter, but I knew I wouldn't be starting seeds this year, so I refrained. Maybe next year...

Here are my first two tomatoes, "tigerella":
I'm really looking forward to all the blt sandwiches we'll have for dinner this summer!

Beans, Green and Yellow

My beans sprouted while I was away for a long weekend!

Those are volunteer marigolds or possibly cosmos growing behind the fence. Not sure how they will do. Then the row of beans in front of the fence, and nasturtium seeds were planted in the 4 circles in front of the beans. Volunteer cosmos to the left, at the end of this bed. Good to prevent soil erosion, bad because it may overshadow the beans on that end. I kind of figured things would spring up while I was gone. I was surprised to see just how big the beans had gotten. I started them from seed sometime last week, and when I watered them on Thursday, only a couple of them had sprouts just beginning to peep up out of the dirt. Now they already have their true leaves! It was a nice surprise to come home to.

I planted "tendergreen" and some kind of yellow bean, variety unknown. Mom gave me the seeds, she may or may not know.

I just hope I have planted enough beans to have more than one single serving every couple of days, like last year. It would be nice to be able to serve them at dinner. Ooh, that reminds me, I've been on the prowl for a new steamer...

Eh, Sorry, Wrong Number

lime green, lime green and tangerine...

Eh, sorry. I've got The Cure stuck in my head.

Since we 've been on the topic of wrong numbers, I thought I'd share a couple of other frequent, but far less irritation wrong numbers we get calls for.

My home phone number is very similar to that of my grandparent's business, a number I've known my whole life. In fact, only the last digit is different. I figured I would get calls for them, but I never have. However, I have given the shop phone number out a few times and my grandmother just gives them the right number! I figure I may as well pass on the favor.

I frequently get calls for a local independent auto parts store, whose last digit is the only difference. When we first got voicemail I got several increasingly frantic phone calls from some poor woman who was desperately trying to get in contact with them. Mom called back and spoke to her sister, explaining that she had mis-dialed (8 times) and wished her luck in getting her car fixed. The sister was very nice and apologised. I have now memorized the auto parts store's number so I can tell people where they meant to call.

More recently, I have received a few calls for one of our local banks, who I also have accounts with. That one is more of a curiosity because the 4th and 7th digits are off from mine. I don't have that one memorized yet.

I've saved the best one for last. The first time I gave my now dear friend Heather my phone number, she paused while writing and gave me a quizzical look. I repeated it. She started laughing and told me that number was a reverse of her grandparent's phone number!

I get a lot of wrong calls, so it is hard to say how many I've gotten for Heather's grandparents over the years, but since I've become aware of it, I know of at least three. The first one really caught me by surprise. The caller id showed a local number and a name that seemed familiar, but I couldn't figure out why. When I answered the woman asked for Jack. I was confused, not putting the pieces together until several minutes later. The night before we all had attended an event held by the local historical society. Heather's grandfather was involved in planting heirloom varieties of apple trees on the property of a building they are restoring. The woman's name from the caller id had also spoken during the informal ceremony, and I recalled hearing her tell Heather's grandfather that she would call him to discuss another upcoming event.

Sometimes I marvel at what a small town I live in.

Just Because

Gratuitous Oliver picture.
This was taken early one morning last week. I don't think Oli was quite awake yet.

Malva Zebrina

I started several malva seeds in pots last year, then planted them in the yard when they were ready. They didn't seem to do much, so I gave up on them. They are a perennial, but I figured if they didn't do anything the first year, they wouldn't be back. I was wrong.

It seems they self-seeded and I now have a ton of them coming up along the back of the crescent bed. That is good, right where I want them to be. They will look so pretty mingling with the cucumber plant. It will be this mass of vining green leaves and then here and there, surprise! A little pop of color from those pinky-purple petals.

I've recently read that when they self-seed the flowers may not be true to the variety you originally planted. I say, who cares when they are this pretty?