eat your spinach

 I lately picked up a Gladys Taber book, which is what you do when all around you seems to be falling apart.

"Somehow I feel it is a tradition with children not to like spinach, and I wonder when it started. The dislike seems to go from one generation to the next, spurred no doubt by parents who say it is so good for you. I think if parents would say, 'You are not old enough to eat this', the story might be different."

                                            - from The Best of Stillmeadow: A Treasury of Country Living

clean windows before supper

 In the midst of a number of cool days, today came like a warm blessing. Sunshine and rather windy - it was wonderful! I washed a window, and the breezes were so heavenly that I washed another - even though it was nearing suppertime. 

a pleasant day

berry picking,

 washer running,

dishes draining,

jazz playing,

kitties napping,

birds singing,
pickle making,

supper cooking,

garden growing,

fans blowing,

rain coming.

August Saturday

prettiest sheet ever

In between all the usual Saturday chores, I still managed to get the binding on my jumper bodice.

The ends connect at the base of the armhole and I wasn't able to make it happen smoothly on either one. I'll worry about that later, like Scarlet O'Hara.

Dolly in my window, behind that ubiquitous fabric - I still have more of it. It's really one of the prettiest sheets I've ever seen. It's a Ralph Lauren, king sized, and I found it on ebay for sixteen dollars. I've made two sets of long, narrow curtains and a bodice. So far.

wishing winter away

Can you imagine a scene more appealing than this?

I don't know where my mother got this decorative plate - tag sale, probably. It's all brass, with that quintessentially English scene in the center, covered by glass. It's got a silvery look - maybe made with foil?

It does well in the bathroom; and today I busied myself in making things look more like spring inside, even if we can't make it behave like spring outside.

January Saturday

 Today I put away many of the Christmas decorations

and forgot two

made a batch of meatballs for the freezer

and chicken soup for supper

with the Cambridge Singers Christmas Day in the Morning all day for accompaniment. 

it's all in the details

 My friend Debra doesn't have much money, but I am always edified when I visit her home.

My camera and I were there yesterday - she wanted me to see her prolific morning glory vine, which suddenly came to life September first and has been increasing daily. Of course, yesterday had to be the day it decided to take a little rest.

But she tells me that today there were twenty seven blooms!

She dug up all the tired old foundation shrubs and put in all sorts of things - a coleus among them; it's so funny to see a coleus in somebody's front flower bed.  She has a sweet potato vine which has turned left to curve all the way across the breezeway entrance

where she also has flowers growing out of her son's old boot.

She works full time now, and has a hard time getting the house cleaned. But I think her time is better spent.

The little touches inside and out, make this the most homey place I can think of. 

Here are a couple of stands of dried up black-eyed susans. She tied them round and they provide architectural interest, not to mention the halloween-y look next to the golden mums.

Debra has learned, like St. Paul, to find contentment in her situation.

And it's all charming.

real strawberries

from the farmers' market.

Like eating sweet juicy sunshine.

a very hot May day

a day for hot kitties in the window,

and breezy summer curtains in the living room.

a new way of egg coloring

I was captivated by Alicia Paulson's decorated eggs, and decided to try it myself.

I went outside and picked some weedy things of different types.  I'd bought a package of eight white eggs, and, using her instructions, boiled four of them with some onion skins. I used less than she did, and they came out nice, but lighter than hers.

(It happened that I'd run two pair of pantyhose this week, so that was handy! I fished them out of the trash and washed them. Actually, I think that they're being wet made them easier to work with. They didn't stick to the dry skin on my fingers.)

I also looked at the link she provided in her post, about other egg colors from different foods.  I really wanted to try for violet, and I had some grape juice, so I used that.  Looking at it partway through, it didn't look so promising so I dropped in a tiny bit of green food coloring.  The combination of the grape juice and green gave them an olive-y tone. Very earthy.

But I still wanted to try for the violet - I had two eggs left. I used more juice, and more vinegar this time. Funny, they didn't end up being violet at all - rather more like a taupe. Which is fine - the whole process was fun, anyway.  I didn't think to get jumbo sized eggs - those would show up the designs much better, and I'll have to remember that.

These are my two prettiest ones.  It's a great idea, and I think I'll be trying this again.

February Saturday

Saturday is such a long day, and I'm always looking for a way to re-think my routine, such as it is, so that I can get things done while still feeling like a human being at the end of the day.

 silk tulips are cheery

I managed to clean and freshen up the living room, make dinner ahead of time and bake some blondies for tomorrow's dessert,

and, (by the grace of God) still have some time for knitting!  And, a little reading.

late bloomers

Well, the fellows with the big claw finally came and took away all our brush from the October storm.

Later, I was sweeping the stray branches out of the street and carrying some to the back yard.

There was a dear little dandelion!

Last week a rhododendron blossom, this week a dandelion.

Maybe we can just skip winter this year.  After Christmas, that is.

October Saturday

when it started -

I geared up and crept outside -

the fastest apple crisp I ever made - didn't bother peeling - the power had blipped too many times. It's delicious, if I say so myself. Why have I ever bothered peeling apples for crisp?  No more!

We have a lot more snow now - it's bowing down our trees and I'm watching our lovely cherry in the front yard and our little Japanese maple. There's a tree right near the shed and it's hanging over rather heavily. Every now and then you hear a crack outside.

knitting with Dolly

she came along next to me and curled up on my knitting bag.

September Saturday

{pretty, happy, funny, real} a little late

{pretty}

I keep this cup in my box of Biz - a good idea I got from the ladies at Marie Madeline Studio.

{happy}

{Happy}, because this tote handle is the last item in a pile of mending; after this, the pile is gone!

The bag is also {pretty} - I bought it from Anna, by the way. Her tutorial is linked in my sidebar.

{funny}

Henry is a very silly cat.

{real}

Cat hair on the keyboard, although it's ususally a lot worse than this.






 and a Happy Birthday to Leila!