let all creation bless the Lord

All living things upon the earth,
green fertile hills and mountains,
sing to the God who gave you birth;
be joyful, springs and fountains.            

 -  from  Let All Creation Bless the Lord,

                              by William Bradley Roberts

Clip-terest

I'm not hooked up to Pinterest - I use Clipterest!  Never heard of it, I'll bet. 

bags, bags and more bags!

I don't deny the existence of inspiration which can be found on the internet. But I really. don't. want. to be spending. more. time. in front of this screen. And I don't need to, anyway!

pretty dresses, etc.

At the library, we have a basket on the floor going into the reading room - where the magazines and newspapers are - and if you have a magazine you are finished with, you can leave it there for another to take. I've taken many of these. And I tear out pages which appeal to me. No, I don't clip them out; that isn't where the name comes from.

is this a dress or a skirt? I love it!

I clip the pictures together with a clothespin! I have two clips: one for bags, clothing, and personal type things. The other for home decor items.  (More on those later.)

I even save photos of food on occasion, without the recipe - the picture is often enough to go on:

the cake on the left looks like an Alicia Paulson creation. She may have seen this picture, or they may have seen her blog - who knows?  It's charming! On the right, all I need to remember is that I can throw blueberries into a dense vanilla cake, and toss some onto the icing - hopefully it would look as wonderful as that does!  One doesn't always think of these things without being reminded. 

I'm quite content with my clipped clippings. No Pinterest for me, thank you.

Dolly on the new quilt

there was a wedding

(up high away from the cats)

and we took our presents and went.

To a beautiful ceremony and many happy people.

(painted my toenails for the occasion)

A hotel with dragonflies on the carpet, and a three-storied escalator.

Much joy and enjoyment.

blond-tailed squirrel

I haven't seen this before, I don't think.

a fish dinner and a new dress (almost)

I've been slowly working my way through a dress, and it's nearly finished. Hopefully I won't mess up the placket - not sure I've ever done one.

It's a tiny pink and white check I got a great deal on. And {pretty}.

Sunday, I made a fish dinner which was super fast and easy. It's from Nigella Express, which I've owned for a while but haven't used much yet.

If you like fish -

Smoked Cod and Cannellini

You put 12 oz. of smoked cod* in a skillet along with a stalk of celery, sprig of parsley, some peppercorns, two bay leaves, a third cup of white wine and a cup and a third of water. Poach the fish in this liquid till done - and it doesn't take long; three to five minutes.  

Remove the fish and keep warm somewhere, pouring out some of the liquid and getting rid of the "pieces". Into the pan, put two cans of cannellini beans which have been rinsed and drained and warm them in the liquid. When they're warmed up sufficiently, re-add the fish, breaking it up and mixing it all  together. Add 2 T. olive oil to it and some more parsley. Also chives, if you wish. 

*I didn't have smoked cod, so I just used regular - I'm not keen on smoked things, anyway.  This recipe was filling when served with a couple of vegetables, and tasty. It didn't heat up the house during the oppressive temps we were having. This is a keeper!!  {real}ly good.

(and I almost forgot to say that it's even better cold, when left over.)

 Thank you, Leila.

understitching

In the middle of sewing a dress for myself, and decided the bodice needed a lining. The neckline isn't so curved that I would have had trouble understitching it on the machine, but that's one thing I enjoy doing by hand - I can better feel that everything's smoothed out properly.

(Of course, if I'd been as fussy about proper lighting, my stitches wouldn't be so uneven!)  

Henry enjoys the new quilt

dancing light

on an afternoon wall. So hard to capture.

Dolly and I watch Downton Abbey

Season two. Episode one.  (excuse the mess)

a layered skirt

using some much-loved fabric which was a jumper in a previous life, a length of eyelet trim waiting many years to be used, and matching checks.

pink clouds

just a little bit like Maxfield Parrish.

quilt done

My quilt is done.

The machine stitching lines are not as parallel as I'd hoped but it's good-sized, it's colorful, it will be warm.

My first object in making this was to use up large amounts of fabric, of which I had too much. I grabbed a colored toile. It had three scenes in it and I cut them out, not very precisely, which gave me 23 little "pictures".  I'd just been looking at Jane Brocket's quilt book - The Gentle Art of Quiltmaking - and was really liking the ones made simply with wide strips. So, I got the idea to make three rows with these vignettes, alternating them with strips of (somewhat) coordinating fabric. I had a large piece of a yellow with pink rosebuds which looked well with the toile.

The next thing I needed to do was try and get these little pictures into a uniform size; I had just quickly cut them. I thought I should "frame" them, and for that I found a deep blue batik; when that ran out I used a deep pink with small yellow dots.I sewed some to the sides of each "picture. Then, I needed to make my columns with matching fabric in between, and I found three fabrics which matched well - a green with machine embroidery, a golden yellow with white dots and a yellow with flowers. I made my three rows.

The white I used for a sashing made the whole thing too big for the backing I'd chosen, so I pieced it with something else - both with roses. I made the binding from a deep berry color.

My machine stitching went a bit off course at times - I need to improve on that. Overall, I'm very happy with it anyway - I made a quilt!

hot and quiet

"where living waters flow"

Tall stands the tree beside the stream,
where living waters flow;
Wide flung the branches, cool the shade,
where all the weary go.


Fresh green the leaves for healing giv'n,
bright gold the new-pressed oil
that runs as balm upon the banks
toward which the weary toil.


Deep-scarred the bark, but sweet the wine
that pours down, last and best.
And rich the table spread below,
where all the weary rest.


Sing praise to God, the gardener, 
Whose labors never cease
to make beneath the Tree of Life
for all the weary, peace.


      -hymn in the July Magnificat

chocolate sorbet

I've made this twice since Thursday. Here's the recipe.

jam and roses

Sunday we visited a park which is devoted to roses - pretty would be a gross understatement.

If you can imagine a place where everywhere you look, there are roses - that was it! It was hot though, and a lemon ice was very welcome after a half hour or so.

I was happy to pick enough of our wild black raspberries to make some more freezer jam from Organic Gardening. The recipe was for blackberries, but this is what we had so I tried it, with some lavender graciously donated by Linda who bought it on a trip to England. I guess she bought more than she needed. 

I just tasted some. I had forgotten that these very small berries have a seeming overabundance of seeds and aren't terribly juicy, so if you can imagine good-tasting but tough jam, well - that's it. Still, I'm pleased at the idea of freezer jam and am willing to learn by experience. 

I let a friend borrow my camera for his son's wedding and asked him to take my picture for practice. I thought I might as well ham it up while still looking like a librarian with my ever-present reading glasses.

funny, I suppose

Some librarians do have a sense of humor. 

 Joining in with Leila and Rosie again this week.

washing windows

I just got around to washing the last of windows, and it's almost July. I think this is the latest I've ever been with them. (well, I still have the doors to do)  This one is over the kitchen sink, and I clean it by getting into the sink, etc.  I'm relieved this one is behind me.

don't know what this is?  It's a clean window.

So, washing windows every spring and every fall doesn't seem to be working for me anymore. I have decided to just do them as they need doing - when I'm cleaning that particular room and the window is dirty, I'll clean it. Maybe that will work better.

I found a recipe for window cleaner which is pretty good. It's from Simple Country Wisdom, a Country Living book, but I've also seen this recipe on the internet. Mix one cup of water with one cup of rubbing alcohol and add a tablespoon of white vinegar. It dries pretty fast - the high alcohol content - so that's something in its favor. You're not wiping terribly long.  I wonder - why the small amount of vinegar? 

all cozy and smiling

Henry's dilemma

"Hmm. I think I'd like to do a bit of sewing."

"..but I do so enjoy the internet."

 [sigh]

a lot of pink

after a storm

just like auntie Adeline

I never thought I'd be buying one of those big cans of olive oil like Auntie Adeline always had at her house. She was my father's younger sister, and a great favorite of mine. I see them and I think of her.

They're so big! I don't think my mother ever bought this much at a time. But it was half price, and what with the olive oil butter I'm making more of lately, the stuff does seem to be going a lot faster.  

Kind of iconic.

"the first real time of freedom and living"

"It was a quiet morning, the town covered with darkness and at ease in bed. Summer gathered in the weather, the wind had the proper touch, the breathing of the world was warm and slow. You had only to rise, lean from your window, and know that this indeed was the first real time of freedom and living, this was the first morning of summer."

                                                  - Ray Bradbury,  Dandelion Wine
                                                         

freezer jam

I just started getting Organic Gardening, and got my first issue the other day.  They have an article about how easy it is to make freezer jam. and made it sound so good that I looked at my overabundance of farmers' market strawberries with an eye to making some. Read it yourself!

Balsamic Strawberry Freezer Jam -  maybe a little exotic sounding, but too hard for me to resist. It was the lower sugar which got me; I usually buy Polaner brand which is sweetened with fruit juice, so when I have any regular jam it's unbearably sweet to me.  I got me some pectin, and went to work!

With less fruit than the amount called for, I had to re-figure the ingredients. The process took very little time and before I knew it, I had three plus jars!

It's a little thin - I think I mashed the berries a little too much. But this morning I put some on my English muffin, and - boy was I surprised! Delicious.  I may put some in the slow cooker with a pork roast come fall.

Our wild black raspberries are almost ripe - I think I'm going to try the Blackberry Lavender jam!

June {p,h,f,r}

During the past week, I've been working on binding my quilt, which is a conglomeration of some pretty fabrics and colors

my stitches are too big, I think

What is nicer than opening a window first thing in the morning to a wonderful cool breeze wanting to come in?  Puts one in a happy frame of mind right away.

My lettuces are really bolting. But I've been enjoying my gardening adventures - I've never grown vegetables before.  

The picture below may be funny to seasoned gardeners - I planted too many beet seeds in this pot, knowing that I'd be thinning them out. But I did enjoy some tasty beet greens in my salad yesterday.

 Thanks to Leila and her family at this joyful time.

real strawberries

from the farmers' market.

Like eating sweet juicy sunshine.

fireflies

I spent the better part of a half-hour trying to photograph fireflies out my bedroom window tonight.  Nothing.

"There is certainly something a little supernatural about fireflies. Nobody pretends to understand them. They are akin to the tribes of fairy, survivals of the elder time when the woods and hills swarmed with the little green folk. It is still very easy to believe in fairies when you see those goblin lanterns glimmering among the fir tassels."


                                        -  L.M. Montgomery,  The Golden Road

blooming where it's planted

Walking along my street the other day I noticed this little red flower. It's growing out of a miniscule crack along the side of the curb in front of my next door neighbor's - the only one like it around the block. His property is nicely landscaped, and I suppose this flower would rather be near his home than anywhere else.

It's so well established there and so determined to shine in the middle of all the pavement!

making big dents

About four weeks ago I got tired of wading through fabric and firmly told myself to use it up; as quilts are large, a few of those would do the trick nicely.

I took hold of the nearest piece which was this colored toile. After a week of having some real time to devote to it, it's ready for binding.

I have never made a quilt from start to finish. I started my circle quilt, and have done a lot on it, but I'm kind of hung up with that, waiting for inspiration on how to continue.  With this, I just plowed ahead. And I used up a few of my big pieces!

I made a lot of goofs, but I am not a perfectionist. I imagine practice is going to improve my "technique", such as it is.  Meanwhile, they'll all be warm, and colorful.