a new pillowcase

In the interest of using up fabric, and satisfying my longtime desire to sew a pillowcase, I made one yesterday, using these very clear instructions.

There are threads which need cutting yet. I think I'll make another.

the littlest garden

Yes, that's my garden - just three feet by nine, and some things which haven't even surfaced yet. I bought my greenhouse rather late, and some things from older seeds didn't sprout in the house, so I replanted them outside.  I don't mind; I'm learning. And there's time. 

Last year I bought a metal raised bed with interlocking sections. It was a nice idea, but because it didn't stick into the ground, it shifted over the winter and the rectangle went askew. It was a mass of weeds, and looked terrible to me. Then I went to Debra's and saw her oh-so-orderly oh-so-beautiful garden. She got her ideas from the Square Foot method, and that's what I resolved to do. 

I removed one or two sections at a time, weeded just that square foot area and planted in that spot. Bamboo skewers are stuck in here and there to delineate the 12-inch areas. It's still a raised bed, just without borders. But it looks so much neater. And weeding a square patch is so easy, so fast - it's nothing!  

We'll see what comes up.

a little recipe for little berries

It's time again for our wild black raspberries. We won't approach last year's pickings, but whatever we get is a gift!

Yesterday I made some quick light ice cream; based on Anna's vanilla recipe.

Into the blender, put one cup of milk, three quarter cup sugar, a heaping serving spoon of cocoa and one cup of these berries, if you're so lucky as to have them. Whiz it up good.

Mix gently with a pint of light cream and half a teaspoon vanilla. Chill well, then proceed in the normal way of making frozen desserts. The little bit of chocolate really adds something, I think.

Lots of seeds, but real good.

God mend thine every flaw

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.

                 -    America the Beautiful,   by Katharine Lee Bates

yes to hollyhocks

There's a very small flower bed next to the front steps - it's about three by four feet. And a number of years ago I bought some perennial hollyhocks and put them in this bed. They grew to eight feet tall! A medley of colors - yellow, pink, white and deep maroon. They were fabulous at first, but soon their leaves got chewed-looking, which wasn't so good, and after a few years of this I thought maybe they weren't suited for this area and decided to pull them up. But they came back the next year.

My brother even got into that small space once, with a shovel, and dug them out (I can see him in my mind's eye even now). They still returned the next year.

I tried again one year by layering newspaper all over the bed, knowing it would also kill my daffodils, but I had to get rid of those hollyhocks. Still, they were there again the following spring.

I know their leaves by now - I know a hollyhock leaf in a second!

You may think I dislike them. I assure you, I love them. What anglophile doesn't dream of a cottage-style garden? And what cottage garden doesn't include hollyhocks? Did I say they were at least six feet tall? Usually seven, sometimes eight? I loved them. But they would look so buggy and awful.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is this - these are not old pictures. They want to stay? Okay - stay! It's yes to hollyhocks from now on.

I give up.  I'm even happy.

Cindy, at rest

She does stop, once in a while

blue glass bowl

My neighbor is planning to move, and she said to me, "You once told me this was pretty - do you want it?"

Yes, it's beautiful!

frittering

I guess after this, I'll have no reason to forget that fritters are a nice thing for supper once in a while.

I made this recipe (from Country Living magazine) for my midsummer party, and it not only looks good, but is good, and very simple. Unlike so very many recipes, it went along just as they said it would, except I ended up with ten cakes rather than twelve. If you've got a bag of frozen corn kernels, you've probably got all the other ingredients you'd need for this. I'm going to make it again, maybe on Friday.

glories

I sing the mighty power of God,
that made the mountains rise,
that spread the flowing seas abroad,
and built the lofty skies.
I sing the wisdom that ordained
the sun to rule the day;
the moon shines full at His command,
and all the stars obey.

I sing the goodness of the Lord,
Who filled the earth with food,
Who formed the creatures through the Word,
and then pronounced them good.
Lord, how thy wonders are displayed,
where'ever I turn my eye,
if I survey the ground I tread,
or gaze upon the sky.

There's not a plant or flower below,
but makes Thy glories known,
and clouds arise, and tempests blow,
by order from Thy throne;
while all that borrows life from thee
is ever in thy care;
and everywhere that we can be,
Thou, God, art present there.

           - from Magnificat, June 2014

"It is you, O Lord, you are the only one; you made the heavens, the highest heavens and all their host, the earth and all that is upon it, the seas and all that is in them. To all of them you give life, and the heavenly hosts bow down before you."

                          -  Nehemiah 9:6

fancied up baked beans

I tried Anna's Schoolhouse Baked Beans. The reason being that it seemed very like something my mother used to make, and I never knew her method. So, I tried Anna's. 

It has a nice flavor, but it got a little thick - I won't cook it so long next time. My mother didn't use any bacon, but had cut-up hot dogs in hers. And plenty of onion, which may have been sauteed with the hot dogs, but I'm not sure. Anyway, this is good and now I've got a starting point.

play it again, Sam

It may be that you are tired of photos of Dolly enjoying music

Dolly listening to the week-nightly jazz program

but I'm not.  :D

summery baby blanket

A Polish woman came up to me after Mass last week to tell me she's a grandmother. I know her very little, but that's okay - she was telling everybody!  I thought I'd make a baby blanket.

A piece of quilting cotton with a piece of cotton flannel. After sewing, then turning it right side out, now I'm hand stitching around the edges with pink floss, like these, all the way around.

bird talk

This morning a man came into the library with a photo of a bear he'd seen at a lake in our town. It was standing near a tree, and looked pretty big - he said it was a young bear; he came in to make copies of the photo. He says there's a mountain lion living three towns away.

I've seen him in the library before; he has a German accent and is willing to talk. Somehow the subject of birds came up. "Do you know", he said, "that it's illegal in Europe to feed the birds in summer?" Well, I know they say it makes them dependent on you and that isn't good, but he said one reason is that if they're eating your seed, they aren't eating bugs - esp. mosquitoes. That makes sense, doesn't it?  But he also told me that the birds bring the hard-shelled seeds to their young, and the babies die because they can't digest the hard seed shells. Is this true? Two good reasons to stop feeding birds except in winter, when they need the help.


Yesterday morning my brother took a short walk and came upon a little sparrow who'd been injured - bounced off a car, maybe? One eye was gone and the head injured; but it tried to sit up when he took it, so he placed the birdie under a bush. When he got home he drove with a box to get it. He put the box with birdie on a cloth in my greenhouse, for a warm place, and tried giving it water with a dropper.

I continued after he went to work. But the poor little thing wasn't opening his mouth for me; there was blood under his head, and he didn't last too long. I thought my brother'd want to bury him, but he said he doesn't bury birds - it doesn't seem right since they aren't earthbound creatures. So his little body was placed inside a dense arbor vitae for a natural resting-place. Good night, little prince.

wild roses

This used to be a forsythia. It got taken over by these wild roses. I look around the yard at the brook's edge and they are everywhere, blooming, blooming. I guess they're invasive, if roses can really be called invasive.  I remember once, years ago, pruning some of it - before blooming began - and I threw it toward the brook in an area where we tended to throw clippings. When June came, they bloomed. They were just cut branches, and they bloomed! I tell the truth.

That would be scary if it was anything but roses.

And right now, the air is sweet with them. So, I pruned some up-sticking canes from this big weed-bush and now it's nice and neat. Bloom on!

God within us

"The life of God is lived within us, within the deepest center of our being. Man becomes truly himself precisely at the point where he recognizes that the highest and brightest Being dwells within him. Moreover, he will rediscover himself and his own identity, as well as his faith in his own individual value, mission, and life options, to the degree that he comprehends human life as streaming forth out of the mystery of God. Then all that is negative and threatening is surmounted, its futility is exposed from within and simultaneously disempowered."

               - Father Alfred Delp,  a German Jesuit priest condemned to death by the Nazis.

                                            from Magnificat, June 2014

side by side

I guess all Cindy's attacks on Henry really don't mean anything -

if they can sleep together, side by side.

I feel better now.

the sit-upon

Don't ask me why I still have this thing, made by me when I was very young. But I do, and it's actually still useful to me.

A sit-upon. Done in kindergarten? in Brownies? And I can hardly say I made it myself because the pieces were all pre-cut and the holes punched. My task was to whipstitch it together with the shoelace. I discovered it among some old stuff a couple of years ago; I just sat on it outside - to read a bit in the cool evening.  I like it! I like the "oldness" of it, and I like the fact that I can sort of actually remember making it.

a very plain knit skirt

Lynda had wanted to see this -

here it is, wrinkled!  It's extremely basic. Four panels, with the hand top stitching only on the front and back center seams. Elastic at the waist in a turn-over style casing, and no hem needed. Next time I'll probably do some sort of embellishment.

almost too easy

For fish I often get cod - it isn't heavy, and you can get it ready very quickly.

Salad dressing is perfect. Pour some on, and bake it twenty minutes or so at 375 and that's it. If I have a strongly flavored dressing that's enough, but the other day I had Italian, so first I spread mustard (Gulden's Spicy Brown, if you must know - totally forgot I had some dijon in the fridge) overall, then some Italian seasoning, and then plenty of dressing. Just right.

church bells

I'm in my room with the windows open. It's a beautiful, warm and sunny-but-not-humid day. Perfect, with a breeze. And birds chirping, etc., outside.

I'm trying to paint a picture here - now you may add to it the sound of a bell ringing. Behind our house, on the street parallel to ours, is a Lutheran church and they have a bell in front near the road. It's ringing as I write this.

from Google - it doesn't really look like this

It's electric - this is an American suburb, not London - and they've had it for many years. How many times this Anglophile has listened with such enjoyment every day at noon and six (pm)! Years ago I counted the tolling; sixty four, I think it was. It broke more than once and there've been spaces where nothing was heard. I've called and written more than once to assure them someone was enjoying it - even sent money to help with expensive repairs. 

Of course, in winter with everything shut up you don't hear the ringing and you forget about it. Especially since I don't think it's been working in recent years. But the other day there it was! I'm not sure it's ringing sixty four times any more. Whatever. I'm just thrilled to be hearing it again. 

open up your petals

Listen, my faithful children: open up your petals,
like roses planted near running waters;
send up the sweet odor of incense,
break forth in blossoms like the lily.

Send up the sweet odor of your hymn of praise;
bless the Lord for all he has done!

Proclaim the greatness of his name,
loudly sing his praises,
with music on the harp and all stringed instruments;
sing out with joy as you proclaim:
The works of God are all of them good.


                            -  Sirach 39:13-16a

at her ease

I guess it's safe to say she's comfortable here.

some Alabama stitching

After seeing so many beautiful creations on Anna's blog, I am trying the Alabama Chanin techniques for myself. A very basic and familiar a-line skirt pattern I've used many times, cut down the front and back centers to make another seam, which I've hand stitched.

Dark grey fabric and ivory thread. No other embellishment - I'll finish the elastic at the waist and see how I like it.

FM Dolly

When I headed for the bathroom this morning, my radio was on AM - when I came back, it was on FM.

Hail the day that sees Him rise

Today!

John Singleton Copley's The Ascension

Hail the day that sees Him rise, Alleluia!
To His throne above the skies; Alleluia!
Christ, the Lamb, for sinners given, Alleluia!
Enters now the highest heaven!  Alleluia!

There for Him high triumph waits; Alleluia!
Lift your heads, eternal gates!  Alleluia!
He hath conquered death and sin; Alleluia!
Take the King of glory in!  Alleluia!

Lo! the heaven its Lord receives, Alleluia!
Yet He loves the earth He leaves; Alleluia!
Though returning to His throne, Alleluia!
Still He calls mankind His own.  Alleluia!

Lord, though parted from our sight, Alleluia!
Far above the starry height, Alleluia!
Grant our hearts may thither rise, Alleluia!
Seeking Thee above the skies.  Alleluia!

There we shall with Thee remain, Alleluia!
Partners of Thy eternal reign, Alleluia!
There Thy face forever see, Alleluia!
Find our heaven of heavens in Thee, Alleluia!

                              -  words here a little different from Charles Wesley's, but a wonderful hymn

"The meaning of Christ's Ascension expresses our belief that in Christ the humanity that we all share has entered into the inner life of God in a new and hitherto unheard of way. It means that man has found an everlasting place in God... Jesus himself is what we call 'heaven'."

                                     -  Pope Benedict XVI

so what

After a nice, quiet Memorial day, tonight finds Dolly groovin' to this  -

Miles Davis' So What, on his 88th birthday anniversary.

rain

Today, among the book donations that regularly appear at the library, was a small book of poems by Thomas Hardy. I took it.

This evening, a thunderstorm with driving rain has been taking its time about leaving.

On the Doorstep
     by Thomas Hardy

The rain imprinted the step's wet shine
With target-circles that quivered and crossed
As I was leaving this porch of mine;
When from within there swelled and paused
               A song's sweet note;
       And back I turned, and thought,
                'Here I'll abide.'

The step shines wet beneath the rain,
Which prints its circles as heretofore;
I watch them from the porch again,
But no song-notes within the door
               Now call to me
        To shun the dripping lea;
                And forth I stride.

the child I never had

Cindy is adjusting to her new home pretty darn well. She has made herself acquainted with every little corner of this place that she's wanted to.

She's got a funny habit, though.

This is what I came home to one day last week. And it isn't the first time. I can't keep a tablecloth on the table for long - she drags one end over into Dolly's water bowl.  The first thing she did here was seemingly try to cover up the bowl.

She does this every time there's a cloth on the table. We first noticed this behavior during her early days here, when she was sleeping in the basement. My brother saw one morning that she'd dragged her bedding into the nearby water bowl. We're still trying to figure out why she does this.

You can see here that she's not really trying to cover it, but she wants to dip it in the water. Why oh why, Miss Cindy??

It's hard to photograph her at any time, 'cause she's such a busy little person. 

So far, she hasn't pitched in with the laundry. She must still be perfecting her game.

I like it

Well, I had a birthday gift to wrap the other day, and I used my wrinkled "kraft" paper -

A bit of ribbon, a sticker - I like this look!

a bit on Christian contemplation

"We are not asked to acquire new insights, though these are, of course, useful. We are asked rather to expand our hearts by affective prayer and by remaining close to Jesus, as Mary did for long periods, often of silence, and to feed our spirits with the interior affectivity that is so important for perseverance on the spiritual journey."

                               -   Perseverance in Trials: Reflections on Job,  by Carlo Maria Martini

zip-up greenhouse

I bought myself a plastic, zip-up greenhouse. Forty dollars on Amazon and definitely worth every penny.

Five feet high with four shelves. You put something heavy on the bottom to keep it from being blown over in high winds.

We have no good place indoors for seedlings, and the growing season here isn't terribly long. Certainly nothing like what I see on the Australian blogs I read.

It has hard plastic pieces on the sides, with metal pipe to keep it all together, and a plastic cover.
The shelves are cheap and don't lay flat, but it was a simple matter to lash them to the piping.

They'll be fine.  There isn't much in there now, but I have plans.

Someone gave us this Tomato Berry.  It's a start.