Running Errands

Dashing around today taking care of those last minute little details that always seem to crop up right before a major storm comes knocking on our door.

Is there enough wood cut and ready?  Do we have the coolers set up in case the electricity goes out for days on end like last year?  Are all of the batteries on the cellphones, smartphones, laptops, and flashlights charged and ready to go?

Is there food to eat that won't spoil without a refrigerator?  Is there enough gas for the camp stove and grill to cook with for a week or so?  Is there water for drinking - and other water needs?  Gas for the blow torch in case the pipes start to freeze up?

Is the truck gassed up?  Are the chain saws tuned and gassed up?

Where the heck are the playing cards!?  (My DH and I have marathon card playing sessions when the electricity goes out.  This time I *know* I'll win!)

Fortunately our emergency kit is stocked with all of the essential strange things we only use for this type of emergency - like flame starters for the fireplace, Dura-flame logs, sterno.

I'm still not convinced we are going to get as hammered as the weatherman says, but I've learned that caution is a good thing.

In the meanwhile, just a few more errands to run.  Enjoying the foliage.  Happy that most of the leaves are down already - less weight for any unanticipated snow to cling to.

Ole Barn

This old barn sits on the side of the road.  It's close to the field.  It's close to the cows.  But it is empty.  Past its' usefulness.

Somedays I think it's a sad old barn.  Unused.  Unwanted.  The farmer is probably just waiting for it to finally fall in like the barn next to it did.

Other days, I think it's pretty happy and satisfied with the life it's led.  Obviously well used.  The tracks going up to the doors are deep furrows.  Quite a few carts of hay and such must have passed in and out of its' doors over the years.

Today, it just reminds me of time.  Time past.  Time spent.

And then I ask myself - which barn do I want to be when I'm that old?

Today I think I'd like to be the happy barn.

That being said - I think I'll get off of the computer and spend some time with my DH and my pup.  If it weren't for him, I wouldn't live in the country.  If it weren't for living in the country, we would have our dear pup.

And after all - that's what life is all about, right?

Dad

My sister told me that blackeyed susans were my dad's favorite flower - I think about him when I see them.  My mother told me that my dad thought that chewing potato chips was unbearably noisy - I think about him when I eat them.  My brother plays guitar - just like my dad did.

My dad died when I was little.  I remember flashes of him here and there.  I remember how he taught me to ski - riding up the big mountain on a tow rope.  (It was a hill.  I was small - it seemed much larger at the time.)  A picnic we went on - all of us kids crammed in the back seat of the car.  Learning to play chess - it was so complicated! (I was 5.)  Standing at the top of the stairs watching mother talk to the State Trooper the day he died.  It was a Saturday.

But mostly, I know about him through how we all turned out as adults.  Even though he wasn't around, my mother kept his memory alive for us.  We all have a bit of him in us.

Me? I make lists - just like him.  And just like him, a lot of stuff on the lists never gets done.

Miss you, Dad.

Grandpa's Flowers

What better way to start the summer off than with hollyhocks.  These beauties greeted me as I came home tonight - and it was a lovely surprise.

I forgot they were there.  Which is kind of funny considering that they are going right on top of the red tulips that came up this Spring - that I also forgot were there.

My grandpa used to have hollyhocks growing right outside of his front door.  I always thought that they were the tallest flowers in the world.  Then I thought that when I grew up I would realize that they really weren't.  I still think they're the tallest flowers in the world.  These things are huge!

I must say that they definitely make me think of home and family when I see them.  I almost checked the freezer to see if there was any blueberry pie waiting there as well.  Unfortunately there wasn't.

I guess that I miss my grandpa's garden.  Even though we never went out to work in it, I notice that I've planted all of my favorite plants that I learned from him - the rhubarb and blueberry in the vegetable parterre, the lilacs on the north drive, and now we have hollyhocks on the south drive.

Here's to summer - and to my grandpa!

(Miss you gramps - Love, Joe.)

Blueberry

Five years ago I bought some bare root blueberry plants.  Five years ago I planted those plants in little pots and left them alone.

Four years ago I put the blueberries in bigger pots.  Again, I left them alone.

Three years ago I put the blueberries in my vegetable parterre.  2 of them survived.

Two years ago I ... I did nothing.  They just sat in the parterre enjoying the sun.

Last year, also nothing.  Okay, I might have inspected them with a magnifier to see if there was any hope whatsoever of them ever bearing fruit.  I decided there was no hope, so I left them alone.

But today!  Today when my DH and I were planting in the garden, I came face to face with this - the first blueberry on the blueberry plant.  I couldn't believe it.  My first blueberry.

I love blueberries.  Always have.  To me blueberries mean summer is here.  Their sweet taste, the purple stains on your hands, the smell of them simmering in a pot on the stove.  It's my childhood all over again each time I see a blueberry.  I can still hear my grandpa when he greeted us each time we went to visit - 'There's some blueberry pie in the freezer, Joe.' (He called us all Joe - our mother said it was so he didn't have to remember all of our names - I think he just liked saying Joe.)

Now we have our own blueberry.  It's small, it's green, it doesn't look like it has a chance of ripening.  It's not enough for a pie or jam or fruit salad.  It will probably be eaten by a bird or a chipmunk or our rabbit.

But it's there!  We actually grew a blueberry from bare root.  This means that I am not a lame gardener! I have a clue when it comes to plants.

Oh wait - I just neglected it for a few years.  Well, let's see...

I chose the spot to plant it!  I'm not a lame gardener! I have a clue when it comes to plants.

Pea Friends

The peas are still growing nicely and size-wise they are right on track.

Yesterday my DH and I stopped in at the local cooperative extension where I had a chance to look at their peas and compare them to how ours are doing.  I am happy to report that they are doing exactly the same.  Aside from the traditional straight rows that they have at the extension instead of our parterre curved rows, they could be twins.  Two peas in a pod, so to speak...

Of course the peas aren't the only thing that's coming up in the vegetable parterre.  We also have the perennial vegetables.  This horseradish is doing well so far.  I've left the leaves in the bed to act as a blanket for it until all danger of frost has passed.  Even though we had a mild winter we are getting some freezes this weekend.  I know that a lot of the growth that is up will die from the cold, but the root and new shoots just starting to come up need to be protected for a few more weeks.

Around here there are 3 dates for last frost.  Mother's Day (May 13th) according to local shoppers, the first full moon in May (May 6th) according to the farmers and May 3rd according to the National Climatic Data Center.  I do what the farmers say to do.  After all, their livelihood depends on it so I think they put a little more thought into the accuracy of their planting dates than anybody else.  I've never had a problem when I listen to the farmers.

The rhubarb is coming up nicely also.  Believe it or not, these are the baby leaves.  They are going to grow up and double in size.  I got the rhubarb as a bare root plant about 4 years ago.  It was planted in the vegetable parterre well before there was a formal pattern laid out for the beds.  Now it is getting so big that I know I will have to move it since it's spilling over the edge of the bed and into the path.

When I move it, even though it only has to go back into the bed about 3-feet, it's going to be a little angry with me and will probably need a year or so to settle in again.  That's okay though.  I only make a few things with rhubarb: strawberry rhubarb pie (a "must have" for Spring eating), strawberry rhubarb refrigerator jam (gets me to Summer), and rhubarb compote (more of a "tonic" than a yummy thing to eat - it's actually quite bitter).  So the harvest leaves a lot of the plant behind in the garden to soak up the sun and nutrients making for a very large rhubarb plant.

I planted the rhubarb because my grandpa had rhubarb in his garden.  When I go out and see it there it reminds me of him and spending time at his place in the summer with my siblings and cousins.  When I make the rhubarb pie I can hear him saying, "There's some blueberry pie in the freezer, Joe."  He called us all "Joe" and there was always pie in the freezer which he always said was blueberry even if it wasn't.

Breakfasts at grandpa's meant fresh eggs, toast, homemade corned beef hash (from dinner the night before), hot shredded wheat (warm milk, butter and salt), cold corn on the cob and a big slice of pie.  It was the most important meal of the day, don't 'cha know.  I think it came from his Vermont roots.  You needed something hearty to keep you hardy during those cold winters.  It must have worked for him because he ate all of that and was still as skinny as a twig.

Rhubarb, lilacs and hollyhocks.  These are my grandpa's plants and they are in my garden every year to remind me of him.

Mitten Knittin' Time

A few years back during the Christmas holiday, I knitted this mitten and cap set for a charity mitten tree.  It was my first try at knitting mittens and I fell in love with them.  Aren't they cute!  

That year, the charity provided a pattern for folks who wanted to knit or crochet.  My friend thought it would be great fun to knit a set for the tree, so she got the pattern, picked up some yarn and set out to knit up the set.  She didn't know how to knit - did I mention that?

Several phone calls, emails and a video chat later, she "gifted" me the yarn.  The pattern, I'm told, had an unfortunate accident involving a fireplace.  I didn't ask questions.

I have knitted sweaters, scarfs and afghans before.  My mom taught me to knit and every time I pick up a set of needles, I remember those lessons and I think about how I am carrying on a tradition that goes back - well, forever.  I even did a pair of socks once, but I never knit a mitten.  It's the thumbs.  They scare me!  Increasing, decreasing - all without making holes.  I was intimidated - but my friend needed me.

Fortunately, the internet provided me with a good pattern.  I found a pre-war 1940's classic mittens and cap pattern that was perfect.  Sturdy, washable, durable and most importantly cute!  I knitted them up during my commute and got them to the mitten tree on time.  A few weeks later, I saw a little girl playing out in the snow wearing my mittens and cap.  Lovely!

Well, I showed that picture to my little sister - and ever since then, she has been begging me to make her a set of mittens.  How can I say no to my little sister?  So this Fall when I went to the Sheep & Wool Festival, I picked out some hand-spun wool for a pair of mittens just for her.  And this weekend, I started knitting.

So here is the first mitten, sis.  I hope you like it.  I think it really fits your personality!

Colorful, right?

Great flexibility in the thumb for when you go snow-shoeing with the pups.

The happy/playful look...

Shy and demure...

Oh!  Where's the thumb?

There it is!

Note the fancy braided cast-on - and stranding inside for double insulation.

The delicate stripes on the cuff really set off the checks, don't you think?

So I made up the pattern.  It's based on the 1940's pattern from the first pair of mittens, with a bit of a tumvante Gudmundstjärn pattern mixed in.  Yes - a Swedish mitten pattern (in Swedish no less, but they were so adorable that I had to translate it).  They should keep you toasty warm.

Now I just have to finish the second one...