Rain and Steamy Heat

So, we did finally get some rain, mainly on the 14th. As you can see from the picture, it fell pretty hard! A lot rushed off as a river down the driveway. It did clean up the plants and give some things a growth spurt like the tomatillos. I know the flower beds benefited greatly too. The 4 o'clocks got knocked over, so I've driven in some stakes to support them. I may need to tie them up some too. The oldest string bean plants got quite flattened out too, but they will be ok. The humidity is still very high and I would like things to dry up a little so we don't get mildew or rot.

Some bird has been pulling up the youngest (3rd sowing) string bean plants and so that's going to be a rather spotty row!

I didn't pick for a couple of days while everything was soggy, but this morning I went out to get caught up. I had to throw some more giant zukes and summer squash in the compost bin, but there are plenty for eating too. And, 5-6 large cukes went in the compost too, but I picked enough nice ones for another batch of pickles!

I am keeping my eye on a lot of green tomatoes and one eggplant that is getting close to picking size. There are a couple of varieties of peppers ready or nearly ready too.

Summery Eats, More Decorating, More Garden Pics

Saturday, I picked so many cucumbers in the garden that I set up to do two batches of pickles! Here are the results, 16 pints of Bread and Butter Pickles. Today, I picked enough cucumbers to do another (single) batch. We have already eaten some ourselves and I have mailed out some to family for a mid-summer treat.

The pickle juice makes a delicious potato salad. I like to whisk together some with Miracle Whip, finely chopped pickles, finely diced sweet onion (like Vidalia) and add the warm, chopped potatoes to that. When I have the stamina and it's not too hot, I also add chopped hard-boiled eggs, but it was too hot for that this time. Here is my latest potato salad alongside the slow cooker which was cooking up pulled pork. Other than picking some zukes to go alongside, dinner is made for a few days!

Over the weekend, in between the pickling stages, I managed to finish cleaning and arranging all of my new EB pottery. I thought I'd post a few more pictures now that the seconds marks are removed from the Hellebore plates, bowls and mugs.

The ivy/holly teapot is at home with some of my little xmas things.

The Hellebores take up most of the bottom shelf in my china cabinet.

We are already making use of it, especially those lovely pasta bowls!

It is so hot and dry in the garden that it's amazing the veggies are doing so well. Sometimes, I have to go pick things that have gotten ahead of me like cukes and zukes and stack them in the compost bin like cord wood!! I think it is thanks to the plastic mulch and the drip lines right at the base of the plants. Here is the vigorous cucumber patch that is providing us with so many pickles.

A view of the tomatoes which are all tied up for the time being. Still only green tomatoes...

String beans, flowers, gourds, pumpkins and squash.

Zinnias.

Some jalapeno peppers ready for picking.

Eggplant, still just flowering, setting fruit.

I let a lot of my herbs 'go by' as I enjoy the flowers, like on this oregano.

It has been so dry for so long here. I checked the weather data for the last 2 months, May 13-July 13, and found we've only had 3.62 inches of rain in that time.

I'm not even sure we had that much as it fell as localized scattered showers and may have skipped over us here. This is the graph showing the distribution of the rainfall for the same time frame.

We may get some rain over the next couple of days, but it is predicted as localized 'heavy' rain and thunder storms. Not what I like. At all. This could make a mess of the garden and knock a lot of things over and erode the powdery soil. I miss the occasional gray summer day with steady light to medium rain that refreshed the air and kept the lawns and plants looking lush with a gentle, deep soaking. It seems like we only get all or nothing in recent years.

Blueberries and the Doggie Cute Act

I've been having my breakfast in the yard lately. Yummy for me...

...and the dogs. Here's Saffy mugging for a treat. How can I resist that face?!

Coneflower and Butterfly

How summery is this? So pretty...

...but a little freaky close up!!!

Kitchen Styling

Years ago now, I had the fun of designing a layout and installing (with Jeff and my father) kitchen cabinets into what was a bare room with a stove and a fridge in our 1920's house. I fitted things around the existing windows and woodwork, so there was (thankfully) no ripping out other than a few short lengths of chair rail. Ever since then, I have been looking for a plate rack to go on one remaining bare wall. I finally found one that would be well suited!

Here is a before picture showing the small stretch of wall above my dry goods area/rolly cart.

Jeff did some measuring and affixed the metal hanger to the wall. (We settle for 'more or less' measurements in an old house!)

And then he hung the rack for me! (That's the July 7th batch of pickles below the shelf.)

It was set up just in time for decorating with some new Emma Bridgewater pottery I'd ordered from England in the recent sale. I love the way the new pottery mixes and matches with my mostly vintage hand-me-downs and the few newer things I've collected.

On the top shelf, the striped mugs are espresso sized. The polka dot pitcher is a 2 pint sized measuring jug. I plan to use the Union Jack creamer for cream/milk and the 'baby' mug for sugar. (At some point I will have to get something with the blue stars motif to go with my striped pieces and they will represent the 'stars and stripes' so I do not appear unpatriotic!) The little glass compote in the picture below is my salt cellar, with an espresso spoon for scooping. The dish was from my Grandmother, along with the basket and the mini cutting board (which I had given her when I was little).

I just love the vintage look of the Happy Cows mugs...here's a close up with a couple of older Britains metal toys.

Not all of my new things fit on the new shelf! (It was a very nice sale!) Some of my new things will go in the dining room or pantry. I bought a half price ('first') 'Christmas' teapot to go with the robin and berries mugs, bowls and small plates I've had for 5 years or so. The pieces mix and match so well and I actually think they are fine for any time of year.

I got a bunch of 'seconds' of plates and pasta bowls and mugs in the sale in the Hellebore pattern. The seconds were much less expensive and I don't have to worry about stacking them on shelves or putting them in the dishwasher since they come with some blemishes to begin with. I was so excited with my new things that I took the picture before I even washed off the grease pencil seconds marks. I splurged for 'firsts' on a matching teapot and jug though, for extra nice display purposes as well as use.

And the pasta bowls. Won't my homemade pasta be even better served in these?! The two little French bowls can hold fresh, grated cheese and olives to go with the pasta! Or pickles, when I am serving other things.

A certain tea towel ended up in my cart too...

The pottery from England was packed very securely with compostable brown paper, so after unpacking, I hauled the boxes out to our bin in the garden to throw all the paper in. Of course, the dogs thought this was great fun and that the box was a toy for them. Saffy claimed it for awhile and then finally let Silas have a turn too.

Perhaps they thought they were going to go for a ride? They do get wheelbarrow rides when they hop into that, so maybe they thought it was something similar. Such silly dogs!

There are still a few finishing touches I'd like to get to at some point in the kitchen, like maybe replacing some doors and putting some kind of rack/hooks? on one wall of the pantry, but for the most part the kitchen is done. Anything that wears out can hopefully be replaced with something very similar. For example, we had to get a new faucet this spring. It was impossible to get the same one as before, but we got a new one with an even taller spout than the last one and it is actually even better to use! I like when new things are better then old...often times I feel like it's very much the opposite.

It takes me years to get house things done, but fortunately part of the fun of housekeeping and decorating is the process. Now, I'm going back to arranging and rearranging my new pieces of pottery!

Garden & Cooking Update

Today, I pickled 8 more pints of pickles. Here are the cukes just after washing. It was hot work picking all those, to say nothing of the canning process!

When it gets a little cooler in the evening, it is fun to wander around and peer under leaves. Here is a pumpkin!

I am slowly getting the tomatoes tied up. There are a number of small, green tomatoes.

Another view of tomatoes.

Three varieties of string beans are in this row, so I will be able to cook up mixes of yellow and green types.

Jeff stood next to some sunflowers for scale.

Beans, 4 o'clocks and 2 rows of zinnias.

4 o'clocks.

A close up of a gaudy, bright 4 o'clock bloom. I have a mix of colors. These broken color, peachy ones are some of my favorites.

The flowers outside the veggie garden are more subdued hues. Here are some balloon flowers by the house. They are slightly more purple than this picture shows...one of those colors that is hard for the digital camera to get.

A little bit of the herb bed.

Pretty coneflowers.

And, as if today wasn't busy enough with picking, pickling, tomato tying, a big UPS delivery, and more I forget...I made fresh 3 cheese ravioli! The filling is a mix of soft goat cheese, ricotta and Pecorino Romano with egg for binding.

They were delicious! Do you like my rustic squares? They were varied, but they all held together during cooking and that's the important thing.

There are already too many pictures in this post, so soon I will do another post to show you some of the lovely new things delivered recently to dress up my kitchen/dining room!

Fireworks

The weekend fireworks displays around here have been like no others before! With fireworks stores and big fireworks racks even in the grocery store, because of a recent change in the laws, it seemed like everyone was lighting off impressive displays in addition to the town shows.

As a result, we had to stay home with the neurotic (Silas) dog who gets panicky at the pop sound of bubble wrap or a pan with water droplets on the outside of it heating on the stove. You can imagine his reaction to neighbors three doors in each direction launching fireworks and setting off crackers! Then, the big town fireworks started and shook the ground.

Other than the dogs' reaction, the fireworks are very fun to see. Even though we didn't get to a party closer to the display, we still got a glimpse of the town fireworks from our yard as you can see from the collage.

Plus, we got to see fireworks displays in the distance, across the Bay, and far to the horizon because the land is so flat here.