I told my son, we should open up a pet shelter ;) One day
after Ella's visit, Franklin came to visit me. I wondered,
what would happen, if they met each other. Each of them
alone is the gentlest dog and cat, but together? Not sure
about that...
right: Franklin's waiting for me to let him out and go
back home
Last year I was excited, when I read this recipe on Etsy blog.
I went immediately to the garden, but it was too late - the
purslane were no longer looking good. So, I'm excited to see
them coming out again - I simply love edible weeds!
I also harvested the red currant and the strawberries. We
got lots of red currants this year (those in the bowl is 2/3 of
them - I left the other 1/3 to give the birds a chance to enjoy
them too). Last year the flowers fell off too early because of
the rainy weather, so only some few were left to fruit. Last
year's strawberries were bigger than this year's. Well, that's
probably my fault, cause I didn't give them fertilizer nor much
water in this dry weather (my philosophy is what survived fits
the climate and gardening should be fun, not only work - now
ask me, why I want to plant banana in my garden then LOL).
I washed and dried each berries and then put them in the
fridge. My son and I love to eat them pure and frozen
(although those strawberries from the first harvest were
turned into strawberry curd cheese - also yummm....!! :)).
I trimmed two of my six lavender bushes last Sunday (I do
it in stages so that the bees and other insects could still enjoy
them too). I decided not just to hang them over to let them
dry but made a wreath. Never made one before, so I'm pretty
pleased with the not-so-perfect result. Learned one thing
while making this: next time I'll use an environment friendlier
material for binding (because of the wire I'll have to unbind
this wreath before I can throw it away one day - not so clever,
hm..?).
The sun was out these two days - spring is finally here. When I went home from school yesterday, the shadows of some fences attracted my attention. So, I took the camera with me today.
Just look at the right photo - isn't it amazing, how a simple fence could make shadows with three different patterns?
I miss crafting so much. The school takes away a good amount of my energy each day. So, it's Euro week at Etsy and I only managed to add two Furry Berries in my shop.
I hope, I'll have more energy this weekend to finish some new designs. Hopefully the weather will stay warm, so that I can work on the torch again. My poor neglected garden needs my attention as well. I need a better time and energy management, I guess...
It's been quiet in my blog lately. The 'normal' depression before having my child-free weeks during holidays has overcame me again, apart from other stress. Now I'm having two weeks home alone. Time to do things which were neglected the past months. I'm trying to organize my ToDo list.
As usual, I of course forget things afterward, which I thought 'it's logical - I would still understand/remember that' while organizing *sigh* e.g. those abbreviation A and P. I don't remember, what I wanted to say. What do they mean? I have an Alzheimer disease already *one more sigh*
BTW.. we can't keep up eating the zucchinis. They grow so fast! The one on the left photo was our biggest one, that I've turned into soup last week (we still have some of it in the fridge). We've given some to friends and yesterday I harvest those two on the right before they getting even bigger. Next year I'll only plant one or two plants. If we still can eat zucchini after this abundance *lol*
I never thought, that my nervousness last week would take a lot of energy out of me. I'm still recovering - so tired these days. Good, that holiday has started. Even if it's only for my boy, things can now go a bit slower.
A quick review of the last week in mixed order..
I wanted to show you the progress of the piece I'm making for my guessing game, but I didn't have much time to work on it. And as I wanted to work on it last Sunday - eek! I broke the oval piece :( Luckily I have some more rings and ovals around. This time I decided to take the round one. On Wednesday I finally had a bit time to attach the glass pieces onto it. The idea has changed a bit. It's getting more romantic and my son told me it reminds him of a dream catcher. Indeed, it is kind of a dream catcher :)
As it's still not finish yet, I'm going to prolong the deadline for entering the game to Monday, 3rd August. I'll announce the winner on Tuesday. Please forgive my delay!
I finally hung some of my treasures. First I wanted to hang everything on one wall, but it just didn't look right. I tried some variants and finally I decided to go for a vintage wall plaque and Gocco print combination. Ha! They are all about animals and the color shades fit each other too. I really love it :)
I hung them not without a reason. It's the room, where my visitors are sleeping - our living room. Yes, my sister and her family were here for two nights (so good to see them again!) - so I took the chance to rearrange the room to make it looks nicer ;)
I also had some fun cooking time. To welcome my guests I've made some PempekPalembang together with some friends the day before (it was lots of fun - chatting, laughing, cooking and eating). And for the dinner before my guests went back home I've cooked stuffed peppers for my niece as requested (and filled also a big zucchini from the garden with the stuffing - yumm!).
The last days we harvested our potatoes. The waxy ones had already yellow leaves for quite a while. First I thought, it still was too early, as we only got a hand full potatoes. A few days later I was curious. We dug deeper and found some more of them - bigger ones! My son had a lot of fun. So today he pulled out and dug out the floury ones for mashed potatoes - mmmhh...
On the left photo you can see a bind weed, which I've pulled out of the potato field easily. I'm amazed by the long root, so it's now growing in a glass full of water in the kitchen :)
The choir performance went well. We had a full house, a great atmosphere and a lot of fun, even if it was hot like in the oven. My sister and her family were very supportive - they smile every time I look at them :) My son and some friends were coming too. A wonderful evening it was! We got so many lovely feedbacks.
After this hard work, we deserve a holiday :) I know, I'm going to miss the choir girls and singing, but I'm glad, it's holiday now.
Yesterday we had the first zucchini from our own garden for dinner. They have grown quite a lot. The biggest one (the left on the photo) was about 40 cm long and 7 cm in diameter on the thickest part - we gave it to our former neighbor, who has invited my son to play with her grandson. We ate the smaller one, approx. 30 cm long and 6 cm thick. Yummy! It's much better than bought ones. It's not the one on the photo though - that will be our dinner one of the next days ;)
Soon I can reap coriander seeds. The strawberry plants have lots of flowers and fruits and everyday we can pick some berries. I wonder, either the potatos are big enough to dig out.
We are not the one, who enjoy the garden. The bees are having fun these days, as the oreganos are blooming.
As you can see on the 1st photo, there are bind weeds all around. I really need to work in the garden today. And portulaca are also growing wild there (upper right). I know, they are considered as weed too, but as we can eat them as salad, I let them grow ^_^
It's raining this morning (like the last days). Not really motivating. I wanted to do some errands with my bike and now I have to go by bus. I don't have a rain coat, as I don't like it - my glasses would still get wet and I can't see anything. So I prefer an umbrella, but that means no biking today.
No gardening as well. Oh my, I've neglected my garden since I've started lampworking again. The zucchini plants have taken the most advantage out of the rain. It grows and grows, covered almost all my other plants - potato, sweet potato (my poor sweet potato rarely grows - they need sun!!), marigold, salad,.. Look, how my garden looked like just a month before and how it is now.
A rainy day is a perfect day for lampworking though, as my tiny studio won't get hot as on sunny days. But first get myself ready, then I hope to grab a treasury to show you what's in my poster sketch for some days now, before finally going to do my errands and then lampworking afterwards. I'll make a new experiment today :)
Talking about treasury, one of my last Ts was featured in Sarah & Olivia's blog along with seven more beautiful Ts. I love reading their comments about the Ts :) I've never seen, someone done this before - featuring Ts, without making them nor being included therein. What a sweet idea! Thank you, S&O!
Last not least if you are a fan of penguins and/or plush, I wanna invite you to Akiyo's giveaway. But of course, I hope I'd win a mini penguin myself *lol*
Time flies - woosh and my last post is already two weeks old. Many things happened during that time (not necessary in this order though)...
We had some celebrations.
We had some visits from friends I haven't seen for a long time. But I've also noticed a visitor by the mess it has made ;)
I've cooked and baked a lot. Maybe some of you have also seen the photo I've posted in my photo blog some days ago and wondered, what it should be. Well, I've made some rise chips from (leftover) plain rice. This diptych is showing the first step and the result. You can see another in-between stepshere. Well, one step is missing: before it's fried. I was a bit frustrated, because most of them were stick to the bamboo dish I used to let them dry on, that I forgot to take pictures. The rice chips are yummy as salad topping (esp. when eaten with Indonesian peanut salad sauce :))!
I enjoyed my plants - indoor and outdoor. I got this one from a friend, but I keep forgetting it's name. This is the second time I see it blooming in three years. So lovely! I'm excited, I see two 4(!) more buds this year - last year it got only one flower.
Outside, most of the plants are recovering from the hail except for the aubrieta (hope it will recover too one day). The 'non-grassy' part in the back garden is growing too. Actually, except of two zucchini plants and the sweet potato I didn't want to add anything to the back garden anymore. I wanted to wait till next year with a better planning. But then my son got herbs and veggies as a birthday present from his friend (what a wonderful idea!) and now the garden is growing by two more rows :) Also the wild oregano feels so comfy there, so that it grows in simply every corner in the garden. So, if you need some for your pizza or pasta... ;)
I've enjoyed some performances. Alone, with friends and accompaniying my boy's class. I haven't done it for a while - so much fun.
This is one of the groups I've watched (now they have one more member). And when they were here to introduce a cooking book, they had a special guest: his mother, who also sang with them. Among other Indonesians I realized that night, how much I've lost my Indonesian spirit of humor. I laugh much less and I make much less jokes. Hmm...
I enjoyed watching the sky and listening to music and sometimes trying to sing along (for those, who are my friends on Flickr, you can watch the special edition with my poor attempt ;)).
I've been looking for a CD, cause I got a coupon voucher, but I'm still indecisive... I love her music, but I prefer deep voice actually.. hmm..
I stumble upon this group with their beautiful, calming music as I was browsing on MySpace. Oh my, I love this kind of music!! *dreaming away*
Last not least I've cleaned up (would I welcome the visitors otherwise? ;)) and sorted things in real life and in my head. But it keeps going.. some things are harder to sort than entangled threads...
I've told you, many things have happened ;) Now, I'm wishing you a lovely Sunday evening and a great start of the new week. CU! My fave series is waiting ;)
I never managed to work in the garden less than two hours. Well, I enjoy it, so I forget the time :) Normally I work either only on the front or only on the back garden at a time, but today I worked on both, as there were less bindweeds to see today :)
My back garden is not a garden to look at - it looks higgledy-piggledy *lol* But the potatos are growing, so are the strawberries (although the ones in the pot grow a lot better than those in the gardensoil. Hmm..). One marigold is almost eaten up by a snail (I think, it was a snail). The cornus and blackberries are about to bloom. There is also another plant with buds (in the middle photo), but I don't know what it is. Do you know it maybe? Could it be buddleja? I'm not sure..
On the front garden I cut the ilex down. Now it has only a few leaves, but they are all okay. I hope, it will grow better now. I've also cut the lonicera a bit. As I first thought it was a box tree, I wanted to grow scions for the back garden, but then I stumbled upon lonicera on the web. Well, there are still a lot to learn in the garden :)
But there are also a lot to enjoy..
The peonies are blooming, the second rose plant will be blooming in a day or two and my phuopsis stylosa has also started to bloom. I hope, the lavenders will be blooming soon. Oh, I love my garden :)
P.S. I've covered the soil around the strawberries with straw. But I was a dork - I took straw, which are normally use to feed pets. So now wheats are starting to grow among the strawberries *lol* (well, now I can still laugh, maybe I won't in a couple of weeks ;))
The choir weekend was great. The weather, the new songs we've learned, the food, the view, the air... The girls enjoyed the lemon curd and also my lentil spread (used as dip for tortilla chips), which I've made using the leftover of the Laksa soup.
My son was such a sweetheart. He sat next to me and sang with us on Friday and Saturday. He helped the other girls preparing breakfast, setting the table and he baked a foccacia focaccia for dinner on Saturday. And he read a lot. Asterix :) Here are some impressions.
finished making the dough for foccacia
Left: watching the full moon rising. The silhouette of the trees and the ski-lift looked like a fort. Right: the view from our bedroom.
A morning walk - isn't the view amazing?
The destination of our walk.
A cute, tiny house. I wonder, if it's also a summer cottage.
At home a nightmare was waiting for me - the result of three days no weeding plus rainy days: the bindweed had taken over the back garden, the rosebuds are full of lice, the peonies were crooked and slugs are crawling over the aubrieta. So I've been working in the garden again these two days, between rainy sessions during the day. Staking the peonies, planting even more garlic around the roses and I decided to take a herbicide to fight the bindweed (I'm not sure it helps for long). But there are also good news: everything I've planted are growing too, including the sweet potato, which has now tiny white roots. Well, almost everything. I hope, soon the lemon basil and bilimbi will grow too (two ingredients I need for Laksa ;)). I've brought the seeds from Indonesia a few years ago. There my mom has them in the garden.
Oh, btw I was completely wrong about the house the kids have built - it was meant for slow worms, not fairy nor lacewings nor gnomes! Lucky worms :)
No lovely, sunny weather today. But maybe it's better for the journey to the choir weekend, as we have to drive for 1,5 hours by car (although I don't like to drive if the street is wet). It's good for the plants for sure, as I can first water them again on Sunday evening.
I've planted two strawberry plants in a container on the windowsill - just in case ;)
While the strawberries are growing, some 'enemies' are coming (oh, garden crime time ^_^). My neighbor told me, that they couldn't enjoy strawberries, as they were always gone before they could pick them. Hmm... these kind of 'enemies' or human kind? ;)
A blackbird crow far, far away and lice on my pansy (and rose too)
I'm wishing you all a great weekend! I'm sure, we'll have ours :)
P.S. I just look out the window again: the sun's shinning :)
Without a plan I've planted some of our fave fruits and veggies in the garden, so sometimes I think, I need to grab the plants out and replant them at another place. Sometimes I also forgot, where I've plant things. So, this should help me remember ;)
a click on the image will take you to the original photo with many notes :)
I'm experimenting with the yam sweet potato. Normally it should be hung horizontally in the water, not vertically, but I'm a rebel (but not a patience one though, so I might change my mind ;) ).
I'd love to plant some sugar pea and sweet corn too, but maybe I'll wait till next year. I'm going to plant phacelia on the rest of the field (which is not on the photo anymore, but approx. as big as the terrace) to have better soil next year (and of course flowers for the bees and me :)). And I'm tempted to have my own composter, but I'm afraid my garden is a bit too small for that (despite of the fact, that it's sunny everywhere all day long - a bad condition for a composter) :(
Talking about rebelling.. I stumbled upon this link. If you don't have your own garden, but would like to, why not join the group? I think, it's fun (I started looking for orphaned places, even if I don't joined them, as my own tiny garden will surely keep me busy ;)). You might find people with similar interest here.
I was just back from the homeopath (I had a hay fever attack last weekend) and went to the garden, looking for overlooked weeds. I saw the peonies are having buds. I'm excited and looking forward to see them blooming.
And look who has visited me (again). The cat lives in the neighborhood, but she visits us a lot. Sometimes she waits for us on the door and scrapes on the door. Once she was even trapped in our basement, my neighbor told me.
She is such a lovely, cuddly and calm cat (but didn't really like to be photographed - she always jumped away *lol*). She has completely turned me into a cat lover :)
I've been in the library yesterday and got some books
for inspirations. I then enjoyed the good weather in
the city and met some old friends by accident. At home
I worked in the garden - weeding. I thrown away three
buckets full of weeds!!! Some weeds are too pretty to
throw away actually..
left: weed - cardamine hirsuta; right: corydalis
Today I decided to make bread. One of the book I
borrowed yesterday was Brot by Richard Bertinet.
It's a great book (yes, I was that messy making the
bread as shown in the book or actually even messier,
as I made a mistake by taking the wooden board as
my work place *lol*).
left & right: pages from the book
I've chosen the olive oil dough, although he has
suggested to start with white bread dough (the one
as shown on the cover e.g.). I was worried, I would
fail again like I did as I made the baguette months
ago.
left: recipe from the book, right: my dough (the smaller
one on top was the rest, which I scrape together from
the board ;))
To my surprise the dough was doing great!! It rose well
while I was making the filling out of ground meat (it's
not part of the recipe in the book - only my creative
cooking ;)).
left: before, right: after baking
The filling on top was too dry afterwards (next time I
should let the filling rolled in the bread), but nonetheless
the bread was a great success - crispy on the outside and
inside it's so soft. Mmmmhhh.. SO yummy! I just couldn't
stop eating them...
left to right: I just couldn't stop eating :)
A change I noticed lately: in this short time of 2 weeks,
where I started to use tablecloth again, I can't see my
table 'naked' anymore. Funny, since I didn't use table-
cloth for about 14 years!!
>> Don't forget, if you wanna win a surprise from me, the game is still open, as no one dare to guess yet ;) <<
I'm wishing you a lovely rest of the weekend and a great
start in the new week!
