castles in the sky... part one

"Dreams, hopes, or plans that are impossible, unrealistic, or have very little chance of succeeding."

                                                          EARLY JUNE

 I do believe it is a rather fitting name, Castle in the Sky, for one of my newer laid gardens, the one my husband helped me create back in the spring. 

There lays a certain shadier area in our backyard lining up on the backside of the house. A row of holly trees and a small spinney face out behind it. Every summer we have struggled with growing grass on the sloping area and for years it was to me, a place of waste and neglect. 

But I had dreams, hopes, and plans for this particular space. I could visualize it in my mind, what could be.

The day we tackled this particular garden space began by us cutting out some of the thick holly trees and planting ligustrum which we hope will provide a privacy wall as it grows. Ligustrum is one of my most favorite hedges smelling perfumy sweet in the early summer and attracting busy bees.                                                            

LATE JUNE

EARLY JULY

Since I've always envisioned a pretty bench at the end of the path, we decided that the purchase of this bench would hail a wonderful anniversary remembrance.

  This garden certainly has plenty of room for continual growth, the addition of plants and even get down and get dirty toil...I am still visualizing what it will become in future years. But this I can say, it is well on its way and I am loving it!  Hydrangea bushes will be bowing their heady blooms and blushing Lenten Roses will be nodding gracefully as I meander down the stone path. To the right of the bench are the beginnings of oak-leaf hydrangeas, to the left a bed of bright red bee balm and 

along the back mounds of sweet- smelling lemon balm. 

                                                               
                                                                   EARLY AUGUST

The bench provided a moment of conversation for Charlotte and Breanna one afternoon.

cultivating appreciation

"Cultivate a sense of appreciation. Love your work, trust your work, keep in touch with today. Teach yourself to be practical, up-to-date and sensible. You cannot fail"

-Henry van Dyke

The chorus of the cicadas is loud and intensifying, rising up and dipping down, reminding me somewhat of labor pains...the rising and falling that is. I hear the breeze in the gentle tingling of the chimes and I see it in the movement of the cucumbers plant leaves. The wind stirring the ninety-three degree heat,

 I sat on the back porch, the porch I swept and straightened up after lunch, shaking the debris sprinkled cushions and fluffing the saggy pillows. I love summer afternoons when I am able to sit a spell outside, to read or perhaps sew a hem, such as the binding I am sewing on this 1920 apron, a pattern made from directions found in this book. I had finished my daily chore of ironing and thought a spell of rest and sewing before the preparations of supper began could be done outside. I brewed a teabag of Yorkshire Gold and laced it with unfiltered apple cider. 
The addition of a slice of chocolate-chip banana bread seemed sensible to me too!

Including beets in your diet and drinking unfiltered apple cider make an excellent tonic for gall bladder and liver health. It is good to treat these organs to a tonic from time to time and this is a simple and easy way to do so.

The finished apron being modeled by Theodora.

Yarn Along in August

Calm knitting sometimes in the evenings, but for the most part knitting seems to be on furlough these summer days.  I knitted a pair of these mitts  with the enticing name of  "Fetching" several years ago.  They are a favorite hand mitt of mine to wear in the winter, hence I decided to make a pair as a Christmas gift for someone in my Smocking/Sewing Guild. (We are to make a gift this year for an exchange.)

My daily reading habit never stops, but it sometimes takes longer than I intended to finish a book. I find myself nodding off many a night when I had hoped to get an hour or so of reading done before bedtime.

I am almost finished reading Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South. After seeing the BBC movie adaption, I was planning no ill affects leading to a less enjoyable read. While the movies are usually wonderful to watch, the books are just better and worth reading above all.

 How Should We Then Live? by Frances Schaeffer, a book on my bookshelf I felt destined to read some time during my lifetime. This book gives a broad overview of Western Civilization beginning with the Roman Empire including areas such as art, history, music, science, and philosophy, written with Schaeffer's strong  Biblical worldview. I am greatly looking forward to getting to the chapters of the modern age, understanding it to have significant impact.

The third book on my stack arrived in the mail last week because "I could not help myself" and ordered it one afternoon on a whim. I loved reading Marta McDowell's book, The Gardening Life of Emily Dickinson immensely.  A book of this nature adds beauty and calmness to a soul. And who does not need more of that these days?

Joining in with Ginny's Yarn along...

Fried Green Tomatoes...appetizer or meal

 As summertime gets rolling along many southerners look forward to a certain delicacy that expresses a taste of summer perfectly.  Therefore,it was a wonderfully pleasing and good thing to have plenty of firm green tomatoes on my vines to pluck and bring in to flour, dip and coat before frying those green jewels in a cast iron skillet of hot coconut oil.

 I  personally think you should at least try them once in your lifetime if you have not. You can fry them in whatever oil you prefer, any type of oil works just fine, I happen to prefer healthier oils such as coconut or avocado.  Fried green tomatoes may be served as a tasty side dish to any meal and they will add wonderfulness as a fixin' to a hamburger. But I believe I have settled the question of what is the absolute best way to eat them. Go into the kitchen a bit earlier than your normal supper time, fry up a batch, drain them on paper towels, sprinkle liberally with salt and enjoy them while hot, even while standing at the kitchen counter, a delicious appetizer. In this way there is absolutely no competition with other foods and usually it is when you are your hungriest so the enjoyment of eating them is even greater. And you might just decide it is enough to make them a meal in themselves.

a borscht lunch setting

The coop (Azure Standard) truck arrived in the Walmart parking lot one afternoon, the sun was high in the sky and blazing hot while the asphalt in the parking lot only intensified the heat. Some of us felt comfortable enough to unload and place all packaged boxes, bags, cans and jars in separate piles for the others to pick up and put into their cars. I was especially thankful for this delivery because in this particular order were some organic beets and cabbage. The beets were outstanding and delicious as was the cabbage, and since I had an adequate supply I decided to make borscht soup. The main ingredients are onions, garlic, beets, carrots, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, and spices. You may prefer to make it entirely vegetarian and use vegetable stock but I used chicken stock in this day's batch.

This soup involved quite a bit of chopping and shredding, yet the cooking time was no more than an hour. But like so many other soups the taste only becomes richer and tastier as it sits in your refrigerator. The soup may be eaten cold or hot. Now my husband is good about trying new things, even some of my healthier concoctions, but as long as I warm this soup before serving it, he enjoys it and even calls it very good! I topped mine with a dollop of plain yogurt, too lazy to run out into the hot sun and snip a sprig of dill to garnish.

You may use your imagination😊 

goldfinches dining on the hyssop plant

The kitchen table sits with a wall of large windows on one side, these windows look out onto the paved patio and some of the gardens. From this place backyard nature is observed and recorded.

At least twice a day, I sit at my kitchen table and while I am eating my meals I witnessed the most wondrous sight. The goldfinches come to the hyssop plants and dine on the seeds of the flowering spikes of the hyssop plants. A bright spot of yellow radiating amidst the green leaves and lavender blossoms. They bounce and flit from one spike to another.

And many times the shared meal of a couple will romance the moment. 

hope, truth, peace and joy

Quite often I want to open my mouth and give my opinions on a number of things these days... and sometimes I do. But when I looked up the word opinionated in the dictionary I was thinking that was not the word that I would prefer others to have when they think of me.

Opinionated (adjective)- obstinate or conceited in regard to the merits of one's own opinions; conceitedly dogmatic.
Yet, the truth is, I do have opinions so that distinctly makes me opinionated.However, I must keep them under guard, until the right time and even the right people.

So... on to other matters on this typically hot and humid summer day, I want to give everyone a spell of renewed hope. This is not unusual, slack, deceptive, or worthless hope. It is truth, it is life, and it is freedom.

"I(Moses) call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live: That you may love the LORD God and that you may obey His voice, and that you may cleave to Him: for He is your life, and the length of your days:
 (Deuteronomy 30:19-20)

"Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father but by me." (John 14:6)

"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory." (Col. 3:4)

"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past to the fathers and the prophets, has now these last days spoken to us by His own Son, whom He has appointed heir of all thing, by whom also He made the worlds; Who seeing the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;"  (Hebrews 1:1-3)

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Hims shall not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

This is the Holy Word of God, not my opinion. And it brings everlasting life in Christ Jesus.

I am thinking after spending time meditating on the truth of HIs Word, an uplifting hymn can also provide an avenue for creating joy and peace in our dailiness. 

Choose a Hymn of the Day, read the words carefully at first and then sing with unadulterated praise to The LORD. You may find yourself humming and singing the hymn throughout the day.

Today's hymn choice for me is "Teach Me Thy Way, O Lord."

Then this thought came to me today in a serendipitous moment. I was driving to the pool  to swim, as I glanced to my right I noticed something that tickled me and made me smile, even giggle, a horse trailer going down the interstate with the horse's tail blowing in the wind outside the opened window. Flipping and flapping...it must have felt good to that horse! It was enchanting even in its barnyard essence. So daily, I am going to record at least one such moment that stirs that "tickling in my innards" smile.

after a storm and other fancies

What would any respectable  summer be that failed to send those brief storms that stir up the rumble of thunder, the intensity of lightening, and the spate of pouring rain and then just disappears as a contented guest? But immediately following the storm there exits a strong pull to step outside to seek for rainbows and to splash in the rapidly flowing puddles. It is for those things I look for, observe and cling to when the storms of  unpredictable things rage elsewhere in our world.

"Let not your heart be trouble, neither be afraid....

A collage of  random photos were recently found on my camera, fancies that make the little things, the simple things of a beautifully created world.

"Let all that has breath praise His holy name!"

I certainly wished I had taken a photo of the pair of mockingbirds swooping to chase the garter snake away; the tenacity of that pair of birds speaks to my heart of guarding myself.

"Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you. Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.

I choose to believe the LORD sends a special treat to me in early June year after year. Again on a morning walk this terrapin was waiting for me to notice him as he crossed the street along my path. I gently scooped him up and carried him home for all of us to enjoy for a brief spell before he was released into my flower garden, amongst the tall monada and hyssop.

African violets are extremely easy to root, but one must have patience because they also grow slowly. A sewing friend stopped by my house back in late winter and handed me an assortment of African violet leaves. She assured me that in those grouping of plucked leaves were all colors and varieties of violets. I  recently repotted some of the more flourishing ones and I am very pleased with their growth. I will patiently wait for future surprises.

"But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Johnny jump-up flowers in my salad, which I found out many do not fancy, but I do!

And there are those fancies that slip our mind for a spell, which certainly was the case with the  flower press we made several years ago. These particular flowers and leaves were pressed and forgotten until recently. I happened to recognize the press resting high on a cupboard in my sewing room. This has given me motivation to start my own herbarium after reading about the one Emily Dickinson kept.

"Have you made an herbarium yet? I hope you will if you have not, it would be such a treasure to you." 

                                     What are some of the fancies you are enjoying in these stormy times?

June Yarn Along

I am not knitting anything new these days. But I am spending time in the gardens absorbed in happy industry and calm puttering, spending time walking, spending time praying, and spending time reading good books.  When one considers the extremely concerning turmoil of these present times, the fact that I was able to don the heavy woolen knitted shawl one recent morning because of the chilly temperatures to the sudden calescent temperatures of these past two days is nothing surprising. The  blocking of this shawl was a booger, because of its length and weight. I decided to use my guest bathroom for blocking it and it took several weeks due to the smaller space. But finally it was blocked and packed away into the cedar chest, until it was cheerfully unleashed  earlier this week for soothing warmth.

I do appreciate Ginny with her monthly yarn alongs providing a safe place for us to share our knitting projects and current reading materials. I had been looking forward to reading this child's novel since I chose it for my 2020 Reading Challenge. You might recognize the author's name as the author of Heidi. I found this treasure at a library book sale some time ago, its pages yellowed and worn with age, but you can not fail to note the quality in its original form; the story of Cornelli  has a semblance to Heidi, so how could it not be an enjoyable read? 

a birthday that satisfies

“I'm so glad you're here, Anne,' said Miss Lavendar, nibbling at her candy. 'If you weren't I should be blue…very blue…almost navy blue. Dreams and make-believes are all very well in the daytime and the sunshine, but when dark and storm come they fail to satisfy. One wants real things then. But you don't know this…seventeen never knows it. At seventeen dreams do satisfy because you think the realities are waiting for you further on.” 
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea


She turned seventeen today.

 Turning seventeen deems celebrations and such stretching out into more than one day. A small part of this day included a stop to the newly opened Biggby Coffee because she was itching to give their mango smoothies a try and I was itching to make a simple dream come true.

She was a princess in all our eyes from the start. She proves that prayers are answered in the most astounding ways especially noted when a daughter is born just five days before her parents twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.

She certainly has her share of dreams and I'm glad she does. Thankfully, some of the realities of these past months have in fact not clouded her expectations of the future but instead have begun to create a perdurable cord waiting to be twisted and strengthened into something wondrous and far-reaching, the stuff that real dreams are made of.

"LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly." Psalm 5:3

Happy Birthday dear Charlotte!

                                                                       

a healthy homemade mouthwash

To take the time to make certain cleansing or personal  products at home can be experiments in themselves. I find some are not worth the time or effort, but this homemade mouthwash is easy to make with simple ingredients and works great. 

Mouthwash:

1 cup filtered water

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

 2 teaspoons baking soda

7 drops of liquid stevia

5 drops of peppermint oil

5 drops of clove oil

1/8 teaspoon vanilla

I just mix all ingredients together with a whisk until dissolved and then funnel it into a pretty jar to set on my bathroom counter. (If your water is cold you may consider warming  it before adding the salt so it will dissolve better.)