I love these days, long walks in the bright weather and there was even a pile of gold in the scruffy garden... So beautiful!

a batch of peaches

a batch of peaches
Originally uploaded by Svarrer.

I will celebrate the last batch of peaches for the freezer by tackling that big box of tomatoes waiting their turn.
On my way out to the storage shed to get the canning jars, I was sure I could already smell Fall. It's still deep August for heaven's sake...where did the usual "dog days" heat go this year? Normally we have at least two weeks of stupifying heat about this time of year. It's been hot, but it surely hasn't been "dog days" hot here.
Tomatoes!! Remind me to plant even more basil next year!!

Our daily bread.....

Our daily bread.....
Originally uploaded by Svarrer.

When I get time, I will write out my recipe. This makes really nice bread without taking all day to do it.
Tomorrow I have black grapes to put up! They were just a little tart for snacking on, so we'll have some very good jam. I would love to get more fresh tomatoes to put up as well, with basil, thyme and oregano from the herb garden. It's just so good!

Henhouse gossip

There is great wisdom to be found in the henhouse sometimes. And always take a flashlight if you are late gathering eggs. This is the male (we think, he's smaller than the female) kingsnake that keeps an eye on things in the chicken yard. We have no field mice in the feed bins, and far less poisonous snakes than we'd have without him and the big female snake. The hens don't mind the two snakes at all, and it's surprisingly comforting that the two snakes don't mind us humans either. They are amazingly trusting and allow us to carefully move them and drape them on whatever is nearby.


On the other hand, the fuzzyface predator that sometimes shows up has to be relocated to a more remote and safer area. Live traps are so nice!

Tour de Fleece Ravelry

Yep, I'm signing up for this! Every day the bicycle wheels are turning, I'll be spinning too.

Today was lovely, I spent it playing with yarn. I dyed a few bits with food coloring gel, just for fun. It's good for pastels.
I turned it into fluffs to spin...it's so..pettable! So far, I have one spool of singles done. Tomorrow the two littlest grandchildren will spend the day with us while their parents and siblings go to Six Flags, so there will be no spinning until this weekend, but I have 800 yards of Merino dyed a soft mango that wants to be a lacy thing. I can plan just which lacy thing!

I admit it...I have been in a daze of spinning, knitting and yarnish plotting. It's Spring and I'm recovering nicely from the Winter's cozy dreams. We put the herb garden goodies up..or out..or whichever it is. It's sort of raised bed style and I'll have room to stuff quite a lot of kitchen love in it. I have no idea why my Dear One insists on containing the herbs, left to my own methods, the herbs would be wildly expanding and exuberantly elbowing each other for the choicest spaces.

Well, maybe that's why he keeps confining it.

That aside, I want to make something worthy of entering in the Fall fair. That means presenting something to show by July. The problem I have is that I can't decide just what I want to make, but I'm pretty sure I'll know...by August when it's too late to enter. There's probably some psychological deep meaning to this conundrum.

My solution is just to knit and if I happen to create something I want to enter in the Fair, I guess I'll do that. I'm stumped for my next project tho. I want to do a man's vest in the lovely grey yarn in my stash...but there's only 3 skeins of it and I can't match it. I have a little of everything and not nearly enough of anything. I would spin something nice, but I want to make the vest washable and not pure wool this time.

I must think about this.