bee creative

friday field notes #14 on saturday

Seasons don't really arrive with the calendar, they don't even stay committed in my mind.  This week there was summer again.  The high was over 80 F for two days this week.  And then, "poof" (to quote Jude) it was fall again...rain, wind, temperatures lower than 50 F.

The Aurora Borealis was visible here one night.  

Oh I wish I had been awake to see it.

...

I had an early day from work one day this week and Mom and Dad were able to help me pick up a bale of hay for the chicken pen.  The hay keeps it from becoming a mud pit.  There was time to make tomato sauce, plum sauce, and an apple crisp. 

My favorite crisp topping comes from a Tom Douglas cookbook:  1/3 cup oats, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, cinnamon, and 3 tablespoons butter. This is enough for a small crisp.  (P.S. If I had to choose 10 cookbooks out of my collection to keep, this would be one of them.)

There are still summer flavors to be found...eggs and tomatoes from the garden; zucchini and potatoes from the farmer's market.  The chickens are laying about 6 eggs a week.  Actually just the right amount for me. 

I've picked the quince and most of the grapes.  There are still a few apples left to harvest.

...

Morning commute has had it's highlights.

 

Most mornings I saw 6 or 7 deer as I walked from bus stop to work.  According to the local paper we have a deer problem and the local officials would like people to stop feeding the deer.  Somehow to me that translates to more fences or pull up the landscaping and pave the gardens and yards.... 

 

Sunrise: 7:09

Sunset: 6:50

This is seriously limiting Lola's time in the garden as I won't let her out when it is dark.  I have a gate for the back deck and all the edges are enclosed so that I can keep her on the porch. (The salmon on the gate were made by my father.)  Lola doesn't quite believe me that there might be wild beasts out there.

"To the Unseeable Animal" by Wendell Berry:  That we do not know you is your perfection and our hope.  The darkness keeps us near you."

 

 

field notes # 13

This week it was cold enough to consider turning the heat on. 

Cold enough that another blanket was added to the bedtime layers.

Cold enough that it mattered that Lola steals blankets. 

I'm making a winter coat.

It has a flannel layer for warmth and silk lining for ease. 

I did have to pick apart the seams of the lining for the front. 

I broke my don't sew when tired rule and did some silly,

one of those right side to right side but it was really the wrong side things.

The silk was dyed in onion skin. 

I still have lots of interior stitching to do before wearing. 

One of the weekend projects....

Sunrise: 6:58, Sunset:  7:04

Low tonight 49 F

Tomorrow I may turn on the heat. 

 

 

friday field notes #12

 

(altered)

6:33 AM Out feeding the chickens.  Cool morning, 42 F.  Made me glad I picked most of the tomatoes Wednesday night.  I added a second blanket to the layers last night.  It's time to pull my favorite wool sweater out. 

 

(altered)

• Added "pick apples", along with the grapes to the to-do list for tomorrow, before the rain comes on Sunday.

Fermentation indigo vat is producing more blue tones then purple.  I'll be bringing it inside tonight.  The lows for the next week are around 50 F.  I have a few more indigo leaves to play with for fresh dye.

I've been considering how spun yarn might be a form of field note...

friday field notes #11

There was thunder, lightning and rain!

It started just after I got off the bus to complete the trip from bus stop to work, about a 10 minute walk.  No rain coat and I got wet.  It was glorious! Hopefully it helped with the wildfires in the area.  Weather, like most things, always seems to be about moderation...

The rain brought the fall crocus up and out. A season marker for me each fall.

I'm not collecting anymore Calendula for salve.  Instead the flowers are turning to seeds. Thinking of next year. 

 

 

considering labor + a few field notes

Good enough.  It's supposed to rain by the end of the week.  I have been learning about weather today.  Tomorrow will tie the record for longest stretch of days without a "wetting rain." Not a term I'd heard before today.  A wetting rain is considered anything over .10 of inch of rain and is what is considered enough to reduce fire danger.  From May until September we normally have 6.75 inches of rain, this year it's been 1.75.  It's so dry the bindweed is dying. 

Today was a record high of 86 F.  The dew point is 61 F, which according to the article I was reading is considered on the edge of "quite uncomfortable, very humid" and "extremely uncomfortable, oppressive."   

And with all of this... I feel lucky. There is much to be thankful for. 

Today's labor and the fruit of earlier day's:

Apples and grapes harvested from the garden.  I'll be making applesauce tomorrow. (I have an extra day off work.)  There are two types of apples in the basket, King and Rubinette.  I planted the King apple and the grape within a year or two of having moved here. 

My favorite shovel.  Bought at a garage sale almost twenty years ago. 

Finally a bowl full of tomatoes.  Abundance!

The beginning of a blanket, spinning and knitting.  The wool is all local, thinking of the raising of the sheep and alpaca (the dark brown), the shearing, the processing to clean and card and dye.  The labor that comes before mine.

And sewing.  There is labor before mine here too.  The making of the fabric itself, the independently owned (although not local) business that stocked the fabric and that I ordered the fabric from. 

There are no more local stores that sell anything other than quilting fabrics here.  I suppose it's possible that one of my relatives may have shopped at one of the stores that I ordered my fabric from at some point so perhaps I can imagine a connection. 

And of course... I'll be wearing this to work.

 

friday field notes #10 (on saturday morning)

In the garden:

There will be no winter squash.  They have bloomed but nothing set fruit early enough to ripen.  The one tiny squash that did start to form was eaten by something. 

There has been a steady supply of zucchini, tomatoes, Swiss chard and lemon cucumbers.  The things I like the best. 

There will be grapes soon.  The high heat forecast for next week should assure that.  Apples and pears soon too. 

Some of the glass panes have fallen out of the wall of windows that I built several years ago.  I like that some have glass, some don't.  I'm going to look at caulking the remaining glass to see if that will help keep things together. 

I like the word "caulking."

We've had two cooler days but no rain.  They were a relief. 

This weekend I will use up the majority of my fresh indigo.  I started a new fermentation vat last weekend.  I'm thinking it will like the forecast for next week too.... 

 

On hot days I tend to eat fruit and cheese.

Or simple things like cous-cous + cucumber + tomatoes + goat cheese + walnuts + red pepper with olive oil and lemon juice.

On one of the cooler days I added an egg to the cous-cous mixture and fried it as patties.  Yum! 

This might have been the last California avocado.  I will miss them if that is so.

When I made a promise to myself to eat as local as possible I never really considered that meant eating so much more seasonally. It actually took me two  years to realize that was the pattern I'd fallen into. 

Wild life sightings: Wednesday I watched two male hummingbirds chase each other around the garden. 

Also I'm considering how squirrels can run down something vertically?