Saturday Catch-Up

71°f/21.7°C, mostly cloudy all day. Very humid, high of 88. Not a day to be outside---again.

This has without doubt been a miserable summer, and apparently we can't expect much of a change for the next week. Honestly,  I am very much looking forward to our trip to Colorado in September! 

I should not complain though, considering all the floods, the tornadoes, and the terrible earthquakes in the past month. The whole of Earth seems to be reeling from one cataclysmic event or another, while we have just had heat, rain, humidity, and a few fallen trees. Counting my blessings and sending my heartfelt sympathies across the sky to all the places suffering.

Yesterday was booth day, but we just did Ravenswood this time. I am trying to just do one location at a time if we can, as I don't get nearly as worn out that way. I mainly worked on that one messy booth; it looks a bit better but I am still not happy with it.

Before:

After:

Afterwards we met granddaughter Hannah at the Artisan Market for a very late lunch. She had sweet little Sutton with her. Such a little doll baby. And a little sleepyhead! He is about 6 weeks old now. 

After lunch Hannah went with us to the farmers market. It was miserably hot but we strolled around visiting friends who were vendors, and I picked up some fresh eggs. (I am sorely missing my hens; we will get more when we return from Colorado.) It was a very nice way to end our day.

I went out to the garden today for about 30 minutes to pick a few squash, some basil and onions, and some zinnias that had been knocked over by the wind. By the time I came back inside I was completely soaked with sweat. Larry worked in the garage all afternoon and how he stood it I don't know. He came in literally dripping, and had to strip on the porch. It's a good thing we live out of sight of all other humanity,  as porch-stripping has been the order of the day this summer!

A few photos from my wildly messy garden. 

This was the cucumber arbor, but they blighted (too much rain), so this zucchini is taking over. Mind, this was supposed to be bush zucchini! Apparently no one told it what it was supposed to do. There's also a volunteer tomato plant twining in amongst the rampant zucchini too.

Same thing is happening on the other side of the arbor. I think there is one surviving cucumber plant. Deer got in and ate my second planting of cucumbers, so we are done for this year. Disappointing. 

At the other end of the garden, the butternut squash, which was also supposed to be a bush variety, ran amok and is covered with squash. I counted at least 14, but there are no doubt more hidden under the leaves.

Beside the butternuts, the peppers are doing quite well despite the rain. There were supposed to be bell peppers in there, but apparently these were also mislabeled because all I have found are banana peppers. This mislabeled of plants and seeds has gotten worse every year since 2020. I am not sure why but it's very annoying.

This is a volunteer swiss chard that has gone somehow from one plant to about four. I have no clue how that happened, unless there were dormant seeds that decided to sprout? No idea, but they are all welcome.

Crazy old garden year, but we have harvested plenty, so I am not complaining. Every year is different, with some things doing well and others failing. I am just grateful to have the space to grow as much or as little as I want.

While I was outside, I went up the little bank outside my kitchen window to photograph a wild flower I had seen from the window. It came complete with a bug---a katydid, I think?

I don't recall ever seeing this one before. It has a rather suggestive Latin name: clitoria mariana, but its common names are butterfly pea and Atlantic pigeon wings. I think I prefer butterfly pea! I had asked Larry not to mow this area, just to see what might come up. I may do the same next year. It's a little messy, but no one can see it except us anyway.

Yesterday morning I came up with a pretty good hack for keeping a quiche from being too runny if I use fresh tomatoes in it: I just spread about 1/4 cup of uncooked quick oats in the partially baked piecrust. Then I layered the sliced tomatoes, some chopped garlic chives and torn basil, then parmesan and cheddar cheeses, then poured in the egg mixture (4 eggs, a couple tablespoons of mayo, a couple of the same of milk, and salt and pepper). Baked at 350° for about 20 minutes. It was not runny at all, and the oats were undetectable. 

I used one yellow and one black tomato, and this cut portion shows where the yellow tomato is, kinda hard to see. The juice on the plate is from the sliced tomatoes we had on the side. Still lots of tomatoes that need to be used up ASAP.

Other things I have been up to: sorting out my dresser drawers and a couple cabinets in the kitchen. I also sorted more books and emptied a bookshelf in the bedroom as I continue downsizing our little pockets of storage. Storage, I find, translates to "keeping stuff we no longer need, just in case we might need it again". Given our age, I am being more realistic about just what we can or want to do in the coming years. 

I also painted this cabinet that we picked up at a thrift the other day.  I have no idea why this photo looks so strange. Trust me, it does not have weird dotted lines around it!

I think this is made for storage of cans and jars in the kitchen, maybe?

I am reading a book that I think one of you Blogger friends recommended:

It is the best book I have read since A Gentleman in Moscow. The writing is exquisite,  and I find myself reading slowly to savor every word, description,  and especially the gentle, spot-on humor. Set in County Clare in Ireland, it takes me right back to our visit there in 2017, and now I am longing to go back. 

Well, that's about all that has been going on around here. Tomorrow I need to get those tomatoes and zucchini dealt with so I will be back in the kitchen. More rain is on the way; maybe it will break the humidity. Til next time!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Aftermath

66°f/19°C, mostly sunny. What a nice change!

We didn't escape the storms completely unscathed. This tree seems to have been hit by lightning, as it was split right down its side, then I guess the lightning exited near the base, and broke it enough to fall across the driveway.

We were on our way out, so Larry got the chainsaw and cut it up, and we dragged the pieces out of the way. It will make good firewood this winter. On the way home another tree had fallen across the ridge road, but we were able to get around it. We got the saw, went back and cut that one out of the way too. 

We saw several places along the road where neighbors had had to do the same thing, but fortunately no homes were hurt. The water did get pretty high, but no flooded houses on our road, thank goodness. These photos were taken by a neighbor.

It was a close call; on more storm would have caused damage like that in Roseville and Crooksville, Ohio. We have been to Roseville several times. It's the historic home of the beautiful Roseville pottery. I hope those buildings were not hurt as I think there are some that are still standing.

It is odd how such weather affects us, or at least me. Perhaps you are the same: I find myself unable to focus or get involved in any project. It's like I am waiting for the other shoe to drop; if I try to read, I find myself glancing up repeatedly to look outside, then re-reading the same passages several times over. I feel unsettled and on edge, and it takes a while after things return to normal for me to regain my usual calm self.

So I decided to price stuff for the booths, which while it takes some concentration,  it does so in short spurts because most of the work is simple--clean the item if needed, write the tag, wrap it up. Concentration is needed only for those things that require research. This sweet embroidered tablecloth was in the "to be priced" pile, but I decided it should go on ebay 

This rose bravely bloomed after the storms. Such a beauty, and so far still hanging in there. The heavy rain and winds beat down most of my flowers. 

Today Derek came over to help Larry load up his mower to take to the shop, again. I was so grateful as last Spring I had to help load that thing and it aboyt killed me it was so heavy. I started painting a little cabinet, and made a tomato rice soup that is downright yummy, just brown rice, diced kielbasa, sliced carrots from the garden, and a jar of our salsa, topped with Mexican blend grated cheese.

A friend shared this. Do you think it will hold true? 

And a few funnies I have seen lately:

My cousins took this photo while they were traveling somewhere out West:

Rain and thunderstorms are expected to return tonight, so better laugh while we can!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Stormy

66°f/19°C, overcast and storming.

This is craziness. It stormed badly yesterday, then again all night. After a brief break, it started again around 11am and hasn't stopped. 

Poor Pip is terrified. He won't even take a treat. He seems to feel better with this heavy rug over him. At least he laid down, where before he just sat in that corner and trembled.

Here is a short clip of this morning's storm. We could hardly see outside, the rain was falling so hard. I worried about our trees.

This happened yesterday at a friend's house. 

It destroyed her deck and her pool. There are many trees down all over our county, a lot of downed power lines and flooded roads. I am hoping no one's home has been flooded.

Currently it is still thundering and showering, but the sky is clearing. More rain and storms are expected tonight. Our power has flickered but except for a couple hours yesterday it has amazingly remained on. Counting our blessings!