How does my garden grow?

Just thought I would take a slow hot summer night to catch up on some fun garden pics.

My garden in May:

I am so thankful to the old owners of my apartment building becuase they planted some beautiful perrenials. Two peony plants which almost took turns blooming.

They were so beautiful to look at.

And flowering bushes that smell as good as they look. This mystery plant started to bloom right about when the lilacs petered out.

And irises and chives and mint and so much more!

And our tomato plants are growing, although I was worried about them with the prolonged cold weather....

My Garden in June:

This little plant popped up, which I think might be a wild strawberry plant, but we'll see.
This tall cane-like grass is very prolific and the purple flowers are pretty!
Check out the gate, where's the fence you might ask? The land lord took it out, I think to put in...

...this huge storage unit. I wonder if it will ever leave. Luckily Stanley is mostly trained to stay in the yard.

And my tomato plants are HUGE!!! Although with the cold wet weather some started developing black spots on their leaves. So I quarenteened them to the other side of the yard, hoping that it would get warm and they would get better.

The rain also flattened some of that tall cane-grass!

Time also causes the flowers to lose their blooms...

But as one plant loses it's flowers, another one starts to bloom. My tomato plants are doing much better in the warmer weather and I am happy to say have started to bloom!

Look forward to eating them!!!

Spring is Coming

It may be rainy and cold, it may even snow, but these little buds tell be that Spring is finally on it's way. They are tiny and delicate, they break at the lightest brush, but they are beautiful promises of warm, green days to come.

Every year I try to capture the first flowers I see, usually in someone's front yard as I walk to the train, but this year these were found in my Mom's garden. I am on my third week of coming and going and trying to enjoy it.

This week has been decidedly springy, besides little flowers...

There were more little baby things to ooh and aah over. Paula had Lester bring a tupper of Grandma knits. I liked this bonnet, so cute. I got to keep a couple different items to use for patterns. Although most of them are in pretty good shape, the acryllic yarn isn't exactly en vogue. I look forward to sharing more of them as I reknit them.

Another sure sign of spring is all the dog bathing that's been going on. Stanley got his back home and I gave Mom's dogs a bath. They sure look pretty and shiny in the sunshine.

And when Paula's Bianca came, it didn't take long for her to get good and muddy and into the sink she went, too.

We celebrated the coming of spring and Mom getting better with Margarita and Chips!

Our favorite! We EAT IT UP. And drink it up too. Paula don't even eat anything but the chips with ranch (and a little salsa mixed in). My friend Shannon would call that Texan Style, I think. It was fun and yummy and a great way to celebrate this rainy spring.

Hangin' at Mom's

My mom is recovering from a hysterectomy. It was an aggressive treatment for some rogue pre-cancerous cells. We are happy she took this route. But now she is stuck at home for six weeks. Well, one down, five more to go. She is doing VERY well. The only thing she needs help with is getting in and out of her bed. So here I am helping out all the days I can (about 3 a week), but her big sis, my aunt, Paula is here for the first 11 days and my sister comes by too, so she has lots of people around her helping, with more to come.

I have to say I love spending time with Mom. And when Paula is around, that's a bonus. So although I wish she hadn't needed the surgery, I am glad I am able to come and help and spend time with them.

Especially since it is the perfect enviroment for craftiness...

My big sis, Julie, has started keeping all her scrapbooking stuff at mom's, so I am treating this as the perfect opportunity to work on Erin's Wedding Scrapbook, my wedding gift to her. I am making good progress, have 11 pages done so far.

And then there's the knitting...

Hours of tv we all love, Bargin Hunters, CSI, Let's Make a Deal and MYSTERY!, are very condusive to knitting. I have made this pair of socks for Mike...

...And one of a pair for Mom

Paula is a sewing machine...

She makes adorable soft flannel blanket for people having babies, which there always seems to be lately

And cross stitches, too.

I am excited about this one, becuase she is making it for me. A cross stitch version of Van Gough's Cypress Trees, I CAN"T WAIT to frame it for my living room.

We are getting mom into it too, between naps.

These "Puzzle Balls" have been a family favorite for years, we just call it a "Baby Ball." Mom got the pattern years ago in New Hampshire at a quilting shop. Now it is in this great book, "Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts" by Joelle Hoverson.

And let's not forget the food. Talking about it, making it and eating it. I love being with the women in my family because we like to plan what we will be eating over the next couple days. Every meal or found recipe is an opportunity. I love that. So when I found a recipe for "Prune Bread," they said make it, make it! And so I did.

And it was good. The recipe made two loaves, the second of which will be coming home with me to share at my Stitch n Bitch this sunday.

That wasn't all the good food, there were oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, stuffed potatoes, meatloaf sandwiches and more. Best of all, I'd have to say, was when Julie's husband Jeremi made crab legs, lobster tails and shrimp for Julie's birthday, yummy.

But no blog about Mom's would be complete with out a pic of Josie...

Modelling my new baby bib design. She's such a cutie, such a sport.

This year for Lent

Lent is a foreign concept to me. Growing up secular as I did, I had only been to a church a handful of times, mostly for weddings and funerals. We celebrated Easter and Christmas like all other secular families, but lent was something that I felt sorry for other kids for having to do. And was a little put off by the way that they treated it. Eating fish on friday and giving up pop or chocolate seemed kind of silly and unrelated. As I have gotten older, I have heard stories about the power of fasting and refraining as an act of faith and devotion, it makes more sense. But even with that knowledge, "giving somthing up" for lent seems silly. So for the past few years I try to do something a little different, I try to better myself intellectually. I know it's not much of a act of devotion to do something that appeals to me, mainly, reading. But although I love to read, devoting myself to a subject matter to learn more about it or about a group of people is enlightening and makes me feel connected.
So, with varying degrees of sucess, I read books that deal with religion. That will show me somthing new about faith. I don't always suceed at doing this ALL the way through Lent, sometimes deciding one book was enough that year. I don't always find things I want to read, just as I know those teenagers would decide their Hostess cupcake wasn't REALLY chocolate, I guess we all slip up. I count Lamb, for example, which is a work of fiction, but definitly gets me to think about religion. But mostly it's memoirs: priests, monks, nuns, jews both reformed and orthodox all the way to new age hippie types like Anne Lamont. I'm sure there's way more out there to read and learn, but this year I am going to do something different.

We have been talking a lot about how being enviromental and "green" is a very christian way to be. I have also been lucky enough to get an apartment with a yard and a raised bed in the middle of it. It already has raspberries and rhubarb and horseradish. I would like to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, peas and beans. I hope. But first I want to read about living and eating locally and all the theory and fact behind the locavore movement. Yes, that's right the new vegatarian. Locavores eat animals and vegtables, but only if it was raised in their county/state. I'm blown away by this. First of all virtually impossible here in chicago, where cook county is mostly urban, and even our farmer's markets are peopled by farmers from out of state (Michigan and Wisconsin and Indiana). But it does make me want to think more about where my food comes from.

So above is my current reading list, topped by my notebook of notes. I hope to grow seedlings with the help of a friend, but am also afraid it is too late for that now. I may have to buy my seedlings. It's exciting and crazy and there's a lot to learn. The list of things to read goes on: The Omnivores Dilemma, Month by Month Gardening in Illinois are two that I need to get from the library ASAP. I could also pick up our copy of Fast Food Nation, but I have already given up fast food, so I am going to stick to these others first.

So learning more about this basic human need and my favorite thing, food, is my Lent devotional.

Are you doing anything for Lent?

Ska Goodness and Lent

This hat has been in the works for about two months. This is actually the first one, yes I actually made two. The first was too small and too cute to take apart, so I made another, bigger one:
This is Jason K, we went to high school together and he asked me to make a black and white checked earflap hat. He is a big ska fan and b/w checkers is VERY ska. I am very glad to have acutally finished and gotten his hat to him. He is very pleased and has already expressed interest in a second punky hat. I'm glad it turned out alright, even if it did take two months. Although it looks a little big, next time I'll really get it right...

Baby Heirlooms

One last day in Indiana, so we brought up the two HUGE tuppers of baby clothes that mom has been holding onto. Come to find out there was more than baby clothes. Some favorite children's books, blankets, even a couple of mom's old Halloween costumes. But mostly clothes.

A lot of them knit by my great grandma. I now have all of ther patterns and notes am excited to try and find these among them.

I just took pictures of the knits that Julie liked, so I would be able to try and recreate them in non-acryllic. Becuase although acryllic can be useful in a blend, it doesn't stay soft forever, especially after going throught the drier. Anyway...this sweater look familiar knitters!?! Very like the baby kimono pattern we are all addicted to from Mason Dixon Knitting.

I love this stitch, reminds me of raspberries, but simplier and less bumpy. Julie loves it too.

The cable edging on this wrap-style sweater was a big hit with Julie.

Can you see the seed stitch and cabling on this little number? Adorable. Cardigans were big for my grandma aparantly. I understand. Cardigans are my favorite thing to wear, so versitle.

Love the details on these booties, this picture was for me. Would love to try and remake these...

This waffle knit makes for a VERY warm sweater. Just ask my friend Jane, who used it with mohair, practically unwearable, it was so warm. But a cute way to use two colors and make a not so warm yarn warm.

LOVE LOVE LOVE this capelet, those little arm slits! Adorable. Aparantly this was a special request by mom for toddlers Julie and Tina. And the poncho too:

How cute to hear the store behind these items. And to know my great grandma felt closer to us by knitting them, just as I hope to feel closer to Julie's little one by knitting for her. But don't worry these heirlooms won't be put aside, I will only knit one or two things, they will get worn and loved by another generation. Even the crazy crocheted clown.

Yes, still Christmas.

I am so far behind!!! But the Christmas in Indiana was extremely late this year. Almost a month after Christmas. And although things have been happening since then, I have been too distracted to do things like remember my camera. But I am going to get caught up so I can tell you about what is happening NOW guilt-free.

So CHRISTMAS...
Can you find the cat? Apparently she likes to arrange herself in with mom's decorations and be cute.

One big feature of our time at Mom's was the snow:

LOTS of it. They had a bunch to begin with, but then we brought a blizzard with us too, so it got pretty deep. So deep that the day we had our "Christmas Morning" much of the city had a snow day and closed down.

The dogs loved the snow, but mostly kept to the beaten paths, although Joche is back there plowing in a one... Stanley would have been happy if we would have just left him outside all day, a real snow dog.

I didn't get many good pics of gift-opening. I was excited to get the stainless steel pans and the dutch oven I wanted. And mom got a detail job for her car as well as her very own digital camera. Julie and Jeremi were happy to not get ALL baby stuff, although I think the onsie I tie-dyed was the cutest gift. Mike got a couple books and ALL of the Office DVDs. I hope he finds time when I'm gone that he can watch them. But the best gift, every year is...

Pure maple syrup. Two quarts, which is enough to last us the whole year, without watering it down with the cheap stuff! YUM!!!

But better than the gifts was being snowed in together, no where to go, just hang out, eat food and play games. And nap occassionally.

Why is it that every dog loves Stanley's bed!?! He only minds a little. He doesn't like laying in it when it smells like another dog. Gets all snobby about it. Which is kinda cute too.

Well I guess not ALL dogs fit, Joche tried, but it was decidedly too small, and he is too old to curl up into it. I wonder if I will ever have a post about visiting mom without talking about the dogs...Well hope you holiday season was as filled with joy as ours, even if your didn't last as long as ours!