spring is in the air

feels more like summer. i swear! it must be close to 80° out there today!

took the camera out to the garden today. it's really coming along. all the construction is done. ken got the fence up and as soon as he's done working on baby mac's crib he'll build a gate and an arbor. it's going to be great.

i was supposed to take it easy today, my back has been misbehaving badly but the day was calling me. the sunshine, the birdsong. how was i supposed to stay indoors? i walked around the yard for a bit, scoping things out. looking at everything coming up all over. it's always fun to see what makes it from one season to the next. we have hostas galore! lilies, tulips, the astilbe that i thought died last year is up, better than ever. and we even have one tiny little fern. ken's going to be happy about that.

i sat in the garden for a bit and plotted things out in my mind - the best place for all the sunflowers, how we have room for a table and a couple of chairs out there. i couldn't resist getting my hands dirty so i took the zinnia sproutlings we started a few weeks ago and got them settled in their new bed. and i planted a few rows of seeds too, just to have some rotation in my cut flower bed. have i mentioned yet how i have no idea what i'm doing?

i also transplanted some poppies. we'll see. i've heard they don't move well. i watered them and now i wait. hopefully ken won't dig them up mistaking them for a weed in my garden. i think perhaps we need a new garden rule - anything inside the fence he doesn't mess with. oh, and grizz has discovered he can fit through certain slats in the fence. we may need to do something about that before we have a little grizzly bear nibbling on our goodies.

for now that's it. the major veggies should go in the ground in the next few weeks. i'm really excited. i love my garden. i think it's going to be a great place to relax and enjoy the summer.

what's good for the goose

the garden girls got a late start yesterday. ken had hauled all the dirt to the beds for us so with nothing to do we headed out to the green market at the creamery. i didn't even realized they had vendors year-round. when the weather turns bad they move the market up to the red barn. i love it! it's so charming with the bales of straw pushed aside for the local merchants peddling their wares.

it was fresh eggs that caught my eye yesterday. goose eggs to be exact. i've never had a goose egg. maybe never even seen one before this weekend. and today, i had one one for breakfast and made this absolutely luscious ice cream for dessert:

(you're gonna want to click to embiggen)

goose eggs are amazing. first of all they are twice as large as a hen egg. heavy too. their thick shells don't give in easily. i can't recommend frying these babies up. the whites stayed translucent and were quite rubbery. but the yolk! i had toast points and a dippy goose egg for breakfast. it was good.

in reading what i could find online today, goose eggs are to chicken eggs what goose meat is to chicken meat. meaning goose eggs are fattier and richer than hen laid eggs. twas certainly true in my ice-cream!

I took Nigella Lawson's custard recipe, my two goose eggs (plus one double-yolked fresh chicken egg) and ended up with the most wonderfully creamy concoction ever.

I'll call this two goose egg vanilla bean ice cream. Check out Nigella's How to Eat for the custard instructions.

and check out your local markets for your own goosey goodness.

you should smell like dirt

according to Margaret Atwood, anyway. "In spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." and we do!

the garden girls came over yesterday and we made good progress in the garden.

this first shot is the shade garden off the back patio. that big pine stump in the center will soon be covered in wisteria. my cousin's husband gave me a few seed pods from his brother's vine and i brought them home and planted them. it's slow to bloom but when it does! the lavender blossoms drop like clusters of grapes from the vine. and they are unbelievably fragrant. hope i live to see it! when i said it's slow to bloom, i wasn't kidding - it can take upwards of ten years! but -so- worth the wait.

my hard-working man and his best friend.

and garden progress!

the girls dug out the beds while i cut down scrap fencing panels to create our little garden fence. we're all so excited about this garden. ken is going to help me finish the fence today and then we start talking dirt!

here's a shot of the cold-frame/compost bin ken built. cami gave us the windows and in no time at all i had a mini green house! the frame to the side of the cold-frame will hold my compost. i may build it up with wire fencing if i need to, but for now, this works.

and how about some knitting? i started this dishcloth last night as a little breather from the wrap i'm knitting. needed something mindless. can't believe i waited so long to try this simple pattern. it knits up lickety split!

and the wrap:

it's lovely, but knitting one big thing can get a little tedious. it's featured on the cover of debbie bliss' premiere issue knitting magazine. i think it's called a summer wrap. simple knit. yarn is lorna's laces (i think) and it's a dove grey (my description, not their colorway).

i've been summoned to fix my hard-working man some sustinance. it's what i do. now go get your hands dirty! but wash them before you pick up your knitting. :)

california dreamin

meet new baby alex. my cousin timmy's son. i hogged him the whole time we visited.

my cousin cristi and i enjoying the warm california sun:

my mom after the big reveal. we planned a 70th surprise party for her and this was after the shock of seeing all her kids in the same room.

me and my new baby, ginger. :)

more soon. . .

a smartass is better than a dumbass

and boy did we raise a smart one. ken had pulled in the driveway sort of kattywompus and made if difficult for girl-child to back my car out of the garage. she scolded him and he just laughed as if to say, "i'll park where i want."

when ken and i got home from an errand the other day, this is the sight that greeted us at the end of our driveway:

she makes us laugh, that one. thanks, roo.

garden girls

i'm hoping i don't find it too difficult to knit with my new-found green thumbs.

i know some knitters who also like to grow stuff. we got together and made it a group effort. in my back yard. meet the garden girls: heather and trista.

i had to include this shot. see little fatboy in the back there?

and heather, pondering our work:

it's pretty exciting. a few weeks ago we had a planning meeting to plot out the space and list everything each of us wanted to grow. the next time we got together was our first work day. the three of us cut and built all the beds for our garden. we're going to recycle some old fencing to keep the dogs out and i'm going to build a cold frame with connected compost bin. i've even been looking at chicken coops. so if you ever run short on fresh, brown eggs, i'm your girl.

damn. i'm going to be living right off the land! kinda cool. :)

so if you need me this summer, i'll be in my chair, knitting, as the garden grows.

the patterns are calling

do you ever see a hank of yarn somewhere and know it's destiny is to become a pair of mittens for your niece, or a hat for your brother? or see a certain print of fabric and know it is meant to be an apron for your sister?

sometimes projects appear on my to-do list this way. and sometimes the creation comes first and i don't know why i made it other than i wanted to and later the recipient appears.

other times i meet someone and think, "i want to make a ________ for this friend."

this is the way it happened with a girl ken works with. she's having her first baby and this is my favorite thing to make a new baby. well, this and these.

knitting, papercrafts and babies!

paper teaser

darling friends of ours are having their first baby this year. i love making this little baby album.

here's a little teaser, Elizabeth!

baa (and brrr!)

my friend heather and i took a field trip to a sheep farm in central indiana. it was bloody cold out! we get used to some 60° weather here in the midwest then BAM! mother nature puts us back in our place. the bitch.

we had a great time in spite of the cold. i loved seeing these little tufts of green grass coming up. and the promises of daffodils.

i thought this next shot couldn't have been better if i'd said, "ok, you with the dark face, you stand over here. rusty, you stand here and you girls get in front." it was crazy how they stood there for the longest time almost posing.

yeah, we're pretty. and we knows it.

afterward, zander, the chopstick master, taught me how to use chopsticks. for reals.

he rocks. :)

latest rabbit hole

Dollar Store Crafts. Because money doesn't grow on trees.

Look at the cool stuff:

this candle tutorial rocked my world!

I'm -so- doing this for our summer bash this year!