My secret life of indiscreet discretions

Ugh, it is for days like today that god invented cigarettes.

Loud, argumentative kids, dog puke all over the house, hormones, etc. Nothing too major, but it all adds up.

Trey and I have both been feeling very touchy for the past few days. We're not having problems between us, but we are each feeling rather stressed by other things, and since neither of us is in a particularly good place, we can't really support each other right now. We are also communicating poorly/testily. When one or the other of us gets out of sorts, it's not that big of a deal. When both of us go, it's dangerous. I think I'm going to try to lay low and focus on my work for the next few days. Either that, or just drink a lot of wine. ;)

I am supposed to make a cherry pie today. I am not feeling it. I'm going to do it anyway, in no small part because it's hard to be frustrated and angsty when you are eating gorgeous homemade pie.

I've had a lazy day after a decadent night out with my girls. Starrie made a surprise appearance, which was nice. She, Malia, Lylith and I formed quite the pack. Lots of strong woman energy there. I got invited to their annual camping trip later this month, and I happily accepted.

Trey is off looking at a new bike for Jaden. He's already ready for an upgrade from the bike we got him last summer! This bike has 24" wheels and should suit him for the next three years or so.

Trey was gifted with tickets to the Mount Baker Theater's Summer Repertory series, so next weekend we get to see plays on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I wish we could afford to see more live theater, but I'm glad that we get out at least once a year to a show or two.

Okay, I gotta go. River is insisting that I start knitting his fish hat RIGHT NOW, and I am going to humor him.

I leave you with this fun cover of Come On, Eileen.

Well, Vida hates hates HATES the new kitten. She won't even come home much anymore, and just does a dine and dash when she shows up. :( We think we're going to have to adopt the new kitten out, since we can't do anything to make this less of a home to Vida. It's been several weeks now and things are getting worse, not better. Looks like she just wants to be a single cat, which isn't surprising considering that's how she was raised, but we were hoping she'd warm to the little beast.

The good news is, the kids' dad has been wanting cats again for a while now and was thinking of getting a kitten or two in the next couple of weeks, especially once he saw our girl. So he's going to get another kitten and take her too. The kids are going to love having animals at their dad's house, and I'm sure Dan will love the company when the kids are away.
 

Riv and I have a sweet new ride for this summer! The banana seat works great! We had to extend the sissy bar by 6" or so with a metal plate, but the panniers fit on as is, and Riv and I fit pretty good. It's a bit tight, but we're usually just going to be riding a mile or two, so it's no big deal. We took a test ride last Friday, then used it to get to the boys' swimming lessons at the Y today. I am very happy this worked so well.

Grass pollen has finally hit and I am suffering from it, but it goes in fits and starts, so I am making the most of the up time I have. Garden, food prep, house cleaning, kid wrangling, etc. My days are busy but I find time to rest.

We got some great garage sale finds this past weekend, including an old, sturdy bunk bed set for the kids for $20. It is amazing! It has built in bookshelves and places to climb up and it is the sort of piece that generations of kids can grow up in. The sale was about a block away from our house, across Alabama (a larger street). We carried the bed frame home in two sections, balanced on our flatbed bicycle trailer, which we walked like a little wheeled cart. It worked great, though it was a little funny crossing Alabama with that contraption.

I had tea in a friend's garden on Sunday morning. It was nice. I hope to reciprocate soon.

I have some falafel to make this afternoon and the boys and I are doing one of those crystal growing kits too. I am trying to find lots of crafty or scientific projects for them this summer. We are definitely going to make paper, maybe some papier mache too, and I have a neat book on exploring the world around you using a jeweler's loupe, with projects that inspire creative thinking and scientific wonder and discovery. I think it'll be perfect for the boys, and we have a great garden for finding interesting plants and insects to look at up close.

I get to go pick cherries at a friend's house this week. What is your favorite thing to do with cherries, other than fresh eating? I'm thinking at least one pie or cobbler, and maybe some coconut milk based cherry ice cream. I will probably dry a few too.

We are dog sitting for a week starting today, which is an easy job because it's just one dog and he's staying at our house. His name is Conrad, and he's a 45 lb. mixed breed, so he's MUCH smaller than our guys, but he likes big dogs and is super chill when at home but also loves to run around and play. It's a great way for us to pick up a little bit of extra cash, even if the lady didn't have a whole lot to spend on sitters. She likes that I'm a stay at home mom with kids and other dogs at home. Turns out she's an ex-derby girl who just moved to town too. It's perfect.

When we first did the meet and greet, Samson freaked out in a surge of protectiveness over Cisco (who knew?), and he actually lightly bit Conrad! He didn't bite hard or anything, but still! I was traumatized, but Conrad's mama wasn't, she totally understood that he was just being protective, and after that first little snafu, they all get along really well. I think it'll be great for Cisco to have another playful dog around the house for a few days.

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Yesterday River dropped a 28 oz. can of tomatoes on his big toe. He didn't break it or anything, but his toe swelled up and his toenail turned black, and it hurt all the rest of the day and all night. I was up comforting him half the night so I'm tired today, but he is back to climbing and jumping around today. Trey started work at 10:30 today so I was able to sleep in a little bit, which really helped.

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A few days ago Jaden was having a little emotional snit fest. We were talking about it and he said, "I feel horrible right now." I said, "Well you're certainly acting horrible." He said, "NO, you don't understand! I feel like a GIANT PIG DROPPED A CACTUS ON ME!" LOL! I am totally using that line on him the next time I'm having a bad day.

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I got a bunch of lovely plants for really cheap at those plant sales last weekend, and I have been squeezing them into the garden. I got a couple of delphiniums, a datura (angel's trumpet) that acts as an annual (which is nice because datura will not overwinter here), which I am happy to add to my ever growing collection of poisonous nightshades, a Mexican shell flower (beautiful relative of the iris), as well as several more herbs. I am actually running out of room in the garden! It's a nice feeling.

Everything is growing really well. We are harvesting lots of basil already, even though the plants are pretty small still, simply because we have so many of them. Tonight we're going to have a pasta dish with our first zucchini harvest and some shelling peas and mixed herbs from the garden.

I have been having a hard time getting my next crop of carrots and salad greens to germinate, largely because it has been rather warm here. It's not too late to get them going if I could just get them to germinate. Keeping the soil evenly moist at this time of year is the biggest challenge. I am trying something that I hope might work—I put down a light layer of coir fiber (from coconut husks) on the top of the soil. It has really great moisture retention properties, so it should help the soil not crust over or dry out. Wish me luck!

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I finally ordered my banana seat for my bike. It'll be here on Thursday, then we get to try to jury rig it to fit onto my non-20" bike, and also still have the rack and panniers on there. It'll be a challenge, but if we can get it to work I will have a sweet ride for River and I this summer.

How have I never heard of David Sylvian until recently?

I randomly found a track of his on a compilation album. I am so in love with this man's voice! I wish this song were 15 minutes long.

( A Fire in the Forest )

Rosemary, I think you might like him a lot.
 

We had a fun day yesterday. I went garage saleing in the morning while Trey helped set up the floor for the roller derby bout later. It was the annual Elderidge neighborhood garage sale, so I had my hands (and panniers) full. Trey met up with me after he was done with the floor, and we picked up a few of the items that were too big and needed a trailer.

I had also gone to a couple of plant sales in that neighborhood, so we were biking around with my front basket full of plants and Trey's trailer full of furniture, etc. People loved it! We were smiled at, waved at, shouted out to, etc. It was pretty cute.

After that we came home, ate some food and got ready for the bout. As usual, I was slinging merch, and dressed up cute, partly to represent my girls, partly because I will dress up at any opportunity! This is what I wore:



It went over well. I kicked ass at the merch booth and was plied with free beer tickets. The game was great too. We skipped the last couple of bouts, so it was nice to see the improvement of both the individuals and the teams. The matches were all close, which was exciting.

Afterward, Trey stayed in, but I went to the after party at the Grand. I ran into a few non-derby people, which was fun, including some people I rarely see outside of LJ. I also got to have some surprisingly good conversations with some of my favorite derby girls. It was a good night.


In somewhat related news, I have been really loving making myself little purses from the buttercup bag pattern. They come together quickly and are cute. My dress yesterday was navy blue and white, and I didn't have any matching bags, so I sewed myself one. I think it turned out nice. Here are the colors I have made the bag in so far: ( five sewing pictures )


I spent all day today in bed with my kitten, a cookbook and some other light reading. It was so nice to have a lazy day! I'm going to cook a hearty dinner, plant the starts I picked up yesterday, and relax with the boy this evening.
 

I am hungry! I have been working hard and eating light, so I'm making up for it tonight with a feast!

We are having pan crisped millet vegetable cakes, oven roasted potatoes and fresh fava beans sauteed with garlic, olive oil and a touch of lemon zest, and I'm making another strawberry rhubarb crumble using woodspryte's perfect filling recipe.

I am also making a favorite recipe from Crescent Dragonwagon's Passionate Vegetarian, which book I cannot recommend enough, even if she is a huge kook! I will probably be eating this on a baguette for breakfast tomorrow morning.

( Recipe for Morocc'n'roll Oven-Roasted Carrot Spread )

I have some updated garden photos. :)

( Take a tour! )




One of the many little bouquets we have around the house. This one is lavender, two shades of snapdragon, and some nigella / love in the mist.

And, of course, a kitten picture!



She still doesn't have a name, we like to get to know our animals first. She is settling in nicely.

Trey and I had a wonderful day yesterday. As usual, we went to a few garage sales in the morning. We got a few cool things, including a couple of drip irrigation sets and a little black kitten! We weren't necessarily planning on getting a kitten yesterday, but we have wanted to be a two cat household for a long time, and we're both suckers for a box of kittens. The kids don't know yet, but they're coming over tonight. They are going to flip.

After our full morning, we ran a few errands downtown, had a beer and some air hockey, then came home and took a nap with the new cat. After we woke up, we had some dinner, then ate a little mushroom chocolate and took the dogs for an extra long walk, exploring a few parts of downtown that neither of us have ever been in the ten or so years we've lived here, talking the whole while. We haven't had a nice trip in months. Our last one was when it was still quite cold. Summer mushroom walks are so much nicer! We were able to stay out as long as we wanted. It was excellent.

I got a letter from a long lost love yesterday. It was nice to hear from her. Hopefully we can reconnect in some way.

I have the afternoon to myself. I am going to garden, clean, and maybe do some sewing.

Our strawberries went into shock from being transplanted so late in the season. It's no surprise, I was expecting it. We had no choice but to move them. Anyway, all the berries they had set have ripened all at once. I am thinking about making them into a strawberry rhubarb crumble or something. Can you believe that I have never had rhubarb? Perhaps tonight is the night.

I feel really good.
 

Today was one of those days where I woke up emotionally exhausted. How does that happen? Full dreams? Hormones? Whatever it is, I don't like it.

I then had to deal with the rude surprise of five year old library fines, which is the sort of thing that I find draining on a good day. Oh well, at least it's taken care of now.

I also had River freaking out and screaming at me off and on for a couple of hours because his sea creature kite project wasn't going perfectly. Every time he mis-cut a piece of tape or couldn't trace a 3D plastic sea creature to his satisfaction (read: perfection), he would totally lose his shit and/or come and cry and scream at me about it. Not fun.

I spent some time gardening and that really helped. Somehow, even being screamed at by a six year old in full temper tantrum doesn't phase me much when I'm transplanting sunflowers.

Riv is fine now, and will be going to school soon. I think I'm going to spend the afternoon knitting until I feel better, however long that takes. I don't have a whole lot of stuff that I HAVE to do today (a nice change from the past few weeks), so I'm going to take it easy until it's time to make dinner. I don't think anyone should try to make paella with a heavy heart.

I also never made those cinnamon rolls I was planning on making a few weeks ago. Tonight might be a good time to do that, so long as I can lose enough of this funk first.

My hoophouse plants are in the ground! So are my blueberries! I planted around 50 plants yesterday: tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, eggplant, ground cherries, basil, cucumbers and blueberries.

I knew that you could/should bury tomatoes (and tomatillos/ground cherries) deep, and that the hairs on their stem become roots. I didn't know this little trick for leggy tomato plants until I happened upon it yesterday on this page:



This is why I just read and read and read about gardening all the time. I am liking the fly by the seat of my pants method too. As I get ready to do something, I research it intensively. That works way better for me than reading about things well in advance would, since I am able to anticipate my practical questions better as I am closer to doing a task (perhaps a failing on my part, but thus it is), and there is such a short time between learning and implementing that I'm not likely to forget cool tricks that I learn while reading. There's much to be said for preparing some beds in advance too, but for the most part, I feel like this learning style works well for me.

Anyway, several of my transplants were a bit old/leggy, since i was hoping to have them in the ground weeks ago, but this is balanced out by the fact that they are in the ground under a hoophouse.

I've posted these work in progress pictures elsewhere, but not here, so here's how our hoophouse looked last week:





I'll post some finished pictures and photos of our plantings soon. I really crammed things in there! Hopefully it'll work well. I am going to stake the plants so I should be able to get by with close planting. I also interplanted everything in hopes that different plants will require different kinds of space and it'll all work out. We'll see!

By the way, I found the most AMAZING site for hoophouse management, hightunnels.org. Tons of super cool information there.


In other news, I miss sewing. I have lots of practical projects I want to do and a few fun ones too, like this reversible fabric bowl:




At least I've been doing some lace knitting again, and I've been cooking more too, now that we're not out all day every day building stuff.

I am not feeling at my best just now (mostly hormonal) so I'm going to lay low for a few days and rest up a bit. <3

Between allergies and hormones, yesterday was shit. SHIT, I tell you. I finally gave up and went to bed sad and frustrated at 8:00. Today was better, though I'm having to work REALLY HARD to not be a total bitch. :(

On the bright side of life, our peach tree is planted! It is too beautiful for words! I have already lost several minutes gazing at its beauty, and I am going to love watching that thing grow! Our poor strawberries have been transplanted out of necessity but with much love, and our LARGE blueberry patch is about halfway prepared. Removing sod is hard work! I'm super glad we sheet mulched the back instead. It's such a large area, tearing it up would have been murder. I can't believe how much we've grown this year.

The kids have been adoring my poppy seed heads. One day River plucked one from a vase in the bathroom after the petals had fallen off, and said, "Hi! I'm Mrs. Plant. I used to wear a beautiful hat, but I took it off. How are you today?" The next day they started drawing faces on them with Sharpies and enacting more darling scenes. Plant puppets, I love it. Half of why I'm growing the poppies is for the striking beauty of the seed heads. I'm glad the kids noticed it too.

My darling Carol is coming over tomorrow to drink beer in the sun and do mindless garden tasks with me while we talk and talk. I am filled with gentle anticipation.

When I decided to start gardening, I really had no idea what I was in for. The amount of time, money and education is staggering, really, especially this year when I am happily overextending myself. My brain is so full! We have so much work to do! It's dauntingly awesome. I'm sure I could have an easier garden just growing a bit of salad mix, some carrots and a few tomatoes, but I want eggplant and tomatillos (which apparently can not only be made into salsa but also jam! Who knew?), figs and peaches and blueberries and grapes, so many beans I can't pickle them all, not to mention the burgeoning room for flowers in my garden. I just can't get enough! Gardening is a slippery slope, and I am a sucker for a good plant. Looks like we're going all the way.

I thought we were mostly done preparing beds this year, but it looks like I'm going to rip out a whole bunch of sod and prepare a bed for blueberries in the front of the yard, and also prepare a spot for our peach tree, which is coming on Saturday. Sometimes I wonder if we shouldn't have just sheet mulched EVERYTHING. Who wants to grow grass when they can grow food instead? A lot of the stuff we're planting this year won't be ready for a few years, but what a harvest we're gong to have at that time!

I honestly thought I didn't have much of a head for this sort of thing, but gardening is the perfect blend of art and science for me, not to mention the joy of the harvest. I love it.

Here are a few pictures from this weekend. The first few were taken at Larrabee.



This is my new favorite hat for this summer.

( plus five )

The past few days have been really busy but fun. The kids' dad is in California visiting family, so we have the boys this weekend. On Friday after school we went to Cornwall Park, where the kids played in the creek for the first time this year. It was delightful. We even had the pleasure of running into Lylith at the park. What a treat.

Saturday morning was spent garage saleing as usual, with the addition of the kids. That's one thing they don't get to do with us that often, since their dad usually has them on weekends. Plus, I gotta admit, garage saleing is easier without having to tell them to not touch all the time, though they're getting a lot better at the drill, and it's good to get them out and let them figure out how to be respectful people in chaotic space like that. We found a few treasures, as always. The boys had gymnastics classes in the midmorning that we had to work around, but we did well, and afterward we all went to lunch at the Co-op, then to the Farmer's Market. We had a great day.

Jaden was so tuckered out by all the good times that he passed out reading in my bed while I was making dinner at 6:15. We tried to wake him up to eat, or at least to go pee and move to his bed, but he was out like the motherfucking dead, like, absolute dead weight and eyes half open while we moved him into his own bed. Slightly frightening, especially when his brother and I got up this morning and he was still passed out cold, even while River was throwing a temper tantrum and slamming the bedroom door right next to him. A little while later he woke up feeling more refreshed than he has in ages, so I guess it was good.

This morning we've been catching up on some gardening tasks, especially broadcasting the parasitic nematodes I bought last week. I have some more seeds to sow, and we have to pick up supplies for our greenhouse doors at the ReStore, then we're going to take the rare trip in a car out of town (the kids' dad left his car for us), and go have a picnic and hike at Larrabee. It's a bit far for the kids to bike there and back from, so they haven't been there much.

I spoke to a guy at Cloud Mountain Farm's market stand, and he said that we should be able to order a peach tree from them and pick it up at the farmer's market, and that it isn't too late for planting it this year, so we're going to do it! I'm ordering it today! I love how open and sunny our space here is, but when we got here, there wasn't a single tree on the property. It was kind of sad. Now we have two fig trees, an Italian plum tree, and we'll soon have a peach tree. We're also going to put in three to five blueberry bushes, we just have to decide what variety or varieties (duke, bluebird or reka) and where to put them.

I feel like I've been cracking the whip around here a lot lately, but we have much to show for it, and I think that Trey likes it.

Dinner tonight is Indian food: bharta, basmati rice, cheela and mango lassi. Trey and I were both craving these dishes, and tomatoes (from Mexico) were on sale, so I went for it. I haven't had fresh tomatoes since last summer.

( recipes )
 

Sometime last week Jaden was being silly playing with a string pressed across his face. He was well lit and cute so I grabbed my camera.



( ten more )