Summer Days

Did I say that I love the garden at this time of year?  Hmmm.  I don't know what I was thinking.  It's a weedy mess and I can never quite keep up with it.  Everything is overgrown.  We've had major heat this summer, combined with lots of rain in the evenings.

My paths are unrecognizable.

Do you even see it??

The neighbours hedge needs a serious trim on our side.

Again, can you see my brick path?  Mozzy heaven.

 Some things are nicely overgrown.  It's not all bad.  I've never had success with zucchini before (I know, who can't grow zucchini?!) but I'm giving it away this year.

 My straw bale garden is doing great.  I've had to water it as often as my pots, but it's got actual squash on it!  Yay!  And the lack of hedge in this small section has meant that I've had access to my compost heap all summer without hacking a path through the overgrown hedge.

Acorn and butternut squash, and lettuce and spinach which has surprising not bolted in the heat all summer.

An eggplant flower, also in my straw bale garden.

 The back garden was not well planned.  I've got good pole beans and the carrots are bigger than ever, but that's about it.  Tomatoes are still coming though.  Alice must have 15 pounds of green tomatoes hanging on hers. 

This golden elder had to start from the ground again this spring and I almost dug up the root ball because I thought it wouldn't amount to much.  It's about 7' tall though.  

And when will I ever learn?  All of my brassicas look lacey with caterpillar damage.  I picked and picked and picked those little green things, but there is no keeping up with them.  I did cover them briefly in the spring, but they outgrew my cover.  Next year I'll stick to a few brocolli and kale and skip the rest.  Think of all the beans and carrots I could be freezing!

Lacey is a only good thing in shawls, not cabbage.

 Although I let the garden keep me away from any long vacation this summer, it doesn't stop me from having fun with the girls.  This is the third week of hosting a child for a week and I feel like we need to show them a good time.  After a trip to IKEA, we drove to a lake yesterday.  Laura framed my cryptic directions so I wouldn't get lost as I so often do.

 Beth and Abra did a bit of kayaking, but mostly we sat on the beach and splashed in the shallow water.  While at the lake, we found this lovely mermaid basking in the sun.

And we chugged a bit of wine.

Lingon berry juice, anyone?

The sand was beautiful and the wind off the lake kept us not so hot.

  And the day ended in its usual way.  A summer storm at night with lots of rain.

Are you all having a good summer too?

Garden update

I tried to take pictures of the garden this morning to show it's fullness, but I ran out of battery.  Figures.  Here's a few I managed to snap before it shut off completely.

This is probably my favourite time to look at the garden.  I have to dodge the mosquitoes to do it, but I have a good view of the jungle from my bedroom window too.

 I love the textures that are everywhere.  I did get another Yards in Bloom nomination, but I'll never get more than that for so many reasons.  The main one being that there are weeds everywhere, including the lovely noxious campanula.  Another being that there is very little actual "design" in my garden.  It's just what I like, where I like it, combined with a bit of perennial grouping and practical veggie gardening ideas.  And probably too much of what the birds planted last year and what I left behind last year. 

It doesn't matter.  I love it and I maintain that it's way better and more interesting than sod.

A note to myself:  Next year I need to plant more beans, carrots, onions and maybe corn, and less of the cabbage family to feed the caterpillars.  They really do take up a lot of space and they are not all that productive.  This is my second year trying brussel sprouts and my second year of likely not getting even one meal.  I'll miss the grey-green foliage though.

Last week we ate our first meal from the garden that wasn't all green.

And having mentioned the plants I left over from last year, I harvested all of my garlic this week, and most of my onions.

It was early to harvest the onions, but the two were interplanted and because the garlic was so deep, I had to harvest it all together.  The garlic was awesome.  Maybe even enough to feed us for the year.  As big as the grocery store varieties and with the proper papery covering.  Beth braided it all for me, but I doubt our storage facility for long term storage so I'll process it like last year when I have time.  I chopped it and poured olive oil over it.  Worked really well. 

The onions were not really ready though.  They should have been (and would have been) bigger and the papery coating hadn't really formed well yet. So, rather than let it go bad, I started slicing them up. 

Then I started crying a lot, and dug out the food processor that gets used twice a year or so.  I hate it, but this was truly a good job for it's noise.

That's all I've got.  12 bags of 1 1/2 cups each.  Definitely not enough for the year.  I'll sacrifice cauliflower, brussel sprouts and cabbage next year for more onion space.  The brocolli stays though.  I do get enough meals from those plants to earn their place in the garden.  

Calendula Lotion

It seems somehow intimate to talk about what we put on our skin or personal hygiene, but I did want to share this with you.

I've had excema all my life and acne (not terrible, but always there) and I've always had trouble finding creams for my hands and face that don't feel too heavy and greasy, or that I don't react to in a nasty painful fashion.

My hands are a particular problem for me.  Over the years they've actually gotten better, but my summers are spent with my hands in the dirt.  Constant washing isn't great for them, nor is the contact with plants.  I've never liked gloves, so I usually work without.   Actually, I've finally found some I like this year which may change life for my hands, but that's not for today.

For my face, I tend to find a cream that I like and then stick to it for years. Oil of Olay was my favourite for a long time.  Then I switched to something offered through a mail service called Silky Essence.  I've read too much maybe about how much your skin absorbs and how terrible all of the ingredients are that I had to stop.  I don't understand all of the science, but at it's simplist I'm trying not to put on or in my body things that I can't pronounce or find easily in nature.  I couldn't even find the ingredients of Silky Essence which is usually a sign that something isn't "revealable".

For my hands, nothing really has worked well except for cortisone.  That always comes with a warning from the doctor about longterm use.  Yeah, yeah, whatever.  What are the options?  Well, there are some actually.
 
Last year I made my first lotion.  It wasn't an unqualified success because it didn't emulsify properly.  Basically it was bees wax and calendula-infused olive oil.  Although it didn't look good, it was great on my hands and face and even on my lips.  I didn't have chapped lips at all this winter and my hands and face felt great.  I also spray my face with witch hazel after washing as a toner.  Together, the witch hazel and cream work really well for me. 

I ran out a few weeks ago, and my calendula wasn't blooming yet.  I had to start using cortisone cream again, which I haven't done for months.  Luckily, my calendula flowers just started blooming, so I was able to try a new recipe yesterday and made this:

It looks like lotion this time, my hands don't react to anything in it, and it feels nice.  The coconut smell reminds me of the 1970's and suntan lotion, so in the future I may try a fragrance in it, but for now I am pleased with the result.

Ingredients:  Coconut oil, calendula flowers, bees wax, witch hazel, Vitamin E capsule, water.

Easy to make (it's like making mayonnaise), simple and few ingredients, everything is pronouncable, and if you're interested, there is a lot of science behind the healing properties of witch hazel, calendula, coconut oil and bees wax.  This website (Frugally Sustainable) explains a lot of it.  I just know it works for me. 

July 17

 When I woke up this morning, one of the first things I saw when leaving the room was this.

  Then I wandered into the living room and saw this.
 

Although they leave a mess in their wake, I am forever grateful for the creativity and play that goes on in my house.  I could focus on the mess, but that isn't what I was thinking about.  They still ask (like all normal children) if they can play on the computer or turn on the tv, but if I say no (as I often do), they very quickly find something else to do.  Sometimes it's without hesitation, which makes me wonder why they even ask. 

So this was yesterday.

The mailbox was part of some shortlived game that I don't quite understand or know about.

Ukelele and black binder:  Beth decorated a plain binder with duct tape and has been filling it with music for the piano, guitar and ukelele and has been strumming on and off daily.

Crayons:  You know what those are for.

Giant barbie heads:  All three girls are constantly trying new hairdo-s on each other and on these heads.

Chickadee - Go Craft Crazy:  Always a source of inspiration.  I don't know what they got from it yesterday.  I'm much more hands-off than I used to be.

Science Rocks book:  Alice did an experiment with crystals that should develop over the next few days.

Beverly Cleary:  There are always books and lots of reading going on.  That's a constant.  We'll never understand people who don't read.

At some point Alice cried out from the basement.  It sounded fake or not really bad, so I didn't go running.  Is that how tough kids are made, or just neglected ones?  I don't know, but we discovered that she had gotten her finger slammed in a door.

She recovered very quickly, especially when Dr. Laura made her a splint and cast out of cotton strips, flour and water.

Then they decided to make a plain t-shirt more interesting with fabric paint.  That was so fun that they went in search of more plain or stained t-shirts and came out with these lovely "new" shirts for themselves.

After all that activity, there was still energy and time for Shakespeare in the Park, where we watched The Tempest and even understood lots of it. 
  

It was a great, creative day and I fell asleep exhausted last night. I did different things than the kids did, but I'll tell you about it tomorrow.

Beat the Heat

Here's my theory.  You can't.  It's been too hot for too long, so you've just got to suck it up and get out there.



Testing the inflatable kayak



Kayaking up to the pelicans at Hasse Lake



Our own strawberries!



Parking downtown offers interesting views



Street Performer's Festival



The best heatbuster in Edmonton!



3D Sidwalk art



Humourous portapotty signage - the volunteers even walked you to your "seat"

Togetherness with my grownup daughter

The other thing we did this week to beat the heat was to camp in the city.  Down in a ravine is a wonderful little campground that feels like you've left the city.  One bonus of the location was that at 3:00 am when the hail is falling on us, and the rain is dripping on our heads, we can drive home!  We did have two days of fun there though and it was a bit cooler among the trees beside the creek. 

Today's schedule:  a spray park and setting up the wet tent to dry in our neighbour's yard.

Summer Activities List

Every year I mean to do this, but I never do.  I sat down with the girls sometime in June and we made a list to go on our fridge of activities we'd like to do this summer.

We won't do them all.  I don't even want to try, but it gives us somewhere to look if we have restless days, days when we are bored.  And some of the things have been on my own wish list for years.

___________________________

2012 Summer Activities List

Alberta Art Museum (free on the last Thursday night of each month)
Devonian Gardens (discounted for gardening club members on July 18)
Swimming/kayaking (but we need to do more)
124th Street Art Gallery walk
Camping
Fishing (with someone to teach us and assemble our rods properly)
Paddleboat rental
Rock Climbing (UofA has a good wall)
Mini golf
Horseback riding
Weiner roast/s'more making (but we need to do more)
Heritage Park (planned for August long weekend)
Calgary Zoo (planned for August long weekend)
Shakespeare in the Park (Pay-as-you-can on Tuesday nights)
Valley Zoo
Telus World of Science
Humane Society to spend time with adoption animals
Wash van with buckets
Movie
Outdoor movie party
Visit my parents
Theatre production
Street Performers Festival
Stony Plain Museum/Gallery (a church friend has paintings in the gallery this summer)
Stay in a hotel (went to Hinton/Jasper for the May long weekend)
Skating in the mall
Cinnamon buns at Kingsway Mall
Batting Cages or driving range
Rodeo
Taber Corn Festival (Aug. 25-27) - includes a rodeo, so we could cross two things off!
Corn Maze
Ukrainian Village
Torrington Gopher Museum
Picnic in downtown park
Visit Mandolin's Books & Coffee Shop
Eat at Mr. Wong's restaurant (a substitute teacher that the girls all like)
Go to every outdoor pool in the city (we've gone to 2 so far)

________________________________

We have done a few things already, and on the rainy day this week it was great to have the list to refer to.  We spent some time petting the dogs and cats at the Humane Society unless our allergies got to be too much.  It's hard to walk away from all those dogs without wanting one though.

I wonder how many we'll find time for.  It was fun just to hear some of the things they wanted to do.  Cinnamon buns at the mall?  Washing the van?  I'm pretty sure we can handle that!

July 3 Garden Tour

The rain today meant no weeding or gardening, but yesterday was spent pulling a lot of weeds out of dry soil. 

It's interesting to me how my soil differs around the yard.  The back garden is boring, but the soil is always easy to work with.  It's been a garden much longer than the front has been and the soil doesn't seem to dry and crack like some areas of the front.  I need to continue to use mulches and have started using grass clippings again and leaf mold.  

Here's the garden, as of yesterday.

Back garden

Mostly self-seeded back wall

Climbing beans to cover our front step railing, cabbages and tomatoes

My last perennial bed, with a few basil and tomatoes

My Mother's Day herb pot

Front garden

Somehow it's more appealing than ever to sit here now that the bed is the right shape

Herb spiral

Celery patch

Starting to eat our first strawberries!

View from the city sidewalk.  One of those black pots has become one huge ant hill and I am NOT impressed.

First days of summer spent making Polly Pocket shelters and clothing out of flower petals and leaves.

My favourite prolific poppies

Keeping my pots alive!