i swear, every time i go outside to do something it the garden it starts to rain again. look at that poor yucca plant now . . the flower cups are so full of water that it can’t hold itself up any more. if you’ve been watchng the tour of pennsylvania at all, that is exactly the same weather we are having here. i can’t remember any more the last completely dry day we had.

this morning, i was determined to get the rapini greens in before they were uselessly bolted.
so there i was, kneeling over the bed in a steady morning rain.

it was worth it . . i ended up with over three pounds of trimmed greens from that little two-by-three-foot patch. i am steaming them to freeze in pouches for winter.

and next on my list? these guys

this is a mixed patch of hardy mustard and asian greens. i won’t be pulling whole plants out here though . . . these are cut-and-come-again crops that will produce well all season long (if this year is anything like last year). i can pick whatever leaves are biggest each week and freeze a pouch or two at a time. they add tons of great taste and texture to indian dishes, as well as to the black bean stew we like to eat.

that leaves me with a gap to fill in the middle of my greens bed. i have seeds for chard (see the existing chard struggling along on the left there?) jeesh—what DO i have to do to get chard like norma’s?? she makes it appear effortless.

but i hate plant more of it when i can’t even get this batch to grow well (yet; i’m not giving up).

maybe just some more asian greens . . i had no idea they grew so fast, and man-oh-man, are they way more beautiful than the ones you can buy in the store.

if i have too many of these though, i’m not sure they would freeze well. maybe i’ll try lettuces . . . it’s certainly cool and wet enough.

and then in the “i swear—you can’t make this stuff up” department of gardening

as i headed back into the house, i noticed we have a mystery crop growing right in the fiber of the rug outside the back door. hmm, maybe it’s swiss chard . . .

so, i promised some knitting today and that’s exactly what i have for you.

i’m being very good with getting the socks done i think. every day or two they are a few inches longer. since it is my day to teach, they are getting some extra work.
i’m almost done with the big mystery project . . just finishing up the last bit. after that, i’ll be free to start the next new big thing.

in the meantime, i can’t keep my hands off the new fearless fibers merino/tencel yarn and swatching seemed like a good way to not (technically) start something new

this is a sock-weight yarn so it’s a little heavier than other yarns i’ve used to knit little nothings, and therefore, i tried it with some stitch pattens that seemed to beg for a more substantial yarn.

i’ve been looking for the right thing to marry with the pattern on the left for some time . . . it’s a rather abstract motif that looks like little rippling rivulets, and doesn’t read well in a lot of yarns, especially very fine ones (trust me).

but i think we have a good match here; i like the looser swatch a little better . . when i hold it in my hand it has a lighter and drapier feel. the holes are more open, and even appear to “run” which i like.

the split leaf motif (bottom right) is also very pretty, but has a heavy feeling in my hand—not in the spirit of the little nothings at all. maybe another time with another yarn. the fourth swatch is ok, but again, it has a heavy look.

so the one on the upper left is my favorite. and because swatching is never enough, i caved in last night and cast on for the scarf while we watched the bike races.

just a taste—just to get myself started. i can take it with me to a doctor’s appointment tomorrow.

BTW, deb at fearless fibers is having a promotion today through july 7th—with any purchase of $25 or more you can choose a free pattern from her complete selection. click here to see details on the front page of deb’s etsy shop. she also just added some new color selections to the merino/tencel yarn page, including the serenity colorway, above.

i made some headway on the re-started guava scarf, and oh my.

i’m in love. i would have it half done if i hadn’t been hiding it from myself (must finish big project, must finish big project). and believe me, as soon as the last stitch of that big project is done, i am grabbing this one and holing up in a corner with it for some private conversation.

now listen to this: just a couple of hours ago i said to david, “you know, those day lilies are trying SO hard to bloom, and every day they are juuuust a little bit closer, but never quite”.

and just now i looked at the office window to see

we got one . . . like a little sun.

lace is everywhere . . . even in a cheese; i just love the subtle contrast of the cream and white in this piece, with that spidery band of deep, deep blue drifting between. it looks like a snowscape or even a foggy seascape. there might be a shawl in that . . .

SO. yesterday my buddy kim (from class) and i set out at 8 am, in the rain, for cleveland to enjoy the wonders of what i like to call “real” marketing. we arrived an hour later at the old west side market, and this time i was determined to bring home sightseeing photos.

you like food, right?
this place is a veritable wonderland of smells, sounds, and flavors, all revolving around that very subject. it was a little less crowded today i think, which was good for getting some great pictures to share. the first thing we did was head straight for the chicken seller so kim could get some of her favorite sausage.

then we headed for my personal favorite—pasta

they were already out of two flavors i would have liked to try, but i did score some red pepper fettucini, then kicked myself later for not getting some of that black squid ink pasta on the end (it’s easy to get confused and forget in a crowd like that).

but i made up for it by making sure i went home with some of these yummies

we moved along quickly, stopping here and there to peruse any tasty-looking items that caught our fancy, and were completely arrested by what we saw at the mediterra bakehouse stall.

sorry, he’s taken—his adorable girlfriend was right there with him (she’s very smart i think).

but what nice buns! a nice couple—just look at the beautiful wares they were offering

we made sure we each went home with some of that. i got some semolina sesame bread, and some mt. athos fire bread, which is made from a 30-year-old starter.

we also made sure to pick up some of this

mmm, cake. and they had key lime tarts which is what i picked.
i was so excited to be there . . . this is one of the things i really miss about living in NYC—good fresh marketing with real people behind the counter, ready to expound on the glory of their products. i just can’t get into shopping at the supermarkets here in the same way.

next we headed off to a place that neither of us had been before, to suss out what we heard was a great asian market.

i haven’t been in a store like this since we moved here . . . several thousand square feet of asian groceries, fresh vegetables, and fresh fish. there isn’t anything like it anywhere near us, and our supermarkets don’t carry this stuff (and darn it, i still forgot to look for a few things while i had the chance!)

kim was simply astounded—and that’s saying a lot since she just got back from a trip to japan.

this is just some of the rice . . . what was on the shelf at the end of aisle. there was, in addition, a whole aisle of just rice and when i turned around

even more rice (and that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the items made from rice). i snagged some jasmine rice which i haven’t had in the house for a few years.

i may also have shamed myself over the variety of frozen dumplings they carry . . .

and, if you are looking for a particular sauce

they probably have it.
i stocked up on some asian greens and veggies to make a soup this week (along with steamed dumplings—now we have to use all the ones i bought).

this store is definitely on my list of places to return to; the prices are great and—something i REALLY appreciate, but did not at all expect—every item they carry has the name printed in english somewhere on it, making it easy to navigate and try new things. in a smaller store you could ask for help with names, but in a large store like this it would be easy to get lost among all the choices.

after that we finished up with a stop at whole foods to buy cheese and a few other things. they don’t let people take pictures there but the kindly guy at the cheese counter let me sneak in a photo of the cheese that starts off the post.

when i explained that is was for “knitting research”, he nodded sagely and proceeded to pull out more examples of visually gorgeous cheeses, explaining which ones were mostly just pretty (an not such great cheese), and which ones were truly a heavenly marriage of flavor and eye candy (with samples of course, to further the “research”). this is the second time i have shopped at that store’s cheese counter and each time i have been highly impressed with the guys behind the counter—they REALLY love what they do.

when we got back and managed to get all the goods put away, david and i made our favorite pizza for dinner. he cuts up all the ingredients while i make the sauce and form the pizza shells. last night we used the first of the tiny garden squash sliced over the top, along with fresh-picked basil, mushrooms, and fresh mozzarella. the sauce was cooked using both frozen and dried tomatoes from last year’s garden.

mmmm.

i did some knitting too this weekend but since this post is getting quite long, i think i’ll save that for tomorrow . . . let’s just say that guava makes a good dessert!