exquisite

Posted on Posted in designing, food and garden, lace/shawls, projects, yarn and dyeing

hydrangeaGreenA07_14

after all that chatting and running on i did the other day, i totally forgot to update you on the garden. i know how everyone loves to see what’s growing in our yard.

well obviously from the photos, it’s time for hydrangeas to populate their globes with little blooms; how i love them in every stage.

hydrangeaBlue07_14

first i think the entirely green ones are my very favorite and then they explode into blue-lavender worlds and i think, WOW. just wow.

and then, just when i thought i was sick and tired of pink forever, they transition again and voilà!

hydrangeaPink07_14

i am shown to be glaringly wrong.

this year our hydrangea shrubs are the greenest green, healthy and lush and abundant, but mostly lacking in flowers. each shrub has just one bloom—but what a bloom it is.

hydrangeaBlueA07_14

in each case almost vulgar in size and perfectness.

i don’t know what happened to the rest of the blooms but i gotta tell you, the ones we have are so spectacular, i don’t even care about the ones we didn’t get.

lilyPink07_14

in fact, the whole garden is in vivid bloom right now, from lilies to green beans, so let me take you on a tour.

first i’ve got photos of the vegetable patch from each of the last three sundays, to compare with previous photos taken on june 19th, less than a month ago

gardenJune07_09

first, when everything was still pretty new, before i left for denver.

gardenJuly07_09

then what it looked like upon my return last sunday—we had a lot of rain and cool weather when i was gone but the squash, peppers, and eggplant all had vegetables big enough to pick.

 

gardenJulyA07_14

and finally, yesterday; it got hot near the end of last week and the soil was quite a bit more dry. but look at how those marigolds to the left have bloomed out

marigoldSquash07_14

they are tall and covered with flowers to stand guard over the squash and greens nearby.  we’ve eaten several meals so far that include squash—we pick them at a very small size to eat when they are tender and delicate tasting. today i even had enough to share with friends.

plantBlendA07_14

speaking of which, the last squash in the row has climbed up into the barrel where i put one of the tomato plants and is using the tomato as a trellis to climb further (the neighbor’s bees love our garden patch).

plantBlend07_14

everything over there is starting to grow into an inseparable tangle; i love it.

nasturtium07_14

these nasturtiums have the prettiest blue-green leaves and bright red flowers, wow.

lavender07_14

lavender in a pot at the corner to rub between my fingers whenever i pass by.

chardShame07_14

while most of the garden looks just beautiful, thanks to david’s careful tending, my chard patch is in dire need of thinning and weeding. i keep thinking i’ll have time to do it “tomorrow” but that extra time just never materializes.

vegetables have the w=sweetest flowers—so delicate they last only hours; a day if we’re lucky.

greenBeanClimberss07_14

at the back, the green beans are climbing vigorously up the wire fence and putting out white and purple flowers. at their feet, the bush beans are doing the same and when i peek underneath their broad leaves to take a photo

greenBeans07_14

what do i see but the tenderest of little string beans. in a day or two these will probably be on our plates at dinner, mmm.

the potatoes and carrots populating the remaining back area are starting to take over in a lush jungle of vines and feathery tops. i love when everything fills in like this because it really cuts down on the number of weeds that can grow.

eggplantRadish07_14

moving toward the front, we see my favorite row of the garden—i love the mix of green (radishes, eggplant), purple (asian eggplant) and gold/brown (marigolds) all in one row. the only thing that could make this better is if the parsnips i planted alongside had germinated, haha.

tomatoesRipen07_14

back up front i see a welcome sight—a pair of nearly ripe early tomatoes. another thing that will be on our dinner plates in a couple of days (i will let them ripen completely on the vine for maximum flavor).

lilyYellow07_14

circling around to the front of the house, we are in the middle of lily season. besides a proliferation of day lilies, we have a wide assortment of asiatic lilies with their extravagant flowers and scents.

lilyStargazer07_14

showy stargazers seem pinker than ever (i feel like they were a lot more white in other years)

fuschia07_14

and the fuchsia gifted to us by our friend anne marie is thriving under the eves of the front porch.

for now, just keeping the status quo is reward enough, with all that we’ve got on our plates at the moment.

shopRedo07_10

the new work/retail space is coming along nicely; david has finished painting and has begun moving yarn and equipment from the existing office.

on saturday afternoon, he and i took a trip to pittsburgh to procure shop furnishings. we were going to order them online and have them delivered but when we discovered how long that would take, david said we should go pick it up in person. i was a bit dubious about fitting it all in our little car, but he thought we should try. erica betz just laughed and laughed as we drove away . . .

ikeaPurchases07_14

i panicked all the way through the store and mentioned several times that we could still back out, but david kept saying we should try.

ikeaRentals07_14

i was heartened a bit when we got back out to the parking lot to see a possible plan B in the distance. i texted erica betz with a photo of our haul and she was still laughing.

ikeaCarPackA07_14

david started loading the car; i swear he must have emailed someone to ask the exact dimensions of the boxes because the length fit exactly.

ikeaCarPack07_14

and before i knew it, so did everything else. there wasn’t a sliver of space left for sunlight to penetrate and we had to leave the hatchback partly open with bungie cords to hold it, but it was all inside the car anyway.

davidToppaB07_14

on the way to and fro, i knit on david’s hat and by the time we got home, it was done except for weaving in the ends, which i did this morning.

the pattern is proofed and ready to go as soon as we can get some nice photos (hopefully tomorrow!)

yesterday was sunday, which means a long morning run for me. i wish i had gotten out earlier, but i go to bed too late to be up at dawn. i need to train for some upcoming long races, but still nursing an overly tight hip muscle, so i have to be careful. it’s slowly getting back to normal and this weekend i did my longest run in a while with good results.

pieCrust07_14

we were having friends over for dinner (i love using our new kitchen and living space for this purpose!) so when i got home and showered, i got to work on baking a pie. while i’ve been pretty happy with the gluten free crusts based on my own pastry recipe, i’ve been so happy with the results from the america’s test kitchen gluten free cookbook that i tried their recipe this time.

pieFilling07_14

first i made the filling—black and blue berry—using a standard filling recipe with a bit of thickener, sugar, lemon juice and orange peel.

pieCrustA07_14

i made sure ahead of time that i had all the ingredients listed for the dough, though i did substitute their second favorite flour for the blend they recommend (i will make that at a future date). it was a very hot and muggy afternoon which made for some gooey dough, but i managed to get it in the pan with a fluted crust without losing my enthusiasm for the project, haha.

pieTopping07_14

they don’t actually list a crumb topping for pie in the book so i tried their apple crisp topping

pieToppingA07_14

which is made from a blend of toasted oats and nuts ground to a flour along with gluten free flour, butter and sugar. it was really tasty, perfect for apple crisp alright, though more crunchy than i prefer for pie. i’ll have to find another crumb top to use; maybe there’s a crumb cake topping i can use . . .

pieBlackBlueberry07_14

anyway the pie turned out lovely, didn’t it?

pieDessert07_14

mark just lit up with delight when he saw it, haha (sorry, i couldn’t resist that photo).

pieInner07_14

the filling ran a bit because it was still warm, but it set up wonderfully once it was cool. next time i’ll remember to start earlier . . . these leftovers were much appreciated at knitting class this afternoon.

purpleClubMailing07_14

and speaking of this afternoon, today it was back to work for all of us. the first USA shipment of our purple club went to the post office this afternoon—that’s a lotta packages, right? tomorrow we are doing the photo shoot with the projects and on thursday, the patterns will be ready to download. i don’t know who’s more excited, us or our clubbies.

we are just about sold out for this club but we do have a few spots left; you can still get in on the fun if you act now.

being monday, sarah was moving a bit slow today—that is until larry, our beloved UPS guy pulled up with a double shipment of yarn.

yarnDelivery07_14

first, boxes of cotton to restock our online store; if there’s a color you’ve been waiting on, emily and erica will have it restocked by tomorrow afternoon.

yarnDeliveryB07_14

there are also a few new goodies in this batch—a chunky, super soft textured cotton yarn that will be delicious for simple cowls, scarves, and hats.

yarnDeliveryA07_14

i’ll let sarah tell you all about that in her ravelry cotton KAL when she opens some of the packages.

yarnSStravertine07_14

and as if that weren’t enough goodness for one day, there were several MORE boxes of new yarn from another direction entirely—this time the fingering weight of our newest addition to the stone soup family, in travertine. this is the first brown we are adding to the stone soup line; we’re hoping to do a couple of shades in this more golden brown. isn’t it lovely? the caramel and white speckles just knock my socks off.

today our friend bil came over to put all the shop furniture together (bil likes to put ikea furniture together). i think we’ll be ready very soon to do an unveiling. so sit tight and we’ll be back with you in a few days; happy week ahead!

hydrangeaGreen07_14

 

 

13 thoughts on “exquisite

  1. I love hydrangeas too and yours are beautiful. So good to see you enjoying your garden again this summer, your freezer will be packed with sauces and treats to enjoy throughout the winter. All that new yarn is killing me! Please may I come and rummage?!

  2. I’m so happy to see you’ve been home long enough to give us such a full blog…I’ve missed the garden pictures. It’s so dry here I can hardly imagine trying to grew what you do without massive irrigating.

    I love David’s new hat, but I’m just crazy about the new brown Stone Soup!

  3. Gorgeous photos of the flowers and garden, Anne. It’s always fun to see “how your garden grows.”

    Congratulations on the new retail space! (How large your home will seem once the yarn is moved into its new space!)

  4. As your flowers so eloquently demonstrate, there is always a place for the exuberant and voluptious! The hat is so cool–and looks like it would be nice and quick. Finally, the best time to eat pie is when the filling is runny. It just tastes better that way, smile!

    P.S. David is a superstar packer!

  5. As always, your garden never fails to impress! I had a similar issue with my hydrangeas last year – just one bloom per plant. I asked about it at my garden center and was told that hydrangeas are very heavy feeders and it needed more nutrients. While all my gardening is organic, I made the exception for this one and bought some Miracle Gro Blossom Booster which I use to treat the plants each week. So far I have several more blooms, maybe a week or two behind yours.

    Good luck with the new space/office! Such an exciting expansion.

  6. Oh, your hydrangeas are out of this world gorgeous!! My old variety bushes aren’t doing too much in the way of blooms, due to the colder than normal winter. But my Limelight hydrangeas are full of pale lime green flowers 🙂 LOVE!!

  7. The next time we go to IKEA we need David along. Picture, scene, IKEA parking lot in early January, couple trying to force a Billy bookcase box into their Honda Accord . . .

    I TOLD him it wouldn’t fit, but he insisted on trying anyway, and then because I’d thought it wouldn’t fit in one dimension but it turned out not to fit in another he claimed a moral victory.

    I have never been so close to murder.

  8. We have the same situation with our hydrangeas (in Shaker Heights) – beautiful green leaves but few blooms, although we have a few smaller ones on each bush, instead of one huge one. I haven’t seen all pink Stargazers, but very pretty as well. I agree that the travertine is beautiful! (sjn821 on Rav)

  9. I can’t imagine how much you are looking forward to moving into your new space. Yarn has taken over your house – nice problem to have, right? And your last couple of postings have opened my eyes to how busy David is, too. You are a great pair!

  10. Powered by: – bonus casino – bonus poker – bonus bingo -.
    They are those players who only enter hands that
    offer good possibilities, but will chase wins and raise
    when they can. It really needs excellent determination to stay
    on the plan.

Comments are closed.