Category Archives: homemaking

A belated letter from Lent.

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I’d like to catch up here about a few of the things that happened, and that I did, during the several weeks I was absent from the blogging world. These are the kinds of things you can take pictures of, so they are not many, considering all the hours and days we are talking about. It often happened that I would think to take a picture somewhere, but then I would think, “I’m not blogging, so I don’t really need a picture of that.” And it was nice. Life is full. Here are some of the ways my days were full of life:

Birthdays: I cooked for two of the birthday parties that I attended. One of my accomplishments in this department was a batch of vegan gluten-free chocolate cupcakes, which the party-goers thought wonderful; I ate two of them myself. The picture is from before they went into the oven. You might guess that there were beets in the batter!

Later I drove north for grandson Jamie’s 11th birthday, and took the job of baking the cake he remembers always being the tradition for his day, a “Black Forest Cake” made with a box mix, whipped cream, and canned cherry pie filling. The top layer of my version was so domed, I had to create a lake from the whipped cream to hold the cherries. No one should be surprised to find a lake in the Black Forest, right?

Up there, spring was early, and when we took walks in the woods we encountered dogwood flowers a month before they’d normally be seen. And a trillium. I am rarely in a place to see trilliums when they are newly opened, so that was wonderful.

Other cooking: A bigger project than the birthday baking was for church. I took a whole day to experiment at home in an effort to figure out how to get a consistently good imprint on the tops of our altar bread that we call prosphora.

And I learned a lot, though the huge batch of dough (it used 20+ cups of flour) from which I  made four sizes of breads, overwhelmed my kitchen — or more precisely, my mind, as I scrambled to keep track of timers and squeeze everything into my oven.

It seemed pretty chaotic for a while, but the end result was quite satisfactory, Glory to God! It was on St. Patrick’s Day, and I had been to church that morning so as to start my project off right. Thank you, Saint Patrick!

Reading: You can see from the sidebar that I read several books, but the one I most wanted to read for “lenten reading” I haven’t finished yet. It’s Transfiguring Time by Olivier Clément, and is a beautiful complement to the joy of Pascha, as the author’s own joy at the Christian message shines through every page. Clément was born in 1921 in France, and spent his 20’s exploring the religions of the East, in particular India. He became somewhat of an expert on ancient cosmologies and their concept of time, and when he discovered the Christian faith as elucidated by Vladimir Lossky, he saw the huge contrast. I’m sure I’ll share some quotes from Clément later.

Little breads for church feasts: For the feast of the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste I decided to bake Lark Buns for my church school class.

40 Martyrs Sebaste

The symbolism has to do with larks in springtime, but also the spirits of the martyrs flying up to heaven. You have to bake 40 of them, of course, so quite a few were left over to pass around to a few people at the agape meal. That was fun.

At the very end of Lent, on Palm Sunday, to commemorate Lazarus Saturday which was the day before, the cooks who prepared the agape meal made a batch of Lazarus Buns. They are just as cute!

In the garden: We had a couple of very warm weeks in March, and around the date of the equinox, when weather returned to normal, it was as though summer had ended and spring had arrived. It was easy to be out of doors during that special time. I had organized my seeds…

…and planted several 3″ pots with winter squash: kabocha, butternut and Delicata. Because of there being so much sunshine and high temps, I was able to leave them outdoors much of the time. Just before recent rains I set them out into the garden, and if we don’t get any killing frosts I should end up with a good supply of squash in the fall.

I harvested plenty of greens and they were delicious. The Chinese Broccoli towered over the garden bed and swayed prettily, scattering its flower petals around, but I didn’t get very much in the way of the broccoli part from it, and the larger leaves were bitter.

The Tasmanian Flax is blooming this spring, after readying itself for three years, and I am thrilled. Each flower is exquisite and dainty, and there are hundreds of them, so we can expect a slew of berries in a few months.

Now I must check out what my fellow bloggers have been doing the last two months ❤

All the weeds are pretty.

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Hairy Bittercress

When the overcast lifted and the sun came out, and my house and I were warmed up, thanks to the wood fire that I was oh so grateful to have had the energy to get going — then I looked out the kitchen window and decided that I would wash the glass patio table that had gotten all dirty from rain and wind and leaves.

It was one of those things where you do one little task, which leads to another, and another. I was oh so grateful for the way that happens, which also can’t be counted on. I pulled out the bare and mushy begonia stems nearby, that had been pleading with me through the window for weeks, and so removed their shame. From there I carried my small green trug all around the garden to fill with trimmings of mint, rose geranium, and part of a lavender bush that had escaped the shears back in the summer.

Chocolate mint

I even repotted a plant! Soon after Christmas Day I had gone to the nursery to see if they still had a little live Christmas tree of any sort, but they were sold out. I had thought a conifer in a pot would be nice by my front door, to get me through the winter. It’s become a pet project to have something in that spot, a plant that is healthy and cheery, and preferably blooming, to greet guests and me when we come and go.

They were sold out of Christmas trees at the nursery, but they did have blooming Kangaroo Paws. I brought one home and switched out the aster right away, but the new plant was cramped — so I moved it into a larger pot where it could spread its roots out more comfortably. This is the “before” picture, though:

All the weeds are pretty right now, because they are all tiny and fresh-fresh green. I can identify most of the peskiest, which in some cases come from seeds or plants that in past years I encouraged to grow in my garden. From that group the ones that I am now dis-couraging to greater or lesser degree are Love-in-a-Mist (nigella), violas, and California poppies.

Common groundsel

I pulled dozens of just-up nigella and bittercress out from around other plants that I don’t want to be choked out, and promised myself I would work on the asparagus beds in couple of days, after they have dried out more:

Violas infesting the asparagus beds.

The plan is to remove all the violas, and then spread mulch again. I don’t know what has been digging in there — maybe crows?

Baby California poppy with Hairy Bittercress

My favorite leather work gloves are pigskin, because they are soft and flexible enough not to hinder me throwing wood into the stove, or doing other tasks that require some dexterity. But they wear out really fast, and are expensive. So I ordered two other types to try out, and they arrived today:

The ones on the left are supple enough and mold to my hands, and I think I’ll use them in the house when dealing with the wood and the stove. The ones on the right are stiffer, but they will be fine for carrying cordwood into the garage or house.

For gardening, I use non-leather gloves, because for that I need even more dexterity, but I end up taking them off half the time. I’m thinking of switching to thin vinyl gloves, but I wonder if my hands just have a mind of their own, and want to be in the dirt all the way.

There’s no rain or frost on the forecast here in my corner of the world, but sunshine is predicted. That will be good for my mood, and probably for sleep, too. I think I’ll make it through January again!

Petty spurge

Luxury without guilt.

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Having time and strength to do my housework properly is a great luxury. I felt that so much the last couple of days, when there were no other duties calling, and nothing urgent to distract me. First I worked at sweeping and organizing my garage. The question remains: Will I ever be able to fit my car in there?

It would be nice, but having no attic, basement, laundry room, pantry or storage shed, I use my garage for everything from firewood and kindling to beach toys and line-drying clothes; lots of gardening tools are stored there, and big pots that don’t fit anywhere in my kitchen. If I have many more days of focused thinking, maybe I will figure out how to arrange the stuff more efficiently. It could happen!

Today, more rich gifts were mine. I mostly cooked and worked in the kitchen, with the door open to the rain outside. Bliss. Eventually I put a large batch of experimental flax crackers into the dehydrator. We will see how they come out tomorrow, after 24 hours of dessication. I was trying to replicate the crackers sold under the Flackers brand, that have cinnamon and currants in them. But then I added three other kinds of seeds: sesame, chia and pumpkin.

Can you see the Thanksgiving cactus in the background, beginning to bloom?

I had already taken a morning walk, with very light rain falling on me off and on. The extravagant blessing of the heavens all around me, wetting everything and making us shine.

One thing nice about using the dehydrator for crackers is, I could go off and leave them in there, which I couldn’t have done if they were baking in the oven. So I put on my rain jacket again, and took a second walk about 4:00.

The skies were clearing. I walked westward that time, and saw different sights. Like the cleanest eucalyptus leaves ever:

Rain is not in the forecast for tomorrow, but housework is. Truly it’s neverending, and I hope my feeling of leisure will hold out for another day, while I prepare for a visit from my older son, whom I call Pathfinder. Last time he was here he helped me make progress with the Garage Project, but I’m happily looking forward to whatever we do together. Rain or not, I expect showers of blessing.

Plumbago in the neighborhood

Monday rain and flowers.

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So many little tasks need doing before setting off on a journey. Of course there is the packing of supplies to use while I’m away, but there is also the making ready of Home. It needs quite a bit of tidying up, just to show the homemaker that she does love this place. Being extra nice to the garden by deadheading and cleaning up also does a lot to ease my sore heart, because it dreads saying good-bye once again.

And I’m in the middle of my biggest garden project ever, that is, the biggest I’ve ever taken on by myself. Ten areas of the garden will have been changed in different ways, when I’m finished. That sounds like it is almost everything, but it’s not. I won’t be finished for a few more weeks, mostly because October and November are better months for planting perennials around here, but also because I plain ran out of time this month.

Last fall I planted three clary sage plants, which are biennials and will bloom next June. I hope I can remember to start a few every fall so that I can keep them coming. Below you can see one of the older ones in the foreground, next to the pincushion flower I planted last week, and in the background two of the younger clary sages I was able to get from a local nursery recently.

As three big conifers to the south of me, including my own Canary Island Pine, keep growing taller, the amount of “full sun” in the back garden has been shrinking. It was a case of bit by bit, and then all at once. All at once I realized why the purple coneflower barely blooms, and even the recently planted Mexican Evening Primrose is not happy.

apple mint

Also there is the problem of the unpleasing design, or lack of design, from the last landscaper, of the area near my front door. I’m unwilling to live with it, so it’s taken hours and hours of thinking and thinking and reading on the Pacific Horticulture site, researching and shopping for plants, imagining how they will look if I put them here or there. I’m moving several plants installed last year to better places.

When I get new gallons or 4″ pots on site, I arrange them still in the pots where I think they work, and then I think better of it, and carry them elsewhere. To the front yard — No, the back yard — how will it look alongside this other plant that can take part shade? Weird? Probably… Oh well, they will have to get along. It can be exhausting being so unsystematic.

Naked Buckwheat

I’m excited to have my very own Naked Buckwheats — this is a California native that I often see in the mountains. My daughter Pippin has them growing wild around her place. And now me!

I decided to grow annual vegetables in the front garden near the perennial asparagus, because they will be sure to get enough sun there; but I need to add more soil first. I should have waited to buy the kalettes and Chinese Broccoli until that bed was ready, but I didn’t, and they were in little six packs, so I spent an hour transferring them to larger pots so they won’t get rootbound while they’re waiting.

I have cut down the asparagus a few times, first because of the aphids, and then so that I could rake away all the mulch and add more soil, and new mulch. But spears keep coming up, and looking ferny lovely:

When I cut them, I throw away the fronds or chop them up for the worms, but there are always several that haven’t become fronds yet, and that are the right size for eating. I accumulated enough to roast a panful this afternoon.

And I made a batch of Jammy Eggs to have for snacks on the journey.

It’s to Wisconsin I am going, because my granddaughter Miss Maggie is getting married! It was barely over a year ago that her brother’s wedding took me to that state, and now back I go. It will be a very happy time, and I will be over my leavinghomesickness before you know it.

One of the asparagus beds.

It started raining this afternoon. Early autumn rains are just the best. I can leave the windows and doors open and breathe the rain, and hear it pitter patter. The drops began to fall when I was still in the middle of planting my Bouteloua gracilis, or blue grama grass (“Blonde Ambition”), and after I cleaned up my tools I still had to put out all the trash cans, plus an extra green bin a neighbor is letting me use. Four neighbors, two on either side of me, are always letting me use extra space in their green waste bins for my overflow.

Blue Grama Grass

Do you find that when you are getting ready for a trip, not only do you have the packing for the actual trip, and the everyday housework and cooking that has nothing to do with the trip, but also extra, surprise things that come up that take some of your precious time? I realized last week that I needed to lay in some firewood, and that took a whole day to deal with. I got a half cord and stacked it almost entirely by myself. In the course of that my neighbor Eric lent me his wheelbarrow and offered to repair my wheelbarrow. He noticed in going through my gate that it didn’t latch behind him, so I spent an hour figuring out how to adjust that latch. I don’t want the gate to fail to close when I’m away, if he should come for the wheelbarrow.

And what do you know, I also got inconvenient visitors this week — ants! They have been mostly crawling around on my computer table and keyboard — and my hands — so I am going to cut this shorter than it might have been, stopping at long instead of longer, and I’ll hope to check in from Wisconsin soon. But I still don’t have a tablet or anything larger than my little phone to work on, so I don’t know…

Happy Autumn Days to you all.