Ladybug Picnic

1-2-3, 4-5-6, 7-8-9, 10-11-12 ladybugs came to the lady bug picnic. Well, actually about a billion more than that! I know where the ladybugs go for their annual family reunion. A very short walk from Dogwood Lane Farm down a dirt road and over a rickety bridge across Canyon Creek is the Ladybug Picnic Grounds.

At first you see a cluster and think, "oh, look at all the ladybugs!"

 And then as you start to look around you exclaim, "OH, look at all the ladybugs!" Yes, every little bit of red you see is a ladybug.

But then... you're afraid to take a step in any direction. " OH, LOOK AT ALL THE LADYBUGS!"

 

Until next time,

In the May Garden

Spring arrives in waves in the foothills. April brings the lilacs, wisteria and dogwoods if we're lucky. Their glory is fleeting and a cold snap might turn their beauty to withered black so we really love them if they stay.

 Then comes May, glorious May!

These blooms are as big as dinner plates!

CLEMATIS

SPEEDWELL

The vegetable garden is all planted with tomatoes, beans, squash, cucumber, strawberries and herbs.

WATER LILIES AND PEONIES

LAVENDER & WALLFLOWERS

Next will come the roses to prove that all the planning and digging and winter dreaming were worth it. How does your garden grow?

'til next time,

A New Camera Might Mean Better Pictures

Or might not. It's all about the operator. This is my new camera. See that camera case? The camera doesn't even fit in it! What's up with that? My old camera is a Sony Cyber Shot and I've had it for at least 8 years. I love that little camera but I've dropped it so many times that the battery keeps falling out of the bottom and it just isn't reliable any more. Now I have this baby and a whole new learning curve. Believe me when I say this is not the most expensive nor the most complicated digital camera out there, far from it. It is complicated enough to make me a little intimidated tho so if my blog photos are less than stellar for a while you'll know why.

When I was a young college student I saved my money and bought a fabulous Canon film camera. I swanned around campus with that thing hanging from my neck taking artsy photos of sidewalk cracks and tree branches. I took a photography class and learned all about f stops and film speeds and went to late night foreign film showings to later critique the cinematography. Then I got a life. I wasn't in school any more and I couldn't afford film much less afford to have it developed. Now fast forward to 2013 and I love digital photography. I can take as many shots as I want, throw them all away if I don't like them, keep just the ones I want, manipulate them in a thousand ways all with very little cost. Magic!

My photos are not very artsy, but I like them and I have fun messing around with them and with the new camera.

Until next time,

Sending Prayers for Libby

Reprinted from Blackberry Creek Home Arts

Quilting phenomenon Libby Lehman suffered a brain aneurism last week in Houston after returning home from Paducah. She had surgery Wednesday, followed by a massive stroke on Thursday. Her left side is paralyzed; she is left handed. 

According to a post by Ricky Tims on Facebook, Libby is being kept under sedation to give her brain a better chance of healing. She is in critical condition.

Let's keep this prayer chain going for Libby and her family.

LASTEST FROM RICKY TIMS:
I just spoke with Lester (husband). Libby remains in critical but stable condition. The vascular spasms are now beginning to taper off. These will taper off on a bell curve, so they will begin slowing quicker and quicker. We pray that this continues. The doctors say if she can make it to the weekend without another stroke, the chances of a future stroke are very small. So, that's the primary concern at the moment.

They are slowly stopping the sedatives and are expecting her to slowly begin to awake. It may take a day or two - or even three for her to wake up.

Because she has been on the breathing tube for such a long time, they will remove it today and do a tracheotomy. It's a common next step for patients who have been on the ventilator for this long.

A new CTscan was performed and the doctor believes there is less damage than originally thought. However, nothing can be determined until she is fully awake. She will eventually be undergoing weeks of therapy.

All in all the report is much the same - slow recovery, but moving forward, not backward.

Do not send flowers.

Send cards or quilted cards to:
Libby Lehman
617 Caroline
Houston, TX 77002.

 

 

I am forwarding this information and prayer request and hoping that you will keep Libby in your prayers. I had the privilege of taking a class from Libby about three years ago and I can tell you first hand that she is a delightful, generous and supremely talented quilter/artist/person.

 

This is a Neat Trick

My friend Diana the embroidery queen showed me this great product and I just had to share it with all of you. For me the worst part of a hand embroidery project is transferring the design on to your cloth. Light boxes? I don't have one. Taping to a window. Awkward. here's the solution. Self adhesive, water soluble stabilizer that you can run through your printer/copier. Genius! These are the two options I found, Tranfer-Eze and Sticky Fabri-Solvy. They both work the same way and Dianna says they give the same results. She's used them both. She prefers the Tranfer-Eze but it's harder to find and slightly more expensive at least around here.

They come in roughly the same size  8 1/2 X 11 paper backed sheets that will run through your ink jet printer/copier one at a time. Determine which side your printer prints on and put a sheet in the tray face up or down depending on your printer/copier. Put your design in the copy tray and print. That's all there is to it. If you don't have a copier you'll have to take it to a copy store.

This was a long design so I used two pieces of stabilizer lined up after printing.

 Once the design is printed let dry for a few minutes and prepare your fabric. Preshrink your fabric for best results because your going to be using warm water later to dissolve the stabilizer and you don't want any nasty shrinky surprises. Iron fabric nice and smooth. Peel the paper backing off the stabilizer and smooth onto fabric. It's not so sticky that you can't reposition if you make a mistake so don't fret. It doesn't smear and after you rub it down it stays! You have a nice crisp design to follow that won't fade.

Start stitching! Once you're done rinse in warm water and the stabilizer is gone taking the marks with it. Once my project is finished I'll report back but Diana has used this many times and swears by it. Have any of you tried this? What do you think? Willing to give it a go?

Until next time,

Is that a Space Alien in the Garden?

We used to tell the kids that space aliens were popping up from under ground when the asparagus started breaking through. Their fingers were clawing through the surface. Wicked I know. They got a thrill out of it anyway.

This has been a wonderful year for the asparagus patch. I think it's a combination of weather and just the right fertilizer. I applied blood meal and lots of my own compost around January so it had time to soak in and do it's magic and the spears have been enormous. I was trying for quantity. Giant spears are not necessarily what I was going for but the purple variety I have produces huge spears anyway and these are even bigger than usual. Before you ask I have no idea what the name of this variety is. I planted this bed about 10 years ago and I think I got the purple roots from  catalog but I can't be sure. I can tell you that even though they're so huge they're tender and sweet all the way down the stalk so there's hardly any waste tender and delicious - amazing. The green variety is Martha Washington I think and it's doing really well too. 

The harvest season is short but prolific so I'm always looking for ways to use the crop. I don't think asparagus freezes well at least not for me. It always defrosts mushy no matter how hard I try to prevent it and I never seem to have time to pickle it so we just eat it every night until it's gone. Any suggestions for what I can do with it?

Here's a recipe I adapted on the fly that turned out well and would be a good vegetarian main dish or a nice side dish.

Orzo with Asparagus & Parmesan
serves 2 generously as a main dish; 4 as a side dish

2 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic finely chopped
3/4 cup orzo
1/4 cup white wine or vermouth
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock 
asparagus (as much as you'd like) trimmed and cut into bite sized pieces
 1/4 cup Parmesan

Heat the oil in a large skillet and saute garlic and orzo briefly until lightly toasted over medium heat. Add white wine and evaporate by about half. Meanwhile warm whichever broth you're using (I use the microwave for this step) and add it to the pan all at once. Stir so all the orzo is coated. Cover and simmer on low stirring occasionally about 20 minutes. If the liquid is getting low before the pasta is done add a little more broth or water. In the last 5 minutes add the asparagus and cheese, stir to combine, cover and remove from heat. The residual heat will melt the cheese and cook your asparagus. The asparagus will still be crisp and there should be just a little silky sauce or more if you like. If you like your asparagus cooked more just leave it on the heat longer. No worries.

Adapted from Food52.com





 

Until next time,

You're Absolutely Right!

I have been gone a long time. In my defense there's been a lot going on  and we've been traveling to meet family obligations. My husband's next younger brother (he has four - two older and two younger) got married and Chris was a groomsman. Since both parties were widowed it turned out to be a bitter sweet affair with echoes of former times and hopes for a brighter future. 

This little sweetheart, our granddaughter Claire just about stole the show from the bride! She loves to dance and sing. She'll turn 2 this month and has plenty to say on a wide range of subjects in two languages, Mandarin and English. Get a look at those silver slippers, her favorites!

I can't believe this is the only picture I took of Chris in all his wedding finery! He looked so handsome, just picture him standing up and minus the beer bottle. So classy.

As soon as we hit our front door after an exhausting 8 hour drive home Chris went to bed with a horrendous chest cold. It must have been that one beer he had at the wedding and sleeping in hotel rooms and long drives and that one beer.

I hit the ground running cuz it's garden planting time and the garden waits for no woman. The growing season is so short here in the foothills that we can't afford to wait. When the time is right get those veggies in the ground. So while my hubby languished in his sick bed I hoed and weeded and planted squash; red, green and hot peppers; tomatoes; chard; transplanted two more roses; sunflowers and sweet William; fertilized the roses and watered it all in. I'll show you how the May garden is doing in a future post. It looks fantastic!

As soon as Chris started to feel better on Friday the bug hit me! Isn't that always the way things go? I HATE a head cold it makes me feel like a child again with that awful drippy, sneezy nose.

To end this week on a fantastic note our oldest grandson Jed stopped by on his way to his senior prom and posed for one picture. So handsome. He graduates with honors in three weeks and then heads off to college in August (gasp).

Until next time,