down the rabbit hole

Since I've been taking so many nature shots this spring, I've fallen way behind on the other things I like to occasionally highlight here.  First, the baking.  I've done quite a bit of it this spring.

Recently, baked lemon donuts, lightly glazed, from Sugarcrafter...delicious.

Back in the Day Bakery's Coconut Cream Pie with DOUBLE the coconut...just because.

A Triple Chocolate Cookie Skillet Cake from Life Love Sugar.

I made a TON (over 100) Lemon Crinkle Cookies to send out to friends and family this year for Mother's Day.  Somehow, I had a few lemons left over.  I hate to waste anything, so first I made David Lebovitz's famous no-zest lemon curd.  It wasn't as tart as I normally like my curd, but it definitely grew on me.

But now we had all this curd.

"Must make lemon curd!"
"Lemon curd is great with crumpets."
"I could also make some kind of layered pastry with the leftovers..."

...and down the rabbit hole I went.

First came the crumpets, using my trusty King Arthur Flour recipe that makes sourdough-like beauties.  A perfect companion for this mild curd.

I still had quite a bit of curd left over, and when I read The Baker Chick's post about a nutella-layered sweet bread, I knew I had to improvise.  Instead of using nutella, I spread each layer thickly with lemon curd.  I crushed up frozen blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries, sprinkled them with a mixture of sugar and cornstarch, and layered them on top of the curd.  I made many mistakes - I didn't make my dough circles big enough, and this and the leaking fruit made it very difficult to do the star twist design.  It wasn't pretty, but at least it was very tasty.

I've also tried to squeeze in 30 minutes or so each day for knitting.  I've primarily been working on a large, lacy shawl that I could use as a late winter scarf.  If the temperature is 70 degrees or less, I'm chilly.  I don't like thick, bulky fabric wound around my neck, so this seems like a perfect compromise - a cardigan or sweater and this lace instead of a heavy coat and binding scarf.

Now lace, in its original knitted form, is fairly unattractive.  It's all bunched up and doesn't really look like much.

But if you wet it, and carefully stre-e-e-e-etch it out, and use pins to open up the jagged points at the shawl's edge, well, it really makes a difference.

 I think it's so beautiful...and here it is, serving its purpose.

 Love!  The pattern is SWEET DREAMS by Boo Knits on Ravelry.

Now I'm knitting a standard cardigan...

...that has a fanciful yoke of foxgloves.

It's knitted with fingering-weight yarn, which is very thin, so it will take a bit longer to finish.  I'm not in any hurry, though!

That's all the updates for now.  Have a great weekend!

A Fall Ball

Despite the cool temperatures, my tomatoes are continuing to ripen. Twenty-five tomato plants can produce a lot of tomatoes.

I've been making soup, soup, soup, especially my favorite: homemade chicken noodle soup with wheat garlic breadsticks.

And, happily, I've started putting up my fall decor. I set up a pretty display of branches on my window seat in the living room. Unfortunately, the bright light makes it difficult to photograph!

I put the ends of the branches in a mason jar weighed down with rocks, and put the whole thing in a little wooden candle holder that I may have gotten at IKEA years ago.

Moss is my favorite, and I love to scatter it around. I've got a sheet of it under the candle holder, and have put a few pumpkins and gourds around it.

Out come the plaids!

It will take me weeks until I'm finally satisfied, but until then I'll keep dragging in tree branches, leaves, and seeds!

I recently had a little get-together for my mother's birthday. I set up a fall-themed display on our table, with chrysanthemums...

...pumpkins and gourds...

...these fir tree seeds that look like miniature pine cones...

...and some fall flowers from my garden.

Using some of my scrapbooking supplies, I cut out squirrel shapes and made place cards for each setting.

I tied up some pretty leaves and placed the name tag on top.

I think it made for a very pretty table!

My mother always requests carrot cake. I tried out a unique recipe for her a few months ago and she said it was the best carrot cake she'd ever had. I didn't like it as much, but she sent the recipe to some relatives in California and they raved about it, too. I made some minor modifications when I made it this time and was more satisfied with the result.

Taking the idea from my sister- and brother-in-law's wedding, I peeled some carrot strips for the top. I like the way it turned out!

Zingy Ginger Carrot Cake
Adapted from Sweetapolita
Makes one layer cake

Ingredients
5 cups of grated carrots
1/2 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger
2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2/3 cup milk

Directions
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9 inch cake pans and set aside. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices together in a bowl and set aside. Cream your butter and then beat in sugar. Beat for at least 3 minutes, until creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Don't worry about its curdled appearance! Fold in 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by half of the milk. Repeat additions, ending with flour. Stir in carrots and crystallized ginger. Do not overmix!

Divide batter evenly between your two cake pans and tap them lightly to ensure that you don't have any air holes. Bake for 30 - 35 minutes, until centers are set. Cool and then ice with your favorite cream cheese icing.

This cake did not last too long around our house!

I finishes a knitting project for a special friend recently. I wanted to make something light and pretty, so I matched up two complementary purple wools that I had in my yarn stash. The dark purple that makes up the body of the shawl came from Germany, and the lacy edge is Malabrigo Lace in Pearl Ten.

I really like how it turned out. I still don't know how to wear over-the-shoulder shawls, but this is the perfect size to wrap around your neck a few times to keep out the wind.

The pattern is Cladonia by Kirsten Kapur, but I modified it a bit. Instead of the large, loopy picot edge, I made it smaller and daintier. I like it so much that I think I might make another, even though the bind-off of 300+ stitches was pretty painful!

Have a great week!

A Bloom Boon

This is one of my favorite times of year...when everything is just starting to pop in the garden. My amaryllis plant is experiencing unprecedented growth...six beautiful, long-lasting blooms so far this year.

My tiger lilies are doing well, too. I bought one limp lily clearanced to .99 several years ago and planted it. The second year, a few small lilies came up, but each year, they grow and spread nicely.

The ditch lilies are up, too! Ditch lilies, or Hemerocallis fulva, are great for poor-soil areas. You may have seen great patches of them along the highway, hence their nickname. They thrive without attention in dry soil and full sun, so are perfect for areas of your yard that other things won't grow in. Be cautious, though. They don't play well with others and will quickly choke out competing plants in their vicinity.

My yellow yarrow had its first blush of color recently.

My favorite, though, is the hot pink. Each year the patches grow and spread. I can't imagine my garden without these colorful plants.

The feverfew bush is blooming...

...and I've gotten the first bloom on my "Endless Summer" hydrangea.

I love seeing all the individual petals unfurling.

The small dill patch from last year came back and spread with a vengeance. Dill seeds insinuated themselves into the cracks in our concrete driveway and grew rapidly. They smell delicious when you back over them! :) Thankfully, we have dill all along the fence line, too.

The first zinnia bud has appeared...

...as has the first cosmos bud.

My mallows have grown nicely and are just starting to go to seed. I planted cosmos around the mallows to provide a nice leafy 'cover' for the ground, and so that I'd patches of tall orange flowers to cover up the stalks when they go to seed.

Like every year...a surprise! I've got 6 or 7 larkspur plants growing in various parts of the garden. How did they get there? I don't know, but I'm really enjoying them while they last! An interesting fact: giving someone a specific type of flower denotes a particular meaning...i.e., a carnation means friendship, etc. Be careful who you give a larkspur to, though...larkspurs signify fickleness!

Insects have had quite a time with my flowers this year. I don't recall it ever being so bad before. The leaves on most of my zinnias have been eaten down.

My oriental lilies have fallen prey to another invasive insect, which has swarmed all over the leaves and buds, causing them to shrivel.

I don't use pesticides on my plants. Thankfully - I think - I've got more praying mantises than ever before. Another ootheca has hatched recently. These tiny mantis nymphs are still swarming all over the area near where they hatched from. They'll eat many, many garden pests.

In another part of the garden, this young praying mantis, from a different ootheca, looks alert on a leaf.

A lightning bug rests up for his nighttime performance. I've always loved lightning bugs and miss seeing them...there are so few of them in the city, compared to what I am used to in the country. I've read that lightning bugs are fast disappearing. Human encroachment on their habitats - woods and meadows - have decreased their numbers, but they also suffer from something called 'light pollution'. Lightning bugs communicate with each other with the flashing light of their abdomens. They can get confused with all the lights they see - headlights, lights from houses, street lights - and become unable to signal properly for a mate. That's why I love having big, messy gardens with pesticide-free insect control like (shudder) praying mantises...not only it is beautiful to me, but it can provide a safe haven for all types of insects.

Spiders are another great form of insect control. I found a large funnel web spider web behind my phlox. I know that like praying mantises, spiders are good to have in a garden. I'm still a little afraid of them, though, especially aggressive ground spiders like wolf spiders.

I seem to be obsessed with hover flies lately. I've bee photographing them on the yarrow...

...the feverfew...

...and on random leaves and stems. I can't help it...I think they're quite beautiful, with their tidy proportions, nicely lined wings, and evenly patterned abdomens.

Being on vacation recently gave me a chance to start a new knitting project. I wanted to make a slouchy hat in one of my favorite colors, mustard. This hat was designed by a Scottish woman who was born in the Shetland Islands and who recently released a book of patterns inspired by her life there. This particular hat uses a traditional lace pattern called 'cat's paw'. It didn't look like much after I finished it, but therein lies the magic of blocking.

One supper plate later...

...and voila! It's a perfect fit, and comfortably slouchy. I can see grabbing this hat in the fall, just before a long, brisk walk.

Another knitter sent me a surprise package this week, of vintage buttons. I love buttons of all kind, and these were beauties...pearly pinks, silvery bell-like circles, faux diamonds, some that looked like burnished steel, deep reds, pale greens, and calming blues...and a whole hodgepodge of whites, creams, browns, blacks, and bronzes.

I was glad to have a little surprise, because I needed a pick-me-up. Todd is out of town again, and I absolutely feel miserable when he's gone. He'll be home soon, though, and meanwhile I have lots to keep me busy...

Enjoy your week!