not quite sweater weather, but a sweater nonetheless

I have a new camera and it's so fancy!  I learned the basics this week, but it's too hot to go outside and play with it (mid- to upper 90s for days).  I do have a few things to report with the help of my lousy cell phone camera.

I finished a sweater!

I wanted to knit something basic, and I wanted to use up scrap yarn.  I had quite a bit of green, but not enough white, grey, gold, and blue to do much of anything.  It knitted up beautifully!  Yes, the sleeves are supposed to be short (they're 3/4 length).  I've got it blocked and hanging, waiting for winter!  Future note:  I don't think I'll ever knit a bottom-up sweater again (pattern is BLANK CANVAS by Ysolda).  I prefer top down, so the arms can grow naturally out of the yoke.  But at least it's done, and I've gotten rid of lots of tiny yarn skeins!

It's tomato season, and I have A LOT of tomatoes.  I planted around 16 seedlings, and they're bursting with fruit.  Todd brings in a few pounds every few days (our string trimmer is broken, lots of weeds around edge of tomato barrier, and I'm too afraid of chigger bites after that one disastrous episode two summers ago to wade through it).  At first I was just roasting the tomatoes, processing them into sauce, and freezing it.  But I read about another method that I think will be a winner.

Slice your tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Roast at 250 degrees for 2 hours, then turn up to 300 - 350 degrees for another half hour.  They dehydrate nicely.

These dehydrated slices can be frozen and thawed whole (unlike raw, which turn into sludge when thawed because of their high water content).  This means that they can be used in fresh salads all winter long!  

Last week was a long, slow week, because I had a constant headache and nausea due to a prescription lapse.  I dragged through work and mainly worked on puzzles (when I wasn't laying down).

Since I certainly wasn't out taking photos, I've been looking over photos that didn't make the cut over the past few weeks, although I certainly liked them.

Lots of flowers...

small sweet pea crop this year...

...but tons of zinnias!

love yellow zinnias in bouquets

amazing 5' dill crop this year!

insane hydrangea blossoms this year...photo doesn't do it justice!  

Cute kittens...

Frances on laundry pile

Frances again

...and some pretty things found on hikes.

incredibly vibrant slime mold!

ditto the blue on these butterfly wings

pickerel weed, beloved by deer, muskrats, ducks, and other aquatic animals!

trumpet vine flower just about to open

I've seen some gorgeous sunrises...

...and some less-attractive things.

horse fly...painful bites!!

All in all, it's been a pretty nice summer with a lot of nice views.

horses across the street

Excited for fall, though...and to get some good shots with my new camera.

Have a great week!  

park larks and pack stacks

We've had nearly nonstop rain for the past two weeks, and another week of rain is forecast.  It's been great for flowers...

...pretty spiderwebs...

...and especially fungus.  I believe this is called Witch's Butter, but I think it looks like an image of magnified mold!

We've got the usual slime molds...

...and dog vomit fungus.

The rain is relaxing, especially after the hectic spring we've had.  Our lives have had a little bit of this lately...

(waiting out a showing with the pets in the park)

...because of this!

Yes, we've put our house up for sale and are leaving South Carolina.  We have been talking about what's important to us - a network of good friends, proximity to great hiking and kayaking, four seasons, a town that's progressive and inclusive, somewhere with a lot going on and many ways to get involved.  South Carolina doesn't really check any of those boxes for us, but Bloomington, Indiana hits them all.  Todd lived there for a decade while attending Indiana University and we loved it.  Now that we're in our 40s and looking to improve our quality of life for the long term, settling there just makes sense. 

So back in March, we started packing up the house.

We filled two storage units...

...and are living in a fairly empty house now!  The empty house isn't so bad, but we've had several "Murphy's Law" events.  First, the improperly-installed back living room windows were bowing out more and more, so we had to have the entire wall of windows removed and rebuilt.

Next, an interior pane of glass in one of the guest bedroom doors experienced "spontaneous breakage" from, most likely, improper installation...fifteen years ago.  It's the door on the far left...

...which, close up, looks like this.

Eight glass-repair companies later, we've discovered that since these four doors were installed as a single unit, it may be impossible to separate them.  Meaning that this entire wall would have to be removed, trashed, and replaced with a new wall unit of doors.  It's a multi-thousand dollar repair and we're still hoping to find a contractor that can replace just one section of door. 

Besides these (and many, many other) professional repair jobs, we've also rolled up our sleeves and:  scrubbed and painted the trim and bookshelves throughout the entire upstairs, scrubbed and spot-painted walls, repainted interior and exterior kitchen cabinets, refinished the gas fireplace, did wall and floor repair in the basement, and a whole host of other jobs that just blur together for me now.  March, April, and May have been pack and clean, pack and clean, pack and clean.  The house was listed a little over 2 weeks ago...we've had some great showings...and just waiting for an offer. 

The cats miss the boxes...

...but they'll have an opportunity to frolic in them again once we sell the house and pack up our remaining things! 

Have a great week!

The Best-Laid {egg} Plans

Last week I noticed an unusual amount of activity on the front porch.  Despite the fact that I'd filled the ferns with balled-up paper and frequently rotated them to discourage nesting, a pair of very persistent house finches had, indeed, made a nest in one.

This was a short-lived inconvenience for us, because after only a day the fern had been knocked over and the egg smashed on our steps.  Was it an animal or snake?  I don't know.  I didn't hear them for a few days, and then I heard house finches singing around the other side of the house.  I hope they were able to make another nest in a better location!

We've nearly finished our little outdoor fireplace area by the pond. 

 It's nothing fancy, but the citronella torches help keep the mosquitoes away and we love seeing all the creatures that are drawn to the water.

Here's a white-tailed deer just across the pond.

We see the little muskrat almost every day.

Turtles...always turtles.

Dragonflies...

We've had an absolute explosion of southern toads.  You really can't go outside without stumbling over one.

More often heard than seen, this grey tree frog is resting up for his nighttime performance.

Finally, we have "the goz."  I used to see them multiple times a day, but now that they're older and ranging further from the pond I don't see them nearly as much.  I just got a glimpse of them the other day and see that they've nearly shed their neck and face fuzz and taken on the tradition colors of adult geese.

Closer to the house we have the lazy anole lizards, always out in the sun.

In the front yard, I noticed a squirrel who seemed to be...drinking?...from one of our trees.

Upon closer inspection, I realized that it was the tree that, last year, had been leaking the yeasty-smelling fluid.  It's still leaking.

This is slime flux and there's nothing we can do.  It's a bacterial infection and that bacteria causes a pressure build-up within the tree, which is relieved by these foul-smelling leaks.  We just have to cross our fingers and hope for the best.  I would hate to lose another tree.

Our gardenias are nearly done for the year! 

 I'd guess we had another week, but many of the blooms are starting to take on that tea-stain tint that occurs right before the buds drop.  I've been filling the house with bouquets and just as quickly changing them out, because the buds only last a day or so inside.

I know it seems like I have completely stopped baking, and I've definitely slowed a little bit, but I still bake on a regular basis.  I just bought some almond meal and am planning on trying my hand at making macarons this week, if I have time.  I do have a very simple recipe to share today, from the Annie's Eats site.  Greek yogurt, pureed strawberries, some lemon zest, and a dash of vanilla...

...freeze in some cheapo popsicle molds, and you've got a really tasty and healthy treat (although Todd recommends adding a little bit of sugar to give it some extra sweetness).

Recipe here.  Easy and perfect for summer.  Have a great week!