Let Them Eat CAKE.

We had company last week, so I made a homemade cherry chip cake.  The resulting crumb was a little too dense for my liking, so I'm tossing the recipe.  In the future I'm going to take a basic vanilla/white cake recipe and replace part of the milk/liquid with pureed maraschino cherries to give it that extra kick, and use some puree in the frosting, too.  Still, the taste was all right, and it looked pretty:

After everyone left, Todd and I went down by the water.

It was a relaxing morning, just chit chatting before work.  Even though it's been roastingly hot, there was a nice breeze.  Borga came with us...she loves to be a part of things.

Mainly she loves being close to "Dad."

Yesterday, a surprise...R - A - I - N.  Only the second time this summer for us!

I had to go outside today before work, because I know that insects and small creatures are much more active after it rains.  Only a few feet from the front door, I saw a small carolina mantis under a fern frond.

They aren't as disturbingly huge as the ones we had in Indiana (Chinese mantids).  Still, just like the others, this one kept his eye on me the entire time.
 

Near the base of the fern I saw a tiny young anole.  He was only a few inches long!

 

Look at his teeny head!  So cute.

 

I've let the spearmint grow wild in the front beds, so we had lots of buzzing insects on the flowers.

A beautyberry bush is sprouting right in the middle of our front azaleas.  I was going to root it out, but Todd loves beautyberries and volunteered to move it in the fall.  So right now it remains a bit of a bully in its spot.  The flowers are gone and the berries are ripening.  Soon we'll have great color here!

 

My most exciting discovery occurred just a few feet away.  Now, we have a LOT of hawks around here, and I've identified several.

However, I've heard one call that's been driving me crazy.  It's not the traditional hawk scream/screech that everyone knows.  It's more of a prolonged series of whistles.  Worse, I haven't been able to see the hawk making the call, so it's been nearly impossible to make an identification.  Today I was taking pictures in the front bed and heard the call...almost directly overhead!

I had my macro lens and not the zoom, so I wasn't able to get a good close shot.  But I was able to quickly identify him as a common red-tailed hawk.  I couldn't see the red tail feathers from this angle, but he's got a slightly reddish chest and the other markings help with identification.

But how to explain the call?  None of the traditional bird call sites had this particular call associated with a red-tailed hawk.  I checked website after website and learned that what I was probably hearing was either a courtship or territorial challenge call.  THIS is as close as I've been able to get to the whistles that we hear all day, every day.  I'm SO glad to solve this little mystery.  It's been driving me crazy for weeks!

Even with the recent rain, it's heating up here again.  We're expected to reach 102 degrees by the weekend!  We've been watering and watering the hostas and ferns, who are unused to such glaring direct sun and heat, but they're slowly crisping up all over.

 I just hope they hold on until things cool off a little.

I haven't had time to do much craft work, but I did dig a really cute fair isle baby cardigan out of the .25 bin at Salvation Army.  

 This is an inexpensive inspiration for future projects.  I also found a really cute polka dotted A-line skirt.  It's several sizes too big, but I'm going to try to cut it down and sew it into the right size.  It was only a dollar, so great practice for me.  I am very partial to this dark mustard color.

Hopefully I'll have time in the next few days to get more done.  Have a great week!

Skirting the Issue

My first garment sewing class is over!  I learned quite a bit.

Cutting and laying out the delicate tissue-paper pattern pieces:

Installing my very first zipper:

Darts!

It was definitely an imperfect job, with uneven stitching, but I'm very pleased that it came together into an actual skirt.  It should've fit snugly at the waist like this:

But although the proportions were technically correct, the skirt was several inches too big.  I measured  I measured myself carefully and had Todd do the measurements to make sure I was accurate.  I just don't know where I went wrong.

It's all right, though, since it was just a practice skirt.  I will just the waist of a currently-fitting skirt and use that measurement next time.  I bought a ton of retro patterns last week:

Others were modern but had the look I wanted.

I also bought enough gingham and madras to make several dresses:

Thankfully, the cats are great help with my work!

I've been making more of my healthy and quick summer meals and thought I'd post a few here with recipes attached.  Last week I made

Shrimp and Couscous Foil Packets with Avocado-Mango Salsa (my modifications:  fish and roasted asparagus over rice):

Tomato, Basil, and Fresh Mozzarella Tart (my modifications:  fresh spinach!):

Skillet Chicken with Creamy Spinach Artichoke Sauce:

All in under 30 minutes and extremely healthy.  Hope you'll give one a try.  Have a great week!

Pond Perks

It's very popular here in upstate South Carolina to live "on the lake," but I don't think I would enjoy it very much.  Noisy boats, loud parties, close neighbors, people talking right offshore?  No thanks.  However, I can't say enough about living on a large semi-private pond, and having a sun room overlooking the water.

PEACEFUL.  Quiet.  Beautiful light.  Best of all, we don't even have to go outside into the heat to enjoy the water, although we do, quite a bit.

After all, how can we resist a visit from our "goz," who come right over when we walk down to the water's edge?

Our resident heron is always around, although he's pretty cranky and squawks in irritation when disturbed.

I've talked a lot about the little mammals we've had...the river otter, beavers, and muskrats...but we also enjoy a dizzying array of dragonflies (this is a Slaty Skimmer, single and mating pair)...

...and colorful butterflies.  By the way, this is Limenitis arthemis.  The tiny orange spots tell predators that it's poisonous, but it's actually not.  It's mimicking the poisonous Battus philenor, but this little guy is perfectly harmless.

A hawk pair hunts here regularly.  They're really beautiful, majestic creatures. Check out those talons and the strong beak!

Here's the male across the pond.  He dove onto some small rodent and then ate it leisurely.

Really beautiful birds. 

We've got an abundance of anole lizards here.  More beauties.

Not always seen, but always leaving their presence felt, is our pack of white-tailed deer.  Scat all over the driveway and garden...

...and they're nibbling everything.  This liriope grass should have large arching fronds, but it's trimmed tidily by the deer, all over the yard.

The deer don't turn to the liriope until they've exhausted everything else, so this drought must be having quite an effect on them.  There's more scorched grass than tender young shoots at this time of year.

Staying inside, I've been doing a ton of crafting and cooking in my spare time.  I'll try to devote my next post to those projects.  Have a great week!

Skirt Darts & Knitting Charts

I know I sound like a broken record, but...hot. Hot. Hot.  I have been staying inside except for my daily trips to the gym.  Working from home has its perks, and not having to be out in the heat is definitely one of them.  In my free time, I've started a few projects.

I'm taking a class to learn how to sew vintage skirts!  Thanks, Jamaica Thrift Store, for the super cheap patterns.

The class skirt is not a vintage style, but a straight knee-length skirt, very basic.  Well, I'm beginning at the beginning, so it's good practice. 

Look!  My skirt has darts!  And I'm installing a zipper by the weekend.

I've been working on my quilting skills, too.  I sewed this placemat together with hand-cut pieces.  I'm still frustrated by my inability to properly pair patterns/colors, but I suppose practice will improve that.

The most important thing is that my sewing is becoming more precise.  Look at my tidy squares! 

I knitted this (secret) project for a friend, playing with stranded knitting and various color combinations...

...and I'm knitting a pair of mittens for myself in the traditional 'feather and fan' style.

The issue is that I have tiny wrists and have to knit with size 0 needles (aka toothpick width).  They're killing my hands and I think I'll only be able to work on this sporadically.

I'm a puzzle fanatic and probably finish a 1000 piece puzzle every week.

It doesn't take long at all once I sort the pieces into helpful groups.  On the weekend I'll occasionally sit down for an hour and work, but mostly I sit for 20 minutes in the late afternoons and "puzz," as I say.  It's so relaxing after a day spent online. 

I've been trying to take advantage of the in-season produce, too.  I cooked down blueberries and blackberries last week and, when the mixture was chilled, mixed into coconut milk and froze in the ice cream maker for an absolutely delicious "ice cream."  Recipe here. 

I've mainly been making huge salads for supper every day, which Todd loves.  I am excited about branching out into ingredients that I'm not used to using on a daily basis.  Here are links to some much-loved summer meals around here:

Blackened fish tacos with avocado-cilanto sauce
Quinoa salad with mint, almonds, and cranberries
Shrimp and couscous packets with mango-avocado salsa
Chopped salad with feta, lime, mint, and sunflower seeds
Orzo salad with chickpeas, cucumbers, lemon, dill, and feta
Spring vegetable stir fry with lemon ginger sauce
Greek tortellini salad

I thought I'd be buying a lot of specialty ingredients and only using them once, but it's mainly a steady rotation of fresh herbs and veggies that are used from meal to meal.  While I sometimes grill chicken to chop up and toss in any given salad for some extra protein, it's mainly vegetables, so it's a lot less expensive than the meat-heavy winter stews I make.  Win-win!

That's all the activity around here this week...taking my nature inspiration from indoor things, like fresh eggs from the farmers market...

...and adorable kittens...

(the original Grumpy Cat?)

...or things glimpsed through a window, like this female hummingbird.

Hopefully we'll get some rain - or at least slightly cooler temperatures - soon.  Have a great week!