Harvesting

It’s been a weird mix of rain, sunshine and heat for the past week or two. As you can see below (through the rain) it’s helped push everything we planted a month or two behind schedule finally set root, flower and fruit. In this bed we have a mix of flowers, perennials and vegetables.

About a week ago I took this photo of our first squash producing fruit. The leaves in the foreground are our sweetcorn that are now sporting ears.

While weeding along the side of the house today I noticed this squash had doubled in size from two days ago and picked it. Everything in the garden seems to be at this pace now. Before we know it jars of tomatoes and other goodies will be lining our pantry. I have some great new canning recipes from Well Preserved, so we’ll be eating well this winter. Below is our first squash, with a cat for scale. We have tons more on the way and in a couple days I’m planting another round of cold weather veggies in any available locations. I’m excited.

-Bee

Work in Progress

Phew…”Me” and I both had long and productive work days today. Among other work, “Me” sent off a potential publication and I tackled the floor in our large hallway. I did other work in there over the past week that I’ll also show when everything is done. This morning I rented a floor sander and got to work. Like most renovation projects I could write a few paragraphs about the trials and tribulations that have ensued, but I’ll just say I quickly learned I needed to strip the floors before sanding (they had been stained originally then painted and finally covered with wood tiles which I removed last week) and that due to the dozen painful chemical burns from the paint stripper I’ll be wearing gloves and a pair of pants when I strip the front porch. That being said, the floor is coming along well and I’ll be done by noon tomorrow when the sander is due.

-Bee

Wet Paint

I’ve been a very lazy blogger, but productive home owner lately. The paint brushes barely have had time to dry before moving on to the next room or coat. First up below is our bedroom. Like nearly every room in our house, it was painted multiple colors (one purple wall, three green walls, yellow ceiling, blue stair risers). We primed the one purple wall on Memorial Day weekend and later in the attic thought we found the correct can of green paint to match the other walls. After the green paint dried we discovered it was an odd color green that wasn’t anywhere to be found in the house. We liked the original green so I recently painted all of the walls and stairs a similar shade followed a few coats of white over the yellow ceiling.

It was actually much faster and cleaner to take off the treads of the stairs. Olivia made it up the stairs as pictured once to come see me upstairs, but I then was barely able to balance and carry her down as she was panicking when she realized she couldn’t get back down.

Here are the freshly painted stairs, walls, and ceiling. The photo below is a little dark, but you get a sense of the colors.

Another room I painted recently is our back family room. We liked the previous terra cotta color, but thought we would like it yellow better. We were right. It looks more contemporary now as well as better matches with the kitchen and blonde wood furniture. This photo is also a little dark, but you get a sense of the color.

Here is another view from in the kitchen. We wanted to keep the color “sunset friendly” as the sunset transforms this room every evening. It also makes it look bigger.

I need to pick up a few light switch plate covers to replace the three zany ones previously in that room, but otherwise that project is complete. I also took down the curtain rods and hangers as we’re still not sure about window treatments in this room. We plan on swapping out the hanging light at some point too, but are still looking at replacement options for that too. I’m off to wrap up some more painting now. Everything is looking good, but I’ll be glad to say something other than “painting” when someone asks me what I’ve been up to.

-Bee

Things We Made This Week

Thanks to our garden, our farmers market, and my colleague, we made a few things this past week.

Bee made me (ok, us) a microbrew pale ale, which is my favorite beer on this earth.

I made a basil salad dressing, with basil and tomatoes from our garden.

The end result wasn’t nearly as pretty, so no photo, but it tasted great!

We also made jalapeno corn bread.

And thanks to a great cast iron mold we got from Bee’s family…

We had some shaped like corn!

We also got some beautiful purple potatoes from the farmers market.

They were amazing.  It was like they were glowing when they were wet!

Once cooked, they turned a brilliant blue, which made a great contrast with the curry I made them in.

The end result didn’t look much different than usual…

…but it was fun and tasted great!

In other things made this week, I made it into my office at school!  Here are some photos as I was cleaning and prepping to move things in:

And in just about 36 hours I am making it all the way to San Francisco for a conference!  Then I have to make the most of the 1.5 weeks of summer I will have left when I return…

-Me