spring – Page 2

I’ve given up fighting it

March 26, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

This kid is so fascinated by my spinning wheel. No matter how many times you tell him to leave it alone, he’s always over there playing with it. You can watch his little brain work while he tries to figure out how it works to make all the pieces move and spin the yarn. It’s a battle I will never win, I’ve learned. So, instead, I’m trying to include him more in things I’m doing. Today he helped me wind yarn off the bobbin so I could free up room for the other half of the 2ply I’m working on and we talked about how he wants me to knit him a brown sweater like the old woman in his book (great book, btw – there’s not a brown sweater specifically, he’s just seen one at the end of it and decided he wants one, too), but first he wants a hat. Out of this exact handspun yarn. I don’t have plans for this yarn, but even if I did how can I possibly refuse him?! Especially when I’m certain at some point he will grow to not want me to make him things (though, of course, I hope that never turns out to be true and he always sees the things I make for him as extra special).

Decorating for spring

March 18, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

Spring begins Monday, and I’m already in the mood for it and decorating away on the house. If you remember, I have all this Peter Rabbit stuff I collected for Declan’s 1st birthday, so now I get to break it out every spring. I’m kind of obsessed with Peter Rabbit if you didn’t know that already. Like, “nearly paid $79 for a Peter Rabbit cookie jar at Pottery Barn Kids” today obsessed. The spring decorations have to be bunnies, and they have to be brown. White and/or goofy cartoon-looking rabbits need not apply (I’m looking at you, ridiculous Easter Bunny at the mall).

I have no doubt my table will not look this clean or pretty for even a day, as a certain little gentleman loves to get up there and play with the coasters and tear everything apart he can. But, at least for now, I have a cute spring display up that makes the house seem a little bit brighter despite the rainy, cold days upon us. But, for now, I still have a good excuse to stay indoors and knit rather than start working the yard for this year’s garden (that, yes, I swore we weren’t doing this year and, yes, apparently we have changed our minds again and are doing it after all).

State of the Garden – June 2016

June 1, 2016 Marie Leave a Comment

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Tomato and pepper plants: thriving. Peas, zucchini, spaghetti squash, radishes: sprouted and doing well so far. Garlic: not sure I’ll get much considering I planted it late, but there are greens growing so I’m calling that a win. Carrots… no idea. I’ve never grown carrots before, so I’m not sure what their little sprouts look like compared to the weed sprouts popping up.

Last night the Little Mr and I went out and weeded. Well, I weeded. He pulled dirt out of my raised beds. Weeding around the plants was the easy part – you know what you planted, and you know where it is, so you know what not to pull. Weeding the radishes and peas was trickier – I wanted to wait until they were more established so I didn’t disturb them too much, which meant letting the weeds grow more than I would have liked. But last night it was finally time to clean them up, and clean them up I did. I poured some compost around the beds, then laid newspapers down, then straw on top for mulch. The problem with basically having two half-assed years of gardening from pregnancy/new motherhood stuff was that the weeds have gotten out of control. So now we’re left with hard work to try to beat them back and control them a bit.

The garden is, overall, pretty ugly this year. It needs work. Lots of work. But the toddler wants to be outside every minute of every day, so it makes it easier for me to force myself out there to do the work… and it’s proving to be a good learning experience for the Little Mr. He’s loving finding the worms in the beds and watching things grow and helping water them in the evenings.

Lilac Jelly

May 22, 2016 Marie Leave a Comment

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Lilacs? Edible? Oh YES.

A while ago – probably two years ago, really, when I first learned I could make jelly with the cute little violets in our yard – I learned Lilac Jelly was a thing. The trouble was… I didn’t have lilacs. Our neighbors do, but theirs haven’t really bloomed much in the last few years for me to even be able to ask. This recipe has pretty much just hung around in the back of my mind, waiting for a time where I might get my hands on some lilacs at just the right time to try it.

And then this week happened. My new job has lilacs in the flower beds. My coworker went out to pick some to bring into the office, so I asked if she thought it would be okay if I snagged some to take home to try this jelly thing. She didn’t seem to think it was an issue, so on my way out the door for the weekend I snagged a few branches of them.

Now, let me tell you: I had my doubts. The violets don’t smell like lilacs do. And these lilacs were so strong smelling that I really worried that the resulting jelly would be…. well, overpoweringly floral. I doubted myself through this entire process, because even after the lilacs steeped the resulting “tea” was still strong smelling. And even as I cooked it and added the sugar I could still smell it. But I was committed to this process, and it was too late to turn back now. I poured the jelly into the jars, popped them into the water bath canner, and then dug into the leftovers that stuck in the pot with my finger. Yes, that’s right – I ate the jelly straight. Without bread.

And you know? It’s DAMN GOOD. I can’t decide what flavor it reminds me of. The violet jelly reminds me a bit of berries… this lilac jelly version has a hint of peach, I think? I could be crazy, though. And now I know, if the apocalypse ever hits, that I have one more thing I can forage and cook/eat. :)

Edit to add: This is the recipe I used, but I only used it loosely since it looked to be the exact same process as I’ve been using for the violet jelly version.

Spring jelly

April 23, 2016 Marie 2 Comments

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Hello friends! Spring brings rain and wind this year, but my violets arrive as well. The Little Mr and I went into the yard to pick as many as we could (there is still plenty, but a toddler’s attention span is tiny) before coming in to boil up water to steep them up for jelly making. Tonight the husband is gone to a Crew game (soccer) so after I put the little guy to bed I’ll be pouring myself a little wine, digging into my canning equipment, and making jelly. Maybe even a loaf of homemade bread to go with it for breakfast tomorrow.

I made a job transition this week. I’m incredibly overwhelmed with it all, but I think this change brings a lot of good with it. Most notably, more time because I’m closer to home. And feeling more valued at work has had a huge impact on my mental health, so I’m coming home exhausted BUT I’m finding my excitement again for things I loved doing. Not that I have much time for it anymore, but I’m squeezing in things here and there when I can (like tonight’s jelly making).

My next goal is to get that garden cleaned up. It’s so full of weeds and, besides, needs more compost added to the beds. I just need a nice day and a long nap time to get it done. Whenever hell freezes over, probably, haha.