Psssst - go to Clean for a Giveaway!

Have you checked out Clean, in my sidebar? Lots of good ideas, tutorials, inspiration...and its creator, Rachel, is from Wisconsin! And she makes awesome soap!

Her family is into living naturally, and often takes inspiration from the Waldorf tradition.  Her current giveaway - for a subscription to Living Crafts Magazine - reflects that.  Go have a look!

Family

The neighborhood we live in is mixed with long-term rentals, short-term owners, short-term student rentals, and old Athens families.  Our neighbors are one such family; Tim is the chief of one of the essential volunteer fire departments, and his young son is following in his footsteps.  While they maintain a private and reserved presence on our block of transients, they have been friendly to the girls who greet them loudly and cheerily when they see them out with their dogs, and helpful when I've had gardening questions or needed a hand with something.  I could make a lot of assumptions about them, based on the little I see of the family - they are not outside without a cigarette in hand, there are 4-7 large pickup trucks parked in front of their house at any given time, and they have a small grand-daughter who is passed back and forth between dad, who lives at home with the grandparents, and mom, who does not.  The main assumption that I have made about this family is that they have done something right in raising their kids;  this home is the center of activity for a group of young twenty-somethings who seem content to hang out with these young grandparents and their kids most evenings and some weekends.  How often do you see that these days?

The other thing I know about this family is that Sharon, Tim's wife, is a wonderful gardener.  I told her earlier this summer that I am so grateful that she thought to plant such beautiful flowers - roses, lilies, hibiscus, crepe myrtle - along the south side of her house, facing my kitchen window.  She doesn't even see this side of the house, not from her windows, which house air conditioning units and permanently closed blinds, nor from her front porch.  I have often felt that this little garden is planted just for me, so that I can look over the cars parked in our driveway to the climbing roses or the dinner-plate sized hibiscus.  She very shyly took my gratitude with a little smile and a shrug.

There was a funeral for Sharon today.  At age 48 she passed away suddenly from a heart attack.  While I hope this is the way for all of us to go, quickly and without pain, this passing was too early, too sudden.  I could see the pain radiating from the young people on the porch the morning she died, when Tim came over to tell me.  They have returned to the house once to get some clothes, unwilling to stay in their home without the hub of their family.

I share this because it is all I have been thinking about since Wednesday, when it happened.  Despite not knowing this family really at all, I am aware daily of their comings and goings, I have witnessed the tight gathering that happens next door, and I am so concerned for the unraveling and the emptiness that they must be experiencing.  It is impossible not to personalize this further to our family - the circumstances, our histories and lifestyles are so different, but 48? It is a wake-up call to me to take care, to be present, to savor what we have.

Grampa Chet's Pickles

Today I canned what my Grampa Chet called 7-day Chunk Pickles.  These pickles were almost always on the table at lunch or dinner at my grandparent's house, on a small plate that seemed designed for little condiments like pickles.  They are delicious on a cheese sandwich, chopped up small in tuna or egg salad, and someone at market mentioned that they turn theirs into a "healthy" alternative to the corn syrup-laden sweet relish found in the grocery stores.  A warning, though - in our low-sugar or no-sugar house, these are the exception - they are FULL OF SUGAR!! We use them sparingly, and in fact, when I say "we", I mean Ani and me.  Dan and Eliza won't touch them.  That said...here is the recipe!

10 medium cucumbers (7-8 pounds) (in Grampa's handwriting, it says "my preference - 1 inch diam. 6-8 in long")

Cover whole cucumbers with boiling water and let stand. Repeat hot water treatment (draining each 24 hours) for four (4) twenty-four hour periods. (Rinse pickles if they get slimy)

Cut into 1/2 inch chunks - place in mixing bowl for next 3 days with syrup:

8 cups sugar*

4 cups apple cider vinegar

2 TBS mixed pickling spices

5 tsp salt

Bring to a boil and pour over cut cucumbers.

At end of 7th day - 4 days whole in hot water, 3 days in syrup - bring chunks and syrup to a boil (slowly, so they heat through) and seal in hot sterilized jars.

These amounts make about 7 pints.

(And ah, I only now read that he later penned in this note:  Largest mixing bowl of chunks needs about one recipe of syrup.  I think I made too much syrup this time...)

*eight. Eight?? EIGHT! I cheated and did not use eight.  I think I used 30 cucumbers this time, but they were a little smaller in length, and I used one and a half the recipe of syrup. Yowza.

We make a few 1/2 pints of these every year and give some away to those who profess to adore homemade sweet pickles, but truthfully, I would make them anyway; it makes me feel close to my grandparents to have a few little jars sitting on my shelf.  They also remind me of these awesome sandwich contests I used to have with my Uncle Tim - they are unexpectedly wonderful with peanut butter...I dare you.

Gallery (and a play!)

Today's Gallery features a new strain of creature in Eliza's repertoire...the Maidens. They are a little tripped-out, starry-eyed and fantastical...I have no idea where they came from!

Garden Maiden

Bird Maiden

detail of hummingbird

The original Star Maiden

The Fire Maiden (with fireflies)

Ani's recent drawings are a little tamer...

And after seeing a hawk along the roadside last week while driving to Columbus to pick up Mormor, we speculated on what he might be hunting, which led to a long discussion (Ani-led) about food chains, and she decided to draw a few...here is one about sharks. 

So you'd know it was a chain, there is a chain drawn up in the corner, see? And she remembered that the sun is the source of (almost) all energy, so there it is, shining above the fish feeding frenzy...

:: :: :: ::

This morning was the culmination of three weeks of theater camp for Eliza, and there was a performance! It was awesome, and she had so much fun...

(Mama, did you see me shrug when I said that line? 

Um, yeah. I got it all, babe!)

Vibrant

The deep hues of blueberries and raspberries 

stored up for a winter morning

The super-speedy flash of pink and magenta on the bikepath

 The spark of a good conversation

The green come-hither of the poison ivy under the railroad car

The power of old paint to still catch an eye

Must. Climb.

Mullein in the sky

The incredible buzzing of paper wasps, 

finding a creative home for their nest

 And, oh...summer...

Peaches.

Sunsugar tomatoes, so perfectly named, sugar from the sun

And the gift of a hibiscus bloom, so ridiculous in its Sunday-Hat-dinner-plate, over-the-top size and color, screaming out joy and hallelujah from its simple green stalk, waving its alien pistil and stamen like it has something glorious to share.

And it does!

Cooling off...

Monday we drove north to the Hocking Hills with Mormor.  You can feel the air cooling as you descend the stone steps into the gorge; it is the perfect place to be on a hot day (it is in the nineties here this week).

It is so inviting here, dark and green...my pictures just don't do it justice - the hugeness of the rocks, the tallness of the trees...

There are several funky bridges to cross, and we noticed that there wasn't anywhere near as much water in the creek as there had been 2 or 3 weeks ago when we visited with Dan's parents.

Really, in some places it was just a trickle...

...enough for the swallowtails to have a sip.

We hiked to Lower Falls at Old Man's Cave, and this is the thin little waterfall we found there! The pool at the bottom was still cooling...

and there is always a lot to explore.

We ended the day with a treat and a reading break...Eliza is still flying high on her confidence, which is so nice to see.  She has willingly read to Mom all week long, and clearly enjoying it.

Our other strategies for cooling off this week are swimming in the dirty lake, making good use of our spray bottles, and splurging for a movie! In a movie theater!! Yes, indeed, we went to our first 3-D movie (Toy Story), which was almost too much for Ani (it's about toys, but at five, that makes no difference when those toys are in imminent danger!!), but ended up, thankfully, just fine. We loved the 3-D effect - I think I was just as excited as the girls...

Red, White, and Blueberries

GROAN! I know - that was horrible. We did learn what the colors of the American flag represent - do you know? Red - courage; White - purity, innocence; Blue - loyalty and fairness.  Hmmm...I am not at all in a mood to delve into what I think about all that just now...so, back to blueberries!!

 My mom, also known as Mormor, is here for a week, and we have been having such a lovely time.  Before the heat hit, we meandered out far east of town to a farm where we could pick no-spray blueberries.  We have picked blueberries all over the world, my mom and I: on a little island off of Sweden, when I was seven, and most recently at the foot of Mt. Si, in Washington state.  This was a bit less dramatic than those locales, but no less beautiful, in its own Queen Anne's Lace and Chicory sort of way.  We also hit the jackpot on some raspberries, which were not supposed to still be around but deliciously were...

Those lovelies made it into some jam last night.  Might have to go pick some more...

We had a brief visit with Dan on Sunday morning - Mormor is here at the right time, as Dan is in the thick of directing a summer show with the Ohio Valley Summer Theater.  We chose to spend our time at the garden (of course).  Kale, onions, basil...

Then there was the parade.  It was the Fourth of July, you know, and we are in the heartland, so there is a parade.  Mom, Ani and I headed down to watch, while Dan and Eliza walked the parade to promote the show.

Most of the event of the parade was watching the traffic cop try to stop the traffic moving through the intersection.  The rest of the parade goes by pretty quickly...

I think the tractors are my favorite.  I will let you imagine the 9 fire engines and the two floats of little princesses from the impoverished town just north of us.

I missed good pictures of Dan and Eliza, too busy waving and spraying them with water. I did get this patriotic cowboy!!  But what this parade really needs is a marching band!!! Can you imagine a parade with no band???? I have half a mind to pull one together out of those of us who played band in highschool...you'll have to wait until next year to see if I'm successful!

We spent the rest of the day trying to stay cool...red (strawberries), white (vanilla yogurt) and blueblueberries...(we got the idea here!)