I should have my tags in the mail soon...they are being made by JennifersJewels from etsy...she also has another shop, StateStreet, with some fabulous tops at very reasonable prices...I'm thinking about this one for myself...possibly!?
Our garlic harvest was small but wonderful. The variety we grew is Italian Soft Neck. I decided to peel and store the cloves in a jar in the 'fridge. It's already been adding delicous flavor to our dinners this week! I only wish I had grown more - around here our view on garlic is there's [almost] no such thing as too much! The husband would tell you that I have been known to push the garlic levels in dishes to the brink. No worries about vampires here!
It was raining pretty steadily yesterday morning, but I was able to lure my hens out of their coop for a photo shoot with a pile of cracked corn and a little "Heeeeeere chick chick chick chick". How nice of them to cooperate and make this post possible.
This coming Saturday, August 15th will mark the 17th week that I have been the happy mother of 8 chickens. At this point I have cleaned out their coop 12 times in past 12 weeks, moved their coop after each cleaning so they'd have fresh grass under their little chicken feet, dealt with them pecking down beautiful rows of lettuce and cabbage in my garden when they were out free-ranging, purchased 50 pound bags of feed for them 3 times in addition to several bags of chick starter feed purchased when they were little, faithfully made sure that they had little piles of oyster shell available to them for their calcium needs, treated them to all sorts of leftovers and scraps from the kitchen, sprayed them and their coop to prevent mites, watched as they've been sorting out their pecking order (the gal in the picture below by the way is Berkeley - she started off in the lead for dominant chicken, lately not-so-much, another bird, Castro Valley, Castro for short, has been stepping out as the head chicken in charge)...
...I've run after them around the garden trying to herd them back into their coop too many times to count, defended them when they were babies from Figaro's natural instinct to kill and eat them (check out this post), laughed when as nearly grown up hens they surrounded Figaro, found friends to watch over them twice when we've gone out of town, worried about them when our neighbors chickens have been attacked by coyotes and weasles in the past few weeks, grabbed extra grocery bags at the market so I'd be able to line their poop trays with fresh bags, and generally I've tried to be the best chicken farmer I could figure out how to be.The prize...the pillow slipcover shown below (actually the prize pillow cover may end up being a copy of one of the one below, on Tuesday I left this one and a few other handmade items with a local shop owner who I am arranging to have sell some of my items...I'll have to do a post about that later this week, I'm pretty excited!)
Best of luck to all who chose to participate in this blessed event with me...and if chicken pillows really aren't your style, please still make a guess, I've also got those snazzy coffee sack pillows as a prize option!
I've harvested herbs from the garden and they are currently drying. Can you believe that this is just some of what I was able to grow this season? I'm looking forward to using these in my cooking this winter...in the mean time I'm going to continue to use the fresh herbs that are still growing for as long as I can.
When I hung the herbs up it reminded me of what I'd seen in the kitchen windows of families in Cinque Terre last summer when we were there...having that familiarity brings a good feeling because it's one of my favorite places in the world and I love the people, food and culture there.
We returned from Whistler yesterday...it was a short but sweet getaway. We rode our bikes all over the valley, had dinner by Lost Lake, spent an afternoon laying by the pool, treated ourselves to gelato and Spaghetti Factory pasta, made a delicious breakfast in the mini-kitchen in our room (the housekeeper had to have noticed the bacon smell!), and generally had a fantastic time...the husband and I usually head up to Whistler in the wintertime for snowboarding, we've gone there since the first winter that we knew each other. This upcoming winter the Olympics will be there - it's not likely that we'll go up there for the events, the prices have already started to soar in anticipation. But I digress...we had a great couple of days, it was nice to spend many hours reading and relaxing. The next time that is planned for us to get away will be in October when we head to Egypt...more on that to come!
Have a fantastic week, I'll be checking in here and there with some updates of the goings-on around here!
The fans helped some, but Figaro was kind of wigged out by the loud fan noise, so he found shady spots to rest in. I've never heard such a whiny cat, I could tell he was miserable!
But...all that heat made this flower...
Do this...
Beautiful! We don't get these when it's co0l outside in the spring and early summer!
This post will have to be photo-heavy and word light. I am spending this week catching up on house chores and getting ready to go away for a few days to Whistler BC with the husband and stepson. I may get a little sewing in this week, I have some ideas for new pillows that I'd like to try. I also need to fire off a few more onesies for a farmers market I'm doing this next Sunday.
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