It’s A Jungle Out There

 

I snapped some photos of the jungle in the back yard I used to call my garden! It’s a tropical mess. The tomato and cuke plants are getting buried by the gourds and giant pumpkin and butternut. I can’t get to the sugar snap peas because I planted them too close to the corn!

It was so hard to find the little tags on the twigs I put beside each plant that I made new signs that stick out of the ground about 5 or more feet! I made them out of old bamboo rods with paint sticks taped to the tops. I wrote on the paint sticks with  a permanent marker…the name of each vegetable….like large pumpkin, small pumpkin, regular cukes, pickling cukes…etc. After I stuck them all in the garden and stood back away from the garden, I took a good look. It reminded me of a Democratic Convention!!!!! Instead of IOWA or some other state it says CORN or  GOURDS! It  was   pretty funny.

   

The butternut is coming along well and I found a giant pumpkin today! That was exciting because it’s hard to get underneath all those leaves without the bees getting you! See the bee inside that squash blossom above? They are all through the garden and very aggressive. The copper beetles are becoming less of a nuisance lately. The bees took over their job, but at least the bees are good for the garden!

  See the ARC shaped gourd hidden in the above photo? We have been picking 4 to 6 cucumbers every other day. We eat salads every day and what a difference with the added freshness of those juicy cukes. My popcorn leaves are keeping right up with the regular yellow corn. Can’t wait to see if it matures and what it looks like. Harvesting should be interesting. It’s always fun. It’s my favorite part of growing a garden! Finding all those hidden treasures under the massive leaves!! You never know where a vegetable is going to end up or what strange form it will take. My next project is to make some old fashioned sour pickles in a large wide mouth jar. No canning….just drop them into the vinegar, solution. I have two recipes. Both are from elderly ladies here in my town and are almost identical. I have another one for dill pickles. I will share with you all when I do it.~..~ How’s your garden doing?

                      

It’s An Inside Job……

No…that’s not my quilt up above but isn’t it pretty? Typical Maine scene someone who knew what the heck they were doing created. Me?…I really just shoot from the hip…on a wing and a prayer!  I know I have been doing a lot of whining about the heat. So I thought I would show you what I have been doing inside, while trying to avoid that heat. Last Christmas, i made two lap blankets. One for my wonderful friend and mother in law Alice, and one for my terrific father in law Woody! He actually posted photos of them a few posts ago. I made them from scraps I got at a yard sale. The material all came from L.L. Bean. A woman worked there and ended up with a huge amount of sample material. I was lucky enough to get several large boxes of it from her. I have done so many crafts with that material, I can’t even begin to tell you.

After seeing the lap blankets I made for A & W last Christmas, my husband Bob told me he would like one. So I started making him one. I don’t have a lot of masculine looking material left. He really likes red…of course…he’s an Aries and don’t laugh because I have never quilted and it’s all done by hand. This is the front. Just pieces cut this way and that and sewn together any which way! No pattern or method to my madness really. God I hate this font. Hold on…..I’m back!… and let’s see if this font is not so crowded as the last one…so far not so good i guess. This Lap Blanket is much longer. I was going for 5 feet but got carried away. Bobbie is at least 5’9” and he is hidden behind there! Oh well…he doesn’t mind. Here is another shot……

Another font change! Sorry. That black piece in the upper right is suede. I ran out of material big enough and thought he would like the feel of it. The back side of that is very furry and warm. See his white sneakers below? I am glad I did not see his face behind there because i made him stand there for a bit…my camera was screwing up! Alice tells me it looks like the colors from the family crest. Bobbie is Scottish. Why do you think I call him Bobbie McGeek?? He’s also Irish and French and I forget what else? Alice would know! She is a master genealogist! 

That’s the front. It’s wrinkled, needs to be pressed, and stitches need tightening up. Now I will purchase a coordinating piece of soft fabric to sew onto the back as well as a satin blanket border. With Alice and Woody’s, I stenciled the first letter of each of their names onto a piece of fabric and sewed it on with a blanket stitch using embroidery thread. That is Woody’s, above, and here is Alice’s… Bobbie’s will get a big B and that would stand for his nickname Bobbie or for his last name Bean! How about that? So….that’s what I have been doing while watching movies, and watching my husband play Modern Warfare on the Xbox! The computer business has picked up as well. This is historically a very slow time of year for us. Can you guess why? Yup…..THE HEAT is keeping folks inside more…..but I can’t complain about that now can I?? Not one bit. What are you all doing to stay cool??

 

 

I’m Sick Of It!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don’t know about any of you all, but I am really tired of this heat! I cannot WAIT until fall. I know I should be grateful that the weather in Maine is so great this year but dam it’s hot! I really want a break from it. It’s all I can do to just get outside and water my Garganchuan garden. Is that really a word? Maybe it’s an urban thing? Yup…just found it in the urban dictionary. That garden’s huge! Another thing I should be grateful for? Is anyone else sick of it? I guess I could make a gratitude list? Nah…………it’s too damned hot for that. I did, however, find this cool rock that was hand painted with gratitude on it.

Kind of cool huh? Oh……cool?…..that’s what I need. I guess I’ll go back to playing this…….

on my Xbox 360, with the fan blowing the cool air from the air conditioner on me while I try to get that illusive black pearl. I HAVE gotten TWO of them but am still struggling to get the three at once. Can you tell I’ve been inside WAY too much???    This isn’t looking too bad. At least it’s cool?

Wicked Whoopies…….

  My sister in law Amy lives in Nashville. She recently came home for a  visit. Her nickname in Nashville is the Whoopie pie lady. She got this nickname from a singer song writer friend of she and my brothers, that some of you may know. His name is John Hiatt. Amy introduced him to our Maine Whoopie pies. Now, it is a Maine thing for us, but I am sure many people around the country and the world make them and eat them too! I love them. My favorite is the one above….the chocolate chip/yellow cake whoopie…..oh it’s to die for…trust me. When I showed up to spend some time with Amy and her mom, I brought 3 whoopies with me….a peanut butter/chocolate, a vanilla cake with coconut cream filling, and a red velvet. There was one suspiciously missing….the chocolate chip…..not sure what happened to it?? I am amazed at the different flavors that are popping up lately. Here are a few I need to try when I am cheating on my diet….

 

Classic

Mint

Gingerbread

Red Velvet

Vanilla Bean

Banana Creme

Chocolate Lovers

Classic Mini

NEW! Peanut Butter Whoop-de-Doo

Springtime Special Lemon & Strawberry Minis

NEW! Black Forest

NEW! Orange Creamsicle

NEW! Lip Lick'n Lemon

Chocolate Chip

Maple

Oatmeal Cream

Peanut Butter

Pumpkin

Raspberry & Cream

Strawberry

Whoop-de-Doo

Jumbo Wicked Whoopie

 

   Those are all from Wicked Whoopie. What’s your favorite? Amy was not here this last year when John Hiatt performed in Portland so she sent my little brother with a big bag of Whoopies for John. My brother Steve delivered them before the concert. John apparently made comments about them constantly….in between sets! I guess it was pretty funny.

   Oh my gosh…..I just found out there was a Whoopie pie festival in Maine in June and I missed it! Look at this!…. Whoopie Pie Festival   Oh well….maybe next year!

                      Here’s one for the fall……

WHOOPIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!