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Three favorite roses (right now; might be different next week): - Graham Thomas- Gertrude Jekyll- Maiden's BlushThree minor miracles: - the evergreen clematis I planted last year died, but the clematis I'd previously had planted there and accidentally pulled up came back from the roots and is clambering up the gazebo - the Quatre Saisons rose G. accidentally stepped on came back and has one bloom - the apricot tree came back from what appeared to be the brink of death and sprouted lots of new twigs and leaves Three problem areas I need to work on: - the back bed where the grass is encroaching into the border - under the snowdrop tree, which is really hard to weed - the whole area by the driveway and the workshop Three herbs I harvested and dried this week: oregano, Greek oregano, catnip Tags: garden, roses
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It's three days into summer vacation, and I think the boy and I are settling into a routine. His teachers recommended that the kids do some schoolwork over the summer, and while I don't think he needs to from a skills perspective, I do think staying in the habit of it is a good idea. They sent home some math workbooks that the class hadn't quite managed to finish, and I bought another workbook they recommended as a bridge from first to second grade. It's on the easy side for him, and I foresee some skipping through it, but combined with the math workbooks, it ought to keep him busy and probably improve some skills, at least. We're also keeping a reading log (required to hand in next fall) and doing a little bit of Spanish, though I may have to look for more materials for that. I decided that in order to motivate Liam to do the work, as well as his guitar practice and music theory lessons, I would have him earn some of his screen time (TV, Nintendo, computer) by completing certain activities each weekday. This seems to be working well and is keeping him from demanding more screen time than I'm willing to give him. Wow, that sounds way more intense than it really is. Honestly, it works out to an hour or so a day doing schoolwork or practice or reading (for the reading log; he actually reads quite a bit more than that), and he still has lots of time for playing and other stuff. What I haven't quite achieved yet is enough quiet time for myself, but that will be less of an issue after next week, when the various classes and camps and mini-vacations for Liam start. At least we aren't having to get up at 7am, so I can stay up later to read, which is something. Tags: liam, navel gazing, personal
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I have: - made the car cakes and successfully gotten them out of their pan - assembled the frosting and candy for the kids to decorate the cakes with - put together the goody bags - found a couple of fun-sounding outdoor games to play - removed cat hair from the couches and chairs - dusted - gardened for an hour (not necessary for party prep, but useful as a distraction) - showered and washed my hair - sent G. to collect another car seat from my parents upon finding out that we're giving two other kids a ride from school (rather than just one plus Liam) I still have to: - clean the kitchen - change the catbox - sweep - vacuum - dry my hair - put up the decorations - make a last minute store run - get to school early enough to pay next month's tuition before picking up the kids *deep breath* Tags: liam
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Recipe: spicy sour cream raisin muffins Source: Muffins, by Elizabeth Alston ( method )( notes )Outcome: I wouldn't make these again. Liam liked them, but I didn't, and G. didn't find them appealing enough even to try. As I've noted with previous attempts to make muffins with oats in them, the oats make the muffin chewy instead of tender, and I feel that muffins should be tender. If I wanted chewy, I'd make oatmeal raisin cookies instead. Also, I found it vastly annoying that they stuck horribly to the paper muffin cups I normally use. If the recipe had warned me about this, I'd've greased the pan and eschewed the muffin cups. Tags: 50 recipe challenge, baking, cooking
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OMG, weeds! Not that this is a big surprise, given how long we were gone, right during the first flush of spring growth. I weeded quite a bit of the front bed today; the priority is to weed around the roses enough to fertilize them without all the fertilizer going right to the weeds. Note to self: do not plant creeping jenny near roses again. I did the reverse, actually, planting roses in among existing creeping jenny. The problem is that as soon as I started to water the roses regularly, the creeping jenny took off and now has to be extracted from around the roses constantly. It's so pretty when it blooms that I can't stand just to yank all of it out, though. The pea and strawberry starts I planted right before we left are doing well, and the lilies and ranunculus are coming up. The apricot tree, however, apparently has the plague; I need to clip off a twig and take it in to the nursery this weekend. In bloom: evergreen clematis by the deck (see picture), pink dogwood, a few rhodies, the crabapple, various volunteer forget-me-nots and violets, creeping phlox, Clementine columbine, strawberries, lilac Tags: garden
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So much for trip-blogging -- sorry! I'll try to post bits of my travel journal, though, and pictures when I get them uploaded. I hope everyone got their postcards safely! ( ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) kicking_k, I totally forgot to send you one, but not to worry, I've raided the postcards I brought back for my scrapbook and will send you one of those from here instead!) Some highlights of the trip: - delicious tapas and bookshopping with oursin (which resulted in my buying 18 books, a third of my total for the trip) - spending at least two hours peeking into every possible nook and cranny of HMS Victory in Portsmouth - the lilacs at Kew, and lots of other beautiful and interesting plants - revisiting familiar faces at the National Portrait Gallery - the small but excellent collection of Impressionists and Post-Impressionists at the Courtauld Gallery - Trevor Nunn's exquisite production of "A Little Night Music" at the Garrick - the fascinating Secret War exhibit at the Imperial War Museum, with lots of neat MI5, MI6, and SOE-related things - spending two weeks with G., my favoritest traveling companion: our interests overlap nicely, and we're good at putting up with each other's lectures (mine on gardens and British history, his on arms and armour and ships) Some highlights of coming home: - anticipating picking up Liam from school this afternoon - cat happiness (though I think this is going to pall soon) - our own bed - our own shower and water pressure - not having missed the wild dogwoods and rhododendrons blooming (the rhodies haven't even started yet) And I still have a big box of books to catalog. (I'll likely post bookspoils at some point, if people are interested.) Tags: london2009, personal, travel
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Since we liked Nancy Silverton's sourdough waffles so much, I thought we'd try her pancakes, too. Usually, I make blueberry sourdough pancakes from a sourdough cookbook we've had for ages. They're nice and sour, but a little on the chewy side. Silverton's pancake batter, on the other hand, is quite a bit thinner and produces very light, crisp, thin pancakes, which we all liked a lot. I wish we'd remembered to make the starter earlier; it only had eight hours to develop, so the sour flavor was less pronounced than G. and I would have liked. Next time, we'll make it earlier and see how it goes. I don't think I could add blueberries to these, unless I used small wild blueberries or huckleberries, because the blueberries would be thicker than the pancakes are. So I guess we now have two standard sourdough pancake recipes, which seems like not a bad thing. Tags: 50 recipe challenge, baking, cooking
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These are from an issue of Fine Cooking. Alas, they weren't as good as I'd hoped. They were a little time-consuming to make, but not really difficult. The brownie layer went together first and baked for a while (quite a bit longer than the recipe said, actually) while I made the caramel for the topping. When the brownies were out and a little cooled, I poured the caramel over them and then cooled that for a while. Once the caramel had set, I drizzled melted chocolate (with a little cream mixed in) over them and scattered more pecans on top. They looked lovely, and I thought the topping was very good. Unfortunately, the brownies were just boring; I don't know why so many brownie recipes are substandard, but this is another one that just isn't intensely chocolatey enough. Also, I think it needed a little more salt. The answer, I think, is to use my favorite brownie recipe, from Cook's Illustrated, and top it with the Fine Cooking caramel and chocolate. Actually, come to think of it, I vaguely recall that Cook's had a caramel pecan brownie recipe (I think they called them turtle brownies) a while back, too, which I imagine uses their standard brownie recipe as a base. I should find that and try it. Tags: 50 recipe challenge, baking, cooking
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American art is all very well, but there is such a thing as too many images of George Washington. (Although I was kind of smarmily amused at the couple searching diligently for GW in the painting of the signing of the Declaration.) Going from 11:30am to 6:15pm without ingesting anything except a Cherry Coke is stupid. Macy's had no remotely cute tops. So I bought a cute new purse instead. It's not quite as big, but I probably don't need to carry around quite as much stuff anyway. Also, it's messenger style, so I think it will be easier on my back. I should have gotten lunch on the way to the ferry. Instead, I went into Arundel Books, which I have walked by a zillion times and never entered. In about ten minutes, I found an Elizabeth Bowen novel and three Viragos (Storm Jameson, Sylvia Townsend Warner, George Gissing) I didn't have (and resisted about ten more Viragos). Noting my interest in Viragos, the clerk looked them up in their database and found about forty-five. I said I thought three would be enough, but I might come back some other time. He also said that he likes Virago because they've reprinted the writer he thinks is the best writer of the 20th century. There was a significant pause while he waited for me to guess; I didn't and asked. "E.M. Delafield!" he said. So I told him about Persephone in case he hadn't read Consequences (though he seems to be judging purely on the basis of the Provincial Lady books, which are the only ones he mentioned). I love E.M. Delafield, truly I do, but calling her the greatest writer of the 20th century might be overstating the case. (Of course, I am also not into making giant overarching statements like that about writers in any case.) ETA: Augh, sinus infection one week before long airplane journey! Tags: books, minutiae, whining
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I’ve been trying to work in the garden this week, endeavoring (probably futilely) to get caught up before we leave on vacation next Wednesday. Sunday, we moved the Sally Holmes rose from the spot by the trellis, which appears not to be a good rose spot (Iceberg had a tough time there too), to where Moonlight was. I hated to take Moonlight out, because it had lovely flowers and was enormous, but it got powdery mildew and spread it to the neighbors every year. Sally Holmes ought to grow equally big and will, I hope, not have the mildew issue. In the course of replanting the rose, we discovered we needed more dirt, and G. cleverly suggested the compost pile. Remember how excited I was last year when we had actual usable lovely compost? This year, not only was there quite a lot of compost, it was absolutely full of little red worms. I don’t know where they came from, but I was excessively pleased to see them. Then G. and I finished clearing the lower stone bed; there are bulbs planted along the front, but nothing else. I added more bulbs (ranunculus and lilies) and snap pea and strawberry starts. When we get back from vacation, Liam and I will put in some beans, too. Today, I just did some weeding and some fertilizing. Next, I have to try to give all the roses their first dose of granular fertilizer and alfalfa. In bloom: the red flowering currant, the deep pink camellia, a couple of hellebores, a few daffodils, vinca everywhere Tags: garden, pictures
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