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The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling is going to be available in December. Today was the first I've heard of this and I'm super excited. I had a feeling we would see more books forthcoming from Ms. Rowling and I'm sure this is just the first of many.
There is even a super fancy collector's edition of the book which is quite pricey but would be a great holiday gift for a serious Harry Potter fan.
So the tree removal was just step one in a major backyard overhaul. After last fall and our big indoor remodeling project, I thought it would be a while before we started on something else, but our house had a different idea. This Spring when the rains came water started coming into the basement. Seeing little rivers on the basement floor freaked me out a bit and led to the next project.
No surprise here, one place where water was entering the basement was below this broken up sidewalk. Which will be ripped out and replaced with pavers.
Quite a bit of water collects against the foundation here because the sidewalk has really dropped, as you can see in this photo.
There is a lot of concrete in this backyard -- a lot -- which is one reason this will be such a major project. This is the patio -- which will be replaced with pavers and in the background you can see the collapsed wall.
Water is a major problem here again where two major drainpipes come together. The water collapsed a retaining wall here which will be replaced.
Did I mention concrete? Here is a big uneven and stained area smack dab in the middle of the yard which will be removed and replaced with a stepping stone walkway to the back gate and a raised bed made of cedar for my vegetable garden. (yeah!)
There is an stained & broken fence that separates the driveway from the backyard which will be removed. This will give the big, old lilacs more light which should help them to fill out and be a natural screen.
And we can't forget the ancient, cracked, half filled in koi pond which now holds broken branches and weeds. It will be partially removed and filled in with dirt.
And since we'll already have the work crew here, I'm having them remove this yew and the broken mailbox and flag pole which will have to be replaced.
Whew!
Not everything in the backyard is a loss though. My flower garden, which I see from the window in the kitchen, is looking quite nice! We planted it a few years ago after moving to this house and it has finally filled out. In fact, I think this fall will see us splitting some of the perennials and moving them to other parts of the yard.
Next week is going to be noisy, dusty and crazy around here, but I know it will be worth it in the end.
Phase one of the major backyard update has begun. We have been losing large portions of what used to be a beautiful, huge maple tree during bad storms and we decided it was time to have the whole thing cut down before part of it fell on the house.
Poor tree. . .
Maddie and I hit the garage sales this morning and I had more luck than I've had in quite some time -- well, besides last week, but that included an estate sale which is a whole different thing. Today was just garage sales, but some pretty good ones for a change.
That Danish Handcraft Guild Christmas book (ISBN 0684159759) is in excellent condition and includes some nice Scandinavian designs and at about $.15 it was a steal, as was the charted folk designs booklet.
And I couldn't resist these Hull and McCoy planters at $8.00 for the lot. I especially like the olive colored one in back. . .
which, as you can see here, has a pretty embossed floral design. It says Hull F79 on the bottom, but I can't find any info on this design online.
There was also a little Hazel Atlas glass measuring cup -- glass measuring cups being one of my obsessions this year -- and more glass ornaments. Did I mention that I already bought a *huge* box of Shiny Brites earlier this year? Well, here are even more -- some Shiny Brites and some unmarked. Now I have to try to clean them up which I hear is near impossible. I found some info on cleaning them here and here. Wish me luck!
When it comes to food, I think I'm pretty hard to please -- or really easy to please depending how you look at it. I love fresh, natural, real foods -- something that is starting to become difficult to find in the modern supermarket where even apples are pre-sliced and coated in some kind of "freshness" chemical. But I digress. . .
Here is my idea of the perfect summer lunch -- fresh, toasted bread topped with pesto, farmstand tomato slices and fresh mozzarella. Add a side of lemonade and it's heaven! I'm sure I would get tired of this eventually, but I plan to eat it every day this week if my supplies hold out.
So, have you heard of the blog Overheard Lines? Well, I submitted a snippet to them that I overheard while waiting for my (awful) beverage at Starbucks last Friday and they published it. So go have a peek!
When I first saw the Green Bananas colorway I fell in love -- then I started spinning it up. Eh. More like mint chocolate chip than green bananas, I thought. In fact, look at it on the bobbin:
So I wasn't all that excited to ply it up. I figured that I just wasn't going to like this yarn and that sometimes that happens. I'd live with it.
Then I plied it. . . whoa! All the great color combos I saw in the unspun fiber came back and looked even better then I remembered. The singles which looked so minty green to me became golden and warm. I guess this is a reminder that you never know what will happen when you spin up fiber until you actually see it completed.
Up next is more fiber from Spunky Eclectic -- Corrie in the Orchard colorway.
I finished knitting the Orange Bumpy Scarf -- first blogged here. At first I thought I would block it since it looked like it might end up a little short, but I've tried it on and at this length it can wrap around my neck leaving enough length to be tucked firmly into a jacket. Since I would hate to lose the bumpy texture created by those drop stitches, I've decided to leave well enough alone.
Very satisfying to go from idea, to hand spun yarn, to finished handknit.
I went to Chappy's virtual birthday party and got a gift! I'm sure Deb helped Chappy get it sent out in the mail, and I know that it was Deb who spun up that gorgeous yarn! It's so nice and fine -- I pretty much spin at one thickness, so I greatly admire these finer yarns. My photo does not even capture the beautiful low lights and highlights in this yarn. I have to find a special project for it. Thanks, Deb!
Speaking of spinning. . . I think I mentioned that I purchased some fiber from Spunky Eclectic recently. The Green Bananas colorway really caught my eye and I started spinning it very shortly after it arrived. In fact, I'm almost finished with my second bobbin:
After that I'm going straight to the Orchard Corrie -- also from Spunky Eclectic. I'm on a spinning roll!
So yesterday I had yet another eye doctor appointment -- this will make the 3rd or 4th time in about 6 months that I've had to have my eyes dilated. (And I get to go do it again in another 2 weeks! I think my doctor is expecting my retina to detach at any moment, but it refuses to do so.) Thus, for a good portion of the day I was blurry eyed -- more than I usually am -- leaving me to find non sight intensive activities. What did I do? I baked.
First I whipped up a pan of cornbread to have with supper, then realizing that I was still blurry eyed, I decided to make some turnovers with ingredients I had on hand. First I took out a sheet of puff pastry to thaw a bit, then I cut it in fourths, put a few raspberries, a square of dark chocolate and a blob of strawberry jam in the center of each, folded them in half and crimped them shut with a fork. Then they went into the fridge to firm up. After the cornbread finished baking I took the turnovers out of the fridge, gave them an egg wash and a sprinkling of sugar, cut a few vents in the top and popped them into the oven. I baked them for about 20 minutes or so at around 375 or 400 degrees. (I turned the oven up at one point and then back down -- and I moved the turnovers from the top to the bottom portion of the oven and turned the pan around to ensure even baking.)
If I ever do lose my sight, I'm afraid we will all get quite chubby around here!
I wrote this post yesterday and when I was about to finish it up, the browser crashed and I was so disheartened that I couldn't bear to re-write it. Today I will give it another try. Wish me luck.
Lately I have been reading books by some Pulitzer Nobel Prize winning authors -- not by design, but rather by chance. First up was Blindness
The novel is about a pandemic which leaves all humanity blind -- leading to a total break down in society. Only one woman retains her sight and through her we experience the depth of horror that only she can see.
The writing style is a bit strange with dialog written out in paragraphs with commas separating different speakers' words. It seemed a bit awkward at first (which could also be owing to the fact that it is translated from Portuguese) but after only a handful of pages it became easier to read.
Yesterday I went to the library and picked up Seeing
Pan
Pulitzer Nobel Prize winner and one of Pete's favorite writers was up next. I enjoyed this book even more than his novel Hunger
Pan is the story of Lieutenant Glahn -- a man who has opted out of society to a certain extent and has taken up living in a hut near the forest -- hunting wild game for food and communing with nature. However, he feels the pull of society and often finds himself looking for companionship (with which he is quickly disillusioned). The main action of the story centers around the romance -- if you can call it that -- between Glahn and Edvarda who seem to delight in tormenting one another.
I just found that you can read Pan online at Project Gutenberg.
In keeping with the Pulitzer Prize (okay, this one really did win the Pulitzer!) theme -- I started The Yiddish Policemen's Union
I also read Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
I haven't read many books about American Indians, so I found this book quite educational. While it is fiction and directed at young adults -- I would highly recommend it to adults wanting to learn a little more about the struggles of American Indians and specifically American Indian teens who can be caught between two worlds.
I've also been reading more Philip Pullman -- surprise, surprise. Recently I finished Clockwork
I mentioned that I made strawberry jam last week. I've seen lots of people around the blogs making freezer jam, but I chose to make small batch jam -- 2 jars worth which is a good amount for our family of 3. This was all brought on by the fact that I bought a huge bucket of strawberries at the farmer's market -- huge! I swear it didn't look that big when I was at the market -- but over an hour into cutting up the strawberries I was wondering what I was thinking.
I knew I had to figure out how to use these up, so I headed to the internets and found a recipe for small batch jam and even a video. I pretty much followed it -- adding the extra step of using a candy thermometer to make sure the jam was up to the "jelly" stage before taking it off the heat -- 220 degrees I believe.
That photo up top is lunch -- the jam on home baked bread. I used the good old Artisan Bread in 5 Min recipe but this time I mixed it up by subbing local, organic, stone ground wheat (also purchased at said farmer's market) for half of the AP Flour. More dense, but still quite tasty.
What did I do with the rest of the strawberries? Strawberry Yogurt -- frozen variety loosely based on David Lebovitz's recipe. I actually used one of those big tubs of Fage greek yogurt so it was more creamy. And I used so many strawberries that I didn't have room in the ice cream maker so I made some frozen popsicle things too -- which were even better than the frozen yogurt and easier. Go figure.
Here is a photo of "The Klotz Shack" as the sign says. My mom has a little place out on the river and we celebrated the 4th out there. It was really perfect weather -- sunny and warm but not too hot.
Here are the boats -- my mom's pontoon is all decorated for the boat parade. And of course you have to play bean bags (aka corn hole -- well, it's not called corn hole in our part of the country, but I know that's what some people call it.)
I completely forgot to bring my camera on the boat at night when we went to the fireworks. It's pretty amazing -- several houses along the river put on *huge* firework displays -- like city size. Everyone drives their boats up the river for a good viewing spot and then you sit there with hundreds of other boats and watch the fireworks.
Today is for recovering -- all that sun and excitement is exhausting.
I love blueberries! Seriously, I eat them almost every day -- sometimes twice a day. So when they are in season, I like to take advantage. Back in 2005 I made up a recipe for blueberry crisp and thank goodness for the blog, because that is where I had to go to find it again. In order to try to be a better recipe keeper, I'm starting to make recipe cards. Here is the one for my blueberry crisp recipe:
Just click on it to download the pdf version of the recipe card. I often create recipes on the fly and jot them down on little slips of paper that end up here and there, so I'm going to try to put more of them on these types of cards and I'll post them on the blog as often as I get my act together to do it.
Jam was also made. More on that tomorrow. . .
