Ruby and I walk everywhere in our town – to the post office, the many parks, the library, the bank, the river, the coffee shop that re-opened (hallelujah!), and the farmer’s market, and the cemetery (I love reading all the old names on the markers). I hate, hate, hate cars (with good reason) so walkability is crucial for my livability. Anyway, here are a few snapshots from our recent strolls.
P.S. I’ve added new links on the blog.
We’re beginning another heat wave here – I think the high is 95 today and 99 tomorrow (which means it will be over 100). But the past week or so it has been incredible. We have spent our days and nights outside. One night John and Ruby planted some of our fall/winter garden while I watched and knit.
CSA update:
rose gold potatoes
carrots
neon lettuce
cucumber
superstar onion
red storage onion
purple and orange peppers
garlic
celery
green beans
summer squash
honey orange melon
tomatoes
Our city hosts a weekly summer concert series on the riverfront in the summer. Its pretty fun and always good for people watching. Last week we met some friends who were celebrating a birthday for an evening picnic and dancing to a band playing salsa music. We can hear the music from our house and the band is warming up now. I checked to see who was playing and its none other than…
Yes, I know you’re jealous. If you want to hear some of their music too, click here.
I love, love, love summer foods! I can’t get enough berries, tomatoes, basil, and cilantro.
Today we got
rose gold potatoes
carrots
romaine lettuce
cucumber
superstar onion
leeks
anaheim
beets
eggplant
basil
honey orange melon
tomatoes – big ones and cherries
corn
We ate a raw corn (so delicious when its this fresh!), tomato (from the garden), basil (from the garden), onion salad with a bit of cheese and a splash of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. It was amazing. I have to figure out a way to keep the leftovers for myself tomorrow.
And as a reward for reading this far, you get to see Ruby washing dishes. Naked.
Right now, its 2:00 and 65 out. It’s August. A week or so ago it was 108. I’m not sure what is happening here. We had several days of 100+ temperatures. If you don’t live here, I’m not sure I can describe to you what this is like. Most people don’t have a/c here. We have 2 hand-me-down window units that get us through and keep the house below 90. Maybe. In the morning, our house would still be about 80. It was unbearable. So we were constantly out of the house. Not in the pool, well, maybe in the morning when it was only 95, but by the afternoon, we just had to find air conditioning. We went out to eat for days in a row, went to bookstores and librarys and any other place that is toddler friendly and cool. Ruby spent most of the time naked.
Big kid Ruby loving eating out in a booster seat and a funny smirk.
CSA this week is incredible again:
Purple Viking potatoes
carrots
green leaf lettuce
cucumber
Walla-Walla onion
tomatillos
jalapeno
zucchini
purple pepper
fresh shallot
melon
tomatoes
Making salsa!
Meet Your Maker had our craft show at a new location on Friday. We were at the Pizza Research Institute (PRI) which has the most delicious pizza I’ve eaten in a long time. It was really hot, but still a fun night. I packed up some samples of my new spicy bath fizzies to give out with big purchases. I’ll put them in my shop on Tuesday. All my bath fizzies sold out at the last show and all my testers (including myself) really like them.
I came home with a bunch of goodies for myself too. I think I got most of them through trades which is the best thing ever. The red flower earrings I actually got at the last show, but never posted them here. All the earrings are from Sunny Asylum. I stood at her table forever trying to pick out my favorites. She doesn’t have a website, so you’ll have to get yours at the next Meet Your Maker show. 
And, I got this cute little pouch. I have a matching larger pouch that I l-o-v-e. This was made by Ericca from Bellybaloo.
Our CSA this week…
Purple Viking potatoes
carrots
green leaf lettuce
cucumber
Candy Sweet onion
Asian eggplant
celery
zucchini and summer squash
green beans
blueberries
cherry tomatoes
John grilled the most incredible salmon with eggplant, potato, and squash yesterday. He made a bed of herbs – rosemary and thyme – for the salmon and it was divine!
Too hot to think properly….
here are some links to blogs I enjoy: (my list is lengthy, I just grabbed a few to get you started…)
The Crafty Crow full of fun kids’ activities
Wee Wonderfuls craft amazingness
Bakerella yum!
Vintage Chica crafty mama
Inside a Black Apple love Emily’s work!
What are some of your favorites?
I’m not quite sure where I read it, but a mother wrote about her need to craft daily to keep her sanity and her sense of self. I can completely relate to this. I love my time creating, but don’t quite get to it daily. I do, however, read everyday. I have always needed to read at night to shut off my mind from ticking away endless lists of things to do, or going over the day, or worrying about, well, here I go again. This is why I read. I also take a bit of time to sneak in some reading when Ruby is napping almost every day. I’ll have some tea (if its not sweltering hot as it has been), a little snack, and curl up with my book. I feel like this is an illegal use of my time. I should be mopping or sending out a press release or laundering another load of diapers. But for 10 or 15 minutes, I forget all that and read. Are any of you on goodreads? I don’t keep up with it often enough, but I like it to keep track of some of the books I read and see what some of my friends are reading as well.
Two books I recently read and loved are:
Gentle Art of Domesticity by Jane Brocket
i love dirt! by Jennifer Ward
check them out!
Here is our CSA for the week:
red potatoes
romaine lettuce
cucumber
Walla-walla onion
green pepper
spinach
dill
zucchini
cilantro
garlic
red cabbage
blueberries
2 lbs. tomatoes
I think we’ll be making some salsa tomorrow! Yummmmmy!
My parents just finished a trip of a lifetime. My maternal grandmother passed away just before I became pregnant with Ruby. The only state she had never traveled to was Hawaii and she always wished she had. So my mother and her brother decided to go to Hawaii together in memory of my grandmother. They (and my dad and aunt) spent about a week cruising the islands together. My aunt and uncle live in Pennsylvania and my parents in Florida, so it was fun for them just to spend time together, let alone in Hawaii. On their way back home, they all stopped in Oregon to visit us. They drove down the coast and Ruby and I met them in Lincoln City. We had gorgeous weather there and had a lovely spot to stay too. Ruby and I took my parents back to our house for another week or so.
I’m too hot to think straight, so this post may be a little crazy. But thats just the way things are right now…
CSA this week:
purple potatoes
purple carrots
red leaf lettuce
cucumber
walla-walla onion
scallions
Rainbow chard
moss parsley
zucchini and summer squash
raddicchio
blueberries
tomatoes
Last night (and lunch today) we ate this simple summer zucchini pasta dish that was very yummy and perfect for a hot day.
We bought an old claw-foot tub from our neighbors and John took out our old shower and put in the new (100 year old) tub a couple weeks ago. He blogged about it here. I absolutely love it. I have dreamed of a claw foot and we needed to do something about our old bathroom anyway. We still have some more work to do in the bathroom before we can put up the shower part, but we’re all loving our baths now. Ruby loves to give me a bath. She brings me her toys, washes off my shoulders, hands me the shampoo…I just need to train her to bring me a glass of wine and we’ll be set, oh and also to stop yelling, “Up, up, up” a hundred times when I lay down in the tub.
P.S. New banner and links to check out if you’re interested!
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