Edibles

We've not only been getting more garden in this last week, but also collecting a few wild edibles.
The violets seemed to carpet the hill almost overnight...

we took advantage and sprinkled some onto salad. My favorite way to use violets is by glazing them with egg whites, sprinkling sugar on and drying. They save in the freezer and look amazing atop cakes and in salads.

Don't these look luscious?
Sierra helped...
A couple days ago we were all about the dandelions. Chopped greens in salad and I even harvested some root for future use.

My girl also helped plant the onions, garlic and potatoes this week, she's one of my constant gardeners.:)


We had some passerby friends, a wee butterfly..



..a garden kitty named Bella. She loves to follow me and rub against my backside while I'm digging in earth.



This wee caterpillar was saved while cleaning brush. I think it makes an amazingly graceful circle, cradled gently on a leaf.


There are many of these willing helpers...

..yeah, we grow 'em big in Tennessee! Happy digging everyone...spring is grand.

She hives the bees...and gets stung

It goes something like this...




Put the newly purchased veil and gloves on, pretending like you know how it all works. Other than not knowing how to adjust the hat inside the veil (thank you for that tip Jessica) I did ok.

Remove the top cover, still pretending (fake it till you make it right?) that you can handle this without fear. Fear that you will go through all of the cost and time and worry and still have no bees because you screwed it up so badly they all leave, or die, or....

Breathe.

Open the top.



Remove the queen cage, remove their can of syrup feed, replace lid temporarily.
Yep, the queen really is bigger than the other bees. When they said she would be marked they really meant it. She has a big, white spot painted on her backside.

Place the queen cage inside two frames in the middle of the hive.
Carefully.
Oh, so carefully.
Because she is the success of the hive.




Then not-so-carefully you literally dump three pounds of pissed off bees over the frames. They are a living blob, buzzing and confused. Two of them manage to sting through the clothing. Beginning to re-think whether that suit is worth the money....

Call Kelly Lovejoy after hiving the first package to find out if you can go ahead and hive the second one with what seems like five million bees flying all over the yard and your head and the other hive. Yes, she assures me...they'll sort themselves out in the end, keep going.

So I do.
And it's ok.
Silently thank Kelly.



Wake up early every morning, nervous about whether you will have bees or just an empty hive body, nervous about whether you're feeding them enough and just how long do they need the syrup anyway? Read more on the internet. Read more in the books. Decide you've done everything ok after all.

You sit watching these amazing creatures, flying in and out, feeding on your carefully prepared syrup and fetching brightly colored pollen and you suddenly realize...

I. am. a. BEEKEEPER.

For real. And it feels great.

Getting started

My friend Christi (a most talented a beautiful human being) quoted this at her blog:

"Pursue, keep up with, circle round and round your life,
as a dog does his master’s chaise. Do what you love.
Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it,
and gnaw it still." --Thoreau

I love this quote. It is the mantra for my life. Call it passion, interest, curiosity or neuroticism, I don't care. For me, it's a thirst for life. For everything. For the things that make my heart sing and the things I dream in the dark and the light.

This is one of those things.
One of those things you talk about, you think about, you might read a bit here and there. And then one day you just simply DO the thing. It feels so good. I say there is a magic in the action, in the doing, in the trusting yourself to just do what you can and know the next step will unfold even if you can't see it right this moment.

Here are a few of the steps we've taken towards the "thing" of beekeeping...



It starts with attending the beekeeping club's meetings for a few months, purchasing some bees (and by golly you'd better get the hives ready if you know bees are coming!) and then purchasing a couple of hive bodies from K&K right up the road. You take this knowledge that bees are coming, the hive bodies and throw a couple of interested kids into the mix...



Mum adds some nails (is that a wee rattie watching from the background?)



Turn the aforementioned children loose with a gallon of exterior paint and the assembled hive bodies,



drag the husband into the party for help building a stand for the hives,


and Voila! You have a home for some tired and hungry bees, a couple of proud and smiling children and a husband that is thinking this might be an awful lot of work for the raw honey he loves in his tea mug.:)

More to come soon (I have three stings to share....but they came from MY bees by garsh!)

The garden grows...

...sorta. They're still indoors awaiting their permanent outdoors beds, but it's fun to watch them grow. The formerly leggy broccoli starts are still struggling, but some are filling out nicely.


I had 20 Brandywine tomatoes, an heirloom variety, but a few got smooshed. They are growing quickly!


I broke down and purchased a growlight...at least I got a good deal by getting it used from a friend.:)


In all, I have almost 200 starts going right now. We've started working the ground and some leeks and potatoes I ordered are here and needing to be planted shortly. There is also a small herb bed with some lavender, sage, rosemary and thyme planted with room for a few more kitchen herbs.

Everything is coming along, yet all I see is the mountain that must be climbed in order to get it all done. Seems daunting sometimes. Today was a big work day...
we got the bees hived today! I'm nervously waiting for morning to see if they're doing ok.

We'll get some pics posted of that shortly, it's been quite a learning experience. I've decided to utilize this blog more for the projects we're doing to work towards a more sustainable existence. Recipes to be included....:)

The last few things

So I've given up on the blogging every day, but the "thing-a-day" is keeping me inspired to create and document nonetheless...

A couple nights ago, we made a dessert with some small puff pastries, topped with berries and whipping cream. No pics of that, but the next day I had this one lone puff pastry left and it looked rather sad all by itself.

I took some fresh spinach and sauteed it with some Dale's seasoning and sea salt on a cast iron pan, then topped it with some tomato/basil feta. Made a great second lunch.:)




Sierra and I were craving Sushi the day after our berry dessert. We scrounged up enough to make it work. Ingredients to keep on hand for Sushi: Nori wraps, Sushi rice and Sushi vinegar. The rest of it is personal preference...cucumbers, cream cheese (less traditional but delicious anyway), tilapia, tofu, lettuce and Mai Ploy hot/sour sauce are some favorites around here.



I thought I'd post this for the farmers out there, since I can use any tips and information possible! They look less leggy to me, but I'm new to starting from seed so who knows? The tops are filling out nicely and they've quit shooting upwards so fast. The window ledge gets sunlight from sunrise to almost sunset. I'll start putting them outside as soon as I transplant them to larger pots so I can start some more. There's a second tray of broccoli and my bell peppers are actually doing something finally!

Just after Eleutheros left a comment about waiting on them, I saw a spark of hope. Two sprouts are pushing up. So I'm continuing to keep them warm. Without a warming mat I had to get creative. Let's just say I'll have to replace the oven lightbulb soon.;)



Sierra made a really cool thing tonight; an ice cup! It was hollow and crunchy, like some movie set prop. I was properly impressed.

Cooking seems to be my thing

It's the only thing I do most every day. Yet it seems boring to blog about creating meals or baking all the time. That's what I have for this day though.

Some oatmeal, raisin cookies (specifically, "vanishing oatmeal raisin cookies" from the Quaker oatmeal box. Thanks to La for inspiring that one) except I used Flax seed gel instead of eggs.
Flax seed gel makes a GREAT egg replacement and you can store the seeds for a very long time. You simply boil some seeds in water for a few minutes and it's instant goo.;)




...and a large pot of minestrone soup. All I could think while cutting up the miserable turnips from the grocery store, is how happy I'll be to use the veggies from my garden this summer.
Insert big, fat sigh here....


Lastly, I wrote in a journal. One of the many journals. I really wanted to write something about my Mom, since her death anniversary was on the 4th. But I didn't. I wrote while sitting at the park with Jalen and Sierra, on our way to run some errands for Trevor who left town yesterday. I already miss him.

He had his first Greyhound bus experience, but made it there safely in spite of the interesting people at the Johnson City station. I'll admit I was a bit nervous.



This page isn't what I wrote yesterday...I'll take an excerpt anyway. Isn't that how it works? I get to share what I want and hide the drivel. Or maybe it's all drivel...but it's MY drivel. So there.

This page was a wandering stream of thoughts, part of it says
"...passion surfaces occasionally
and gets pacified with
Djarum
or
Mojitos
or
words
spilling like silky Darjeeling
over my mind..."


Lastly, here is the progress on my broccoli starts. They are doing fabulous, in their little window ledge. The bell peppers are struggling to sprout. I really need a warming mat to make it all work better but I'll keep mucking about with my seeds and pots and a sunny window ledge.

I continue to marvel at the power of a seed. A tiny thing that becomes so much food for us. I sat and stared at my wee broccoli sprouts and imagined the plant they will grow into, providing nutrition and satisfaction for our bodies. I really think there would be more happy people in the world if everyone just grew some food.:)

Spring update

I spent today in training for the company I make my income with.:) I work with some amazingly creative, talented and inspirational people. So it was about creating art on the face today and taking some silly photos of it all.....



Katie-Laine from Nashville, who loves making connections (and we seem to have quite a few between the two of us)...



Erin from Knoxville who's sunny disposition and colorful style always uplifts me....



...yet another crazy Knoxville chic (Amanda) grabbing a moment to be goofy while listening to the Sr. artist. We have way too much fun to call it work.


I decorated Amycake's box for her Fafi goodies, as well as my own. Lotsa fun. The quote on the side is the one I have on my business cards: "Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or find it not." ~Emerson



Lastly, I created my own Fafi inspired graffiti "tag".

So that's what I've been creating today and unfortunately there was no way to get to a computer before now as we were on the road to Chattanooga last night and then in a hotel without access. Hopefully I can stay on track now!!

Start with an item from the thrift store....

...like this goofy little shadow box frame with some shells in it. Probably adorned someone's bathroom. I picked it up for a mere dollar. When tearing it apart I broke the glass and almost forgot to take a "before" picture (you may notice where the shells were already ripped off the paper underneath).




After a light sanding, Jalen helps me Gesso the pieces. That's been one of the best parts about "thing-a-day" so far. The two younger kiddos are right there with me, wanting to be involved in what I'm doing and experimenting with their own art too. This is why I don't like having my art corner in the garage during winter weather! We tend to neglect having materials available but "thing-a-day" inspired us to move it to a more comfortable location.





A little bit of acrylic paint is added.




The cubbies begin to get filled in.




A whole new look for the thrift store find!
Upper left corner contains a snakeskin from Milton Florida and a bone found at White Sands National Monument in Alamagordo NM. Upper right corner contains a deer vertabrae and sand dollar from Busby Island Alaska, in the Prince William Sound. Lower left are shells from the Pensacola Beach area (somewhere on Santa Rosa Island) and lower right is a bird nest from FL, some blue jay and various other feathers and a wooden egg that was my Mums. The paper that lines each box are leaf rubbings from leaves gathered one sunny day in Pensacola as I traipsed the streets with Izzy and Jalen. Oh, and the bundle of plants on the right is some creosote and mesquite from the NM desert that my friend Karin Curtain brought to the very first Live and Learn conference. It still smells wonderful.

I later drilled a few holes in the bottom to add some dangly bits...another day.




Then we moved on to the firepit project. After mixing some mortar and leveling our circle the kids helped me place a few stones.



I figured out that I really stink at mortaring uneven stones together. It's more solid than it was before....but I can't say it's any prettier.;)



While I was finishing up with the rough mortar job, Sierra started digging up some wild onions that grow prolifically in our yard this time of year and well into spring. You can see them to her right in a toy dump truck.




Inside, the bread we had made while art projecting, was cooling off.



Sierra and I chopped the wild onions into a stir fry and some sauteed mushrooms. A meal fit for a queen. An earthy queen anyway. We're using up the last of the wild blackberry jam made last summer. It makes me sad to see it going, but more determined to put up a lot more jam this year. It was a productive day, but you wouldn't know it by the mess I am surrounded by in the basement now. That's part of the trade off for doing what we prefer.....the things we don't prefer seem to sneak up on us.

All the busyness of today gave me more to blog about, which is good since the next two days will be a challenge. I'm leaving town for work training and Jalen needs to see the dentist first thing in the morning for an absessed tooth. Lotsa fun eh? I'll be lucky to get a pot of soup made tomorrow....

Baking some art

Tadah! Yes, I made a birthday cake. No, it was not from a box mix, it was from scratch. In fact, I used the Chocolate Joy recipe from this cookbook I inherited from my mother.



That's an original Betty Crocker cookbook from the 1961, complete with the goody-two-shoes advice for the oh-so-proper wife/mom of the times. Interesting stuff that.

Ok, I didn't really make the whole cake. I had a wee helper in the form of a birthday boy who turned seven today.





He frosted it with intense concentration, topped it with some lovely skittle candy and lit it up!




It was a lovely cake.


Betcha thought that was my "thing-a-day" huh? Fooled you. I really did some art this time!


I made some ATC's for Jalen's birthday and then had so much fun I made a few extra, even some Valentine versions to give away.



The top three are the Valentine theme, second row is silver tissue and the bottom row are random happy colors. All are encaustic art (which is just a fancy was to say "crayon melt" in this case):)




Swirly pinks and reds



My favorite; "What's love got to do with it?"
Can you tell what kind of mood I'm in? Maybe I should have added some black. ;)

Thing-a-day

So I started with a brilliant plan to make some ATC's for Jalen. He turns seven tomorrow and we celebrated his birthday today. The art cards may still happen tomorrow, but today is over and I'm exhausted. Between the birthday and having some awesome friends hang out and then hit the grocery store, there will be no ATC creations for my first Thing-a-day.

I did create something. Sorta. I created the beginnings of a garden. A very large garden that will only exist in my mind for a bit longer. But I planted some inhabitants of the garden that we plan to eat. So it's not really so much of something I created today, but a baby step towards something I am creating.

I've never started Broccolli or Peppers from seed and I have no heating mat for them yet. So we'll see how they do. There's more to come, all a grand experiment for this amateur gardener.
I can smell spring around the corner, truly I can. Now if I wasn't sitting here freezing cold trying to keep my hands from getting stiff.:)


I'm throwing in an artsy image too...just fer fun.
My idea with doing the "Thing-a-day" project was to encourage myself to get back into the act of making art regularly. I created this image on Sierra last week, so it doesn't count for the project, but I wanted to put a pic here since it's plant related (kinda, sorta, maybe?).





Happy creating to all of you who signed up! I'm still figuring it all out too, but I assume we post a comment at the project site that links to our blogs? Off to find out (just in the nick of time too...it's almost midnight)!

I must be nuts

But for those of you that read my other blog, you already know I'm out of my mind right? Right?

So here goes anyway. I signed up for the "thing-a-day" challenge in February. There is still time if you want some inspiration. Register before January 31st and create one thing a day in February...yes, every day. Create something and blog about it before midnight each night.

That's the part I'm having particular difficulty thinking about, the blogging part. I create stuff every day anyway, even if it's just a loaf of bread. But to take pictures (yeah, I do those every day too pretty much) and WRITE about it here? Ack.

But I took the leap of faith and signed up anyway. Sierra promised to help me by letting me use her digital camera which makes it all within the realm of possibility.

The cool part? I just started cleaning out my art corner in the garage (all you organized people can stop snickering now...yes, I just got the Christmas tree taken apart today) so I can actually GET to all that lovely stuff I like to create with. Not that the "thing-a-day" needs to be art. I just need it to be art for some of the days since that's what I'm neglecting lately. That and writing.

I'm obsessed with my garden this year too, so I'll probably be posting about progress with becoming a suburbanite farmer.:) Ok, maybe not a farmer but the backyard will slowly become growing grounds for all things edible. Hey, 3/4 of an acre counts as a farm. Doesn't it? Doesn't it??? Wah.

So I'd love to hear from other people who blog about their February "thing-a-day". If you join, leave a comment here and we'll keep each other inspired! Wouldn't it be cool to create a gift for someone each and every day? Hey, I might actually be ready for the holidays this year. Maybe.