SUMMER AFTERNOON QUiET

"Summer afternoon -- summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language."

~ Henry James

Growing up during the summer, all of the members of the household would retire to their rooms for a little thing called quiet time. As a child I definitely resisted this ritual, much to my mothers chagrin. After lots of encouragement and possibly a few "firm" words I would be off to my room, armed with a stack of books fresh from our library visit. Now, as a mother I really see the beauty of this idea. (ahem...sorry about all of the grief Mimi) On days when we are home, we have been doing a bit of this quiet time. We have not gotten to the separate rooms part of the deal yet. This is definitely coming.



Today, Violet climbed into my bed and worked on her weaving project while I read. It was quite lovely and for the most part quiet. It just brought back so many memories of my childhood. I remember summer days piled into my mother's (Mimi) bed with my sister, listening to my mother read aloud from the Little House on the Prairie books.



I realized how thankful I am to have these memories and then be able to pass them on to Violet. These are the motherly moments that I truly relish. Thank you Mimi!!!

ROOT BEER

" Okay, he either said, move to the back of the throat, or he wants a root beer float"

~Dory interpreting for the whale in finding Nemo

Every summer our dear friend gathers the children in our community together for the making of root beer. This year was our first year to join in this 30 year long tradition. This delicious elixir is shared by all at our summer solstice gathering.

There was a whole lot of mixing,

filling,

capping,

and packing of bottles.

Then all we had to do was wait a few days for the root beer to do its thing.

It is timed so it will be ready to consume during the solstice celebration...

It is really quite easy. I am not sure of his official recipe. I normally do not like root beer, but there is something about his recipe that I find quite delicious.

I scouted the internet and found a recipe here. I also found that you can purchase the root beer extract on the Zatarains website.

The children have so much fun doing this, and it gives them so much gratification watching the people of the community sipping on the ice cold root beer.

***Please note the obvious... it is root beer in bottles in the pictures. Recycled Corona bottles are really easy to cap so that is what he uses!!! *****

The festivities continue, after the root beer is crafted, down at the swimming hole on his land. The perfect way to end the day!!

We had so much fun and I am so grateful to our friend for including us and the community in this great tradition!! Happy Summer everybody!!

DAYS OF SUMMER:3

"More grows in the garden than the gardener sows"

~ Old Spanish Proverb

Violet and Gammer




Hopa Crab apples

Today we harvested a huge mound of elephant garlic from the garden. It is so fun digging in the soil and plucking these huge heads of garlic from the earth.

We also harvested a handful of Cubanelle peppers and a bit of strawberries.

It wont be long before we will have baskets of peppers. Cubanelles have a wonderful flavor. It is kind of a cross between a green bell pepper and a chillie. We are putting a seed order in from Pinetree Garden Seeds for a few varieties that are ready to harvest in under 40 days ad are heat tolerant. I am excited. I have been working on preparing beds for the coming seedlings.

It was also fitting that I got my new Mary Jane's Farm magazine in the mail this week, and it has an article about putting up the harvest. Oh, how I love this magazine. If you want to see a cool video of her farm hands harvesting garlic on her farm click here.

DAYS OF SUMMER:2

"To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug."

~ Hellen Keller

We had a nice Fourth of July weekend. We had fun lighting fireworks. I had to light a happiness fountain for good luck. Sunday we snuck down to the waterhole at Blanchard Springs for a soak. It is so beautiful down there. Kalin and I found this particular spot it on my Mother's Day hike.

For some reason I thought that I had blogged about my Mother's Day hike, but when I went back to the archives that post was not there. Must have been a figment of my imagination. So here are a few pictures of the hike

You can get down to the waterhole but taking a short jaunt on a lower trail. It is a great spot. It stays pretty secluded, as not many people know about it.

DAYS OF SUMMER :1

"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.".

~ John Lubbock

cucumber plants

Sweet potatoes

Hot pepper plants

cottage red marigolds

Royal burgundy bush beans

waiting for the tomatoes to ripen

summer squash patch

Well happy summer everyone. It was officially summer at 12:45 am June 21. We spent the weekend camping on my friends land in celebration of the summer solstice. He has had this same party every solstice for the last 30 years. It has been a big part of my husbands life and now Violet and I share this with him and the rest of the family. We look forward to it all year. Our time was spent, hanging out, swimming, playing music, and playing horseshoes. I was so busy having fun that I took not one picture. Oops.

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Today I spent the morning working in the garden. I harvested my lavender and our squash. We have a rocking garden this year. So far there has been no shortage of yellow squash and my fav, zucchini. We put a lot of work into it this spring so it has been very rewarding to be able to harvest our own veggies. Wahoo!!!