Saturday, September 24, 2011

Book haul!

Went to the book and craft sale at the Peaceable Kingdom. Joe is trying to sell off Lois's things promptly, while he is still fit enough to oversee it all, although friends are doing all the sorting, toting and disposing so he doesn't have to do anything physical. It has to be horribly hard to deal with, even though they talked it all over before she died and he knows (and the friends know) what she wanted done with her things. So of course I came away with a number of herb, gardening and cook books. Not as many as I thought I'd get; some were out of my price range, like all but one of the Gertrude Jekyll books. I grabbed $1 each ones range.
Unfortunately, they had just sold a trunk. The trunk turned out to have vintage clothing in it, which the trunk buyer was uninterested in. Of course a couple of pieces came home with me, things way more expensive than I should have bought. A short suit type jacket of checked wool that I'd guess is early 1960s and a floor length black velvet coat with a white fur collar, princess cut. I'm guessing 1930s. The lining is shot, but the exterior is fine. It fits perfectly! If I didn't already have my Steamcon outfits planned, I would probably try to use this as part of one. Oh, well, this is something I can wear in town easily. No pics yet as they are wrinkled and hanging right now.

Friday, September 23, 2011

New article

New article up at the Examiner, on the autumn blooming crocus (so called):

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Frost

We had our first touch of frost last night. A little damage to pumpkin leaves and a few beans. Of course, the deer have eaten so many of our plants it didn't make much difference, but still. After how late summer started, I was hoping for a late fall, too. We got a five day grace period- average frost date is the 15th- but we aren't going to get ripe pumpkins. Time to harvest and freeze all the basil and pick all the beans.

New article

New article up at the Examiner, on annual chickweed:

Monday, September 19, 2011

New article

New article up at the Examiner, on the rose 'Darlow's Enigma'

Thursday, September 15, 2011

New article

New article up at the Examiner, on the soil amendment perlite

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

On the briney deep

After many years of being dissatisfied with grilled chicken (rubbery, dry), I happened to pick up an old Sunset with an article about grilling chicken on the very day Tim had taken chicken out of the freezer to grill. The method required brining the chicken, so I decided to finally give it a try- after having it strongly recommended by Colin for a couple of years. So I made up some brine, using only half the salt the recipe called for, a little brown sugar, some garlic and thyme, and soaked the chicken for a couple of hours. Wow. What a difference. Moist and not rubbery. I have come out of the stone age as far as grilled chicken goes. I’d been avoiding brining because of the salt, but I’ve decided that this is one instance where I’ll say the hell with my blood pressure.

New article

New article up at the Examiner, on edible flowers:

Sunday, September 11, 2011

New article

New article up at the Examiner, on the Spokane Rose Society

Friday, September 9, 2011

New article

New article up at the Examiner, on tall sedums:

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

New article

New article up at the Examiner, on the herb marshmallow

Monday, September 5, 2011

New article

New article up at the Examiner, on frost in the fall garden:

Saturday, September 3, 2011

New article

New article up at the Examiner: a review of "Success with Acid-Loving Plants"