Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Redesign!

Went to a thrift store with my friends today and bought three canvas totes. They had the usual ugly canvas tote graphics you find on such useful bags. I like cute things, I am more likely to use them if I like how they look so I also bought some kid's shirts with pictures I liked. I then cut them up and sewed them over the tote graphics, with my rather sad sewing skills. But I still like how they turned out.
Now I can go buy groceries and stuff and use neither paper nor plastic at the store, market or Sauvie AND the totes are being reused as well. How green.
And they are cute enough to use for other things too, like knitting supplies!

Good Bugs, Bad Bugs

Yesterday I went out to inspect my lurvlies, my plants, and discovered something amiss. My radish flower stems, some of them, were awash in little fuzzy grey bodies. Oh NOES! I cried. Aphids.
Anyone who has a garden they pay much attention to knows aphids are a big ol' pain. These suckers (literally, they have a soda straw like appendage for sucking the life force out of your tender young shoots.)Are BORN PREGNANT and give birth to live young who are, you guessed it, already carrying new live young. WHA? Gross. The phrase "multiply like rabbits" shall dually be replaces with "multiply like aphids", I decree it!
Anyways, this is one reason why paying attention to things pays off, as they were still only on the radishes, and broccoli, which has not yet formed flower buds. Some insecticidal soap and a shower later, they are in check. At least for now. Today there are many little shriveled aphid carcasses and I also saw some predatory flies munching on them. I also found leaf hoppers hiding nearby. Hopefully these good garden bugs will help keep the aphids in check.

And speaking of good garden bugs, you may not have much love for the following: maggots, sow bugs (pill bugs, rolly pollys), centipedes, beetles (all sorts), worms (red and night crawler), flies and spiders. I however do, so long as they are doing work for me and not doing it in the house.
I turned my compost pile today, where kitchen scraps and yard waste are being turned into valuable composted goodness in my yard, partiality aided by the above 'vermin".
Teaming took on new meaning as every time I lifted a forkful of compost pile there was a massive scurry of bugs that don't like light hiding. Amazing, so many things. So much life. The bugs are only part of the story as well. There was the most delicate little mushroom, about 2 inches high, pale blue grey with a little bell cap. I can’t see the bacteria but I know they are there. (Where aren’t they really?) There is fungus I can't see as well. Enzymes, molds, who knows whats. And the pile does not smell like rotting garbage as you might be thinking. It smells like dirt, like the underside of a log, like damp earth and rain. Like life.

Someday I will write a big ole post on decomposers and composts and why it's super easy and you should do it. But not today. I will just enjoy my bug friends and not enjoy my bug foes and truly enjoy my tomatoes.

Joy of Jam

My jams are not perfect crystalline jelly concoctions of sugar and fruit. They are more thick, compote like, opaque brews of witchery. This is because I am akin to a person who does not like to read manuals on how to work electronics. I do not follow recipes, to sort of quote the fearsome pirate Barbossa, "it's more like, hmm, guidelines". This has lead to some interesting creations and me jams are one of them.
Tasty but not Smucker's. and you know what? That's what makes homemade, unique items special. It's also what makes regional foods regional. Uniformity is for soldiers. Milk and butter used to taste different depending on the season and the grasses the cows ate. My jam has less sugar and more fruit than store jams, but the jelly isn't glassy and clear and sometimes it's not jelly at all, but it goes on toast and down the hatch all the same.

so my recent vats of witchery include peach and raspberry. Peaches for the afore posted Sauvie Island and Raspberries my other half picked up from the Saturday farmer's market. The raspberry, I can attest is lipsmackworthy, the peach, well, the leftover peach-juice jelly made wonderful oil free banana muffins and bread. The jam itself is a mystery! but it looks might fine. How could not with fruit like this:

Other Jams of the season include these concoctions :
blackberry with ginger and mint
blackberry with cinnamon and honey
peach with ginger
mixed berry
blueberry
I hear they are tasty. I have only sampled peach with ginger and chardonnay, which was a limited run, I think there is only one jar left. It is more a topping for yogurt and ice cream than a jam, but the black berry with honey and cinnamon was good, rich but good (honey has a strong flavor in jam when you boil off most of the liquid cause you don't have pectin...)
Each batch gets better in technique and consistency than the previous.
And with labels like these:

who dosn't want some witchy pirate jam? hmm???
yeah, I thought so.

(home made bread by Matt)

Water Baby

I have never seen a wee melon, they are mighty cute. In an ugly baby sort of way...

arrr

so I got the new blogger beta, and as of right now, I can't edit my own html. hope they get on that fast cause I want to have more control over my blog, but don't know enough html to work without a template. So my cool leafy photoshop graphic is at the bottom of the page for now, instead of the top, cest la vie eh? I do like the fact my blog is connected with my email and color and font editing is easier as is links and side bars and whatnot. woo.