Turkey Tracks: My Life in Maine – Page 106

Turkey Tracks: I Mowed the Lawn Today

Turkey Tracks: June 15, 2013

I Mowed the Lawn Today

In 47 years of marriage, I never mowed the lawn.

I think John tried once to show me how back on Van Buren Street in Falls Church, Virginia. But I could not start our big heavy mower, and I already had so many other things to do in and for the house and gardens, that I never pursued it.

Besides, John liked mowing the lawn. There was something peaceful about it for him.

I can’t imagine why–as it’s one of my least favorite things to do in this world.

Oh, I like the way it all looks when it’s done. Just the way I like the way the laundry looks when it’s all folded and ready to be put away. Or, the kitchen when it’s all clean. It’s not that I mind the work. I like to work. I just don’t like mowing the lawn.

I’ll weed all day. But mowing? Not a chance.

Still, I do a good job. See?

That hill you see really slopes, and it’s murder to mow. Perhaps that’s why I don’t like mowing. Or it’s about juggling the electric mower we got me last summer when it became clear John could no longer mow and the long power cord. The mower is light and efficient; negotiating the cord is irritating, though I’m getting better and better at it.

It’s not a huge yard, and except for this hill, it’s flat up top and down below.

I trim up the bits along the edges by hand–right now that seems easier than using a string cutter. They don’t work so well along fence lines anyway, and it’s just another thing to plug in that makes a lot of noise.

That’s a big lilac at the foot of the stairs. It perfumes the whole yard.

That’s a row of raspberries along the front edge, backed by bayberry and rugosa roses and more lilacs. The wonderful David Hannan came and mulched the raspberries for me and weeded and edged the bed. What a HUGE help that was.

I wanted to get pictures of the new chickens for you, but they hid in the coop away from the mower. Rosie, the remaining Copper Black Maran came and visited with me. She’s the sole survivor of the fox attack in early spring:

She’s so pretty.

I miss her Cowboy fellow. I bet she does too.

Turkey Tracks: Play Quilting

Turkey Tracks: January 15, 2013

Play Quilting

I’ve been working really hard on sorting through my quilting stash–all the fabrics a quilter starts to accumulate–and cutting up all the smaller pieces into useable, accessible strips, blocks, or rectangles. Those of you who follow this blog know that getting my stash under control has been going on for over two years now. It’s just way too easy to keep buying new fabric for a new quilt without using up leftovers from previous quilts.

I am now using Bonnie Hunter’s coping strategy of keeping only large pieces for the stash and processing everything else. Out of the greens, I’ve already made a gorgeous green scrappy top and backing–using up a ton of fabric that was just sitting around. That top is ready to go on the long-arm, so I’ll return to it here when I’ve finished it. I LOVE it. It’s a green version of Bonnie Hunter’s “Blue Ridge Beauty” that I’m calling “Green Camden Hills Beauty.” You’ve seen pieces of this top in earlier posts, and Bonnie’s version is on her web site, quiltville.com.

So, the green part of the stash is under control–dare I say? And, I’m making good headway on the blue now. I had already been working at the blue fabrics over the past two years, but I’m astonished how much of it I still have. So many small pieces that are just lying around doing nothing but taking up space.

Yesterday, I could see that I was close to finishing cutting up the blues, so I let myself “play” at the machine for two hours–jointly working on two different types of projects. I made myself quit about 8 p.m. last night because I could have gone on and on…

First, in Bonnie Hunter’s system–which you can explore in her four books and on her excellent web site, quiltville.com–NOTHING gets wasted. The small bits of fabric she calls “crumbs.” She throws them into a basket and uses them to “make fabric.” Here’s an example:

These 2 1/2 by 8 1/2 strips will make really cute borders on a quilt when I have enough of them. Bonnie Hunter uses old paper–phone book paper is the best as its thin and easy to tear away–as a backing. It’s so much easier and lighter than the muslin I had been using for string-pieced blocks. You could also use used printed paper from your printer, though that is heavier.

This “making” of fabric is growing in popularity these days. In addition to Bonnie Hunter’s work, you can see the fun of making and using fabric in OUT OF THE BOX WITH EASY BLOCKS: FUN WITH FREE-FORM PIECING, Mary Lou Weidman and Melanie Bautista McFarland and 15 MINUTES OF PLAY: IMPROVISATIONAL QUILTS, Victoria Findlay Wolfe. Weidman and Wolfe both have blogs as well.

I had some string-pieced blocks left from projects last year and have been throwing strips into a basket for when I wanted to make more of them. I had only been throwing in strips that were at least 1 1/2 inches. BUT, after making the border strips above, I can see that strips just under 1 1/2 inches are useable in both the string-pieced blocks and with the crumbs. Really, the clear 1 1/2 strips should go into a separate box to be used for, say, nine-patches with one-inch blocks. Or, piano keys borders.

Here’s my string basket, which is getting alarmingly full:

Only there is a twist: I’ve been tearing away also selvages with writing or colored dots with a little extra fabric in the strip. I LOVE writing in a quilt and have become more and more intrigued with thinking how one might use selvage edges that are interesting. So, here are examples of the kind of strips sith writing and/or dots I’ve been saving:

Here are two blocks I made yesterday, hanging with one I already had. I was playing with using the strips with writing on them:

Here’s a close-up:

And what the blocks might look like if I put them on point with sashing between…

Bonnie Hunter has lots of ideas of how to combine blocks when you have enough of them.

Meanwhile, it was really fun to let myself have a little “play” time–even though I have a quilt loaded on to the long arm and the BIG green quilt ready to be long-arm quilted.

Turkey Tracks: Nesting Bird Running Amok

Turkey Tracks: June 15, 2013

Nesting Bird Running Amok

The phobes built a nest over the kitchen door, raised three babies, fledged them early one morning last week before I ever got up, and are now out singing in the woods.

I contrast that with what is occurring on the front porch.

I’ve been vaguely aware of something going on out there. There’s was a large dark bird flitting about the porch and some straw along the roof edge. The bird has only been seen in my peripheral vision, just a fluttering of black motion and then gone. OK, I thought. I can live with a nest up there for the summer. The kiddos will love it.

Here’s what I encountered today when I went out to mow the lawn:

A whole row of half-formed nests.

The ones on the far end seem to be more in earnest:

But as near as I can tell, there isn’t a momma sitting on anything.

There are FOURTEEN of them–one in every pocket along the porch ceiling:

I’ll give it a day or two, then I’ll have to get the ladder and a pail and clean it all up.

Mercy!

Turkey Tracks: June Days

Turkey Tracks: June 13, 2013

June Days

Today is one of those quintessential Maine spring days.

The air is clean, crystal clear, fresh, and smells of the lilac which is blooming everywhere.

It’s sunny, but a long-sleeve cotton shirt feels perfect.

By nightfall, the cool streams in and a sweater is nice. A blanket on the bed at night feels lovely, especially if you sleep with an open window at your head, as I do.

Sister Susan just spent a week here. We got a lot of rain while she was here, but on rainy days we went to movies and found indoor pursuits. (We loved the new Star Wars movie and the Robert Redford film, THE COMPANY WE KEEP.)

We had a glorious time up in Acadia viewing the view from the top of Cadillac Mountain. No camera shot can capture that 360 degree vision of lakes, mountains, ocean, islands, rocks, green trees, colorful mosses, blue sky, sailing ships, and on and on. I have renewed interest in taking the older grandchildren up there this summer.

We had a sunny lunch at the Waterfront one day, and you can see that the harbor is filling up with boats now:

In Belfast, Susan was fascinated with the lively window boxes that are just starting to plump out. Window boxes line the rows of shops in all our little towns and they are so beautiful.

Here’s a close-up of one of the above window boxes. Soon these flowers will spill and drape over the box’s sides.

I love the way these window boxes are enhancing the paintings in the store:

The striped yellow and white petunia in the middle of this window box is the “petunia of the year” this year. I think it’s called “lemon stripe.”

We were both amused at this Belfast visitor:

We visited Mainely Pottery, of course. And, had a late/lunch/tea at Fromviandoux, which is always so much fun.

The lupine is blooming, and I don’t have a single picture. Susan had never seen them and was fascinated. I have posted pictures in the past, so if you search on lupine at the search button on the right sidebar of this blog, you can see lupine pictures.

Susan loved the rock walls you see in Maine as much as I do. This time of year you can see them clearly. Later, perennial plants grow up and fill in the spaces in front of the rocks. Here are two rock walls from neighbor Sarah Rheault’s garden:

And:

The rock walls in my garden are embedded into the hills, so they function differently. Here’s the end of one, which “Sky Watcher” guards. I gave him some shade and a cairn of his own this year:

The garden is lush, lush. The strawberry plants are loaded with fruit:

Beedy Parker’s kale came back AND reseeded itself. It’s blooming now, and the bees love it.

You can get Beedy Parker’s kale seeds from FEDCO. (Their catalog is an amazing document–there is a wealth of information about growing all kinds of plants in it.)

The white violets are gone now, but weren’t they gorgeous! They’ve spread in the shady bed on the north south of the house.

The tomatoes are hanging in there with all the rain. The garlic is thriving. The zukes are up. Ditto the winter squash and many of the beans. The peas are thriving. The cukes are laggards so far, and the cold frame is full of radish and lettuce:

I’m pulling radish now and will transplant some of the lettuce to the radish side of the cold frame.

These summer days stretch before me, beckoning and teasing with all their pleasures. Life is full and rich with…life.

Turkey Tracks: Giovanna McCarthy’s Birthday

Turkey Tracks: May 25, 2013

Giovanna McCarthy’s Birthday

My friend Giovanna has reached the magic age.

She now qualifies for the senior discount at the Belfast Coop.

Monumental!!

We celebrated with tea at Fromviandoux, a wonderful restaurant in Camden, Maine.

Here’s Giovanna taking a picture of the awesome plate of sweets that finished our tea.

They asked if there was a celebration when I called for reservations–which is a nice thing to do as it helps them plan.

Fromviandoux’s tea selections also include savory platters–cheeses and pate’s for instance. Also available are many small lunch dishes for those who want something more substantial. They do a really good job of dealing with my gluten issue. Everything on this platter is gluten free, for instance. And they are really good about mixing up crackers and breads with gluten and non-gluten selections so everyone is happy.

Tea is served from Wednesday to Saturday after 2 p.m. Sunday is a day where many dishes are also served.

Tea at Fromviandoux…

Anything at Fromviandoux…

YES!

Turkey Tracks: Talula Is an Artist

Turkey Tracks: May 23, 2013

Talula is An Artist

I really love the fact that my four older grandchildren are exposed to learning how to create art.

I am so glad that their schools recognize how important creative expression is when it takes the form of art created with the hands, with paint and glue and messiness, not just with the heart and mind, such as is true with words.

Talula, though, has been an artist for some time. She’ll be seven in September, but for years now she has had the practice of getting up early to draw, color, and create. When she comes to Maine and is “on vacation,” she spends a lot of time making art. I put up a table for her and try to keep the house supplied with paper, crayons, colored pencils, and so forth. They all love to make art, but Talula NEEDS to make art. It’s going to be be really interesting to see where this need to create art takes Talula in the years to come.

I always ask Talula to show me her recent art when I visit her in Charleston.

Here’s the best of what she showed me this last trip:

Talula made “the girl” with rose petals, pine straw, sticks, beans, a ribbon, and pasta. This girl has a new form from earlier “girls”–she is stockier and does not have the long neck Talula usually draws.

Here’s maybe a better picture:

She has two other motifs I’ve seen her doing for the past few years. A girl with a pony-tail hairdo and a colorful rainbow.

Here, I think her use of background color–and her patience with putting it all in–is interesting.

This girl can often have a long, skinny neck with bands of color and texture. I have one of those on my quilt-room wall and would like to make a quilt version of it for her birthday. (The road to hell is paved with good intentions.)

Here’s the iconic rainbow she does–which I like because, again, it shows she’s not afraid of color. And, the rainbow is about something that she’s imprinted on herself artistically. Like the long-necked girl.

She made a rainbow on Tara Derr Webb’s ipad (53 Paper App, which is fabulous) when she heard John had died:

I have saved it.

Turkey Tracks: Worms in My Basement

Turkey Tracks: May 21, 2013

Worms in My Basement

I have worms in my basement.

Vermiculture Worms.

They eat my garbage.

Actually, they eat the mold my garbage makes at it…ages.

They don’t smell.

They have likes and dislikes. They are not crazy about citrus.

They live in this box in the utility room:

It’s warm in the utility room. They like warmth. See the vent holes on the sides of the box. Screens taped on the inside keep the worms from exploring more of their habitat.

Here’s what the inside of the box looks like:

You can see they’ve disposed of all their food except for some stray egg shells.

See the black dirt? The worms make all that dirt. Worm dirt sells for about $17 a bag. It’s black gold.

Here’s a close-up of the worms in their black gold:

The chickens LOVE to get a handful of worms thrown to them.

I cover the worms with a layer of shredded paper. I keep a shredder in the office, and sometimes I shred newspapers if the supply of shredded paper runs low. I got a decent shredder last year after trying to manage a small, cheap one for some years. When it broke, I upgraded slightly, and I think that’s been a good trade-off as I’m not putting a whole lot of paper into the waste stream.

The new shredder cross-cuts the paper, which means it dissolves quicker:

Here’s the new shredder and TWO bags of shredded paper–all made with no fuss, no jamming, no cuss words…

In the summer, I empty the worm bin onto a tarp. The worms retreat to the bottom of the pile, and I skim off the black gold and put it into the garden. The chickens LOVE to help with this task. I round up some worms to go back into the box and feed them and cover them up again. The rest of the worms go into the veggie garden. These worms live near the surface, so they don’t survive in a really cold winter. I think they might winter over in a milder winter however. At the very least, they aerate the soil and add in protein.

Vermiculture worms are very different from outdoor Maine worms. Those guys can be as long and as thick as a small snake. Vermiculture worms are reddish, smaller, and thinner.

I like having worms in the basement on a cold, snowy day when I don’t want to plow through drifts to get to the compost bins that live back of the garage.

Whatever the reason, I like having the worms in the basement.

PS: there are many web sites about vermiculture.

Turkey Tracks: Golden Brook Farm

Turkey Tracks: May 20, 2013

Golden Brook Farm

Old friend and former neighbor Gina Caceci visited last weekend, and I think we talked nonstop for three days. It was so good to see her.

One of the things we did was to go up Howe Hill to Golden Brook Farm to get some spring greens–which are filling Susan McBride Richmond’s hoop houses now.

These spring greens are the best spring tonic I know.

Susan and her husband Chris added two more BIG hoop houses this year, and no one is more delighted than me. I have so loved watching Susan and Chris, little by little, work on their house, their barns, and their land. Truly, Golden Brook Farm is a real farm, selling beautiful produce, eggs, and seasonal turkeys.

Here are two of the four hoop houses. Eliot Coleman of Maine pioneered the ability to grow food year round in Maine’s winter in these hoop houses. That book is, I think, FOUR SEASONS GARDENING. You can’t sprout seed in the darkest winter months, but you can plant fall crops and harvest and eat them all winter long–with the help of interior coverings. The back hoop house is the newest one and was installed just a few weeks ago.

Here’s what the inside of a working hoop house can look like.

Look at this lush planting of pea shoots–a favorite spring green in Maine:

Or, this one–a kind of cabbage:

Here’s Susan herself.

One day last summer I walked into one of these hoop houses that was filled with ripe tomatoes, basil, and other herbs. I have remembered the rich heady smell for all this past long winter. Warmed ripe tomatoes, basil, and herbs… What a treat.

I planted Sun Gold cherry tomatoes myself and augmented with cherry tomatoes from Susan’s crop. I cut them in half and dry them and have them all winter for salads or just to eat. They’re so sweet they taste like chewy candy.

Think what you might be able to do in YOUR yard with even a much smaller hoop house. They come in all sizes, and some are on sliders so they can be moved to new dirt while the old dirt recovers. You can often find used ones.

Here’s a picture of the back side of the forsythia hedge that lines the road outside the farm. It’s spectacular, even from the back side. Forsythia in Maine lasts for weeks and glows against the sky or with the light on it. We know spring has truly come when the forsythia blooms.

Turkey Tracks: Rainy Day!

Turkey Tracks: May 20, 2013

Rainy Day!

Finally, a rainy day!

My apologies for not posting sooner, but I have been OUTSIDE for days in this glorious spring, putting the garden back into order.

I’ve been in a planting frenzy, actually, and have really needed this rainy day. With the generous and kind help of David Hannan, many tasks have been completed: putting up the chicken fence and the vegetable garden fence, bringing out all the outdoor furniture from the top of the garage, putting away the boarding walk, rebuilding the rock wall on the drive where the snow plow folks couldn’t see where the rocks were, bringing out all of the container pots (I think there are at least 25) and filling them with dirt and planting them, mulching, mowing, weeding, pruning, edging, seeding, and planting a now-shady bed with shade plants and, in the sunny part, an herb garden that I hope will be more permanent.

Electrician David Dodge came and fixed the back outdoor plug and installed a new plug at the front door–which will make mowing with an electric mower and a LONG cord much easier. And once he showed me how to take out the prong-plug expensive halogen bulbs in an under-the-counter kitchen light, I got new bulbs and replaced them. I’m afraid I had to touch the bulbs though–the oils from your fingers can make them blow–but they were too tiny and slippery to grip and get into the two out of four right holes. Anyway, right now, it’s working.

I’ll take pictures soon. Meanwhile, here’s how the green scrappy quilt is coming along. I’ve been quilting in the late afternoon through the early evening, and that’s been so relaxing. This quilt is a green copy of Bonnie Hunter’s “Blue Ridge Beauty,” in her book LEADERS AND ENDERS. I’m calling my version “Camden Hills Beauty,” and right now, the trees on the Camden Hills are so fluffy and are so many greens that I know this quilt is well-named. The block is a traditional Jacob’s Ladder block, but I love Bonnie’s method of combining color with neutrals. I used light greens, but Bonnie uses true “neutrals” in her quilts and just mixes them all up. I LOVE this quilt!

Here’s a close-up of some of the blocks. You can see I’ve mixed in some color–bits of pink and orange. I like the way they are working in the quilt.

I started sewing together rows in the last few days–and realized I need 14 rows, not 12!!! So, it’s back to piecing more blocks. But that’s ok as I’m really enjoying this project. AND, my green stash is diminishing, diminishing–which is a lovely feeling of usefulness.

At night, in front of the tv, I’ve been appliqueing the “Green Turtles” quilt turtles for new granddaughter Cyanna. I am on the eighth turtle–of nine. So as soon as I get the Camden Hills quilt off the design wall, up will go the Green Turtles. You can see some of the blocks on the left side of the first picture.

The 14 rows will mean the quilt will have the DARK line predominant, which is better visually I think.

Turkey Tracks: Pea Soup Fog

Turkey Tracks: May 13, 2013

Pea Soup Fog

Friend and old neighbor (Falls Church, VA,where I lived for nearly 40 years) Gina Caceci visited this weekend. It was so great to see her. And I let her get out of here without getting one single picture of her. But, I think we talked nonstop for three days. And did a little driving around to see the sights.

We had “soft” days while she was here–and they were badly needed. It has been soooo dry here, with fire warnings and “no burning” allowed for weeks now.

May and June can be quite foggy on the coast, and we’ve had a fog bank sitting on the coast for about a week now. I have always been fascinated with how the fog can move in and out, like a slowly flapping curtain in the wind. Sometimes as you are driving along the coast road, the fog will start to come across the road, moving in with long, white fingers. And sometimes it’s really dense, so that visibility is only a hundred feet or so. That would be called a “pea soup” fog, and that’s what we’ve had off and on for two weeks now.

I tried to get some pictures. Here’s Camden Harbor–can you see the island at the mouth of the harbor? Beyond is a solid white bank where you can’t see a thing. And there are islands and boats all out there in the white.

To contrast, here’s a picture I took of Rockland Harbor one day last week. There is nothing so blue as Maine water when the sun is shining. See the light house at the end of the breakwater? That breakwater is a mile long, and people walk it for fun. The white balls in the water are boat moorings, so you can see that boats are not yet back in the water in any force.

Here’s a video of Rockport harbor in the pea soup fog:

And, here’s another, which features lobster traps being staged for use. I love the lone dorry (I think that’s right) tied up to the float.

I love the “soft” days of spring. I don’t know how to describe our Maine woods in spring except to say that tree tops look “fluffy” and soft with the emerging green leaves–that spring green that is probably my favorite color. I didn’t get a good picture this year of a lone tree with the green leaves against the blue sky. Those leaves are like lace clusters. And, I suspect, the moment has passed for the year.

Here’s a picture of a budding tree draping over the Camden Library amphitheater entrance. The picture I took of the library itself came out wonky. I probably had a wrong setting by accident. I’ll get one soon. Our library is gorgeous and has gorgeous views of the harbor.

This picture of our Main Street, taken from the northern end of town, just below the library, is nice. See the church steeple and the trees of the village green at the south end of the street. Camden is a beautiful little New England town. But we are surrounded by little towns that are each beautiful and special.

So, happy spring everyone!

	celiamalm on Happy Birthday Soup
	celiamalm on Spring Garden Time
	louisaenright on It’s A Sunny Sunday
	Tracy on It’s A Sunny Sunday
	Andrea R Huelsenbeck on Yeah! The Improv Quilt Is Off…

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30	31