Turkey Tracks: Friday Garden Day

Turkey Tracks:  June 10, 2016

Friday Garden Day

It’s once again time to mow.  I also weed-whacked and blew off the porch.  The latter is not easy for me as the blower is heavy and cumbersome.  And, the oak tassels were sticking in the spaces between the back deck planks.  But, the porch is so pretty when it is all ready for summer.

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Some really good sitting, reading, eating, and visiting takes place on this porch every summer.

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The flower pots are filling out now…

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The violas are loving our cool June nights.

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I found this poor creature when blowing near the table.  I have a hummer feeder on this back deck.

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His feathers glowed iridescent in the sun.

They are so, so tiny.

Did he run into the window?

I don’t have so many this summer.  Not like years past…

I worked for some time in the veggie garden before I got hot and hungry.  I’m ready to plant the warm weather crops now, but our nights have been so cool yet.  We dipped down into the high 40s last night.

Turkey Tracks: Pea Soup Fog and Rain

Turkey Tracks:  June 6, 2016

Pea Soup Fog and Rain

We had pea soup fog yesterday…

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I love the grass when it gets this high.  Soon it will by cut and made into hay.

Note that you cannot see the woods beyond the barn.

I love these “soft” days.

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And in the night, a drenching and must-needed rain.  We are hoping for more tonight.

I dashed up to Belfast for groceries and dog food.  Then, I sewed.

Mina’s quilt is half done–on the long arm.

I finished a quilt-let.  This one”sings” to me.  Look at that pieced center!!!

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Very cool to work on these blocks…

And I finished another Farmer’s Wife block.  No. 42.  This one was actually pretty easy.  Six more to do for this month.

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Turkey Tracks: Alewives Quilting Visit

Turkey Tracks:  June 4, 2016

Alewives Quilting Visit

I made a run to Alewives on Friday.

And I fell in love with this sample quilt:

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I love everything about it.  The color palette, a way to use small pieces of fabrics (my crumbs, my crumbs), the quilting, the graphic nature of the quilt.  I could go on…

There’s a pattern, of course.  You can see it pinned to the quilt.  And Alewives is easy to contact, and they ship.

Maybe I have to go back…

I finished another “quilt-let.”  (Katja Marek’s quilt-along project–and I am slowly catching up.)  There is a hexagon at the center of this one.  I’m wishing I’d done it in the lime green of the fabric…  Oh well.

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Here’s block 41 of the Farmer’s Wives blocks.  I’m trying to keep the pace of two a week going.  So, I need to make another one for this week, and I’ve almost finished it.  this one is called “Granny” I think.  Simple, but complex too.  That’s a good Granny.

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I wish that I could send you the perfume that is filling my yard.  Lilac, petunia, and much more that is fragrant.  It’s a spectacular lilac year this year.

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Spectacular.

Turkey Tracks: Saturday Breakfast

Turkey Tracks:  June 4, 2016

Saturday Breakfast

We are (again) being promised rain for later tonight and tomorrow.

So far, my rain dances have not worked.  Maybe this time.

Anyway, I mowed last Friday, so I knew I had to mow before we got soaking rain that might take several days.  Often, that means a third day for my grass to dry out enough to mow.

So…

Yep.  I needed to mow TODAY.

At first we had overcast cool, then, suddenly, in the way weather happens in Maine, the skies cleared and the sun came out and it started getting warm enough to dry up the morning dew.

First though, I fixed myself a “Saturday Breakfast.”  Normally I don’t get hungry until nearly noon.  But today I needed to be mowing around noon, AND I am having dinner early evening with friends at Chez Michel’s in Lincolnville, Maine–just up the road from Camden and across from Lincolnville beach.  Somehow, I’ve never been to this restaurant, so when friends discovered I had not, an outing was organized.  (I have great friends.)  

Over a cup of tea, I pondered what to eat for breakfast.

My tea:  I get the most extraordinary Irish tea from our local coops.  It’s from a Vermont company and comes in little grains.  It makes a “bold” cup of tea.

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I heat the water in my copper kettle, and say what you will, water heated in that kettle tastes gorgeous–very unlike water heated in another pot.  I’ve had it for 25 or so years now and love it to pieces.

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I pour hot water over the loose tea through a basket thingy

that fits over my cup.

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This tea can take a second pour over too, which I usually do sometime during the day.

Of course I add LOCAL raw WHOLE milk from Jersey cows (Milkhouse milk) and about a tablespoon of raw, UNHEATED local honey–which I get in big jars once a year from my local beekeeper, Sparky’s Honey.  I take him the jars, and he fills them.

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On the refill, I don’t add the honey.

OK, chives are in full bloom, so I snipped some and brought in one of the lavender chive blooms to crumble into my eggs.

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Over the years, the chives have spread in my garden.  And look at the stand of tarragon to the right of the big clump of chives.  Along this path I have several types of sage, several types of thyme, my grandmother’s mint (which I’ve had for over 40 years), some garlic chive (blooms in August), lavender, and some rosemary.  I LOVE it when I have herbs in the garden.

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I recently learned that one can trim the chives back to to or three inches in mid-summer, and they will grow back up and, often, bloom again.

I put a big pat of local raw butter in the pan and heated it until it sizzled.  Threw in the chives and dropped in two eggs.  While they set a bit, I hit them with local sea salt and some black pepper.

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I just take a fork and run it through eggs to scramble them.  If I were to add cheese, it would be just as they are broken but still runny.

I had some gluten-free bread from HootinTootin bakery out of, I think, Belfast.  I get it at the Belfast Coop.   AND some homemade blackberry jam.  (This year will be a blackberry year.  Last year the patch had to be cut down to allow it to regenerate without so many weeds.)

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Delicious!  And the mowing seemed really easy after this good start.

Turkey Tracks: Cold Frame Lettuce

Turkey Tracks:  May 31, 2016

Cold Frame Lettuce

Do you happen to remember the recent blog post where lettuce that had reseeded itself in the cold frame–“Spring Joys,” I think?

That lettuce is full grown now and looks so pretty.

It looks even better in a salad, which I had last night:

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That’s herbed goat cheese, French breakfast radishes, avocado half, cherry tomatoes, snipped chives and chive flowers from the garden, watery cukes from far away, spring onion, red onion, THE LETTUCE, a drizzle of good olive oil, a squeezed lemon half, sea salt, and pepper.

It’s all a gift of nature.

Turkey Tracks: May’s Farmer’s Wife Blocks

Turkey Tracks:  May 31, 2016

May’s Farmer’s Wife Blocks

Those who read this blog may remember that I am part of a Coastal Quilters (Maine) group whose members are making eight blocks a month from the book THE FARMER’S WIFE 1930 SAMPLER QUILT buy Laurie Aaron Hird.  AND that I’m going to set these blocks in this lovely teal fabric.

I’m down to the wire this month–so many wonderful quilt projects and not enough time–but here are my eight May blocks.  This eight makes 40 of the 99–so not quite half way.

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On to the June blocks!

Turkey Tracks: May is Makers’ Month: Busy Hands Quilts

Turkey Tracks:  May 30, 2016

May is Makers’ Month:

Busy Hands Quilt:  “Brick Cottage Lane”

I am always looking for patterns that will use the squares and rectangles I have cut from fabric left over from other quilts.

I am more inclined to buy a few patterns in May, in order to support some of the designers, many of which are young women with families and who are trying to make a living with their creativity.

This quilt pattern came through on a blogspot feed I get every day that throws up about 20 blogs in which their system thinks I might be interested.

“Brick Cottage Lane” by Myra of Busy Hands Quilts

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I love this pattern as it uses 2 by 3 1/2-inch rectangles.  It’s hard to find interesting patterns that use these rectangles.

If you go to Myra’s blog, scroll down to find this pattern.

Source: Busy Hands Quilts

Turkey Tracks: Potluck Treasure

Turkey Tracks:  May 30, 2016

Potluck Treasure

John and I moved to Maine June 10, 2004.

So this June, I begin my 13th year, and I begin it with anticipation and joy.

One of the first things we learned that was so, so different for us was that when one is invited to a potluck feast, one brings a dish, yes, but also one’s plates, mugs, dinnerware, and a napkin.

Mainers, we  learned, work hard to limit what they put into the waste stream–and paper plates, napkins, and plastic dinnerware can be and are avoided.

(We all have to make these changes folks.  We have to.)

* * *

Yesterday I ducked into one of our fabulous local Co-ops, Good Tern in Rockland, to pick up a few things and met a really fun person:  Jodi Cooper.

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Jodi makes these terrific “potluck” packages, which equip one for a potluck in short order.

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Included are a napkin, dinnerware, chopsticks, a metal straw, and a straw cleaner.  The whole array rolls up and ties (she’s used gorgeous buttons and beads with the ties).

Here’s another one:

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And here’s information where you can contact Jodi–as I think these potluck treasures would make really fun and thoughtful gifts–especially for local Mainers.

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Or, you can try to pick one up at Good Tern, BUT I suspect they will sell out fast.

Thanks so much, Jodi, for creating such a fun and useful product.

Turkey Tracks: Talking Turkey

Turkey Tracks:  May 25, 2016

Talking Turkey

Yesterday morning I woke to find a large gobbler in the yard displaying all his plumage.

I took the ipad camera out onto the deck steps, and he did not spook at all.

Here’s what occurred:

I finally saw the hen he was courting.  She was up the hillside in the woods, blissfully feeding on something in the dead leaves and ignoring him completely.

Ha!

Turkey Tracks: One of My Many Addictions!

Turkey Tracks:  May 20, 2016

One of My Many Addictions!

…is…

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…the Italian sub from French and Brown.

One half one day, and the other half the next day.

I can’t eat “heat” (hot pepper food allergy), so they leave off the spicy pepperoni and the pepperocini peppers.  I know those foods make this sandwich even better.

One adds the dressing (Italian) and salt and pepper before one eats…

…with potato chips.

The baguette roll is really what makes this sandwich so special, and it is delicious.

(Oh my gluten intolerance gene!  I pay for eating it, so don’t do it too, too often, but it is so, so good.)