I have not in fact shuffled off this mortal coil and joined the choir invisible. I’ve been busy with gardening, crafting and gaming…. Probably too much gaming. I think I am down to 3 games per week but there is one in the wings that will be starting up soon, one that’s on a hiatus and another one waiting to replace the one we currently play on Wednesdays so, no shortage of games.
This summer I have had the most successful gardening season of my life! It’s been freaking amazing. I got armfuls of zucchini, cucumbers, kale, beets, onions, and enough mint for pretty much everyone. Behold some of my harvest and be amazed!
I know this is nothing compared to what most people get out of a garden, I promise I know this would be considered pathetic by most people, but I am terrible at growing things. Just … awful and this harvest is off the chart… for me. I shredded over 33 cups of zucchini yesterday and I will be able to make 22 loaves of zucchini bread over the winter. Oh, I can make zucchini bread now! That’s a new thing! I’ve made 3 batches of 2 loaves each so far and it is delicious. I skip the nuts, because of my allergies, and add in all kinds of dried fruit. So good. Between the farmshare and my little gardens it has been an amazing summer for veg eating. Here are the new beds we had put in:
Aren’t they lovely? ^_^
Next update I’ll try to post pics of all the little zombies I’ve been making and maybe the sweaters and other things I’ve been crocheting and knitting. Be well. XXOO
I am off until the 28th and our leisurely countdown is on. I still have many small projects to get to, all of the presents to wrap, and a feast to prepare, but I am well past the halfway mark for getting stuff done. I did, like an idiot, add 2 high effort projects to my list the day before yesterday but I think I can manage.
I am loving the gorgeous snow. I want it to stay and maybe get a fresh topcoat for xmas. We shovelled out all the cars and were most grateful for how light and fluffy the snow was. Praise Thor! I can no longer shovel wet, slushy, heavy snow, I literally get sick. This snow is perfect and lovely. I need to remember to top off all the feeders today. They are getting low.
At work last night I gave out/left presents for all my coworkers. Just tins of home made cookies and a couple of cloth napkins each. Nothing major. I think last year I gave them just cloth napkins but sets of 4 or something. I love cloth napkins. They are a tiny, everyday way to love the planet. They last for years and are super easy to make and care for. I used to sell them in my Etsy shop. It I get into making them again maybe I’ll reopen after Covid19 dies down. I’m currently trying to avoid the post office and, well, leaving the house much at all.
In deference to the headache I am currently suffering that is all for now. Be safe! XXOO
I’ve been bombing around online reading people’s plans for the 2020 winter holidays. There is a lot of musing about how very different they will be this year, how different the priorities are, and about making peace with all the differences. Folks are foregoing travel to big or small family gatherings and just staying home and making feasts for the people who live there. Lots of people are planning on less shopping, less gift giving, less fuss and more activities. Reading all of it made me realize that our holidays are barely changing compared to most people’s. We always have Thanksgiving and Christmas at home because I love to cook/create the feasts and I absolutely love the leftovers. We do usually have a few guests for Christmas but Thanksgiving has been just my husband and our, now grown, children. This year we have very much hoped to include a dear friend-become-downstairs neighbor but Covid has squashed that idea. We have long tried to make the holidays more about being together and having fun and less about stuff. So I have ideas and thought I’d share.
Since you can’t visit relatives and probably need to pinch pennies:
Make a jigsaw puzzle, seasonal if possible, you might have one hidden in a closet or you could buy one. If having a physical puzzle around doesn’t work out, you can always use free puzzles online. https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=search&q=christmas%20 This one can be fun whether you live alone or with a bunch of people who can all work on it.
Bake some Christmas cookies! (or whatever treats go with your particular winter holidays) This one can be fun to do with kids if you have them. They can decorate cut cookies (like gingerbread people) or help make the cookies.
Make a gingerbread house from a kit of try baking your own gingerbread. Alternatively you can make a whole village with/without kids, by using graham crackers instead of gingerbread. We do this at my library and the kids love it.
Read holiday stories! There are loads of cozy mysteries centered around Christmas you can read while drinking cocoa or you can read children’s holiday stories aloud. (Check your local library for availability and curbside pick up)
Holiday movies! Check TV schedules, search on Hulu or Netflix, or check, again, with your local library!
We may not be able to go out carolling this year but what about carolling from our own yards? Contact a friendly neighbor and see if folks can all plan for a little outside time in their own yards and short list of songs you can all sing across the neighborhood.
Decorate like crazy! Use whatever you’ve already got or make some inexpensive and easy decorations from paper chains with whatever paper you’ve got, to pom poms with spare yarn, salt dough ornaments, or kooky ideas with recyclables. Look what these folks did with a ream of white printer paper: https://thehousethatlarsbuilt.com/2016/12/christmas-paper-office-party-decorations.html/ Search for “DIY ornaments” or holiday crafts there are a million ideas out there to inspire you.
Play some holiday music. You might have some CDs or whatever but you can also go to Youtube and search and find hours and hours of holiday music to help make your home feel a little merrier.
Create your own advent calendar/Christmas countdown. I have a little wooden house-shaped advent calendar full of drawers. Every year I find and print out holiday jokes, holiday traditions around the world, random christmas or yule facts, holiday poems, short xmas passages from books, etc. This idea is super adaptable. You could use anything from a wooden house like mine to a bunch of numbered envelopes. And you don’t have to make reading slips like I do. You could use little toys, chocolates, etc, etc.
My goofy little advent calendar all stuffed and ready for December first.
I’ve done all I can and I need a break from stress and worry so I’m here to talk about things that are bringing me joy in some way, things that take me out of myself and distract me, all that sort of stuff. So, onto that! First things first: Books. They are my sanctuary, my education, my consolation, and my many, many other lives.
Current/Recent Reads:
The Ballad of Black Tom; by Victor LaValle (fantastic mythos-related story)
Adventures in Opting Out; by Cait Flanders
Disfigured; On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space; by Amanda LeDuc
The Library of the Unwritten; by A.J. Hackwith
The Only Good Indians; by Stephen Graham Jones
Dirt to Soil; by Gabe Brown
A Deadly Education; by Naomi Novik (The latest Fantastic Stangelings Bookclub read)
Beowulf; by Maria Dahvana Headley
A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet; by Becky Chambers
There are other books, of course, but these are all the ones seriously in the flow at the moment. Other wonderful things I like to fill up my senses with: Shows!
Community. (Hulu & Netflix) My current comfort watch. Brilliant show with a ton of laughs and lots of heart.
The Haunting of Bly Manor. (Netflix) Pure gold so far. Atmospheric, subtle horror, perfect storytelling. I think I’m on episode #5 and I am having such fun. As always, my brain is whirring on ahead of the story making guesses and trying to expose the whole picture. I spotted a few things before they were revealed but, wow, there is so much here to unpack and it is glorious.
Liziqi. (YouTube) My ultimate escape from my own reality mixed with my ultimate life goals. Somehow relaxing and inspiring at the same time.
Good Omens. (Amazon Prime) We’re on our own side. Perfect.
Vienna Blood. (Dvd from the library) Very cool, entertaining, a bit like a Sherlock Holmes homage. Victorian Vienna. Hitting a bit close to reality with the superior race nonsense but a good crime procedural with interesting characters. Some absolutely stunning voices among the cast; loads of deep gravel in varying flavors. Particularly the lead detective and his rival. (I’m a sucker for a really good voice)
Shetland. (Dvds from library) Love, love, love this. I love the way this show is paced, the slow unraveling of the clues, the deep sense of Place. The landscape as another ever-present character. I have sadly finished all the available seasons of this and…
Vera. (Dvds) The same author wrote the books this series and the series Shetland are based on. Brilliant TV, just brilliant.
Videos of babies laughing hysterically, goofy pets, etc.
There are many more shows I could list that are excellent distractions but these are the ones I’m currently living inside. I’m also playing RPGs, of course. I am currently playing in; Hell’s Rebels (Pathfinder) on most Tuesdays, Azartia (a friend’s homebrew D&D) on Thursdays, and Age of Ashes, (Pathfinder) on Sundays. I am also running; Extinction Curse, (Pathfinder) on Saturdays and The Slithering, (Pathfinder) randomly, and my hubby is running the teens from the library through Age of Ashes as well. I’m playing 2 Human Druids and one Gnome Bard multi-classing into Druid and experiencing whiplash between characters. My bard is level… 12? 14? Something, and in Pathfinder which is designed for characters to be heroic. She is a blast to play, and absolutely good time. My Pathfinder Druid is low level, fun but kind of a letdown after playing the high level bard. The D&D Druid is… fine. She has a few pretty great spells that are fun/effective but… D&D 5e is just, well, it’s awful. Simple to play? Try; Over simplified, broken, frustrating. Cat, my druid, is level 9 with a 15 AC… The champion in our party has only a 20 AC. We get hit constantly, just absolutely constantly. The game is just not on a heroic scale at all. It’s dumbed down to the point of, why am I playing this? But yeah, it’s a distraction for a a few hours a week and time spent with friends. There are a lot of laughs as we play. Many laughs come from failed saving throws.
Other:
Knitting: one big project for a present, over half done now. ^_^
Work: 2-3 shifts a week, busy, on my feet, frustrating with Covid restrictions but, hey, I love it anyway and I’m lucky to have a job at all.
Baking/cooking: my daily chore and sometimes creative outlet.
Macrame’. I just got supplies to start doing this. I’ve been wanting to try it for ages, since like the 70s. Just getting around to it!
Holiday planning: well underway, constantly on my mind, so much to do!
De-cluttering. On the back burner but always on my mind. I want to get the excess out of here and have a semi-orderly, uncrowded, welcoming home.
Writing. Blogging here, jotting down ideas that keep coming to me, writing for work, which is fun and cool that I get to write for work at all. It’s mostly instructions for craft kits I make up or promotional writing for said craft kits, but still.
Sigh, and now the world is calling, I’m afraid, and I must answer. Stay well, be safe, see you soon.
It’s windy and spitting snow this morning on the edge of Cold Swamp. Welcome, November! Halloween/Samhain didn’t really happen here. We wore no costumes, didn’t honor our beloved dead, didn’t hand out candy. We watched a couple of scary movies and ate spider donuts, that is about it. Ah well. We’re all stressed and trying hard to just maintain these days.
I harvested the last of the mint yesterday and made fresh mint tea to go with our sausage, meaball, and potato dinner. It was a ridiculously hearty meal. Tonight’s plan is lentil soup to make up for it. I’ll be at work when my little clan eats it but I’ll either bring some to work or eat when I get home. I love Fall and Winter, love the cold, love coming in from the cold to find the warmth of our fire and drink hot drinks, love the dark that makes our home a little island of light and comfortable coziness. I love wearing the cozy layers of soft clothes, I love being able to stand wearing them without dying of heatstroke, and I love the long, long season of baking and making soup. I love the contrast of the cold and raw outside with the heat indoors. And I love the long, dark nights, the hush of falling snow, and the scent of woodsmoke in the air. I will be making my usual lentil soup, squash soup, and hopefully leek and potato soup, as well as searching for new soups to add to the line-up.
Fall Pictures of beautiful trees and cozy animals.
And baking! Oh the bread, the cookies, the homemade cakes! I’m all geared up and ready to shop for feast food here. Got my lists ready to go and might do a few practice runs of some of the trickier items. Muahahaha. Yum. I might try to flip lemon bread and make it with lime since I can’t have lemon anymore. I may have to learn to make pies… I’m not great at it, I can do it, but everyone else’s are better, it is known.
Fun fact: The house banners from last Xmas/Yule are still up. Yeah, I know, but it’s true. I like to leave them up till sometime in February but this past Feb we were looking at the progress of Covid19 and I thought how the banners coming down each year made me all wistful and I thought I’d leave them up a while longer, you know? until the crisis was past? Yeah, at this point I just don’t know what to tell you. Will it ever be past? I hope so. I really hope so.
Our 18th wedding anniversary is coming up. My husband asked me yesterday what I want to do for it. He is not in a good headspace at all and this was clear as anything when he asked that question. So I asked him what he wants to do and he said something like: “Our options are nil.” It’s sort of true in that we don’t have the option to go out to dinner, or to a movie, or even to go out and browse a bookstore together. (all traditional anniversary activities for us) But I mean we do have options. We could make a nice dinner and eat by candlelight, we could read aloud to each other, we could borrow a movie from the library or watch one of our favorites we already have kicking around. We could even go freeze to death in the shed to get away from the kids for a bit. Insulation and a tiny woodstove have to be the next things for the shed. Yep. How cool would that be?
As much as I love my shed it seems the garden is the priority. I have a very cool lady coming next week to start preparing the first of our gardens. The idea is that it will be sitting there ready for next Spring when it’s time to plant. She’s also going to work on expanding and diversifying our berry patch. I have such endless dreams for this project/series of projects, endless. So many things I want to grow. I can’t wait to be growing and harvesting FOOD.
Part of a page from my garden journal.
Tune in next time for who knows what rambling! I should have garden progress updates sometime next week,
Good Morning. Since the house is still buried in boxes to some extent I am not focused on decluttering. Instead I have decided to focus on activities and areas of my life where I am currently feeling more accomplished and competent: stress free holiday planning, crafting, and reading.
I pretty much straight up brag about how I pull off the holidays and bragging is not really my thing at all. Like pretty much everyone I used to stress out over all things holiday and pretty much had a pretty stress-filled miserable time. I worked my butt off decorating, shopping, wrapping, and pulling off ‘the big meal.’ I would spend Thanksgiving day cooking and cleaning up and be utterly crushed when the meal took about 30 minutes and then everyone went back to video games or football or whatever. Christmas was similar but more so. I would get so stressed that I was miserable and I was also no fun to be around. Part of that was perfectionism, that insane mindset that makes you feel like one little thing going wrong negates Everything Else that went right, another part of it was that I was disorganized and going about things the wrong way.
It took a while, it didn’t happen overnight, but over the years I have completely transformed my experience of the big Fall/Winter holidays. Thanksgiving and Christmas are now virtually stress-free for me and I have way more time to relax and enjoy them. The crazy thing is that what I do to have these stress-free holidays isn’t complicated at all. Normally, I would shop for Xmas presents over the course of a whole year, squirreling away gifts one by one as I found perfect gifts at very low prices and carefully noting down each gift and who it was for in a notebook. 2020 being the non-stop dumpster fire that it has been so far, I haven’t been out at the charity shops or stores running crazy sales, I just started shopping about 1 or 2 weeks ago… when I finally realized it was October and I was rapidly running out of time. So this year is different. I have started shopping at the same time I have started planning the feasts. (I started thinking about the feasts about when I usually do)
Stress-free celebrations are easy:
Plan Ahead
Stay Organized
Right about now is a good time to be finalizing the menu for Thanksgiving. This is the easiest part, just make a list of all the foods you want to serve for your feast. Here’s my list:
Gordon Ramsey’s Christmas Turkey & Gravy
Stuffing
Mashed potatoes
Broccoli casserole
Cranberry sauce
Rolls & butter
Butternut squash
Chocolate chip sour cream coffee cake
Apple pie
White wine
Sparkling cranberry juice
Hot cocoa
There is plenty to do there, and I do spend the morning cooking, but I am calm and happy anyway. The obvious thing is that I do everything ahead of time that I possibly can. I make the cranberry sauce a day or 2 before, I do all the baking a day or so before, I oven roast the squash ahead of time and use the stovetop for reheating and the final touches. I assemble the broccoli casserole the day before, and peel and chop the potatoes in between turkey prep steps. At this stage, I would also note on my list the cooking temps and baking time for each item that needs to go in the oven that day. Then I pick a sort of average temp, since I have just the one oven, and adjust all the cook times down the list. Then I make a note of what time each thing will need to go into the oven on the day of the feast in order to have everything ready all at once. If I had too many things needing to go into the oven at the same time I would have to rethink things a little and do a bit of oven tetris. With what I have planned above my son and I will spend the morning using Gordon’s YouTube video to prep and cook the turkey and make the gravy. I will also make the mashed potatoes, rolls and stuffing and do the final steps for a few other things. I’ll have music on, I’ll be sipping white wine, and I’ll be relaxed and happy as I have been for the past several years.
Our Christmas feast is similar, really, some of the foods will be different, but the planning and making ahead are the same. I should have the xmas feast planned shortly after Thanksgiving. This is the planner I used to use: https://christmas.organizedhome.com/printable/christmas-planner/holiday-menu-planner I just ignored the fiddly little categories and put all my ‘sides’ wherever. My form is a lot simpler.
Diet changes are always tough. Giving up things I love to eat or nearly giving them up is not on my list of favorite things. Cutting way bock on salt and sugar is a real kick in the teeth. I crave loads of sweet things so I tried making my own granola bars… spoiler alert: the recipes I found all had sugar in them… so I’ll need to work on finding some without added sugar. I like an oat base, which is typical of granola bars, so yay! But with my allergies I need to avoid a lot of nuts, some dried fruits etc. So things I can use:
honey or maple syrup
peanuts
sunflower seeds
dried cranberries
dried apricots
coconut
dried blueberries
peanut butter
dried cherries
A lot of recipes call for chocolate or white chocolate, some have pretzels or other odd additions I want to steer clear of. My first attempt does have some mini chocolate chips included because I am making these in a weird time where we have no credit cards because we had to cancel them because someone stole the numbers and wired themselves a bunch of money. So we have what we have until we get new ones. Sadly we are probably going to have to wait a while because that jackass who took over the postal system is so busy destroying it. Ah well, we’ve got food.
A lot can change in a day. Yesterday I was focused on my health and work and getting in some reading time. Today I’m wondering if my uncle is still alive. He was diagnosed with cancer about a week ago, maybe two, yesterday he was rushed to the hospital and isn’t expected to live through the weekend. He’s someone I haven’t been close with. There was some kind of weirdness between my mother and he and a big confrontation at a family party, he took off and wouldn’t talk to anyone, for years. I haven’t been much of a fan of his since then. He took my cousin away from me, and I loved her, I honestly have no idea WTF his problem is. The explanation was that he was pissed with my mother because he spent $$$ on some cuckoo clock for my Gramma and my mother had Gramma’s poems typed up and bound for her for $ and Gramma was more moved by the book. ??? So he and my other uncle took off and came back with a bunch of beer… when apparently no alcohol was allowed at family parties. My Grampa raised his voice over it and this uncle grabbed his family and dropped off the face of the Earth for several years. I missed my cousin horribly and he had literally snatched her up from where we were playing and stormed off without letting us say goodbye. He’s been a little mellower in the past decade or two but his actions have never been addressed. I’m sorry he’s dying, very sorry for my dear cousins who are losing their dad, their kids who are losing their grandfather, my aunt, my mom, my other uncles, but my personal feelings are… unknown to me. I feel something, I feel disturbed, upset in some way I can’t name, and sad for everyone that we’re in a pandemic so hospital visits or a funeral are all fraught with danger.
Maybe my muted feelings are just some shade of denial. Since I can’t do what I would usually do, visit, help, hug everyone, maybe my brain is just tamping it all down because it would drive me to distraction if I could feel all my own sadness, if I felt it all enough to break all the rules I’ve been living by for so many months. I can’t go to a funeral, even if it’s outdoors, and everyone is masked, because how the fuck do you go to a funeral and NOT hug all the crying people??? I couldn’t do it, I would break, and that would risk my husband’s health and my daughters. So, I guess this strange, removed feeling is a good thing, for me at least, and at least for now. Hopefully sending cards now will suffice and hopefully they will wait and hold the funeral when it becomes safe to do so.
Everything else: my doc never called yesterday so no news there. I got through my shift at work despite my mother’s phone call to tell me about my uncle. The spaghetti sauce seemed to be well received so I guess it tasted good. I’m still reading, still crafting, still picking berries in the yard and attempting to further propagate my mint. Oh! And I appear to have accidentally grown a squash or pumpkin plant by my compost patch! It’s such a pretty plant I can’t wait to see what it grows. If it produces any squash or pumpkins or whatever it will be a first for me! Tempest the Blight Druid claws her way toward becoming a regular Druid. ^_^ That is very exciting for me. I hope it produces. I will dance and sing if it does.
Now I will scamper off and bake something yummy. I’ve been craving sweet comfort food since I got the news about my uncle. I am not going to drink wine or beer, which I also crave, because I am babying my liver now at least until I find out what is going on with it. I need my liver. I’ll run may game tonight and hopefully not accidentally oversee a TPK! (total party kill) I thought about calling off the game tonight because I feel so unsettled but, since I can’t go to the hospital or otherwise help anyway, sticking to my routine and spending time with my friends may just be the best thing I can do.
So, I’ve been to the docs 3 times this week and I’m right now waiting for a call from them. I’ve been exhausted and not sleeping well, hurting all over, especially my joints, for some time. I’ve had a lot of blood drawn for tests this week and they actually might have found something. Something is weird with my liver. Huzzah! Yes, I am sounding positive about something that is probably bad because I’ve been struggling for years and kept being told I was fine when it is clear that I am not. So yes, I am happy there is something to freaking look at, now maybe we can get me healthy and fully functioning again. On the other hand, I need my liver, it does really important things for me and I am still using it, so hopefully whatever is going on is fixable. It would be great if I had to change my diet and eat healthier, that would cool, extra motivation. We’ll see, I guess, don’t know if doc is waiting for yesterday’s blood tests to come in before calling me.
Other than my liver, my doc put me on a muscle relaxer so my sleep has been better for 3 nights running. Fingers crossed that trend continues! Because my liver is involved I have stopped taking Tylenol for the moment, a nurse suggested it might not be helping, to see if that might give my liver a break. Poor thing, I get so many headaches and struggle with chronic pain, I take a LOT of Tylenol. Well, generics and store brands, but same thing. Lets see if I can make it through today without taking any, I haven’t in … 2 days? I should get an award. 😉
Being so tired means I am reading a lot. Finished So you Want to Talk About Race, The Simple Life, and Sherlock Holmes and the Stuff of Nightmares, so far this week. All very good and recommended books. Now I am reading Touch of the Demon, and This is my America, along with The Color of Law. I’ve got three more books in the demon series after this one, and a few books still to find and read in the Lady Sherlock series, as well as an unknown number of books in the Lovergrove Sherlock Holmes series, so I can hum along happily for a while and not worry about what I’ll be reading next. Actually, my TBR (to be read) pile is staggering. I’ve got a ton of fairy tale novels, horror novels, and nonfiction too. Sheesh.
Best coolness of the past 30 days: I discovered The Bloggess has her own bookstore and book club and I decided to try it. We read Mexican Gothic as our first book and it was creepy and wonderful. Yay! The next book is on its way here: Crossings, by Alex Landragin. I can hardly wait. I let book club books ‘jump the line’ in my TBR pile, the only books that take priority over them are library books with rapidly approaching due dates. I wonder how many library books I have ordered…
I have been cooking a bit more this week. Last week was not a great week as I was particularly tired and sore. I’m making a tomato based pasta sauce for everyone else, they can use it while I’m at work some evening. My son seemed very appreciative that I’m making this effort. He said something like ‘Homemade pasta sauce, that is supposed to make a big difference, taking it to the next level.’ He made his impressed face too. ^_^ I’m hoping to finish making it today so they can have it tonight. We’ll see, my hands hurt and I’m pretty wrung out and still need to go to work tonight.
Nothing is going on with the hippie fort. I have plans for the next improvements and would like to be spending time out there. It’s just been too hot for hanging out in all the uninsulated glory and we don’t want workers here if we can avoid it, at least till the pandemic is under better control. We haven’t had work done on the apartment yet either. So much to do and so much not getting done.
Global pandemic has meant our apartment has been empty since February. How could we rent it out when we can’t interview potential renters? Or show them the place? Well, it turns out a friend has been desperately, and quietly, wanting a change of address, so that happens September 1st. We won’t be able to hang out really, not until things settle down rampant disease-wise, but it will be good to have the place going to better use again and we’ll be able to maybe sit outside with masks and chat of an evening or something. I know it will be great, she’s such an awesome person, I can’t wait to get to know her even better. She’s a creative type too so there will be much arting going on in the near future. Dare I dream? Collaboration? ^_^ All those happy thoughts aside, I am convinced we will be going into lockdown shortly after schools resume this fall. There’s too much in person stuff happening and Covid is going to get out of control again in a hurry. I saw an add for PPE for kids for back to school and it nearly broke me. Face shields with cute stickers on them… what messed up dystopian novel are we in? Or what level of hell is this? I can’t even, I’m going to pet my kitty cat and take a shower. TTFN.
I haven’t been blogging. I haven’t known what to write and I mostly still don’t. The world is crazy, the pandemic is out of control in the States and we’re just pretending it isn’t, and my health isn’t awesome. My joints are sore and achey, my head hurts most of the time, I’ve got painful swollen glands behind my jaw, I’m exhausted and still can’t sleep.
In more positive news I’m making real progress on a tomatoless pasta sauce that rocks. I made Meghan Markle’s zucchini based sauce a couple of times and it was good but not great so I was waiting for the tomatillos from our farmshare, still waiting, but I had summer squash so I chopped it up and threw it in my crock pot with onions, garlic, and homemade broth. That turned out well enough that I took the next bunch of summer squash and tried to improve on it. I used all the ingredients from the first attempt and added a bunch of spices that are in a highly rated spaghetti sauce and BOOM! Suddenly the sauce is YUMMY. I also added a little lime juice because tomato is acidic and summer squash is… not.
Puddin’, Why I let milkweed grow in the yard, blue visitor, & purple flower.
The blackberry and mint harvests continue, a little bit most days. Today it is raining and we have severe weather alerts but I got 1/2 a pint of blackberries and some lovely flowers before it started. I hope the rain doesn’t ruin the staghorn sumac. If I had the energy I’d go harvest it now but that is not going to happen.
Before this … whatever it is… completely walloped me we walked out to the pond by the local library and I noticed it also has pink water lilies. So pretty, so I snapped the pic above. My fingers hurt so I’m going to stop. Be well!
Gen-Xer Remix 
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