Start anew

Okay. So things aren't as great as you'd like, and in fact, life feels like a big mess right now. Not to worry - simply bless your mess and start over.
~ Sonia Choquette

Life goes on. My lack of posts is mostly because all batteries for my camera were mysteriously always empty, my computer is so filled up that I hardly work on it, besides not much has happened in the meantime anyway. Our garden has given us the first vegetables and we have become like rabbits trying to eat all salad before it starts to bloom. It is also an ice cream time and I keep wearing summer dresses whenever it is warm enough. Oh, how much I like this time of year!

It is time for an ice cream. Yes!

Most peas will go into the fridge for winter. We can't eat that much of it at once.

It is my last day at work on Friday, after that I will be on vacation. At first thought this is not bad but I would much prefer enjoying these free days with knowledge that new job is waiting for me at the end of July. Though, I have accepted the fact that losing my job is in some way good. After all it was time to start over. I just hope I won't be hopping from one job to another for years because this is way too much tiresome. At least for me.

Fruits of autumn

I've been cutting rose hips for the second day in a row. It is a slow work, and a messy one too. I use plastic gloves because those little hair inside of the hips are rather stingy. What I do reminds me of those days spent at my grandparents' when we were all sitting behind a desk and doing similar work. Preparing and storing food for winter. I gathered a bucket of carrots and other goodies from the garden yesterday, I shared some with my colleague at work. This is how it is done - I get plums from her and she gets vegetables from me. A good barter indeed. It feels like in the old days when there were no shopping malls and computers and mobile phones. Days are passing by quickly at this time of year, there's lots to be done around the house at the moment. Like mowing grass for the last time this season, cleaning the mower and the tiles and the flower pots, wiping away spider's webs from the front of the house, cleaning windows, gathering and cleaning and storing vegetables from the garden. This all takes time, more time than one can imagine. I hardly wait to move inside; I have lots of plans for rainy and gloomy days.

Garden season

During the summer season we eat lots of vegetables. Because there is plenty of them in our garden. The vegetable beds look rather crowded and chaotic compared to my neighbors' but I found out that I grow more varieties of vegetables than other people. This is one third of the whole vegetable garden: Different sorts of cabbage and kale: Mangold: Chinese cabbage (at least I think it is): Leek: Our first eggplant this season. I planted them (too) late: Two sorts of basil and kohlrabi: Parsley (I need to freeze some for winter): Paprikas: Turnip and black radish (I don't know if this is correct translation but this is how we call it here): Chicory (Ž will have to eat it, I don't like its bitterness): Dill (bees love it): Pumpkin (I forgot what sort):There's much more to show; but maybe some other time. I visit the garden very often to admire the results of my hard work in spring. It was worth it.

So, after three days at home admiring the garden and resting on a shore of a creek (counting dragonflies, fish and birds), I decided to go on a short vacation. A few days in the mountains and a day or two at the beach. I am looking forward to these free days before the rains cool our land again. It usually does in the last week of August. And you know, it is fig time! Yum!

Have a good time while I am away! :)

Harvest

Over the weekend I gathered some plants/herbs in the garden, and placed them on a baking tray covered by baking paper to dry. When they are dry I will remove the stems, crush or grind them, and place each one into a small jar. I use lots of spices, though I rarely use pepper or chilli. I like it mild. I will use Calendula blossoms in teas. Oh, what a happy summer it is!

Vegetable garden

So, here's another promise to be fulfilled, to a friend I have never met in person. Let's look at my vegetable garden today, let me show you what I grow there this season.

Carrots: Red basil: Chives: Salad (chicory): Paprika: Cabbage: Peanuts: Peas: Raspberries: Chervil:Parsnips:Beetroots:

And lots of weeds, of course. :) There are still more sorts of vegetable growing in the garden but some of the plants are still very small, and I might show them to you when there will be something to show at all.

So, if we are not flooded again, there will be lots of delicious food in summer and later in autumn. I rejoice at this already.

Karma for today: Share often and much.

First days of August

Not much is happening right now in my life. August has always been one of the happiest months in a year for me, and hopefully this year it will also be so. Our garden is giving us lots of vegetables every day, but I am a lazy cook and I stick to the classical and simple food. I baked chocolate cookies yesterday in the afternoon, for a colleague of mine who is always very kind to share his crop of figs with me. I have received lots of peaches, apples and raspberries. There's so much of everything that it is impossible to consume all that food at once. I made peach jam the other day. I will have to bake something with apples, otherwise they will rot. The eggplant season has started and I will have to give away paprikas...

A week or so ago Ž gave me this green kayak as a birthday present. We tried it on a nearby creek. I can hardly wait to try it on a river nearby. It is too heavy for me to lift it alone, so I will have to buy a cart on wheels. I named it Zelenc, the Green One.
And yes, mountains will have to wait this year. :)

Karma for today: Wherever you are, whatever you encounter is meant to provide you with exactly what you need right now. (Though I often wonder, why some events have to happen, when we suffer so much.)

It is time for...

... strawberries.For tomatoes, too.And at last, for a new shape of bread. What I did with it will follow in my next post.

It is, finally, a bit warmer outside. Here comes my time of a year! :)

Karma for today: Be gentle in your criticism and encouraging in your praise.