My Early Gardening Years
My mom was going through a box of photos that she got from my grandma’s house this summer and she came across these photos of me in my early gardening years. I thought you’d enjoy seeing these.
Don’t you just love this stylish gardening outfit! I still get that dirty when working outside and of course I still always wear sandals in the garden. (and my mom still grow amaryllises this lovely every year)
No doubt in the photo below I’m explaining the finer points of proper watering to my older sister. Mr Chiots laughed and said, “You still hold your watering can like that.”
My mom used to let me pick out flowers when we’d go to the greenhouse every spring, I remember choosing some cockscomb one year. I also have fond memories of leafing through seed catalogs to pick out “my vegetables” to grow each year in the edible garden. For some reason they were always blue and they never grew very well, but that never stopped me from picking something blue the next year. That little flowered watering can in the first photo was my favorite, I loved watering with it. I also remember using the old watering can that I currently have on my front porch for holiday decor. Watering must have been my favorite gardening activity as a girl.
Were you a gardener when you were young? Do you remember planting, watering and spending time in the garden?
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Friday Favorite: Buttons
I’ve always like buttons for some reason, I can’t quite explain it. I’m drawn to their usefulness and beauty. I remember going to the Warther Museum when I was young and being in awe of her button collection. They were all laid out to look like quilt tiles. I wanted to make one myself someday, I’m sure I’ll never reach her total of over 100,000 buttons, though.
I distinctly remember sitting in my paternal grandma’s living room and pouring out her button jar on the carpet. I’d spend quite a while organizing the buttons by size, color, shape. She had quite a variety, some round, some oblong, some smooth, some covered in rhinestones. I had my favorites that I’d linger over as I’d put them back in the jar. I remember doing this often when we’d stop by for a visit.
When my grandma died back when I was college, I asked for her button collection. I was happy to get it, still in the same jar it was in when I was little, with my favorite buttons still inside.
Last summer, my maternal grandmother died, and I too asked for her button collection. I don’t have memories of looking through her collection much, but I’m glad to have it all the same.
I have my own small button collection in a jar. I don’t specifically buy buttons, I try to acquire in the same way my grandmother’s most likely did. Through extras on clothing or picking them up off the sidewalk. If I’m making rags from a shirt, I always cut off the buttons and add them to the jar.
I’m sure I’ll keep slowly adding to my collection and maybe I’ll even make a design with them someday. (like this fabulous tree on Flickr) I wonder how many buttons I will collect in my lifetime without ever specifically seeking them out.
Do you have anything like this that you’ve been fond of since you were a kid?
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Eating Alone
Mr Chiots is off hunting with my dad, hopefully filling our freezer with lots of venison for the year to come. As a result I’ll be eating alone all week. At least I have a ton of leftovers from Thanksgiving, so it’s quick and easy to warm up something while I’m working.
I find the quickest way to warm up dinner is to put it all in a small cast iron skillet and throw it in the toaster oven for 15 minutes. While it’s heating up I can do something else, when it’s done I eat right out of the skillet. The skillet will also keep the food warm for a while in case I’m in the middle of something and can’t eat right away. This works equally well for two, just divide onto plates, or share the skillet – not as romantic as sharing a milkshake.
Being an introvert, I appreciate solitude and quiet and I’m getting plenty of that this week. Perhaps this is why I like gardening so much.
Do you enjoy being alone or do you relish in being around other people?
P.S. For all you other introverts out there I’d highly recommend the book The Introvert Advantage: How to Thrive in an Extrovert World, even if you’re not an introvert this book would help you understand your friends & family members that are.
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Friday Favorites: Stuffed
As most of you know, yesterday was Thanksgiving here in the U.S. Mr Chiots and I celebrated as most folks, with a big turkey meal with all the trimmings. I’m not a big fan of turkey, or most poultry for that matter, so Thanksgiving meals aren’t that exciting for me. I am however a HUGE fan of stuffing, or dressing.
I make mine with homemade bread, usually a mix of whole grain, white and sourdough. It’s easier if I have saved stale bread for the last couple months, but Mr Chiots and I are bread lovers, so we rarely have bread go stale on us. I ended up baking a few batches of bread for our stuffing (at least I was able to put half of the loaves in the freezer for Mr Chiots to take hunting).
I like my stuffing with lots of celery, onions and sage. This year I harvested fresh sage and celery from the garden for my stuffing. My sage was planting just for this meal, and this was one of the celery’s main purposes as well (along with my tomato soup).
I really like my stuffing to be more like bread pudding, really soft and wet on the inside and crispy on the top and the edges, and smothered with good gravy on the my plate. I use turkey or chicken stock as the liquid and sometimes a little cider. I ate my fill of stuffing Wednesday and yesterday and have a big container in the fridge to feast on for the rest of the week.
What’s your favorite Thanksgiving side? If you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, what’s your favorite side dish for poultry?
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Friday Favorites: Fabulous Fungi
I couldn’t do Friday Favorites for very long without talking about mushrooms. I’m a huge fan of mushrooms, one of my favorite ways to eat them is simply sauteed in butter, I could eat them every day, and do several times a week.
I love mushrooms of all shapes and sizes from the regular old white button mushrooms to the lion’s mane and oyster mushrooms that I buy at my local farmer’s market. I think my favorite of all are crimini, or baby bella mushrooms. There’s just something about these little beauties. Recently I just discovered hen of the woods mushrooms and I’ve been enjoying them in some mushroom lasagna.
In the spring we hunt for morels, but not for any other varieties. This winter I want to spend some time reading about growing my own mushrooms and hopefully in the spring I’ll inoculate some logs and give it a go. I’m hoping to go visit our local mushroom grower to get some tips and maybe I’ll be able to buy spawn plugs from them.
One of the best parts about loving mushrooms so much is that they’re super good for you. Eating mushrooms regularly can help you fight off the cold and flu and help you fight all sorts of things like cancer, obesity, high cholesterol, diabetes, etc. Here’s an interesting article about mushrooms and immunity.
So what about you, are you a mushroom lover or a hater?
