Laowai

I spent some time in my garden today. There was an explosion of weeds while we were away in Michigan. Taking care of my garden is the one task that I do where I am not distracted. I can weed and weed and just let my mind wander. I don’t listen to a podcast or get interrupted (very often) by the girls. I’m in my gardening zone – I like it.

I’m especially having fun in what I call, in my mind, my meadow garden. It’s the wild looking strip along our driveway. I want to grow prairie plants – plants like the ones that might have grown naturally here a long time ago. I’m learning from year to year which plants are aggressive and which ones are shy. Also, I’m slowly learning to identify all my plants when they are little in the early spring. I like some of the weeds like goldenrod and snake root and some of the little asters that come up on there own. But I have to yank a lot of them out or they will crowd everything else out.

The girls and I volunteered to water and weed at their school garden this week. We came home with that zucchini. The peas are about the last ones I will get this year. The plant is starting to peter out in the heat so I’ll probably plant some beets. Brian has been cooking the peas with prosciutto lately and they are so yummy. The funny thing about peas is that the peas are the same color as the plant so I have to stand there and study the plant in order to find all the peas. It’s really a trick to pick all the peas – training your eye to find them, taking your time and carefully looking from different angles. Someone should make a bright blue pea.

Our beans are going to be ready to pick very soon. This year I have some pretty purple ones. I think if I could only grow one thing in my vegetable garden it would be green beans. I’m dreaming of cooking them up with butter and salt and lots of pepper.

This is one of those aggressive plants – but I like it. It’s gooseneck loosestrife. See the goose head? I didn’t know this plant until I saw it in a neighbor’s yard. It seemed to bloom for a long time so I tried it. It’s getting a bit pushy where it is so I might move it to a different spot where it can act like a tall ground cover.

I think our pet caterpillar is about to make a chrysalis. Unfortunately we will have to give him to Bea’s friend because we are going on vacation soon and so we will miss him turning into a butterfly. Oh well – I do enjoy watching his pretty, fat, striped body grow and move. Much more fun that a goldfish!

I got a new hair-do for watching the fireworks.

What a treat to have all the Chapman clan together. Dave and Kim’s kids are so grown up and tall and my girls just eat them up. We got to see Mike and Michelle and congratulate them on being engaged! Lots of fun, lots of laughing, lots of pictures.

A typical visit with Grandma Dice includes: A tour of her garden. Some tea and lemonade with cookies. Pet the kitty. And then a game of Skipbo.

All the time we were at Jennifer’s house Bea kept telling me that she wanted to get a back yard like Jenna’s.

We got to see Jennifer with her Bees. Yes she’s raising bees – I can’t get over how cool it is. I took lots of photos.

Then it was time to do some camping in Jennifer’s woods. Jennifer whipped up two zip lines for the girls. Again – so cool!

We finished our super fun day with some super perfect delicious s’mores. Thanks Jennifer.

We just got back from a fun week in Michigan. I think I got some really great pictures of cousins and grandmas and aunts and uncles and a new sister in-law (!). But before I sort through all the photos I had to do a massive unpack slash tidy-up slash laundry session. I’ve been cleaning all day and my reward was to pick some of my flowers. Our coneflowers greeted us when we got home. And look at those happy Shasta Daisies that I grew from seed last year (wow – they actually grew).

Also we adopted another caterpillar from the dill plant outside. He’s eating like a little machine (and pooping like one too).

Stay tuned for some fun family photos.

My kitchen cabinets have been ordered and I’m feeling excitedly nervous about the project. They should be delivered at the beginning of August. It’s the biggest thing I’ve done – so many decisions. Will it look OK and more importantly will it all make a functional room? This morning I got a cabinet door sample with my custom color. So now I can put my wall colors, countertop, floor and knobs all together and I have a better idea of how things will look. Before I know it I will be taking everything out of my kitchen and getting it ready for construction. That will be a job! 

Here are some of my inspiration photos – I hope my kitchen will look as charming as these kitchens.

The cabinets below are painted in the same color that I have chosen and I will have a black countertop with no backsplash. So it will be very similar to this photo.

For Father’s Day Brian mostly just wants to go for a long bike ride and not have me nag him to get home already. So we let him ride today. The girls and I drove up to Volo Bog and he rode his bike. We had a nice picnic and a good long walk and then he biked home while we enjoyed the air conditioned car ride. So he got in 80 some miles – that should do. 

We love him… apparently not enough to take one photo of him though. Duh.

We picked strawberries this week. We took a friend of Claire’s and it was a drippy hot day.

It seems less common for people around my town to go picking strawberries or blueberries or anything like that. So it’s happened a few times now that I’ve taken a little friend of Bea or Claire and it was their first experience picking. The moms are always so thankful for taking their kids out for such special occasion. I have to smile – because, yes, it is special, but it’s also just a part of a proper summer.

Here are another couple examples that show what kind of neighborhood I live in. I have the Next Door app – where people from your neighborhood post about needing a good plumber or that their teenager is available to babysit or that they are selling some furniture. The other day a woman posted about her son. She said this may seem weird but my son really likes fishing – he goes almost everyday. Then she went on to ask if anyone had any ideas about renting a boat. To me a kid liking fishing is not weird – it’s good and normal. Our neighborhood has a summer block party and it’s fun and some ladies put a lot of time into making it great. But… the potluck table does not impress me. I have memories of summer get-togethers with tables filled with the most delicious homey summer food. Potato salad and jello salad and baked beans, macaroni salad, bean salad and fruit desserts and deviled eggs and on and on. In contrast, the food at our neighborhood get-together had many sad pre-purchased salads and packages of Oreos with only a few home-made things scattered in.* 

So in some ways I feel judgmental and I know that I am lucky to be able to spend time on these things, but I also think that some of this stuff is important. I grew up picking food out of gardens and fishing with my dad and filling my paper plate with fantastic food and I just feel like that was the right way.

Anyway sorry for the ranting. I have been enjoying making all sorts of strawberry goodies. Every time I turn around I’m at my sink hulling strawberries. I made jam and strawberry shortcake and I’ll make some strawberry bread later today. I tried a new recipe for strawberry milk. It’s made with lots of buttermilk and you let it sit overnight so the yogurt taste disappears. It was a hit and I will definitely have to remember it for a June treat next year too. 

Here’s the strawberry milk – I actually messed up the recipe and put 3 cups buttermilk and 1 cup milk when it was supposed to be 1 cup buttermilk and 3 cups milk. So ours came out more like a thick shake. It was delicious – not too sweet and super fruity.

And here is a pretty onion. 

* my potluck contribution was my sister-in-law Kim’s broccoli salad.

The end.