To grandmother's house we go

Yesterday afternoon Doug and I drove to Covington to visit my grandmother and aunt and take back some pictures I had borrowed to scan a few months ago. Sunday was such a pretty, clear day and a little cooler than it had been over the past week or so. A lot of Nannie's flowers were blooming so I took loads of pictures. We also visited with her chickens, I was hoping Doug might be swayed by seeing them, alas he was not. Although he did think the rooster's feathers would be ideal for fly-tying.

Clematis

Iris

Crown of Thorns (Euphorbia Milii)Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis)

Snowball bush, one of my favorites (Viburnum opulus)

One of my grandmother's peacocks & a tomcat that hangs outSugar, my aunt's horse

Ricky, the rooster, who has a slightly garbled crow more 'cock-a' than 'cock-a-doodle-do' Ethel, the hen (there was another hen, Lucy, but Nannie said something got into the pen and killed her)

Valentine, a hen that (based on my aunt's best guess) is around 12 years old, which seems pretty old for a chicken. My Nannie seemed concerned the chicken might have arthritis.We also drove over to my great-grandparents old house. It's been tied up in estate issues for years now.It's nothing like it once was, but I wanted to go snap a few pictures of it. Most of the grass is overgrown and there's a possibility there are creepy-crawlies slithering around so I didn't go much further than the driveway. I have very happy memories of spending time at this house (more about that later this week). In fact when I was first born my parents lived just down the road. If I squint my eyes real hard I can see my great-grandfather sitting on the front porch cutting up an apple with his pocketknife.

Garden Update 2010: Week 6

I'm going to MURDER my neighbor's outdoor cat. Despite my best efforts it will not stop using my raised garden beds as giant litter boxes. As I said before, I love animals, I have three cats myself, but they live indoors, where cats should live. I've got a few more ideas I'm going to try, fingers crossed one of them will alleviate the problem... At any rate here's what been happening in the garden.

Two varieties of beans have sprouted

As well as the yellow zucchini (or okra, I can't remember which one I put here)

Carrots have gotten their second leaves

Swiss chard is beginning to look like actual Swiss chard, just a really tiny version

Pea explosion!

They need a trellis, I saw this on You Grow Girl, which may not work for my peas since they aren't in such a deep container, but it's a pretty and very useful idea nonetheless.

Over the weekend I bought two sage plants and a basil plant from a local nursery and planted it with my other herbs.

When I was inspecting the beds I also saw teensy little sprouts at the end of the carrot bed, which I'm almost positive are itsy-bitsy tomatoes. Last year I had a grape tomato plant there and I'm guessing the sprouts are from a fallen tomato or two, maybe they'll produce.

Local(ish) love

Last week when I was catching up on my Google Reader I saw Kerry's (aka I Love Memphis) post mentioning 901 Love's t-shirts. A few clicks later and I bought this shirt via the 901 Love website and within a couple of days it was delivered to my front door. I really dig the design and the t-shirt itself is super comfortable.

If you live in Memphis chances are you know about WEVL, our volunteer radio station. I think it's one of the best things about Memphis and I back that up with my wallet and my free time. I'm an off-air volunteer which means I help stuffing envelopes, answering the phones during pledge drives, selling WEVL merchandise at Main Street Trolley Night or the RiverArts Fest or pretty much anything they need volunteers for. Right now they're in the middle of their spring pledge drive and one of the pledge gifts they offered was the new Harlan T. Bobo CD uniquely autographed by Mr. Bobo himself. I made my pledge and got one of the CD's before they were all gone. Not only is the music great but the autograph and drawing makes it even better. I've been listening to it since Sunday and so far my favorite song is "Mlle. Chatte." If you're so inclined you can donate online at www.wevl.org or wait until Friday night between 8-10PM to call (901) 528-1990 and I'll be answering the phone to take your pledge!

Olive & Sinclair isn't exactly local - they're about 3.5 hours from being local. They're a Nashville-based artisan 'bean to bar' chocolate company and the chocolate is fantastic. I bought a bar of their 67% Dark Chocolate at Crema in Nashville when we were there in January. Then during a recent trip to Whole Foods (in Memphis) I found a bar of the 75% Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt and OMG it was so good. I spent the better part of a week rationing it off to myself in small pieces. Chocolate and salt is probably the best combination since peanut butter and jelly.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Swedish Visiting Cake

Based on the reviews I got this cake was a total win. I took it downtown to WEVL on Saturday and I didn't actually eat any myself but everyone seemed to enjoy it. It was so super easy to make and I didn't have to drag out the KitchenAid or even the hand-mixer, which made it that much better. I didn't bake mine in an iron skillet because my skillet needed to be cleaned and I didn't have time to clean it. Instead I used a buttered cake pan and it came out beautifully. I might be making another this week just so I can taste it for myself. Thanks to Nancy of The Dogs Eat the Crumbs for this week's selection!

The Never-ending Moss Stitch Story

I'm still working on the Minimalist Cardigan. Still! I started it on January 31 and I'm not finished. The back, left front and right front are done, I've moved on to the first of two sleeves. (the color is off in this picture, the second picture is more true to the actual color) But I only have one skein of yarn left and I don't think that's going to be enough yarn for two 3/4 length sleeves and seaming the whole thing together. At this point I just want to be done, moss stitch looks so nice but I'm so over it.

Because I didn't want to drag sweater pieces on an airplane, I cast on for the Ishbel shawl/scarf the day I left for San Antonio. I worked on it the whole time I was gone and got pretty far. The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy in Grey Tabby and I'm really happy with it so far. It's a good plane project because I only have the one ball of yarn to carry around and the lace pattern is just hard enough that I have to pay attention to what I'm doing so it's a nice distraction.

While I was in Texas I bought these wooly treasures: 200 yards of Texas alpaca, so soft.

Malabrigo sock yarn in Lettuce, which is going to make another little shawl/scarf

Some more sock yarn I bought at the Knitting Nest in Austin, which will also one day be a nice mini-shawl.

I've put myself on yarn purchasing lockdown for awhile, I have way too much yarn. I will be making an exception when I go to Colorado at the end of the month though....

San Antonio

Over the extended weekend I got to fly down to Texas (more specifically San Antonio) to visit my friend Shannon, who I've known since we were fourteen. Shannon has lived in San Antonio for 9 years (I think) but I hadn't gone to visit her until now. Because of the Passover holiday I had Monday and Tuesday off from work so it was the perfect time to take a trip. I flew out Friday night and came back yesterday afternoon. It wasn't that hot there but the humidity was pretty high, which reminded me of the returning humidity here, blech.

Saturday we drove to Fredericksburg, Texas, there we walked around, had some free jelly/jam/salsa samples, shopped, drove past Luckenbach (immortalized in this song) and visited a flower farm.This is just one of the walls of jarred delights at one of the places in Fredericksburg, do you see the pickled figs?

The sign for LuckenbachTexas bluebonnetsPoppies! It was like a painting.

Sunday we went to the Alamo (not pictures allowed inside so these are all exterior)

San Fernando Cathedral (where the remains of the defenders of the Alamo are laid to rest) The inside was beautiful but it was Easter Sunday and there was a Mass about to happen so I didn't want to take pictures out of respect.In front of the cathedral is this statue of the Portuguese Saint Anthony for whom the city is named.Some other things from downtown:

Aztec Theatre

Boat ride on the San Antonio River

An 'Elvis' (Mexican Vanilla Ice Cream with Banana & Reese's Peanut Butter Cups) at Amy's Ice Cream

Monday we got a private tour of the Texas State CapitolDavy Crockett (a Tennessean and defender of the Alamo!)Shannon and I at the CapitolFinally, as Kerry over at I Love Memphis noted while she was in Austin, Texas BBQ is not the same as Memphis BBQ - at all. Shannon and I ate at Rudy's in Selma, Texas, the BBQ was okay but the creamed corn was amazing.I enjoyed my visit to the Lone Star state but I'm glad to be home, I missed the Mister! Of course now I can't stop singing this Lyle Lovett song.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Mocha-Walnut Marbled Bundt Cake

This week's selection was chosen by Erin of When in Doubt...Leave it at 350. I was excited to use my (still) new-ish bundt pan. I put this tasty cake together and sent it with Doug to his group potluck at work. It went over well but they sent some home so i got to have a piece. I really like it, I was no 100% sold on the walnuts but they were so finely ground I didn't notice an overpowering nut flavor. The mocha swirl part was great, I used a 70% bittersweet chocolate and had a really nice dark chocolate flavor. Thumbs up on this one!

Garden Update 2010: Week 4

Peas! They'll need a trellis soon.

Swiss Chard, growing slow...

Carrots have sprouted, so tiny!

Heirloom tomato plants I bought at Midtown Nursery in Cooper-Young. I got Caspian Pink, Pineapple and Aunt Ruby's German Green.I planted seeds for yellow zucchini, okra and two kinds of green beans, Fin de Bagnol and Climbing French. Our weather is supposed to be in the low 80's for the next few days so that should help give everything a jump start.