Tuesday Garden Update: July 12

After a truckload of sunlight and heat last week, Mother Nature sent us bountiful rains to start the weekend.  The garden is loving it.

There are tomatoes growing like mad.

Zinnias are coming along nicely.

There are hot peppers about ready for picking.

Fertilizer has been added; next up is a little 3:1 water/nonfat milk treatment to treat blight.  I await a bountiful harvest of flowers, tomatoes, squash, peppers, and basil.

That’s happy!

Strawberry Jam

One of my local produce markets smells like ripe strawberries when you walk in the front door.  That’s the official cue: the jam season is upon us.

T and I piled our cart full of strawberries and lemon and set to work on Sunday and Monday  We make a lemon berry jam that is delicious.  Last year, we made more than a dozen jars and we ran out at Christmas.  This year, we plan to have even more jam at the ready for gifts.  

By the time we finished on Monday night, we had 23 jars of lemon berry jam just like these two jars.

Homemade jam is delicious.  Come a cold day in December,  this jam thick on a slice of bread brings back the delicious taste of summer.  That's happy!

Requirements of July

In a regular event of the summer season,  rarely get past the 4th of July without making up a batch of homemade potato salad.  I use my grandmother’s recipe —— chilled potatoes and hard-boiled eggs, a small amount of diced Visalia onion, dollops of mayo and mustard, and salt and pepper.  I’ve never known the amounts, so I play that by ear.  It sounds simple but it is well beyond delicious; the only potato salad that I truly love.  This year, it was present for our 4th of July celebration.

That could only signal one thing: macaroni salad was next.

My version is a variation of this Pioneer Woman recipe.  Mine includes green onion, fresh red pepper, diced carrots, and black olives.  

I use the PW dressing, sans pickle juice and with a bit less sugar.

I let it set in the fridge for a few hours and then we gobble it up.

Summer tastes delicious!

I Live in Hope

The violence of this week has been unsettling and demoralizing.  Just when I feel our nation may be able to make progress, we seem to take violent steps backward.  I’m at a loss.  

My world view has always been to live in hope.  I know of no other way forward.  But a week like this one can make it hard to find that hope.

For me, nature’s unrestrained beauty is restorative.    So I visit familiar trails and search for hope, fragile and weary though it is.

If I look long enough, it is there.  And so I live in hope.

My Dirty Laundry

Most of the working moms I know require their children to wash their own clothes but I’m not good at sharing the machines.  So JT collects and transports the laundry up and down the stairs but I wash and fold it.  During the school year, I wash at least one load of clothes a day.  I rarely miss a day of washing because doing so would find me hopelessly behind.  I’d hate for the authorities to search though piles of dirty laundry to find our partially-clad bodies.  So I am a fairly vigilant one-load-a-day-or-else kind of gal.

During the school year, between school, athletic practice, and various showers to ease the stench of adolescence, JT easily rolls through three sets of clothes on a daily basis.  When school and daily practices end, the laundry load eases considerably and I can afford to take a day (or two or three!) off.  I’m practically giddy with the freedom.  

So it was that Wednesday morning found me searching through my laundry baskets for a clean pair of underwear.  I’d taken off so many days from my washing responsibilities that I had fallen behind.   Ahhh, the luxury of summer!

Tuesday Garden Update: July 5

The garden is mulched and the warm, sunny days mean that growing is happening by leaps and bounds.  I’ve picked my first tomato; many more are set on and making progress.

The zinnia rows are taller by the day.  I added some extra seeds to fill in the gaps and those tiny seedlings are also growing.

I’m out here every day, checking the progress,  looking after my plants, and re-arranging the sprinkler as needed.  I check the blooms and admire the progress.  I daydream about the cucumbers and zucchini in my future.

This part of summer is delightful but always seems fleeting, perhaps because it’s filled with such promise.

My America

For all of my professional career, I have labored in the world of American politics and history.  For better or worse, that means that on a daily basis I am thinking about  our republic and the promise of our democracy, its pledge of liberty, and the history that got us here.  More so than most people, I am aware of the failings in our history as a nation; I teach them to my students.  At the same time, I am aware of the promise in our past  I teach that as well.  I’ve always chosen to believe that the promise will prevail.  So great is my faith that I named my son after one of our founders, a decision I have never regretted.

I’m not going to say that Donald Trump has shaken my faith in the promise of American liberty; that would be giving one mean-spirited man too much power in my world.  But I find he and his supporters profoundly disappointing.  They wave the flag in one fist, shake the other in fury, and spout invective and ignorance in equal measure.  It’s not hard to disagree with a political opponent who lacks command or understanding of the basic facts.  But it is hard to respect them.  They aren’t my America.

My friends and I joke about moving to Canada in the event that November brings an unthinkable outcome.  But we’re not cowards and this is our nation as well.  It’s our responsibility to remind one another of the nobler purposes in our shared past.  On the 4th of July, that reminder is timely.

My America is the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and a pledge to demand a fair share of independence and equality for women.  It’s the Emancipation Proclamation and Lincoln’s “unfinished work.”  My nation is the golden lamp held high for the “tired, huddled masses yearning to be free.” It’s Franklin Roosevelt’s four freedoms.  My nation is the land of Martin Luther King’s dream, and the expectation that we will all work toward that progress.   My America is the world’s refuge for freedom.  

Fellow citizens, let's not forget that it is these promises that give meaning to the United States.  They belong to us all and it is in them that the path to greatness is paved. 

July on the Front Porch

As June began to wane, my friend T (known in my world as daytime T, because we work together) gifted me with a charming homemade wreath for my door.  She made it herself and it is perfectly lovely.  I came straight home and hung it on the door.

With July on the front door, it seemed fitting to change out the tablecloth on my cast iron table.  This navy blue gingham cloth was a real find.
  

My outdoor plant and flower collection has grown since June, a summer development that seems to happen each year.

The impatiens in the polka dot pot by my rocking chair have filled out nicely.

This porch is my summer haven, the place where I start each day with a book and a cup of coffee in the early morning.  Most summer evenings, I sit out here to read and watch the last of the sunlight fade.  On busy days during the school year, when unscheduled time seems a distant memory, I open up my photo collection and these pictures feed my soul.  

That’s happy!

Summer Salad

Summer days demand quick, light, delicious suppers.  I like a salad for the summer and there is no end of creative recipes to meet that requirement.  Try these, for example.  The Cup of Jo-organized collection inspired me to make my version of a couscous and spinach salad.    It was easy and delicious, my primary requirements for a summer salad.  This bowl started with a bed of fresh spinach and Italian parsley, still-warm couscous, feta, summer tomatoes, a splash of oil and vinegar, and salt and pepper.

Fresh and delicious; like summer in a bowl.

July 1: In the Backyard Neighborhood

We’ve settled in to the fullness of summer and the backyard corner is in full bloom.

The clematis is past prime but the hostas are preparing to bloom and the peach tree is fully leafed out.  This year’s small peach crop was gobbled up by the local wildlife.  I’ve learned to be sanguine about such developments.  After all, I can't stop them without being cruel and we all must share in nature’s abundance.

We’ve had patches of dry weather in the last six weeks and are in danger of a localized drought.  I run the sprinkler on my vegetable garden but typically leave the rest of the garden and yard to fend for itself.  We had an inch of rain earlier this week; more is forecast for this afternoon and I hope that will help to ease the dry lawn.  

Whether it’s via rain or my sprinkler, I expect July will bring even more growth to the garden and the backyard, a lovely development to behold.