July in the Garden

I returned from Minnesota in late June to find my garden erupting in foliage. The tomatoes have grown to be at least as tall as me and they're now setting fruit.



Particularly beautiful are these tomatoes that I grew from seeds saved from a delicious Italian tomato we ate last summer in Le Marche. The other half of my tomato plants are San Marzano tomatoes, grown from Italian seeds sold in the U.S. There are fewer fruits coming on the plants right now but I'm hoping to use the San Marzano mainly for canning, while the other ones are for eating fresh.



Also looking good are my fabric potato pots. I was intrigued by the concept of filling a container in order to grow potatoes and I've read about growing them in bushel baskets, clay pots, etc. These collapsible fabric pots appealed to me since I can remove the soil after the growing season and store the pots folded flat (don't ask me where I'm going to store all the soil, I haven't figured that out yet). Not all my potato started this year but I think it's mostly the fault of the seed crop and not the new-fangled pots.



In the newly reorganized herb garden.



I put the little clay turtles in the mint pots. Someone else (the little girls next door?) decided they needed to be together and arranged them side-by-side, making their way to the rain barrel...

Up North

We've just returned from a visit to Minnesota where it was nice and cool. Don't these views make you want to be there too?

My big heap o' trouble

I heard one could get a "truckload" of free wood chips from the village. I should have asked exactly what was meant by "truck." I envisioned a pick-up. They provided a dump truck. I calculated that I could've mulched our entire lot at least three inches deep.

Thankfully as of posting this photo the hill is perhaps a little over a third gone. My neighbors, friends, and friends of neighbors have come to help themselves. But still, what to do with the rest?

Tutti a tavola a mangiare!

A year ago we were in Italy. Now that it's almost summer I've been dreaming again of Italy. So last night we made a homemade pizza with fresh ricotta and arugula from my garden. Wow.

I had never had fresh ricotta before but now I think I'm spoiled for ricotta forever. Really, if you can find it it's worth every penny. We finally made it to the foodie mecca of Jungle Jim's in Cincinnati and now our fridge is stocked with all sorts of fabulous finds and rare delicacies. Too bad I'll just be eating ricotta at every meal...

And the garden?



I finally have my own vegetable garden in my backyard. We built the beds in April and already are eating spinach, lettuce, arugula, and swiss chard. Also planted in the beds are leeks, onion, shallots, snow peas, beets, eggplant, tomatoes, carrots, basil, and cilantro. In containers I'm growing potatoes and I've planted pumpkin seeds in a few spots to see if anything happens. Perhaps I'll go sow some pole beans this afternoon.

The fencing? Granville has a serious deer problem. They eat all the hostas, of course, the daylily buds, the hydrangeas, viburnum, tulips, hollyhocks, sedum, phlox. They even eat things that are supposed to be unappealing to deer: coneflowers, boxwood, coral bells, alliums, etc. They eat the plants growing right next to the houses, they walk down the middle of the streets in full daylight. They do everything except walk in the house and open the fridge. So, the veggie garden needs a high fence. I've reinforced it at the bottom to keep out marauding ground hogs. So far no invaders but I wonder if the raccoons will find it when it's tomato season.

Cozy Kitteh

Max has found an alternative use for my grow mat.

How to hypnotize a bunny

Thor is new to our house. Bill bought him from a 4-H kid back in December as my dissertation present. Now that Thor's stud days are over he lives a quiet life the highlights of which are eating broccoli stalks and guarding the back bathroom against dangerous intruders (otherwise known as friends and houseguests).

I've only ever had lops but I find them to be the most responsive and social of rabbits. While my other bunny, Roo, had a personality kind of like a dog--friendly, curious, playful--Thor is more of a fussy boy, more like a disapproving bunny than a puppy. Everything is a big drama for him. And if it isn't, he'll make it a big drama. Stomp. Stomp! STOMP!

Despite being so cuddly looking, most bunnies are not all that interested in being held. So, I don't often pick up my bunnies unless I'm checking on their overall health or trimming their nails. To look at their teeth and to check their skin and ears I will usually pick them up and hold them in my lap. While in this position their feet are positioned to give you a decent blow to the jaw (yes, this has happened) but I read once that you can calm them down and make them very docile while they're lying back.

First of all, make sure that the bunny is held and supported. You don't want him to be able to twist or jump away as this could cause him to hurt himself. Keep his feet supported and still by pressing your chest against them, and keep the rest of his body contained in your lap. Not too deep so that he's at risk for falling through, but cradle him in and support him so that he feels held.



Now, gently rub his chin with the backs of your fingers. Go slow, make it even, and strive to make the strokes match the speed of your own relaxed breath.



After a few minutes of this you should have a mellow bunny who will consent to gentle petting of his forehead or even to clipping his nails (although keep a hand gently holding his body down since he might get nervous and jumpy again). Keep going back to stroking his chin now and then.



Enjoy.

Spring knitted collar

Knitting projects are like books. Generally I have several that I'm in the middle of.

Lately I've been busy with knitting baby hats for the local hospital and I'll post more on those later but I just finished a project for myself that I've been thinking about for over a year.

This is the Berthe collar from No Sheep for You, a book of patterns for projects specifically designed for fibers other than wool.



I'd been looking for a long time for just the right yarn to show off in this project. The photo of the finished collar in the book was a lovely sea green color and I must admit I was immediately wanting to make one just that color for myself. I'm so original, right? Not only do I always knit from someone else's pattern but so often I want to follow the colors of the yarn in the photos. What can I say, so many of you designers have such impeccable taste!

I finally found the right thing in a sale bin at So Much Yarn in Seattle. Their store, by the way, is full of gorgeous yarns and I could have totally spent myself silly in there. But I was restrained and focused for once (and I didn't have too much room in my tiny suitcase).

As I tried to show in the above shot, I used GGH Boulino yarn, a blend of cotton, nylon, and linen. From a distance it appears shiny but up close it has variations of texture and thickness that seemed just right for the level of interest I wanted in the yarn for this collar. I used just a bit less than a 50 g ball for the whole collar, knitted on size four needles. Since the yarn is rather slippery I used bamboo circular needles and they gripped the yarn well but didn't mar the silky finish.

My only complaint about the Boulino was that it was difficult to keep it from twisting while pulling from a ball. It comes wound on a cardboard spool and pulls from the outside. I tried handwinding it into a ball and even then the ball would fall apart in my knitting bag because the yarn was so slippery. With this kind of yarn I'm not sure there's a good solution to this problem of slippery and twisty but the end result was definitely worth it.

Here's another shot of the collar, held together with just the wooden pin from my shawl pin shown above.



This is a great project for putting in your purse (in a ziploc, of course) and bringing with you for when you have just a few minutes here and there to knit.