Poor Man's Crack - A Collaboration

Georgia in the spring – ahhhhhhhh – mounds of free yellow powder line every crack and crevasse of the cars, driveways, windowsills, streets, and buildings. Hey, if you keep your windows open in the spring you can redecorate for free!


Poor man’s crack. You don’t need a straw. Just walk outside any door and inhale – even a little. You are guaranteed to be on a permanent high low for at least a week. Everyone sounds like Louis Armstrong when they talk. You have to walk around with a bucket under your nose to catch the drips. Coughing in tandem – well actually there is a whole chorus of coughs going on frequently – we have surround sound!

If it is already going to be in our lungs we may as well put it there for good reasons since the street value on it is so low. Here are a few possible uses:

• Tired of dusting around the house… open up all the windows and let a breeze in… if you don’t move any of your knickknacks the dust will become nice and even for a wonderfully uniform look.

• It already proves to be an excellent expectorant if you currently are unable to cough something up. Put that stuff in bottles and on the shelves!

• Why throw away t-shirts when they get that yellowy stain around the collar – one cup of it in the wash will even out that yellow stain all over!

• Extra spices in the kitchen to give your chicken or roast an all natural nutty flavor!

• Do your kids love lemonade? How about Pollinade? Nothing says fun to today’s kids like a drink the color of mucus!

• Magicians can use it in place of expensive magic smoke… one puff to the eyes and no one will see where the rabbit came from!

• Your local CSI team no longer needs to dust to find fingerprints on your car if it gets stolen! Oh wait – more pollen will cover them up before the car is found – scratch that one.

• Let your housecat out for the day and before you know it… no more hairballs… they’ve hacked them all up!

• Ladies… need a new look? Today’s craze is adding it to your makeup routine for that stunning new jaundice look that is taking Hollywood by storm!

The uses are endless!

Ahhhhh – only two and a half (or so) more months left to enjoy this.

Thanks to K and A for the collaboration!

Spring Tonic

Spring Tonic – something we all need to renew our bodies and spirits.  After a gorgeous day in Atlanta on Saturday, Sunday’s forecast had a chance of rain.  But with the Spring Tonic Dinner (which was also a fund-raiser) planned at Isia (my daughter) and her husband Chris’s Crack In The Sidewalk Farmlet, we just knew that Mother Nature would cooperate and the rain would hold off until afterwards.  This was to be a true “dinner at the farm” with a long table beautifully set as well as picnic blankets for others.  And then, during setup, it started to rain – just a light sprinkle at first – next a true downpour.  But farmers are ever resourceful and help came in the form of EZ-Up tents from lots of fellow friends and farmers.   When we arrived it was raining but the tents were up and the tables were beautifully set with blue-checked tablecloths, china and silverware, cloth napkins, wine glasses, and beautiful centerpieces of candles in jars wrapped with pretty purple wisteria.  On each table was a jar of pickled dandelion roots made by Isia.  I have to say I wasn’t sure about that one but tonight was an evening of tasting many new things, and much to my surprise, pickled dandelion roots taste a lot like Greek kalamata olives!  Actually, when I think about it – just about everything I tasted tonight was a new experience.

 

 

Now let me just say, once again I forgot to take my camera.  And forgot that I had a phone that would take pictures until we were on the last course.  So I only have a couple of pictures and will have to let you imagine the rest.  Everything was out of this world delicious and so beautifully presented.  The chef was Ryan Smith and his food is just amazing.  Mr. Whimsey and I are planning on going to his restaurant in Atlanta on our 30^th anniversary in October.  The mixologist was Kellie Thorn and she concocted two different drinks that were so unique and good.  As well, we had a different wine presented with each course.  Kellie’s four year old son was there and was our entertainment for the evening.  He was just adorable!  Isia and Chris grew or foraged the vegetables and herbs used in the different dishes.

 

So here we go.  The first mixed drink was a homemade vermouth made of mountain mint, holy basil, ale hoof, curry plant (Helichrysum), lemon balm, chamomile, and wormwood made into a tincture in white wine.  That was served over ice with lemon and tonic water.  It was so refreshing.  Then the first course came out – all the courses except dessert were presented on wood planks and the table shared the food – six at each table.  We had wild mussels with spring onions and leeks, wood sorrel, chickweed, tansy mustard, onion juices, and a whipped mussel juice (which looked like foam and tasted really great).

 

The second course was a wild duck terrine (amazing – I could have eaten more than one slice!) with sassafras glaze, curry plant, pickled duck egg, morels, violet leaves, preserved pine buds, nettles, and turnips.  Oh my gosh – this was my favorite course I think.  The duck terrine was not only wonderful but beautiful too.  The duck eggs were poached and then pickled, then cut so the yolks showed and the outside of the egg was a bright yellow.  The turnips were tiny and so good.  I’m drooling right now just thinking about this course and so wish I had gotten a picture of it.

 

Then came the second special drink made with pine, herbs, and gin.  I’m not a gin drinker so I didn’t taste it but everyone was raving about how good it was.  Third course was a venison sausage that had been boiled and then grilled and sliced with fermented carrots, pickled radish, oak roasted ramps, malted rye, spring herbs and flowers, and then an acorn miso pate and a mulberry pate.

 

 

Oh I’m not done yet.  After all that came dessert – a lemon ice cream with a lavender and lemon shortbread cookie. 

 

Katie Hayes, who is the Director of the non-profit organization called Community Farmers Markets and the Manager of the East Atlanta Village Farmers Market coordinated the dinner with the help of many volunteers.  All of the volunteers who served at the dinner, going back and forth in the rain and getting very wet were fantastic.  I’m already looking forward to next year’s dinner – it was just so much fun!

 

 

Pallet Planter Plus

Remember this?
 

 

Well, now it's this!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Free pallet, had nails, had paint and Gesso - just needed a couple of very thin pieces of wood for pictures, two posts, and some QuikCrete.  Pretty cool what you can do with pallets!

 

 

This and That Soup

This was one of those nights where I needed to fix a quick dinner because I had been painting since I got home from work this afternoon.  For dinner last night I had crockpotted (is that a word? LOL) some beef stew meat cubes with a couple of cans of soup (golden mushroom and french onion which makes a great gravy).  I had just a little leftover but not enough for Mr. Whimsey and I both.  So I made a pot o' soup tonight, it was really good, and I wanted to share the recipe.  It's one of those soups where you can pretty much put anything you like into it.

Into a pot I put a tablespoon of olive oil and then minced onion (1 small), celery (3 ribs), carrots,  (2 small) and garlic (about a teaspoon).  Sauteed them until they were translucent.  Then in went a tablespoon of Dijon mustard (it would have been a splash of white wine if I'd had any LOL), salt and pepper, about 1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary and about 1/2 teaspoon dried basil.  One cup of vegetable broth, a regular sized can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes, the leftover meat and gravy, about 3 cups of water, a handful of mini-farfelle pasta, and a drained can of cannellini beans.  So there you go - this and that soup.

Shams and a Mystery

OK, this has to be some sort of record - my energy this week overfloweth - more than one post in a week???  When I get going on one project it just multiplies! 

For weeks I've been looking for pillow shams to go with my new quilt.  Oh yes, I probably could have found matching ones - Tar-jay had one here and one there.  But I didn't really want to go matchy matchy.  So hunting for shams, looking at cloth, trying to figure out if I had something in my studio that would do.  Then I happened to remember a very soft cotton flannel blanket that was my mothers.  It was blanket stitched along the edges.  When I folded it and cut it in half, I only had to trim a few inches off one side and it was perfect for two shams.  AND matched the cream color in the quilt.  Seamed two sides and they were done.  Not quite staying closed at the ends like I wanted though so I just stitched up three pennies for each sham and sewed through both sides.  Worked like a charm.

Now for the mystery.  Of course you know what these are.  Or I should say, were.

 

 

But what in the world will they turn into?  Stay tuned.  The first one should be done by the end of next weekend.

Before The Rain

Well spring may be here but it's wet and rainy today and at night will still be in the 30s.  Could be worse - it could be snowing LOL.  Here is more of the "yard art" that was put in this week at the front corner of the house. 

My handsome and handy grandson, Andrew, built me a bird condo - well a triplex - for Christmas this year.  It's made of old barn wood with metal roofing and is very cool looking.  But of course I had to gussy it up with some bird bling - old faucet handles, pieces of copper flowers from an old hummingbird feeder, an old bent silver spoon - you name it - it's on there LOL. 

Mr. Whimsey screwed the condo onto a piece of wood and mounted it on a garden post with black wrought iron hinges.  Then dug a two foot hole (not a small feat in our red Georgia clay) and secured the post with concrete.  So the birdies should have a nice home for many years to come.  We also planted sunflowers around the bottom so we'll see how those do (if this rain doesn't wash them away this weekend.

Hope the sun is shining where you are.  Have a great weekend!

Gardening Isn't For Sissies!

And right now I'm a sissy!  I couldn't figure out whether to call this post "gardening isn't for old people", "oh my aching back", "I need a massage", or "thank you God I got it done for today"  LOLOLOL

Last year we made our own raised bed planters out of (dare I say cheap) fiberboard built around pallets  that I knew wouldn't hold up too long.  As of this spring they were totally rotted and it was time for something that would last longer. 

So we found some food grade non-rotting (supposedly) cedar put-it-together-yourself-easily raised bed kits at Home Depot and decided that we wanted them a little deeper than the seven inches tall that they were.  These you could stack one on another and put them into many configurations.  So we now have one four by eight and one four by four that are fourteen inches tall.  I'm sure the neighbors are very relieved!

Now I will say it wasn't rocket science putting the kits together and you didn't need any tools except maybe a rubber mallet and then a screwdriver for the caps.  So that was a plus.  But the bending over putting them together for several hours when your back isn't wonderful in the first place was the minus.  And the shoveling - oh the shoveling. 

First shovel the dirt from one of the old planting beds into the other old planting bed, tear the first planting bed apart.  Put together two of the kits making the four by four.  And then shovel ALL of the dirt from the other old planting bed into the new one.  Add one bag of potting mix and one half bag of mushroom compost.  And rake it all smooth.  After all, last year with all of the dirt and amendments we put into the original beds - we couldn't waste a morsel of dirt - too expensive and too much good dirt LOL  Then tear down the second old planting bed, put three more kits together making the four by eight.  And then dump thirteen bags of potting mix and three and a half bags of mushroom compost into it and rake that smooth.  I think about six more bags of potting mix ought to do it.

By now you're probably saying - and what is wrong with the dirt in the ground where you live (and where the heck are your shutters)?  Well, we have solid rock-hard red Georgia clay - need I say more?  And the shutters are in the process of being painted a new color - will post those when they go back up.

To be perfectly honest here...Mr. Whimsey tore the old planting beds apart (he wanted to save the L brackets - can you say thrifty?) and he picked up most of the bags of potting soil and dumped them into the new bed once I (and my friend Teresa) unloaded them from the truck.

Even though my back is screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MORE!!!", I'm still glad it's finally really spring here - or seems to be from the yellow pollen I started seeing on the car today.  Our tiny little fig tree has three branches and one full leaf as well as some buds. 

The ornamental peach is bursting into bloom and is full of buds.

 I have pineapple sage and Greek oregano planted in my herb garden, black hens and chicks in my old typewriter, and johnny-jump-ups in an old wood tray and three little pots.  The Carolina jessamine is gorgeous and smells wonderful too.

Bright orange cone flowers and lime green Euphorbia are planted by the yard bench.  I love Euphorbia - it looks like tiny bells. 

Thank you God and Mother Earth for your blessings!

PS  Can someone please come and finish weeding my herb garden?  LOLOLOL