August Days

What fun we've been having around here!  My husband is getting excited about the cyclocross season starting soon, my garden is producing a ton of food, and my son is enjoying playing with all his new friends, especially our new neighbors next door.  After a busy start, we are enjoying a few calmer days as we watch the wheat harvest come in.  For some reason, I love the smell of ripe wheat in the fields, even though it makes me sad in some respects because I know the summer is almost over.

We've been biking to the farmer's market almost every Saturday.  It really is the place to see and be seen around Moscow, and oh yeah, there's produce and food and crafts and flowers too.  I think this weekend we definitely need another outing to the flower farm and the pool.  What other summer things can we think of to do???

I love tea roses, especially ones that don't require pampering!

Stawberries, tomatoes, and peppers, oh my!

Purple potatoes!

I "inherited" a lot more linen this summer.  My mother brought me wonderful cutwork from my grandmother's house.  This piece was one of my favorites; I love the colors so much!  It makes me happy to use these pieces in my kitchen, just as it makes me happy to sleep under an old, loved, hand pieced quilt at night.  I like to think about the hands that made each piece, and wonder what the maker was thinking as she cut and sewed and seamed.  But then I wonder, would I want someone knowing what I was thinking one day when they look at something I've made?   Sometimes I stitch when I'm angry, or frustrated, or sad.  I often stitch when I am very happy and content.  A lot of time I stitch to pass time when traveling in a car, chatting away with the driver or occasionally interrupted to take a picture, restart a video, or pass a snack to someone.  And sometimes, I only think of really, really boring things when I stitch, such as "crap, is this row 8 or row 9" or "should I get up and fold laundry, or just sit here"?

Lots of life happens when stitching, gardening, and otherwise passing time in the summer!  Oh, for a few more weeks yet of warm days and pleasantly cool evenings!!

So c.c.c.cold!

Can you believe that it's almost the end of June and we still haven't used this yet?

Today it was unseasonably cold, after a week that included our first 80 degree days of the year!  And now the table is covered in willow pods--just as the cottonwoods & poplars were finished!

Sigh...

But the good news of today was that I scored at the Farmer's Market, coming home with zucchinis, Rainier cherries, and the last of the local asparagus.  Not to mention the locally made Feta cheese!  It got even better when my husband made fish tacos for dinner tonight, and I was able to supply the cilantro from my garden!

Now, if only it would warm up some...

Winter Market

I made it to Moscow's Winter Market, held in the 1912 building, today.  The Winter Market is held four times over the winter, once each in November, December, January, and February. It is meant to satisfied the farmer's market urge for folks who struggle between the last weekend in October and the first weekend in May, when the Moscow Renaissance Fair marks the beginning of market season.  I love the idea of Winter Market, but winter veggies are hard to find anywhere on the Palouse in January.  Most of the booths are crafts (kudos to the Society Socks booth).   Tonnemaker Hill Farm was represented but their wares were restricted to apples, gourds, and dried fruit.  Fortunately, we still have a stash of dried plums and pears from our trees!

January is just a hard month, especially during  a mini-warm-up such as we've been enjoying.  The days are still painfully short, and feels wasted if you're not skiing.  Here's hoping the temperature drops again and we get some more pristine days on the mountain!