Potatoes

I love fingerling potatoes!

Eggs in the nest

My beet garden is completely overgrown, which is very amazing considering the mishap from just 6 weeks ago. A couple days ago I made arugula pesto with arugula from the garden. It's has some kick to it since the arugula was getting pretty big and spicy. This morning I pulled the rest for the composter since they are bolting.

I also thinned the swiss chards, beets and lettuce. It should have been done a long time ago. I cooked eggs in the nest with the big bunch of chard and beet greens as dinner. There's no onions in the pantry so I pulled a few red onions from the garden, even though they are still tiny. I added chickpeas and sprinkled the left over peas and corn on top. It's fresh and delicious, and very healthy.

A sinkful of goodness

Buttercrunch lettuce, red leaves lettuce, arugula, mizuna, and underneath is a big bunch of pea shoots - great stir fried with some garlic.

Crazy Weather

This, is my backyard yesterday...

...this is today, right now, thundersnow...

 No wonder some say Calgary is the toughest place to garden in the country.

Father's Day Breakfast and smoothie season, finally!

Scramble egg on toast with cream cheese, salsa, mixed greens and basil.

The greens and basil were fresh picked from the garden.

And finally, it's smoothie season!

My husband fried my beet garden!

First off, I am not mad at him. In fact, he was very sweet and protective of my beet garden - a 8' x 3' raised bed next to the deck planted with beets and swiss chards and a couple other things. This was what it looked like on Thursday:

On Sunday he stained the deck. And to prevent the stains from dripping down to the beet garden, he covered it with a sheet of clear plastic, on a sunny day, at 28C. This, is what it looked like after a mere 3 hours:

For the next 2 hours after the discovery, I was not able to talk without choking up and breaking into tears. Yap I am very emotional when it comes to beets.

Allen and puddled around in the backyard and cleared up the patio area, which was filled with gardening tools, pots, dirts and compose and toys and you name it. After the decluttering excise I felt much better. I replanted the bed the next day. It will be beautiful and delicious again!

On a brighter note, the rest of the garden seems to be doing ok.

And I made a new cushion for my chair. I love the yellow and the birdies on the fabric. It's such a happy print.

Microgreen Salad

Here's a micro green salad...

... which is actually thinning from the garden. I put some on my breakfast...

... and ate the rest as snack, dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Yum!

Here's my brandywine...

The tomato is looking good, but the plant overall is looking a bit weak. I hope it will grow better as the weather warms up.

Another snowy day and a completed project

It snowed all night last night again.

The good thing is, it gives me an excuse to stay in the house and do some sewing. I finally get to finish dress 'C' from Stylish Dress Book 2.
 

I actually sewed this a long while ago before all the gardening activities. This is supposed to be a muslin to see how it fit. The fabric is a $2 find from Value Village. It turned out kinda cute so I wanted to add pockets to it.  As the weather got warmer, I started working in the garden and never had a chance to sit down in front of the sewing machine until today.

I made a few modifications: I gathered the front instead of the pintucks as I saw here. I also lengthened the body to get rid of the ruffles at the bottom. And, of course, the pockets.

It's too cute to fit my age and style, but it's a fun project to do. It also give me a chance to practise sewing bias tapes and pockets. I will probably make it again with another fabric.

Snow last night and a party today

We got 10 cm of snow last night. For someone who planted the tomatoes in the ground just two days ago, this is obviously very upsetting. Here's a picture I took when the rain just started turning into wet snow yesterday. The wall-o-waters' kinda cute with the inverted pots don't you think?

Anyway, I didn't have a chance to check the tomatoes today because I was too busy cooking up a storm for a party with Allen's coworkers. As usually, we cooked too much and ate too much. It was great to finally meet some of Allen's coworkers. Both Sarah and Ben had fun playing with the older girls, which means I didn't need to look after them as much and actually got to enjoy the party.

A good day in the garden

Spent the whole day in the backyard, again. Allen finished putting together the storage shed. It matches the house color and the space we have perfectly. It should free up precious space in the garage.

I continued to work on the flower bed. I took some of the perennials out to make room for the arbor. Now that the arbor is in place, I have to plant and rearrange what we have. Probably another day of planting, setting stepping stones, and then it's time to put the tomatoes in the ground!

I also made the gardener's hand scrub. Since my dish washing detergent is green, my scrub has a minty color. So refreshing!

I am too excited to sleep!

We have an arbor in the garden! I have always wanted one - to have a focal point in the garden, to grow clematis, to put a bench or some sort of sitting implement under. Now we have one. Ideas and todos are running through my head. I can't sleep.

So naturally I do what I always do when I can't sleep - surf. I started organizing the huge list of sewing and crafting sites I bookmarked. There are lots of fun and interested things people are doing and showing. There are two that I will try, very soon:

1. Gardener's Hand Scrub I have been working hard in the garden and hands get dirty even with gardening gloves. This seems to be the perfect solution.

2. Banana Crunch Muffins - they look too yummy not to try.

Once I check off the top priority items from my gardening todo list, I will get back to my sewing projects. And I want to take the kids to heritage park this summer. And visit the library more often. Oh and I want to take Sarah to a movie. And do more baking with the kids. My mother-in-law thinks I am always go-go-go. She's right, but there's so many fun things to do!

My baby african violet is blooming

I have 4 pots of baby african violet raised from leave cutting. 3 of them suffered assault from Ben at various growing stage. The one that escaped is bloom now!

Here's the parent plant, which has been blooming since April.