My Something Beautiful

Some of you may be familiar with a beautiful story by Barbara Cooney, Miss Rumphius. The first time I read that story, I knew it was a keeper. I also knew that I had already produced my (first) "something beautiful": my daughter, C. For Miss Rumphius, her gift to humanity was the sowing of thousands of Lupine seeds. The last photo is from the lupines blooming in our fields a few weeks ago.

It was my daughter's sixth birthday last weekend, and I was pleased to present her with her first birthday crown. I made it out of wool/rayon felt, needle felted with merino and silk, then embroidered and embellished with crystals in matching hues. She looked like a princess in it, as you can see. Note the two lost teeth! Time to start our letters. (You fellow Waldorf-obsessors will understand.)

Baking Season

Summer has hit-- lows in the seventies, and highs around ninety degrees in the afternoon! And the humidity... don't even ask. Fortunately, it is also time for strawberries! And rhubarb! It is one of life's ironies, that the best time for baking (berry season) is also the hottest part of the year. However, I would put up with far worse than heat exhaustion in order to have my strawberry shortcake. The shortcake is based on the Vanilla Chiffon Cake in A Perfect Cake, then filled with very slightly sweetened whipped cream (with a touch of vanilla) and our fresh organic strawberries from the family farm. The rhubarb is from our garden, the eggs are from the family farm (my in-laws) and the pie is the Quick Custard Rhubarb from A Perfect Pie. Both books are by Jane Purdy, and are the only cake and pie books anyone needs! The instructions are clear (I learned from these books) and the recipes are delicious-- entirely from scratch, and involving lots of butter. Fabulous! You can't beat the price either...

Baking and gardening have been distracting me lately from my various projects. But our Week Without Internet or Phone Service allowed me to get an amazing amount of knitting done. Verrry bad thunderstorms here lately-- something somewhere important got hit by lightning, so our service was down until Dashing Young Tattooed Internet Fixer came and repaired everything (for $300). Boy, I hadn't realized I was so addicted to my evening internet fix. Anyone else relate to that? :)