Peach Jam

Last week I made my first peach jam! It turned out great. Canning tires me way out but it was worth it. I made it for Nancy's dad.

What to do with~zucchini and plums

Zucchini is plentiful this time of year and so are plums. Tonight I made a simple zucchini and hominy sautee and a yummy and easy plum sauce for ice cream.

To make the sautee I started with onion and a little olive oil, then added some red pepper and some left over ham. I let that cook for a little while and then added zucchini, green onions, and lots of purple garlic. I wanted to add garlic scapes but I was all out. When everything was almost cooked I added some hominy and then some fresh chopped sage from my garden. I also added a little salt, some red pepper and black pepper.







I had more plums than I knew what to do with. So I ended up making a sauce for ice cream. I just cut up several plums, added some brown sugar and cinnamon and then cooked that down at a medium low heat. To thicken it a bit I added some corn starch and cooked it for a little while longer. Then that went on top of some vanilla ice cream with walnuts, granola and some fresh blackberry from the yard.

Cards and tile boxes-lily

My Lily of the Valley, Hyacinth, Meadowlark scene, Azalea and pomagrante are now available on stuff in my cafe press shop.

Sealife Stack at Haystack Rock

Okapi Ascends

Okapi (2.5x3.5) mixed media on aged BFK rives paper. Available direct from me.

Elephant Ascends

Another new piece...available through me directly at the moment.

I was inspired to paint this piece on my last trip to Oregon. For now it is available directly through me if you are interested. It is a little longer than a playing card but still quite small.

You can get prints of it on My Deviant Art Page

Beans and potatoes

Here are Nancy's beans


And this is a raised bed happily full of potatoes...we dumped our compost potatoes (sprouted ones and cut ones) into this bin. And look they have grown!

Summer reading~Sarah Orne Jewett

After finishing the Country of the Pointed Firs I decided to read more by Sarah Orne Jewett. I just finished A Country Doctor and am almost done with a book of short stories called A White Heron. So far The Country of the Pointed Firs was by far my favorite. I also finally read A confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole.

Greens & Homony, Smashed Yams

Mmm shmashed yammies! I added some butter, a little half and half, and some cinnamon.



Kale. I just don't like it. No matter what I do with it. In this dish I tried to cook it with fresh farmers market onions, green garlic, homony and some other stuff I don't remember...oh yeah garlic scapes too. But the kale was icky. The rest of the dish was fab.

Mugs and cards~mechanical owl

More great stuff available in my cafe press store

Cats and Dogs living together...oh and birds too!

Here is most of the crew..what are they looking at?

Tiles~pomegranate lemon persimmon

Nab some of these tiles with my art on them in my cafe press store.

Wild Food~blackberries

It is so much fun to go out in your yard and harvest food that you didn't have to work much to grow. Last year we cut back some of our Himalayan blackberry bushes. They are the blackberries most of you in the Pacific Northwest are familiar with. We trimmed them way back above our walk wall so that our Indigenous Blackberry which is smaller but far more delicious could thrive. We have been rewarded this year with lots of berries! I am squirreling away some in the freezer so I can make jam in a few weeks.





This kind of blackberry has long thin shooting vines rather than the mosterous invasive bush of the Himalayan variety.

Tiles~lotus cat sprocket fish

These nifty tiles are now available in my cafepress shop.

Garden~if you need a hole dug

I planted some fall/winter crop veggies the other day. Two kinds of chard, beets, radish and some more pumpkins. I took over Nancy's cool raised bed planters.

Oh and if you ever need a hole dug? Get a blue heeler.




One of the raised beds is full of potatoes


I have a pepper growing! Several actually. I am shocked. Hopefully it can reach maturity here with all this rain.


I am already harvesting zucchini but here are some cute babies


And my cucumbers are growing well too


My second crop of lettuce this year

Cafe press~Azalea & whale cards

These cool cards with my art on them are available in my cafe press store now.

Drying herbs

As I have mentioned my garden is growing like crazy. It is quite a surprise to me since I live by the sea and it is not all that warm here most of the time. So I have found myself with more herbs than I know what to do with. I decided to try drying them. This is my first time...so you may or may not want to use this as a how to. I should say it took me WAY longer than I thought it would.

My first round of drying~Golden oregano, black stemmed peppermint, lime thyme, rosemary, and regular thyme.


I stripped off a few of the leaves at the base of the plants after picking them in the mid morning. I carefuly wiped each sprig to make sure it was free of bugs and things. Then I bunched the sprigs in little bundles and tied them with string.


Then the bundles go upside down in small paper bags that I have punched holes in for airflow and labeled.


I didn't have a lot of bags so with small herb bundles I tried to tie several bundles in one bag without letting them touch.


Tea break! I used some of the snippets that I cut off the ends to make a nice fresh herb tea. You would be surprised how many herbs taste good as tea. Be sure not to add too much they will be much stronger than dried tea that you get in the store. My favorite combo currently is rosemary and lemon balm.


This cup had cuttings from Rosemary, lime thyme and some mint. Odd combo but it tasted fab!


The thyme was so tiny I suspended several little bundles together


I have more tarragon and marjoram than I know what to do with.


I found that my IKEA shelves have great little holes in them that are perfect for tying off herbs to! (Yikes a peek into my messy pantry)

Birthday~Ajax Cafe

For my birthday we stayed at a super cute furnished cabin right by the Ajax cafe in Port Hadlock. We had dinner (to go) in the cabin so I could hang out with my peeps.

The cabin




My peeps


Ajax Cafe (sorry no photo of dinner it was so good it was gone before I could take a pic!)




The view near Ajax



I love love love a good carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. This amazing one came from Blackbird Bakery on Bainbridge Island.