Sometimes...

Friday morning, we got a call from my mom.  These kind of phone calls have become somewhat of a routine joke in our family.  However, Friday's call made me uncomfortable.  My mom knows more about what is happening around us then we realize.  We have joked about the calls about cannibals in Rio, the jumper in the apt right below us, the terrorist car bomb a block away, rats at the Taco Bell we secretly frequented and several other incidents but Friday made me wonder.

10 minutes after the shooting, mom calls to say that a designer named Jeffrey just shot a man at the Empire State Building.  Her first question was "Do you know him?"  Tim and I had to laugh but when I googled it - there it was on my laptop - a designer shoots a co-worker at 10 West 33rd St across from the Empire State Building.  I tend to be a little superstitious about coincidence.  When we bought the property upstate, the owner coincidently worked for the realtor who sold me my apartment in Manhattan who also lived on the floor beneath me.  I considered it Kismet. Or, is the world just getting smaller?

I am a creature of habit.  I have worked in the same neighborhood for 14 years.  I get off the subway at 32nd and 6th.  I walk down 33rd St. to the art supply store at 14 West 33rd St. before I go into the office.  I get coffee at the Starbucks on the corner of 33rd and 5th, cross the street to my bank on 34th and 5th, grab an egg McMuffin at 33rd and 5th, pick up my prescriptions at CVS Pharmacy at 32nd and 5th, passing my old office on 32nd and 5th on my way to my new office at 29th and 5th. I frequent Mandoo dumplings for lunch at 32nd and 5th,  eat too much yoghurt at 32nd and 5th and catch the subway back to the apt... I pass that corner way too many times in a day for this not to feel slightly uncomfortable.  However, I hate people who attempt to personalize events that didn't affect them. It just creeps me out that that guy possibly might have stalked his old office waiting for the right moment?  We happened to take Friday off and both Tim and I were glad that we were upstate - far away from the chaos.

There are days when sometimes... I think we would be better off moving permanently to Bovina sooner then later.  I have other memories just as uncomfortable - standing at the corner of 33rd and 5th watching the first tower fall on 9/11.  When we have weekends like this one upstate - that are so perfect - I have to wonder why would we continue to go back and forth to Manhattan?  It turns out that the guy who was murdered Friday went to school in Oneonta - 40 minutes away from us upstate - that headline was on the newspapers as I walked into our little post office to get our mail on Saturday.  I spent the three days working in the garden, perfectly quiet, watching the leaves start to turn red,  picking blackberries, digging up potatoes, picking cucumbers, making jam, having cocktails in the backyard. watching the sunset, having a quiet dinner with a friend,  drinking coffee while watching the frogs in the pond.  Sometimes....I just wonder.

In The Pink

Friday morning, when I woke up and made a pot of coffee and went for my morning walk in the garden, I half expected to see a disaster in the garden after we had been gone for 3 weeks.  However, it's as if the entire garden had changed it's color palette from mid summer white and yellow to late summer pink.  The hardy hibiscus and flox and hydrangea and coneflower all bloomed simultaneously and it was  a sea of pink.  The smoke bushes are also purple and had grown 2 feet in the same time period.  The lawn needed mowing and the weeds in the mulch are horrendous but the garden was In The Pink.

Summer Harvesting

It's time to start raking in the vegetables and fruit - it's been a dry summer so some of the veggies aren't looking so great.  Being gone for the last three weeks didn't help.  Lost some tomatoes, zucchini just isn't doing well, pumpkins are struggling and the potatoes are on the small side - but what we lack in size we make up in quantity.  It was hot out but we dug up all our potatoes and despite how dry it's been the blackberries look better then ever.  We washed and dried the potatoes and put them into paper bags to store.  We washed all the berries and put freezer bags of them in the freezer and made a large ball jar of blackberry jam to use immediately.  We will start more bread and butter pickles next weekend.

DIY Beach Chairs

I have had these beach chairs for over 18 years and they were vintage when I bought them.   I purchased the pair of them at an antique mall in New Braunfels, Texas and threw them on the back of my little red Miata at the time and took off.  I have repainted and re-fabricated them so many times and they just keep on going.  I use them for the front porch and they have a canopy for shade on them but haven't used that in a long time.  They are comfortable and functional and so easy to update.

San Antonio Week

What a great vacation! It was my mother and nephew's birthdays so we made a trip to San Antonio for a couple birthdays and lots of Tex-Mex food.  I hate Texas in August - it is just disgusting - UNBEARABLE WHO COULD LIVE HERE HEAT - however with a pool, LOTS  of air conditioning, BBQ ribs, puffy tacos, queso, guacamole, an unbelievable brunch ( Thank You Linda!) , lots of brain hemorrhage shots at my brother's nightclub Zombies and some outlet mall shopping in San Marcos - it was hmmmm tolerable.  However, United Airlines - the worst airlines ever! Exhausted, but Happy Birthday Mom!  Happy Birthday Devin!

Sookie Napping

Sookie is getting more mature and calm now that she is exiting her terrible twos.  However, she still hasn't mastered lady like sleeping behavior.  She sprawls wherever she feels comfortable.  She gets this from Tim.

DIY Herb Drying

When Tim and I were designing our gardens - it was essential that we had a herb garden right outside our back door.  What we love about summer cooking is being able to step outside the kitchen and pick any herb we would need for recipes.  In addition, we grow a lot of extra herbs for tea blends that we make and we added blueberry bushes and an apple and pear espalier.  We need to add raised lettuce beds out there next summer.  However, we started picking herbs to dry and store this past weekend.  The best thing about this is that we know that the herbs are pesticide free. 

For DIY dried herbs, simply do the following.

1. Harvest your herbs. Make sure you cut herbs in the morning, before the heat of the afternoon sun wilts the leaves.

2. Tie bundles of herbs together at the stems, using thin twine or ribbon.

3. Hang your bundles to dry in a cool, dark place. We hang dry our herbs in the basement or we use pasta racks in the kitchen.  Hang drying takes a week to a few weeks, depending on the moisture level of the herbs and moisture levels in the air. Check on your herbs every few days, and once they are dry and crumbly to the touch, remove any twigs or sticks and crush the leaves (you can use a fine sieve for this too).

4. Store your dried herbs in small glass jars with tight fitting lids or corks.  We like the jars with the chalkboard paint lids so you can write on them.