I've lost one of four basil plants and a sunflower seed never came up (nor its replacement), but other than that it's looking pretty good. Check it out!
Birthdays (of the Spousal and National Persuasion)
What a wonderfully busy weekend! Between Mr. Cleaver and the country - we spent our whole weekend in celebration. Not that I'm complaining :)
After a leisurely morning on the 3rd, involving the farmer's market and the bakery and a new fishing pole for Mr. Cleaver, we lazed away the afternoon ( I finished my dress) and headed out to eat around 4. We grabbed a meal and some bird watching at The Good Table (our favorite) and then drove down Highway 77 to Prout's Neck for a trek around the Cliff Walk.
The cliff walk is one of those hidden gems that I'm sure everyone knows about, but I didn't until about two weeks ago and Mr. Cleaver didn't know about it until I took him there this weekend, so maybe it is secret. In any case, to take the cliff walk find the house above, right next to the Black Point Inn, and find the small stone path that cuts across the grass. This will take you out to the Cliff Walk.
The Cliff Walk is stunning. There are rocky crags, pink sand beaches, and a beach entirely of smooth round rocks that rattle when the waves recede.
The walk takes between 45 minutes to an hour. Afterward we stopped at the Black Point Inn for cocktails. The bar was busy so they sent us down to the Adirondack chairs on the front lawn (too bad, right? :) ), where we sat and sipped and watched the sun set.
Mr. Cleaver declared the birthday a success. On the way back to town we stopped by the side of the road to snap a few more shots of the sunset.
For the Fourth, I spent the morning baking a belated birthday cake for the Mister, which we had delayed because we knew it would take a while to make this much cake! Though it did mean I had our tiny oven running for a few hours on the hottest day of year thus far!
After all the baking I finally got to put on my new dress!
[Dress: Vogue 8184; Modifications: made band from contrasting color, skipped boning, added in-seam pockets, added horsehair band to hem]
All snazzed up, we headed our to my Mother-In-Law's for a cookout with the family. Mr. Cleaver's older brother offered some hints and tackle for the new pole.
Once we were stuffed to the gills, Mr. Cleaver and I joined half of Portland for the Portland Symphony Orchestra pops concert/fireworks show. The addition of PSO to the festivities was a great touch!
I hope every one else had an enjoyable weekend too!
Happy Birthday Mr. Cleaver!
A big happy birthday to my greatest catch!
Roadtrip: Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
On Saturday, Mr. Cleaver and I made the drive up to Boothay to visit the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. This was our second visit to the gardens, the first being in the dead of Winter back in 2009. THe cold tuend us out of the garden that February, but we vowed to return when the place was in bloom and it was well worth the return trip:
The blueberries were close to ripe and since you were encouraged to pick the ripes ones - we managed to fine one or two
My Dad always called Lamb's Ears "Cowboy Toilet Paper"
Maybe the most beautiful shade of blue I've ever seen:
Is it weird to take a picture of yourself with a sign with your fake last name?
Some red, white, and blue....
Which reminds to post a sneak peak of my 4th of July dress!
String and Strawberries
String I:
I finished this dish towel at the beginning of the month, but for one reason or another it's sat in my photos for about three weeks. It's not as though I have a backlog of a bazillion projects to post, but as cute as this piece of embroidery is (it's an ironing scotty dog!), I didn't think it warranted a whole post to itself, so I'm lumping it together with a few other bits and pieces.
The Scotty Dog Pattern is from the Hoop Love Vintage Transfers Group on Flickr, which has a treasure trove of patterns you can print out an stitch. They have an especially large collection of mostly complete days of the week patterns like the Scotty above. I'm alos planning on doing Wednesday (mending) and Friday (baking).
I worked on this mainly while my bum wrist kept me from knitting and in the after period when I struggled to get my knitting mojo back (which happily it has, thanks to Kate Davie's Manu and some Malabrigo Silky Merino). I haven't yet done the pattern transfer for the second towel, but if our current levels of humidity hang around for much longer I will, since they're only so much wool I can handle in humidity :)
Strawberries:
On Saturday, Mr. Cleaver and I picked four pints of strawberries at Maxwell's, two of which went to his mother and the other two which ended up on my cereal and this strawberry shortcake I made last night.
The recipe is from Posie Gets Cozy and the only changed I made/would recommend is to make 6 or 8 dough "blobs" instead of the listed 4. mine were doughy in the middle until I cut them in half and baked them some more, and the smaller biscuits (it's a very biscuity shortbread) were about all I could handle to eat at once.
String II:
I have plans for a fantastic Fourth of July dress from Vogue 8184. It's a fairly simple dress (especially since I'm skipping the boning- since my version has straps), so I 'm taking the time to do my first go at tissue fitting, especially since I fell in between two of the multi-size envelopes. I'm somewhat obsessed with fit these days - what with the pattern drafting I've been dabbling in and all (and I'm close with another sundress I drafted). Since the Fourth is only ten days away, we'll hopefully have results soon!
How I Spent my Saturday Evening
Thursday night Mr. Cleaver and I went down to the plot and did some basic tilling and Saturday night, while the Mr. was off playing tennis (after helping me lug my tools in), I went back for round #2.
30 minutes in:
About an hour later:
Spacing out the seedlings:
Sometime after the third hour:
All Planted!
- Row 1: Tomatoes
- Row 2: Bell Peppers
- Row 3: Broccoli
- Row 4: Herbs - Thyme, Basil, Oregano, Cilantro, and Orange Thyme
All plants except the basil came from different booths at the farmers market and Sunday morning I popped a dwarf sunflower seed at each end of all the rows.
Hooray for gardening!
A Bit of Earth
One of my favorite parts of The Secret Garden (one of my favorite children's novels) is when Mary asks Mr. Craven if she might have "a bit of earth". Mary gets her bit of earth and it, along with the friendship of Dickon and Colin, turn Mary from a thistle to a rose.
Now I wouldn't call myself a thistle, but I do have a bit of earth to call my own. Plot #11 at the local community garden. I found out about it's availability and snagged it yesterday morning and then, realizing I'm never grown any vegetables before, went to Longfellow Books on my break to find some gardening books.
It's somewhat late in the season (I think?), so I'll be prepping soil and planning this week and hopefully getting some plants at the farmer's market this weekend and getting them in the soil. I'll be off to buy shovels and buckets and trowels after work this evening.
If any of you readers are Southern Maine-based gardeners I'd love any tips on what it's not to late to plant and for any other gardeners out there - any tips or tricks you may have. It's all so exciting!
Roadtrip: Lexington, Massachusetts
Mr. Cleaver and I had been talking about how there are so many things we wanted to do this this summer, and how often we never get to them because we just never picked a day to do it. So late last week we pulled down the calendar and started putting dates: concerts we wanted to see, camping reservations, etc. and we decided that this weekend - with the forecast for rain and general dreariness in Maine, we would head down to Lexington, Massachusetts.
Every Sunday, Mr. Cleaver picks up two papers, the Portland Press Herald for him, and the Boston Globe for me. I read the paper in a very specific order: Comics, Parade magazine, Travel, Arts, Movies, Ideas, and Globe Magazine. Yes, I read no news in my newspaper.
A month or so back, I saw a review of Jim Henson's Fantastic World, a traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian, currently at the National History Museum in Lexington through June 27th (psst- Chicago folks, it's coming to the Museum of Science and Industry at the end of October). One of the first jobs I ever wanted to to be a Muppetter- so I was thrilled that we got a chance to catch this well-curated exhibit. Unfortunately photography was prohibited in the exhibition, but let this prove that I was there and that it was wonderful.
Mr. Cleaver and I both though our favorite part was the way the young children reacted to the clips from Henson's career - they were enthralled and laughing, even at the somewhat dated clips like "Visual Thinking" from Sam & Friends, from around 1959.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEBEh84Nvo0]
After we finished at the museum, which also had a beautiful exhibit of National Park photos by Quang-Tuan Luong, we hit the street of Lexington for lunch and history.
Lexington is the location of the "Shot Heard Round the World" or the first armed conflict of the American Revolution against the British. According to a marker for the men who died in the battle, it is the place where "The Dies Was Cast!"
The battle green where the conflict took place has several markers notating where the British stood and where the Revolutionaries stood, but otherwise, looks very much like a your standard municiple park. We also peered through the windows of the Buckman Tavern, not wanting to pay the tour fee.
After soaking in what history we could on the cheap, we went to a nearby Trader Joe's an picked up copious amounts of tasty food we can't yet get in Maine. All in all, a worthwhile trip.
From Away
For Memorial Day weekend my friend Kasey came out from Chicago for a visit - we got to do some catching up, get in some shopping, eat some seafood, and soak in the sun.
We had a picnic at Evergreen and saw baby ducks and snapping turtles.
Played a string of candlepin and a few bucks worth of pinball.
Caught the sunset at Prout's Neck
Picked up lupines and local food from the farmer's market - including some tasty greens from my favorite farmers.
We did some shopping for clothes in Freeport.
And some shopping for shellfish in Portland
Caught a game at the ballpark (the first time I ever saw the Seadogs win!)
Made a fabulous local feast - including Mr. Cleaver's scallops, Kasey's lobster and clam chowdah, and my first (quite successful) attempt at crab cakes
A trip to the chilly beach and a slightly warmer lighthouse.
And don't worry - Mr. Cleaver didn't miss out on all the fun - he just didn't make it into all that many pictures!
(and thanks to Kasey for the great time and the use some of your photos - you're welcome back anytime)
A Walk at Wolfe's Neck
Last night after work Mr. Cleaver and I took a walk at Wolfe's Neck State Park - it was warm and we were two of about a half dozen people at the park. Afterward, we oogled camping equipment at LL Bean and chowed down on slow cooked meat at Buck's Naked Barbecue. That's what I call a perfect evening.
We'd been at Wolfe's neck in the early fall and the late fall, so it was fun to see how the park is different in the spring/summer:
I love the color contrast of new growth -
These are the first wild orchids I have ever seen - they were everywhere!
This was the highest the tide has been on our visits here, it made the coastal parts of the walk look very different.
I couldn't believe how big some of the dandelions were! I saw another non-blooming one that was a least 4 inches taller.
The osprey nest. The chicks should be out an about in another few weeks.
