Garden Views

We continue to feature our canna lilies as a wonderful part of our floral display.  This view is from mid-August.

They are a lot of work to harvest them in the fall, keep the tubers over the winter, and then plant in the spring.  But they flower for a long time. 










Midsummer brings full growth in the perennial garden.  The grass garden is in the background, fronting the aborvitae of the maze garden. 

Some morning glories and clematis sneak in on the right edge of the picture.
















The late summer view of the pergola -- a nice shady spot to sit and enjoy.
















By the end of September the view of the pergola shows the autumn clematis providing a wonderful mantle.










The canna lilies hold on in the fall until a killing frost.  Then we cut the plants to the ground and dig up the tubers.  We share many of them with friends in the spring.

Class with Joe Cunningham

 

 

 

 

 

We had a fun class with Joe Cunningham, complete with his serenading us while we worked.

 

This is my friend, Betsy Alderman Lewis, who joined us for the class.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The class was held at the Baptist church, which has a great space for workshops, with lots of room to spread out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The class was "Rock Around the Block, Album Style," and these are some of the blocks I made.



Priscilla has several blocks done and is deciding whether to make more.

















Betsy has her piece all together.


















And Joe is holding up a piece completed by another student.

GVQC meeting

The Genesee Valley Quilt Club had its first meeting of the year.  The Club usually has between 300 and 400 members on its roster, and there were about 200 members at the meeting.











After "Show & Tell", where members display on stage and talk about the quilts they have completed, the quilts are laid out on tables around the room so that everyone can get a closer look.










The guest speaker was art quilter, Joe Cunningham.  (www.JoeTheQuilter.com)

After serenading us with his guitar, he showed us several of his wonderful quilts.  He has used bias tape on several of them.

Trees

Another load of triple-ground hardwood mulch arrives.  We had many areas to cover and recycled several trees.









The tree workers edged the planting line and carried the mulch by wheelbarrow to each planting.  They had to work on hand and knee to spread the product under the low-hanging branches.







Staking the road-side planting and doing some raking where  needed completed this section in a professional and expert installation.

The west side of the house is refurbished with a wonderful selection of trees.  A scalloped edge to soften straight lines was created along with new grass seed on the bare spots.  The north side of the studio is featured at the left.

New Trees

We needed replacement trees for the west side of the house along the pasture line and part of our road frontage north of the fenced riding ring.





Planting holes are dug, and the trees begin to find their new homes.  We had beautiful weather to tackle this important task.
















We purchased nine-foot norway spruce trees.  They are very heavy, and it took some strong young men to "wrestle them into place.

The west side of the planting area is cleaned.  The rockhound on the bobcat tractor does a great job of gathering, and the human element rakes and smoothes the ground prior to finishing with mulch.

Peppers and beans

Despite a bad growing season, our peppers thrived again this year.  We end up with trays of winter meals that we freeze now for use later.  This was our third production of the year.

Our bean crop also made a late season recovery.  Three varieties of beans are cooked with onions, oil, vinegar, lemon juice, salt, and sugar to start the production of canned bean salad.

The usual 30-minute bath in boiling water seals the tops on the jars.

The end result is the base for a wonderful bean salad.  We add 4 or 5 varieties of canned beans and marinate the mixture overnight in the refrigerator.  This is one of our favorites!

Pears

We have two long-standing pear trees on our property.  They produce on a bi-annual basis, and this was the "on" year.







The pears were cleaned, pared, and trimmed to produce usable fruit.  Raisins and lemons were added to the pears before chopping everything in the food processor.

Sugar and spices were added to the fruit, and the mixture was cooked down to make a thick sauce.









The end result, after a hot-water canning bath, is several quarts of pear mincemeat for the cupboard.


We add sliced apples to the mincement to produce some wonderful pies... Yum, Yum!

Reunion

A tasty reunion cake:

All alums who have celebrated their 50th year since graduating from our local high school are invited to an annual reunion luncheon.

This year's event was held at the Carey Lake Party House, and there were more than 200 in attendance.




At my table were Janet, who was a classmate from kindergarten through senior year, and Joan, who we met in 7th grade.

Studio visitors

Nancy and Linda were here for a sewing day.

Linda was visiting in the area for the week and made time to get a sewing project started.

Nancy added hand and machine stitching to her piece below.

Thanks, Shawn!

Our friend, Shawn, works as a baker.  On one of his days off, he experimented with making a very fancy and delicious jelly-rolled chocolate cake.

Thanks so much for sharing, Shawn!!

Peeps Meeting

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Peeps (Art Quilt People) gathered for their first regular meeting after a break this summer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pat has been busy making samples for the classes she'll be teaching.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She also showed us some of the fabrics she worked on over the summer.  This large piece was overdyed and then discharged.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jeanne was finishing up this lovely quilt that she is gifting to her daughter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the meeting, we adjourned to the raspberry patch.  The raspberries are still producing lots of berries -- plenty for everyone to take some home.



Tomatoes

Some years are painful for the home "farmer."  We planted our usual 4 dozen tomato plants and almost none of them produced.  We found a supplier near Irondequoit and were able to purchase 3 bushels of roma and canning varieties of excellent quality.












We have been making our own tomato sauce for 40 years.  We use a "squeezo" to strain the cooked tomatoes and vegetables.  All the skins and seeds are separated from the sauce.



















Further cooking on the stove reduces the final treasure to the desired thickness.












From starting with 2 bushels of roma tomatoes, we ended up with 28 quarts of sauce, which will add flavor and color to many winter recipes.

The canning tomatoes were peeled, quartered, and packed into jars, and then boiled in a hot water bath to seal the lids.  We canned 18 quarts to add to our inventory. 

We have found such a good replacement source for the future which relieves the insecurity of any future plantings we make here on the farm.  Happy days!

Another birthday

Priscilla was here for a couple of days and was on hand to help me celebrate my birthday.  We discovered the Longhorn Steakhouse this spring and like going there, especially for the desert!

This is the Chocolate Stampede, designed for two people.  It has six types of chocolate in two huge wedges, served with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream.









The three of us managed to polish it off (barely!).  It was wonderful, but you don't want to know how many calories it has!














Priscilla and I did some shopping the next day, which included a stop at Craft Bits and Pieces.

She found a great vase, that we decided needed some dried flowers from my stash that I have collected from our gardens.















Priscilla's vase was bagged in this tote bag at the store.  Of course, Suki assumed it was brought home just for her.