Pole Dancing

Sometimes you try to resist writing a misleading title but you just have to go with it.

But speaking of my supposed pole dancers...i've planted pole beans three times before I got smart and called Meredith. She told me i had "cut worm" and to put little cups around them. So I cut out the bottom of these fancy disney cups (where did i get them?) and sure enough these beans will have a fighting chance. Damn those millions of soil predators (but thanks for all the work you little guys do to make the soil ALIVE and healthy.)

Life in the garden can be so perilous and a grower needs to give a helping hand.

And how's this for a bumper sticker?- If you don't think gardening is sexy then you're not doing it right.

xo,
quel

p.s. just watched a 65-ish woman ride her long board past the cottage. i love my neighborhood.

p.p.s. i long to study agronomy...big time.

Spectacular Spectacular

Lately life has taken some tranquilizers. Ok, actually Farmer has taken the tranquilizers (vet's orders). Which means we're moving at a snail's pace.

So folks, it's time to stop and smell the roses.
and admire the sunflowers, the daisies, evening primroses, borage, lamb's ears, valerian, lupine, poppies, and much more. it feels downright philosophical to witness the blooming and fading away of all of the flowers.

does anyone know what this flower amongst the ferns is? It reminds me of something from the onion family only much bigger. My neighbors told me that the previous owner, Florence, never knew that her husband would sneakily spray paint these flowers purple so the color would last all summer. The love a man has for a woman...
these look dead all day and then their petals open at dusk, in the moonlight they glow bright and silvery.
the honey bees love the borage and so do the ravenous chix and ducks.
if you want to doctor your own wound...these woolly leaves are great for old fashioned bandages.
let's not even go into what valerian can do for you...
and the poppies!!!


can the handling of your dog's tranquilizer pills have an effect?

signed,

feeling quite untethered to the ground, think i'll float away on a cloud...

He's okay but...

...Farmer (our dog) was ran over by a truck last Wednesday night.

He is healing. but has to stay immobilized for two weeks.

keeping farmer still and comfortable is a full time job.

one piece of good news:
his tail still works (thump thump thump) and boy howdy he loves company. so thanks to all the peeps who bring him treats. especially Ollie's attentive mum-with-the-big-heart who has a very special bond with Farmer.

the garden and all progress with the pond has come to a halt. (but the open house is still on for Sunday at dusk and Suzy & Craig Gallup will be here!)

this is what Ollie and I had for dinner last night:
it was a salad of savory herbs in a bed of mild greens. i closed my eyes and enjoyed every bite.

also, today Provo's Farmers Market has 59 booths! That breaks every record for our market even from past years at the height of harvesting season (another two months). YAY!!! I guess that's what happens when you' advertise in Provo's 4th of July Parade!
My hat found it's twin! My fashionable friend is the daughter of Demi from Demi's homemade granola.

the garden of eatin'

Our meals are simple. Here's a sampling:

eggs from the ladies

add the mushrooms, onions, garlic chives, turnip greens, oregano, sometimes topped with local cheese from the Redmond heritage Farms, and you have a tasty omelet to fuel the day.
lunch is always a salad. every day the salad is different. i believe this salad had oak leaf and buttercrunch lettuces with chopped sugar snap peas. If Ollie had made it there would definitely be some nasturtium blossoms in there. we love Annie's Cowgirl Ranch dressing and bought lots when it was on sale at good earth.
dinner is a repeat of lunch: salad! but occasionally dinner is only one or two ingredients: sugar snap peas (again!) and/or strawberries.

o'lover next to the peas.

Sometimes my hunger is on red alert because of straying too far from the garden; so when i come home i will hurriedly stuff my mouth with unwashed sugar snap peas and strawberries, two or three at a time. yep, so primal -and i might feel a tad abashed about my lack of table manners if i watched myself but hey no mirrors in this "cafeteria" .

and then we'll have strawberries again for desert, with milk.
usually in the treehouse.
as you already know, we buy some ready mades. Here's the Redmond milk (from the most beautiful grass fed cows, we're frequent visitors of the farm). Agave nectar and yerba mate. the little jar is the yogurt Ollie makes every week from the milk. He also makes cottage cheese but not so much lately.
meals depend on what's currently "on". today we'll have loads of apricots! (from the Cutries) and we had our first beans yesterday! We're watching the rest of those summer crops closely.

for the first time in forever, my food life is generally working for me. it's really nice to not be "under the weather" or downright sick all the time.

The backyard doth bestow.

also this weekend...

Nathalie "cut" my hair. outside. or it would have been the worst kinda stink in la casa. Have you ever been around burning hair? It demands good ventilation.

this is ryan watching the burn.
Rye surprised me at our front door yesterday. He now has his PhD and lives in tucson where he conducts research about water purity. I wish Rye would never cut his hair. Anyone who has seen him with his hat off knows he has the BEST hair.

Anyone care to back me up on this?
he has seriously good hair. as in amazing.

i'm starting to panic wishing you knew how great his hair is. eeeeeee!

p.s. burning the ends of your hair is supposed to help prevent split ends. and you probably do not want to try this at home. it can go from tip to scalp in .5 seconds.

truth be told

dear female readers,

my med school sister is doing rotations at an ob/gyn clinic. she studies patient/doctor relations. if you can visit her blog and drop her a line about your pap smear experiences that would be a huge help. you can sign anonymous.

muchas gracias,
quel

fullness of times

our cottage is right off the parade route and the freedom festival. Every year we feel like we're living in the quiet eye of the storm that is called the fourth of July in downtown Provo.

WE LOVE IT! Party On Provo!

Its kinda cool hearing the dull roar of the festivities outside while enjoying the privacy of our home, if only for a few minutes before heading back out.

for the last four years my friend Kena and I have been in charge of the free activities at the Tabernacle Park. It's nice to be able to tell visiting families that all of the activities are FREE.

We have so many pictures of kids rock climbing and doing arts and crafts but wouldn't you rather see the reptiles?
Here Shane just wrapped a snake around two kids who were standing back to back.
nerves of steel, i say.

Saturday was the farmers market. the highlight was when Suzy Gallup sang with our resident band, the Utah Ramblers. Suzy has the most beautiful voice!

with the farmers market, the freedom village, the parade, the gallery stroll, with several friends visiting from out-of-town, a birthday party, and biking uphill to the best view of the fireworks, this has been a "face plant weekend".

As in now that the fun is on pause, please-let-me-plant-my-face-in-that-pillow.

they were so ap"peel"ing

old news: Tom and Faye Parker asked me to run Provo's Farmers Market this year.

And what better way to promote the market and see almost everyone in the valley than to be in the 4th of July Parade?

We were the third entry, I hope you got to see it.
The loverly unruly produce: Caleb, Ryan, Chris, Ingrid, and Zina with Tom Parker as the farmer who tried to keep everyone in line. Wait where is Zina?

Ok, here's that carrot:

Our very social dog Farmer LOVED being in the parade because so many kids gave him attention. Isn't he the cutest hot dog?
Our wonderful friend Barbara, who comes to the farmers market every week riding her three-wheeler named "Cruisella", rode along. Thanks Barbara!
James and O'lover pulled the awesome rickshaws lent to us from Ollie's friend who used to run a rickshaw taxi service. Sami has a whole fleet.

my supportive husband.

p.s. Thanks to Chris for all the puns you kept shouting at the crowd. Hilarious. And i can still hear the crowd chanting "GO GRAPES" as Caleb grooved.

Here's a clip of Chris going bananas, you can see Ryan and Caleb shimmying in the background:

The Battlefield

Momma Mia has a green thumb. And she doesn't want to explain it. I don't know her secret gardening methods. And when pressed for details she'll just say she gives her plants LOVE.

Come on! *pout*

But maybe that's all she does. (I've caught her kissing her plants and yesterday she was kissing her pear tree.)

Sometimes I feel like a nursing mother. And i just want to hang out with the other nursing mothers and talk about the minutia of nursing. So I called La Leche League. I mean the USU Extension Services.

And i hooked up with horticulturist Meredith. She came over for an informal consult and i'm positively a buzz with her advice and different ways of seeing things. Because there are approximately ten million ways to plant a garden!

Oh what joy to discuss the life and death battle called gardening. What satisfaction to talk about crop rotation and online sources for supplies and sun angles and colony collapse disorder!! And different kinds of bug infestations and do you love how tall my sugar snap peas are? And what's your recipe for mint julep? YUM! And what in god's kingdom is growing out of my compost? And is it too early to register for the Diversified Agriculture Conference? And isn't that size of mulch so tacky?

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! *Relief*

Signed,
A happy girl who is going to march back outside and take out my juniper bush so my poor little cantaloupes get more sun.

me and Meredith with some baby garlic

P.S. THANK YOU MEREDITH! You are a TREASURE!