Feast of Seven Fishes

Our family is small. There are no little kids. So we stopped exchanging gifts several years ago. When it's all adults you end up just handing each other gift cards and where's the fun in that. So for years we were doing the same events and traditions,  everyone's enthusiasm waning. Until last year when we decided to start researching other country's Christmas traditions and celebrating in a new way.

Last year we had an English Christmas complete with figgy pudding and lousy accents.  This year we moved on to Italy and the Feast of the Seven Fishes. It's a Catholic traditional meal with multiple courses all containing fish or seafood.

I vetted a lot of recipes and ended up with the following:
Anti pasta

Caesar salad with anchovies
Smoked salmon with dill
Salted cod (baccala)
Lobster bisque
Seafood pot pie
Shrimp scampi

Desserts included:
Tiramisu
Spumoni with pizzelle cookies
Cannolis
Biscotti

We had about 9 different varieties of seafood in all. Any number between 7 and 11 is acceptable. We had several last minute cancellations due to inclement weather but it ended up for the best as the food was a huge hit and there was nary a leftover.

I stuck a "my name is" sticker with a famous Italian (Julius Caesar, Michelangelo,  Martin Scorsese etc) on each guests back and they asked questions of fellow guests to determine who they were assigned. After dark everyone carroled around the fire pit and several bottles of red wine kept us warm. It was a wonderful evening.

Next year I've set my sights on Russia. I see lots of vodka,  Borscht and inappropriate czar jokes in our future.

Thankfulness

Stuff I'm thankful for:

The Ohio State Marching Band 

Cats

My family

The Onion

Thai food

AMC

Malbec

NPR

Apartment Therapy

Free paint chips

Leftovers...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Vintage End Table

60's Pottery and Bread Board. Scored these psychedelic beauties at the local Peddler's Mall for $10.

Mike Mcgrath's Top 10 Gardening Mistakes

Mike Mcgrath host of You Bet Your Garden-NPR WHYY-counts down the 10 gardening/lawn care mistakes that he sees the most often. He is a genius and my organic gardening hero. Follow this link for lots more of his advice and wisdom on specific issues: www.whyy.org/cms/youbetyourgarden.com              
                                                                        1. They cut their grass too short. Lawns composed of cool-season grasses need to be three inches tall after being cut to be able to grow the deep healthy roots that can crowd out weeds. Warm-season grasses do best at around two inches after cutting. We know that you THINK a short cut will mean more time between mowings, but it actually means the opposite. Scalped lawns grow at the maximum speed to try and compensate for your vicious attack. Grass allowed to achieve a decent height will always look much greener, have fewer weeds, and grow at the slowest possible rate.                                           2. They water incorrectly. Plants MUST be allowed to dry out between waterings. Plants that are watered every day will die from root rot. In a normal season in the upper half of the country, a long, deep soaking once every week you don't get an inch of rain is exactly what your lawn and garden needs and wants. In a severe heat wave and/or further South, you can water deeply twice a week. Always water in the early morning; never in the evening, never in the heat of the day, never for short periods of time, and at the base of the plants if possible.                                          3. They prune for the heck of it. NEVER prune a plant because {quote} "you feel like it" or {quote} "it's a nice day for it"; both are guaranteed to result in horticultural disaster and an Aero-Bed being dragged out to the garage by the {quote} "helpful" spouse. Simple rules: Prune nothing in the Fall! Take up woodworking if you have to, but keep your hands offa those pruners. Prune big, non-flowering trees in the dead of winter. Prune Spring blooming trees and shrubs immediately after they flower in the Spring. For other plants, visit several University websites, and if you still can't figure it out, leave it alone.                           4. They spray pesticides 'blindly'. One listener recently asked for help with an insect problem, explaining that he had dusted the plants with the insecticide Sevin every couple of days for the past several months without any effect-at least on the insects. Another listener reported that Sevin had not helped her diseased roses. "Perhaps that's because it's an insecticide and not a fungicide", I replied. Why had she used it?: "It was the only thing in the house". But my favorite was the listener who sprayed Atrazaine on her Japanese beetles, and the plants now looked dead. What could she do to avoid this next year? "Try not spraying your plants with an herbicide," was my best guess. When in doubt, don't spray.     5. They use wood mulch. Never use wood or bark to mulch your plants; it can suck food right out of their soil, prevent water from reaching their roots and rot the bark if the mulch actually touches the plant. You can safely use wood mulches to keep weeds down in your garden paths; that's it. And what about {quote} "landscape mulch"? Every time we warn that wood and bark mulches breed a fungus that irrevocably stains homes and cars, we get a flood of emails saying, "we always hear you say not to use wood mulches, and now the side of our house is covered with little black dots; that's not because of our wood mulch, is it?"                                     6. They pay no attention to soil pH. pH is a measure of your soil's acidity or alkalinity. A pH of 7 is neutral. Most plants thrive at a slightly acidic pH of 6 to 6.5. Some of our most popular plants-azaleas, rhododendrons and blueberries-require a VERYlow pH to thrive. Very few plants like an alkaline pH. That's why you should never lime your lawn 'because you heard you should'; have the pH tested and then apply lime if it's needed. Give plants the soil pH they prefer and many garden problems will simply vanish.                       7. They feed their plants instead of their soil. It's easy to spray Miracle-Gro or spread Osmocote. And weeds, pests and disease just love it when you weaken your poor plants with those concentrated chemical salts. It's the same as with us: Good food = good health. Trashy fast food = a litany of problems. Two inches of compost a year is all the food plants in the Northern half of the country require. Another two inches later in the season down South, where plants grow for a much longer period of time. As Groucho famously said, "The only thing you'll notice is the improvement."                         8. They confuse compost with manure. Manure is not compost. "Compost" is made from yard waste that has been shredded and piled up until it has turned into a rich, black material that feeds your plants, prevents disease and improves the very structure of your soil. Composted manure can be an effective fertilizer-but only FOR SOME PLANTS, and it will not prevent disease. Don't use horse or poultry manure on flowering plants and never use any kind of raw manure.             9. They needlessly fear insects and spiders. Native bees are harmless to you and essential pollinators in your garden. Virtually all spiders are harmless to you and fabulous predators of pest insects. That insect you aimlessly sprayed could be a baby ladybug or other garden friend. Destroy all the life in your garden and...well-you'll destroy all the life in your garden.                                                          10. They use pesticides INSIDE their home; eek! It is dangerous to spray chemical pesticides in your garden; those nerve toxins and hormonal disruptors are much more deadly to you than they are to garden pests. But spraying poisons INSIDE your home, where you're inhaling those life-shortening fumes every minute, is beyond nuts! Every indoor pest can be safely controlled without poisons.

Not a Drop to Drink

So, it's been an odd couple of weeks... I had no water. One day-with hair full of conditioner-it just simply stopped running. After much profanity and beating up of my well pump I resigned myself to my fate. It had finally happened: the well had run dry. I would have to get "city water" at an enormous financial and emotional cost. I love my well water. It is delicious, off the grid, and completely free. The well below my house is what the old folks call "artesian" which I'm not sure is accurate, but I'm also sure I don't care what it is called so long as there is clean, icy water to drink. It's sourced from an underground spring and has been supplying my home with water for 60+ years. So, panic, waterless panic sets in. I disencamp from my house. Stay with my parents for a week or so. Go home every couple days to see if it has refilled. Nothing. Not a drop. So, I call in a plumber. The same plumber that installed the well pump. He spends 15 mintues-no exaggeration-15 minutes in my garage fiddling with the pump. And suddenly, miraculously, I have water. Gushing rivers of water. When I ask what the issue was he mumbles some vague, gruff thing about a switch not connecting, but it's clean now so... I spent a week living out of suitcase, half frantic about having to find a new water source, and it turns out that it was just a minor mechanical issue. #1 Lesson Learned: Do not always assume the worst case scenario. #2 Lesson Learned: It's not going to kill you to learn at least the basics of how stuff works-especially if a slow death from dehydration is the consequence of not learning it.

New Rug....so much love!

Got this rad new rug from www.rugsusa.com They have insane sales, constantly, it was 75% off plus free shipping. All wool, handknotted, called Verden Ikat. It's so fabulous that I feel like the rest of the room looks shabby by comparison. Sigh.

Gladiolas and Morning Glory...

I've always loved these flowers. They're so dramatic and showy....

However, they are also 5' tall and top heavy which means they need something to lean on...

I planted 60 bulbs, in a row, on their own. Lesson learned.

And apparently the bulbs need to be dug up and wintered over...which is probably not going to happen.

But at least this summer, they've put on quite a show.

TV Wall and Vittsjo...

So, I had a weird sort of revelation as I was contemplating my TV wall in my living room...I have somehow, unintentionally, become something of a minimalist. Now I'm not talking the zen, never-own-more-than-100-items-at-a-time sort of minimalist, but I do mean that my house is very free of clutter. Each surface has a carefully chosen item or two, never more. There are not a lot of competeing textures and fabrics. I use vibrant colors but they are repeated throughout each space...Strange. How or why did this happen? I always thought of myself as a more is more kind of girl...with tchotchkes, knicknacks and bric a brac aplenty. Is this a reflection of my mental state? Am I as mentally well composed and restrained as my home decor?...Eh, probably not, but it's an interesting evolution. Anyway, my TV wall with it's puny 32" television and dinky 36" console was looking a little forlorn and unfinished so I got a set of IKEA Vittsjo shelves. And placed on each shelf one or two carefully chosen items...weird.

Pedller's Mall Haul

A neighboring town has recently gotten a Peddler's Mall-which is an indoor flea market of sorts-lots of small booths filled with both trash and treasures. It has become an almost weekly pilgrimage for the females in my family. My awesome mother spotted a couple of gems on one of her recent visits that are now happily ensconced in my kitchen and guest room.

The first A midcentury "West German" office chair:

The second A 1950's Banquette:

It was in rough shape but the proportions are perfect for my space and it positively drips 50's cottage charm.

 The top had quite a bit of damage. So I'm in the process of stripping the layers of contact paper and dirt and then priming and painting the top.

 Also the banquette came with two benches. It seemed a little crowded in my small kitchen so I split them up and am using the other in the back porch entry area. This was a perfect solution as I have been hunting for a bench that I liked for ages.

Awesomeness.

Pieris, herbs and blueberries!

Gardening is not a hobby, it's an obsession...I find myself doing daily laps around the yard, checking for growth. Remembering bulbs I'd forgotten I planted. Panicking if anything isn't growing as quickly as I think it should. But it's also as satisfying a thing as I have ever done. Every new bud is a tiny triumph. Every fragile leaf a victory. Yeah me! Yeah yardwork!

New stuff!

Im not really a yellow person, but felt my living room needed some freshness for spring. I found a yellow throw from Crate & Barrel, a kantha pillow from West Elm and a darling mid-century yellow planter from a local flea market. Just adding 3 inexpensive items really brightened up an otherwise dreary corner.

Easter Sunday

A weed is a plant thay has mastered every survival skill except learning how to grow in rows.
-Doug Larson

Out like a lamb

Ok everyone, despite all your kvetching spring has arrived, now get out there and do something about it! Mulch, till, weed, plant! Go get your hands dirty!

St Paddy's Planting!..and soil PH

In honor of St Patrick's Day-and because Spring is tiptoeing into my neighborhood-I bought a flowering heather. Now I only have the vaguest notion of heather being an Irish plant....something about moors and heaths and the wind that shakes the barley...who knows. But softly undulating fields of heather under rainwashed skies seems to me about as romantic as it gets.



Image courtesy of www.discoverirelandtours.com
(See, I told you it's romantic.)

Anyway here is an image of the plant that I purchased.

I have a perfect spot for it: damp but sunny and room for it to spread, but Heather needs acidic soil and I have no idea what the soil type is for my selected spot so I went searching for ways-other than buying a PH tester-to determine soil PH.
And, lo and behold, there's a totally easy-and free way to test!
Soil PH Test:
You will need 2 soil samples, 1/2 cup of vinegar, water-preferably spring water, and 1/2 cup baking soda.
Add vinegar to soil. if the soil fizzes it is alkaline.

If soil does not fizz, take second sample, add water to make...mud...and then add baking soda. If it fizzes or bubbles your soil is acidic.

If nothing happens in either case your soil has a neutral PH.

Wood ash or lime can decrease alkalinity.
Sulfur or pine needles can decrease acidity.
*Most plants grown in home gardens prefer soil that is PH neutral (7) or slightly acidic (6).
(Oh and apparently there's another way to test it, by tasting the soil, but I'm just not that committed a gardener.)

Countertop Compost

I am kinda sorta obsessed with composting. Kinda because I care about the environment and sorta because I'm kinda obsessive. Here's the latest...

Either way I've been keeping all my compost scraps on the counter in a pyrex bowl and emptying them on a daily basis which prevents smells but is a bit of nuisance. So I just purchased-from Crate and Barrel-a 1.3 gallon self close trash can that was only $14 and am going to use it for my scraps. This will mean fewer trips to the compost pile and the bonus that the little green can looks a little like R2D2.


I know that there are a whole lot of bins specifically for countertop compost but most of them are not very cute and the only major difference as far as I can see is they usually contain a charcoal filter in the lid to prevent odors, but I empty mine very frequently so I'm not too concerned about that.

Lining comes out so easy to clean and empty.



Barn Quilt

I have recently become aware of-and subsequently obsessed with-barn quilts. I don't know if everyone knows about these or if it's a rural, midwestern secret but the basic idea is a huge board is used like a canvas, mounted on the side of a barn and painted to look like a quilt. There are even tours you can go on and see these wonderful, folksy bits of Americana in person!
http://www.boonebarnquilts.com/
http://www.butlercountyiowa.com/barnquilts.html
http://www.visitcalhoun.com/files/CalhounBarnQuiltMap.pdf

Just so happens I have a barn with a big blank wall that seems to me is begging for a quilt! My idea is to buy a 1/2" piece of plywood probably 5'x4' and tape out a design. I am still debating color scheme and pattern but I know that I definitely want it to have a familiar, colorful, design.

Here's some inspiration:

Image courtesy of www.barnquilts.com



Image courtesy of www.barnquiltinfo.com


Image courtesy of www.barnquilts.com


Image courtesy of www.americanquilttrail.blogspot.com


Image courtesy of www.oliveandollie.com