Sunday, June 23, 2024

Snapshots: Lookit What I Found!

I went out our gate to go for a run, and look what was there on the side of the road.


Sunflower season has started!

That tiny bottle with the purple flowers in it was Poppy's contribution to the table before I found the sunflower. I didn't have any flowers there for a few days, so she brought the dried ones from her room. I guess the table doesn't look right to her without something in the middle of it.

Raising that girl right.

I have some bright-pink hollyhocks this year, and I'm not sure if the MiL sent these seeds to me and I totally forgot about planting them, or if they somehow are the product of the paler pink ones that come up every year. Either way, I love them.


Pretty pink.

A. and the three boys spent several very hot days doing stone work at a ranch down the hill. The lower elevation there means it's hotter than at our house on the high plateau, so it was right around 100 degrees some of the days they were there. 

When doing manual labor in such temperatures, there can never be enough liquid. And not just water, either. This calls for switchel.


Three jugs of water, one bottle of switchel.

A reader here (hi, Jody!) e-mailed me to suggest that I could also add cream of tartar to switchel for the potassium. I had never considered this, but I don't see why it would be a bad idea. I'll have to try it this coming week when they go back down the hill to finish their work there.

The truck selling cherries in the city also had shelling peas when I was there yesterday. I do not grow shelling peas because, well, they have to be shelled. So tedious. 

A. loves fresh peas, and even though I knew it's past prime pea season and these were likely to be starchy, I got some anyway.

There was great excitement among the children when I brought them home, and they set right to work shelling.


They chose the back steps as their shelling location.

About halfway through the bag of peas, one of the children came in and asked how many they had to shell. ALL of them, child. And that is why I don't grow them. It was a fun novelty, though.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The hollyhocks must have come up by themselves, because the seeds I meant to send you molded. Shelling peas is great for old people and kids. I didn't grow any this year (road to he'll, etc., ) but my farmer's market lady did, and I shelled today. Yum.