August and September

 I have a couple of things still from August.

I had a nice visit from a niece (husband's side) and her three young adult kids.

They live out of state and I hadn't seen them in years. I was touched when she contacted me and wanted to stop by.

The young ones were very polite and respectful. They made conversation and didn't look at their phones. Just a really nice family!

A rainbow. It's beautiful even when arching over heavy equipment!

So that has been my view all summer. No more work has gone on over there. Just some bushhogging a couple of times.

August was my birthday month. It was a happy one with cards and messages from friends. It was a quiet relaxing day at home (my favorite thing).

The Sasquatch showed up with a huge watermelon to celebrate. It was a sweet one and much healthier than a birthday cake.

Not a great photo...but turkeys up around the bird feeder.

Here are the book club reads for September...

Shoe Dog (non fiction). Memoir by Phil Knight, one of the founders of Nike.

I enjoyed this book. Mr Knight is a man who believed in himself and had a lot of determination and drive to keep going even when circumstances were not looking favorable.

He wanted to produce good shoes.  It's an inspiring story of his success.

The fiction book was The Impossible Thing, a story based on the now illegal practice of collecting rare bird eggs.

In truth, people really took risks to find these eggs...including being lowered over cliffs to rob the nests.

The book has a large cast of characters and takes place in two different time periods. The author does a good job in building suspense and revealing the story a bit at a time.

It's not cool weather yet, but I had the urge to make soup.

Sort of cream of broccoli with rotisserie chicken added.

I used plain Greek yogurt for the creaminess. I've been finding ways to use it ever since I bought one accidentally at the Costco check-out. (It mistakenly got pushed back with my stuff on the conveyor belt).

It's a good way to add some extra protein.

Garden veggies

 Lots of garden vegetables were ripening in August.

The Sasquatch tried growing cantaloupe. He had success!

He had ordered mini cantaloupe seeds from " Johnny Seeds".

He started them inside then planted them outside in large grow bags. They fell off the vine when they were ripe. This one was the first.

Very sweet and very juicy!  

He is also having good success with peppers this year. The yellow ones are hot lemon peppers, the big red ones are capperino peppers, the small red ones are bishops hat, then the orange may be sweet banana...it's hard to remember them all!

He made a batch of pickled pepper relish.

It's darn tasty!

My eggplants are producing. These are a small type.

My squash plants weren't doing great. I just got rid of the plants after I picked these.

Yellow is Delicata, green is Acorn, and the big one is Butternut. I roasted them all at once.

Good, except the acorn squash...stringy.

What's this???!!!  More peppers. They just keep coming!

The Sasquatch dried a bunch in the dehydrator. There are still more on his plants!

He also grew a few gourds too. They are still on the vine. He said they shouldn't be picked until the vines die back.

It seems the Sasquatch is a better veggie gardener than I am. 

I'm excited about it in the spring but lazy in weeding and taking care of them later in the summer.

Cyanotypes

 I'm behind in writing about August because I wrote so much about my trip.

Anyway, early in August, I went to a class at the extension office. It was something I'd never heard of before...Cyanotypes.

The Google tells me this....

The cyanotype process is a 180-year-old photographic printing method that uses ultraviolet (UV) light and iron salts to create rich, monochrome Prussian blue images

...and it's fun!

The instructor had supplies ready for us.

Lots of leaves and flowers that she had picked that morning. We used these to make images. She also had some stencil type cut-outs that could be used.

First, two chemicals were combined and added to water. That mixture was used to paint a thin coat on heavy weight paper.

Next, we arranged flowers and greenery in a pleasing design over the painted paper, and covered with clear plastic sheets...clamped down to hold everything in place.

After that we placed them on a table out in bright sunlight for 15 minutes.

Here's what the papers looked like after that.

But then when you rinse them and allow them to dry, they turn this beautiful blue color.

I really like this result. I'd like it better if I had done a better job!

Cyanotype kits are available to buy online. Not too expensive.

I think it would be fun for anyone - all ages.

This may seem like a re-run to you because it's sort of like the indigo dye class I took earlier this summer.