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.

Norway cruise part 5

 More about Day 10, after the bus tour in Olden.

There were several shops there at port. I looked through them before getting back on board the ship, and bought a block of "brunost"(a Norwegian brown cheese) and also a stick of moose sausage for the Sasquatch.

I spent some time in my cabin, resting and sitting by the big window. The weather was nice enough to have it open.

Look at the color of the water!  

A dock below was busy with small boats coming and going...paddleboats and RIBs too.  At one point a young couple jumped in and had a short swim!  Brrr!

At sail away time I went up to the top deck. This is a nice seating area up there. 

A beautiful day!

That was the last port stop in Norway. Goodbye Norway! I hope to come back again!

As the ship picked up speed it became too windy and cold to enjoy that top deck.

I had a nice hot tea at the buffet then settled down in the cabin to watch a movie before bedtime.

Day 11 started off strange for me...I slept until 7:43am! I'm usually early to bed, early to rise. I had a moment of panic then I remembered it's another day at sea so no need to hurry.

After a buffet breakfast I went to the cruise director Q and A session. Interesting and lots of funny stories.

 Then later the marine biologist gave a talk on plankton. She is such a good speaker that she makes any subject interesting.

I had a late lunch then back to my cabin.  Each afternoon they leave one of these snack plates in the room (unless I'm in there and I have the " do not disturb" sign out).

I'm afraid it's wasted on me. I don't want to eat stuff I don't recognize. I did taste the red salad. It was good...maybe watermelon and grapefruit with feta cheese?

Also this time they left this invitation to watch sail away from the helicopter pad when leaving Rotterdam the next day.

Day 12 we sailed into Rotterdam.  There's the harbor pilot

I ordered a room service breakfast and watched from my window.

 

My excursion...sightseeing and a visit to the Delft factory started with a bus ride through town.  Lots of bicycles here. People of all ages riding.

Close to the Delft factory area the IKEA store had these "Delft" decorated cows out front.

The factory tour was interesting with a guided museum exhibit area, a walk through the work area, where we saw the molds for forming different pieces, and also a worker hand painting a piece.

There was a big gift shop at the end. Whew! The hand painted stuff is pricey! 248 euros for one coffee cup (that equals 288 US dollars).

They had some less expensive things that were made with transfers instead of hand painted.  I only bought a little Christmas ornament.

Afterwards we had a walking tour. It rained and no one in the group had their umbrellas because the forecast had been for cloudy without rain.

Our bus driver saved the day with a few umbrellas he handed out.

Lots of historic buildings.

After visiting the nature and beauty of the fjords, the huge city was a sharp contrast.

The guide was very good though and gave a lot of information. 

Lots of waterways and canals.

Modern architecture.

Bridges.

Back on the ship I started packing my suitcase.  Here's my souvenirs. 

The coffee cup from "north cape" or 71 degrees latitude north.

A cute moose key chain and the Delft ornament.

I also got a couple of tee shirts.

The next morning in Southampton disembarking went smoothly.  I had a bus to Heathrow where I had enough time before my flight to stock up on some duty free candy.

Flights were on time and that long flight back to the US seems easier in daylight hours.

Overall a really pleasant vacation. I'm beginning to really prefer visiting a place with peaceful scenic beauty like Norway. I feel so fortunate to have been able to experience this.  I would love to go back again.

Part 4 Norway Cruise

 Day 8 was a day at sea. I like to stay out of my cabin for a while in the morning to give the room steward a chance to change the towels and tidy up.

They do this twice a day on this ship, leaving crisp unwrinkled sheets and a shiny clean sink. In the evening there's a chocolate candy on the pillow and the next day's program.

The steward closes the blinds and turns on all the room lamps so it all looks cozy and inviting.

So, after breakfast, I decided to skip the morning talks and go to the Solarium to read.

It's a large indoor area with walls of windows to let the sun in, and an indoor pool is there, and also a snack and drink area. It's an adults only area except for a couple of hours in the early evening. So it's nice and quiet and there's a nice view of the sea.

Very relaxing so I soon headed back to the cabin for an early nap!

On the room TV there is a channel that shows the ship's current position on a map. You can see our position here marked by the arrow.

The rest of the day was more of the same...reading, some stitching, eating, a quick walk out on the upper deck, a TV movie in bed. 

Here is the sun at just past midnight when I lowered the blinds.

Day 9 was a port stop in Alesund. I had scheduled a scenic boat tour that traveled further up through a fjord.

It was a lovely sunny clear day.

The wind was very chilly, though! But there were places to get out of the wind on the boat and an inside area too. There was narrator speaking off and on throughout the day.

The water is such a dark blue. Don't dive in though...it can be up to 1300 feet deep in this area.

Back on the ship and time for a short nap and a visit to the buffet before the evening show, which was The Beatles...impersonators, of course.

The group was entertaining but maybe holding back some of the most popular songs since they were scheduled for a performance the next day too.

Day 10 was a port stop at Olden, which is a beautiful area and a popular vacation spot for tourists and Norwegians too.

I had to meet for my bus tour at 7am so I hurried and had a quick cup of coffee and a chunk of that Apple Kringle at the buffet.

The bus tour was nice and the guide was an American who had been living in Norway for 20 years. He had some good stories about things he found so different when he moved to Norway...food, customs, rules, traditions.

But the best thing was all the lovely scenery.

There's our ship docked right among the peaks.

Seeing everything reflected in the dark glassy water doubles the beauty.

We passed through several avalanche tunnels. This photo is from inside the bus going through a tunnel.

The tunnels are just big enough for 2 lanes of traffic.

More...

Oh, I'm on the wrong side of the bus for the views here!

A few grass roofs along the way...

Clouds reflected in the water...

The tour included a mid morning stop at a small hotel for coffee and cake.

Overall a very pleasant and enjoyable tour. 

This is getting long. I'm going to have to do one more post to wrap everything up.