Cool beans!

Cool beans!

Tim worked on these the other night.  They are asparagus beans, which grow 14-18 inches long.  He added a bundle of thai basil and a gorgeous clove of garlic from a local farmers market. (He grew the basil and beans)  I passed through the kitchen when he was prepring the herbs and they were simply lovely -  but I had my hands full at the moment and was on my way to ...something and it never occured to me to take a picture. 

Over the weekend he made strawberry jam and a first, smallish batch of apricot.  Monday night I helped with a large batch of apricot jam.  We had time to chat while we stirred and watched our respective pots of apricots - a companionable way to pass an evening.

With an unexpected free week, having finished my schoolwork early, I've made a start on my list of things to squeeze into the break.  (classes start again 23 August)
My hair has been trimmed.  Cleaning has commenced.  There is a Clep scheduled for Friday.
The bed in the spare room has various piles started with things that will make the trip with me on Saturday, and a list of things I need to pick up while in Fort Dodge.  Naphtali's recent post reminded me to charge some batteries, not that there will be anything as interesting as the streets of NYC to shoot this weekend, but one should be prepared, n'est ce pas?

merci!

this is the sign jacob made for me.

i had several comments on it at the farmer's market today.
it is well made and lovely. thanks again, jacob.

monday morning

there were supposed to be photos of the bathroom here but i keep encountering 'upload errors' for the photos but i want to get something on the page soooo....
we had a busy and productive weekend. i did some gardening, some cement work, hung sheets out to dry and aired all the blankets (what can match the feeling of crawling into an outside-smelling set of sheets at the end of a long day?), i sent off my garden club updates for the newspaper and website,tim posted his assignments, textured, painted and replaced trim board on the wall in the hallway created for the bathroom, watched some golf, made a great lunch with chorizo, grilled chicken and shrimp, we made a walmart run for a dehumidifier, charlie got a haircut, (we had rain and hail during the ordeal)and generally just had a good weekend.
today i have an appointment for a manicure before work. (i really should be in the shower right now) tomorrow i see the eye doctor and get a haircut. i'm waiting for an email response to a request made friday (because i didn't want to sit on the phone all day) from the dept of revenue. a wasted day on the phone may have been quicker...i'm going to set up a table at the farmers market to sell my cement leaves so i need to know my responsibility to the state in terms of collecting tax. i can get a site for $15 for the 10 week season. i'm planning to do maybe 6 weeks. who knows when the leaves will run out?? it could be fun.