Since the last newsletter...
In Beth's Kitchen:
July 10th, I picked chickweed, beet greens, dill, baby bok choy, parsley, sage, basil, carrot tops, oregano, lavender, clover, lemon thyme and nasturtium leaves. Sautéed the greens in butter and made another omelette. YUM!
July 13th, I picked chickweed, baby beet greens, dill, bok choy, parsley, sage, carrot tops, oregano, lemon thyme, nasturtium leaves, chives, and rosemary for my omelette!
After two days of intense heat that resulted in me spending two days sick in bed, July 19th started off cool and rainy so I was able to function again! I made a batch of banana chocolate chip cookies - substituted coconut oil for butter, and used half chocolate chips/half dried diced banana - this is becoming my fav type of chocolate chip cookie and I'd never have even thought to try it if I didn't have a lot of dried diced banana on hand (that I'm using instead of raisins in recipes)! Then I tried a recipe for banana/oats waffles - just has banana (I used thawed from the freezer), eggs and rolled oats blended together! I doubled the recipe, and used my mini waffle maker. This is definitely a recipe I'll make again. Finally, I made a batch of banana cinnamon buns - again, used dried diced banana instead of raisins.
July 21st was wet and smoky so I figured it was a good day to do more baking! I made a 1/2 batch of oatcakes - added ground dried orange and used coconut oil instead of butter as I was very short of butter and wanted to use what I had in the house - it wasn't a good choice as they weren't a "fail" but they weren't really a success either, so now I know it's butter or lard and nothing else for oatcakes. I also made another batch of mini waffles so I could freeze them - I used a jar of my homemade applesauce instead of banana for this batch. After all that, I needed to go lie down and rest!
Later in the afternoon, I chopped up some garlic scapes I'd purchased from the bakery in Delburne the previous week (while delivering papers) and I froze another 3/4 cups.
July 23rd, we were under a heat warning again, so I went out early to pick the peas and I decided to see if there were any baby potatoes ready - there were! I got 16 potatoes and decided to roast them in my small electric frying pan (so I didn't have to heat the house by turning on the oven) - I used to use our 2 electric frying pans all the time, but it seems like ages and ages since I touched them! I ate the potatoes with melted butter and fresh dill on them - oh my...YUM!
I was craving some potato chips so dug up another hill of potatoes on July 24th. Overall, the potatoes were too baby still to really use, but I sliced up the 7 largest ones and made Salt & Pepper chips in the microwave.
Very foggy when I woke up July 28th so I decided it was a good day to bake! I had just enough coconut oil remaining in the jar I seem to have had forever so mixed up a batch of banana chocolate chip cookies - as I was very short on chocolate chips, I used 3/4 C dried diced banana and 1/4 C chocolate chips. Then I made rhubarb raspberries cinnamon buns - added the cup of raspberries (and a handful of saskatoons) I'd picked the day before, just for a fun twist - they tasted AMAZING!
July 30th I was awake earlier than I wanted to be so was in the kitchen really early. I finished making rhubarb juice and got 9.5 cups.
I had been psyching myself up to make a cherry pie this year as I had seen a bunch of kitchen hacks recently that I wanted to try, and once the cherries were ripe, I'd have enough for a pie. It's been ages and eons since I made a pie with homemade pastry so I felt a bit nervous. Well, there are some days I swear I'm not meant to be in the kitchen and Aug. 2nd was one of them!
Now, the great pie adventure actually started the previous day on Aug. 1st when I picked and pitted the cherries. I also made the pastry in the food processor - first hack - I had to finagle the pastry recipe because no one in my family made just "one" pie, they always made at least half a dozen at a time! While it WAS quick mixing the dough in the food processor, I'm not sure it was the "best" method - jury is still out on that.
Aug. 2nd was nice and cool so a good day for baking. Problems started when the pastry wasn't very "cooperative" - not sure if it was because I made in the food processor, or because I didn't use Mom's exact recipe which I know works? I had to do a bit of adapting because I couldn't get to mom's recipes, and all I could find was cherry pie recipes that used cherry pie filling not fresh cherries. Finally got the pie together.
Second kitchen hack I wanted to try was to cook the pie in Dad's older-than-me electric frying pan - partly to see how the hack worked as our electric frying pan is the best, and partly because my oven had been acting wonky in the past few weeks. Well, I plugged in the electric frying pan and the cord sparked and fried. Oh no! It's so old I had no idea if I’d be able to even find a replacement cord.
So that meant I had to cook the pie in the oven, which seemed to take FOREVER to preheat. I ended up cooking the pie for longer than the recipe said because the pastry didn't seem to be cooking at all and it took ages before the filling was even bubbling so I knew it was cooking. Unfortunately, the pie ended up bubbling over so I'm glad I put a cookie sheet under it to cook. All in all, a gong show, and I obviously need a LOT of practice making pies. This wasn't an epic fail, but it sure wasn't a success either. Though, considering how long it's been since I made pastry, I guess it turned out pretty good. Upon examining the pie on day 2, it was actually better than I thought - still not really a success, but despite the excess liquid in the filling, the bottom wasn't soggy!
Thunderstorm Aug. 10th so I decided to bake - knowing that there was a possibility of the power going out before I was done. I got lucky power-wise, and made a raspberry baked oatmeal with my fresh raspberries.
Yard & Garden:
Unless it rains, I'm outside daily (no matter how sick I may feel) watering the plants and garden at least once, and even if it does rain, I still have to water the plants on the south side of the house. It usually takes me about 10 mins to do all of the watering.
I don't think I mentioned in my last letter that I had one plant pot where none of the seeds I planted came up, so on July 6th I planted some cucumber seeds in it as the cucumbers I planted in the garden hadn't come up. Then I planted some onion seeds I'd been given in the same pot on July 10th. Fingers crossed. I haven't been lucky growing onion from seed (vs from onion sets) though Mom always was able to.
It rained early in the morning of July 9th, and before lunch I went out and pulled weeds along the house - because it was dry there - for 25 mins. It's really hard to get to a maintenance phase in the yard/garden when I don't even have all of the initial "spring" jobs done yet!
I went out for 20 mins on July 12th and pulled more quack grass from the west side of the grapes and around the rain barrel. Then I transplanted some of my Egyptian Walking Onions in the spot. Hopefully if I get more beneficial things growing they will crowd out the quack grass. Fingers crossed!
I spent 25 mins mowing my lawn on July 13th. Very muggy day so I was moving slower than usual. Later in the morning, I went out and pruned more new growth from the grape vines - looks like I might get quite a few grapes this year! Fingers crossed.
July 14th I officially gave up on my indoor garden idea. So disappointing. My house is a challenge for sunlight, in the right spot for the right length of time for healthy plants at the best of times, but it's been even more challenging this year with our long stretches of overcast/dark days due to rain. While the seeds sprouted and the plants looked like they'd be okay, a week or two of darker days caused them to shrivel up and die. I do still have the two chocolate mint plants, from the garden that I put in a pot, in the house and we'll see how they fare.
Between rain storms on July 19th, I went out to assess if there was any wind damage in the garden from the previous evening's intense wind gusts. I picked up some plant pots that had blown around, and then spent about 10 mins pulling some LARGE weeds from one of the carrot beds in the garden.
Rain off and on July 20 (1/4 inch) and 21st (1/8 inch). I picked my first handful of peas from the garden on the 21st!
As the weeds have been growing wildly, I spent an hour pulling weeds on July 22nd - along the house and around the strawberries. Could you tell when I was done? Nope, except for the full pail of weeds I pulled.
We received another 1/2 inch of rain overnight July 25/26.
I picked my first raspberries on July 27th. Only ended up with 1 cup as many of the berries were full of worms. Grrr. I also picked all of the rhubarb and prepped it for juice.
Later in the morning, I went out and spent 30 mins mowing my lawn. It was way too humid for my poor body to be doing that much work outside, but I couldn't put it off as the grass was almost too tall for me to mow myself.
Despite feeling like I overdid it the day before, I went out for a few minutes July 28th and cut down a volunteer raspberry cane by my dead plum tree - that raspberry cane was dying too. Also started cutting down my tiny crabapple bush (came back from the stump after the crabapple died and was taken down) as it was dying too - that was more work than I could handle.
I picked another cup of raspberries July 29th.
Outside early on Aug. 1st to beat the heat. I spent 75 mins outside and picked 1 cup of raspberries, 3/4 cup of Nanking cherries (most of the berries are on the trunk not the branches so very hard to reach), and 7 cups of cherries. I also pruned dead branches out of the Nanking cherry and my main apricot tree - the apricot looks like it's stressed! Oy.
Aug. 2nd we received 1/4 inch of rain and on Aug. 3rd we received 1/8th of an inch.
The gent who brings the papers to me each time rang my doorbell the afternoon of Aug. 3rd. Had his axe with him and he chopped down my dead plum tree - it really was dead! I just needed to find someone to help me get rid of the branches.
I picked another cup of raspberries Aug. 4th. It looked like I had a mole or a gopher in the garden. OY! I had no idea how I was going to get rid of that!?
Aug. 5th I stopped at Home Hardware in Bashaw, when I was delivering papers, and purchased a sonic spike to put in the garden to get rid of the mole or gopher - fingers crossed.
Aug. 6th, after returning home from the rest of the paper deliveries, I quickly cut rogue maple branches out of the two flowering plum bushes in front of the house and added to my branch pile that needed removed.
I was outside for about 45 mins Aug. 7th. I picked 10 cups of cherries - gave a cup to the garbageman and another cup to my rug hooking neighbour. [ended up pitting and freezing the rest a couple of days later.] I had noticed some apples on the ground the day before so checked and ended up picking 10 lbs of apples. Still lots on the tree that aren't ripe. I also picked another cup of raspberries. I put the sonic spike in the garden - fingers crossed.
We received an 1/8th inch of rain in the early hours of Aug. 8th and 1/2 inch Aug. 9th. Thunder and lightning most of the day Aug. 10th and we received 1/4 inch of rain and another 1/4 inch Aug. 11th.
I went out for 35 mins early Aug. 11th and picked a generous cup of raspberries and 8 cups of cherries. I couldn't figure out why I had so much trouble seeing the cherries till I backed out of the tree and discovered that THICK fog had rolled in!
Later in the afternoon, a local farmer friend stopped by and he had a mole trap! Unfortunately, he wasn't able to set the trap as he couldn't find the mole's hole as the ground was too soft from all the rain. And right after he left we had another downpour of 1/2 an inch!
I picked 8 cups of cherries and another 10 lbs of apples Aug. 12th. I will be surprised if I get any onions this year as they all seem to be rotting. My farmer friend returned, but the additional rain made it even more challenging to find the mole's hole so the trap still isn't set, and the sonic spike hasn't made him leave yet.
Jigsaw Puzzles
Since my last Letter, I finally completed the 750 piece puzzle.
...and a 1,000 piece puzzle (those pies were all a success!)
I found some more of our puzzles from childhood - thought I'd gone through all of them - and did a 100 piece one...
...and a 60 piece one. This one is one of my all-time favourite puzzles from my childhood, and I'm keeping for now.
This has sure been a different year. I've only completed 8 puzzles so far, and usually by this time I've completed more than a dozen!
UFO (UnFinished Object) Update:
As part of my Hobbit year, I make sure that I let go of (or put away, or finish) at least one physical item per day, and delete at least one computer file (or old email, or tab closed) per day. Some of my bigger highlights so far...
- more items sorted and to my Sister
- more craft supplies to our postmistress
- more items to the second hand shop and thrift store in town
- more items to the Clive thrift store
- items given to friends who had a need for the items
- more items used up from the freezer and cupboards as I sub ingredients in recipes for what I have on hand - and as a bonus, this is also clearing a LOT of plastics (recycled) out of my kitchen!
- more "to be read later" emails read and deleted
I added more items to the yard/craft sales. Though the weather didn't cooperate for me to open the sales most of July, I still managed to serendipitously sell some items!
I opened the sales July 25th, and after I pulled the tarp off the table, I discovered a LARGE wasp nest under the edge of the table - that was a challenge to get rid of and to get rid of the wasps! I also opened the sales July 26th. Only had 3 people stop all weekend and didn't sell anything.
Sales open again July 31th but had to close early as it was much too hot to keep them open during the afternoon. No had stopped anyway. My next chance to open them was Aug. 7 - 9th - had a couple people stop to look.
I can't remember if I mentioned this yet or not...for the past couple of months for sure, I've been getting more ruthless with my decluttering. If I don't really love (or have a strong sentimental attachment) an item, or know for sure I will use it, it's going out of my life. Even though I've lived in the house with these items for years, I've lived this long without them being a part of my everyday life, so they can go and it won't really impact my life negatively.
Kiala Givehand’s 7 Books in 7 Days course: I still have ideas for books I want to make though that's on the back burner for now.
Courses and Challenges (free and paid):
Karen Abend's annual (free) Sketchbook Revival online retreat. With the outside work, I'm currently stalled on the journal(s).
Deanne Fitzpatrick's (paid) Playful Joyful Rug Hooking beginner course: working on my larger (for me) rug.
Physical Activity:
Rebounder: I do 10 minutes of the health bounce, four times per day.
"Mystery activity” I’m still doing this DAILY!! For 2026, I'm just enjoying the activity and not worry about reaching a specific time duration or level of proficiency.
Works in progress:
Currently, I'm working on...
- Era of the Dreamers journal - almost daily as I've been recording my outside activities in the garden.
- personal smashbook for DAILY journal writing as part of my connection to Spirit, my Guides, and my inner Wisdom.
- mini collages - at the stage where I have a whole bunch more bits and pieces that need sorted before I complete more.
- painting (18-20?) ceramic Easter egg people from Gramma's craft kits (acrylics) - on hold
- UFO crochet project (not food) - on hold
- my next small hooked rug
- I have my 13 inch round canvas that I started in Lou's program last year (that I got kicked out of) and I'm trying to decide what to cover it with.
Featured Products for Sale:
I have my 8x10 to 11 x 14 paintings on sale for $50 each and the paintings larger than 11 x 14 are $100 each. Contact me to find out more.
This is a great time to get back into routines, so I have my hour long Love Your Body Yoga Class (suitable for beginners and all levels) available in digital format for $20. If you would like to experience this class, please email thechautauqua@gmail.com.
I have inspirational card decks, journals, chapbooks, musical CD's and more for sale that would make gifts and stocking stuffers. Please contact me at thechautauqua@gmail.com or phone 403-352-3837 to make a purchase. Or visit 4910 47 St, in Mirror, AB. Items are also available for sale at Amy’s Bakery on Main Street in Delburne, AB.