my saturday

in june i did a post of what a weekday may look like for me (which can be found here). i thought it would be fun to document a weekend day, so let's begin.

 good morning, morning glory

(these volunteers came up from plants in the 2009 garden!)

madj woke me up at 5:30 for her first breakfast. i fell back asleep and she let me go 'til 9:30, when she wanted her second breakfast.

after feeding the madj, i made coffee and admired the 26 pounds of peaches i picked yesterday (some soft ones are in the fridge). most will be used for peach jam and my favorite, peach and pepper jam.

then i sipped my small cup of coffee diluted with water (for the IC) while perusing some blogs and peach jam recipes. i could spend hours reading blogs and recipes, but i had some things to do in the garden.

first i weeded a bit and harvested some herbs.

 oregano

 spearmint

 coriander seeds

 sage

a lunch break was needed, and a smoothie was made with ripe bananas that i keep stocked in the freezer.

this sweet smoothie consisted of banana, peach, cucumber, collard greens, beets, parsley, mint and vanilla bean. 

after lunch, the herbs were rinsed and spread out on a dish towel to dry.

then the greens were placed upside down in brown bags to dry out a few weeks, and the coriander seeds were placed in mason jars.

while looking for a place to put the jars, i finally got fed up with the mess called my spice cabinet.

 before

 after

(we'll see how long this lasts!)

when i was done cleaning out the cabinet, i took a mid-afternoon rest out on the porch in a cozy papason with farmer boy and carrot cake super cookies.

farmer boy is the third book of the charming little house series by laura ingalls wilder. our local library has the whole set. farmer boy is based on the young life of laura's husband, almanzo. these books were written for children but are enjoyable for adults interested in pioneer times.

the carrot cake super cookies are super tasty and nutritious. if you can't read the ingredients on the package, they include unsulphured coconut, sprouted sesame seeds, carrots, dates, and nutmeg - all organic. i'm going to try to make these when we harvest our carrots.

speaking of, check out this atomic red carrot i picked yesterday. it's the largest one we've grown in our raised beds!

after my rest, john and i did some chores, like dishes, vacuuming, changing the cat litter, and other crap. to keep my IC symptoms in check, i made some plantain tea. reading jane's blog post about plantain and finding it growing like crazy in my own yard was truly a blessing!

dinner was take-out of non animal-friendly food, so we won't talk about it here! as i mentioned before, i do my best, but sometimes convenience and old habits get the best of me. in my defense, i did suggest leftovers for dinner, but john said it's a holiday weekend and everyone else is having good stuff and wha wha wha. of course i could have had something different, but what can i say, i'm weak!

while we were waiting for dinner to be delivered, sammy came to say hi. sammy is an outdoor cat that eats and sleeps at a neighbor's house.

he's very friendly, but biggles wants nothing to do with him. she hisses when he comes to the door. i think she hears us when we talk about adopting another cat, and she's showing us how she feels about that!

after dinner, i did some more fall planting at the community garden. beets, kale, spinach and lettuce seeds were sown. broccoli and kale transplants that were started on our windowsill went into the ground. seeds that were planted in the previous weeks are coming up and growing nicely.

brandy the garden's mascot was there. isn't she sweet?!

so now i'm here typing, sipping a glass of live-a-little organic white wine. i really shouldn't be drinking wine on account of the IC, but it's a holiday weekend and everyone else is having good stuff and wha wha wha!=)