busy summer days.

hello there.

our days have been busy here at home and beyond.

do you sense time slipping away at warp speed?

it's july 1st. june flew by and the previous months

of this year were no different. to me. 

Tozer said,

"If God gives you a few more years, remember, 

it is not yours. Your time must honor God,

your activity must honor God,

and everything you do must honor God."

i've been thinking on those words lately,

knowing that for me and other faith-based

folk, it is truth. may my words, thoughts,

intent .. may the core of my heart .. honor him.

my garden grows. mostly. not everything is 

growing well if i'm to be honest. the pole beans

have issues and i'm *this* close to ripping

them from prime garden real estate. 

i'm tired of watering something so forlorn.

the hubs says wait. he didn't say for how long.

will they miraculously change their tune

and develop healthy leaves and grow a bean?

or two? hard telling since locusts from the

pit have arrived in this area. how thoughtful

they waited until the buffalo gnats died.

torturous gnats gone .. enter the next plague.

.wink.

i spy with my little eye,

a sweet fawn resting under the 

protective shade of a 

zucchini leaf.

(the white powdery stuff is diatomaceous earth)

swiss chard.

both delish & beautiful.

happily coexisting with calendula.

before the chard turns bitter i'm snipping,

cleaning, trimming, using .. 

planning to use in salads,

eggs, dehydrating, and in place of cabbage.

there's plenty more where that came from.

ever made cabbage rolls?

i have. plenty. popular dish on my father's side.

i read about using chard instead of cabbage

so thought i'd give it a go. there's a slightly

different flavor (leaf-wise) but i'd gladly do it

again, next time though i'll double the chard leaves,

and a quick-blanch first.

i didn't quick-blanch these leaves before filling

and rolling. hm. it would have been an easier

process if i had. just extra care in the steps.

before the lot went into the oven:

i trimmed the chard spines and threw them

on top. the chard stalks i chopped fine and

added them to the meat mixture. 

and plated:

i was sharing about using chard in this dish

with a dear friend. she asked if i was plating

with potatoes. gulp! i forgot about the potatoes

and in fact had no potatoes in the pantry!

lickety split quick to our miniscule town market

the hubs went, returning with two beautiful

russets which while the chard rolls were

baking, i cleaned, peeled, sliced, boiled,

whipped ... ready shortly before the 

chard rolls. whew! 

the dish was delish!!!

we had a very cool morning recently .. high 40's.

best time to bake, 'specially since temps are

spiking this week for a possible extended

number of days. ew. ew. ew. & ew.

good for the garden i suppose ..

i don't do heat well.

rather than baking bread i chose to make oodles

of sandwich rolls which can be used for sammies,

burgers and dinner rolls. we sampled one,

but of course! with a slather of fresh homemade

butter.. didn't require anything else. 

pillow soft wonderfulness.

once cooled they were individually wrapped and placed

in freezer bags .. then into the deep freeze for later use.

and today i made a new batch of ranch.

i know what's in it. IYKYK.

no strange ingredients or golly gee "additions."

i've so much to share .. in later posts.

pictures, quips, stories, thoughts, etc.

in time. until then, please care for yourselves

tenderly. for those who reached out asking

for prayer.... i'm still praying. 

let me know via email if there are updates

to the original requests.

bless you all dearly,

.sherry.

.. my steps are ordered by the Lord ..

"The Lord directs the steps of the godly, 

he delights in every detail of their lives. 

Though they stumble, 

they will never fall, 

for the Lord holds them by the hand." 

Psalm 37:23-24

one potato two.

never despise meager beginnings..

I planted potatoes in buckets the latter part of April. purple potatoes gifted from my sweet sister Shirley and her husband, and white potatoes - organic from the market. yesterday I did a bit of preliminary scrounging the spring potato buckets, unearthed this darling wee purple then set to empty two buckets resulting in a nice little harvest of purples and whites. I’ve a potato patch in another area of our property.. hoping the harvest will be far greater than seen in the picture. It’s a darling potato, don’t you think? quite small. but perfect. 

 the buffalo gnats have died out for the year... save for mosquitoes, it’s now safe to venture out of doors without risk of blistering bites from the pit. Glorious!

the garden .. the starts are in ground and surviving if not flourishing. we have a short growing season so every day counts. visiting the nearby garden center yesterday (so thankful for our village garden store) I bought various pepper plants as my starts had zero germination. Bah! they’ve been repotted until July when space will open in a garden bed reserved just for them. I also bought five shrubs for a sunny area. And steer manure.. 

scapes are ready! professor kimi gifted me oodles of garlic which I planted last October with the advisement to watch for scapes. they’re here! her further advice is to sauté the scapes in butter. yUmmmm.

this morning I’m setting up twine for the tomatoes. trying the Florida Weave style this year. then we’re heading to the farmers market in the next county, my favorite thrift store, and checking out a Jeep trail to a lookout point. 

with that I’ll bid you all a blessed good day. 

love, 

.sherry.

a basket of bits & pieces.

while i'm not of the mind to borrow jargon to describe life's happenings, i'm using a bit of jargon to describe life of late .. it's been a minute. it truly has. sometimes i find my day has whisked by with barely a thought of the tucked away list i wanted to check off as complete simply because i was too busy. such is the case. it's been a minute since visiting this little corner of blogdom. it's been a minute since i attempted to put thought to keyboard. it's been a minute. truly. it's been a minute. i'd like to try posting more. we'll see how this goes, hm?

this blog post will be here, there and everywhere. when i uploaded pics somehow they got all coddiwomple rather than the planned way in which i wanted them shared, which i guess is fitting for my blog name IS coddiwomple. regardless, carry on if you choose.

i love the mornings when fog hangs low, the air is damp, and looking across our property to the neighbors, as pictured, deems a picture should be taken to commemorate the moment. i zoomed in to get a closer shot. one for the memory books. cool foggy mornings calm me.

i must say this is a fair depiction of late. sigh. i like to feel the dirt in my fingers and do use a nail brush - but there always seems to be a tich of earth just underneath. working on it. this is a funny meme though, hm? maybe i too can use my nail beds as start plugs. wink.

the hubs and i turned 66 in april

and boy howdy do we feel every year of it.

due to a recent photo shoot i now have a 

picture to share with you. charming.

that about covers our height - or lack thereof - issue.

i've missed flowers since moving here.

the hubs is sweet and to bring a bit more happiness

to my already content heart, he planted over 200 bulbs.

this shows just a sampling of the beauty. 

i went out this morning and snipped a few tulips,

daffodils, lilac, and a sprig from a flowering bush.

into a pretty jar and on my counter next to where

our yogurt is incubating. so pretty. 

after refurbishing/rebuilding/restoring eleven vintage

trailers, we're set to release number eleven and going

a different direction for our travel needs.

this darling is a 1955 Boles Aero Monterey.

we rebuilt/restored it from the ground up.

* blood * sweat * tears *

.. literally ..

she's a beauty but we're moving on and saying

a fond farewell to that part of our lives.

a week ago's tulips on the monstrous-sized hutch

the hubs built. aren't they so so pretty? 

oh! oh! oh! this is good. yesindeedy. 

a bit of yum for dinner recently. i used a burrito size

tortilla and added the taco ingredients, lightly brushed

evoo on all sides then into a toasty cast iron skillet to

get all crunchy delish. served with sour cream and

*illinois hot sauce* it was lip-smackin' yum.

*illinois hot sauce* my childhood growing up in

the itty bitty northeast corner of the state. 

dad would make tacos. he got the spicy sauce

and the littles got catsup. my sweet sister shirley

and i still eat ground beef tacos this way. wink.

the recent aurora borealis made a showing in our parts.

not as fancy as other pictures i've seen but my goodness

this was sure beautiful. how was it in your area?

one of two pea start areas. the hubs suggested i invert

a tomato cage in the dirt so peas can climb up the 

metal poles. so i did. the cage is held down with these

nifty holdy downy metal things i have in the 

greenhouse. do you like my techy explanation?

there are two pea starts at each pole.

the pretty mess in the middle is lavender.

i have more peas in a nearby area.

lilacs are itchin' to say hello. soon.

my little radishes seem happy.

i'll pickle some and others i'll saute

in butter as a nice addition to a meal.

potatoes are in the ground and reaching for the sun.

our last frost date is june 18 so i'm getting what

i can in the ground as our growing season is short.

with that dear ones .. i'll sign off. 

dinner needs to be put together and it isn't

going to do it on its own, near as i can tell.

bless you dearly as you see well to the ways of

your household and those you love.

with love,

.sherry.

p.s. maranatha

slow down..

see clearly..

love gently..

live bravely.

{melissa * slowliving}

rest is found, 

not when you try to understand

all the confusing twists and turns 

that shape the timeline of your life, 

but when you trust the One 

who is writing your story."

{unknown}