Life After Kat

It's been two weeks since Kat headed back East, and I finally feel like I'm getting back on top of my various projects again.  We had an absolute blast while she was here; too much fun to remember to take photos most of the time.  A couple of weeks before her visit, she dropped on me the very new information that she's come around on nature, and is now "into that stuff."  I had thought we would spend her visit in Portland sewing and going to the arcade/second run theatre, and suddenly there was a lot more to try to fit in.  Luckily we got to a little of everything:  Kat sewed her first garment (a gathered, high waisted skirt with an elastic waistband and some very impressive looking pockets); we made a bunch of bread together, including pitas, pizza, and a rustic-type loaf, worked in the garden, spent an afternoon at Powell's, the giant bookstore; Gordon took her to her first concert to see Say Anything and Eisley; she and Sarah went kayaking two days in a row, once out to an island that they explored on a long hike; Kat even tried a bit of surfing one day with Seth and I, borrowing my board to catch waves on her stomach and knees (next year she'll be on her feet for sure!).

We're beginning to reap the rewards of our garden, so far mostly in the form of snap peas and salad greens.

  

Seth put together this garden box with some old windows we found.  We left them down during the beginning of the season to make a mini greeenhouse while it was still cold and we were starting the lettuce, but now its sweltering most days so it stays open.

We also harvested our garlic while Kat was here, and have somewhere around 30 bulbs of 6 different varities, still drying in our pantry.

Kat munching on some peas.  You can see we also have a pear tree and blackberries growing out back.

Planted some corn the other day, a tiny bit late but we'll still get some, just late and maybe not quite in abundance.  We have zucchini and tomatoes that are starting to produce now too; I made a loaf of zucchini bread the other day and think we'll have a few more throughout the summer.  Tomatoes seem... difficult.  Maybe they'll surprise me with a late comeback, but so far they've required more tlc than their production seems worth.  I had hopes to grow a bunch and can our own sauces this summer.  It's kinda early still, but I'm thinking in years to come I might focus more on other things.    Less finicky things.

We've been trying to balance taking advantage of the summer, now that it's finally here in full force, and working on our projects.  Seth has two new boards in the works, which I have remembered to photograph from the very beginning this time (coming soon) and together we've been developing pair of shoes (also more to come soon).  But with mountains and ocean both just a couple of hours away, it's tough!