The peaches are flowering!

I mentioned I took a trip out to Fredericksburg a couple weeks ago.  The peach trees out near Johnson City (source of the peaches I got last summer and canned) were blooming, and I took a bunch of pictures. Peach blossoms are very light, delicate, airy things.  The trees themselves are small, maybe about 6 feet high and spread out a lot.  In a farm they’re all pruned so there are these tidy rows of short little trees.  Anyway, they were really pretty, so I thought I’d share some pictures I took.

It was very early spring-like out there.  Dark earth, brilliant green with a few early touches of flower color.  I’m still hoping for the best, but it looks like this year’s crop of wildflowers is going to be on the small side.  We’ve had a terrible drought here the past year.  I know people love the warm, sunny weather, but I can’t imagine it’s great if you’re a grower of things or managing our public water supply or in charge of the lakes and rivers. I like rain and thunderstorms, and I’ve missed clouds.

Of course, I’m going to get another box of peaches this July. And I’m going to skip the jam because I want to make a lot more salsa this year, and can more tomatoes. Want a jar? If you do, tell me and I’ll make you one. And I’m going to try to make some other stuff, more tomatoes, I don’t know what else as long as I don’t have to use a pressure cooker.  I keep thinking maybe sauerkraut and hot sauce, too.

I have actually used most of what I canned. I’ll have to tell you about that later. It was very exciting, in a really dorky I-obviously-didn’t-have-to-do-this-when-I -was-growing-up-and-oh-my-god-my-tomatoes-are-still-good-months-later-that’s-so-amazing kind of way. The sourcing and production of food is often a magical and completely unknown process to city/suburban kids. We assume all stuff grows in cans (just kidding, but you see what I mean).

So. Peach blossoms. I kind of kept wondering if they tasted good too – but forebore to eat any. Sometimes flowers are poisonous. Where I grew up there seemed to be lots of poisonous flowering plants (and bugs and animals), like oleander, and so I never just want to eat stuff. Probably a good thing. I also learned to identify and avoid poison ivy. Also good.

So I’ll be there at that farm stand this summer. We’ll do a before and after, if I remember

Springtime finds

I have begun my annual pilgrimages to yonder Hill Country as I do each year.  First up was the Art and Artisans festival at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. It’s always fun for me to go to an art event where everything is centered around flowers. There were a couple there I particularly liked that used pressed leaves and flowers to create various scenes and patterns – one on paper and one on glass. Sadly, I do not know the names, because I lose things too often.

The Wildflower Center does a bang-up job with art in addition to their lanscape work. Not just floral-centered but also more generally things that support artists from this area. They have rotating art exhibit, and at the moment are featuring things from the Texas Society of Sculptors Exhibit. For example, these 2 photos. I liked these ceramic figures (above) – they are nuns, from what the description said, nuns singing from psalm books.  They caught my eye, colorful in the sunlight.

I also thought this wood nymph was just beautiful.  She is as insubstantial as bronze would allow the artist to be. At least, it is my opinion that she’s a dryad, the exhibit page suggests she might be a siren. But dryads can be sirens, right?  Most nymphs would be, I’d think. Maybe I’m wrong. If you’ve ever met a nymph and can offer more of a first-hand testimonial, let me know.

Mostly I wandered around and enjoyed the gardens, which were just coming into bloom, and enjoyed the bees and butterflies that were attracted to the just-opened flowers.  See the little guy in there?  He was very, very busy.  Just like the bee cliche, yes, I know. I couldn’t help it.  I would have a bee nest in my garden if I had one, for the native bees, and also plants that attract butterflies.  Perhaps one day I will make good on my threat to have a garden.  Currently I appear to be growing rocks and trees in my backyard. It is not exciting.

Fluff!  Don’t get that up your nose.  You’ll sneeze for a week.

I also traveled into the hill country last weekend, and went to Fredericksburg for a bit of a wander.  This resulted in a couple more photos that just plain amused. me.  I am easily amused, I know.  This guy, for example, probably sells some sort of beef jerky. I honestly cannot imagine putting a license plate on my beautifully restored and lovingly cared-for antique truck that talked about beef jerky, but what do I know?  Of course, to me the plate also reminds me of the Jerky Boys, because I am of that generation and I really can’t help it.  This guy probably never heard of the Jerky Boys.

This one just cracked me up.  When I pulled over to take the picture, a bunch of goats ran right up to the gate there and made a lot of exuberant bleating goat noises.  This Rancho might not be so Grande, but it certainly did not lack for enthusiasm and bravado among its furry occupants, or sly humor from the owners. The ranch also hosts very fuzzy brown llamas, which reminded me of how I want an alpaca. That’s very practical, yes? I could keep the alpaca with the rocks that are growing in the back yard?  Ummm, yeah.

And that is some of my show-and-tell for you.  I have not worked on my quilt lately, instead I took drives, went to festivals and cleaned my whole house from top to bottom.  Not a bad trade, all things considered.

Travel Craft

My biggest source of confusion and packing disorder for my week-and-a-half long trip was what crafting projects to bring. It was a difficult decision. There was very limited space, you see.  I could take just two small bags, and I had to bring clothes.  Seriously, I considered mailing myself some supplies.  That’s sad, isn’t it?  A little compulsive, maybe?

I eventually elected to bring a new crochet project, a shirt I wanted to embroider and a pattern and materials for a skirt.  So in went my yarn, my box of all-purpose crafting goodies and tools that I like to carry with me, and a bag of stuff to take to my Grandmother.  Have I mentioned that yarn is bulky?  Yes indeed, Jeff did laugh at me stuffing balls of yarn into an overstuffed suitcase.  I also got rather cross when I couldn’t find my small scissors.

The skirt pattern I took was one I purchased a number of years ago.  I will publish the fruits of that labor soon enough (when it’s entirely done, I have to make adjustments).  I wanted to reap the benefits of my grandmother’s years of sewing expertise.  I mean, I can probably read a pattern, but there’s a lot more to patterns than the reading of them, although I did struggle with the quite irritating waistband of the skirt that I just couldn’t make sense of.  Plus with patterns there’s mostly the fitting of them.  Standard patterns aren’t exactly drawn to fit the Everyday Woman.  Or at least not this one.  I needed help.

I also took a bit embroidery as a nice little set of hand-work to do, but I really didn’t get much done on it.  The shirt needs some adjustment to fit properly to begin with.  Why can’t manufacturers EVER put in bust darts, I ask?  Almost every shirt could benefit from them, but they’re never added.  Anyway, this is a summer shirt, and it’s October, so it predictably didn’t hold my attention.

My crochet project got a lot accomplished by the end of the week.  I’m kind of impressed.  I’ll show you that soon, too.  I’d have thought I’d have gotten less done, because it’s not exactly bulky yarn and it’s only crocheted in half-double-crochet (a denser fabric, thus requiring more stitches and yarn), but I really kept at it.

As you can tell, though, I had a pretty good time just pointing the camera lens out my window on the train.  I’m fascinated by all the things you can see on a train – it’s not always the most picturesque way to travel, but you learn a lot about the places you go through when you travel that way.  I find you learn more about the ways that people actually earn their bread and butter, the things people do on a daily basis and how they live.  Of course, you see a whole lot of train yards, too.

If you’ve ever taken Amtrak from Washington, DC to New York City, you know just how ugly places can get.  Elizabeth, New Jersey by train is one of the most godawful places on the face of the planet.  It’s dirty, and sooty, and it smells funny, and you just know that they only reason the place doesn’t fall apart is that it’s being held together by its own grit.  But in other places you just see the industry they have, which is interesting and not always too gritty – agriculture, dirt and rocks, the rivers and highways, steel melting, petroleum refining, and who knows what else that I didn’t even recognize.

I had a great time on my 11 days of freedom and leisure.  I love the Midwest – I love my family, and their way of life up there, and the first days of crisp weather and fall, and getting out of a city into pasture and fields.  I was lucky to be able to go to the harvest festival they call God’s Portion Day in the town of 300 people that I’ve been visiting all my life, and see old friends and extended relatives.  It was hard, hard, hard to come back to the heat and the city and work and getting up at 6:15 to go run at the gym.  ARGH, I tell you.

I was entranced with the textures and shapes I saw on my 28-hour train rides from Austin to Chicago, and I hope you enjoy them as well.  I talked about them more on Flickr, if you’re interested.