Putterings

Today I puttered in my art journal, in my hut and in the gardens and harvested some black and red currants.I harvested some insight and inspiration too. I rearranged my kitchen/dining space a bit. After dinner I foraged for dessert in the fading strawberry patch. Before dinner I listed those "Figures of Love" mentioned in yesterday's post. Other than that, I'm not really sure. In any event, it was a nice puttering sort of day, complete with more sunshine than I've seen in days. Dig it.

Figures of Love

I finished the final layers, signed and sealed my latest little angels and demons. It seems they took forever to complete, eh? I am happy with the outcome and thank The Boy for the inspiration to create the little demons. I 'll be listing them in my ArtFire studio over the coming days.

It's Thursday ...

... and you know the drill ...

Join me In the Garden today (and every Thursday) at 11:30 AM, eastern at Blockhead Radio! I'll be brewing up more green, fermenting talk!

Meet up with us in Chat! See ya!

A Mess & A Dent

Tired of seeing brewing images? Yeah? Too bad. Because I'm in the throes of a brewing frenzy, having way too much fun trying "new" old herbal "recipes" and other spirited experiments. And so it is that such messes are made ...

... the Sage Ale that I started yesterday turned vivaciously active overnight and I awoke to a mess on the brew table, though was reminded of the value of the trays that I use! I had to remove the airlock, clean it well and then just covered the carboy with a glass bowl for most of the day to keep it relatively safe from invaders while it worked out its fits ...

... not before loosing a good 8-10 ounces of the nectar. Such is life, eh? Of course, I tasted it and can tell that I'm gonna like it. The airlock is back on now and I hope that the yeasties find their rightful balance in the realm of this wise and lively brew!

Aside from making this mess (well, the yeasties did it, but I was working in collusion with them), I made a respectable dent in "paper" work of several sorts. Oh, this included the routine bills, but also bookkeeping, filing, perusing files and binders to purge that which no longer adds value. And even though this dent is but a (never-ending) beginning, one which will be attacked again tomorrow, it felt GOOD.

That's what I made. And for now, I will enjoy a nice bowl of simple homemade chicken soup (to celebrate the 1st of July???), and invest some time adding layers to my Figures of Love, and watching "Death at a Funeral." Caio!

More Brews

Today a made a number of things that fall into one of two categories: Unphotographable or Whowouldwanttoseeitevenifyoucould. But I did bottle two gallons of sacred ale, one of Melissa and one of Cardamom. Pretty, aren't they?

I replenished my yeast stash and got that make-up Melissa mead going and started a batch each of Wormwood and of Sage. My Monarda (bee balm) will be blooming any day and I plan to make a batch of ale with those blossoms. Brewing season has indeed begun!

Bubble, Bubble ...

... no toil ... no trouble!

The Most of a Sunny Day

Today was a mostly sunny day - the first one in weeks, and I made my way into the garden to face facts. Many - if not most - of the seedlings that were put in or sprouted in the past 2-3 weeks are no more. Several of my peppers are in question as well, yet most of the tomatoes seem fine enough. I did more transplanting and put in more seeds and offered blessings yet again. I harvested another half-pound of Melissa to start the infusion for my next batch of Melissa mead - one to make up for the "bad situation" batch the other day. Halley liberated herself and upon her return I hosed her down and then chilled on the late afternoon deck to enjoy the last bottle of our Hopped Porter Variation that I humorously labeled "HPV." Well - I think it's funny. This was one of the best dark ales we've ever made and I savored every drop.

My latest little "Figures of Love" were finally fully dry and I started painting the first layers. Today I cleaned earth and paint from under my nails. Today I made the most of a sunny day.

The Best of a Bad Situation

After a lovely visit from my sweet friend Granny Annie I got to work on two one gallon batches of mead. What's bad about that? Well ... yesterday I harvested and prepared a half-pound of Melissa officinalis (lemon balm) for steeping overnight. This morning I added green tea, lemon juice, cooked banana and 3 pounds of delicious local honey. What's so bad about that? Well, I hydrated the wine yeast, got a PA reading and got to vigorously stirring oxygen into the mead-to-be. Thing is, for my one gallon wine-n-mead batches, I start the primary fermentation in glass jars and normally I stir with my plastic wine spoon, and today I was stirring with my stainless steel spoon, that is until ...

CRACK!

And I watched with a stunned despair as what would have been five bottles of delicious Melissa mead cascade down the kitchen drain. So sad. So very, very sad.

Even so I was glad that I was stirring the batch in the sink. All I could really do is sigh a blessing down the drain and out into the deep, dark depths of the septic system. Such is life.

But I had yeast waking up on the counter, so I had to act fast! I had some rose petals and earl grey tea leaves steeping and bananas cooked for another project, so I measured out three pounds of honey, heated it with as little water as I could get away with, added cool water, the rose infusion, strained tea, mashed bananas and stirred it with the plastic spoon. I pitched the yeast with a cheer of love and gratitude. What else could I do?

I'll be naming this batch "Emergency Mead." It will be as close to a "straight" mead as I've ever made. In any event I continued with the rose petal batch, making the adjustments for the stolen elements. Both are bubbling away nicely.

And me? I'm delighted and grateful to have sweet friends to share it with. When the time comes. Slainte!

My Way into the Light

Daybreak arrived with a strange light shining down from a blue sky. Quite frankly, it was a bit like waking to an alien landscape. I asked, "Is that the sun?" Really - I did. Well, it came and went, dancing with cloud cover throughout the day. No rain though. Like a miracle. Afternoon came and I hit the mostly dry gardens. I harvested a few quarts of strawberries, some cat mint and peppermint. The catmint, while past-prime, will be dried for teas and the peppermint will become a pesto. Several seedlings did not survive the last several days of constant cloud cover and rain fall. Such is life. Time for contingency plans. After all, I don't garden as a hobby. I garden to grow a large part of my own food. Most folks don't understand this - even when they say they do.

The strawberries were sorted. Fresh picked garlic scapes were chopped and last week's infused vinegar was strained onto today's fresh pickings to continue the infusion. Gonna be good! I love garlic scape infused vinegar, to me it has a buttery flavor. Somehow, a bottle of mead and a bottle of cranberry wine found their way to the harvest table. Hey - the sun was shining - and I should too!

And hey - if you missed to joining us for Melissa Ale In the Garden, you can start catching up "here." And post any brewing questions you may have here or at the Blockhead Radio blog - I'll be using them to fashion next week's show, when we'll be doing a "Melissa Ale Follow-up" In the Garden!

Now ... while my little acre is mostly dry, I have more Melissa to harvest so I can start a Melissa MEAD! Later!