Garden update, plus a bit on fiber (more to come)

Wow, it's been busy around here.

Book progress

The art director did a few days' worth of photos before I arrived to share the work. She did the pictures of the items made with various types of fibers. They're standard shots that don't include really technical fiber stuff.

Then I was there for five days of photography that turned into seven (I delayed my return home) and we finished all the wool shots.

I'll be going back for either four or five days, which should let us complete the photography for the other critters' fibers and the chapter openers and maybe the cover. Hopefully the cover. We did some preliminary cover photography at the very end of the wool days, but the final stuff is yet to come.

When I have a minute, I want to get some snapshots of the fiber-shoot posted.

Today, however, I spent arranging travel. Two more trips.

This just in

A few days after we get done with the next photo shoot, I'm flying to Cleveland for a little over 24 hours to tape two segments for next season's Knitting Daily TV. It'll be part of series 600 (series 500 is now airing and series 400 is available on the web, and there are DVDs of the other series).

That's a lot more travel to coordinate. I thought I was home for a bit. . . .

Meanwhile, the garden

Between bouts of booking flights and rental cars and arranging places to stay, I have been enjoying our garden.

Here's what it looked like in mid-May (on my mother's birthday, in fact):

By July 11, this is what we had:

Note the new squirrel-proofing on that one bed. The other beds seem to have been far less attractive to the critters this year. We did protect the plants vigilantly until they got reasonably large.

By July 27, just before I left for the LOOOOOOONG trip, here's what we had:

I arrived home to find this, on August 31:

What's not evident from the photos is how much we've actually been eating from that greenery. We were having lettuce before I left, and that was it. Now we have delicious tomatoes (thank you, Susan and Richard!), HUGE squash, and basil (thank you again, S&R!).

Lots of basil:

So I spent part of today (between travel-agent tasks) making pesto.

That's eight half-cup containers (four full cups) of pesto.

Yum.

Comments

[jeni/magnusmog]

Oh the envy - the Scottish weather doesn't allow for such abundant basil growth and I do love pesto!

[Deborah Robson]

If I could send you some pesto, Jeni, I would! And it's really hard for me to share pesto because I'm so fond of it {grin}.

[StephCat]

Do you freeze the pesto?

[Deborah Robson]

Yes, I freeze the pesto. Except what we're eating yesterday and today--! It is so lovely to have pesto in the freezer during the winter. These half-cup containers are about four servings' worth.

[L.M. Cunningham]

With luck, I'm going to buy a bunch of basil this weekend at our favourite farmers' market and do the same thing. :-)

When I freeze mine, I do it in ice cube trays, and when frozen, toss them into a bag for storage. It's easier to ration out that way: melts faster in the pasta too....

Of the two PBS stations we get on cable, one has never carried KD, and the other stopped after series 400. Boo hiss.

Too bad you don't have more time in Cleveland though: there's an artist who makes, spins, knits and weaves with Korean paper who's been at the Morgan Conservatory.

[Susan J. Tweit]

Congratulations on the photo-shoot progress, the date with Knitting Daily TV (wear simple clothes in colors that flatter you--no bright patterns or complicated cuts), and especially on the garden. I'm delighted to hear that our tomato and basil starts thrived so well for you!
(BTW, if you see the Denver Post, Zone 4 Magazine, which includes my new "The Whole Life" column, gets a lovely shout-out in Bill Husted's column on page B-3. It's excellent publicity.)

[Deborah Robson]

Linda, I always like the ice-cube idea, but around here that doesn't happen because it takes TWO steps (freeze, then transfer) instead of ONE (freeze). I know my limits {grin}.

Susan! Yes, the tomato and basil starts have been doing wonderfully. That pile of basil in the photo came from the ONE lemon basil plant. It loved us! And those dark tomatoes are my favorites. I haven't liked similar varieties from the store, but these are so sweet. . . .

That's great news about the Zone 4 publicity in the Denver Post. Zone 4 is a delight.

And thanks for the clothing tips. I have something in mind that I think will be okay. I'm also told it can be warm under the lights.

[Joanne]

Wow, your garden is gorgeous! So glad to hear that you are busy with wonderful fibery stuff. It sounds productive, if very travel intensive. Enjoy the pesto...mine's already frozen and waiting patiently for winter.

[Deb Robson]

Joanne, the gardens small, but doing nicely this year. Last year we built the 3 beds, and then only had enough energy to plant 1.5 of them! Its lovely to see all of them looking green.

Productive. Yes. Travel-intensive. Very.

Wow, the photos for the book are beautiful! Blog posts in the future will show the process.