It’s been a while since I’ve posted so this blog is about catching up with friends, books, marbling and gardens. After my return from the Folk School class, I had a huge crop of slightly over-ripe cucumbers. I still have about two dozens pints of pickles from last year, but I just couldn’t let all of those beauties go to waste. I made another dozen or so pints and vowed to have pickles on the table for every meal next year. I decided that that was enough and I would NOT do anymore. So far, I’ve held to it and have only picked cucumbers for eating. Don’t know if I’ll hold out though!
We’ve had a stretch of cooler weather and while I love it, the tomatoes don’t. The red cherry tomatoes just aren’t getting ripe. The orange ones (Sungold) are almost ripe, but not in the profusion they should be. The full size are slowly ripening, but if we don’t have some hot sun, I might not have enough to can this year. Harvest from two days, minus the cucumbers!
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Wednesday
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Friday
Last week I had a delightful visit from a friend I’ve known for over 20 years. We had rather lost contact for a while besides the annual birthday greetings and it was great to see him again. It’s amazing how one can flow back into relationships with a friend one hasn’t seen in years and yet with other people it is hard to sync up even seeing them once a week. People are strange and fascinating beings. My friend had read about my marbling class and wanted to learn how to do it, so we spent a day playing with it!
Lots of fun, but I didn’t get much real work done. After he left, I went back to the trays, but the carrageenan just wasn’t doing its job. Not sure if it was the temperature, high humidity, my water or just random contamination. Very frustrating!
Amid all this, my dehumidifier conked out. My studio is in the basement so its very important that it stays dry, especially the area where I store my paper. I ordered a super heavy-duty model, but it took over a week for it to arrive. More frustration. To cap it all off, my hot water heater died. That replacement was fast and efficient, but not before I had to deal with a lot of water on the floor. Not the time to be without my dehumidifier!
All is well at the moment and I hope to have pictures of some new creations soon. I have listed my diskette books on Etsy, so I have a start! More paper will be coming soon.
In another catch up, I talked a while ago about buying recycled odds and ends at a place in Durham, NC. One of the pieces I bought was a broken slab of marble (not sure if it’s real or fake). I’ve been using it as a base on which to pare leather and it is just the right size. I’m thrilled with it! It’s hard to see in the picture, but the marble makes a smooth, hard surface to cut against while paring. The edges of the leather need to be pared down to the thickness of a sheet of paper. I’m not very skilled at it and it takes a lot of knife work to get them smooth even and the right thickness.
I hope to do some more marbling next week and hoping it’ll be more productive than last! In the meantime, lots of books to finish and hoping no more appliances die!
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