Preserved

Blueberry jam - check
Strawberry jam - check
Peaches - check.

My son has taken to calling me 'yulia' when he can't get my attention. Sometimes I think he may be a little too smart.

Successes and Failures

We have had a couple of successes and failures here lately.

Inspired by this post over at My Girl Thursday I embarked on a journey to make my own bubble bath. I've been wanting to find a recipe that works for a while and the last bottle that I bought at Shoppers smells like gum mixed with toilet bowl cleaner and it a horrible blood red mixed with rotting grape juice color. I really have to find another option because we do consume a lot of bubble bath around here. So - I found a recipe and gathered my materials.

I shredded the bar of soap and left it to dissolve in water.

It didn't seem to be doing it so I put the mixture on some low heat and that did it. I mixed in the glycerin and put it in the bottles, expect for a little that I saved to put in the bath that night. When we went to mix in the bath that night we found this:

Semi solid gelatinous sludge. We mixed it into the bath anyway and didn't get any bubbles. Then we added the store bought bubbles and didn't get any bubbles. We have created the anti-bubble bath. Not what I was looking for. Failure #1.

The next is a failure and a success. Our dish washer has not been working very well lately, not really washing and leaving a film on all our dishes. My mother was even thinking of washing all of our dishes by hand to get them clean. So - I thought I would try changing soap to see if that helped. With a small package of phosphate rich chemical dish soap we gave it a try and got this. Can you tell which is the all natural soap and which is the phosphate?

The difference in real life is even more dramatic. Chemicals: 1 Julia: 0

And finally - a rousing success. I organized and finished staining the shed this week. I don't have a good "before" picture but suffice it to say that it didn't look this good. So I haved added a couple of years to an old shed before all the wood needs to get pulled off and thrown away. Overall I think my environmental footprint ends up about even. I am still on the lookout for a good, homemade bubble bath if anyone has any ideas.

A mother's milestone

I have passed an important milestone in my life as a mother. My baby is weened (this happened a month and a half or so ago and was, surprisingly, quite a non event)... but that's not the milestone I was talking about. I have emptied my underwear drawer and refilled it again. My cup overfloweth - or, actually, it doesn't. I am now officially a 36B. Rafa has volunteered to 'fix those up' the next time we're in Barranquilla but I think I will leave the little ladies as they are. It's nice to have you back, for my own personal use again.

Another long update

I need to begin to think of better titles. Perhaps - "Hot Summer Days". The fact is that I get way behind and then have to update in one big go. More bang for your buck that way. First, you have seen a bit of cuteness with a ripe summer melon.

Next - "a bushel of basil"... after washing and picking off the stem.

My friend Kate and I shared the bushel - grown locally and organically. We made pesto (of course) and for the record a bushel of basil (plus a bag of parsley donated by Sue Cole's garden) makes 28 little containers of pesto. The whole thing (basil, oil, peanuts (cheaper and I can't tell the difference) and containers) came to about $83. Works out to less than $3 per container. Not super cheap but definitely cheaper than the store. And more delicious if I do say so myself.

"A project long in the waiting." We had this bedspread at my mom's for as long as I can remember. It was in the shack for a long time. I always liked it, partly because I recognized the incredible amount of hand work involved and partly because it has a nice 'weighty' feel to it. Problem is that after so many years it was full of holes. This week I took it apart and saved the good bits. More on this project as I decide what to do with them. I think I will put them all back together again into a smaller throw.

And finally, "Today's meal."

On the plate from the garden, picked today:
-cherry tomatoes
-cucumber
-kale
-potatoes
And... organic, locally grown, homemade pesto. Lovely.

A Long Weekend of Music Festivals

Saturday: Blue Skies

Bajhan and Phalo (disclaimer: no promises that I spelt either name correctly)

Requesting grapes from stangers

the gift of a harmonica from Valerie - big hit!

Passed out in a borrowed tent.

Dancing on the hill.

Sunday: Canadian Guitar Festival

Diego, Dad and Daniel - music and men

Picnic lunch.

Swim Break.

Thanks to Ivan who gave us this folding kids chair yesterday. Also a big hit!

Dancing. Just at the end he notices the pile of dirt and asks for "just one" of the sand toys. Did you catch it?

A busy but wonderful weekend, paid off today with a 2 and a half hour nap - hence the blogging update. Does anyone else feel like this summer has been particularly and wonderfully long? There are 4 weeks left!