A tale of flip flops and green beans

OK, I have truly lost it. Our new dog, a stray who showed up and stayed, chewed one of my flip flops a few days ago. I picked it up and threw it away. Then I got to thinking that I might be able to stamp with it, so I dug it out of the trash. Thankfully, it was right on top. It makes great stamps with two different designs, one on the sole and one on the strap. Plus, I have this reminder of a $1 pair of shoes that served me for three summers. That's the sole print on the right in blue and a piece of the strap in purple on the lavender stripe.



Our new fence appears to be working. So far no deer tracks or mischief in the garden. For the first time in ages, we have green beans.



I picked this batch last night about 7:30. I had forgotten just how low bush bean plants are. I'm considering pole beans next year. I would rather reach up than bend down.



I've discovered that I much prefer to snap the ends off when the beans are dry. I wipe the blossoms off then too. It's much easier than after you wash them, plus I can watch tv or blog surf while I'm doing it. With my slow dial-up, it's good to have something else to do while I blog surf.



I used to can beans, but we much prefer then frozen. Plus, now that we are empty nesters, it's nice to be able to take some out of the bag and only prepare what we will eat.

I boil the beans whole for two minutes in small batches, and then cool them down in front of the fan, or air conditioner if it's on, and pack them into the freezer bags.



I wound up at 11:45 PM with eight quart bags full. I should have started earlier, but then I would have burned up in the garden.

Gardening on my mind

I always think I will do lots of journaling and sewing in the summer and somehow it never really happens. Lately I've had gardening on my mind and when I'm not thinking about that, the addition we are building is there to occupy me.



I have managed to do a few pages. I also got my copy of Dawn Sokol's 1,000 Art Journal Pages with my pages inside. I was thrilled to see them there and am enjoying looking at everyone else's
pages.



I got up this morning and went out and picked a few blackberries. These are growing on the edge of the yard. We've nearly finished eating them already. I need to decide if I want to go look for more bushes on the farm. We've had an unusually rainy summer and there should be lots.

I love to include my granddaughters' artwork in my journal. Last week when I was at their house the oldest, Madelyn who is nearly five, added her doodles to a couple of dates I had written down and doodled around.



Whatever Madelyn does, her little sister Erin wants to do too, so Erin was soon drawing too. She is twenty months old and is just starting to really like making marks. They looked so sweet as they sat side by side at the breakfast bar,heads down concentrating on their drawing.

I've been using my NeoColor II's a lot lately. My big box, of 15 I think, finally showed back up. I had even cleaned my atelier looking for them. They were in a different room where I had tucked them away when company came.

The bear is from a recent Free People catalog. I like the catalogs because they remind me of someone's journal pages.