So, okay.
Tomorrow, we look at scans of a jacket, and some pics of women in blackworked coifs - by request.
Today, I itch. We spent the weekend at the farm, picking up the things we needed for Pennsic. I also took the opportunity to check on the vulture - he/she is fledged, and gone, leaving nothing but a memory.
Tomorrow, we look at scans of a jacket, and some pics of women in blackworked coifs - by request.
Today, I itch. We spent the weekend at the farm, picking up the things we needed for Pennsic. I also took the opportunity to check on the vulture - he/she is fledged, and gone, leaving nothing but a memory.
A pungent, eye-watering memory. Those little beasties really stink, I tell you.
I managed to get a few - as in five pounds or so - blackberries. They are pretty much the last of the crop, and I am a bit sorry we missed their peak, since they were prolific this year (even though I still have a jar of the 2004 jam. It's still really good). The fruit looked like illustrations from a particularly romantic 19th century botany book - lush clusters of fruit entwined in honeysuckle vines, in shades of red and black. Yummy. I will make syrup from this lot, I think.
Less yummy (for me, at least) was the plethora of mosquitos - I slathered on insect repellent, but I am apparently too luscious to resist, and I have a dense pattern of red bumps all over my arms (like connect-the-dots for people who really need lots of help). I even have a couple of bites on my face - and I never get bitten on my face. They bit me through my clothes, the fuckers. I don't know how, but they managed it.
Still, I have incredibly nice blackberries in the freezer at the farm, waiting to be boiled and strained. I can use the syrup as a drink mix, on pancakes, in tarts (add a little pectin, and bake in shortbread cookies), and I can eat it straight with a spoon.
...You know, blackcurrant syrup mixed with a little hot water and a little whiskey is a good cough soother - I have no reason to think blackberry syrup will be any different. Mind you, I'm not a whiskey drinker, but I'm sure vodka is just as good.
Especially chilled, over ice. With a couple of tablespoons of syrup. Yeah, that's the ticket.
In addition to blackberries, I've been collecting wildflower seeds as they ripen - I have Black-Eyed Susan, Mallow, and Poppy seeds. I plan to put together a wildflower meadow eventually. The wildflowers have been taking advantage of the disturbed earth around the house, and are all over the place. I also have wild Morning Glories everywhere - I need to put up the trellis I have there and train them up it.
And my nasturtiums finally came up properly and bloomed. I'll be keeping an eye on them for the seeds. I love nasturtiums in salad.
If you'll excuse me now, I must scratch madly at my arms. More tomorrow.
*itch*itch*itch*itch*itch*
I managed to get a few - as in five pounds or so - blackberries. They are pretty much the last of the crop, and I am a bit sorry we missed their peak, since they were prolific this year (even though I still have a jar of the 2004 jam. It's still really good). The fruit looked like illustrations from a particularly romantic 19th century botany book - lush clusters of fruit entwined in honeysuckle vines, in shades of red and black. Yummy. I will make syrup from this lot, I think.
Less yummy (for me, at least) was the plethora of mosquitos - I slathered on insect repellent, but I am apparently too luscious to resist, and I have a dense pattern of red bumps all over my arms (like connect-the-dots for people who really need lots of help). I even have a couple of bites on my face - and I never get bitten on my face. They bit me through my clothes, the fuckers. I don't know how, but they managed it.
Still, I have incredibly nice blackberries in the freezer at the farm, waiting to be boiled and strained. I can use the syrup as a drink mix, on pancakes, in tarts (add a little pectin, and bake in shortbread cookies), and I can eat it straight with a spoon.
...You know, blackcurrant syrup mixed with a little hot water and a little whiskey is a good cough soother - I have no reason to think blackberry syrup will be any different. Mind you, I'm not a whiskey drinker, but I'm sure vodka is just as good.
Especially chilled, over ice. With a couple of tablespoons of syrup. Yeah, that's the ticket.
In addition to blackberries, I've been collecting wildflower seeds as they ripen - I have Black-Eyed Susan, Mallow, and Poppy seeds. I plan to put together a wildflower meadow eventually. The wildflowers have been taking advantage of the disturbed earth around the house, and are all over the place. I also have wild Morning Glories everywhere - I need to put up the trellis I have there and train them up it.
And my nasturtiums finally came up properly and bloomed. I'll be keeping an eye on them for the seeds. I love nasturtiums in salad.
If you'll excuse me now, I must scratch madly at my arms. More tomorrow.
*itch*itch*itch*itch*itch*
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Comments
My mom used to make phenomenal blackberry jam. One year she combined blackberries with pears off a tree in the side yard, and that was perhaps the best jam ever made.
What seemed to do me the most good was clear nail polish applied directly to the bites.
Catherine, for some reason, escaped the worst of it. I know that some biting insects prefer males for some reason. We really don't know what it was that bit us, (pretty sure they were not mosquitos) but they definitely left their mark. The remnants of those marks are still there
I can get a welt from a tick even if it's just sitting on me, and hasn't bitten. Apparently, they drool.
Mosquito bites don't last on me. They itch for half an hour or so, then my body soaks 'em up. That's why I'm pretty sure what got us at Storvik weren't mosquitos. Catherine speculated that they might've been chiggers because most of the bites were on our lower legs, but no evidence of little red critters.
Tearlach appears to have the body chemistry that negates the effect of repellants. They do him almost no good, and they also irritate his skin. Poor lad.
I seem to remember it working well.
Hopefully they, the bites, don't annoy you too much at pennsic.
Someone mentioned to me that Avon took out the ingedien that made SSO such a good bug repellent, and are marketing thier own bug repellent..
And now I want to make my ubersalat....
Of course that means you have to eat the bananas at least a few hours before "sketer time" so prior planning is required. Or daily dosing.
I have always been serious mosquito bait. And it turns out I also have had the symptoms of low potassium and low thyroid all my life (tend to go together, cause yer thyroid needs lots of potassium to function).
I was around some mosquitoes the other night and not a bite. There weren't many, cause they just don't live around here much, but still, if I saw one, I used to have a few bites guaranteed.
I also had been taking extra herbs for my thyroid -- I up them when I have to be social much, cause I get this special flavor of exhaustion with that kind of energy expenditure. Lots of potassium in the herbs -- this is seriously something to look in to!
Thanks so much for mentioning it!
Adele
Bitting incescts seem to think I'm a blue plate special too. Skip the Benadryl and go right to the hydrocortisone cream, that's all the really works for me anymore.
Can't wait for coif pics :).
Mmm, blackberries. I wish they grew out here. We get raspberries and strawberries, but no blackberries.
(And what's wrong with playing connect-the-dots with bug bites or freckles? I mean really...)
I love catmint/nip, and plan to grow it (and I'll probably get mountain lions in my yard, rolling in it), so that's extremely useful to know! :)