Hopeful Homemaker

Cut Lavender

July 20, 2011 jennifer Gardening

Last week I cut my lavender. It was a beautiful morning and the solitary activity in the stillness of early hours was therapeutic.

Observing the variation in color, the itty bitty flowers, how the scent varies slightly from plant to plant was good for my soul. How grateful I feel for this slowing down that July has brought to us.

The bundles are now hanging to dry in my studio. I bundle the lavender with rubber bands. As the lavender dries the stalks will shrink so rubber bands are perfect for holding it together. A turquoise ribbon over the rubber band to hang and I was done.

It feels good. My first lavender harvest in years. I look forward to the increased yield that time will bring when my young plants produce more. For now, the faint scent greets me when I walk in the room and the beauty of it hanging in front of my mirror makes me smile.

{Happy sigh.}

Jennifer

Trader Joe’s and Roasted Seaweed

July 19, 2011 jennifer Happy Finds

While in California a few weeks ago I went to Trader Joe’s for the first time (and naturally forgot my camera). It’s always interesting to walk into a place you’ve heard about but never visited and see how it lines up with what you imagined.

I loved their cut flower section. The selection in Newport Beach was gorgeous. I wandered around and picked up a few things here and there for us to try.

When I was down in Escondido, this is what I went back for:

When I was a missionary years ago I lived and worked with many Korean people and grew to love them very much. For lunch we would often eat seaweed and rice. The seaweed was paper thin, small enough to eat a sheet in one big bite, and we would wrap it around a bit of rice with our toothpicks. Call me crazy, but I remember it as one of the best meals I’ve ever enjoyed. Simple but delicious. I’ve never been able to find seaweed since that is as thin and tastes the same as what I remember eating. Until now.

I’m excited to have found one of my favorite snacks again. At 99 cents per package, I brought 20 of them home with me to savor over the coming year. My two oldest boys also love the taste of it and beg for it daily but the rest of the family grimaces when we get it out. Even my husband, who loves sushi, wants nothing to do with it.

That’s fine with me. It merely means I get more!

Have you ever been to Trader Joe’s? If you have, what’s your favorite thing to buy there?

Hopeful Homemaker

3 comments

Cherry Harvest

July 18, 2011 jennifer Musings on Life and Beauty

We collected all the cherries off our trees recently and harvested… half a cup. Two years ago we were harvesting dozens of gallon sized buckets but weather for the last two years has prevented good pollination.

Still, there’s nothing like fresh cherries straight from the tree in your backyard and we’re grateful at least to have a taste.

It’s a half empty/half full question.

We settled on half full. There were enough for each of us to enjoy ice cream with a home grown cherry on top.

Life is good.

Jennifer