Headboard

When we bought the fabric for the covers and curtains in the front bedroom, we looked at upholstered headboards at the shop. Heck, we thought, we can do that!
Werner bought the plywood last spring so I could stretch the needlepoint for the nursing chair (waiting for winter to be refurbished). A couple of months ago we serendipitously found the ideal fabric on the remnant table. On the last visit, I bought the cording. Finally to work.

Here's the foam padding on the raw board.




Tools we use. I want an electric powered stapler for Christmas! This hand-operated one has been through a lot and it takes a lot sometimes to make it do what we want!

Half done

And - VOILA ! - finished!

You might notice that the pillows are actually from the other bedroom. The lovely new headboard fabric does not go with what we have, but since I made those over 20 YEARS AGO, I think it's time for new bed covers. On the next trip to the USA, it's back to the fabric store!

Apple Time

The harvest is a bit earlier this year, they said, because of sunshine and warm weather. Besides buying them at the market, we have friends with a tree: Duchess of Oldenburg. What a name.

The apples are TART ! really crispy and don't keep at all well - you need to eat them, preserve them or make desserts.

Ginny and Julia, you'll understand when I say they taste great with salt - brings back memories. Here are some of the apples we picked, organic, so they aren't all picture pretty.

Besides a gallon of applesauce and a dinner of apple-stuffed pork chops, I made a Tarte Tatin. It looked beautiful and tasted just as good as it looked. I'm not really doing a food blog, but if you want the recipe and can manage a half a pound of butter in one dessert, just let me know.

More Food - It's All Good

The title of the last post was bad - a bad choice - food is not bad, but I was thinking of kids and carrots. They think veggies are, well, not so wonderful. And I seem to get excited about vegetables sometimes.



Here's a new one for me: purslane. At the green market, there's a Turkish woman who sells things from her garden in the summer months. Last year, we often bought greens from her, and last week she had portulaca, purslane. I didn't really know what it was, but the name sounded a bit familiar, and besides, I like to try weird stuff. Actually, it's a weed.

But we washed it and put it in a salad and it was really interesting - crisp, moist, a bit sour, very tasty.

After a little research, I found that purslane is great for you, a fantastic source of omega 3 fatty acids. Wow. Better than vitamin supplements.

Along with it we bought sorrel, another "weed". It all reminded me of the Lullwater School in Atlanta and the summer that Michelle and Lee went to camp (1975?). The school was a bit hippy-ish and after the camp, Michelle talked for the longest time about "weed salad". I think these things must have been in her weed salad.








Left to right - sorrel, purslane, and my absolute favorite, arugula. It made a great salad.

I guess that makes me elite. Super elite. Elite beyond Elite.

And Green.

Good Food / Bad Food

More food. We like food. It's Tuesday and normally a market day for us, but there was too much food in the fridge to go and get more. What to do with what we have? Carrot pizza.

Yes. Carrot pizza. Every kid's nightmare.


You remember the Flammeküchen from Strasbourg, Ginny ? A lovely crisp dough with fresh cheese, onions, bacon, parmesan? I think we did that in Florida too. So simple and so good. Well, there was a recipe in one of my magazines for a variation with carrots. And I didn't have the right dough, but they suggested flour tortillas as a substitute. Why not?

Spread the tortillas with crème fraiche, then thinly sliced carrots, a good bunch of salt and pepper and a sprinkle of olive oil. I had some mushrooms, so I sliced them thinly and put them on as well. Chop the bacon and spread. Cook for 10 minutes or so in a 250° oven. 'When done, toss some choped fresh herbs over it - basil, cilantro, parsley, tarragon, oregano - whatever is around. The recipe called for cilantro, parsley and tarragon, but my combo was great, too. Crispy salad, crisp white wine, and you're set.

Carrot pizza. Whoda thunk it??

Biking Rewards

No, no pounds lost.


We went into town Sunday to catch a bit of LaStrada, the festival where street performers from around the world come and - perform. It was good weather, so we decided to bike in and found a treasure trove of blackberries along the way. So Monday morning we went back to pick. We did lose a little bit of skin on these horrendous thorns and picked up a lot of color on our hands and jeans.



We got carried away. We picked a lot of berries. Now to work.

Hunter went through two jars of blackberry jelly while he was here, so I thought I'd try to make some jelly. It's not really hard, but it does take extra steps.



After cooking the fruit, the juice has to be strained. This used to be an unbleached muslin bag, not exactly white but it will never be anywhere close to that color again!


Needless to say, not all the blackberries or juice stayed where they were supposed to. The rug in front of the stove now has a bit more color than it used to, and some of the dish cloths will never look the same.




But here's the reward.

Jelly: 4 jars

Jam: 8 jars

Yum.

Welcome

The old front door needed painting last year, but, you know how that goes. When all the visits and visiting were over, that was the first big project we decided to tackle.

Originally it was all black; some years ago we painted it gray, black and red. Very nice. Elegant. Understated. But if you're going to repaint, why not change the colors?

Well, easier said than done. We first thought red, gold and black. Then maybe more ochre. Then maybe forget the gold.

We settled on three shades of green and red. I think it turned out great.

Road Art

The Deutsche Bahn (German Train) offers "state tickets" - for € 27.00, up to 5 people can go anywhere in a given state for the day, from 9 am to 3 am the following morning. That's a real deal.

We bought a Niedersachsen Ticket (Lower Saxony - Bremen and Hamburg are independent city-states but we're both surrounded by Lower Saxony, so they let us in on the deal) and with Klaus and Johanna, serious Art Fans, went to Hamburg for the Mark Rothko Exhibit. Weather forecast: sunny with showers late in the evening. Great. From Bremen to Hamburg is 1 hour and 15 minutes. You can't do it faster by car, and then you have to find a parking place and pay. Love the train.

Hamburg is so much more sophisticated than Bremen. We are a VILLAGE, rubes, hayseeds, compared to Hamburg. We go there less than once a year. Not enough.

Here's the approach to the Kunsthalle (art museum) from the main train station. Dome, Ionic columns, pilasters, Oh the References to the Classics. The exhibit has been there for three months and has been so popular that they've extended it for another month.

Usually, I prefer more representational art, but Rothko and a couple other abstractionist painters have found a special place in my heart. I was not disappointed.

Here's an example of a Rothko in the collection that you might recognize. He probably didn't have it in mind, but the German flag popped into my head when I saw this painting.

After three hours, we had to have a break and find something to eat. Viewing Art is work. So of course, we didn't want to do anything but go home. So off to the station.

Then came the storm. Can you believe it, we have TORNADOS (tornadoes) in Germany!!?? Yes, we do. We got to the last station before Bremen and s t o p. Trees on the rails, broken electric wires. Busses then to Bremen. What a mess. But that takes a while.

A MASS of people all wanted on the busses. It took another three hours to get to Bremen with assorted detours due to blocked roads because of downed trees and so much traffic. What an adventure!!

But here we are safe at home, a full day of art and nature behind us.

Blooms

Remember when you sent me Cleome seeds for Christmas, Ginny - four years ago ? - and said it was a lifetime supply? Well, I planted some seeds the first year, with poor results. So the seeds just sat.

This year while cleaning up I saw them again and thought, here they are, they won't get better or stronger, so let's try again. Wow. These are POTENT SEEDS.

I'll save some of the fresh ones for next year, but I think I'll keep the old ones around, too.