Oups I did it again

Man, I miss writing.



I don't know what happened over the last nine months or so, but writing was far, far, far away from my list of things that I wanted to do.




Having surgery last October took it out of me and everything that came after it was just too tiring to consider. I'm not feeling any better at the moment in regards to my health, but I am feeling a little more inclined to write.



The thing is, there was so much I wanted to write about, I just didn't have the energy to sit down and formulate coherent thoughts about everything I wanted to write about. Most of it pertained to food, some of it pertained to projects and even some still had to do with SALLY & Co.



So what should I do?



How about I start by making this a massive photo-dumping post (because that's always fun!) and then I could just see how things play out over the next little while.



Sound good? Good.



So without further ado, here we go!



This is what our raised bed garden currently looks like, as of about a couple weeks ago. We had a return of bees to our formerly empty hive! For the longest time we had bees and wasps coming into the hive and ransacking whatever was remaining from the previous colony's stores of honey after realizing we had no bees. As of a few weeks ago, we now have a proper colony of bees again and the ladies are working their little butts off to get enough new stores before the winter hits. Hopefully they will be more successful than their predecessors, who, unfortunately, we were told, had gone into the winter without a viable Queen.



The Hubbs is also beginning the slow process of being mentored in the arts of beekeeping, as we will be the ones taking care of this hive as best we possibly can. Sadly, J & Miss R are no longer going to be doing the bee thing as they lost almost all their hives over the winter, except for maybe two or three of the many they had set up around the city. The Hubbs wants to make sure he can do everything in his power to help this colony survive as there have been so many colonies of bees which have been decimated from all sorts of horrible things. We have been planting as many bee-friendly flowers as we possibly can in hopes that it helps the Little Ladies to flourish.



As for other 2013 Garden Experiments, at the beginning of the summer I had purchased some corn transplants from our fantastic egg & flour CSA farms. Again, a few weeks back, is a photo of the corn's girly bits readying itself for pollination from surrounding corn plants. Unbeknownst to me at the time, you're supposed to plant corn in squares to increase the chances of cross-pollination in your corn. The wind is the biggest pollinator for corn and the more chances you give the corn's silks to catch the falling pollen from above, the better odds of having actual cobs of corn with fully developed kernels on it. We shall see if we get any viable specimens this year, seeing as I only had four transplants and was sexing up all the corn by hand.



One night over dinner, we were discussing my new discovery of corn pollination with JD



Well, I finally finished my first crocheted commission projects. Ladies & Gentlemen, I introduce to you and the Lumpy Space Princess.



I am currently working on Loki for my newest Project #Ranma! Amigurumi and will actually be making a second one in the near future for another commissioned project for a friend of The Hubbs' in Vancouver.



Now that The Hubbs;



From our wonderful 2013 CSA delivery, we have a first: CANTALOUPE! Homegrown in Alberta! I find that absolutely amazing and it tastes pretty damn fantastic, I have to admit and I am almost considering the idea of naming it my favourite melonalmost.



Whilst shopping last week, I stumbled upon this brand new tea: Dark Chocolate Chai. Mmmmm . so incredibly yummy and is great when used as a base for making steel-cut oatmeal, believe it or not! How, you ask?



* Bring to a boil 1cup milk + 1 1/4 cup water + squeeze of honey with 2 teabags.

* Turn down heat to simmer and add 1/2cup steelcut oats.

* Cook for 5 minutes, remove teabags.

* Continue cooking for another 15-20 minutes, or until thickened, stirring occassionally!



Finally, my last photo of today's post: 1L of iced teaccino. The weird thing? Even though it's a 1L mason jar, it's not actually a lot of caffeine. There's a full tray of ice, a small cup of strongly brewed rooibos tea, a large espresso and finally a 1/2 glass of milk.
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