December in the Garden

Thanks to our humid subtropical climate here it seems like we may be able to garden year-round. This is the second season for our strawberry plants, who are loving the chillier weather.

The potted herbs are also thriving. I've now harvested and dried enough chives, oregano and Italian parsley to last me well into the new year, so I'm going to make up some containers for my neighbors.

Our broccoli plant grew so tall we had to tie it to a dowel for support.

The brussel sprouts are smaller, but doing well, too. The just-sprouted radishes are probably our tenth planting; they grow very fast and we can harvest them every couple of weeks.

There are a few pole beans left on the vines, but their season is definitely over now. We will plant them again in the spring.

The bell peppers have just sprouted, too. I'm very hopeful they will stay healthy as I cook with peppers all the time.

Three more brussel sprout plant in another pot. If we get a bumper crop I may blanch and freeze most of them in single-serving bags, as I'm the only one who likes them.

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Better than Fried

I cut some chives from the kitchen garden to make garlic-chive baked fries for dinner. This is a great side dish for veggie burgers. Click here for the recipe from Taste of Home.com.

Stuff

After finding this Caron one pound skein of lovely peach yarn in my thrifted lot I raided my stash for two cakes of Mandala in Pegasus, which matches it perfectly. For practice and hand therapy I'm going to make another Worth Street Afghan with this free pattern , but this time I'll use the yarn that was recommended for it plus the one pound skein. I'm not quite ready to do the vintage/recycled linen quilt I had planned (still a bit too nervous about the idea), so I'm going to use some color therapy and make a quilt from these thrifted green fat quarters. I considered doing another Yellow Brick road patchwork pattern, but I might go with a split rail fence like this one.

The Mercantile

If you don't mind walking 33K square feet in retail space, The Mercantile may be the vintage/arts store you'd enjoy visiting if you're ever in Orlando. I certainly did. Because it was busy I didn't take any photos in the store, but it's absolutely amazing and chock full of antiques and artisan creations, most of which were pretty reasonably priced. For $21.00 I invested in a picture of sailboats for the guest bathroom I'm redoing, and a fairy mystery jar of cool stuff. The jaw was hand-painted and decorated, and utterly charming. I think I wanted the jar more than the contents. As you can see the contents were both generous and pretty cool, too. I finally have some vintage gloves to use for my art quilter bingo challenge!

Rayen

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