Monthly Archives: July 2015

Building Fairy Houses

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It’s that time of year again. The annual program at the Howard County Conservancy to build fairy houses in the woods.

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It’s an adventure in imagination, and creativity, and in celebrating the outdoors. It is immensely popular.

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This is last year’s crowd. There are many volunteers to help and there is a large amount of material available to use. Part of the fun, though, for many of the families is the pre-event collection of materials from your own area. Bringing leaves and flowers and acorns along to use in the construction.

The event is 10 am this Saturday at Mt. Pleasant in Woodstock. Details here.

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Last year they built the houses down by Hodge Podge Lodge. This year, who knows where they will go. After getting a bit of instruction, the families go down into the woods to build their houses.

You can go off into the woods to make that very special, very private house.

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I will be wandering around taking pictures. We always make a scrapbook of the pictures to keep.

Come do something truly special and fun. Saturday morning. FREE. They do ask you to email and let them know how many are coming. The more advance notice we have of the potential attendance, the better we can gather volunteers to assist.

Opening Doors

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And discovering the world.

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In two days a blogging friend who also volunteers with me at the Conservancy is leaving on a one YEAR trip around the world. Something many of us dream of doing. She is starting in Istanbul, one of my absolute favorite cities that we visited during our travels in the past.

I am following her family’s journey on their web page. I admire their quest to travel the world with only a backpack a person. Husband and Wife. Three girls. Their nanny.

Anything is possible if you put your mind to it.

Travel to places where they speak a different language. Eat different foods. Live their lives in totally different ways than we do.

Their journey reminds me to dust off my bucket list. Look for those things I want to do, but haven’t yet. I’ve done quite a bit of it, but there’s always more mountains to climb. Seas to sail. History to discover.

In the meantime, those grounded items on my list keep getting checked. The garden. Check. The house in the country. Check. That radio tower for my husband. Getting closer.

First prize for my heirloom tomatoes at the fair. Sometimes I think it’s unattainable. The weather keeps conspiring against me. But, the search and the challenge is what keeps us going.

I wish Lisa and her family fair winds and following seas. We will be following their adventure, and maybe planning a dream trip of our own.

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Just Another Soggy Day in the ‘Hood

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The Fourth was a real bust around our house. I just couldn’t get into it, after spending Friday trying to salvage much of my waterlogged garden. The weather data around here showed June giving us 9.6″ of rain. Seventeen days in June it rained.

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And we already slogged through last weekend at our Field Day site. Somehow I wasn’t inclined to make it two Saturdays in a row, so we stayed home and I cooked. I really had to do something with these.

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That would be the 75 onions I harvested on Friday. I had to do it. They were starting to crack, and to get softer at the crown.

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This pile couldn’t be hung to cure. They have various bruises and cracks but are a decent size. So, they became crock pot caramelized onions.

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All of them into the pot, for 16 hours, the last two uncovered. I ended up with about 32 ounces of onions. Four one cup containers. Three in the freezer to use this winter. Making them is simple. Salt, pepper, a splash of water.

I can definitely sympathize with our local farmers. This weather is seriously affecting crops. We got newsletters from both Friends and Farms, and our Lancaster Farm Fresh CSA, telling us to hang in there. The fruit and vegetables aren’t as good when the temperatures won’t rise enough to ripen them, and when excess rain waters them down, or splits them.

Still, I can be thankful my garden is producing.

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Ready for the Fourth?

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The locavore way. Berries from Larriland. Chardonnay from Big Cork. Using Maryland’s best to celebrate the holiday.

I am getting ready for this weekend. Lots of good stuff from the garden, the CSA, Friends and Farms and other local farms for grilling, chilling and just kicking back. If only the weather would cooperate.

As for things to do, here is what is high on our list.

Lisbon.

You could go pick berries at Larriland, as they are open 9-1 on Saturday. Have a hot dog at Alex’s snowball stand. Watch the parade. Listen to the music.

For us, we are seriously considering heading out to Rohrersville to Big Cork to join in their celebration at the winery. The events page has the details. I mean, River House Pizza from Eillicott City is heading out there.

As for the grilling sometime this weekend, if it ever stops raining, I am looking forward to those goodies from my Friends and Farms basket.

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I am thinking bratwurst with German mustard.

As for fireworks, not a fan. I know they are all around the area, but we just stay out here in west county and watch the neighbors’ fireworks. Someone, somewhere out here will set off a few.

Happy Independence Day to Howard County.