Lost and found (again...)

On Sunday we were berry picking with sister. We found cloudberries (ask Ikea), blueberries (bilberries), bog blueberries and raspberries. I fell on swamp ditch, and I lost my glasses. It was a very warm day, so even if my right boot weighed a ton with bogwater, it was a nice trip.

When I'm talking about blueberries, I mean bilberries. Here in north they are called blueberries (in the Scandinavian languages Vaccinium myrtillus is called blåbär (or blåbær), which literally means blueberry. Therefore many Scandinavians erroneously call bilberry blueberry when speaking English. Ikea Blåbärsylt has bilberries pictured on the label).

There is suble differences in blueberries and bog blueberries. Bog blueberries have a distinct starshape crown at the end, while blueberries have a rounded end. And to add more confusion, North American blueberries have that starshape, too. And "our" blueberries are dark blue/purple through, bog blueberry and North American blueberry are pale inside. Also shape is different. Bogs on left, bilberries on right.

But yes, I can't cope without my glasses (they are reading glasses, and as I work mainly on computer/laptop, they are important to me - and I can't clean raspberries without them - can't see worms...)

So off to woods we went again (on monday with sys and ys who were bored to death even before we reached the edge of the swamp) and YES I found my glassess! Also more blueberries, bog blueberries and cloudberries. I hate foragin berries, by the way.

Black rimmed glasses are not easy to spot on ground.

But the trip was successfull and timing was perfect, this was the sight when we got out of the woods. 20 mins later (5mins after we got home) rain begun. Still raining. This is wet week.

From the garden I have been picking black currants and strawberries. I paid 20€ for 20 strawberry plants last summer, and so far this summer I have got more than 5 litres of strawberries (last summer I got maybe 1l), and they are still producing. Doesn't sound much, but to me it is, I've never been able to grow strawberries before! As strawberries are about 3-5€/l, those plants are already paid themselves after this summrerk  

This is a poor year for currants, one of my bushes is empty, one has few berries, and only one produced "normal" amount of berries. My mother's bushes have few berries, but hb's parents' have none. And they usually have loads. Fortunately I can pick our neighbours currants, so I might be able to get my mother enough currants so she can make cordial for the winter. You know, winter is coming...

I have got one patch of sugar snap peas to freezer, but peas are just flowering now. Might be a while before I can harvest them.

I think I need to fill up my freezers and pantry this summer/autunm, because Covid-19 cases are on the rise again in Europe. It is not granted I can buy veggies and fruits during the winter.

It's getting better

There is so many good news in my life.

Old man's surgery in June was a success. Tumor was completely removed (no growth ouside pancreas), and among all lymph nodes there were only few with suspicioius cells, and they were nearest to pancreas, further away nodes were all clean.

So, now he "just" have to adjust being diabetic (type 1)... Of course there's follow ups regularily, after all we are talking about cancer, not infected toe nail. But now we can breathe.

He needs to learn to eat again, it's been difficult (he had a weight loss surgery as well, because part of his stomac was removed - he was lightly underweight in the beginning, and now he is "moderately underweight"  he needs to gain at least 10 kg to be on healthy range.

Ys's room is progressed. I got all walls finished and we had electrician today working for four hours (he did more than just ys's electrics), now hb needs to build the ceiling so rest of electric sockets and light fittings can be installed. I'll put the floor down after that and then off to Ikea!

My last vacation week, back to work on Monday. Well, back.. to log in on my laptop. We'll be back on office next week - and only if someone wants to go to the office, we can work from home until November.

My veggie patch has started producing. I've been digging potatoes, first I had to dig six plants to get pot full of potatoes for my family (six people eat quite a lot of spuds at dinner), now it's down to two plants. My early potatoes are Colomba, they are a bit too creamy to my liking, but kids love them. And they are even sized and they have grown very well.

We've been eating lettuce from garden only for weeks. Haven't bought any. My strawberries have been really nice suprice this year, today I picked a little shy of 2l, because yesterday it rained all day and I didn't go to veggie patch at all. But I have been able to give kids handfull of berries each day (a handfull for each child!)

My beets (golden beets and striped ones) are growing strongly, but my Cylindras didn't even germinate, and those few that did haven't been growing. Maybe seeds were too old?

And carrots! yes, I have carrots, I've made carrot top pesto again (because I feed children carrots daily, I've had a few carrot tops, too) and now I'm drying some to get green powder to sprinkle into foods in winter... (my kids hate me)

Harvesting dinner

For a very long time this has been a good year to my roses, I have a soft spot fot these pink ones (don't ask me names or types, they all were growing here when we bought this place over 25 years ago, I was young and not interested in gardening).

They have a lovely strong (byt not overwhelming) smell, and it's been expecially nice this summer, because this is first summer for a very long time I have been abe to smell them! We keep joking that I have corona because I got my sense of smell back...

My mother had these by our front door when I was a child. Those bushes are gone, but my aunt took some of them to her house, which is now our home.

Otherwise i've sent my time in forest. Twice a day I take 'Suma for a walk, and finally I remember to take plastic bag and a knife with me...

These lovelies

And these little buttons

And those tiny pearls

Yes, foraging season is here!

Usually I pick only mushrooms, and get my berries from hb's father or my aunt or someone (like my co-workers in-laws), but because this covid-19 and my in-laws being way over 90 years I quess it's my turn to get my fingers blue.

Local blueberries are tiny, they are different from those garden varieties (which are originally from North America), it takes a long time to pick enough berries for a pie... But I even got kids to pick few berries, we have thermacell to keep mosquitos away.

I usually fry all mushrooms, that's how os likes them. First I boil excess moisture off, like this:

Some porchinos and chanterelles

Chanterelles

Many people think that frying mushrooms means that first you melt butter on frying pand and then toss mushrooms in there. It might work out ok that way, but these mushrooms we have here like to be first boiled in their own juices and then fried with butter and salt.

For freezer I boil mushrooms in their own moisture until it's almos all gone, cool them and bag them. That way they keep for a very long time (over a year). If fat (oil or butter) is added, they keep only few months.

My aim is to have at least 20 bags of mushrooms in freezer, so os can get fried mushrooms once every fortnight during winter. 15 to go...

And those blueberries...

Pie!

This is our go-to berry pie. Pie crust needs something to be perfect, but this is good. I don't blind bake the bottom, and white stuff is yoghurt, one egg and some sugar and vanilla sugar.

Just add heat

Crust looks darker than it was (this was eaten before it was even cooled down. Filling firms up when it gets cool.

Os ate half of the first pie I made, so I quess even with not so perfect crust it was delicious...

My children don't get to eat out often, not once a month, maybe three times a year. Now that d goes out with her friends, she's been eating out more, but of course it all came to halt due to covid-19.

Younger boys like sushi, and it's expensive to take them to eat sushi to a sushi restaurant. So we've mahde sushi ourselves:

Only authentic things were sushi vinegar and seaweed. Rice was pudding rice (rinsed before boiling), sesame seeds were found in the bottom of my pantry cuboard and a bit over toasted in frying pan, surimi sticks (fake crab stics) and shrimps, and cucumber sticks and cooked carrot sticks. Maybe not authentic but quite nice with soy sauce (in Ikea egg cup) and fake wasabi. I don't know how to use chopsticks but kids do.

I wanted to try to make tortillas, they were suprinsingly easy. But I don't think they worth the effort, because only half of kids will eat tortillas in any form or shape. But if I can't go to shops I know I'm able to make them. Another skill acquired.

An di finally after three years have a working remote for my car. Now I'm able to sell it - but also now I want to keep it 😁

Crafting, kind of

I'm very frugal, when it comes to buying clothes. I rarely buy anything second hand, because, really, if I don't use facebook, there's no place I can find anything. Clothing in flea markets/ salvation army shops/UFF what ever are hideous (in this area), most times. Maybe I'm just difficult.

And I don't use facbook (neither does my brother).

But in the other hand, it doesn't matter. I buy very few pieces of clothing (mainly jeans, bras, winter jackets and some tops), and I tend to use everything until it's completely useless. And I do patching and mending.

These are jeans I bought about 8-10 years ago.

There was a tear above back pocket. I keep my phone in that pocket, so it's no wonder it's worn.
But that's not too bad, isn't it?

But... Because all my jeans have elastan, ths is what happens, because I'm really not a skinny girl. This is third or fourth time I'v patcehd these jeans, and I still can wear them at home/forest/'Suma-walk. Nothing's showing...

I'm not the only one in our family to have hardships with jeans. I've patced these "black" jeans fo hb several times, this time it was crotch and a zipper. I've changed hundreds if not thousands of zippers ( I used to do mending in a working clothing laundry as my job; I was pretty good in it after three years).

When zipper is changed neatly, you can't notice it. So instead I'll show how I patch jeans - I use as a patching material some leftover pieces of hemmed legs. I always have to cut excess off our jeans, short legs or too long jeans? I put it underneath and pin it. My Pfaff can sew over 8 layers of denim if I have proper needle on. I use zig zag, and patch is always much bigger than the hole. This is because of elastan in denim, if those were proper non elastic jeans patch counld be much smaller.

So that's the bottom sorted out. I'd need some top part, too?

 

I have tons of leftover yarns. Small balls, bigger tangled messes. All same or nearly same weight. Crocheted this time. This is the first version, my sis wants one for herself. It'll be better because now I know all ways NOT to do this.

Other kinds of crafting I have been doing is plastering and painting in ys's room (have I told anyone I hate plastering?)  Walls are done, there's one corner I need to work on more. Only ceiling and floor missing...

And on the outside I have been trying to garden vegetables. This is few weeks old picture, but there's no sense to take photos if you can's see anything among weeds.

I ran out of containers and cold frames.