A Little Plant Dyeing & Seedlings

Hello, friends.  Last week, I harvested asparagus, parsley, and broccoli, and had enough to make broccoli pad thai.  Several varieties each of lettuce and swiss chard were planted.  The first two lettuce varieties are up, Thai Oakleaf and Speckled Bibb.  I'm trying harder to use up old seeds this year, and the swiss chard especially was sown thickly.  I hand washed my new thrifted wool sweater and a wool blanket, using homemade soap gel.  Fabric was prepped for plant dyeing.  Several pieces were dyed with onion skins, then I experimented on doing some eco-dyeing with flowers and berries on two of them.  I got the lemon and avocados fertilized, and put a pot of veggie scraps on the woodstove for broth, along with more sweet potatoes.  We won't have many more days of wood heat.  If the forecast is right, we'll sail through our usual last frost days without any more.  The tomato pots prepped in the fall seem to be growing very nicely.   

tomato seedlings

I saved two vinyl blinds destined for the trash.  My favorite method of marking seedlings is to use pieces of blind, so this should do me for a while.  And with perfect timing, as I had just about used up all of the last blind.  A few other items were rescued from the trash, including a pack of composition paper.  It always surprises me the perfectly good things people throw away.  On one of the cooler days, I worked on ironing while watching youtube videos I had saved..  That night, I was awake for several hours, so wrapped soap and finished the remaining ironing.  The peppers started in the house are coming up now.  The wintersown plants started out well weeks ago, but there are very few remaining.  I suppose it's due to the cold nights, though that didn't happen past winters.  The zinnias especially took a hard hit, from at least a couple dozen down to 2.  I may not have tried winter sowing them before though.  In any case, I'll be glad to have whatever survived.  

cotton dyed with onion skins

I baked German chocolate brownies for J's birthday.  The two eco-printed items mentioned above were a napkin and a pillowcase, both gifts for him.  He grabs my hand-dyed napkin sometimes, and he bought a queen pillow, though our sheet sets are double, so I dyed a queen pillowcase for one of the sets.  I've gathered several queen pillowcases, and eventually plan to dye more pillowcases for him.  The onion skin dye is darker than I'd like, when planning to overdye with eco-printing, so next time I'll use less of them.  His main gift will be a concert we'll soon be enjoying with friends.  We continue having a friendly daily rivalry with Wordle and Spelling Bee.  We don't pay for Spelling Bee, so get cut off along the way, often after we've figured out the pangram though, so it's still fun.  I've found two more free spelling bee-type games, which don't cut you off, and sometimes play those when I'm wanting more of a spelling fix.  We dropped our taxes off Sunday, which is always a relief.  

Sunday was a cooler day, and I felt like roasted veggies, so I roasted asparagus, potatoes and cauliflower, and enjoyed them immensely.  I leave off the feta on the cauliflower dish, and it's still delicious, and I steam it a bit before roasting.  All laundry was hung on the line to dry.  The chickens continue to get mash each day, picked greens several days a week, and soaked scratch grains each morning, all of which help to lower our feed bill.   At the grocery store, I got our dogfood for $6 off, and used a $7 reward towards my purchase.  My sister got an unexpected day off this coming week, so we'll be spending the day together.  Wishing you a week of doing what you enjoy.  Be well, friends.