Finally a post... Last week I was as busy as a Canadian Beaver. I went picking fiddleheads four times. At first, the picking was very slim, but in a few days, the picking finally got better. I didn't bother counting how many hours I spent by the peaceful river. It was so peaceful and I just love picking this free bounty. My back was in so much pain but I kept at it until all my bags were full. My husband George saw that I needed help to process all these fiddleheads and asked my son Vaughan if he would come and help clean the fiddleheads, with some fiddleheads as his pay. His answer was affirmative.
George and Vaughan are cleaning fiddleheads until the brown thin covering is removed and bits of leaves, twigs, and sand are gone and they are ready for blanching for freezing. It takes about three to four water changes for this. We worked as a team and I had two big pots on the stove for blanching and George was busy fillings the double sinks with cold water and cooling the fiddleheads as fast as he could. The fiddleheads need to blanch for two minutes in boiling water and then cool immediately.
Vaughan's job was to spin them dry in the salad spinner and then we both filled ziplock bags. I weight the bagged portions. My portions were half a pound and his portions were a pound. So he got 2/3 of all the fiddleheads. Not a bad deal for a night's work.
The next day, was busy as well with cutting the front lawn, spreading soil on the front lawn, seeding it, and rolling it down so the seeds would make good contact with the soil and it was so dry that I had to water it three times a day. Although I spent a lot of time watering, the wind kept drying the top of the soil. I also had to water hundreds of seedlings out on the back deck and was planting in my back garden, and also planting potatoes at the farm. This time I got help again.
These two rows are about 100 feet long each. I've started some of my potatoes in little pots and most were already growing leaves and needed to be planted. This is what Vaughan is doing. George and the hired hand are digging the trench 8 inches deep. I planted the rest of the potatoes and covered them with three inches of soil. The next day, we had rain and so the potatoes are growing well. I had to hoe the taller one already on Saturday.
Sometime during the day, I opened the front door to see if the newly reseeded lawn needed watering again and I found a large framed portrait of Madonna of the Street with glass, in between the doors. An old dirty lawn chair was propped up against the screen door to prevent the portrait from falling out.
I was embarrassed that my husband had put the old dusty lawn chairs without cleaning them first on the front porch as he doesn't care for presentations. lol... Nevertheless, I was speechless for a few seconds. There was no note to let me know who left me this most splendid gift. I was almost giddy with joy. A gift from heaven it seemed.
I tried to guess who would have left me such a nice gift as this. I figured it had to be a blog follower because I only showed my rug on my blog and to my rug hooking group. I had one person in mind but it wasn't her. Then the next day, when I checked my emails, there was an email from Cynthia from Karotine blog explaining that it was her who left the portrait on my porch.
She had bought it for the frame but it was too large for the intended project. After she saw my Madonna of the street on my blog, she thought of me but didn't want to ship it fearing the cost and the possibility of breakage. She was coming to Scott's Nursery a few minutes from our place and dropped it off but I was away at a funeral in town. Cynthia, I really am grateful for your thoughtfulness and generosity. Thank you so much. It's a perfect gift.
Upon, examining it, I noticed it's a little different than the picture I got from the public domain. I noticed the headscarf goes all the way to the baby's cheek and the color is more greenish than blue and the background also is a bit different. I like the antique look better. I'm now stalled for the background. I may have to wash the rug in a coffee stain to change the color, but I'm not sure if it will do more harm than good. I haven't had time to dye wool anyway this week.
Here is the rug with the framed version of The Madonna of the street. On the rug, the headscarf ends at the madonna's throat, and in the framed picture, the headscarf ends in the middle of the baby's cheek. There are other minor differences.
My spring flowers, Azelisa are blooming and so is my crabapple tree but I'll spare you the pictures for now. I may post more photos next week if I can find the time. The new lawn seeds are growing fast and the bare patches are starting to disappear. A woman's work is never done.
Thanks for visiting and reading my ramblings. I hope that you leave a comment.
Pray for peace and love. It is so needed at this time.
Hugs, Julia
