Gardening (or Something Else I'm Trying in Retirement)

DH and I belong to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) so we have a lot of fresh vegetables each week as you can see in the photo of this week's share.

But, I've been thinking that last year there didn’t seem to be enough cucumbers, tomatoes and zucchini (yes, zucchini – I know, I know, if I wanted more I just should have left my car unlocked and some would appear!) This year I decided to start a small garden. DH built a raised bed for me for Mother’s Day and we bought some plants – just 9 tomatoes, 3 cucumbers and 2 zucchini. We also planted a row of arugala, which DH loves.

The plants were tiny when I first planted them, but they have really grown as you can see in the photo below. There are three tiny zucchini and the tomato plants have flowers. DH ate the arugala thinnings and now the plants are big enough to pick leaves each night for salad.

The next project will be a shade perennial garden.

Believe it or not, this used to be a very nice seating area before we built the deck, but after years of neglect it is so overgrown that it’s hard to picture how it will look as a garden. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

Rainy Day

So it’s raining again – what else is new?? What do you do on a rainy day when you’re retired? I started on some projects that have been bugging me for ages. I organized the pantry so that I could fit all that jam into it. There were things in there with expiration dates back to 2005 – Yuck!! How does that happen? Note to self – stop buying things that you don’t actually plan to use in the very near future. That way there’ll be fewer outdated things to throw out!!

I also sorted my sock drawer. Since I’ve started making socks there’s very little room in there. I actually got rid of all the socks with holes in the toes that I just couldn’t throw out. Now, I just need to take a walk on the treadmill and then I can sit down to knit more socks!!

Making Jam (or One of the Things I’m Doing in Retirement)

DH and I went to the local berry farm and picked over 8 pounds of strawberries. The season is winding down and the berries were hard to find, but we were persistent. Many of them are small, but they are very tasty. We filled our flat in a little over an hour.

I went up to attic and found my old water bath canner. There must have been a time when I thought my canning days were over because there was a sticker on the canner that said $3. I guess it was left after a garage sale – good luck for me! I guess some decisions are not final after all.

I started on the strawberry preserves and quickly realized that I didn’t have tongs for the picking up the hot jars or a funnel for filling them. DH made a run to the hardware store in the next town and came home with a nifty little set – tongs, funnel, magnet for lifting tops, and a gauge for measuring head space – the last one on the shelf. I quickly made 7 jars of strawberry preserves. I hardly made a dent in the strawberries and I realized that I needed more sugar. DH made a second trip to pick up sugar – the market was down to only 3 five-lb bags, so I guess I’m not the only the one making jam!!! While he was there he bought some rhubarb, too. Next came 5 jars of strawberry rhubarb jam. Then back to the strawberry preserves. I made 14 jars of the preserves and 5 jars of the jam.

I cleaned up the kitchen and collapsed on the couch. I still have a lot of berries left – maybe I’ll make strawberry rhubarb pie for the family 4th of July celebration.

It's Official

I notice that the last time I updated this blog it was the first day of school. Needless to say, the school year is over and tomorrow will be the first day of my second week of retirement. I remember commenting that I didn’t think I would feel retired until school started again, but to my surprise, that is not the case. There is a different feel to this summer and I find myself doing things that I had not done in previous summers. So, I’ll use my next few entries to catch you up on what I’ve been doing. You’ll have to wait a while for the first installment, because I’m about to make strawberry jam with the 8 pounds of strawberries DH and I picked this morning.

My Last First Day

I went back to work today after the school summer recess. I'm an educational consultant, so I work when school is in session. It dawned on me that my year has revolved around the school schedule since 1952 when I entered kindergarten. Through elementary, high school and college, first days always represented new beginnings. In 1969, I began my teaching career and, for the next 40 years, the academic schedule continued to rule my life. Even during the few years that I took off to raise my children, either DH or my kids or all three of them went off to school ready to begin a new year. So for me, the start of school represents the start of a new year.

Now you might wonder why I’ve spent time thinking about the first day of the academic year. The reason is that this is my last year; I will retire in June 2009. I wonder how it will feel next August when the school year begins again without me.

The Last Project

My mother, who passed away in May, was a talented knitter who taught me how to knit when I was a child. She knitted for her grandchildren, my father and herself, including a beautiful Irish fisherman cardigan made from yarn she bought on a trip to Ireland with my dad. In her later years, knitting became more difficult for her, but she wanted to continue, joining the knitting group at her senior housing complex. She made a prayer shawl and recently had been working on a scarf. She even asked me to bring it to the hospital during her last illness and she worked on it a little when she was well enough. When it became clear that she would not get well, she asked me to promise to finish it when she was gone.

I mentioned this to my sister who told me about a friend who had some knitting that she kept in her living room and friends were invited to add to it when they visited. We decided to bring Mom’s scarf to the reception after her funeral to have people add to it. Later I brought it to her Wednesday morning knitting thinking that group members might want to contribute to the project. One of the aides who cared for my mother and had helped her with her knitting said that she would add a few rows as well. What a fitting way for them to remember my mom. When I returned to pick it up, each person who added to the scarf signed the note I had left with it.

The basket with the unfinished scarf sat in my car and then in my family room for quite a while. I just couldn’t bring myself to work on it. I started other projects, but I didn’t seem to be able to finish anything. Then it dawned on me that I needed to fulfill my promise to my mom and finish the scarf. The first day, I touched the part that my mom had completed and felt the connection. I finished the scarf last night and now it is ready for its intended recipient. My promise to my mom has been kept and now I can get on with my own knitting.

Open Face Sandwich

It’s been a long time since I have posted anything on this blog. I have had other things on my plate: mostly work and caring for my elderly mother (pictured here). Although my children are grown, they are still on my mind, so feeling as if I was sandwiched between my immediate family – my sons and my husband – and my mother was the inspiration for this blog’s title, Knitting Between the Slices. The repetitive motion of knitting and the creation of each piece have helped to keep me calm through crises big and small.

Now one of the slices is gone. My mother’s health had been failing for the past year or so and on the Saturday before Mother’s Day she was taken to the hospital with pneumonia. Of course my knitting was in my tote bag in the car, so I had something to do while waiting for the diagnosis. My sister and niece had just arrived for the weekend, so my sister had her knitting, too. My niece was actually between projects, I think. My knitting got me through the week that followed, when she rallied briefly and then contracted a second pneumonia.

When my mom made the decision to refuse treatment, my sister returned so we could sit together in the hospital while our mother slipped away. My mom survived almost a week and, when we weren’t talking to our mom or the staff, we knitted. My sister actually finished several projects, while I started and frogged at least five different thing along the way. When we got the 4 AM call on May 24 to hurry to the hospital, we brought our knitting, thinking we would have time to knit and talk to our mother again, but she was gone by the time we arrived. Her passing was peaceful, and, although I will miss her terribly, I am glad to have been with her as her last wish was granted and I’m glad for the companionship of my sister and the knitting we share.