What’s in Our Garden?

This is a post I originally came up with last fall, but it was too late in the growing season to make sense. This post is going to be regularly updated to share what we’re currently growing. It’ll be a way to keep everyone in the know with what’s currently in the garden and containers.

Beans

Our beans are being grown in two sections of our property. We have the majority of them growing in the ground in one of our garden beds alongside our corn. These are our bush-habit beans, so they won’t grow too tall and don’t have to be trellised. They’re growing along the perimeter of the bed, alongside the fence. The 7 varieties we’re growing here are Cranberry (shelling), Missouri Bill (shelling), Black Turtle (shelling), Maxibel Hericort Vert (snap), Blue Lake 274 (snap), Beurre de Rocquen (snap), and Cherokee Wax (snap). All of our bush beans have germinated, with the majority of the plants about 2 inches tall. These were planted close together and shouldn’t need to be thinned. Update: As of mid-July, all of our beans are doing very well. They’re all about 18 inches tall, have flowers, and small beans growing.

We also have 3 pole beans growing elsewhere on the property in the trellising containers that I built. These are located alongside our garage and by our potatoes. Update: Of the pole beans we planted, only the Iroquois Skunk pole beans have grown. The other varieties failed to germinate, so we replaced those with the Skunk pole beans. The first planter has done very well and has a lot of beans growing on the vines.

Corn

We enjoyed growing corn so much last year that we wanted to expand upon the 3 varieties we planted, which we did by buying 9 varieties for this year’s garden. As mentioned above, our corn is growing in the same bed as the beans, which was intentional since they are companion crops and are two-thirds of what the Native Americans called the Three Sisters, along with squash. In the right circumstances, corn stalks can be used as the pole that beans will climb, eliminating the need for a trellis system.

The 9 varieties are Hopi Blue (flint), Painted Mountain (flint), Northern Lights (flint), Country Gentleman (sweet), Luther Hill (sweet), Stowell’s Evergreen (sweet), Sweet Iroquois Black Mexican (sweet), Hjeirleid Blue (sweet), and Bear Paw (popcorn). Of these, we grew the Hopi Blue and Sweet Iroquois Black Mexican last year. Everything else is new to us. We’ve also never grown popcorn before, so that’ll be exciting.

Update: After starting with full rows of flint, popcorn, and dent corn and half rows of sweet corn, all the varieties now have full rows. Germination went pretty well even though oppressive heat and excessive rain occurred not long after the second sowing occurred. The corn has a wide range of heights, from ankle height for the newest plants to 6 feet tall for the flint corn we planted first. There are multiple varieties that are in tassel and putting on ears to the point where silk is showing.

Cucumbers

We’re only growing 2 varieties of cucumbers this year. One is called Bushy, and it’s a non-vining variety that produces cucumbers that can be used for slicing or pickling. I started 4 of these inside and transplanted them into our garden. Of the 4 plants, 3 are still alive and have sprawled much more than I thought they would based on their name. Update: We have had a lot of blossoms and many small cucumbers, with the largest being roughly 5 inches long. We should be able to pick them soon.

The other variety is the Mexican Sour Gherkin, also known as the Mouse Melon cucumber. These put out vines and need to be trellised. The cucumbers are small, roughly the size of a golf ball, and look like baby watermelons. We’re growing these in one of the planters I built from the Ikea chair. I started the first batch of these inside and transplanted them. Unfortunately, they didn’t transplant successfully, so I had to restart them by direct sowing. They have yet to germinate. Update: These never germinated.

Eggplant

We greatly enjoyed growing and eating eggplant last year. We bought an Asian variety from our local greenhouse and enjoyed slicing and roasting them all summer. This year, we again opted to buy 2 starts from the greenhouse over seeds. They were a couple of inches tall when purchased and have grown since being transplanted into the garden, but they aren’t looking the healthiest. Some of the leaves turned brown at first, which I think is the result of a watering issue (Too much or too little? Who knows?). We also had some small flying bugs that were causing damage, but I think these have been addressed with Sevin spray. Update: The plants are about 15 inches tall but have yet to flower. Last year, I think I remember the plants flowering and putting on fruit earlier than this, but the plants look healthy now. At one point, I was convinced the plants were dying, but they look very healthy now.

Leeks

I don’t understand how to grow onion-adjacent vegetables. I’ve never tried to grow bulb onions, but I’ve never been able to get spring onions to reach maturity so that they can be harvested. They start out looking great and eventually die off. This year, we passed over onions in favor of leeks, but it looks like it could be the same result. I started 12 cells of them inside and transplanted them when they were 3 inches tall. Update: I believe that the transplanted leeks died. However, in a stunning turn of events, the seeds that I planted have germinated and have greens on them 10 inches long. I’m still unsure if we’ll get a full-size leek out of it, but I’m really excited by the progress so far.

Melons

Pennsylvania isn’t the first state that comes to mind when you think of growing melons, but we had decent success last year with them. We grew heirloom varieties that weren’t native to the region. They also weren’t bred for cool climates, yet we still harvested a half-dozen or so fruit. This year, we focused on varieties that were bred to have success in cool areas. They are Cream of Saskatchewan, Montreal Market, and Pride of Wisconsin. We are growing 4 of each, and all were directly sown into the garden bed.

Update: I believe that 9 of the 12 plants remain and are having success to varying degrees. A few plants have vined out and have small, ping-pong ball-sized fruits on them.

Molokhia

I also struggle to grow greens. I’ve never been able to successfully grow lettuce. Last year, we grew mustard greens with some success, but they quickly got out of control. Molokhia is the only green we’re growing this year. It’s a vegetable that is popular in Middle Eastern and African cuisines and is also known as Egyptian Spinach. Molokhia plants enjoy hot weather, so I started the seeds inside to give them a head start. They germinated well, and I was able to transplant 6 plants; however, in the first days after being transplanted, they began not looking so great and have since died. I directly sowed another line of seeds, which have germinated, but it’s still too early to know if they’ll succeed.

Update: The tallest of our Molokhia plants are 6 to 7 inches tall. Because this is the first year we’ve grown it, we’re a little unsure how things will progress until we harvest some of the leaves. What we do know is that it should be harvested when the plant is 12 inches tall.

Peas

We grew one type of peas last year. They were a snap variety, which I love to eat. They were successful in that we harvested some pods, but we didn’t get the yield I was hoping for. That was largely because I planted them when I was feeling overwhelmed by all the other plants and didn’t give them the attention they deserved. This year, we’re growing 3 varieties: Green Arrow (shelling), Sugar Ann (snap), and Oregon Sugar Pod (snow). I was more careful with organizing the rows of peas this year than I was last year, and it’s going to pay off as the plants grow.

Update: We have rows of each pea variety growing, with the majority of the plants roughly 10 inches tall. They’re also putting on blossoms. I think we’ll get some pods to develop, but I wonder if they were planted too late due to weather.

Peppers

Peppers were another vegetable we had issues with last year. I started seeds and we bought starts, but none of the plants ever produced a mature pepper. Peppers can be tough to grow, and I don’t believe I was ready to correctly handle them last year. This year, we bought 4 varieties: Gochugarju (hot), Jaluv an Attitude (hot), Habanero (hot), and Takii’s New Ace (sweet bell). We bought the Takii’s New Ace largely because it can produce mature fruit quicker than other varieties, which is important in northern states where it can take until June to regularly get above 70 degrees. I also started a lot of cells for each variety and was intentional with developing a good root nest before transplanting.

Update: Peppers remain the most problematic vegetable for me to grow. There are still a few plants in the garden, but the others have died. We have a couple of fruits developing on a gochugaru plant, but I was hoping for more success with them this year. We still have the 4 plants that I started in the basement still growing in containers, and they’re looking good. I’m unsure if I’ll transplant them into the garden bed or to another container at this point.

Potatoes

I recently wrote in-depth about how we’re growing our potatoes in bags this year and how well it’s going. If you didn’t read that post, I recommend checking it out. We’re growing 4 potato varieties this year: Red Norland (early season), Adirondack Blue (midseason), German Butterball (late season), and Magic Molly (late season). They’re all doing very well.

We split each of the 4 varieties into 5 grow bags for a total of 20, and they’ve all needed to be hilled with dirt to the point where we won’t be adding any more dirt to the bags. Within a few days of planting, some of the plants began poking through the soil. We were adding more dirt on a daily basis for a while until we decided to buy enough dirt to top off all of the bags in early June. I am shocked with how well and quickly they’ve grown. Still, we’ve had several of the bags begin to show plants poking through the soil, so we’re seeing a lot of growth and may only be a month away from harvesting our first potatoes. From here on out, we’ll only have to water the bags, monitor them for weeds, and wait for the plants to flower and die off.

Update: Our potatoes continue to be the most productive and successful vegetable. All of our bags have plants growing, with the majority of them completely full. The most successful bags have plants that are 18 inches above the top of the bag and are starting to put on flowers.

Pumpkins

We loved growing pumpkins last year and had a lot of success with them despite not knowing what we were doing. We harvested 3 of them, making pumpkin pie with them for Thanksgiving. They made the most delicious pumpkin pie we’ve ever had. We would have been able to harvest more of them had deer not broken through our fence and ate some of the pumpkins.

This year, we’re only growing 2 varieties—Winter Luxury and New England Sugar Pie, which grew last year. We’re being really intentional with how we’re growing our pumpkins this year, with 5 hills built for each variety. Weirdly, only 1 plant of each variety has germinated so far, and we’re going to re-sow seeds. Update: After re-sowing the seeds, all 10 of the hills germinated. All of the plants currently have flowers, with one plant vining out and beginning to grow fruit.

Squash (Summer)

We are growing a ton of summer squash with 7 varieties: Black Beauty (Zucchini), Costata Romanesca (Zucchini), Early Summer Crookneck (Yellow Squash), Lebanese White (Zucchini), Ronde de Nice (Zucchini/Scallop hybrid), White Scallop (Patty Pan), and Yellow Crookneck (Yellow Squash). We love squash, if you couldn’t tell.

Costata Romanesca, Black Beauty, Ronde de Nice, zucchini — Costata Romanesca, Black Beauty, and Ronde de Nice summer squash

We directly sowed 5 of each variety, and all have germinated. Update: Our squash has taken off like crazy, and we’ve harvested multiple fruits: 1 Black Beauty zucchini, 2 Costata Romanesca zucchini, and 1 Ronde de Nice squash. We have more that are close to being picked and several baby yellow Crooknecks growing.

Squash (Winter)

We’re also growing 3 varieties of winter squash: Burpee’s Butterbush (Butternut), Turks Turban (Gourd), and Burgess Buttercup (Buttercup). We started 3 of each variety directly in the garden, and then our neighbor gave us 5 more buttercup starts. Three of the starts didn’t make it, but I replaced them with seeds from our stash, giving us 14 winter squash plants, assuming everything germinates. Update: After re-sowing the winter squash seeds, we had successful germination. Unfortunately, the buttercup squash our neighbor gave us aren’t doing too well; however, the seeds I planted have grown into healthy-looking plants.

Tomatoes

We’re growing a ton of tomatoes this year, so buckle up. After growing some rare and colorful varieties last year, we returned to growing all red tomatoes. The varieties are Aichi First (Slicing), Early Cherry (Cherry), Heinz (Paste), Korean Long (Paste), Large Red (Slicing), Little Bing (Cherry), Martino’s Roma (Paste), Mountaineer Pride (Slicing), Sub Arctic Plenty (Slicing), and Umpqua Beauty (Slicing). I don’t remember the exact number, but I think I started 6 cells of each variety and transplanted a total of 20 or so plants. Not all have survived, but we probably have around 16 plants, with 13 of them in the garden and 3 Little Bing plants in a planter. Immediately after transplanting our starts, I started more Heinz, Early Cherry, and Aichi First seeds, which have since germinated.

Update: Our tomato plants have put me through the wringer this year. They started out perfectly, but then an issue with grass growing in the garden bed combined with me forgetting to trim leaves on the plants led to them looking sickly. That was followed by torrential rainstorms that yielded 3.5 inches of rain in less than 12 hours. Since then, we’ve had warm weather and more consistent precipitation, which has salvaged the majority of the plants. We have lots of blossoms and small fruits growing on the plants. Our most successful variety has been the Little Bing, which is being grown in a planter. It looks healthy and has dozens of small tomatoes on it.

#73 – Welcome, Again!

A lot has changed in the 2 years since this blog was launched, and I thought, it might be time to update my introduction.

In 2023, my plan was to finding a new landing place for me to explore writing again, after Muirin Project, my blog from 2016-2019. I wanted to showcase my novel, catalog my knitting and sewing journey, journal my bible study, and share my love for creative expression in many artistic mediums.

Now I have added some new things to the mix – Japanese learning, Kpop, garment workers/conscious consumption, and most excitingly: gardening! Which welcomed my husband to the site to share his experiences with gardening and bring awareness to why natural ecosystems, seed saving, and eating local matter. He is also preparing to share his other favorite hobby – woodworking.

Now, for something I question – should I change the site name? I am uncertain for SEO purposes and the likelihood of broken links. I don’t think it is wise. But this site is so much more than just my work, it is the harmonizing voices of myself and Kyle which is how I think the world becomes a better place – working together. Let’s keep the honmoon sealed. ❤

3 Reasons You Should Go Bowling

I wrote a blog post earlier this week about rediscovering my love for bowling after Magz and I watched a Phil Edwards video and went bowling last Friday. Today, I’m back with another bowling-related post, this time making 3 points that argue for why you should go bowling. I was originally going to include this in that first post, but when it reached 2,000 words, it was time to split them.

1.) Easy to See Improvements

This really only applies if you’re interested in bowling on a somewhat consistent basis and are interested in improving. If you’re just going to bowl occasionally, improvement isn’t as important, but it’s still fun to be good at something we enjoy doing.

I’m the type of person who takes all my hobbies seriously. I want to be the best at them. I think everyone enjoys being good at stuff. Bowling is great because you can make small adjustments mid-game and figure out if they’ll help you improve. You can alter where you stand to start, which arrow you aim at when throwing, and what ball you’re using and immediately see results.

You don’t want to change multiple things at one time because you won’t know the impact of each change, but limiting it to one change at a time allows you to see how much of an effect it has on the results. From there, repeating your mechanics until they become second nature allows you to find consistency and will lead to overall improvement.

Not all hobbies, sports, and activities are like this. Compare it to playing guitar, which takes time and a lot of practice to improve. Learning to apply the correct pressure when holding a chord or not picking the wrong string when learning a riff is really difficult. And when you make a mistake, it sounds like nails on a chalkboard, even if no one else can hear it. It can take a lot of drive to not be disappointed when you mute a string or play the wrong note. Bowling being an activity that provides immediate feedback when making improvements makes it a great hobby and sport.

2.) Affordability

Another reason you should go bowling is because it’s affordable. At a time when everything seems to be expensive and only increasing in cost, bowling remains fairly cheap, or at least it is in our area. I don’t remember how much it cost when I used to bowl consistently, but at that bowling alley, it currently costs $4.50 per game per person, with it being more expensive for glow bowling and cheaper Tuesday afternoons. That seems to be an average rate in our area, with some alleys charging up to $7 per game and others being cheaper. The bowling alley we went to last Friday was an incredible $2.50 per game. For the two of us to play three games, rent shoes, and each get a fountain drink, it was $24. That is amazingly cheap. It’s hard to find anything that provides more than an hour of fun for that low of a price.

If you want to get serious and buy your own equipment, it’s also an affordable hobby to invest in. Of course, you can spend a ton of money, but you can also buy your own ball for less than $100. If you want your own shoes, they can be purchased for $40. Add in a bag for $25, and you’re set for years. You just need to maintain your ball by wiping the oil off it, and it’ll last you a long time. There are very few hobbies and sports that have such an afford buy-in and don’t require further investment down the road.

Let’s look at playing guitar again. I have very affordable guitars (a Yamaha Pacific electric and an Ibanez acoustic), and both were around $200. You don’t need both an electric and an acoustic, but it’s fun to be able to play different types of music. You also need to buy an amp for your electric, picks, a capo, cables, and strings. Plus, there are pedals that can alter the sound you create. When you really get into playing, it’s hard to not want more equipment. This is the second reason bowling is worth getting into.

3.) Year-Round Activity

My third reason people should go bowling is because it’s a year-round activity, which can’t be said for a lot of hobbies. Because it’s indoors, a lot of people bowl in winter when it’s snowing or too cold to be outside. It’s also a great rainy-day activity.

But I also think it’s a lot of fun in summer when it’s hot and you want to get out of the sun for a bit. Summer is also when bowling alleys are the least busy, so you usually won’t have an issue getting a lane. We were the only people bowling the day we went. Realistically, any indoor hobby can be enjoyed year-round, including playing guitar. However, I often don’t work in my woodshop when it’s too hot, since there’s no air conditioning, or too cold, because even though I have propane and kerosene heaters, it still isn’t fun when your hands are cold. Bowling being a hobby that you can participate in year-round, regardless of the weather, allows you to improve without taking time off.

If you have thought about bowling recently but haven’t gone, I hope these three reasons encourage you to give it a go. And if you haven’t gone bowling since you were a kid, it’s just as fun bowling as an adult. It’s a blast to do something that doesn’t cost too much, can be done in any weather, and is easy to improve at. If you do go bowling again, I hope you have an independent alley near you and that you have a blast.

August 8, 2026 0

Thank You

I hope, dear reader, you know how much this WordPress community means to me. I have shared before how frustrating it is to share my designs on Instagram, how I have chased the algorithm and have been disappointed over and over by the shifting sands of Meta. The algorithm has felt even more desolate lately, not even showing my posts with my friends. It feels like yelling into a void. I feel like the rat in a cage from a Bullet with Butterfly Wings.

The reason why I started sharing my work on my Facebook and Instagram when I began sewing and picked up knitting again in the 2020, was to connect with others and find community. I’m tired of my feed drowning in advertisement, and feeling disconnected from others when they post and I post because we are not monetizing our every post. I don’t want to sell you anything. I want to inspire and learn together. I want to make art. I want to not feel alone, just like we all do.

WordPress has been the exception and your community makes me feel hopeful that in the AI Slop, short-form content, linked-below hellscape that is the internet right now, that we can still be there for each other. Thank you for every view, every like, every comment. You mean the world to me. Being an artist right now sucks, but you all make it magical.

I have been making a lot, organizing my work room, finding a lot of inspiration from like-minded folks on the internet and listening to good music. My favorites recently have been Haute & Freddy and rediscovering The Smashing Pumpkins after their amazing Lollapalooza performance. I wish you a lovely Friday! Until next time ❤

August 7, 2026

Using Doodle Decks for the First Time

The Doodle Decks from Pacific Knit Co had this aura, pulling me in from the first instance I saw online. Maybe it’s because of my 90s and 2000s childhood? It reminded me of the crafts we do as kids – the mini weaving looms, tie dye shirts, friendship bracelets, bedazzling etc. There was something about this deck cards.

If you are not familiar with the doodle decks, they are curated colorwork charts that are combined into a small deck of cards, with a design per card, and additional cards to teach you how to make the most from the themed deck of your choice. I love the approachable nature of this pattern! Instead of a paper pattern, with line by line instructions, you get miniature charts contained per card, that is far easier to keep track of when you are knitting.

I found this format incredibly easy to use! I could quickly flip through my options, and choose my pattern cards. You can compare options or brainstorm sections of your project by easily laying out the cards on a table. The small card, the size of a playing card, was easy to manage in my project bag. To pause my work, all I needed to do was slip my card on top of the deck, and slide the deck back into the box. No graph paper to fold or book to mark, easy peasy!

As a self-drafter, I am not the best at following patterns. I think some of this stems from neurodivergence, and some from the fierce individuality instilled from girlhood in the 90s-2000s. I remember, not wanting to be accused of “copying” someone’s style, or locker layout, or room decor. It was a major social faux pas. Even though knitting patterns are literally sold for this purpose, to share your design with the world, I can feel myself resisting. But with these doodle decks, even though I was not the one to draw these charts, I feel like it is a choose your adventure kind of pattern.

There are ideas for sure suggested in the deck, but you can follow your own heart. I like the customization of Pacific Knit Co’s format. I have learned a lot from them through this experience of using their color work doodle decks, including new perspective in regard to my own self-drafted color work charts. I always go big, with these large graphics, that span the front of a piece, when big is not the only way. Small designs, with repetition, in the fair isle tradition, are just as effective and a new way to tell the same story.

I would highly recommend giving these decks a try. I purchased the Farm Doodle Deck from my local yarn store, Moon and Yarn Craft Room to make the Town Farm Cardigan. For copyright reasons, I did not show the cards, aside from the front of the deck, but as you can see from these photos of my finished object, they contain lovely variety that will spark your imagination.

August 7, 2026

Rediscovering My Love of Bowling

If you’re familiar with my posts on the blog, you may be surprised to see my name attached to something that isn’t related to gardening or woodworking. But today I’m writing about something Magz and I did last Friday: we went bowling. As two adults without kids, why would we go bowling in the middle of summer?

My guess is that nearly every American has gone bowling at least once in their life. When Magz and I were kids, they almost became a third place. It’s where friends had their birthday parties, where you went with your youth group, and where you’d go to kill an afternoon in the winter or when it was really hot. And I think that most people stop bowling once they reach high school and stop having birthday parties…or at least that’s how it has been for us. Despite that, we have still thought about going bowling for something to do.

We often look for fun activities around us. Because we love our home, both inside and out, it can be a struggle to want to go places. What we really enjoy are local activities where we can kill a couple of hours and not spend a ton of money. We’re fans of mini-golfing for this reason, but with only one course in town, it becomes repetitive, and the place needs a bit of TLC. Two years ago, not long after we bought our house, we tried going bowling at our local alley, but the vibe was off. When you entered the building, it felt like you were walking down a labyrinth just to find the lanes. Plus, everything was poorly lit, even in the middle of the afternoon, so we left without even talking to someone.

For nearly two years, we stopped talking about going bowling until early last week when we watched a YouTube video from Phil Edwards. If you’ve never heard of Phil Edwards, his channel dives into various historical and cultural topics, and he presents them in very intelligent and creative ways. This video was about bowling alleys replacing traditional pinsetters with string pins. It covers the history of bowling alleys and pinsetters, why some bowling alleys are switching to string pins, and how bowling is becoming the latest victim of private equity and commercialization. The biggest takeaway is that we need to do everything we can to keep local, independent bowling alleys open and thriving. So, we started looking at the bowling alleys in our area and were shocked to see how many there are. Within a 30-mile radius, there are probably 10 of them. And the best news is that they all appear to be independently owned. So, last Friday on a day off from work, we went to the closest one outside of our town.

My Love of Bowling

I used to really enjoy bowling. Like others, I would go to friends’ birthday parties, glow bowling as part of church youth group lock-ins, and the occasional summer afternoon when my dad had off work. But unlike others, my interest in bowling stayed when it cooled for others. In middle school, I played as an extra on my mom’s and stepdad’s team in their church league. I have no idea how I did, but I remember enjoying it and began bowling at least once a week. I had my own ball, learned how to throw a hook, and steadily improved to the place where my average was in the 140s. I bowled as much as I could until it all stopped.

During my sophomore year of high school, I moved with my mom full-time, and the three of us moved two hours away, and everything changed. We stopped bowling. We went bowling at the local alley once, but it wasn’t as nice as the old place, so we never went. Eventually, even the conversations about bowling stopped. The balls were never thrown, and I don’t even know where my ball is anymore. I finally went bowling again in 2011 or 2012 during my sophomore year of college. My dad, stepmom, and brother visited me for a couple of days, and we went bowling one evening. I don’t remember all the details, but we had a lot of fun. And until last Friday, that was the most recent time I bowled. I don’t think my enjoyment of bowling ever ceased, though; it just became hard to find the time or gather enough friends to go bowling with. It felt like something that would be lost to my past. Thankfully, that proved to not be the case.

Bowling Again After 14 Years

Let me describe the bowling alley we went to last Friday. First, it’s primarily a pizza restaurant that is in a bowling alley. The entire business goes by the pizza restaurant’s name. So, it’s a pizza joint where you bowl rather than a bowling alley where you eat pizza. Because they make the majority of their money selling food, it’s more affordable to bowl there than other alleys in the area.

This setup also helps keep the bowling alley classic. In the Phil Edwards video I linked to earlier, two ways private equity is negatively affecting bowling alleys are through unnecessary “upgrades” and by selling advertising space everywhere. This bowling alley used traditional equipment, and there were no TVs showing sports or playing music. Otherwise, the only sounds were from bowling.

This bowling alley also had the smell we wanted from a bowling alley, as weird as that sounds. We like when bowling alleys are older and have a faint grease or stale cigarette smoke smell. Those smells mean that the bowling alley has been around for a long time and has survived the decades.

This bowling alley had all the hits that you look for: the multicolor leather shoes with too-long laces, the racks of balls, some with chips taken out of them, and the swivel chairs by each ball return. (Side note: I recently learned that you can buy these rental bowling shoes brand-new.) Feeling comfortable was great, but now to the real question: How do you bowl? When you haven’t done something in more than a decade, it’s really awkward doing it again for the first time.

What weight of ball do I want? Where do I stand before I throw? Which arrow on the lane do I aim the ball at? How do I throw a hook again? These questions all went through my head as I got ready to throw my first ball. And it was only made worse because Magz did really well on her first frame, knocking down nine of the ten pins. Meanwhile, three of my first four balls went into the gutter. As someone who used to be a pretty good bowler and is very competitive, yikes!

Eventually, I got more comfortable, found the ball I liked, and settled in. We played three games. Magz took game one by more than 20 points, as I failed to break 100. I pulled it together in game two with 150 points and regressed a little in game three to the 140s. Magz did quite well and was consistent across all three games, and I am so proud of her. Those three games flew by, and we had such a great time.

Support Your Local Bowling Alley

Even though we ultimately went bowling because we like doing it, we were initially nudged to go by that Phil Edwards video. Any time I hear of something being in the crosshairs of private equity and unnecessary modernization, it frustrates me, and I want to fight against it. Finding a bowling alley that still has all the traditional equipment with classic styling is a wonderful thing. It’s like stepping back in time, but everything still works. If you have an independent bowling alley around you and haven’t gone in a while, I recommend checking it out. It is a great way to spend a couple of hours, and who knows, you might just get the itch to go more often. I know that we’ll be going back in the near future.

August 5, 2026 1

Maple Leaf Sweater

I love fall, and I wanted a sweater to celebrate that. But what makes this project even more personal to my taste, is the maple leaf motif at the neckline. Through my dad, I am half Canadian. They are from all over Canada from Saskatchewan to Alberta, and a lot from Ontario. Growing up, because of the nature of divorce and my dad’s messy relationships, I didn’t get to know this side until my twenties, and although it continues to be complicated, I wanted to knit a piece that spoke to my own heritage. Maple leaves seemed like a perfect motif to jump into. With the addition of the tonal yarn, this piece has a lovely fall gradient, that evokes the season, but doesn’t pigeon hole the garment into one season. I wear this in the winter and spring, without feeling out of place.

You may recognize the base of this sweater from my post, ‘Will I Wear a Knit T-shirt?’ and the answer for this project was yes, but, I’d love this even more as a full length sleeve! So as it goes, this project was cast back on to needles to make some sleeves, except, this time I tried a new to me technique – crochet – to create sleeves in the round. I wanted this piece to have a lot of texture, so I experimented with knit and crochet stitches to make this piece, which has a simple design, compared to my other projects feel a bit unique. In the end, I think I ended up with a lovely love letter to a part of me that I don’t always understand but are connected to even when they feel far away.

August 3, 2026

Weekly Garden Update #6 – Melon or Pumpkin?

In this week’s gardening update, I’m mainly going to focus on a plant that was supposed to be a melon but is looking more like a pumpkin with each passing day. Additionally, I’ll go over some of the harvesting that we’ve done as well as what we’re seeing in the garden. Let’s dive in.

Is It a Melon or a Pumpkin?

One look at this picture, and it’s obviously a pumpkin, right? That’s what we’re thinking now too. The skin is giving off serious pumpkin vibes, and the stem is thick and curved much like a pumpkin. Heck, even the leaves look like pumpkin leaves. And I expect that by early September it should begin to turn orange. So why did we think it was a melon? The answer is simple: we didn’t plant any pumpkins in this bed this year. In this section of the bed, we planted three varieties of melons, and for most of the plant’s life, I thought it was a melon plant. I obviously wasn’t paying attention to the leaf shape, which looks nothing like a melon leaf. This begs the question of how do we have a pumpkin when we didn’t plant pumpkin seeds?

I think there are only two possibilities. One is that the envelope of Cream of Saskatchewan melon seeds we received actually had pumpkin seeds in it. I don’t think this is the case because I believe I would have noticed if the seeds looked like pumpkin seeds rather than watermelon seeds. Also, in this same row, we have several melon plants growing, so I’m confident we received and planted the proper seeds.

The other possibility is that this seed was left on the ground from last year and grew this spring. I’m confident this is what happened. We grew pumpkins in this bed last year, including a New England Sugar Pie variety, which is what this pumpkin looks like. There were a couple of pumpkins that deer started to eat, allowing seeds to fall on the ground. Then, this spring, I likely tilled them into the soil when I was turning it over, allowing this seed to germinate and grow. It’s similar to the rogue tomato plants we have in this same bed. Those are also growing well. I’m getting a kick out of how this happens, and we’re pretty happy with this pumpkin plant since the plants we’re intentionally growing aren’t doing all that well.

Squash, Beans, and First Tomato

We’re continuing to harvest summer squash, with the yellow crooknecks being ready to pick. We’ve also been picking more Costata Romanesca and Lebanese White Bush and have learned the importance of consistent watering and waiting until the vegetables are fully ripe before picking. One of our Costata Romanescas was firm for about 75 percent of its length before tapering to a soft section in the last 2 inches. We picked two Lebanese White Bushes. One was white and the other was a pale green. We learned that they need to be white before picking because it indicates full ripeness. We’re also starting to see the first patty pan squashes growing on the plants. Last year, these were our favorite summer squash to eat, so we’re really excited to be able to eat them again soon.

One thing I can’t figure out is why our winter squash have done nothing. We planted a couple varieties with multiple plants of each variety. Some of the plants have completely died off, while others haven’t taken off, and we haven’t seen any fruit development. It’s a similar story with our intentionally planted pumpkins. I’m unsure if this is the result of the intense heat wave we had in June or something else, but last year, our winter squash grew very well.

We continue to have an excellent year for beans. We’re picking a batch of them every couple of days and have been enjoying eating our fresh snap and wax beans. We’re also seeing pods on our shelling beans, which is really exciting.

Cherokee Wax, Blue Lake Bush, Iroquois Skunk Pole Beans

Finally, we harvested our first tomato last night. It was a cherry tomato was delicious. Our tomatoes have been kind of weird this year. The plants took off after being transplanted into the garden, but inconsistent watering, weed issues, and uneven temperatures led to some issues. At one point, it looked like most plants were going to die, but that’s no longer the case. There are a lot of tomatoes growing and starting to turn red, but the leaves are still brown and don’t look healthy. I’m choosing to focus on the positives in that we’re going to be able to harvest tomatoes from plants that don’t look great while thinking about ways to improve next year.

Cucumber Bitterness

One of the most disappointing vegetables this year has been our cucumbers. Like our tomatoes, the plants took off after being transplanted, but a combination of not remembering how far the Bushy variety spreads and not being able to see the vegetables below the leaves has made it difficult to pick the cucumbers at the ideal size. And the flavor of these cucumbers has been hit and miss. Some have been amazing and similar to the freshest-tasting cucumbers I’ve ever eaten. Others, though, have been bitter and not pleasant to eat. This was due to the heat wave we had in June since cucumbers are apparently very heat-sensitive and respond to it by developing thicker skins, which causes bitterness. We may take a year off from growing cucumbers next year because they’re a bit finicky and annoying to grow. But when we do grow them again, I want to find a variety that is less heat-sensitive because we tend to get one weeklong heatwave each summer.

Up Next

Do you have any experience with cucumbers being bitter? If so, do you have any tips for addressing the issue at this point in the summer?

July 30, 2026 0

Glowing Clouds Sweater ft. Noro Yarn

When I first saw these dragon egg skeins, it was right in the wake of Joann’s closure, I felt a sense of wonder. Like, maybe there was more to see outside the cave, to paraphrase Plato. I began to look at niche and new to me yarn brands, and Noro stole my heart.

The yarn is effervescent, floating on the loveliness of its craftsmanship. The yarn looks hand spun, although it is made on a hybrid machine. It called to me, as a knitter who had stuck to the budget yarn and avoided wool for years because the scratchiness was all I could remember. I didn’t know that wool, in spite of the scratchiness, has unique properties that enhance your stitches and make caring for your sweaters easy. Wool is antimicrobial naturally, meaning you don’t have to wash them consistently like other garments in your closet. They can be spot cleaned and refreshed between wears. The other important thing I was missing out on was the way the wool grips onto itself, it has memory, and a squish that is unlike what I had experienced with my acrylic and cotton based fibers.

Now, the Noro had me from first sight, but how was this self striping yarn to work with? Great actually! I chose the colorway Kori, a cool toned blend of blues and purples, with occasional hints of green, red, and gray.

The pooling was well behaved and the transitions were gradual. The hand spun feel of the yarn did pose some issues for me, when it came to gauge. There were sections that were quite thick and disconcertingly thin. I did cut some of thread like sections out of my yarn, because one snapped on me as I was working with it. This led to some yarn chicken, unfortunately.

My lack of yardage was also my own fault. When I first ordered this yarn, from my local yarn shop, I had planned to make a vest. But once I felt the fabric the yarn created, I wanted a whole sweater. This was not going to be possible with 900 meters of yarn. I had to get crafty, and sourced some yarn from my stash that was a similar color and weight, and most importantly, was a non-super wash wool like the Noro. To mimic the color story of the Sauin, I was careful to splice in the other yarn where the colors made sense and I think it is hard to tell what is the Noro yarn and what is Knit Picks Palette.

So what is it like to wear? A dream honestly. It feels like a vintage sweater, like a wool sweater from the 80s or 90s, a find that would make you do a happy dance if you picked this up at a thrift store. It is minimally scratchy, warm, yet breathable. It’s made me a wool convert and a Noro stan. I want to make this over and over again. What will keep me in check is the price point and availability. Each skein of the Sauin was 35 USD. That is why I chose to add in yarn from my stash to keep this project at 70 USD, instead of 105 or 140 USD, since I am bad at guessing yardage. This yarn brand is incredibly popular, which has made it tricky to get my hands on, but I am seeing that is 2026 the yarn is becoming more common in the US. That makes me happy to see – every knitter and crocheter should give this fiber a try!

July 28, 2026

The Fun of Naming Your Garden Beds

Jeremy Clarkson’s Amazon Prime original Clarkson’s Farm is one of our favorite shows. The show provides a less-than-glamorous look at everything that goes into growing the food that Britain eats. And even though he is far from the average farmer, given his financial success in the entertainment and journalism industries, the show has been lauded by farmers across the globe. I wrote about the show in an earlier post, which I think is worth checking out, as it dives into everything that can be learned from the show. I’m revisiting the show in this post because it’s where we first learned about naming garden beds, or fields, in the case of a farmer.

In the first season (it may have even been the first episode), Jeremy invites Kaleb to the farm to have him become the farm manager. As a test, Jeremy asks Kaleb to go through the field names without looking at a map. This was the first time I had heard of a farmer naming fields. I worked on a dairy farm early in high school and don’t remember him ever referring to a field’s name. Granted, my job was mostly milking cows, but I think I would have heard him referring to a field by its name if he gave them names. The cows had names; the fields didn’t.

But I think naming fields is brilliant. When you have a bunch of fields in close proximity to each other, it can be really difficult coming up with directions for farm workers. Think about the last time you attempted to give directions solely off reference points instead of road names or route numbers. It isn’t easy. By naming the fields and using those names on a map of the farm, everyone can quickly identify the field’s location. Granted, using numbers or letters is equally efficient, but it does lack creativity and fun.

Last year, our garden consisted of 5 beds, and it was confusing trying to talk about the same bed if we weren’t standing outside looking at the garden. Saying “the bed behind the garden” worked because it was the only bed there, but it was a struggle anytime we needed to talk about the 4 beds beside each other on our second lot. So, this year, we wanted to come up with garden bed names to help us quickly identify which one we’re talking about when discussing seeds, plans, harvesting, etc.

These are the names we came up with:

Beer Talk – This is the bed we often hang out by and talk with our neighbor over a can, bottle, or glass of beer.
Oh, Deer – This bed was where we grew our corn last year. Deer got into the bed and ate a lot of our late-season corn. We aren’t growing corn there this year, but the name remains.
Bunny – This is a new bed for 2026. It’s where a lot of rabbits hung out before creating the garden bed. They still hang out in the yard and grass that surrounds the bed.
Swamp – This bed struggles with drainage. When we get a lot of rain in the spring, it’s the last bed to drain.
Rain Barrel – This bed is the one closest to our rain barrel, so this one makes a lot of sense.
Watch for That Pole! – An homage to the movie George of the Jungle, we found a cemented, hollowed-out metal pole in the middle of this bed last year. We think it may have been a clothesline pole in the past, and instead of removing it, the previous owners broke it off at the base.

Those are the 6 names. We may change them in future years, or we may keep them as they are. But it was a lot of fun figuring out creative names that fit the beds, and it’s a lot easier talking about specific beds now. Have you ever named your garden beds to make things a bit easier? If so, I’d love to hear the names you came up with.

July 27, 2026 0

Weekly Garden Update #6 – Cucumbers, Zucchini, Corn Growth & More

In this week’s update, we finally harvested our first cucumbers from this year’s garden. We also picked more zucchini, our corn is producing ears, our melons are showing major growth, we harvested a bunch of beans, and more. Let’s dive in!

First Cucumber Harvest

Until last week, our cucumber plants were perplexing. As a refresher, we’re growing a variety called Bushy, which originally came from Russia and does well in cool climates. I started them from seeds and transplanted 4 plants into the garden, with 3 of them surviving. What has confused me about this cucumber is that the name Bushy implies a contained plant that doesn’t sprawl out. That hasn’t been the case, as the plants have vined out feet from the roots. Yesterday, I revisited the seed listing, and this variety still produces 5-foot vines, so they’re growing as expected.

Bushy Cucumbers, cucumbers — Cucumber Harvest

The other thing that’s perplexed me about them is how long they’re taking to grow. It felt like this year’s cucumbers (and other vegetables) were taking longer to mature than last year’s garden; however, looking at my weekly blog entries from last year, I learned that we didn’t pick our first cucumbers until the second week of July. So, at most, we’re a week late, which is almost entirely the result of the weather. The craziest part is that on Wednesday of last week, our cucumbers were only 3 or 4 inches long, but by Sunday evening, we picked 6 that were 7 to 8 inches long, with 2 of them being overripe. Magz cut 2 of the cucumbers into chunks, and we ate them raw with dinner. The Bushy cucumber is a very tasty variety that is firm enough to hold up to brining for pickles but still tender enough to be eaten fresh.

Experiencing New Summer Squash Varieties

In last week’s update, I wrote about our first zucchini harvest for the year, which was a Costata Romanesca. Since then, we’ve picked 4 or 5 more of them as well as 3 or 4 Lebanese White Bush, 2 Ronde de Nice, and 1 Black Beauty. The Lebanese White Bush is an heirloom variety that produces 4-to-5-inch squashes that are light green in color. The Ronde de Nice is a French heirloom that has an acorn shape but is a summer squash. It can be dark or light green and is typically picked at 4 inches in diameter. The Black Beauty is the dark green zucchini that comes to mind for most people when they think of a zucchini. It has a smooth skin with an even color, and we pick ours when they’re 8 to 10 inches in length.

We’ve eaten at least one of each variety except for the Black Beauty, and all are delicious. My dad and stepmom visited us this past weekend, and we were able to send them home with some Costata Romanesca, Ronde de Nice, and Lebanese White Bush. My dad messaged me yesterday and said that they fried the Ronde de Nice and loved it. In a future blog post, I’ll review each variety and detail the flavors.

Corn Tassels and Ears

Our corn has really taken off over the past week. Our Painted Mountain corn has the most beautiful reddish-purple stalk, and even the tassels and silk have a purple tinge to them. They’re almost 6 feet tall and have ears developing. Meanwhile, our Sweet Mexican corn is approaching 7 feet tall, and the tassels are starting to appear. Nearly every day, we go out to the garden to tap the stalks to help germinate the ears.

A Bean Harvest

On Sunday, we had the joy of being able to harvest a full dinner’s worth of beans. We grew beans last year and were able to eat some, but they didn’t grow well, and we never had enough ripen at once to have as a meal. This year, conditions seem to be perfect for growing them, because we’re having a ton of success. We picked Beurre De Rocquencourt and Maxibel Haricot Vert, yielding a quart in total. Magz steamed them, melted butter over them, and added a pinch of Kosher salt and black pepper.

Beans, Maxibel Haricot Vert bean, Beurre de Rocquen bean — First bean harvest of 2026.

Even though we ate the two varieties together, you could taste a difference between the two beans, which I love. Yesterday, that harvest was followed up with another quart of beans, with Cherokee Wax beans comprising the bulk of the haul.

A Grab Bag of Topics – Potatoes, Peppers, Flax & More

Our potatoes continue to do well with the exception of one bag of Adirondack Blues. For some reason, that bag never took off, and on Saturday, I noticed that the plant that had been growing in it died. It’s not a big deal since we have 19 other bags that are doing well, and we’re going to use that bag to transplant a couple of the Gochugaru pepper plants I started late. In other pepper news, one of our habanero plants is producing fruit. It currently has 3 or 4 small peppers on it, each about 2 inches long.

Our flax and sunflowers are looking great. The flax plants are about 2 feet tall and have a lovely light purple flower on top. Not knowing how they grow or what to expect from them has made the process of growing them all the more fun. What we didn’t realize is how much flax you need to grow in order to turn it into a sizable amount of yarn/thread. We thought that growing a few rows of it would yield a decent amount, but it looks like we’ll need to grow an entire bed of it in the future. Meanwhile, our sunflowers are 4 feet tall (Mammoth variety) and 12 inches tall (Teddy Bear). The plants are looking healthy, and we’re hopeful that we’ll get heads to form on them this year and that we can prevent the squirrels from attacking them.

Lastly, we’re beginning to see progress from our melons. All 3 varieties are vining nicely and producing flowers, but the Montreal Market and Pride of Wisconsin are stealing the show. Both have fruit growing. The Montreal Market is nearly the size of a softball, while the Pride of Wisconsin is close to tennis ball size. Happy Gardening!

Montreal Market Melon, Melon — Montreal Market melon growing

July 21, 2026 0