June 2021: Here, there, and everywhere

What we’ve read so far

Some highlights from our month of reading:

Picture books/early readers

• There Must Be More Than That! by Shinsuke Yoshitake
• Avocado Asks: What Am I? by Momoko Abe
• I Am Not A Penguin: A Pangolin’s Lament by Liz Wong
• Oh Look, A Cake! by J.C. McKee
• Dessert Island by Ben Zhu
• Flubby Is Not A Good Pet by J.E. Morris
• I’m On It! by Andrea Tsurumi

MG/YA

• Ben Hatke’s Zita the Spacegirl and Mighty Jack series (graphic novels)
• Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
• Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
• Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocca
• Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston
• Flight of the Puffin by Ann Braden
• Pumpkin by Julie Murphy
• The Boys in the Back Row by Mike Jung
• Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri

Adult

• Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher (2022)
• Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson
• The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
• One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

What we’ve made in the kitchen

Savory

• Chicken tikka masala (Damn Delicious)
• Chicken salad (mayo, curry powder, basil from the garden, dried cranberries)
• Veggie sushi (sweet potato, cucumber, carrot, red bell pepper, smoked salmon)
• Deviled eggs (mayo, mustard, white wine vinegar, lemon juice, soy sauce, salt and pepper, paprika, chopped chives)

Baked/Sweet

• English muffin toasting bread (KAF)
• Cranberry lemon scones (ATK recipe for cream scones with currants; replaced currants with dried cranberries soaked in lemon juice and a lemon glaze)
• Vermont whole wheat honey oatmeal bread (KAF)
• Gluten-free pie crust (for a friend)
• Smoothies (fruit juice, yogurt, fruit and berries)
• Chocolate peanut butter no-bake bars (Sally’s Baking Addiction)
• Whole Grain Strawberry Cake (from Snacking Cakes by Yossy Arefi)
• Chocolate and Zucchini Cake (from Snacking Cakes by Yossy Arefi)
• Espresso Chocolate Chip Cake (from Snacking Cakes by Yossy Arefi)

What we’ve grown in the garden

Flowers: Peonies bloomed spectacularly, nasturtiums and other flowers from seed have emerged. The hydrangea is big and sprawling (I may have to move the mini rose bush I planted nearby, because now it’s in the shade all the time); the blossoms are white.

Raised beds and containers: the strawberry plants produced berries. Kale is growing robustly; it’s nice to be able to snip off exactly as much as we want to eat that day. The cucumber and zucchini plants have flowered. The peas flowered and began producing peas; the tomato plants have grown a bit but haven’t flowered yet. The mint is, of course, VERY healthy.

Lemon tree: Appears to be making real live actual lemons!

Berry bushes: raspberries have flowered and began producing berries (none ripe yet); blackberries and blueberries will likely be a little later. These are all still in pots or barrels. I’d like to plant them directly in the ground but I haven’t decided where yet.

Where we’ve been

For the first time in a year and a half, we did a bit of traveling! My mom and I went to my brother’s wedding in California.

Kiddo, Ben, and I went to visit Nana and Gramps in Pennsylvania. Kiddo got to show off her rock-climbing skills in person!

Kiddo and mom and I took our long-awaited trip to Storyland in New Hampshire; Ben stayed home to dog-sit and, in an inspired move, also got us tickets to the Living Shores Aquarium, where it was nice and cool (in contrast to the 95-degree day outside), and where there were otters and “nibble fish”!