Yes, as a matter of fact, June IS almost over! And no posts! Golly.
I have been continuing to work on my looooooooooonnnnnggg story as time allows, which isn't much but it's something.
I have also been following my bliss and working in the garden. I'm concentrating on perennials this year in hopes of establishing an irrigation-mostly-free zone. Gardening's creative, isn't it? At least just a little. I am actually the worst gardener ever. I'm very good at weeding and preparing beds, but I don't have the design sense to put a bunch of plants together in a harmonious and sensible way. Or to keep them alive. If they don't want to live, nothing I can do will persuade them to make the effort. So does that mean that the purchase of a plant by me is actually most likely a death sentence for said vegetation?
Hmm.
Should I stop buying plants? Or stop gardening altogether?
No.
In other creative news, rather than practicing art, I've been practicing craft. (I don't know how I would class my gardening forays, which are neither art nor craft.) Our plums all came ripe at the same time, so I've been making plum butter. Last night I started a batch of sauerkraut in a Belgian-style crock with a lid because I really hate scrapping off the dreck that forms on top of crocks that don't have water-sealed lids. The crock is being stored at about 60 degrees F, since every one from Joy of Cooking to J. Katzen says that's the best temperature for fermentation. I'll let you know in three or four weeks how it turned out. Next will be an experiment comparing sour cream made with a buttermilk starter to creme fraiche made with a real creme fraiche starter culture. I want to see just how different they taste. I love the sour cream, and it is certainly cheaper to buy a cup of buttermilk and make several batches than to buy just one envelope of creme fraiche starter that only produces one batch. But if the creme tastes out of this world, well, it might just be worth making on a regular basis.
That's that for now; not much of a post, but a post nonetheless. If you are having any adventures in the creative universe, what are you doing? And how do you maintain brain and imagination function in hot weather?
