August is over already?

Wow, this summer FLEW by, I can't believe it's September tomorrow! August was a busy month for me, though it really feels like I accomplished nothing. I did knit several small things as birthday gifts for my fellow nerds- I mean naturalists, but I still haven't finished the cardigan I intended on wearing to my cousin's wedding (well, the knitting is done, the sewing is holding me up- this is why I tend to only do seamless knits). The wedding itself was great, it was so fun seeing my cousins again. I wish I got to see them more often. The only bad parts were that I had to keep telling people I didn't know why my brother hadn't come, and that the couple that won the "anniversary dance" had been married the exact same length my parents would have been. I still love them, but it's hard being around my Dad's family without my Dad.

August was a month of great baking, as weird as that seems. I made this cake for Steph's birthday, these cookies for Kris' birthday tea (apparently I am on a chocolate & caramel kick). I also made scones several times, banana zucchini bread, R and I made apple crisp & peach crisp, and I tried this intriguing recipe for a famous dessert from a renowned Portland chef. Yeah, bacon + apricots + cornbread + maple ice cream. It didn't turn out as hoped though, we were out of white flour, so I had to sub whole wheat. Healthier? Perhaps, but a lot denser & coarser. I think September will be ice cream month- I'm making Coconut avocado ice cream for our end-of-year interpretive fiesta, and I also decided that we need to make some peach gelato with the 20 pounds of peaches R bought at the farmer's market last week.

Work was busy and good as usual, but I found out I now need to finish a few days early- I'm going to be long-term subbing for the new ESL teacher at the high school who just found out she has a major medical issue she wants to get taken care of before she moves to our little town. It will be interesting, but it's only every other day, so I think I can handle it. And it shouldn't be a problem to take time off in October for the girls' vacation in SF.

The garden is going tomato-rama on us right now, I think I need to make some salsa. Luckily we got some peppers in the CSA share last week, and we have plenty of onions & cilantro from the garden & garlic from our friends' garden. Those same friends have a prolific Gravestein apple tree, so a couple weeks ago we picked, processed & pressed 12 gallons worth of apple cider, which is currently fermenting. Yum!

R is away at a fire right now, the first one of the summer for him, so yesterday I made the house smell of sheep dyeing wool for a hoodie sweater. It started out faded-jeans blue and ended up a lovely violet with hints of magenta and lighter blue. I intended on it turning gray, but I'm really happy with the result, regardless.

And now I really need to get to bed before September starts!