Oh boy, another picture of a cat. But wait! It's a picture of a cat taken with a different camera. Yes -- that's right!

I've been pretty happy with my Nikon D70 for the past five years -- at least as far as taking pictures goes. What I've been less pleased about is the way it started (a couple of years ago) telling me 'CHA' or 'FMT' or '-E-' when there was definitely a formatted, perfectly fine CF card in the camera. Usually I could just eject the card and put it back in (once or twice or three times), but it was definitely not ideal for those occasion when I was trying to capture something fleeting.

Oh, and also? It liked to corrupt files on a whim. I'm pretty sure I've lost thousands of high-res images from cards that were suddenly unreadable or garbled (even with regular backing-up -- I take a lot of photos). Reformatting would fix the problem, but it was always a bit Russian-roulette-y as far as when the camera was going to snap. I tried a new CF card; I tried updating the firmware -- no luck.

So, today Rob and I went to National Camera Exchange (oh, Rob's in town, did I mention?), and he bought me a refurbished D200 body. It's an amazing gift. A slightly embarrassingly generous gift, in fact. I'm not really sure how to properly say thanks enough, but maybe if I tell the internet about what a thoughtful, super guy he is, that might be a start.

I told Rob that having a new camera body was a bit like having new (under)pants: I'm really excited about it, but odds are that nobody else will be able to tell (since the lenses make the biggest difference). So I'm surprised by the extent to which I CAN tell. It definitely is a much different experience as far as photo-taking goes; things just look better through this camera. And I feel like I can see a difference in the photos as well, although it might be all in my head.

Anyway, I'm determined to actually sit down and read the manual to this one. I tend to learn things as I need them, but I have a feeling this camera does a lot that I don't yet even realize I need. Plus, it always annoys Rob when he asks me what something does on one of my gadgets and I don't know. I figure I owe it to him to make an effort this time!

So, lets see... 'Taking a Photo'... oh, removing the lens cap makes a difference?

Salutations! Is it summer where you are? It seems like most people I hear from are saying, 'Er, not really,' but Minnesota has turned summer up to eleven this week! Yesterday was our fifth 90F+ day in a row, and I assume today was our sixth. Considering we only have an average of thirteen of those per year, we're a bit ahead of schedule.

I haven't been minding it, because at least we're getting rain on a more regular basis. Do you see how green my grass is? Just a few weeks ago I was starting to worry it would never recover from the lack of rain. Lovely green -- I'd been feeling as though all my hard work in the garden was a bit wasted, when all I noticed when I looked out at the yard was the crispy grass.

I harvested my first broccoli this week (Tuesday), with more on the way. And I found the chair in the photo above on Wednesday. It was at a thrift store in Hinckley, for only $3.75! It's not even broken. It's supposedly a beach chair, and it leans backwards and forwards, so one can find the most comfortable position in which to laze. AND it's yellow and looks so good with my giant, yellow marigolds and less-giant, yellow house.

My only complaint about the hot weather is that it seems to have driven some insect life up from the basement. I can't even bring myself to say their name, lest it summon another. Let it suffice to say that they have roughly one hundred legs. Shudder. Booty, who I thought was caught up in his own thoughts, suddenly spotted one along the baseboards a few minutes ago and sprang into action. He flushed it out from behind the guitars, and I slapped a magazine down on top of it. We're a good team!

Rob is getting into town on Sunday for a three-week visit (!), so I'm hoping we'll have many adventures I can share. Life's been good lately, but there's not much to report beyond, 'Yup. Did some work, then sat outside with the cats.'

Hi, internet pals. I'm currently sitting in my living room with the curtains drawn (avoiding the Day Star and its hot heat), with this fan (or one a lot like it) aimed at the sofa. How does it manage to be so effective AND so quiet? My mom gave it to me after having had it for a summer or two, but now I see it's meant to have a remote control. You mean I could be turning it on and off without getting off my bottom? Where is this remote control?!

Anyway, we're finally getting some summer weather, although the current sunshine came after a morning rain shower, and there are more storms forecasted for the evening. That suits me just fine -- I'd like to live in a land where it rains every night and is sunny during the day. Also, there would be only three months of winter. I bet there is such a place, but it's probably somewhere I'm not interested in living (ie, not here).

The garden has been loving the weather! I added several new garden photos to my Garden 2009 flickr set, if you'd like to take a look. Find the one of the veggie beds and report back to me on whether you think it looks like it's actually a miniature garden. I would love to have a miniature garden, by the way -- but then, I'm kind of crazy for miniatures in general (Re-ment, anyone?).

The raspberries have had a tough spring. The canes were transplanted from my mom's garden, and then the extremely dry spell we had made the going tough. But the plants that have clung on are doing very well now, and they're even flowering and setting berries! This is apparently the first year they've EVER fruited, so I'm pretty pleased about that. You want sun, plants? I've got sun.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the spinach and lettuce seedlings that sprouted a week or so ago will thrive despite the more summer-y weather. The older spinach and rocket plants I have are already bolting, even though they (the spinach in particular) aren't very big. My beets have also FINALLY sprouted, as have -- yay! -- the parsnips.

In other news, I haven't managed to snap any great photos of the crafty things I've been working on. This is the only one I have of the dress I made from the Japanese pattern book, and really that'll only give you an idea of how pretty the fabric I found is (from Mill Ends -- super cheap!) and how nice the gathering is.

Speaking of flickr, though, it's hard to believe, but I have fewer than 45 days left of my 365 project! The rest of June, all of July, and then I'm done! Incredible. I remember thinking last August, when I started, that I would get to this point and feel as though the year just flew by, and I have to say that I was right. Thanks, Mo, for getting me started, even though you dropped out, like a big dropper outer.

I DID have an annoying moment where I realized I was two days off in my numbering, even though I could see that each month had the appropriate number of photos. I had to go back to March, which was when the numbering went screwy, and redo them all up through the middle of June. THAT is how dedicated I am! I think I'll get a poster printed up with all 365 thumbnails when I've finished. An entire year on a piece of A2!

-- Ah, Sunday evening! I've had a very nice weekend, albeit slightly low key. I did go for a nice, long walk yesterday, with a friend. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky; it was a much more summery weekend than the last one.

-- The morning after my last post, I woke up and was greeted by Booty as usual. It was as though he'd never been 'off'. Thank goodness! And I've always felt that Booty is so much less personality-y than Beany, but having seen him so dull and 'expressionless' made me realize that he's actually a pretty funny guy. Good old Booty.

-- I had my first mini-harvest from the garden. I made a salad out of chard, rocket/arugula, radishes, and herbs. I tossed it with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette, and it was amazing. I swear, I haven't had rocket like that in aaaages. I had a few seeds come up after I planted them quite a while ago, but the rest have only just sprouted. I'm glad they have, though. I could get used to nice salads like that.

-- I really thought I'd gone off sewing and all that business, but I've been revisiting my old ways lately. There was the Japanese dress, and I've also been working on a quilt. Friday evening, I realized I NEEDED a drawstring backpack so that I could comfortably carry my camera when I go for walks, so I whipped one of those out. And yesterday afternoon, I made a quick camisole, since I'd bought the fabric a while back. I should really take some pictures...

Hello, you. We've just had a sunny day in Minnesota, after almost a week of overcast skies and rain. Not once did I wish it were warmer and more summery, though, because we NEEDED the damp weather. And it's nice to have an excuse to stay in and light a candle every now and then.

I have a feeling my garden is going to explode after a couple more sunny days, now that it's nicely hydrated. I uploaded several current garden photos to my flickr account, if you'd like to see how things are going. The brassicas are looking particularly cheerful, and it seems like my lettuce and spinach seeds, which I'd all but given up on, took advantage of the cooler temperatures last week and finally sprouted.

There's just about enough in the garden now for a small salad -- some chard, some rocket, a couple of radishes, and nice, fresh herbs. If only I had a chicken to lay an egg. Why do I not have chickens yet?

My own little chicken-cat, of the Booty variety, isn't doing so well at the moment. He's been full of it recently, running around with Beany, nagging me when his one toy* gets trapped under a piece of furniture, wanting lots of affection. But most of today, he's been very lackluster and keeps retreating to the bathroom to lie on the rug. It's cool and dim in there; nice if you're a slightly distressed cat.

He IS sixteen now, so it's hard to know if it's a passing germ or something a bit more final. He's just not quite himself. So keep him in your thoughts.

The other chicken-cat, commonly known as Beany, is trying to make up for Booty, I suspect. I'm working on a quilt, and having already pieced together the rows, I laid them all out on my bed to get the arrangement just right before I sewed them together. I brought the first two strips into the other room, to the sewing machine, and I hadn't been sat down for more than twenty seconds before I heard the headboard rattle in the other room.

When I went in, I saw a frenzied Beany in the middle of the bed, surrounded by patchwork strips which were no longer carefully laid out -- at least, I don't remember having purposefully tangled most of them together, while throwing others on the floor. It was done with such intent (BAD intent) that I kind of had to laugh. Why, Beany, why?

* The cats actually have a couple dozen toys scattered around the house, but Booty is interested in only one of them. Beany's happy to have all the others.

-- I made some banana bread yesterday, so as to not waste a few bananas that had gone brown and to use some of the maple syrup that my grandma supposedly tapped herself. I don't NOT believe that she really did such a thing, but it seems a slightly out-of-character and random activity. Anyway, it's amazing maple syrup. What's a tree doing making something that good? I used this recipe, but I subbed the cup of sugar with 1/2 a cup sugar + 1/3 cup maple syrup. And I used one egg+one egg white. And I put it all in one regular-sized loaf pan (it was done in about 45 minutes).

-- Thank you all for the tips for using Japanese patterns. I wound up using tissue paper, since that's what I had to hand, and it was fine. But mostly, I'm grateful you guys mentioned adding on the seam allowances. Once a read that, I did remember having heard it before, and it made the diagrams make more sense. I started with a pretty basic pattern and then made it a second time, with a few tweaks, and I think it was actually less confusing than most of the English-language patterns I've used! I'll show you the finished product soon.

-- The bulk of the hard labour in the garden is finished now, thank goodness. It's been a very dry spring for these parts, though, and my lawn has reached its late-summer crispiness distressingly early. Even when I do try to water the grass, the ground is so dry and hard that the water just pools above ground. Arg. I uploaded a few photos to flickr last night, though, including this one, which has labels to show what's currently planted where in the veggie beds.

-- Speaking of flickr, I went through my 'food' set and turned it into a collection with themed sets inside. Here. I also tried to sort previously uncategorized photos into those sets (although I haven't got through everything yet). One of those satisfying-only-to-me type of projects.

-- I have to go read an exciting werewolf sequel now. Ugh, work, right?

-- How pleased am I about summer fruits? Peaches are really coming into their own already. I guess I forget every year, but May seems early for peaches as good as the ones I've had recently. I also picked up a few tiny 'red flesh' apricots, which taste more like pluots to me (actually, they taste like plums, but they have fuzzy skin like an apricot and are the same size).

-- Beany is currently fetching me the rolly yarn ball that my friend Cara made for her. It rolls, it rattles, and it's easy for a cat to pick up; what could be better? Sometimes I have to hide it from Beany because she loves it so much (and so wants to play with it all night). Cara, you're a cat toy genius (in addition to your other, more traditional sorts of genius).

-- I've picked out a pattern to try from my Japanese dress book. It seems to be the most straight forward and simplest of the dresses I really like, so I'm looking forward to figuring it out. I'm going to use tissue paper to trace the pattern pieces on; is this how other Japanese-book-crafters do it?

-- A trip to Half Price Books yesterday yielded a $5 CD (Elvis Costello's My Flame Burns Blue, which is all jazzy and good); a $4 graphic novel (Three Shadows, which I've been keeping an eye out for ever since I saw it here, so I was VERY pleased to find it for so cheap!); a $4 book of New York Times crosswords; and a $5 blank journal which is nothing special except that the spine isn't bound very well, so the pages lie perfectly flat, making it ideal for zine/comic drawing.

-- Will we get rain today? My lawn looks like it's the middle of July, not late May. Very disappointing. I love the look of a lush spread of turf, but I don't really hold with manually watering and fertilizing it. At least the most problematic areas have now been covered and mulched over. Maybe what I should have, instead of a nice lawn, is a thick carpet of dandelions. I'd keep them mowed, of course.

-- I woke up too early today. 5:45? Was the time when I'd finally admitted defeat, got out of bed, and made pre-breakfast. I'd been awake for over an hour at that point. I'd usually be able to fall back to sleep that early, but my brain was restless and my belly was hungry. So toast and tea it was, to tide me over until a sensible breakfasting time.

-- I've been feeling very nostalgic all morning. I think it's partly the weather; it cooled down overnight and there was a rain shower shortly after I got up, yet it's partly sunny at the moment. That's pretty much perfect, in my book. But for some reason it's got me thinking about summers spent in La Crosse during college. And B&Bs in the Lake District.

-- I can see a squirrel drinking from a puddle right now.

-- Yesterday, during our 50mph gusts of wind, the storm door at the back of my house was ripped open (it never latched very well) and broke. I was able to hook it shut for the night, but I was a bit annoyed; I certainly didn't want to spend any money on a new screen door. This morning, I solved the problem by A) removing the air pressure mechanism, which had bent out of shape and was keeping the door from closing and B) going into the basement to fetch up one of the new handles I had bought back when I first moved in. I was originally going to install them on both screen doors, but then we realized the existing ones DID have locks, after all. Now I just need to buy two (longer) screws, and the door will be usable again (and sporting a shiny new handle!). I'm feeling rather clever -- and all this was before 7:00am.

-- Another gem from that Minnesota book: 'Never was a city laid out so badly as St. Paul. The plat of the town with its numerous additions looks as if some accident had knocked all the streets into pi. Measures should be taken immediately to straighten and reform them as far as practicable, before it is too late.' The Minnesota Democrat Weekly, Sept. 30 1851

Oops, looks like that never made it on the to-do list. I'll admit, it's funnier if you've been to St Paul. And live in Minneapolis.

Hello, books! I was doubly pleased when the postlady knocked on my door this afternoon to deliver BOTH packages I was expecting -- the Japanese pattern book I got off etsy and my Amazon order. It was unnecessarily hot today AND I was constantly hungry (despite eating the same meals as usual -- very annoying!), so sitting down with a bowl of oat bran in the middle of the afternoon (despite the heat -- it was the only thing I could think of to keep me going!) and having books to look at was a welcome treat.

Seriously, at some point this afternoon, I was wondering how it was possible that I was so uncomfortable in the middle of May -- it was as bad as the worst days from the height of last summer! Unreasonable! Was I broken? But then I looked at the thermostat, which read 85F (indoors), and I checked the outside temperature, which was 95F, and I figured fair enough. I felt so hot because it WAS so hot (IS so hot, actually). I won't be disappointed to go back to the mid-70s for a while, though.

I'll leave you with a favourite selection from Bring Warm Clothes: Letters and Photos from Minnesota's Past, collected by Peg Meier -- under the 'cut'.

Two lists for you today, the first day it actually felt hot in the Twin Cities.

On my bike ride to the library I...
-- heard frogs singing.
-- saw kids at a skate park.
-- watched a dinosaur great blue heron fly overhead.
-- had two woodchips on the path magically (and startlingly) turn into butterflies.
-- saw a woodchuck, who flallumped back to its burrow as I went by.
-- smelled that sweet, Minnesota-woodsy-creeky smell.
-- went by two youths who would have looked a lot tougher had one not been leading a pair of grinning puppies while the other pulled an upright vacuum cleaner.
-- thought to myself that it really didn't need to be any hotter, and then worried that it's only mid-May.

Edible things I've planted in my gardens so far include...
-- five tomato plants (three heirloom slicing tomatoes, one hybrid, and one yellow pear... and I have three Brandywine seedlings indoors that are still too young to go out).
-- three different bell peppers.
-- jalapeno.
-- two different eggplants (Ichiban and Dusky, I believe)
-- six brussels sprouts.
-- seven broccoli.
-- four cauliflower.
-- Swiss chard.
-- one green and one yellow zucchini.
-- pumpkin and butternut squashes.
-- 'earlysweet' cantaloupe (which grew well for me last year!) and a small watermelon variety.
-- seeds sown directly: kale, lettuces, spinach, radishes, beets, carrots, corn, peas.

I still have half a raised bed to fill in with veggies, not including space I've set aside for bush beans. I'm planning to grow parsnips and rutabagas from seed (although I should have started those a while back -- I didn't find rutabaga seeds until today!). And I might just grow loads more kale anywhere I have an open spot.

I went to the library with nothing specific in mind, and I came back with a couple books on Minnesota history. The one I'm reading now is full of gems -- letters and newspaper ads and such -- and I've been diligently copying them down to the computer so I can share them later. There's definitely an element of 'the more things change, the more they stay the same'! So you can look forward to that (well, I hope you'll look forward to it).

-- Look what I found in my garage! Tucked back on a 2x4 near the door, there were three bicycle licenses: '45-'46, '46-'47, and '47-'48. This was the only metal one; the other two are made from heavy card, and I think removing them would mean damaging them (and they sort of 'belong' to the garage at this point!). The second half of my house was added in 1952, so my best guess is that these must have belonged to the father in the family who lived here the longest. They raised three boys (in my little house!), but I think they would have been too young for bikes (or not yet born) in the mid-forties.

--Although, having said that, the mother lived here until she was in her nineties, and that would have been five or ten years ago. So maybe the kids were old enough. I think my mind just boggles at the thought of raising three sons in 500 square feet (which is probably a little more than the pre-1952 footprint of the house).

-- Gardening continues. On and on and on. My friend Alex is coming over tomorrow to help out, and I might have to cheekily ask her to do the heavy lifting. I'm completely fine, except for my wrists -- bizarre! But it's totally worth it, because the yard is already looking really nice, and it's only going to get better.

-- Beany is having a rather high-energy morning. She just ran up a wall and used it to ricochet her in the opposite direction. For real.

-- I was SO looking forward to the Bones season finale, and it really disappointed. Without purposefully spoiling anybody, I'll just say that it would have been a great 'fun' episode halfway through the season, but the penultimate episode had been so great, and this did not continue on from that. Those crazy kids. But Elvis Costello on 30 Rock? He really is the Coolest Guy Ever.

-- For those of you who clicked over to that Tiny House Blog and enjoyed it, check out Tumbleweed Tiny House Company. There aren't even words to describe how amazing they are, except: wood paneling! The shelves! Teeny porches! I am so, so smitten.

The weather here was very strange today (a classic Whirling Weather Octopus, Rob), going from sunny and warm to windy, overcast, and cool. And back. And back again. I was spending some quality time with my sofa this afternoon, admiring the lilacs outside -- so I snapped a picture to share. Imagine that, but running the entire length of my house. Too many lilacs, some might say. But not me.

My mom and I went to Plants and Things today. Plants and Things -- for all your garden dino needs! I would get one, but I think they might be too overpowering for the size of my garden. But my parents should definitely stick one in the woods at their new cabin. If anything can scare away a bear, it's got to be a dinosaur, right?

While we were at Plants and Things, I had to look inside about two dozen different sheds (some of those are playhouses, and some are full-sized 'sheds'). Someday, when I have money going spare, I really want to have one of these out on my parents' new property. It will fulfill my sophomore-year-of-college dream of living in a shack (I read a lot of Kerouac that year, unsurprisingly). Except it would be well-insulated and have a kitchenette and be white and bright and breezy. Pretty much the perfect one-room summer house. I'm partial to this one or this one.

Right, i have to go read the Tiny House Blog for a while now.

-- Hello, blog friends! I am beyond pleased (super-pleased?) to say that all the copies of my zine have been sold. They're in the hands of the postal service now. Thanks, everybody!

-- Another photo of the apple blossoms, up above. They smell as nice as they look, although it's a fairly subtle scent. The lilacs, on the other hand, have gone a bit crazy with the perfume thing -- and they're not even all open yet! I really must prune the hedge back once they're done blooming, because it's kind of out of control at the moment. One of these days, I might open the living room curtains to find that the lilacs have literally broken through the windows. (Literally being used in a figurative sense, there. For annoyance.)

-- It was a lovely day today, and I was able to get out on my bike (to the post office) in the morning and then did some yard work after dinner. I was pulling out grass and last year's growth from the row of hostas along my alley, and I couldn't help noticing how nice my new garden looks. I still have to get woodchips as soon as the city chops down some trees, but it's looking good. I wish things could always be as lush as they are in the spring. I mowed that grass just a couple of days ago!

-- I feel like I got a lot done today, although it was in bits and pieces -- no big projects to tackle. I stopped at Whole Foods in the afternoon and brought home a pint of blueberry cheesecake soy ice cream. It really IS chock full of real blueberries. Nom.

-- I bought this book with some of my zine earnings (that link is old; if you go to the shopfront and flip through the pages, there should still be copies available). Then I hopped over to Amazon.com and bought Jeffrey Brown's latest book and Molly's book (not with PayPal money, sadly). Now to sit by my mail slot for the next week, until things start showing up. I'll be like Beany, contorting myself in an effort to see if the post has arrived.

After a rather too leisurely breakfast and paper-reading session (if such a thing is possible on a Sunday morning), I had to get myself in gear. First up was baking this cake. I've had some almond meal in my cupboard for a while now, and I'd been meaning to make a pear cake with it -- Mother's Day seemed like a good excuse!

I can recommend the recipe, although I baked mine in a 20cm tin (roughly) instead of 25, and the timing and temp wound up being a bit crazy. After 40 minutes at 325F (the temperature the recipe states, although I knew I should have trusted my gut that it was too low!), I turned the oven up to 350 for ten minutes, and then up to 375 for another TWENTY minutes. Luckily, it doesn't seem to be any worse for wear -- not too dry on the outside or underdone in the middle.

Gifts for my mom. The cake, a vase of lilacs from my garden, rhubarb from the farmers market, and a funny little woven bookmark-y thing. I found a little bead loom from when I was growing up, so I've been playing with weaving, using embroidery floss.

Lunch at Ember's. It was just my mom and I, and we ordered the same thing! After lunch, we went -- along with my dad -- to see the new Star Trek movie. I really enjoyed it. The jumping-to-warp-speed effect has gotten even more awesome. Bam!

Back at my parents' house, we checked on the baby bunny that the dogs found the other day. It's been back in its nest, and it seems alright, but there hasn't been a sign of the mother rabbit having been back. Maybe it's just really careful about putting the twigs back exactly right. You know, maybe.

Also, I thought I would mention that, as I was driving to my parents' this morning, I saw a woman walking a poodle with its five very-tangled-up poodle puppies. A nice Mother's Day sight.

-- Guess who went to the farmers market this morning! It was my first visit for 2009, and it just seems to get bigger and busier every time I go. Among other things (plants, mainly), I came away with a chocolate cherry scone for Sunday's breakfast, some cinnamon roasted almonds (in the best paper cone ever), and locally grown asparagus and rhubarb.

-- I'm always torn between the various ways of punctuating 'farmers market'. Honestly, I think it should be farmers', as it's a market that belongs to multiple farmers. But the market I go to seems to go with the simple plural, so I'm dedicated to sticking with what they use. I support my local market, even in grammar.

-- Speaking of supporting, I still have two copies of my 'Grow' zine left. Two! For you, and also you. I'm going to be hitting up the post office Monday morning, so you've only got a day left to claim your copy. If it helps motivate you, I'll almost certainly be using the money to buy a Japanese pattern book of shirts and dresses. And maybe a comic book, if there's any left over. But focus on the pattern book, because you'll get to see the fruits of my labour when I finish sewing something!

-- In garden-y news, I got more soil and compost to finish filling my second raised bed. At the moment, about 2/5ths (maybe 4/9ths) of it is planted -- with chard, broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts. I'm trying to pack the plants in more tightly this year, both for weed control and just because I don't think it will do any harm. We'll see!

-- I was thinking how strange it is that having about 300lbs of dirt in the trunk of my car makes such a difference to its momentum and how it feels on the road, etc. I've certainly had that many pounds of human passengers in the car before, but it's not so noticeable. But, then, I never make passengers ride in the trunk. Maybe if I placed the bags of dirt on the seats (belted in, of course), it wouldn't make such a difference. And I could go in the carpool lane. Double score!