Author Archives: maryjane

Summer Fun for Girls

Posted on April 14, 2016 by maryjane

As one of the premier providers of environmental education in the Palouse area of eastern Washington and northern Idaho, The Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute (PCEI) that I founded way back in 1986 is always looking for new and creative ways to get people of all ages out and exploring the natural world.

That’s why this year, PCEI is offering STREAM Team—a week-long summer experience for girls entering their 7th-10th grade years that focuses on the STREAM fields: Science, Technology, Restoration, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics.

Coordinated and led by a team of female PCEI instructors, this program will feature outdoor application experiences with female community mentors who are professionals in the STREAM fields. They will share their journeys through STREAM—how they overcame the gender disparity in these fields, how their work helps the environment, and how we can do similar things with our lives.

When: Monday, June 27 to Friday, July 1, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Where: The PCEI Nature Center, 1040 Rodeo Drive, Moscow, Idaho (downtown pick-up and drop off available)

Cost: $50 (payment plans and scholarships are available; inquire at learning@pcei.org)

APPLICATIONS DUE APRIL 22, 2016

Find more information and application forms at http://www.pcei.org/stream-team.

photo-of-the-day

Posted on April 12, 2016 by maryjane

farm-romance_0261

photo-of-the-day

Posted on April 10, 2016 by maryjane

farm-romance_0072

Hear Ye!

Posted on April 10, 2016 by maryjane

Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Wendie George!!!

Wendie George (#6918) has received a certificate of achievement in Stitching & Crafting for earning a Beginner Level UFOs Merit Badge!

“This is a great badge to earn. It’s a real feel-gooder. It feels great to finish a project that has been nagging at you.

The first part was a bit intimidating. Organizing and putting all my UFOs each into their own container or bag was a bit of work. It has started the whole process of cleaning and reorganizing my entire craft room. This is also a good thing. I purchased a bunch of clear plastic totes and placed one project into a tote/box. I then made the list of any supplies still needed to finish it and put the list inside the box on top of the supplies. I had a bunch of chalkboard stickers, so I put one on the front of each box and labeled the box with the project inside. While cleaning, I also made a box labeled “donation” for projects I no longer had interest in doing.

The second part was to finish one of the UFOs. I chose to finish a baby quilt for a coworker that I started about a month ago. The quilt top was pieced together, but that’s as far as I had gotten.

I feel I have succeeded in bagging and tagging all my UFOs. I also made a quick list of them all so I could start to cross it off. I am not going to admit the total number of UFOs on the list. I will just steadily work at finishing them while not creating more. Today I mailed the box of donation items to my Aunt. She is heavily involved with the church and many other quilters and aspiring quilters. I will let her spread out the projects to others who are willing to complete them (most were never started).

I started to finish the quilt by sandwiching the top to the cotton batting with a teal minky backing. I chose a quick method of quilting the layers together, “stitch in the ditch.” I used my machine for this. I added the pieced binding onto the front by machine, and hand-quilted it to the back. The final step to complete the quilt was to embroider a tag for the back. I have a Viking machine that kindly embroiders the words for me. I then hand-sewed the tag onto the back. One UFO down, a “few” to go!”

IMG_20160329_192244996

photo-of-the-day

Posted on April 9, 2016 by maryjane

farm-romance_8368-2

Molly Moo-cow

Posted on April 7, 2016 by maryjane

If you’re passionate about pollinators, then you probably know that butterflies love milkweed.

Photo by Barnes Dr Thomas G, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, via Wikimedia Commons

But here’s a trickier bit of trivia:

Why are butterflies called butter flies?

(As a Butters, I simply had to know.)

Butterflies, it is said, earned their name back when they would flutter around the milk pails and butter churns on farms.

milkmaid, G. Morland via Wikimedia Commons

Makes sense, but also makes you wonder why these aren’t called milklappers (buckettippers?) …

Photo by David Maitland via Wikimedia Commons

Anymoooo …

Here’s a cute 1935 classic called “Molly Moo-Cow and the Butterflies,” just for fun:

photo-of-the-day

Posted on April 6, 2016 by maryjane

farm-romance_5361

photo-of-the-day

Posted on April 5, 2016 by maryjane

farm-romance_9273

food appeal

Posted on April 5, 2016 by maryjane

Food.

You know what you like.

Mmmm …

But do you know why, exactly, you’re drawn to certain dishes?

This sounds like a silly question, but there is a sort of science behind the appeal of a meal.

A harvest of interesting trivia, gathered by Amish furniture company Plain & Simple, explains how plating design, contrasting colors, and even the shapes of plates can make one’s dining experience more pleasurable.

For instance, are you more attracted to this dish …

Or this one?

The food components are pretty similar, but the first is somehow more appealing to me.

“The more presentable and visually-appealing [food] is, the better it tastes,” says the Plain & Simple post. “People favor bright-colored food that features lots of contrast. But too much color can be overwhelming—most people prefer three colors on their plate, distributed through three to four food components. Believe it or not, even the degree to which your plate is rotated affects how much you enjoy your food.”

How about this plate? Do the pale hues whet your appetite?

Photo by D Breen via Pixabay

According to Plain & Simple’s survey, “If you like your cheese salty, eat if off a knife—people rate cheese as tasting saltier when eaten off a knife rather than a toothpick, spoon, or fork.”

Of course, then there’s food art …

some of which is cuter (and more appetizing) …