summer days planting flowers, making drink syrups, & weeding the garden

[00:00:18]Hi and hello everybody. It's Fern and welcome back to another weekly vlog.

[00:00:21]Thank you so much for joining me. We are just on our way to Victoria for the day which is going to be very fun. We are going to go to the museum, which I haven't been to for a very long time.

[00:00:35]For at least like 10 years, I feel. Um, and then we are, of course, going to get some yummy food and check out some of the bookstores and do some book shopping because that's what I wanted for like my birthday gift was just to do a little book shopping spree. I don't think it's going to be too crazy, but it'll still be nice, too. I feel like I don't really buy books in stores very often. Like I do my book boxes every month and then sometimes I'll pick up the odd one, but I haven't done like a good a good book shopping trip in a while. So, I think that that will be really fun. Um I need to fix my lips because I was just eating my toast in the car. We got up early and took Olive out and everything this morning. So, she's chilling. Someone is coming to look after her later today.

[00:01:30]Why does this not have the cap? Oh, I just took it off. What's going on? It looked like it was just chilling like that this morning. So, anyh who, we're off. That's the plan for today. Stunning weather. Also, I think it's supposed to be 23° and sunny, which is absolutely perfect. So, yeah, we're going to head there.

[00:02:17]I used to be kind of sane.

[00:02:21]I used to act kind of normal. I couldn't complain. Now it's the same.

[00:02:28]I found myself picking pieces of mask at a brain. Look what you done to me. My insanity.

[00:02:38]Oh baby. Hey, I wish that I was a man.

[00:02:43]But maybe I wouldn't fall for you because you make me my man.

[00:02:51]I lose it all when I'm with you.

[00:03:09]If I was only a fool or if I was a man who could act cool, maybe I could erase the moment you walked in and when I saw your face. Look what you have done to me. I'm losing it completely. I wish Hello.

[00:03:38]It has been several days. I've changed my nails twice since I last have been on the vlog and I'm kind of running late this morning because I keep sleeping in which is so annoying. I even naturally woke up. I forgot to put my watch on and my watch is usually how I wake up when I get up early because I don't want to wake Shane up if I don't have to. So anyways, I was in bed like fully.

[00:04:09]Earplugs in, eye mask on, night guard in, nail oil on. Like I'm almost asleep and I realized, oh shoot, I don't have my watch on. I'm not going to get up early tomorrow morning. But I was just like whatever. I'm not getting up to get my watch. I'll just try to naturally wake up, I guess. I don't know. Just go into sleep on a wish and a prayer. But I woke up at 4:42 naturally and I was like, "Oh my god." Because I love to get up at 4:45 and I just didn't get up. I just stayed in bed. And then I didn't end up waking up until um 7:00, which is just when I don't get up early, it like it ripples down into so many different things because then I'm not getting my reading done. My day feels frazzled. I'm starting late. Like I just feel like the vibes are incorrect.

[00:05:12]Um so anyways, I need to I need to figure that out. It's because I've been going to bed late. I mean late like 10:00.

[00:05:22]So, I need to fix that out. Fix that.

[00:05:25]Fix that out. Fix that.

[00:05:28]Fix that. I don't know what I'm trying to say. I need to fix that. And it's just hard once you're out of the routine of getting up early. Going to bed early becomes a lot harder because I'm just like I'm not I'm not tired. So hopefully tonight I can somehow go to bed early.

[00:05:50]Um although there are things that I want to do this evening which we're going to talk about. But I haven't been on the vlog because well I don't really have a great reason but I um what am I saying here? Oh yeah. I was thinking about starting a second vlog and having two vlogs going this week.

[00:06:12]And I kept thinking about it so much. I was like, "Oh, what am I going to do in each vlog?" And d and then I just like over contemplated it so much that I didn't vlog at all. So now here we are.

[00:06:24]And I might still start a sec a second vlog later this week. Um, it's Wednesday today. I don't know if I said that or not. It's Wednesday, so the week is fully underway. I have the garden watering right now with the drip line.

[00:06:39]I'm going to head out there in a few minutes to water the rest of the things, but I'm just trying to get ready quickly.

[00:06:45]And yeah, we just haven't chatted for so long that I'm like, "Okay, I'm just going to turn on the camera while I'm getting ready here." Um, also have my smoothie, which looks gross, but it tastes like a strawberry milkshake.

[00:06:59]Today I have a lot of cleaning and filming to do. I'm going to be filming a plant walkthrough for my main channel, but everything is kind of chaotic right now. So, I just need to kind of tidy things up a little bit. I need to water all of my plants today. I would also gosh, I don't know. There's so much I want to I really need to get the flowers planted on the garden that I was talking about in the last vlog. Um, so I would love to do that this evening because they are just sitting out in the driveway and they just need to be planted up. I don't want them to be suffering out there.

[00:07:39]Why can't I find what I'm looking for?

[00:07:42]Oh, I already have it out. Oh my gosh.

[00:07:45]This is what happens when I try to do multiple things at once. So, I'm hoping that you and I will be planning up those flower things tonight. I don't think it'll take more than like an hour. I do have quite a few planners to fill, but I don't even know if I have enough flowers to fill them all. So, we're just going to have to figure it out once I go out there with everything.

[00:08:04]But if we could do that, that would be so lovely.

[00:08:08]And um yeah, other than that, I'm just basically working on stuff for my main channel today. But I'm just starting the day off on a weird foot. And I have a bunch of like tidying that I need to do before I start on things cuz the house feels it's not too bad, but it just needs a tidy and I need to put away some laundry stuff like that. Also, I'm wearing my little skirt leggings today, so I'll have to show you after. But oh my gosh, it's so comfy. I also feel like I'm lowkey in a reading slump from Annihilation, which is annoying. I have been reading audiobooks. I finished I am I am I am by Maggie O Farerrell, the memoir that I was reading uh talking about in the last vlog about her 17 brushes with death is what it's called.

[00:09:02]So, it's about it's like her life told through near-death experiences, which is really interesting, and I really liked it. Her writing is just beautiful, stunning, gorgeous. Like, I love love love her writing. Um, I will say if you if you enjoy reading about themes of motherhood, then I recommend this memoir. Like if the near-death thing intrigues you and you also really connect with stories about motherhood, I would say that this is the memoir for you. I think that overall I enjoy reading about motherhood because I'm not the type of reader that needs to like have the lived experience to be able to connect.

[00:09:42]um especially if something is well written or well told. But yeah, it was very much about that. So I guess just know that. Yeah, it was good. I gave it four stars. I'm going to do my eyeliner quickly here. So the reason that I'm in a reading slump is because of Annihilation, which is so it's one of these situations where I'm so interested in the story. I want to know what happens. I love the vibes.

[00:10:12]Like, I love what's going on. But for some reason, whenever I pick it up, I just feel like I'm glazing over and I'm having to go back and reread paragraphs.

[00:10:23]And I don't know, I just can't like it's hard for me to stay locked in. Um, which is just unfortunate because like I'm liking it. I just don't know why. I don't know what is what the disconnect is there. Like I guess just the writing style because I'm liking the story.

[00:10:49]So I don't know. I'm going to push through. I'm just over halfway through which is crazy because it's only a 200page book and I started it like a week ago. So, I've only read like a 100 pages of like physically reading with my eyeballs over the past week, which is very not like me. Hopefully, in the next couple of days, I will finish Annihilation, but we shall see. I guess I did start a new audio book last night when I was doing my nails. By the way, Ghoul's Garden, not messed up. So gorgeous. I love it. So pretty. I just did regular cat eye because I was not I was not messing around and yeah, I love it. Anyway, so I started The Suffering by David Solder because I have an audio copy an ALC through Libro FM. I don't even know if it's actually released yet.

[00:11:43]This book, I think it had like less than 200 ratings when I looked when I marked it on Goodreads last night. So maybe it's not released yet, but David Solder is a horror author that I have read from once before, but he has a lot of books that I hear people talk about. The Har is the one that I want to read the most. I just haven't picked up a copy yet. Um, you can like only order his books from Amazon apparently. They're not like I've never seen them really for sale anywhere else.

[00:12:15]And I also can't purchase them on Coobo.

[00:12:17]They're not on there unfortunately. So, I just haven't ordered a copy of that one yet. But anyway, so I had an audio copy of his new one called The Suffering. So, I was like, "Okay, perfect. I can read another David Solder." So, I started that last night, got 20% in. Really enjoying it so far.

[00:12:33]It takes place um at a convent in Italy in like the mountains in Italy in I actually don't know the time period, but it is historical.

[00:12:47]Um, and we're following these nuns who they're like outside picking berries one day and then this injured woman comes out of the bushes and she's like very very she has all these cuts all over her or like stab wounds.

[00:13:07]She's like barely alive and they bring her in and there happens to be the doctor and his well two doctors I guess working together. They're just doing their like I don't know end of year stop there and um they're just about to leave but then this girl's found so they like rush her in and and then uh one of the doctors ends up staying to nurse this girl back to health or whatever. And it's a very wintry setting kind of book. So maybe I'm not reading it at like the best time, but um it's very like snowy and it's giving like they're like snowed in for the winter type of vibes. But anyways, this doctor ends up staying and they're going to nurse this girl back to health, but she has brought some evil in with her. So, we haven't like it's creepy already, but nothing crazy has happened yet cuz I'm only 20% in. But I really like it so far. It's giving me the vibes that I wanted from Spoiled Milk, which was the historical horror at a all girls boarding school. This is giving me the vibes that I wanted from that book. I'm enjoying it so much more than I was enjoying Spoiled Milk, though. So, yeah, really, really good so far. And I even woke up this morning thinking about that book. So that's a good sign.

[00:14:39]Still obsessed with this Merit lip liner and lip oil combo. It's literally what I do every day now. It's just so good and so hydrating.

[00:14:52]Love it. Okay, so now I need to quickly do something with my hair. I think I'm just going to be parting my bangs today because I they're just like I don't really have time to fix them.

[00:15:09]When I wash my hair at night, it's definitely a risk.

[00:15:13]If I wash it in the morning, then I can blow dry it and like set my bangs exactly how I want. But when I do it at night, it's helpful because then I don't have to take the time to do it in the morning. But I might just have janky bangs, which is fine. Whatever.

[00:15:32]Anyh who, I'm going to finish getting ready and do all my stuff that I need to do today.

[00:15:39]And hopefully we will be planning flowers later. Okay, finished the hair.

[00:15:42]It only took like 2 minutes, but it's definitely not my best hair day, which is fine. I was able to keep the bangs down, which is nice because then I don't have to pin them two days in a row. So, I can pin them tomorrow if I want. But if I pin them today and I don't wash my hair by tomorrow, then I'm just going to have to pin them again tomorrow. You know what I mean? Because they're going to be like stuck to the sides. Any who, I wanted to show you the little skirt situation. It's so cutie and comfy. And it's nice having this little cardigan thing over top because I'm just wearing like a plain tank top. So, this is like such a comfy outfit for me. And then I can just take the cardigan off if I'm like going outside or if I'm on my walking pad because I've been doing a lot of my editing and things like that on my walking pad lately.

[00:16:33]Although, look what arrived a few days ago.

[00:16:41]It's just been sitting on my kitchen table because I have not h made a moment. I was going to say had a moment.

[00:16:46]I'm sure that I have. I have not made time to sit down and open this.

[00:16:55]But I finally, after like 2 years of putting it off, ordered a new MacBook.

[00:17:02]Um, and this one I think is going to be even better for well I know it's going to be even better for editing because this has a better chip than my iMac. And I'm going to be able to edit outside if I want to or just like anywhere in the house conveniently moving this around. I move my iMac around sometimes as you've probably seen, but it's just it's not convenient obviously. So that's exciting. I'm going to have to set that up sometime this week. Um, but yeah, I'm going to head out, water my garden, and clean this house because, as you can see, there's a lot of dishes and things that need to be put away here. Okay.

[00:17:41]Hello. This is not the most comfortable spot, but I think that I'm going to plant these up in my driveway here because it'll be too messy to be dumping the soil out and whatnot on the deck.

[00:17:54]So, I'm just going to do it down here.

[00:17:56]Also, it's nice and shaded and cool. So, I have my gardening gloves, some scissors to open my soil bag that's over there, and my planters.

[00:18:10]So, these are the ones that I ordered to go on the railing of the deck.

[00:18:17]I have a couple of railing planters out there right now that um you've probably seen, just like the white ones.

[00:18:26]But the thing with those, hopefully you can still hear me. I don't feel confident because it's a little windy. The thing with those is that they're plastic and they've warped in a way that they don't really stay hanging. So, I think I'm going to keep them and just have them like sitting on the floor of the deck.

[00:18:47]Um, so if I have more flowers, I will go ahead and pop them into the two planters that I have up there right now. those ones that I can just like have on the ground. Um, but I have five of these metal railing planters. They're kind of small, but that's good for me because I don't I don't have that much faith in our railing to be holding a lot of weight. So, I'd rather just have a smaller size. Um, so yeah, this is what I'm going to be planting into. Need to find the hanging part in here somewhere.

[00:19:26]And then I'll show you the flowers in a second. Okay, here's the hangers.

[00:19:32]It is like 7:15 right now and I almost just got ready for bed, but then I was like, "No, I wanted to do this today.

[00:19:40]I'm going to do it." But I've been having this really weird I don't know if it's an SI joint thing.

[00:19:47]That's the only thing I can think that it might be. But this like weird pain in my like my butt basically my like very lower back kind of to the side of my tailbone.

[00:20:01]Um and it's just annoying me to be honest with you. It hurt like all throughout our walk and I was just like oh my god. It's been like a week and a half now and some days it's not very noticeable but then some days it really hurts and like usually it's not that sore and I don't know like I don't think I did anything. I woke up one morning and it was like that. So I don't know if I like slept really twisted or something and it's like angry but I woke up one day and it hurt. It hasn't been that bad the past couple of days so I'm like hopefully it's just getting better. But um sometimes when I like bend a certain way, like I'll be like bending in bed to like see Olive or something and it'll just be like like a jolt of pain.

[00:20:53]So, it's really weird and I'm just hoping that it goes away because I don't want to have to make another doctor's appointment. You guys know that I hate I hate going to the doctors. So, I'm just like, what is this? Like my 30s, I feel like I'm at the doctor's like every month. In my 20s, I would go years without seeing the doctor. Like I was never there. But now I feel like I'm always freaking there.

[00:21:16]Okay, so these just slide in.

[00:21:23]Like so.

[00:21:26]And that's what it looks like. Cute.

[00:21:30]Okay, so I'm going to grab the flowers and then we'll get started here. Oh my god, you guys. I think that the deer ate my patunias.

[00:21:42]Do they eat patunias?

[00:21:45]What the heck? I thought that all of the flowers died off or something, but now I'm looking at them and it looks like they ate them.

[00:21:59]the tops of all of them.

[00:22:03]What the heck?

[00:22:06]Oh no.

[00:22:08]It's fine. I'm sure they'll grow back.

[00:22:10]But jeepers, I didn't know that they would eat those, but seems that they eat anything.

[00:22:16]Honestly, a couple of my black ones survived.

[00:22:20]So, I was going to do what was I going to do? I think I was going to do purple and orange for the kind of color scheme, but then I saw that they had these black mamba patunias. They're like so dark and stunning. So, I was like, "Oh my god, I want to do those instead." So, um I got how many of these? I think one, two, three, four, six of these black patunias.

[00:22:52]And then I got six light pink patunias.

[00:22:56]I thought that the black and the light pink would be cute together. So that's what these are supposed to be, but these are the ones that look like they were grazed upon. Um, so we have 12 patunias. And then we also have some snapdragon.

[00:23:17]Do y'all hear that? Sound like there's something creeping up on me. We also have some snapdragons. I don't know why I chose this yellow color. I guess just for something different because I have either pink or red snapdragons in the um in the garden. And I don't know this getting creeped out. Um I just I don't know. I thought that the yellow was cute. They are sweet duet citrus.

[00:23:44]They're like a yellow and orange. I don't know. I thought that that was cute. And I was trying to grab some things with like a variety of heights and like growth patterns. So last year I did patunias and uh loilia.

[00:23:58]So I did grab some more lobilia. These are looking a little worse for wear, but hopefully they will bounce back. I'm sure they will. Last year I did these planters on the deck with all clearance like half dead patunias and loilia and they came back with a vengeance. So, um I also got these loilia just like cute little dainty flowers and these ones which is just like a mixed pack.

[00:24:27]And then this was a hot pink patunia but it is also been eaten. So it was on clearance um for $1.50 I think. So, just one random hot pink patunia. I'm pretty sure that's what that was. And then these were also on clearance. And I've never grown these. I actually don't even know how to say the name of this flower.

[00:24:54]Nissia. Nia. I don't know. Um but um I saw these at the garden center and didn't get them because it was just pricey to get flowers there. And then I found these at Canadian Tire for $1.50 on the clearance rack. So I grabbed the last two and I just think they're so cute. Like they're giving fairy vibes.

[00:25:20]Just these like little dainty like duo tone flowers. They're so cutie. So we're going to see if these will grow for me. I mean honestly out of all these, these are looking the best so far. My clearance little whatever those are. Um, snapdragons look good, too, which I'm surprised. I guess deer don't like those. I don't know. Or maybe it was a different I don't have my phone to look up if deers eat patunias, but that's what I can think of as far as what happened to them. Um, I don't even have a plan here. We're just going to I just figure things out as I go, honestly. And I'm certainly not skilled in arranging flower planters, but I'm sure I'll be happy with however it turns out.

[00:26:08]Okay, so I was having the issue of my mic hitting my necklace under my shirt.

[00:26:15]This happens to me when I'm wearing a baggy shirt. So, I really just need to learn that lesson because I was getting so annoyed editing this. I was talking the whole time, but I just got so annoyed editing this. And I imagine it would annoy a lot of you as well. So, I'm just going to do a voice over. Um, even though I really I think all I was really talking about here was that the mosquitoes were coming out really badly.

[00:26:40]And um, I was actually talking about how as much as I wish I was this like calm, relaxing, aesthetically pleasing channel, I feel like that's just not the vibes that I bring to the function. Like things were chaotic. I'm out here getting eaten by mosquitoes, planting my janky deer eaten flowers in my janky driveway, but it is what it is. Um, and it's even funnier that I'm having to now do a voice over because the footage was the audio was kind of unusable. So, yeah, that's just I mean sometimes that's just I mean often times actually that's what this channel is like. But it's fine. And I got all of my flowers planted. Hopefully they will regrow after being decimated by the deer.

[00:27:32]Okay, flowers are planted. Hopefully they're going to look stunning in a little bit of time. Um I was just going to put them out there quickly, water them, and leave them, but then I was like, "No, add the fertilizer to the two larger planters because those just have the old soil in them." and pinch the snapd dragons. Then I'm done.

[00:27:56]They just need to be watered every, you know, couple of days and they'll be good to go. Come up, baby.

[00:28:03]So, I got it all finished and it is now 8:51. So, I'm just going to get ready for bed and um I guess read Annihilation.

[00:28:12]I can't lie, I don't really feel excited about reading it, but I also don't want to DNF, so I guess I'm going to read it. Also, I don't have access to an audio copy, so I just have to read it on my Coobo, which is fine. I don't know why some books I mean I guess the publisher like doesn't obviously it's something to do with like the way the contracts are and stuff but I would say like 96% of audiobooks that I go to listen to on Spotify are available. I can just listen to them but then randomly there will be one that's just like locked like you have to purchase it. It's not just included with your Spotify listening hours. Um, it's always annoying when that happens. And that's the case with this one. I'm not going to buy an audio copy just to when I already have it on my Coobo, you know. So, um, yeah, I'm going to, I don't know, read a little bit of it. It's already getting late, so I probably won't make very much progress, but yeah, I'm going to hop in the shower now. I feel kind of gross and I have a bunch of mosquito bites, so it's time to get cozy.

[00:29:33]Hello everybody. Happy Thursday. I was just outside doing some editing with my MacBook and it was so nice. H the freedom to be able to sit outside and yeah, it just makes it so much more enjoyable. So, that's what I have been up to for most of today. I'm currently importing some of the footage from this vlog because I'm hoping to get all caught up with editing for this in the next couple of days as well. So, while I'm waiting for that footage to get onto my MacBook so that I can get back to editing, I figured that we could try to make a syrup that I've been wanting to make the past few days. I have a recipe for Let me find it. I hadn't looked at this cookbook for so long.

[00:30:23]I've had this for many, many years. It's the Oshi Glows for dinner. Nourishing plant-based meals to keep you glowing. I was just flipping through this the other day because I don't know, I was making our meal plan for the week and I was looking for inspo, I guess, and one of the recipes that I'm thinking about making maybe in a couple of days is this one. This green powerhouse bowl. How good does that look? But right now, what I'm thinking of making is this mint, ginger simple syrup. It's literally just mint, fresh ginger, water, and sugar.

[00:30:56]I'm already familiar with making syrups because I do my lavender syrup, which I do need to make a batch of that as well.

[00:31:02]So, maybe I can do them both, but I have mint in the garden that needs to be used. And I bought fresh ginger, so I figured that we might as well make this.

[00:31:11]This will be so yummy for the summertime. And we have like our carbonated water maker so I can do just like DIY mint ginger sodas. Sounds so good. So, let's head out to the garden, harvest some mint. I'm going to put some sunglasses on you because it's going to be bright out there. Oh, you good? The footage looks really bad when it's sunny and I'm filming outside, so hopefully that helps.

[00:31:41]Okay, so this is my mint. Not the best time to harvest it. I think the morning before it gets really hot is a better time, but I'm just going to do it now.

[00:31:51]It'll be fine. I did water this this morning, so it shouldn't be like super dehydrated or anything. But yeah, I'm just going to cut. Oh, I forgot to check how much I was supposed to grab. Okay, BRB. It says two cups packed. So, I don't know. I'm just gonna eyeball however much I think that's going to be.

[00:32:11]Oh my gosh, I don't have a good place to put you. I don't have a good place to put you. This is the best I can do. I have nowhere else to stick my camera.

[00:32:32]Okay, I think that will be good. It smells so delicious.

[00:32:39]Okay, I think I'm going to get the lavender syrup going first because that one is very easy. Um, I don't have to do any prep. I just have to add everything into a pot. I do have a real that I posted recently on my Instagram. You can go save that or like screenshot the recipe that's in the caption if you want something to like quick reference or maybe I'll just put it in the description of this video as well. Um, but yeah, let's do that. So, this lavender syrup I use more so for matcha lattes or coffee lattes, whereas the mint ginger one is going to be, like I said, for sodas or for teas, like iced teas. It' be really good. Anyh who, lavender. We need one cup of sugar.

[00:33:33]One cup of water.

[00:33:37]Going to turn this on to high for now.

[00:33:42]Food grade lavender. You can get this online or from a health food store. And I do three and a half tablespoons.

[00:33:58]And then this is optional, but I do also add half a tablespoon of butterfly pea flour into mine. This is just what gives it the purple color.

[00:34:11]So, it's not necessary for the taste, just for the look of it. And I I don't know. I think it's worthwhile to add in cuz it makes it all pretty and purple.

[00:34:21]I've never actually tried this just as a tea, but it technically says herbal tea on it. So maybe I should try that one day. And then you just combine.

[00:34:32]And that is it. You're going to want to boil this for 10 minutes and um or bring it to a boil and then simmer for 10 minutes and then take it off the heat and just let it steep for 30 minutes. So now that's going, we can move on to prepping our mint and ginger.

[00:34:58]Okay, I'm just going to wash my mint.

[00:35:00]Oop, I'm dropping it.

[00:35:06]Oh, we are boiling. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Just going to turn that down to simmer. Smells very lavendery.

[00:35:20]I have been trying for what feels like all afternoon to post an Instagram reel and it just keeps failing. This is probably like the seventh time that I'm trying to do it.

[00:35:33]It's very annoying. Oh, I should set a little timer for that. Let's do 7 minutes. I guess I'll just use this to put my mint into to measure.

[00:35:48]Oh, shoot. Getting water everywhere.

[00:35:54]My iPad.

[00:35:58]That's what it's looking like currently, by the way. Okay, the lavender is off the heat now, and it's just steeping. I have the mint leaves all removed from the stem, also. It doesn't say to do anything to the mint leaves, like it just eludes to putting them in whole, but I might give them a rough chop because I feel like that will release more of the flavor, you know? I don't know. Anyho, I need 2 tablespoon of grated ginger. I hate grating ginger.

[00:36:28]It's so annoying. I find the easiest way to peel ginger is just with a spoon, which I thought was bananas the first time. I actually learned this from my friend Shannon. She's a really good cook. Um I think I didn't have a knife to peel ginger one time when we were making something and she was like, "Oh, just use a spoon." I was like, "What do you mean a spoon?" Like I thought she was kidding. But then she was like, "No, it's like it peels ginger so well." And then I tried it and I was like, "This is crazy."

[00:36:59]And now it's my favorite way to peel ginger.

[00:37:04]I cut my nails down, which you may have noticed. Um, because I broke one of them and then I broke another one when I was peeling a squash on the weekend. the peeler. I was like holding the squash down here and the peeler like got stuck and then unstuck and it flew back and it cut like thankfully it didn't get my skin but it cut my thumbnail um like halfway through it. I was like, "Oh my god." So then I had two broken nails and that's usually my limit to do a reset. So back to shorties for a little while. I'm just realizing I don't think it even matters whether it's peeled or not because I'm not eating this. I'm just going to be like straining it.

[00:37:52]So, I probably didn't even have to peel it, but whatever.

[00:37:58]It's done now.

[00:38:02]That is funny though.

[00:38:05]Okay, now to grate it.

[00:38:15]I'm just going to use that weird piece because once again, I'm just um straining it. So, it doesn't really matter like how if there's big chunks or Oh gosh, I did it again.

[00:38:35]Why do I keep slicing? I only got it a little bit, but I need to stop slicing my nails when I'm doing stuff like this.

[00:38:49]Okay, is that two tablespoons? Probably pretty close. I'm going to do a little bit more.

[00:39:02]That's probably pretty good. We're making Kungpow tofu tonight because we have some bell peppers to use. Um, so I'm going to need ginger for that anyway. So, I can just save this for that.

[00:39:21]Oh my god, my burner's still on. I'm out of control.

[00:39:28]So, I'm going to use a different pot. Obviously add my ginger in.

[00:39:36]I love ginger.

[00:39:39]And then like I said, I just want to give my mint a rough little choppy.

[00:39:50]I need one of those thingies.

[00:39:58]the pestle, you know, where you like smush things around, whatever that thing's called, to release the flavors and the oils.

[00:40:16]Okay. And then I just need to add my water, turn this on, and my sugar.

[00:40:29]Now, it looks like this has to steep for a couple of hours. So, I am going to update you later tonight once I'm finished with this, but it's just going to go through its process for now. Okay, the lavender is done steeping, so I'm going to transfer it into this jar.

[00:40:51]Carefully.

[00:40:53]Carefully.

[00:40:56]Wait, this is not how I do this.

[00:41:00]I normally transfer it to a bowl first because it gets hard to strain it into a jar directly. So, I always use a fork to just press down cuz there's so much liquid that is just sitting up here.

[00:41:22]Now, we can go into the jar.

[00:41:35]And I'm just going to let it cool and then put it in my fridge. But it's nice and purple. Oh. Oh my gosh. The camera was plugged in and I just ripped the cord out of the wall. Okay. I'm trying to show you the color, but it actually just looks dark when there's this much of it. Anyh who, you get the idea. Very dark purple in its concentrated state.

[00:42:19]Good morning everybody. It is 7:20. I'm still fighting for my life to wake up earlier. I woke up at 6:30 6:30 today and um yeah, read for a little bit. I finished Annihilation last night finally. I was at like 70% and I was like, I'm just going to sit out here on the deck and finish this book because I want to be done with it. I liked like it's such a hard book for me to figure out how I feel about it because I loved the vibes like I loved what he was doing with it, but the way that it was told I guess just didn't grip me. Um, so I'm glad that I read it and I love the vibes but wasn't obsessed with it unfort. Um, also my hair is wild. I need to wash it today. Um, anyho, this morning I'm going to head out into the garden for like an hour because I didn't do my weeding yesterday and I'm trying to get out there and do weeding every day. I did end up fertilizing yesterday though, so at least I got something done. But, uh, yeah, I'm just making toast right now.

[00:43:37]My delicious homemade sourdough, which I've still been making. Um, I'm actually uh going to spend the day with my friends tomorrow, which is really exciting. And we're going to have these like vegan chicken pesto sandwiches and I'm going to bake bread tomorrow morning, fresh bread to have with our sandwiches um before I head there around lunchtime. So, I'm excited about that.

[00:43:59]But anyh who, I'm going out to the garden today. I'm probably most mostly just going to be weeding, but I have seen some comments of people saying that you enjoy the weeding and that it's relaxing. So, I figured that I would take you out with me after I have my breakfast here. So, yeah, that's what we're going to do.

[00:44:41]You can't see.

[00:49:23]Oh my god, you guys. I'm getting ready and making my smoothie and listening to the suffering still and I am like visibly cringing, physically cringing at how disgusting and disturbing this book is.

[00:49:47]The woman was too stunned to speak.

[00:49:49]Like, oh my god. And it's so funny because my experience with David Solder, the only book that I've read from him other than this one that I'm listening to right now is uh Summer of the Monsters, which I read last summer, which was like just a cutesy time. It was very YA feeling, but this one, The Suffering, no complete opposite. Rated M for mature. Like it is so explicit and grotesque.

[00:50:22]Like it's so like you could not get further from the other one that I read.

[00:50:28]Like holy crap. He has range, but I was not prepared. It's good, but like holy crap. Trying to make my breakfast and I'm like, "Oh my god, I just can't believe what I'm listening to." Anyways, I just had to hop on an update on that because wowee.

[00:50:53]Um, I have two loaves prepping for tomorrow. Like I mentioned, I'm getting those ready. Um, I posted my video that needed to get posted today. And now I really want a cup of tea, but I don't have any milk and I want my black lavender tea, which I drink with milk and sugar. So, I'm going to quickly make myself a batch of milk after I do these stretch and folds, I guess.

[00:51:22]Make my tea and then I'm going to sit down and do some editing. Okay, just did those over on the counter. It was too messy to find a spot for you to sit, so I just did them off camera. But um I'm really hoping that these loaves turn out good because this is going to be my first time that someone else is eating my bread like besides Shane obviously.

[00:51:45]Um and I have been so lucky to have every single loaf turn out. Like my first loaf was sus. It was a big gummy.

[00:51:55]It was still edible, but it just like wasn't great. But then once I implemented some of the tips that y'all had given me in comments, they started coming out perfect. So from my second loaf to now, which I've made like gosh, I don't know, a lot. Like I feel like I've made one or two every single week um over the past couple of months. Every single loaf has been amazing. So I'm scared that something is going to go wrong now that I'm actually like bringing my bread for other people to enjoy. So, I'm just like, "Please don't do me dirty like that.

[00:53:22]This tea is exactly what I needed. It is so yummy. We have the monkey here who I don't think you've even really seen in this vlog, which is a crime, but in last week's vlog, you saw her a lot. So, go rewatch that cutie footage of this monkey.

[00:53:41]Hey, everybody should watch that 100 times. She has really been doing some old lady things lately. like she will lay down outside in the grass in the sun now, which she has never done in her life. Like she low-key is stressed or has been just stressed being outside because she hates the sound of buzzing bugs. Like she's just a very Yeah, she the conditions have to be exactly correct. And I've just never seen her lay down in grass before. But now she's done it like maybe only twice.

[00:54:17]No, maybe three times. Whenever Shane lets her out and she does it, he calls me. He's like, "She's laying in the grass." And I run out to go see her and she's just laying in the sun enjoying it. And she's just never done that before. I'm like, "Oh my gosh, are you just like turning into a chill little old lady?

[00:54:33]I can't believe she's 13 years old. It's actually insane." But um I thought that I would end this vlog because it needs to end today so that I can get it edited and um so I can start the next vlog. So to wrap things up, I actually don't think I really have anything to say. I've updated. I'm halfway through reading The Suffering. I finished reading Annihilation and I also watched the movie trailer for it when I finished it last night. And why does it not look good? Like I know it has good ratings and I remember being so disturbed by it.

[00:55:12]It's weird though because I can't really remember, but then as soon as uh it showed like the shimmer thing on the trailer, I was like, "Yes, I do remember watching this." But I just I remember the vibe of it and that's it. So, it's so weird that I just I don't know. But I was watching the trailer and I was like, "This A does not look good." like it just looked like bad CGI.

[00:55:34]And B, I feel like I'm not going to be disturbed this time. I used to get really disturbed by movies. Now, I feel like it barely affects me. Like, I used to be the person going to see a horror movie and I'd be like looking away like at the bottom of the movie theater or like I couldn't handle it. And now I just I'm desensitized, I guess, because I mean psychological stuff bothers me.

[00:56:02]And also gore. I can't handle gore. So I guess I am still I still can't handle things sometimes. But I'm just way like less disturbed. And I remember I used to watch horror movies and then it would haunt me for like two days after. Like I'd keep thinking about it and I'd be like scared to get up to pee at night and like it doesn't really do that to me anymore. Um, but yeah, so I don't know if I'm going to watch Annihilation again or not because it just didn't look that good and also didn't look like the same as the book. It looked very different. So, I don't know, but I am kind of curious. So, maybe we will end up re-watching it. I really want to see Leviticus, but it's not playing at our theater. So, I don't know if they're going to bring it in like next week or something like late because it releases this weekend. Uh, it's a new horror movie, queer horror movie that looks so good and it's getting really good early reviews and we keep seeing the or we had kept seeing in May the trailer for it when we went to other movies and now we went to book our tickets and it's not playing at either of our theaters. So, I'm like, what is that about? Like, that's so annoying. So, I really hope that it pops up because what the heck. Anyh who, I'm going to let you go. Thank you so so much for watching.

[00:57:22]And I hope that you are having a stunning Sunday and I look forward to seeing you. I was going to say next week, but I'm actually going to be doing a couple of bonus videos. Uh a couple of like bookish bonus videos soon. So, you might see me sooner than Sunday. Oh yeah. Oh my gosh, I forgot to even mention if anybody's still here at the end. Um I so the books that I bought for my birthday book shopping and also both my book boxes I have not opened yet because I have so many books like new books that I want to share and talk about that it just it's too much to have in a vlog. So I figure since I have so many books this month I'm just going to do a dedicated book haul video. So you will see both my artwork and my book of the month in that book haul video.

[00:58:05]That's probably going to be the next video that goes up because I did put a poll up and I think that's the one that's winning. The other one that I want to do, which was recommended by one of y'all, was a summer book Rex. And I do have some books that I just give such summer vibes that I either read in the summer or I wish that I read in the summer. I want to make a list of like hot, sweaty um books that I thought were really good that would be perfect to read in the summer. So, I want to do that one as well. I'm going to do both of them. It's just I don't know which one's going to go up first. Um, so I'll see you when I see you. Thank you so much for being here. And that's it.