We continue to gear up for our summer cookout and I am thumbing through my multitude of cookbooks and doing online searches for some great dishes to make. We do our cookouts potluck style, which means there will be a great variety and quantity of food from not only ourselves but also our guests. This gives me a lot of room for trying new dishes – if something fails, it’s no big deal. There’s plenty of other food available. This…
what’s happening in the garden
July 9, 2018Hi all! We are busy bees in our household right now, preparing for our annual cookout. Just popping in to give a quick garden update. These preparations get me outdoors and noticing things I otherwise might have missed. Last year, I saw the sweetest flowers that I almost walked right past, and the year before that I was able to snap some photos of a perfect butterfly, here. We have a bunch of cherry tomatoes. This is the first time…
houseplants, tried & true
July 2, 2018Some thoughts on houseplants…I can summarize my approach by saying: choose 2 or 3 varieties that are practically indestructible and repeat these throughout the house. I know, pretty boring, right? While I have a fairly green thumb when it comes to outdoor gardening, I did not inherit my Mom’s knack for maintaining a glorious array of houseplants. However, I have found a few plants that seem to do well regardless of how much attention they may or may not receive.…
mother nature is taking over
June 25, 2018It seems that the garden is reaching that state where Mother Nature has taken over and I’ve lost all control. The weeds are CRAZY! Does this ever happen to you? I wish that I had some lovely “after” photos to show you, but that is not the case. I will get this situation under control soon, but not right now. Truth be told, my garden started out that way this year and I’ve struggled ever since to reign it in.…
word of the year
June 18, 2018I’ve taken to choosing a word to be my guiding theme during the year for the past few years. The chosen word represents something that might’ve been a challenge for me recently. Some past words were courage and challenge. For 2018, having found that my state of mind and creativity seem to have been blocked for a while, or even closed or fixated, I chose the word Open. I am very happy to report that for the first time since…
how do you grow your garden?
June 11, 2018With the prevalence of hard-packed clay soil in these parts, I’ve become a big proponent of raised beds for vegetable gardening. They allow for better control of soil structure and nutrients, along with better drainage and possibly better protective methods – more on that later. Each year, I add a new raised bed to my garden. Or to be honest, let me say that my sweet and handy man constructs a new one for me. They are made from cedar…
seed catalogs
February 12, 2018It is that time of year – the 2018 seed catalogs have pretty much all arrived by now. These are exciting publications for us gardeners. Like many gardeners I began gardening from seed using Burpee seeds, which are ubiquitous. While I still appreciate Burpee seeds, my seed palate has been greatly expanded and I like supporting the smaller companies as well. My first foray into alternate seed companies was Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I love Baker Creek and purchase from…
thanksgiving
November 20, 2017Thanksgiving is my very favorite holiday for many reasons. Fall weather and those lovely colors. Not to mention the charming decor. Family & Friends! Some years our group is on the smaller side and other years, the house is bursting at the seams with big folk, little folk, and dogs. Either way, there is love and goodwill throughout the space. Some of these folks, this is the only time we may see them throughout the year, what with distances and busy…
walnuts, part 3
November 5, 2017So continues the saga of the Great Walnut Harvest, which began here. Today was The Day to crack open the test walnut. It’s been a while since I’ve actually cracked a nutshell, what with the availability of shelled nuts pretty much everywhere. I whipped out the handy dandy nut cracker and prepared to do the job. Now, thinking back to the days when I used to have to crack nuts open using the same type of device pictured, there were never any…
walnuts, part 2
October 30, 2017If you’ve read walnuts, part 1, you may know that I am harvesting and processing walnuts for the very first time. We have an abundance of them scattered around. I thought to myself, this is the year! Why let them just sit there. Some for the squirrels and some for me. Win win. Please join me in the next step of this process, otherwise known as “removing the hulls.” When I last wrote, the walnuts were sitting in hot water…
