Posts

Spring in my Garden

Image
I know it's officially been summer for a couple of weeks now but I never found the time to share some photos from how my gardens were doing this spring. It was a very wet season but the plants seemed to like that.   The hanging plant Alec bought me for Mother's day is continuing to bloom. I am loving this beautiful plant so much.  With all the rain we've been having I've only had to water it a handful of times all season.    Though my plants are loving all the rain it has been a bit chillier than usual this year so many things bloomed late and slow like my rhododendrons.    My azalea bushes were really lush despite having whole branches that bloomed at different times.    I'm pretty sure this is called a pearl bush; it seems to like the spot we planted it in.    I bought this plant at Lowe's and within a month the color of the blooming flowers completely changed. I'm not upset or anything but I have never had this happen before. I d...
27 comments
Read more

The Cookbook Club Goes to Italy

Image
Joanne Tracey over at Brookford Kitchen Diaries has started up a monthly cookbook club and the rules such as they are are loose enough that it's easy to follow along and participate. I had taken a short hiatus from participating but I could not resist this month's theme-- Italy!  I love Italian food!   I got this book from our local library:   I did not know Rocco Dispirito but I loved this book. It was filled with family memories and photos and so many delicious looking recipes.  We ended up picking Orecchiette with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe to make.   I did have to make a few substitutions. This recipe only serves 4 so I had to double it and I only had penne on hand so we used that. I didn't have enough sausage so my son suggested we use a bit of bacon too and that was delicious! I subbed out broccoli florets for the broccoli rabe and even used garlic scapes in place of the garlic (what can I say; I think of recipes as a guide line!) Here's what we...
29 comments
Read more

Throwback Tuesday: Artist and Audubon Centers

Image
 *Originally posted July 11, 2014 when my boys were ages 6, 8, & 10. Alec was signed up for an art class that met each day and did a painting of a different bird and season each day.  I had to wake all my boys up at 8:00 yesterday morning.  I understood that they wanted to sleep in, it has been torture for me to try and get out of bed early during summer as well, but with Alec's 4th and last art class we had to be out of the house on time.  He has been having such a great time paintings birds all week. They all ate breakfast at the same time and I took that moment of us all sitting around the table to pull out our Harry Potter book and read another chapter.  I could have been doing dishes or laundry but decided all that other stuff could wait.  We happily laughed together over the antics of the characters in the story and talked about our upcoming day. We all piled into the car and listened to Percy Jackson on the way to the art studio.  Once...
23 comments
Read more