Does anybody have a recipe for a good robin's egg omelet?

We were going to go boating yesterday.....but after loading up all the stuff for our maiden voyage of the season, we discovered this:

Aaarrrggghhh! What to do?!

I can tell you one thing we didn't do--and that was to go boating!

We are tender hearted animal lovers on the horns of a dilemma. One of our friends told us to "make a 3 egg omelet and go boating!" My brother says it's a no-win situation for them--they'll fly out of the nest and fall into the water and drown. Oh dear....

Meanwhile, the flowers in the back yard are simply stunning. The tropics have nothing over the Midwest on a fine June day--so lush are the greens & so fragrant is the air. There's something very satisfying about picking a bouquet this time of year. This is our dining room table this afternoon:

I was looking through some quotes to find something about flowers....in light of recent events, this one was just too good to pass up....

You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and watercraft; a certain free-margin, and even vagueness - ignorance, credulity - helps your enjoyment of these things.

---Walt Whitman

It's Come to This

This week had us enduring 95 degree days with high humidity and gusty winds--we broke down and turned on the air conditioner.  We cooled off and the house dried out (it was so sticky!) Now this morning I am wishing the furnace was on. Sweatshirt, socks, hot coffee--all are needed for Saturday morning comfort; and mi esposo brought me toast (with coffee re-fills) on a platter, so all is well. Now I can do some thinking.....

...a decision has to be made. I'm finishing up the "Marine Quilt," which is the Boxed Blessings pattern by the talented Ingrid Barlow.  (As I've said before, I'm not really a quilter, so I'm sort of winging it at this stage.  And, I humbly suggest my photo doesn't do it justice; the fabrics combined for a rather attractive, quirky design.) So....do I quilt it in straight lines running at 45 degree angles criss-crossing the entire quilt, neatly intersecting the blocks at their centers and corners; or do I quilt in a higglety-pigglety squiggly fashion all over the design, thus contrasting with the straightness of the fabric pieces?

Aaarggghhh.... more caffeine, please! 

We Must Cultivate Our Garden

Ah, everything is so green and beautiful in the backyard--the triumph of spring indeed!  For instance, take a look at what our dormant fish pond looked like on a glum day in March....O, such a depressing site!  It all seemed a bit hopeless at this point...                                                                                                              

If winter comes, can spring be far behind?

                            --Percy Bysshe Shelley

A vast improvement wouldn't you say? Now the fish just have to migrate from the aquarium and a few more annuals have to be added; then all will be as it should!

We've spent a lot of time out here the past few days--much has to be done before gnats and no-see-ums arrive to make us irritable. Hostas have been split and shifted, Coral Bells with deep bronze-colored leaves have been added, and Sedum has  been transplanted hither and yon (locating them all for watering is something of a memory game). A myriad of different Coleus plants await their fate. Who knew there were so many different colors?--this is but a fraction of what was available!: 

While doing all this, we were repeatedly serenaded by some very melodic Baltimore Orioles, of which we seem to have many this year.  We often joke that Orioles sound like they're desperately searching for a tune--they pipe out a series of sweet, clear notes & trills, but it never quite forms a melody. We must have a very precocious flock this year, as I swear they are singing the first six notes of The Mexican Hat Dance.  (Go ahead, run that through your mind--but I warn you, it's an earworm.)  I know Orioles go south for the winter...I'm convinced this group goes South of the Border! Ole!

And on that happy note.....I shall literally & figuratively go cultivate my garden...in a Voltaire-ian sort of way.

Project # 6938 Progress and counting...

Make that indoor project # 6938 (see April 17th post).... because I could probably  come up with just as many outdoor ones if I counted! (More on those in the very near future.) It's been a fruitful week here at the hacienda, both indoors and out.  While the word "completion" isn't yet in my vocabulary, progress has been made on a number of fronts:  one of them being the flowery pink & black quilt.  I pieced together strips--worked feverishly, assembling 6 strips of 4 squares each and was about to add the seventh when I took pause....  "Hmmm...this doesn't look quite right...hmmm...?!"  So, instead of having essentially 5 blocks x 6 blocks (equaling 30 blocks), I was well on my way to having 4 blocks x 7 blocks (equaling a puzzling 28 blocks); making what would have been a rather peculiarly long bedspread!  The tip-off should have been those two seemingly unnecessary blocks lying innocently on the table. Ah well, at least it wasn't an irreversible situation!  And like my Mom would say, "No one will know how many times it took you to get it right!"  I should add a 21st century caveat to that:  "unless of course you post it on your blog!"  ha!

 

And from project # 6938 to # 6939:  On our way home from Washington, we bought this lovely fern stand at a Beckley, West Virginia, antique mall.  As you can see, it is painted a most comely shade of brown--yuk! By the style and the weight of it, we're pretty sure it's oak underneath that enamel veneer.  Now who in their right mind would cover oak (or any pretty wood, for that matter) with porch paint?! The brown has got to go--it will return to its natural state, oh yes it will! Look for an "after" picture...eventually.

And speaking of gardens...

We are back home again to our own garden, which greened up nicely in our absence--including our burned off hillside (see previous post in April). Most of the daffodils & jonquils are spent, as is the magnolia.  (It was kind enough to leave just 2 blossoms so we could get a glimpse of its recent grandeur.)  Bleeding Hearts are bursting, tulips have sprung, red buds are just beginning to pop, and the hostas may unfurl their leaves in an hour or two.

Bird life has returned in abundance; already 4 male Orioles are fighting over the nectar and I lost count after 18 Goldfinches on the feeder.  Every year I note when the birds return and write it down in a gardening journal (yes, I know--but remember, we have to make our own fun out here in the sticks!). It's amazing how often their return engagement is within 24 hours of last year's anniversary.  I would think that weather would be an obstacle for them at times, but the power of daylight seems to override that, thus ensuring their timely presence at our backyard feeders.  Last year on this date, the following birds already visited our backyard:  

 

Baltimore Oriole, Orchard Oriole, Nuthatch (2 kinds), Cardinal, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting, Starling, House Finch, Goldfinch, Robin, Downy Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Red-headed Woodpecker, House Wren, Carolina Wren, Hummingbird, Catbird, Black-capped Chickadee, Blue Jay, Bluebird, Northern Flicker, Hermit Thrush, Chipping Sparrow, Mourning Dove, Grackle, and White-Crowned Sparrow.

 

Phew!  They're all here again...except for the elusive Indigo Bunting.  It's just a matter of time....

I'll end today with a favorite quote, from Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything:

Life will be.

 

And that reminds me of an Australian slogan that was popular when I lived there many years ago:

Life. Be in it.

I better just go do that! Bye!

Life with The Girl-Child

Yesterday we successfully got The Girl-Child off to the airport.  It's funny calling her that these days, as she's farther away from the child part than ever.  A friend dubbed her that years ago (obviously) and it became one of many humorous references over the years.  (The poor kid, she put up with a lot!) She pretty much managed to do everything and see everybody she wanted to see over the course of a long weekend.  On the trip home from the airport when we picked her up, we could hear mutterings from the back seat-- something to the effect of, "Ugh, I feel like death."  (It's a 2.5 hour drive...remember, we live in the sticks.)  On the eve of her departure, she went out with friends, but made it a more low-key event. She declared, from recent experience, that Dramamine was bad enough without a hangover to go with it! Hmmm... could this be maturity speaking? (The Girl Child's Parental Units are savoring this moment!) 

Easter Eats

Easter has come and gone at our house...with nary a hard-boiled egg in site.  Just didn't get around to dying any this year. :(  Although we did have a nice dinner with my Mom and the girl-child (blowing in from Virginia and sporting that big, honkin' diamond these days).  We had Ham Loaf instead of ham because, simply, we like it better.  I have a killer ham loaf recipe--it has stuff like graham crackers (known as "brown crackers" around here, for some reason dating back to my husband's early childhood) and beef in it. Yum!  It was my Grandma's recipe and she could walk on water as far as I'm concerned!

My Mom (age 92 as of the day before Easter, and yes, there was a party) had some good Grandma time with our daughter.  She's reminisces a lot and someone of lesser patience and intelligence might consider that boring, but her memories are generally pretty entertaining and her sense of humor is subtle, yet hilarious (in true Scandinavian fashion).  Mom remembered how she and her sister took Home Economics courses in High School and discovered that their mother (my sainted Grandma) really didn't know how to cook at all!  Why, she was making her pie crusts from lard....and they were flaky and pretty much perfect...but they weren't made from Crisco. Shame on her! And Grandma was so old-fashioned that she didn't know who Betty Crocker was. Geesh! Mom assured us that Grandma did get a clue about her shocking lack of cookery skills...it took about 10 years or so, but she mysteriously got better at it. Well, thank heaven!

I will sign off with a quote from the brilliant Mark Twain:

"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much he'd learned in seven years."

Pyromania... Nature Accelerated

We're trying something new this year. For years now we've been trying to partially tame the hill behind our house.  We like the wild parts of it (and have planted lots of coneflowers, Queen Anne's Lace & lilies for "naturalizing"--as they say in garden parlance), but we also want to have mown areas so that we can walk around easily and enjoy the fire circle.  Also, having very controlled and very wild areas enhances each, like positive/negative.  One doesn't look as good without the other. It's an artistic/philosophic thing with me.

I dream of having little stairways and paths, winding their way through flowery areas, etc. etc. Truth is, the soil up there is awful--a thin layer of topsoil followed closely with a thick layer of heavy clay.  Not conducive to good gardening.  So... some stairways exist (often end up covered in brome grass), but there should be more.  It's just that the soil is so darned hard to dig into to place the steps. And when you habitually only get around to doing something about it in late August when the ground is dry and hard as a brick, it just doesn't happen! Year after year...

I digress... our something new is burning off all the old, dead plant stuff from last year.  By the end of the season, that stupid brome (sp?) grass pretty much takes over everything. Ugh! But maybe, just maybe, this year will be different and we'll get a grip on it.  

With the help of our local volunteer fire department (and a sizeable donation because they are such good guys and do so many good things), our hill was all burned off, lickety split!  I think it took less than an hour.  And they have this cool little gizmo that pretty much dribbles out a combination of gasoline & diesel fuel which ends up looking like it's dripping out little bits of fire onto the ground.  I will close here with another photo.  (Am I  just a little too intrigued by all this? ha!)

Your Days are Numbered, Buddy!

This past weekend the weather turned warm....the kind of warmth full of promise for better days to come. We sat out on the patio, basking, beers in hand, while the penguin watched.  He's still out there now....alas, we are not.  The weather has turned on us again (as a March day in the Midwest is wont to do).  But Mr. Penguin's days are numbered, oh yes they are!