Yum, cobbler.....

My sweet friend, Margie, is in town visiting from her cabin in North Carolina and she generously shared some of her first harvest of rhubarb with me. Rhubarb and strawberries are a natural pairing and both are in season right now. Add a little sugar and top off with some home made biscuits and you've got a scrumptious dessert.

Whipped cream or ice cream anyone?

A.W.O.L.

For those of you who weren't in the military, A.W.O.L. stands for absent without leave. I know I've been missing for quite a while on the blog, but it was for a good reason. Dear Ken, my father-in-law, fell and was taken to the hospital. Three days later he was admitted to a nurturing nursing home in Bradenton after he was diagnosed with advanced Alzheimer's. It has taken several weeks of cleaning their home to find important papers, get a handle on their finances, and help Madalen to adjust to her new life living alone.

Unfortunately, we have come to realize that she is also in the intermediate stage of Alzheimer's herself. Just this last week, she was unable to pass her driver's eye test and so she has willingly given up her driving privileges. We are just grateful that they have both had such long, healthy and productive lives. They both dedicated their lives to the Lord at a young age and have lived as Godly examples to those around them.

We should all be so fortunate to have made such a life altering decision.

In between trips to Bradenton, I've been tending to our garden and fitting in some sewing when possible. I'm just tickled every day when I go outside and pick some fresh produce right in our own backyard, bring it in and serve it up for dinner that night. All my herbs have been dried in the dehydrator and stored in ball jars for use when the growing season is over. Wonder if the neighbors would mind if we got a few chickens........

Thanks for listening,

Deb

Eggplant, beans & sage, Oh, my!

Thought I'd throw a few pics of our garden onto the blog.  It's so rewarding to go outside and water everything and see how big the plants are getting.   The celery is almost ready to harvest(check it out above)...and I've already cut down the flat leaf parsley and dehydrated it and now it's sprouting back!   Our tomatoes are still flowering and there are so many little tomatoes on the plants that I can't count them.  

All the herbs are happy, happy, too.

Pretty soon the beans will be climbing up the poles...

This weekend we had to figure out a way to let the zucchini, squash and cucumbers climb and keep the fruit off the ground so they don't get blemished.....Joel rigged up these fence gates from Lowe's.   Works for me!  Pretty cool, huh?

And, he and Jeremy made a gate to keep out the dog and other critters.   Next...an arbor for the grapes.   Maybe next weekend......

Gardening girl,
Debbie

Happy St. Patty Day

Here's my wish for you today:

May the light always find you on a dreary day.

When you need to be home, may you find your way.

May you always have courage to take a chance

And never find frogs in your underpants.

In keeping with the tradition of surrounding yourself with everything green, this is what I'm doing to honor the Irish.   The parsley in my grow box was getting so huge that I decided to cut it back last night and dehydrate it.  Hey, I'm just not that into green beer so this is as green as it gets for me.

Just rinse the parsley and drop the leaves onto the mat and dehydrate for 6 hours @95 degrees.

By this afternoon I'll have enough fresh, organic, non-irradiated parsley for all my recipes.   And you can't believe how wonderful it smells, too. 

Back to my sewing now,

Debbie

Greens and Blues

My Valentine's present to myself (with Joel's blessing) was spending the whole day cutting out and starting the sewing process for a quilt for the bed up at the river.  Woo-hoo!   It's been so long since I've sewn something for myself that I almost forgot how much fun it is to create a quilt that we will be able to use ourselves.

So, I cut.......and I cut.........and I stacked.........and finally I was ready to start sewing.

So, this morning I'm continuing the process.    Ahhhhhhhhhhhh..........I'm in my happy place now......sigh.....it just doesn't get any better than this for me.

Uh, and yeah, Michael Buble is keeping me company.....Oh, baby, baby...

Happy girl,

Debbie

Happy Camper

Yes, I am.....a happy camper, that is.   We really are happy here in our new house (last week marked our first year here).   And I don't hardly ever think about our old house much, except when I would like to spend some time relaxing outside.   Our old house had the greatest back porch area for eating and sitting around reading a good book and this house doesn't have that.    Well, I've finally found a pleasing arrangement for our outside furniture on our new house's front porch, bought some new cushions, and surrounded the chairs with plants.  Ahhhhh, that feels more like it!

And my Christmas cactus are still blooming....love it, love it.

So, yes, I am most definitely a Happy Camper.

Happy "hump day" Wednesday to you,

Debbie

Seattle, anyone?

The weather today reminds me so much of Seattle.....just chilly enough to require a jacket, just damp enough to make me want to stay indoors sipping a hot cup of something while reading a new book, and just gloomy enough to entice me to spend quality time in the kitchen cooking up something that tastes as good as it smells.

Yup, did all those things today.   I've had a jacket on all day today, and that rarely ever happens.   And, I'm sipping a hot cup of green tea with a slice of my dehydrated lemon and a pineapple in it.   Yum!   I've probably spent 2-3 hours total reading my newest cookbook (dear husband gave it to me for Christmas): The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum....what a great cookbook.   And now I'm preparing to go into the kitchen, don my favorite apron and make a pot of chili.  Think I'll have to make some cornbread muffins to go along with it, don't you think?

Well, I planted tomatoes, broccoli, celery, flat-leaf parsley, curley parsley, several types of lettuce and all my favorite herbs and mints.   Everybody looks happy-happy!

I just finished checking on my new plants and thought I'd show them off to you.   The last few weeks I've started my composter, bought and planted 2 earth boxes and replenished all the herbs.   Yes, I know, I've been gone from here for a few weeks.   You should know by now that when I'm not posting that means I've really gotten interested in something new.  I've been researching dehydrating foods and storing them properly so they last longer without refrigeration.   More on that later...

The poor palm trees are slowly losing all their palm fronds, but that's a good thing.  I believe they may just make it.  Woo-hoo!   Even the staghorn ferns look good....I used to think they couldn't stand temps under 45 degrees.   Well, I've been taking classes at the Florida Extension Service on Saturdays and found out from one of the master gardeners that staghorns can tolerate it down to 19 degrees!  

We even have limes on our newly planted tree!!

Hope you enjoy the pics,
Wanna join me and plant a "Victory Garden"? 
Deb