Snapshots from My Year . . .

January:  Addison turns 3!

February:  David Paul Arrives

March/April:  Visited Costa Rica

March/April: Rode a horse for the first time in 20 ish years in Costa Rica

April:  David Paul is baptized

May:  Memorial Day at the Botanical Gardens with my friend Matt

 

May:  Flower Day at the Detroit Eastern Market

 

June:  Alaina turns 5

July:  Visit to Ishpeming

 

 

 

July:  Family Time at Seul Choix

 

July:  More fun at the Eastern Market

July:  All day adeventure to the Detroit Institute of Arts

Tomato Season

Legion

A legion of mushrooms guarding our lawn

Harvest Feast

Double Click to Enlarge

This past Monday my friend, Amanda, and I made a harvest feast.  It started out as just making soup but it turned into a whole lot more.  We had a grand time.  The Gazpacho Soup was a take on Alli's Spicy Gazpacho Soup recipe.  The red portion is spicy hot and made of tomatoes, onions, Mrs. T's Spicy Bloody Mary Mix, cayenne pepper, and red hot sauce.  The green portion was simply freshly minced garlic, cucumbers, onions, and zucchini.  We placed a dollop of fresh plain greek yogurt on the top.  We then thought that we should have something to sop up the soup with and so we oiled and salted some hearty bread we bought off of the clearance rack at Holiday Market.  We placed the bread on the grill and when it became crispy we rubbed it down with garlic.  This is my version of Fett'unta.  Protein was in order so we grilled some natural Amish bone-in chicken thighs with a mix of herbs and spices.  Lastly, the eggplant was ready so we cut it in 3/4 inch slices on the bias and grilled them up too!  Lastly, to top off the meal we had Amanda's homemade pickles.  It was a perfect combination of tastes!  Needless-to-say we no one needed dinner that night. 

Heavenly Yard

This is one of my favorite pictures of my yard.

Angels Looking Over Us

Angels looking over us.

Windchimes

I love my new wind chimes.

Uncovering June's Last Blooms

After being in Chicago and then Toronto my garden was in much disarray.  Weeds were climbing everywhere and the grass was out of control.  It took a full day of work to get it back into some order.  It still needs some more attention but it is on the mend.  My "Mr. Stripey" heirloom tomato is seriously ill.  It is my absolutely favorite type of tomato so I will do everything I can to nurse it back to health.  There were some new blooms, though, when I arrived.  It was exciting to uncover them.

Red Hot Fire Poker/Torch Lilly
Family: Asphodelaceae (as-foh-del-AY-see-ee)
Genus: Kniphofia (nip-HOFF-ee-uh)
Species: uvaria (oo-VAR-ee-uh)

 

Shasta Daisy
Family: Asteraceae (ass-ter-AY-see-ee)
Genus: Leucanthemum (lew-KANTH-ih-mum)
Species: x superbum (soo-PER-bum)

Balloon Flower

Family: Campanulaceae (kam-pan-yew-LAY-see-ee)

Genus: Platycodon (plat-ee-KO-don)

Species: grandiflorus (gran-dih-FLOR-us)

Purple Cone Flower

Family: Asteraceae (ass-ter-AY-see-ee)

Genus: Echinacea (ek-in-AY-shee-a)

Species: purpurea (pur-PUR-ee-uh)

Plant Classification credit to Dave's Garden

it is a good day . . .

the last day of school
leisurely getting up and getting to work
listening to matt maher, jj heller, page CXVI, leeland, and tenth avenue north
windows are open
taking the wolverine to the windy city to see my nieces
the garden is blooming

today's psalm is beautiful
Psalm 139:9-10~If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

What a Beauty

This was my favorite shot (in sepia tones) from today's garden walk.

I love the simplicity of the cosmo.

Can you see God's fingerprint on this beautiful bloom?

Good Eats

Grilled Chicken, Avocado, Cucumber, and Lettuce from the garden(ftg).

Spicy Tacos with tomatoes, jalapenos, onion, lettuce(ftg), cilantro(ftg), homemade guacamole, cucumber, and salsa.

Corn tortillas prepared on the griddle pan of the new stove!

Be Still My Beating Heart

As many of you know, my favorite color still is pink. I never seemed to grow out of loving it.
Last fall I bought this Foxglove Digitalis to add to my perennial garden. The previous one was demolished by a severe winter. Much to my surprise and delight the new plant is a GORGEOUS shade of pink.
Aren't the inner polka dots just so fun and unexpected?

The Foxglove Digitalis has a very unique name. The Foxglove is believed to have come "Folk's Glove" which means "Fairy's Glove". There are a lot of variations on the story from there including lore about fairies living in the blooms and foxes wearing the blooms to sneakily raid chicken coops. The Digitalis part of the name means "fingers" and the blooms do look like fingers or at least invite little kids to put their fingers inside to feel the polka dots. And for the moniker of this post, the leaves of the plant are used for a common heart medication called Digoxin. The medicine is used to treat arrhythmias, congestive heart failure, and other heart ailments.

May Garden

Welcome. . .

English Cucumbers

Pinks (a miniature form of carnation)

Looking north to my deck (mini deck really)

My dirty legs

Pale pink cosmopolitan and lavender buds

More of the peonies

I sprayed myself with SPF 30 but I think I may have missed a spot

My version of row planting.  Trying to keep the weeding down to a minimum.