Giddy's Back!

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted, but between a trip south to see Mom and Dad in Kentucky and then on to Nashville to see our younger son and his family, and trying to get the garden into some semblance of order, it's been a whirlwind existence for the past few weeks.

It was great to see Mom and Dad and we had a pleasant visit with them.

H was able to get together with all his friends at the Bluegrass Brewing Company. Twelve years ago, he had painted all of them in racing colors and for years the painting has hung in the BBC. This picture is all of them together again at the pub.


Our family loves to cook, so I had purchased little chef sets for Ashton and Kaiya, complete with hats, aprons and their very own rolling pins. What better thing to bake than free form apple pies!

They were quite proud of their efforts and the pies tasted really good with vanilla ice cream.

The next day, we went for a walk around the lake in a local park. We saw several deer and little Kaiya had to stop and look at every bug on the ground.

Ashton was looking for turkeys so we could take it home and eat it! Gratefully, we didn't see any.

When we returned home, Spike decided that the half emptied suitcase made a great napping spot.Today is also Garden Bloggers Bloom Day so I've been out in the garden taking photos of things blooming up here. The leaves on the trees are finally out and it's really beginning to look a lot like spring. We've had wonderful, sunny and warm weather so it's been a joy to be outside digging in the garden despite the annual onslaught of black flies. They generally bother us from Mother's Day to Father's Day, so during that time we slather ourselves with Deet and don our head nets when outdoors. We don't have much in bloom right now, but here are the highlights:

The daffs didn't bloom much this year, much to my disappointment

However, the primroses are putting on a spectacular display!

Creeping Phlox shines in the bright sunlight

Bleeding heart

PJM Rhododendron

It suddenly occurs to me that I have an awful lot of pink in the garden! That's ok, 'cause I like pink.

Life is good in the garden
Hugs, Giddy

Blog Change?

Lately, I've been very frustrated with Blogger. Sometimes, I'm unable to post pictures and it often takes so much time to comment on other blogs that I just don't bother, much to my disappointment because I read many of them and would love to comment on each.

So, I have opened a blog on WordPress. I'm still not certain whether I will change or not, but the choice is there if I really get frustrated. The one thing that holds me back is having to learn new things and the time it will take to get the blog set up with all the gadgets I'd like to have.

In the meantime, here's what I've been up to for the past couple of weeks.

- I purchased and spread 50 bags of composted cow manure over the perennial and veggie
gardens

- I built a rustic trellis for the Clematis "Firecracker" out of cherry saplings we cut down last autumn

- The primroses are blooming

- We had a fun get together with our friends at their camp. Lots of good food, drink and conviviality!
- A few days later, we enjoyed a good time with friends at our house for a German meal. I baked a couple of European Peasant Loaves.

All in all, a very busy time of year. The garden is beginning to pop, and after the significant rainfall we had the other day, the grass is going to need mowing very soon.

Life is Good,

Hugs, Giddy

We Celebrate Earth Day Every Day

I'm not a tree hugger or fanatic environmentalist, but H and I do what we can to protect Mother Earth here on our 2 1/2 acres.

So, in observance of Earth Day, here are a few things we do:

• Wash clothes in cold water
• Line dry them from April through November and sometimes into December
• 
• We grow many of our own vegetables in our garden every summer
• What we can't grow, we try to buy locally, in season
• We compost our kitchen and garden waste
• We take our own canvas bags to the grocery
• We recycle cans and glass
  

• We use organic fertilizers and avoid pesticides, when possible
• Despite having a heavily wooded property, we plant new trees every year. Last year, I planted about 100 white pine seedlings

• We save gas by waiting to combine our trips into town with other errands
• We keep our vehicles well tuned and regularly inspected
• We plan frequent kayak trips instead of road trips

• 
• We use low energy CFC light bulbs
• We turn off lights when they're not needed
• We don't leave our cell phone chargers plugged in
• We heat with wood, a renewable and sustainable energy source
• In the winter, we also cook soups and stews on our wood stove, saving propane
  

I was going to post a few more pictures, but Blogger is having a bit of trouble and won't let me upload any more.

Anyway, Happy Earth Day to all my garden blogger friends.

Life is good, especially in the garden.

Hugs, Giddy

Spring Deck Project

For about three years now, I've been humming on a project for the deck. We have a southerly view, which is beautiful, but every afternoon between the hours of about 3-6 pm, the sun shines in our eyes. The umbrella just works for the overhead sun.

Soooo, after much discussion, planning and fussing, H and I decided to build a deck arbor. We didn't want anything that would interfere with the view or encroach upon the space on the deck, so it was to be 8 feet tall and only 18 inches wide with a faux bamboo roller shade which could be lowered when necessary. We started with a blank slate....

H measured and cut the 4x4s for the uprights, then we attached the 2x6s (after a bit of er, "discussion" about decorative edges on the ends of the 2x6s.

Then, Giddy got to play with the tools! Oh, the heady sense of power while screwing the 4x4s to the brackets attached to the deck. Since I'm short and closer to the ground, H gladly let me do this part of the project.

H attached the top rails .....

and I stained everything to match the deck.

The final product turned out pretty nice.

The big deal of the day was the faux bamboo shade that we found on sale at Lowe's. Original price was $29.99, but we snatched it up for the incredible price of $4.49! Even if it only lasts for one season, it was a bargain.


So, after a long, hard workday, we settled down on the deck with a glass of wine to celebrate our success.

However, you can bet your bottom dollar that H and I are paying today with aching arms, legs and back!

Life is Good

Hugs, Giddy

April Bloom Day

Thanks to Carol over at May Dreams blog, gardeners are sharing what is blooming in their gardens on the 15th of every month.

I don't have much to add this month as the only thing I technically have blooming in the garden today are the crocus. But what beauties they are

I love the way the shadows play on the petals

The Oriental Poppies are popping through the soil

as are the Stella d'Oro daylilies and the Silver King Artemesia


I'm seeing green on the lilac buds and am hoping it will bloom this year.

I think it will be a couple more weeks before I unwrap the pond and get it running.


We got the bat house up a bit too late to entice residents, but we are hopeful we will be attracting lots of mosquito eating bats this year.


The boys spent the entire morning roughhousing and finally fell into exhausted sleep in the sun on their window seat. Poor babies. Life is so tough in this house.

Perfect Pretzels?

I don't think so.

Baking bread has been a joy for me. I love the Artisan method developed by Jeff and Zoe, and I've enjoyed trying many of the recipes. However, yesterday's foray into homemade pretzels was not quite a success. In fact, it was downright disappointing. Much of it was my fault as I did not wait for the dough to cool for a proper length of time in the fridge, so it was difficult to handle. My second mistake was putting the formed pretzels on plastic wrap to rise. Guess what? They stuck - big time!
They looked pretty good while they were rising and I managed to get two of them out without ruining the shape.....

But the rest of them resembled something along the lines of a dog turd. My apologies to all the sweet puppies out there.
The flavor, however, was excellent, and when popped into the toaster oven to warm up, they were quite delicious if we just closed our eyes before biting into them. But, as we used to say down south, "The juice just ain't worth the squeeze", so I'll be sticking to regular bread recipes and forms.

Today, we had to go into town to pay the truck taxes and since it was a nice, sunny day, we decided to drive on into Schoodic to see if we could catch a little wave action at the Point. The Mark Island Light house was looking picturesque......

the gulls on the Point were relaxing on the rocks.......

the wave action was nothing to write home about, but the sheer beauty of the park, the fresh sea air and surrounding greenery were enough to lift the spirits.

Ah, yes. Life may have it's occasional little disappointments, but for the most part....

Life is Good!

Hugs, Giddy

Preparing for Summer

So much to do and so little time. The weather has been sublime for the past four days and we have taken full advantage of it.

H and I restained the deck preparatory to bringing the deck furniture out of the garage for the summer. Oh, the joy!

I was in charge of painting the outsides and cutting in and I didn't even complain about my knees and back hurting since the sun felt so nice and warm on my back.

H had the job of rolling on the stain. This year was so much easier as he had sanded the old opaque stain off last year (a huge, dirty job). It took him several days on his hands and knees to get the job done, so this year, it was a breeze just to mop on the Austrailian Tree Oil.


While waiting for the stain to dry, I cleaned all the perennial beds of the winter's detritus. This wheelbarrow full was one of dozens I took to the compost pile. Needless to say, the next day my shoulders were quite sore from all that raking.

Oh, but look what was lurking under all those leaves......

There's nothing quite so rewarding as those first, beautiful crocus blooms in the spring.

After all the hard work was finished, we took a few minutes to sit in the garden and enjoy the warm sunshine on our faces. Even Spike enjoyed his first spring outing. Sluggo, however, was not amused with the harness or being outside.

I think we've created a monster though. Now every time I walk towards the front door, Spike is right behind me in hopes that I'll take him out.

I did find a few minutes for a couple of baking projects. Hamburger buns for the freezer and a batch of cinnamon rolls for the ladies at the Clinic.

I was in a hurry to get out the door and neglected to take a shot of the finished rolls, but you may rest assured they were quite delicious! That, and the house smelled great for the rest of the day.

I also found time for my Wednesday morning meeting of the Downeast Knitiodts. What a grand time we all have, sharing our projects and stories while sitting amongst the colorful wool. This is a picture of our instructor, Barbara and classmate, Nancy, who was knitting the tiniest little ballerina slippers.
Judy and Linda were discussing yarn colors for the cute little "Pueblo Vases" that Judy knits.

All in all, a very satisfying week!

Life is Good,

Hugs, Giddy