Garden Adventure

We've been having some beautiful weather here lately.  A friend and I decided that a visit to a garden was in definite order.  And wow, Duke Gardens is beautiful!  I have wanted to go for awhile and it definitely did not disappoint.

 They have some of the most interesting flowers.  This one looked like a firework.

 Miss C enjoyed herself.  She wanted to pick the flowers, naturally.

 I let her eat a leaf instead.

We got to sit down and let the girls play on the grass while the grownups got to enjoy some pineapple tea.  It's the small things that make me so happy!  A beautiful day with friends and sweet (but not too sweet) pineapple tea!  Perfect.

Cantaloupe

This cantaloupe, by far, has been the most fulfilling thing we've grown in our garden.  There's just something about it that makes me happy!

It was pretty good too!

Garden Stuff

We have had great success with our garden this year. It's been super exciting to have fresh vegetables to use every night. Of course, now I'm running out of ideas on how to prepare zucchini.

A walk down memory lane if you will--

You might remember our garden looking like this:

It now looks like this (who knew cantaloupes were fence climbers?):

Our fresh produce looks like this:

Grant cutting up our first cucumber looks like this:

Grant's Yard Projects

Grant has outdone himself with the yard projects.

He knew I always wanted a small raised bed for vegetables, but he couldn't imagine letting his 9 months pregnant wife climb up an unstable hill to get to the garden (how kind), so he decided that he needed to make stairs. And stairs he made:

The beginning of the stairs. Behold the Carolina red clay. I hate this stuff.


Project 1 completed. My contribution was the plants.

Instead of a simple raised vegetable garden, Grant decided that we needed a retaining wall/raised garden that extended the length of our yard. I thought this was a fabulous idea because we back up into a chain link fence and for years have discussed what the best option of hiding this ugliness was. The solution- a retaining wall/raised bed!

The backyard before the raised bed.

Raised bed completed!!

The fun part, of course, was planting vegetables and flowers. It's so big, but we filled it up nicely, I think. We also planted ivy to climb up the chain link fence. It will be a battle to keep it from growing in the garden, but one I'm willing to handle to cover the chain link.

The view from the other side.

Remember this project from past posts? Well, the trellis is finally up, staked and has cute little vines growing on both sides.

Grant fell in love with the moss on one of his visits to Lowes. He had to put a moss garden behind the trellis. I think it will look so cool when it fills out.


This is the view from the driveway. It's so pretty when you first drive up. I'm so excited that after 6 years, we finally are starting to make this yard look good.

Things . . .

It's been awhile since I've written anything. I'm a slacker.

I got a wild hair to sew some cute, trendy headbands-- I have a feeling I'll be doing that tonight. (But first, I must walk my two miles on the treadmill. No crafting until exercise is done.) I've been thinking about things to go in my birth center bag. Headbands seem like a top priority to me, especially cute handmade ones.

Grant has been working incredibly hard on the most beautiful raised garden/retaining wall. It's magnificent and will hold tons of veges. He's also made a set of stairs that lead up to the garden. I can't wait to post some pictures of his handiwork. It really is incredible. He also is making me a compost bin and even ordered some worms. I told him that this might have to be his project for awhile as I will be busy with baby soon.

I'm training someone to take my place at work. Believe it or not, I'm a little sad to leave this place. I have really found my niche here and feel like I actually know what I'm doing (it only took 8 years)! I only have 2.5 more weeks to go. Don't worry, I'm going to love staying at home.

Baby bump updates soon!

Strawberry pickin'

Oh, I'm excited. I actually have plans this Saturday. Real, live actual plans. That involves other people. And strawberries.

That's right- I'm going strawberry picking at an ORGANIC farm tomorrow. Whoo-hoo!

Did you know that strawberries were one of the "dirty dozen" fruits- named so because most farms use tons of pesticides on them and they don't have a hard outer covering to protect themselves (say, like a banana or orange).

So needless to say, I'm thrilled that there is a organic farm nearby! Hope to have some pictures of our morning so I can post them later.

And since I will be getting lots and lots of strawberries, I was thinking about making some jam out of them- this would be my first experience with canning. Let's just pray that I don't give myself botulism or something equally as exciting! I'll have to blog about that too, if I decide to brave it.

Anyway, in addition to strawberry pickin' I need to work on my arbor/trellis thingy. 75 degrees tomorrow- couldn't be a better day to be outside!

My New Project

I have the perfect place for this plant arbor and I can't wait to get it up there. I have visions of vibrant roses or jasmine lovingly intertwined in the trellis with colorful flowers planted around the base. Visions of small children running around it in lovely easter dresses complete the picture. But I digress.

Unfortunately, it is not quite ready for its big debut. This poor arbor needs a bit of TLC and I intend to turn this trash into treasure. Stay tuned. Hopefully, some after pictures will be coming soon- complete with roses or jasmine, but minus the small children!

Here I go again . . .

Being a bad blogger that is. Wow, again, a crazy two weeks. Maybe one day I'll share what has been going on. In the meantime, I'm getting ready for the ever popular RAINBOW DANCE CONCERT!!!! Please come if you are in the area. Details here. Wow, my life will be a bit simpler once this concert is over! I've even lost a couple of pounds recently from all the dancing- woo hoo! I know, random thoughts-- this is where my head is lately.

And, by the way, spring has not arrived yet. It's still cold and rainy. But I can't wait to start on my garden this year and my sister gave me an old trellis that needs some TLC, so I'm excited to start on that project too-- spring are you coming anytime soon??

That's it for now. I'm planning a post on my homemade, whole wheat pancakes and hopefully a before and after of the trellis project!

Be well my friends!

Crazy Weather

Here is NC weather for you-- snow on Monday and sunny 73 degree weather on Friday. Actually, the wild temperature change doesn't bother me much. Having lived in Hawaii for 10 years, where the weather rarely fluctuates, I have immensely enjoyed the seasons that NC has to offer.

I can, however, say that I am ready for spring. I'm cold, I want to be outside again and I desperately need some sun. So, I'm ready for this weekend. This is also the month that I start my garden, so I want to start thinking about what I want this year. I really want to beef up on my herb garden this year-- last year I let it slip a bit. And I want to grow tomatoes and some other vegetables again this year.

Grant and I also want to work on our yard some. We have an ugly chain link fence that divides our property from the Shriner's Club, so it needs to be covered up. I decided that gardenia bushes would probably be the best option for us. After unsuccessfully trying climbing roses and jasmine plants, bushes seemed the next best option. Besides being my favorite flower, they are evergreen bushes and grow pretty tall. Hopefully, this will add some texture to our backyard. We also need to finish covering our slope with creeping phlox. This ground covering is so pretty in the spring- white, purple, pink and blue flowers cover our whole hill. Very nice. I also want to put some color in our front yard. I'll probably just get a big pot and put some flowers in there.

Well, I'm ready for spring-- are you?

Garbage

I've been inspired by many blogs whose mantra is to live simply and frugally. One of the recurring themes is to reuse and recycle as much as possible, so as to be budget friendly and reduce the waste that they are producing. I've tried really hard to start thinking about what I'm throwing out: can it be recycled, can it be reused, or can it be given away. I'm so proud to report that we have had one garbage bag full of garbage this week. Just one. I've been recycling as much as possible and can conclude that it makes a huge difference in the amount of waste we throw into the garbage can. You know the frustration that comes when you need to throw out the large cereal box-- it takes up half up the garbage can. But instead of throwing it away, you can recycle the box and, boy, does it free up your garbage space!

Grant (lovingly) rolls his eyes at me when I tell him I want a compost bin, but I am seriously thinking about it. To be able to reduce my garbage even more by "recycling" my food scraps would be awesome- and the added benefit of compost for the garden is a great incentive.

Anyway, that's my post for today. Hope you are having a great Tuesday!

Resolutions . . . No thanks. Goals . . . sure.

I have never been one for resolutions. Ever. Can't thing of a single resolution I have ever made. And I don't know why I don't make 'em-- there are always ways to make my lifestyle better/healthier/happier, etc. And, I am actually good about finishing what I start, but for some reason I just don't make them.

However, my GOALS for this year (because, didn't you know, a goal is so not like a resolution?!) are as follows:

*Figure out a budget and stick to it (Grant's and my goal). We are not really budget people. We hardly spend extraneous money, and we generally know where our money is going, but we've never sat down and actually, gasp, budgeted.

*Live off of one salary and put the rest in savings. Lofty goal-- we might as well get used to it though. And if we can make it through these economic times, than we have a shot at this.

*Take baby steps in obtaining and eating the most natural foods as possible. I could go on and on about this. Part of our budgeting will be figuring out what natural foods I can splurge on. Oh, didn't you know- I'm in love with pasture fed, hormone free chickens and the precious eggs they produce. Don't roll your eyes . . . I can see you.

*Help my cats lose weight. Oh, my sweet little Sadie is a rather plump cat. She spends every waking moment consumed with the thought of her tasty little morsels of food. I'm serious people. It's bad and her cries are enough to drive me batty. I've already cut back on their food intake and it has helped some. I saw a biggest loser like competition for animals and thought about entering her, but then quickly thought that she might never recover from having to be weighed in front of her feline peers. She's sensitive like that.

*Improve my herb and vegetable garden. I'm itching to get it started again. Can't wait for March to roll around. I adore having basil, rosemary and tomatoes at my fingertips. Grant and I also want to landscape our backyard a bit. It's not feeling the love right now. Of course, that might change when I'm by myself on a Saturday and it's 100 degrees outside. Then I might throw this goal out the window.

*Try to live as plastic free as possible. I'm trying to build my stash of glass food containers this year and slowly get rid of all my plastic tupperware. Just something I want to do.

*Be able to do a sidesplit. Yep, my lifelong goal has been to do a sidesplit. Will this be the year?

So those are some of my more loftier goals.

What are some of your goals this year?

Kitchen Magic

So, while I wait to see if Hurricane Hanna will blow me away tonight, I decided to post a recent dish I made with vegetables from my garden and some lovely organic peaches (not from my garden).

Oh, how I love picking vegetables from my garden! These are the peppers and tomatoes that I picked for use in a mexican lasagna recipe (which can be found here). Don't they look fantastically juicy and lovely and all things pretty? Almost too pretty to eat. Almost.

This is what happens when I chop the suckers up and saute them with some onions.

Now, I mix the little babies up with some rice. This would be great just as a side dish. So colorful.

Now that lovely mixture was introduced to the rest of the ingredients: ground turkey, flour tortillas, corn, salsa and cheese . . . lots of cheese.

Yum!!!!

Now these are some beautiful, organic, locally grown peaches.

I chopped them up and mixed the lovelies with some butter, maple syrup and cinnamon.

Threw some granola, flour, butter (lots and lots of butter) and sugar on top and voila . . . a sinfully delicious peach cobbler (here is the recipe).

He seemed to enjoy the entire meal. And really, that is what is most important. The enjoyment of cooking for your loved ones . . . not worrying about all the fat and calories that you just put into your mouth, nor the fact that you just gained an extra love handle. No, it's all about family!

Sun-Ripened Tomatoes

There is nothing more satisfying then going out to your garden and picking sun-ripened tomatoes. I feel most sure that they taste better than anything you can get at a store (and much cheaper too).



Apparently, I am not the only one/thing that likes sun-ripened, homegrown tomatoes: