Hosta Revival

Before 

After

Clearing burdock and dandelions from the 'propane' garden bed today. The  hosta that were transplanted into this bed last year will (hopefully) thrive now that they have full access to the partially shaded sun. It was a rainy morning so the damp soil made it easier to do the work. The job took 45 minutes with gloves and a shovel. 

A good week

Meet my friend Dana's new Clydesdale! Isn't she a beaut? Dana is a lover of all animals, especially horses, especially Clydesdale horses. I was so happy to share the moment that Dana finally got her own horse after years and years of waiting.


The as of now unnamed horse, has a lovely new home and new friends. This llama's got my heart!

Marzipan

I've been wanting to try my hand at marzipan for a while now, so with help from Martha Stewart I made these cute-as-a-button carrots for my carrot walnut with orange zest cream frosting cupcakes. The big lesson? Marzipan doesn't last at room temperature. By the next day these little carrots were runny orange blobs.

Taste the Rainbow

The world of blogs seems to be all about rainbow coloured food lately. Swissmiss posted about these pancakes and despite the negative blow back about the evils of food colouring and sugar, I thought I'd try my hand at them with my new Winton food colouring gels.

Ta-da! How evil can they be when they make me feel so happy?

Raisin Bread

We are currently experiencing an unimaginable raisin bread overdose at the house. We've eaten as much as we can handle and still have a 3-day old loaf that hasn't been touched yet. Blaspheme!


I've been loving the Cinnamon Raisin Bread recipe from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. I baked a loaf to give to the couple that lives just north of us. We walked over the other night and had a nice chat with Lois and Don who have lived in the area for at least 7 decades. Their oldest son now runs the farm which has been in the family for six generations!



Lois even called a few days later to get the recipe, saying she had never had better raisin bread. She absolutely made my day; I've been full of baking pride for days!

Winter Days

I've never enjoyed a winter as much as I'm enjoying this one. Blame it on the snow covered drumlins that I can see from my kitchen window, the gang of blue jays that visit my bird feeder, my new cross-country skis, or this recipe for spicy carrot and lentil soup!


Apparently yesterday was National Homemade Soup Day in the states, which was all the incentive I needed to whip up a batch of healthy, delicious, warm spicy carrot and lentil soup. I prefer to thicken it with cornstarch and eat it with rice and naan bread, but it's yummy either way.

Lemon

I've been seeing tons of lemon related posts in my Google Reader this week. I guess the juicy, sunshiney yellow helps keeps the winter blahs at bay.

I'm dying to try out this Lemon Curd Tart with Olive Oil




I don't have fancy French olive oil, as the recipe calls for, but I don't think my tastebuds will notice. Mmmm, I just noticed how delicious that coffee looks too!

Fall

Fall is my favourite season of the year and this has been the nicest autumn in recent memory. It has been lovely to spend days up at the house working and walking about. Some days are so beautiful it has been hard to resist the temptation to step off the porch and explore or to lay in the hammock and bird-watch with my sweetie.


To ward off any guilt about slacking off, I like to remind myself of the following:

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.
~ Sir John Lubbock

New House!

We bought a house! We take possession next week and I'm pinching myself every half-hour to make sure I'm not dreaming. It will be a lot of work, but it will be worth it to carve out a little niche of our own.

Bicycle Love

I love my bike, but it's a mother's love, because the truth is: the brakes and gears don't exactly work. When the primary components of both propulsion and deceleration are unreliable then it's time for an overhaul or perhaps a new bike. These two, featured at Vogue Daily are cute enough to make me consider adoption.

Tilt shift

I first discovered tilt-shift photographs about a year ago, but this tilt-shift video tops them all. For some reason the world seems like an even more amazing place when viewed in miniature.

Scenes from a rooftop from Paul Johannessen on Vimeo.

Fungi

This is the most passionate research presentation I have ever listened to. I'll never look at fungi the same way again.

Is it Spring yet?

I may have jumped the gun on the whole "spring has sprung" idea seeing as it was snowing yesterday! I may have to wait for local blossoms to bloom before I make such claims again. To tide us over for now, here is a lovely image of one of my favourite spring flowers, the trillium, via SewerDoc on Flickr.

Pink Rooms

When I first started dating my boyfriend he was sharing a fabulous old house with an eclectic mix of musical and artistic housemates. While we were away from the house he was surprised to hear me tell someone about the pink living room walls. He had never noticed.  I might be tempted to cut him some slack for his less than stellar powers of obervation seeing as the walls were partially obscured with art, books and musical instruments if it were not for the fact that they were, afterall, bright pink! This photo reminds me of the living room and of falling in love.


I have nothing against pink walls and may one day find the courage to create a pink room of my own. What do you think of these pink beauties?





(images - First two via Domino, Last two via LivingEtc)

The Story of Stuff

The Story of Stuff pretty much sums up what I learned while studying environmental science, chemistry and sociology for four years. If you have just twenty minutes to spend improving your life and the world around you then use it to watch and understand this video. Show your kids, show your parents, show your friends. Thanks Annie Leonard!

Spring Fever

Spring has sprung in my neck of the woods and amongst (among?) other things it brings spring dresses to mind. But I've kept my dress lust strictly RF (recession friendly) - these four beauties are on sale. Maybe I could have just one. . .?

Bitter and Sweet

Today is the 20th Anniversary of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill which devastated Alaska and unfortunately we're still not quite sure how to handle these type of disasters. On a happier note it's my big brother's 34th Anniversary of Life.


Happy Birthday Kevin!