Thursday, June 25, 2009

Laxidazical!



I know, I know...Ive been home ages and haven't posted any photos!
My apologies. Lets just say, Im still in holiday mode!

If you want to see fancy pants professional pics of the holiday then
please visit
Danny's website.

Mine are just the goofy family ones!

We stayed in England a few days with my folks...
apparently punting on the Cam came naturally to
Danny and Dave, whilst being driven around came naturally to
mummy and I!





Danny and I then parted ways from the fam and took the EuroTunnel to Paris, hired a car and drove to a tiny town where we had the best dinner ever! 6 courses no less!
This is where we stayed our first night in France.


This is where we stayed the second and third night.

How cool is the concept of not wanting to build a moat so you build your castle over a river!

We visited Claude Monet's gardens in Giverny and the roses were all in bloom.












Of course, the new toy came every where with us!





Ah, poor mummy, terrified that after all these hundreds, if not thousands, of years, this storm is going to be the one that knocks St Mont Michel off the rock!


How the world sees Danny and I!



The goof balls obviously not convinced by the interest of hundreds of standing rocks!










Where's Wally?








Are you enjoying that caramel banana cake along with those two cups of coffee!?

And mummy, how is that big old piece of cake!?


And then of course, we had to part company.
Always an especially sad event.
We miss you guys!


Danny and I drove on to Paris where we met up with our good friend Anais. We went for drinks by the canal, dinner with more food that any of us could fit in, then Anais drove us round Paris to see the sights by night. Gorgeous!




Ive had a tremendously busy weekend, but I wont bore you with that now.
Ill try and remember tomorrow, I promise!


Tuesday, June 16, 2009

State-side

Well, Im home! For a little while at least!

I have lots of fun family pics from England and France over the past two weeks, but of course they are on Danny's laptop which is currently in California with him! So I am going to have to keep you wanting those for a little while longer!  We had a wonderful wonderful time!!!

Things back at the ranch are a little overwhelming. As Dave rightly said, a year of weeds is 10 years of weeding; and whilst Im not quite yet at a year of no weeding, its definitely been 6 months. So needless to say, I am way behind on the garden front! 

Sad sad news, we lost our only and very beautiful dogwood to the storm last week but I count myself lucky that was it. There is lots of leaf debris and branches scattered around, but its really not that bad.

Also on the bad news front whilst the plastic fence I put up did seem to detract the deer, the rabbits chewed straight through it, then proceeded to eat all of my kale, lots of swiss chard and all of the soy bean and green bean plants. So that was rather disappointing.

Tomatoes are doing well though, particularly the Romas, as usual. I wanted to try different kinds but I really should just accept that Roma tomatoes just do well here.

The day lilies are in bloom and the hyrdrangea beautifully blue.  Some seeds that I dead-headed in Chicago two years ago are showing the most beautiful blooms on short 3ft high hollyhocks. So just let me know if anyone wants some of those seeds, they really are gorgeous.

So yesterday was my first day in the Mississippi summer heat and it was a challenge. Its different when it comes upon you gradually but when you are plunged into it its breathtaking almost.  But I discovered a very refreshing summer drink that I am going to share because it was delicious!  Blend together the following and enjoy!

Fresh ginger root
Fresh mint
Ice
Lemon juice
Ginger Ale


 I am terribly jet lagged and still waking up at 430am.  I managed to lay there til 530am today, although Im not convinced it was worth it.  Poor Mister Mojo has the awful allergy he always gets when he comes back from Danny's parents place and is scratching himself raw.  He is going to grooming tomorrow so maybe the bath will help.  Tux' face still has the sore on it and it has somehow jumped to another spot on his cheek so Im dabbing it with witch hazel to try and dry it up.  Danny is away in Sacramento CA for the week and I have a million and one things to do. Ugh, will it never end!