I found a bad thing about being pregnant

Ive been wandering around my garden, surveying my land as it were, and everything looks like crap. Crap I tell you. There are weeds everywhere, and I mean everywhere. There is grass growing in flower beds, flowers dying, things that need dead heading, things that have obviously needed watering for some time. Crap. This is the only thing I can think of that is truly awful about being pregnant, the inability to work hard in ones garden, and I only recently quit working out there, so it could be much worse.

Mixed feelings about the doc visit tomorrow morning. He is obviously going to tell me off because he was adamant that I needed to see a stand-in doc Friday, which I had an appointment for, but then they cancelled as she was sick, so its not really my fault. Also anxious because Im sure he is going to say nothing is happening, still, and we move that little bit closer to getting induced. Though I have been having contractions on and off (we think) all day, so fingers crossed something is going on, though it really is hard to know what something is, when you have never felt it before.

Aren't there enough Crittiers?

Seriously! Do I not have enough troubles protecting my tomatoes and other vegetables from deer, rabbits, caterpillars and hornworms? I guess not. Now it seems that the squirrels are stealing the tomatoes, both red and green, going up into a particular tree, eating half of it and dropping the rest on the floor to taunt me.

Its a wonder I can successfully grow and actually eat myself, anything in this place. That being said, I currently have 10 lbs of tomatoes sitting on my counter top waiting to be eaten! 10 lbs! Danny keeps asking me what Im going to do with them all, and I have no idea! I have honestly never had such a bountiful crop of tomatoes! Yeay for composting and leaf mulching! The extra work is worth it I guess! I know for sure I want to show my mum and Dave next week so that they can be impressed with my gardening skills. Ill probably oven dry some as Danny keeps asking for those. Other than that, I continue to have either tomato and cheese sandwiches for lunch or scrambled eggs and fried tomatoes for a late breakfast. I even supplemented my piece of pizza dinner last night with sliced sauted zucchini and squash and a tomato, far far better than the piece of pizza, for which the crust didnt seem to rise like normal for some strange reason. Please don't tell me Im losing my cooking skills too, that would just be too much for me to cope with.

No hornworm deaths this morning, which could either be good that I got so many yesterday, or more likely, bad that I didn't look hard enough and they are out there feasting on my tender new tomato shoots now.

40 weeks 1 day. No baby on the outside. Did a little weeding and trimming of bushes out back. Actually took a shower today as Im leaving the house! Celebrations! Think I might go to the grocery store now and then to the pool, then for Ice Cream on the square with the girlies! What a little socialite I am! So exciting!

With one victory, comes a loss...

I know, bad form to post twice in one day, but there was a loss today far far greater than the PetSmart victory. The battle of Lauren Vs the Hornworm has begun for 2010. Current death toll, 17. I am so distraught right now, as I just know that the carnage out there cannot have been created by a mere 17 hornworms, but my eyes hurt so much from staring, I had to give up.

Then there is the problem of going into the hospital for a couple of days.

Therefore I have a very serious and time consuming favour to ask. This favour is very very important to me. Very important. So please consider whether you are willing to take up the responsibility, because I really do need commitment.

My vegetables will not need watering after just two days, but I will need someone to come over each evening to cut up unsuspecting hornworms. An evening death toll really will improve my mood of being stuck in the hospital. This seemingly short time period is long enough for an army of hornworms to totally decimate a tomato patch as beautiful as mine. The biggest problem is the sheer number and density of my tomato plants. You almost have to pick up each branch, or even each leaf, to study its underside closely. This is not an easy task, so really, think very hard before agreeing to it. If you feel that you can commit about 30 minutes each evening to this very worthy task, or if you could just take one evening, that would be great since any defense is better than none. If you are up to the challenge, please come over Thursday or Friday evening to learn how to spot the crafty buggers. It is really hard to spot them as they are the exact same colour as the plant, but there are tell-tale signs to learn.

I dont ask this lightly, as I know how busy everyone is with their own lives, but this is really really important to me. If I dont go into labour until after Sunday, its not a big deal as my parents will be here and Im sure my mother will happily chop the horrid creatures in half for me. I do not anticipate going into labour before then, but you really have no clue what's going on in there and I have to take every precaution to protect my beauties that I have put so much effort into already.

I can pay you in tomatoes or with dinner, and you know I am good to my word.

Please, please help me.

In your debt

Lauren

PS just went back out there and killed 5 more, so feeling a little more positive about it all...

W O W !!!

I know, Im a little slack about blogging lately... working really hard, since its only another week!

I just had to tell you how delicious my lunch is today! Its simple, so don't get excited about a new recipe or anything... an open faced tomato mozzarella multi-grain bagel, and I didn't even make the bagel. But that's not what is exciting... proudly placed atop the cheese are three slices of the largest, most delicious tomato ever to have been born of my sweat and soil. I cannot believe I grew that tomato (I say that, as it is now no more, mmmmm!).

I almost cried

If I thought that losing the vast majority of my cucumber vines to deer in one night was as bad as it could get, I certainly adjusted my thinking this morning. Last night I lost most of my sunflower heads, pole beans, butter beans, zucchini, squash, heirloom tomato plants and yet more cucumber vines. I really wanted to cry, but I was a big girl and held it in. Then to add insult to injury I found two huge tomatoes on the floor with giant caterpillars in them. If I ever had thoughts of owning an organic farm where I relied on my produce, those thoughts were quickly banished from my mind this morning. Everything can just go in one foul swoop. So yes, we are heading straight to Home Depot today to buy some fence posts and to see if we can keep these pests with meal tickets to my front yard away from my vegetables, so I actually get to eat some of them.

Talk about sneaky!

So I do believe there is a rabbit sneaking into my back yard at night, when the dogs are safely asleep in the house. I was starting to wonder why I hadn't had hardly any lily blooms this year and was beginning to worry that they were not getting enough light. This is worrying as it is my understanding that lilies don't especially like to be moved. But no! This is not the reason! I found several lily stalks (good, strong, thick stalks) that had been bitten off about 8-10 inches from the ground, then the heads eaten off the lilies themselves and the stalks left lying on the ground. No caterpillar or slug has that kind of skill! I cant get down low enough to get under the hydrangea and see if in fact the critter is living under its canopy, but when that man of mine gets back, his primary job (after giving me a cuddle and telling me how much he missed me, of course) is to seek out this darned lily predator and secure my lilies! Interestingly, it is choosing not to eat the many many hostas that look so beautiful in my back yard.

Two more grape tomatoes are ready to pick! Now my tomato vines are taller than the stakes that support them, so Im a little stumped. It was suggested to me today at work that you just loop them round and let them grow down the other side, so I guess Ill be giving that a go. There are also lots of flowers on the speckled butter bean vines, however the pole beans don't seem to be making it thanks to a combination of rabbits and caterpillars, and don't even get me started on my inability to keep soy beans from getting eaten! Megan suggested Critter Ridder yesterday, so I guess a trip to Home Depot is in order here shortly, that is if we want edamame this year!

Thoroughly enjoyed a lunchtime swim at the outdoor pool today, and getting quite the little tanned and freckly face! Hoping for a photoshoot when that man gets home as its been a while. Poor guy is run ragged. I wonder if he reaslises he needs his rest for the arrival of the little one too... hmmmmm. I wonder why said little one feels the need to sleep with its legs straight out? I look very square with a butt out one side of my tummy and feet out the other.

Baby moon is officially over...

Monday we drove back up to Miami, in our car with no air conditioning. We stopped off for a walk on the beach part way but the wind was too gusty for Danny to want to go swimming in the sea. We checked into our hotel, which, like everything in Miami, seemed especially dated, though not in a cool retro sense, but in a tired-needing to be renewed sense. Danny played in the water at Miami Beach and I took a nap on the sand. We ate at a so-so diner, sharing a burger and house salad, but never fear, we had our own milkshakes!

Danny complained about our lack of ac and threw in the 'my wife is pregnant and was not happy' and they knocked $110 off our $170 bill! It always pays to ask right! The worst they can do is say no!

The flight home Tuesday was uneventful and practically empty.

We plunged back into real-life with a to-do list the length of a kite string. Very sobering. The biggest problem with 'our' to-do list, is that I cant help with most of it. Its not necessarily the 'helpless' feeling that I mind, its the pressure upon Danny to do it all. Its not like there are any jobs that we can get someone else to do, we just need time I suppose. Its a good job pregnancy has brought an unusual calm over me.

Oh and before anyone tries this remedy, be warned, my broccoli had died by the time I got home. So this age old remedy of spraying broccoli with dish soap that I hear about from everyone, didnt quite work for me; but Im guessing I used to strong a solution and perhaps needed to dilute it more. Other sad vegetable patch news is that deer ate my bean seedlings, though left the tomatoes, thank goodness. The little erhms also mutilated my apple tree, leaving just a few leaves and a single apple. Now I have to erect a fence round the apple tree, which will be an eye-sore in my front yard, but Im not losing a perfectly healthy tree to some flea-ridden deer. They ate some random flowers in my flower bed by the road, but Im less mad about that, just mildly niggled.

To end on a positive garden note, everything else around the garden is looking fantastic. Dont get me wrong, I have some major weeding and up-keep to do, things that need staking and so forth; but for the most part, it looks great out there and it keeps itself. Many of my elephant ears eventually came back from their long hibernation, my hydrangea are all blooming already; some that last year were white are now blue, and some that have never bloomed for me are covered in little flower heads. My spirea are flaunting their pink beauty. Three of my clematis remain in bloom and the stella d'oro day lilies have begun to open. The nicest surprise of all was the opening of the Holly Hocks by the mail box in the deepest shades of pink-purple and the imminent lavender deluge alongside the bright yellow coreopsis. If only I knew someone who would take pretty pictures of it all for me...

Broccoli saviour

I am pleased to announce that spraying a diluted environmentally friendly washing up liquid (or dish liquid for you Americans) does in fact kill the little tiny caterpillars that were eating my broccoli down to its skeleton. And it doesnt seem to have had any effect on the head itself. I did have to do a second application today, for new caterpillars, but saw the remains of the old ones.

Spraying both front and back of each and every broccoli leaf did make me think about how hard it must be for organic or pesticide free farmers. I have less than a dozen broccoli plants and it still took some love to spend my lunch hour spraying the leaves.

Weekend rain: day one

Well, remember that I was going to get some much needed couch time this weekend?

hmmmm. Yes. Quite!

I cleaned the house, though this was rather satisfactory. Doing all sorts of unusual jobs such as washing the dogs beds. I actually have yet to stuff the cushions back in the covers. I did sit on the floor with the dogs for two hours through a particularly heavy burst of rain and thunder as they really do get scared. Then all of a sudden, the sun just came out! So of course I went straight outside and weeded my vegetable patch, though it desperately needed it, so that was good. Then inspired, I popped to the store for marigolds (stops the slugs), basil (stops the deer, apparently, and helps with fertilisation) and zinnia seeds (just plain beautiful!). Then I planted all of these. Oh, and bought an ice cream sandwich on the way home!

But now, at 6pm, I promise to sit down here soon! Ive just got to stuff those dog beds and make my dinner! Which I am particularly excited about (dinner, not dog beds) because they had some more of that buttery delicious broccoli at the farmers market this morning.

Parsnip and carrot salad

Not much going on here at the ranch. Danny left me for the West Coast, so Im on my own again. The man down the street brought me some fresh eggs, so that was very nice of him. Need to make him some bread now.

When Danny is away, I like to make food every few days and just be able to eat off of it for a while, so that I don't have to cook every night. So Sunday I made breakfast muffins for my 10am snacks, salmon and veggie pasta for 3 night's worth of dinners and parsnip and carrot salad to snack on during the day. Its such a delicious, yet simple salad, I just had to share! Its also a whiz with a food processor and almost better the next day too!

Parsnip and Carrot Salad

Shred one large parsnip and two carrots.

Mix together with the following;

Raisins

Parsley

Black pepper

Lemon juice

Orange juice

Apple cider vinegar

My garden is looking beautiful. My clematis have never had so many flowers and every year I seem to have a bigger and more bountiful crop of irises. I love the fact that I have all different kinds too, so that the blooming period is prolonged. I have a full vase of purple irises in my living room and you cant even tell Ive cut any! I also seem to have alliums in bloom, which were a new additive this year. Though the coreopsis has not bloomed this year, so Im wondering if it is a biennial and the ones for next year just arent ready yet.

Busy busy bumble bee!

I feel like I haven’t stopped since last week, so Im pretty tired. Ended up staying at work til almost 5pm Friday, which sucked and I was pretty wired and feeling crappy too. But I had a little lie down at home, though I didnt sleep, we ate a quick dinner and went to the violin quartet at the Ford Center. It was ok. Not really what I had expected. There were two ‘bands’ one classical (which we like) and one ‘modern’, playing things like Jimmy Hendrix and Robbie Coltrane (which we don’t like so much). Unfortunately the latter had a much larger role in how the evening was divided up, so that sort of sucked, and of course it was a late night, with us not getting home til after 1030.

Saturday morning started with the farmers market at 715am. Im so excited its open again! They didnt have much, but its just the act of meeting girlfriends and going to the farmers market to wander around with no specific purpose. I bought some Christmas tree ferns (bartered on the price!), some spinach, broccoli and greenhouse tomatoes. Meg and I then walked from there to town and ended up in the coffee shop where we met Tasha and Megan for a cup of tea. It was so nice! When I got home, Danny had already placed all of the bags of mulch where they needed spreading and we had the first palette of mulch spread by lunchtime. We then bought it loose, which is way more work, but cheaper. My back was killing me at the end of the day and we didnt even get it finished, but the back yard looks really really nice. In the evening we rode to Sonic and I ate a heck of a lot of food, ending with a root beer float! Although it all made me rather sick Sunday morning, guess Im just not used to fast food.

Sunday was nice, though still busy. I got up late for me, around 8am! Walked the dogs then got back into bed! I showered up and got all fancified and we went to the bakery for breakfast, where Danny beat me at cribbage! We did a belly photoshoot at Rowan oak and I conned Danny into grocery shopping with me. When we got home we did a few odd jobs round the house then Danny went to softball practice and I baked bread and cooked food. We had some friends over Sunday night to sit outside in the almost chilly spring evening air, it was so nice! I made rosemary focaccia bread and served with sliced mozzarella drizzled with pesto, sliced tomatoes sprinkled with seasoning, and a huge bowl of strawberries for appetizers. Then we grilled some steaks and had salad and wild rice. Yummy! They ended up playing Beatles rock band and sounded like they had a blast. Went to bed too late again and am exhausted today.

Belly news

On the belly front, we enter the third trimester this week; 28 weeks Thursday. Passed the most recent glucose test, so no gestational diabetes here. Which is good, because Im not good on diets. Don't know if its psychological or real, but I definitely am starting to feel more tired and feel like I have less energy these past few days, so that's a little disappointing. Practice contractions, or Braxton Hicks, are getting more frequent and are not just limited to the evenings now.

It has been a busy week for baby, though it seems to wear itself out! If it has a particularly active day, the next day tends to be more quiet. There have been some odd deformations in my tummy though, that's for sure.


Issues with having a giant protruding belly you are not used to:

You don't allow enough room when you open doors for yourself and end up having to squeeze through, side swiping your belly.

You get covered in food or water, whatever you are eating or drinking. Its like a built in bib.

You burn it on a hot saucepan because you forgot it was there and then get yelled at by your husband for applying an ice pack to the tremendously sore burn because you will 'freeze the baby!'. Oh please!



I have lots of wonderful pictures of my beautiful garden which is still teeming with creeping phlox, tulips, violets, columbines, irises, azaleas... who ever knew so much could bloom at one time! I just need to capture that husband of mine to get my pictures 'blog-ready' for you... I also planted 14 tomato plants, 4 bell peppers and the spinach, lettuce and snap peas are going strong! Time for squash, zucchini and cucumber seeds to go into the ground!

"Ribbit"

The story behind these little guys is rather cute... I have never planted crocuses anywhere in my garden. Don't get me wrong, I think they are adorable, but I was under the impression that it didn't get cold enough in Mississippi to grow such wintery bulbs. So who knows how they got there! My guess is by bird dropped seed. They are in a flower bed which we created, so are not like our pink ladies which must have been put in by our predecessors; the soil in which these crocuses live is 2 feet higher than it used to be. For several years I have noticed little shoots in their location and knew that I had not put anything there, but I am of the opinion that if it isn't a nasty weed or harmful to anyone, it can stay until we work out what it is; we have acquired lots of awesome plants this way! Well this year, we worked out what it was! Unfortunately, the night after I took this picture there was a deluge of a rain storm and they got plastered into the surrounding mulch, but I was able to enjoy them for a few days at least!

Another crazy weekend!

I wonder if 'nesting' has set in just a little too early. I say 'too early' because I just cant carry on like this! Not for four more months! Im a hard working fool.

Friday we had our 22 week doctors visit, which I will post about tomorrow after I have scanned in the Ultrasound pictures. Then I grocery shopped, hitting up three different stores, as usual, and easily sinking $200. Dont worry though, Im more like a bi-monthly shopper, so next week Ill just buy milk and eggs, it doesn't cost me that much every week! Walked the dogs, of course. Fertilised my vegetable patch, potted up some seeds, cleaned out my car, took a nap, then went to Taylor Catfish with the Klimetz' for some fried fish, how very Southern of me!

Saturday started out with crepes and stewed fruit, I think Im addicted! Danny painted the new lounge/office so I took myself outside to clear leaves. I cleared leaves like nobody's business! My daffodils are starting to open and I just wanted to be able to see them rather than having to hunt out little specks of yellow in the multitude of ugly brown dried up leaves. Ended up wearing myself out though and sat on a paving stone hoping Danny would come looking for me. Hooray, he did, so I got some help up, thankfully! Had some shut eye with Mojo on the outdoor love-seat, then showered up and took a nap in bed. Made a yummy lasagna for dinner and one for the freezer too.

Sunday was equally active, this time I woke up at 6am, cleared a few buckets of leaves I hadnt managed the day before, cleaned the kitchen and started some bread. All before I got Danny up at 9am! I scrubbed the windows, something I dont do nearly often enough. We moved the furniture into the new lounge/office, dusting as we went, and even vowed to throw some stuff away. Have to get a desk, but other than that, its a beautiful, warm and inviting room that we now both want to spend time in, rather than somewhere we dump stuff we dont know what to do with. Fantastic. Give it another month and we can start on the baby's room!

I cannot believe we organised the whole room in a weekend! I then took a nap with Tux on the outdoor love seat (got to appear fair!) and Danny rode at the trails, although how he had the energy for this, I dont know.

For dinner Sunday, I made Danny's favourite, for working so hard. I opened up a pork loin and stuffed it with fried apples, walnuts and raisins (seasoned with cinnamon, nutmeg, fresh ginger and lemon juice, then added some cumin spiced bread crumbs). I breaded the meat and roasted it alongside carrots, parsnips and leeks, glazed with a mix of pineapple juice, lemon juice, honey and rice vinegar. We had this accompanied with sweet potato mash, then Danny had corn and I had collard greens (sauted in the same mix as the roasted veggies with raisins). Oh and dont forget the freshly baked bread. I then found room for a scoop of ice cream later in the evening!

What a weekend!

Sunday seemed to be no more relaxing!

Why do I do it to myself! Busy busy busy, all of the time!

Sunday actually began rather slowly and with lots of relaxing, so perhaps I just went through my day backwards! I woke early and sat knitting until Danny woke up. Then I went into town and walked the dogs whilst Danny went to his photo shoot. He was a lot longer than I had anticipated and it seemed a lot warmer than 64F, so Tux had some problems. He overheated and we had to go down into the woods for some shade and to rest. We hustled in Home Depot and ate a delicious salad at Newks, as I was about to bite someone's head off if I didnt get some food, asap!

My afternoon consisted of bread baking, two batches of ginger apple marmalade, finishing the small flower bed that now lines our beautiful new deck and mopping the kitchen floor. Phew! No rest for the wicked eh! I then boiled the gnocchi I so lovingly made yesterday and when I poured them out into the colander to drain, they all mushed together into one big pile of slops! So I wont be sharing that recipe until I have tried again and got little gnocchi's instead of a big heap of ickiness that got washed down the drain. I quickly boiled some spaghetti and we had that instead for our dinner! I always forget how incredible my marinara sauce is! Why did I only make 8 quarts! Its going to be harsh late spring when there is no marinara left in the pantry! Must remember to make two lots next year!

We enjoyed the cool evening air of our lovely new and expanded deck, then I went to bed, unsurprisingly exhausted!

Maybe Ill rest in my next life!

Home at last!

After three weeks on the road, we are home at last! Gosh, I cannot describe to you how good it feels to be in your own space. Surprisingly, my home feels quite alien to me, but Im sure a little dusting here and vacuuming there and it will feel like home again in no time.

A cursory glance at the vegetable garden brings mixed news. The tomatoes took the brunt of the mixed part of the news, Im afraid. For the most part they look good, but any part of the vines that protruded out beyond the safety of the temporary fence were munched by bambi. Even though people came by to pick during our stint away, there were still many rotten tomatoes on the ground and I still managed to pick myself a bushel this morning of lemon plums, cherokee purples and better boys. There are many green tomatoes on the vine still to come, so hopefully they will ripen before I leave again in two weeks. Exciting news is that out of nowhere we have a single squash that looks beautiful. Im not totally sure of the variety but I think it may be French, the first inch of the neck is yellow and the rest light green. The cucumber vines have died off for the most part with these giant orange cucumbers swelling until they burst. Other exciting news is that unexpectedly the soy bean bushes are covered in soy beans!!! They are a little small right now, but we will probably be harvesting our first crop of edamame next week! Oh and more great news, the green bean vines went crazy! I have an entire colander of green beans! Some of them are a little large and might have to be boiled but still, very excited about the prospect of fresh green beans all week. Oh, and another handful of speckled butter beans, so perhaps Ill have to make a soup of some kind.

Things to change next year regarding my vegetable garden: Do not have a bean trellis made of chicken wire as I did this year, as I cannot get underneath it to see what is down there; I love having the marigolds along the edge, its pretty and shades the base of the tomatoes and prevents weeds (they are about 2 ft tall!); dont grow the kind of cucumbers I grew this year, no body seems to like being given an orange cucumber, I wonder why! Shade all the base of the tomato vine, especially when it is young. Most definitely get the cherokee purples again next year, they are not only huge and beautiful but full of delicious deep purple flesh! If you learnt anything new from your garden this year, please pass it along...

While we were gone, we made new plans for the back yard. I know we decided not to start any new projects, but it sometimes feel like we started something in the back that we didnt finish and believe it or not, this was not my idea. So we are extending the deck out to the first terrace, getting rid of all of the grass to the side of the house and putting in raised raised beds for raspberries, blackberries and vegetables. The patch that I usually keep for vegetables to the other side of the house will be leveled again and raised and we will put blueberry bushes in there. My new effort is to get chickens in the woods, but if we are going to spend tons of money making gravel paths around our new raised beds, I guess I will have to wait for a chicken pen, as its going to be huge. I cant have truly free-range eggs because of the packs of ranging dogs in our neighbourhood but if I can give them a 20 m square pen, they should be happy! Danny is onboard already, so now we just have to save up and have time at home to get a pen built!

The most saddest news in the garden is that my potted wisteria that Danny bought me for my birthday 3 years ago, the one that bloomed for the first time this year... it looks like it may have died of thirst. So sad, we will just have to see if it comes back next year. One of my back yard hydrangeas seems to have taken a turn for the worst but everything else out back seems to have survived the three week drought well.

Sometimes I consider my freezer hoarding of food a little obsessive, however it is really nice to be able to come home from three weeks away and not have to go to the supermarket if you dont want to. We can have a fresh summer vegetable pasta for dinner, and even have frozen fruit crumble for dessert if we want and know that the only thing that ever originated in the supermarket is the pasta, black pepper and olive oil. We had cinnamon rolls from the freezer for breakfast and could have zucchini bread as a snack and tomato sandwiches for lunch if we so chose, although considering its already lunchtime and we just ate, I doubt we will eat again before tonight! It takes a lot of up front work, but I love being prepared!

Ive been inside too long now, back to tidying up that vegetable patch so that I can move onto another flower bed!

Sunday slow-down

Today seemed much more relaxed than yesterday, though I still seemed to achieve a lot, oh and Im quitting early!

I did not feel like cycling, so I did skip that, which gave me an extra two hours. Oh and I didnt sleep in since Danny and Timmy came home at 830am, so I got up and talked to them before they went to sleep!

Mostly spent the day weeding in the back, though I did manage to make 2 zucchini bread loaves and two rosemary garlic focaccia, which look irresistible! Im quitting now, at 4pm, to chill with my book for an hour or so. I would work some more in the garden, but I split a chili with my finger nails earlier to put in the bread for some kick and now my fingers are really sore! Wimp, I know.

Zucchini Bread

2 tea loaves or reduce baking time and use mini-loaf pans and give as gifts

Ingredients:

2-2 1/2 c shredded zucchini, 2 medium zucs

3 c flour

1 3/4 c sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp each cinnamon, nutmeg and powdered ginger

3/4 c apple sauce

2-3 eggs, depending on size

2 tbs ground flax

1/3 c vegetable oil

1 tbs vanilla

1 c raisins

1 c walnuts

1 c multi-grain cereal (oats, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds etc)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray two loaf pans with oil.

2. Combine egg, oil, apple sauce, vanilla and flax and whisk.

3. Gradually add spices and sugar, continually whisking. Fold in flour and multi-grain cereal.

4. Mix in zucchini, raisins and nuts.

5. Distribute mixture evenly between loaf pans. Bake 1 hr 5 mins.

Cool in pans

This is a great breakfast when smeared with cream cheese! It freezes fantastically; I usually chose to slice then freeze. Enjoy!

Enjoying my sunday

Today begun tremendously stormy with instantaneous lightening and thunder so of course both Tux and I were scared. I made sure I had a manly arm across my side (as I now have my very own man home!) and Tux made sure he was perfectly positioned next to my side of the bed getting tickled behind the ears. It was so dark in the room because of the black clouds that before I knew it, it was 9am! Thats about the latest Ive stayed in bed, asleep, for probably months!

Today is an ambitious one for me. I started french baguettes yesterday so I get to bake them today. I have already prepared bagels and multi-grain bread, Im just letting them rise. I pruned the rosemary bush yesterday so I intend to make garlic focaccia bread today also, but I might prepare it and put the dough in the fridge for tomorrow. Its not all for me! In fact I probably wont keep much of the bread I make today. It was my friends mums birthday friday so I thought Id send her some jam and fresh bread. My girlies have expressed an interest in some baguettes (although Im going to keep one of those!). I am making some as a thank you for Glenn Wilson, a gentleman from work who brought me 3 bags of blackberries, 2 bags of plums and 2 bags of figs during the week. And I thought my handsome young husband would like some fresh hot bagels for his breakfast, if he ever gets out of bed! Its 1030am already! While all of the bread is proofing Im going to attempt to make my own recipe up for fig and ginger preserve, which I am especially excited about! The list goes on... I have an entire colander full of tomatoes from my garden so Im going to make some marinara with those and finally I have to trim to the basil so Im going to make pesto, although I couldnt find pine nuts at the supermarket yesterday so its going to be roasted hazelnuts instead.

Oh and its stopped raining now and should be clear til about 3pm so I might go out and weed a flower bed! Ive got a new outlook on weeding... rather than being daunted by it and never getting started because there is too much to do, Im just going to go out and do a flower bed and then quit for the day. Yesterday I did a small flower bed by the house and the veggie patch. It only took about 4 hours and it felt good to get some done but I didnt feel exhausted and like Id spent my entire day in the garden. So which bed today!?

I found a bright green tree frog hidden among the cucumber and bean vines, so Ill try and get a picture of him if I can just find my camera! The veggie patch is beginning to look a bit better, with all this rain. Some of the tomato plants are dying (too much water!) but some are thriving and I finally got some Plum Lemons; they are incredible, bright yellow and just like a lemon! Ive now got marigold bushes, zinnias and sunflowers within the tomatoes so it even looks pretty! There are lots of little cucumbers getting ready and some green beans. Summer 's grandfathers hot pepper plant has gone crazy this year and the basil and oregano is finally growing well, but other than that, its a bit of a loss this year, no squash or zucchini, no bell or banana peppers and the corn all got eaten while I was away.

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!

A weekend at home, what a treat!

Its going to be rare over the up and coming summer, but we spent sunday at home! What a treat!

I made bagels; I changed the recipe and believe me, it worked! I changed out two cups of the white flour for one cup of whole wheat and one of spelt. I also added two handfuls of crushed walnuts. Delicious hot smeared with marg. Then I made three loaves of bread. Then on to the garden where I begun making supports for the cucumber vines.

The garden faired well in my absence. Well, as well as can be expected! The ample rain (8 inches in two weeks) meant that nothing dried out and everything grew really well. However this also meant that the weeds grew well too! The lettuce and spinach had unfortunately bolted, but I picked it anyway and now we have four gallon ziplocks stuffed full of spring greens in my fridge! Some of the broccoli had partially bolted too, but there were only a few flowers and it still tasted great in our rosemary garlic mac n cheese tonight! Ooooh by the way the broccoli, rosemary and garlic that were in our mac n cheese were all grown organically in our garden and it was without a doubt, the best mac n cheese we had ever eaten! The wisteria which is winding itself round a 4x4 post was chest height on me before we left and is now about 8 feet tall! A hydrangea that I have moved twice because it never seemed to like the spot is blooming with beautiful white flowers tinged in pink. The lilies are now gradually blooming, although strangely enough only the orange ones right now. The only casualties were an heirloom tomato plant that was munched on by a deer since the dogswerent here to bark and mark. So Im going to have to think of something else when we next leave town. The deer also ate the only two hostas I apparently didnt move this winter, so I moved them today to the back. The hollyhocks are now blooming and the daylilies by the road are taller than me with their buds.

So thats the garden update!

Tux hiding under the Bradford Pear, behind the Coreopsis

Mr. Mojo lounging in the sun

The first hollyhock bloom of the year!