Spring Weekend

Finally! Spring!

Even the cats are enjoying the sunshine!

I went crazy with the woodburning tool this weekend. I buy a lot in bulk & then store in jars. I'm loving the lil' tags from Tonya.

More woodburning. Nathan's peppermint.

And still more.We just planted this Rosemary bush. I love Rosemary. I hope it will grow & grow.

My sage is back. I couldn't be more happy! It's very special, you know... I'm afraid it will not come back one year. I'd be devastated. I'm glad this is not the year.

We started some seeds, although - in retrospect - the egg carton thing might not work? Starting off with tomatoes, mostly. (Sausage Tomato. We're not trying to plant sausages.)

I baked this yesterday morning. Nunu was up very early, so I decided to use the early morning time wisely. I'm so totally not a morning person!

Blueberry-Banana Bread

I kept telling the children to let me take a picture so that I can blog about it first. They insisted they only had a nibble. I must say, it was very good banana-blueberry bread. I freeze bananas when they are brown & then bake banana bread when there's enough in the freezer.

1-1/2 c. flour

2 tbsp. sugar (The recipe called for 1/4 c. I wanted to omit it altogether, but I was adding a cup of blueberries, and I don't know my baking chemistry, so I decided to add a little bit.)

1/2 c. pecans

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. baking soda

***

1-1/3 c. banana mush

2 eggs

1/2 c. maple syrup (It's gotta be the real deal!)

1/3 c. melted butter
1 c. blueberries

***

Mix it all up. Bake at 350 F for 60 minutes. I baked it in a pie dish. It was obviously good.

This Woolrae was a gift from the lovely Rachel. I love the colors! Such a joy to knit. I making Nunu a Gnome Pixie Cape. The pattern is here. Of course, I was being an idiot and totally screwed up the gauge, because I *never* do a gauge swatch. I was at the neck-decrease when I realized it would be way too small in the autumn. So, I'm frogging. I suppose it will just give me more time to enjoy knitting with this awesome yarn. :-)

(I decided to delete yesterday's blog post after receiving a very strange comment. And I haven't forgotten about the "Grains" posts!)

Sage

The sage came back. Hard to believe after the unusually cold winter we had in Virginia. I just noticed it today. This sage is special. I bought it at the Italian Market in Philly last year. Brent & I spent part of the Easter weekend there. I can't believe it came back. Oh the joy & pain of memories.

Aubergine

When I came home, I noticed a wee lil' eggplant growing in one of the pots on the steps leading up to the porch. I didn't garden much this summer because of traveling to New Zealand, so I was rather happy to see that small thing!

Mini Gardening

My herb pot has been filled with herbs again. I purchased some at the Italian Market in Philly & brought them back to Richmond. Sorta silly. Just very good memories of the time in Philly in my heart. I'm sure the herbs will carry some of those good vibes into our food. :-)

We are growing tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, pumpkin & watermelon. Looking forward to watching everything grow. I decided to keep the garden small due to summer travels. Nice to grow something, though. :-)

Geraniums remind me of my maternal grandmother, Luise. Her porch was always filled with them, and in the winter they would crowd the lil' hallways indoors.

Hot Pepper

In the spring Nathan's class planted some tomatoes, bell peppers & well, one hot pepper plant. The story according to Nathan is that his teacher brought some rather small plants to school & each child was allowed to pick one of them to plant. He remarked that he thought he had gotten one hot pepper plant, but wasn't sure.

Nathan was determined to find the hot pepper. He said he carefully looked at all the plants & thus located the one and only plant that was different from all the others. He said he secretly hoped that he got the hot pepper.

Well, we went to school today as I had some errands to take care of there & walked to the 3rd grade garden. Nathan looked at the two raised beds and exclaimed, "I knew it! I knew it! I got the hot pepper." - Thus the picture: A beaming child next to a hot pepper plant.