The berries are becoming more cordial

Today was the first weekly shaking of the berry cordial. Spork and I pulled it out of the cabinet this afternoon and noted a few changes from last week: the vodka has become pinkish, the blackberries have turned red and the raspberries have turned white. The sugar at the bottom of the jar was almost completely dissolved, too. One shake down, seven more to go.

Before shaking

After shaking. Note the white raspberries.

We are harvesting more berries than we can eat right now, so Spork resorted to freezing some for future use. I broke with cobbler/pie tradition this week and baked a clafoutis (or flognarde, since it's made from berries). It is one of the best smelling things to have ever graced my oven. It was yummy, but I regretted not having some vanilla ice cream to go with it.

Crusty, oozy berry goodness

The garden is finally beginning to produce. It's been a strange spring - even the farmers' market produce is behind. I've only had one bird-pecked tomato so far, but lots of yellow wax beans, summer squash and eggplants.

Ichiban eggplant showing flea beetle damage on the leaves

My butterfly garden, while messy, is very bloomy. I can't get enough of the passionflowers, which I find to be almost hypnotic. I originally grew them only because they are larval host plants for gulf fritillary butterflies, but now I love their complex flowers.

Passiflora incarnata

Bee balm with one of the skipper butterflies

My sister, Terri, has two new puppies, Taz and Buckley. It's great for me because I get to play with puppies, but my shoes aren't destroyed in the process. The pups are 1/2 schnauzer and 1/2 catahoula. The rescue group Terri adopted them from told her these would be small dogs, but Buckley has the feet and legs of a Clydesdale. Mmmm-hmmmm. They are mighty cute, though.

Taz (front) and Buckley, with hand model

The food police are going to arrest me

I've committed some serious violations in the last few days. First, I baked these cinnamon rolls for a birthday breakfast over the weekend. Fortunately, someone else kept the leftovers so I didn't have to eat them. Though before they were claimed, I did wonder what cinnamon roll bread pudding would taste like.





Last night, in what can only be described as a felony offense, I made Pioneer Woman's husband's favorite sandwich and as a side dish... Weeeelll, you want to take a guess? You're right! Those are deep fried green beans! Because there was fried food involved, Spork even donned an apron and fried the beans while I made the sammiches.



And for the record, the deep fried green bean is a good thing!

In an unrelated topic, here is a gratuitous picture of my girl, Daisy. Her life is hard.

This spud's no dud. It's the Sultan of Starch, the Uber tuber!

Spork went out and dug about half the potatoes the other day and at the time he raved about The One Gigantic Potato. He raves (and rants) a lot and I did see some good sized potatoes on top of the pile, so I just said something like, "Mmmm, really? The world's biggest red potato? How nice." And then I left the taters in the oven to dry the skins out a little bit.

Today I finally remembered to put the potatoes up and lo and behold I found the behemoth of Spork's latest rave.

Here it is next to a tennis ball:


And next to a regular potato:


Oh wait, maybe that's not a regular sized potato:


Okay fine, for truth-in-advertising purposes, the tennis ball is really one of Daisy's little baby tennis balls. And as an aside, isn'tDaisyjustthecutestthingever??? (you have to read that in a gushy mental voice)


But still, it's a big honkin' potato. I'd say it weighs at least a pound and I'm not sure, but I think I heard a faint growl when I put it in the fridge...

I knew it

Oh sure, the cats will deny it, but do pie charts lie?


more cat pictures

Homeland Security

I can't begin to express how safe I feel knowing that I have two ferocious guard dogs to keep us safe here at the Stuga. They are absolute beasts, their senses honed to perfection. Nothing could possibly slip past them and commit harm to us or our property.

Let's peek out the window and see how they are sharpening their skills today...

And we're back!

My IT guy, Spork has engineered a way for me to edit my page again. Oh the joys of dial-up ISPs. Oh please, someone bring high speed internet access to the boonies. All hail the cable modem! Praise be to FIOS!

Lots of gardening going on here these days. I've got seedlings started everywhere and I've been planting things that won't do much for another year or two, including a peach tree, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, figs, pomegranates and asparagus.

Here's the newly tilled garden and swanky new fence Spork put in for me. Check out the hammock to the left. You're just not living if you don't have a hammock.



Note to self for future reference: ALL of the cherry tomatoes will sprout and live. They may even reproduce without flowering.



And since she didn't get a proper introduction here when we got her, here is Daisy!



Oh sure, she looks sweet and innocent, but look what happened to the last guy that crossed her...

Goodbye to a great dog

We lost our good ol' scruffy dog, Schultzie, on October 27. She will be sorely missed.