Birthday goodness

This year's birth celebration (I celebrate for a week, minimum) started out with a bang. Spork's uncle Joe, expert kayak builder and chess guru, had emailed that he was sending some sunflower cuttings so when I went to the post office and found the Key of Joy in the mail box, I was very excited. When the Key of Joy revealed a 5 pound package, I thought I might need to pick up another jar of rooting hormone on the drive home.

Helianthus debilis, aka beach sunflower

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the package contained a tiny bag of sunflower cuttings and a really cool piece of wooden inlay, which Spork later told me was called an intarsia.

Cutest birthday intarsia ever

I am so tickled by this! It was a complete surprise to me and I am so touched that he went to that much effort for me. Bonus points all around: 1) it was a surprise 2) it was a surprise that came in the mail 3) it was a birthday surprise that came in the mail and 4) it has a kitty on it! It's the best! I smile every time I look at it. :)

On the culinary front, Spork asked me what kind of cake I wanted and I requested a coconut cake with lemon curd filling. He donned his manly Triumph apron and made the entire thing from scratch, right down to the lemon curd! It was so good that I volunteered him to be the official cake baker from now on. For some reason, he didn't seem to relish that idea.

Spork's coconut cake (with lemon curd filling)

My girl Daisy helped me open my presents. Then moved on to shredding random papers.

After many days of cake (in addition to Spork's cake, Becky provided a super-evil raspberry amaretto cake and my mom made a red velvet cake), I couldn't face the idea of cobbler-ing the enormous quantity of berries that had accumulated in the refrigerator. It was time, I decided, to try my recipe for blackberry cordial, slightly modified to mixed berry cordial (blackberries, raspberries and boysenberries).

Day 1 of the mixed berry cordial

For this recipe, you pour a cup of sugar into the bottom of a large jar. Top that with 4 cups of berries (washed and patted dry), then pour in 4 cups of vodka. Place in a dark cupboard for 8 weeks, shaking once a week. Strain through a sieve, then through a coffee filter. Store in glass bottles.

I've never made this before, so I overlooked the bit about 8 weeks of waiting and shaking. I'm sure it will be worth it, though.

Bragging on my raspberries

The raspberries we planted last spring are doing great and are producing about a cup (or more) of raspberries a day right now. Yesterday we had so many that I wondered what we should do with them. For about one-tenth of a second I thought, "We should share these." Then I came to my senses and thought, "I should bake something!" As further inspiration, Spork's sister, Becky, sent me an email that it was national eat a second piece of dessert day. That sealed it. I did some googling and the first recipe I found was Chocolate Raspberry Cobbler. Yep, that did it.

From Food

Results: I would call this a crisp, not a cobbler. Not that there's anything wrong with the crisp, it's just not a cobbler. I used semi-sweet chocolate chips for the chocolate and added 2 tablespoons of vanilla sugar to the raspberries. It was still a bit on the tart side for me (I might try 1/4 cup of sugar next time), but Spork liked it tart. The semi-sweet chocolate and raspberries were a fabulous combination, though, and I would definitely try it again, but probably not if I had to buy the raspberries at grocery store prices. I would use that money to buy raspberry plants!

Good food, no proof

I tried round 2 of Taco-fication this weekend, but I completely failed at capturing photographic evidence ($#@% margaritas!). My sister, Mary, was offended that she had not been invited for the original taco-fication, so we invited her over to make amends. We had chicken tacos, topped with cabbage and cilantro (tossed with lime juice), homemade taco shells (deep fried and puffy) and I even went all out and made a batch of roasted tomatillo salsa. But I have not a shred of evidence to offer. Oh wait, I do have a picture of Mary (not taken on taco night). Hopefully that will suffice.

Bye-bye blackberries, hello salsa! (And other miscellaneous ramblings)

We've gone from harvesting berries to harvesting peppers and tomatoes, here at the stuga. This was our first batch, a nice pico de gallo. I also made a batch of roasted tomatillo salsa, but didn't think to take a picture until after it was all consumed (there might have been some beer involved). You'll just have to take my word on its awesomeness. And oh, it was awesome.



There was a group birthday party on my side of the fam over the weekend. Since there are so many of us, we batch them to keep from going insane(r). My birthday was included, but us old folks let the youngsters, Kyle and Emily, do the candle extinguishing.



Earlier this spring, I bought an unlabeled rose (a pity purchase - who else would take it?) and have been admiring its unnamed blooms all season. I finally ID'ed it last week after spending a ridiculous amount of time on the gardenweb rose forums.

Insert silvery trumpets: Dum da da dum! I present to thee the hybrid tea, First Prize!



We are still seeing our foxes fairly regularly. We know now that there are two (mother and baby), but the only pictures we got of them together are pretty grainy. Baby is big enough that we can't tell them apart unless they are together (and baby is being chastised). So here is one of 'em, chowing on some birdseed.




And since you asked so nicely... Yes, that is the bottom of my palm tree bird feeder pole, prominently featured in an issue of Birds & Blooms this year. Thank you for noticing!

Fun with scanners

For the last few weeks I've been working on a little project for my parents' 60th wedding anniversary. I sneaked into their house while they were at the gym (which makes me look great - the nearly-80-year-olds are working out and I'm doing a B&E) and "borrowed" their boxes of old family photographs to scan for use in a digital picture frame. Compared to the amount of pictures I take, my parents were hardly photo-prolific, but over 60 years the quantity begins to add up. I used only a small fraction of what I found, but I still ended up scanning about 500 pictures.

If you've done a little mental math, you'll realize that I was a later in life surprise baby. (Take note, boys and girls, that pill is only 97% effective!) Because they were both in their early 40s when I was born and because of the tunnel vision of youth, they always seemed "old" to me, so it's been a lot of fun seeing them as kids. I know that generation - children during the depression, teens during WWII - matured earlier than kids now, but they were still only 19 when they wed. So young! And yet, at 19 my dad had already served 2 years in the Marines. I couldn't even decide on a hairstyle at 19.

All in all, it was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. I've gotten a lot better at touching up photos using GIMP and I found some really great treasures to add to my own photo gallery. I also found some absolutely hilarious pictures (*cough* my siblings' hip 1970s garb *cough*) as well as a few that need explanation, such as my mom at a party with a lampshade on her head. I don't believe she's ever mentioned that party...

Here are a few examples of my findings:

Young Mom and Dad, while they were dating. Aren't they cute?



Teenage Dad being a goof. I also found out that my grandparents sent this out as a Christmas card that year. That explains a few things about our family's sense of humor!



Auntie Jean and Uncle Carl, Christmas, circa 1966. Don't they look like they're having a blast?



I have to find out the story behind this picture!



And finally, a few examples of how I got the nickname Ellie May...

One day, two graduation ceremonies, 100 miles apart

Being the awesome uncle and aunt that we are, Spork and I attended two marathon graduations on Saturday, one for Kait (local) and one for Risa (road trip). We actually got invited to go party after the second one, but we're old and it was night-night time.


Kait and Becky


Marisa

Yankee Invasion

Last weekend we had some relatives from the North Country visiting. The two aunties, Jean and Dolly, plus Jean's husband, Uncle Carl (Uncley just doesn't work!) came and stayed for a few days. Overall it was a fairly low-key visit, but there was a lot of fun visiting and catching up.

Here is a picture of Jean and Jeff. Jeff is supposed to be about 5 years old, by the way. How did he get so big?



In gardening news, my transplanted passionflower is starting to bloom. I love these silly flowers. I originally planted them purely as a larval host plant for the gulf fritillary butterfly, but the blooms are just fascinating. This particular one is Passiflora caerulea.



I'm also getting quite a few blooms on my baby Flutterbye rose. I'm not sure why it's not more popular. It grows quickly into a large shrub with glossy foliage and pretty color-changing blooms all summer long. What's not to like?