What I am reading

I saw this last week in the store and of course I picked it up

Yep - you see that correctly. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I love Jane Austen and I just couldn't help myself. I HAD to get this. Of course it probably helps if you have a sense of humor (of which no one could say that I am lacking).

I haven't gotten very far yet but so far I can't stop laughing. Surely Jane would get the joke?

Power was out

So, I got home today and was in the middle of making supper and the power went out. Lovely - you know, you never really realize how much you rely on electricity until you don't have it anymore. No computer, no stove, no fans, nada....nothing was working.

Turns out some street crew working in the neighborhood cut a power line. But I will say that they got it fixed very quickly. And it was nice to see everyone in the neighborhood outside talking with each other and enjoying the evening. It makes you think that maybe we should turn the power off more often and spend time getting to know our neighbors.

Okay, if you know me you are probably laughing your head off right now because you know how much my neighbors annoy the heck outta me......but the annoying neighbors stayed inside and we got to chat with the interesting neighbors.

I also played around with the camera -- I am sure that you can tell I am not the best at taking pictures but doesn't practice make perfect? We had some more rain today and it was nice and cool this evening. I could really enjoy myself if the rest of the summer were like this.

Weekend recap

Our weekend in pictures -

Hey Mom....hey mom it's 5:30am aren't you getting up?

You know how lazy she is - she isn't getting up

Mom......Mom.....get up, get up I gotta go outside NOW!

Jason - come kill this spider right now!

Trip to the Farmer's market.....yes more peaches. Hi, my name is April and I have a problem with peaches.....

Oh look - this corn came with a little baby corn (yes we took a picture of corn on the cob this weekend)

Morning in the kitchen

Made some yummy peach butter this morning - yeah I had never heard of it either but it sounded so good I decided that I needed some.

First I had to blanch the peaches, which is pretty easy. It is just putting your peaches in boiling water for about 50 seconds and then putting them in ice water to cool off quickly. Then the skin on the peaches just peels right off. It looks like this:

Boiling the peaches

Then they go straight to the ice bath - in this picture you can see where I scored it on the bottom, the skin is starting to peel away

Then you can just peel the skin right off

And you end up with peaches that look like this

poor little naked peaches.....

Now you just slice them up add some water ( I think I added around 1/2 cup of water) and cook them until the peaches are all mushy and soft

Let me tell you they smelled really, really good.

This is the part where the kitchen got real messy and hot. I used the food mill and mushed the peaches up and then added the sugar (about 4 cups) and cooked them until thick and then processed in cans. I did add some cinnamon to the mixture to spice it up a bit. I ended up with this:

These will make nice Christmas gifts tucked in a basket with some shortbread. Maybe I need to make some shortbread today as well........you know, to try out


Oh, how could I forget?! The rain lilies bloomed

More Rain Lilies

I found some more rain lilies about to bloom - don't they look like little tubes of hot pink lipstick?

I suddenly have the urge to buy some hot pink lipstick.

I found out some more information on the Cemetery Iris that Jason and dug up from my parents farm. For instance did you know that Cemetery Iris or Iris albicans has been cultivated since ancient times and could be the oldest iris in cultivation? How cool is that?! You may have heard your grandmother call them White Flags. I think this is what my Grandma Walls called them. I also read that these flowers appear in a wall painting in the Temple of Amun at Karnak and is dated around 1426 BC. These are some seriously old flowers.

Nice and rainy today

I like this rainy weather - it was only around 93 degrees today.

This is my favorite spot in the yard right now

Yes, those are my green garden clogs - and my messy excuse for a path underneath the arbor. But above me is this:

I have a wisteria growing over this arbor. I love the wisteria - Jason does not. Yes, if you don't keep up with it it can get overgrown quickly but you should see it in the Spring when it blooms and it smells heavenly then.

How can you not stand here and just love this?

Etsy

I love Etsy - and I will just go ahead and admit to being addicted to Etsy.

I got this the other day from an adorable Etsy seller

A primrose hair clip for my hair. She did a really good job on it and it didn't cost nearly as much as ones that I have seen in department stores.

And then I found this blooming this morning

A rain lily! Just one, but it is so pretty. Of course the poor ivy is so sun scorched beneath it. This heat has just been really hard on the yard this year. But thankfully it has been cooler this weekend but I am worried about August and what could be coming our way.

So excited

Guess what I got in the mail yesterday?

Bulbs! And not just any bulbs - Southern Bulbs.....Texas Bulbs! From the Bulb Hunter! And just who is this Bulb Hunter you are asking right now. You have to be asking this because I know that I would be.

This is the Bulb Hunter:

And he has a wonderful blog and a great company:

If you live in Texas you should really check out his site. He digs up old homesteads for heirloom bulbs that thrive in our warm climate. I have ordered twice and haven't been disappointed so far. This time I got:

Spider lilies, Oxblood lilies and a beautiful white Crinum lily. I think I will put the spider lilies and the oxblood lilies in the backyard and the crinum in the front.

I ordered from the Southern Bulb company last year and after reading his blog was inspired to dig up some bulbs from my parents farm in Powderly. We dug up several white iris and brought them down here. I wasn't for sure if they would survive but they did and have been growing like crazy in the back yard. I have since found out that the iris that we dug up are called White Cemetery Iris. Not so amused by the name but they are beautiful and I will have to snap some pictures this Spring when they are in bloom. They are the most gorgeous solid white I have ever seen. If you know me and want some I am going to have to divide them soon. I will be glad to let you have some, just let me know!

What I am reading

If you know me you know that I read a great deal. If you come over to the house it is not strange to find an open book in the living room, an open book in the kitchen, an open book in the bedroom and I will tell you that I am reading all three of them when you ask which one I am reading. I love to read so much that I often find myself reading the same books over and over again if I haven't gotten anything new.





I even read as a child - my sister was often sent inside to get me to come outside and stop reading for the afternoon. I would often get in to trouble at school for reading my books in class. I still remember my Science teacher who took away one of my books!!! I was so upset that she would take my book, I mean really you would think that a teacher would be thrilled to find a student reading a book. Okay, so it wasn't a Science book or even the textbook - but she didn't have to take it away.





I just started reading this book after seeing it on several lists. I have never come across it before

It is a fantasy novel and won the World Fantasy Award in 1982. So far it is good - but I have found that I have to give it my whole attention or I lose my place. The language it beautiful and wonderfully written. I find myself turning over phrases in my mind after I have stopped reading.

I hope it turns out to be a wonderful book

I did it again

I stepped on a nail, and yes I said again.

As a matter of fact, I stepped on this nail......not the little one in front the big one in back

See that big nail in the back? Yeah, I stepped on it - it went through my green knock off crocs (they make great garden shoes) and in to my foot. Way in to my foot. I was screaming my head off and shaking my foot trying to get if off. Um, it didn't come off. I had to pull it off.

You still here - not passed out yet are you?

Thank goodness I had my tetanus shot oh, I would say about two months ago. When I stepped on a nail for the first time, around my birthday....and then I fell over on to some paint cans but that is another story. We were in the doctor's office twice that week. Just call me grace! If anyone needs to find any nails out in your yard just have me over my feet are quite the magnet for them apparently.

In the background, all that mass disaster is the part of the yard we are working on now. I used to have some beautiful climbing roses there. But they have been affected by some kind of blight so I just decided to rip them out and start over again. It breaks my heart to have to rip them out but they really did look bad and nothing I did seemed to help them. And this way I can make that bed bigger (yeah Jason doesn't know this part yet, I think I will just surprise him).

And we were out there working in the heat today I thought I was going to pass out. We finally had to go inside around 1:00pm and if this heat keeps up these are going to be the only things I will be able to grow:

At least the succulents still look good. I have been thinking about trying to make one of those hanging wall planters with the chicken wire and you just fill it full of dirt and stick the succulents in to holes in the chicken wire and then hang it up on the wall. Has anyone ever tried anything like that? That may be put on my list of projects - for Jason to do of course!

Glutton for Punishment

Yep, that would be us alright!

What do we do on hot, sunny days around here in July? Well of course we go down to our favorite nursery and buy plants - who doesn't do this?

I thought we had learned a lesson last year but clearly the lure of 50% off is just too much for us.

So, we ended up with two shrubs, two vines, a tree and yes.......another crepe myrtle

***** another discussion here, why do you see crepe myrtle sometimes spelled crape myrtle and sometimes spelled crepe myrtle? Does anyone else other than me wonder about this? ****

Here are the shrubs and ivy

And the tree and crepe myrtle - well the bottom of them at least

It is just going to be SUPER fun to plant these suckers - oh boy I can't wait!

I did talk Jason in to getting these planters, I love the green color and can think of all kinds of things to plant in them. And then at Christmas we can put the little lighted Christmas trees in them. Of course I let this slip out in front of Jason (he doesn't know about the little trees that I snuck in last year) so I was busted!
Well now y'all know what we will be doing this evening or early tomorrow morning. I told you all we do is work on the house! And in about 30 minutes Jason is going to be asking me this question: "Honey, where are my sunglasses?".......

Living with Jason

Oh my darling husband - always the comic

I could write a book on his antics and mishaps.

We had a bad storm last month and many trees were down in the area, our neighbors lost several big trees and when they were cut up for removal I noticed that there were some great logs left, so I got Jason to get me some. They are the perfect height for little tables next to the patio chairs, swing, etc....

This is what he did with one of my stumps! Guess he is thinking about cutting some wood?

The never ending project

The house - it is a never ending project. It seems like we are always (and I mean ALWAYS) working on the house. And if we are not working on the house, we are watching home shows, window shopping for the house, trolling Craigslist for cool stuff for the house, window shopping for the house......

Heck, even our date nights have turned in to going to Lowe's. I kid you not.

We have been working on the master bedroom lately. I have some pictures and I am going to 'keep it real' here.....the bedroom is not finished. But I figure that if I let you all see then sometime in the future when I show you all the wonderful, awesome pictures of the finished bedroom we can all laugh at how it looked at one time!

Looking in the door - at least you aren't seeing the pictures where all of that drywall wasn't there and you could only see the studs. Yep - the windows aren't finished and those are blankets in the windows. Gotta love living in the house you are working on! We are going to put new windows in but of course we can't decide which ones we want. Good thing for Jason I am a patient person. (that means that HE can't decide which windows to get!)

Looking right at the bed - and yep, that is plastic that you see on the lampshades and I won't take the plastic off the the lamp shades until we are done with the house. We still have that popcorn stuff to scrap off the kitchen ceiling and if you have done that you know about all of the dust that gets everywhere. But I had to break down and put the bedding on the bed, I just couldn't help myself. Of course Jason can't understand all the pillows and questioned me quite thoroughly when he tagged along to Bed, Bath and Beyond to get the pillows for the shams. I should have left him at home!

There is a little sitting area off to the side and I am looking for some chairs, a chaise or a small couch to put over there along with an ottoman, table and some lamps. I am so excited about creating a little reading nook over there! I found this marked down at Kirklands that I am going to hang in the area....trying to keep it from getting to 'girly' in here

This house has the strangest floor plan - every room in this place seems to be long and narrow. I think the builders were on crack the day they built this house.

And yes, even the doggies have beds in the bedroom!

I tell you, I am IN LOVE

I found a new love today - I really, really did

It came in this box:

And it looks like this:

Isn't it lovely? It will make a whole bunch of these:

Look like this:

Wow - look, it can pit four cherries at one time! Amazing I tell you...

Leaving you now - I have to go back to see my new love. I have a feeling we will be spending a lot of time together!

Day off

I really needed a day off so today was the day!

Instead of being lazy and laying around reading a book I got up and worked in the front yard pulling stubborn grass out of my flower beds and put up some strawberries. If there is anything I love more than peaches it would be strawberries. Aren't they just so pretty?

I cut them up and they are in the freezer right now. After they are frozen I will put them in some freezer bags and sometime this fall or winter will take them out and make something warm and yummy with them. They look like this right now:

I could have stood there and eaten them all - I love strawberries that much.

Changing gears.....this is a picture of something that I come across a great deal out in the living room. A dog biscuit left sitting on the couch. But when I began to pay more attention the meaning was much more devious.

Louis is big enough to jump up on the couches, Coco is not. When I give them treats Louis will do his dance and receive his treat and then Coco will do her little prance and receive her treat. They both run in to the living room to eat them. But I began to see that Louis would pretend to eat his while Coco would gobble hers up. When Louis is sure that Coco has eaten all of hers he brings his treat out and walks around with it and then takes the treat up to the couch and leaves it there. Where Coco can see it but can't get to it!!

Devious, devious little dog!

Rain!

Ahhhhh....what a lovely thing to wake up to, it rained! Of course not a whole lot but in July, in Texas you will pretty much take any kind of rain. It was overcast all day long and I have loved every single minute of it!

The pups and I sat outside for awhile, of course instead of sitting in this chair drinking my ice tea, eating strawberries and cookies I should have been sanding this chair down and painting it.

The puppies were very interested in the cookies and strawberries but I was a mean dog mommy and wouldn't let them have any. Later we went inside and turned some beautiful peaches from this:

to this:

Peach Jam! Of course I was lazy this time and just made freezer jam. Maybe next week I will make some peach jam and do the whole hot water bath and everything but today - it was just a freezer jam day.

I love peaches - one of my favorites things about summer is when you walk in to the grocery store and you can smell the peaches for the first time. It is heaven. I think someone should make peach perfume because I would totally buy it. Heaven is going to smell like fresh, ripe peaches you know.

A little birdie told me that a Peach Farm opened up north of Denton - maybe I can talk Jason in to driving up there next Saturday and we can pick peaches. Yum, my mouth is watering just thinking about peaches and it will be wonderful this winter opening up a jar of peach jam and eating it with toast and butter. I can't wait!

Happy Fourth of July!

Louis and Coco want to tell y'all Happy Fourth of July!

And yes I did put Red, White and Blue bows in their top knots. This isn't the best picture but just to show you how much trouble we had trying to get them to sit still.....

They tend to take pictures better when they are by themselves

Here is Louis doing his regal pose...

And we got Coco in her favorite spot - right by the front windows where she can look out and bark at everyone and everything that happens by...

Hope everyone enjoys their Fourth of July!