Can You Smell It...


The home made rhubarb pie...


The scrambled eggs...
(I've stopped putting them in my pocket)


 The fresh peaches...


The upside down apple sauce cake my grandma use to make...


The love.

Perfect...


Wasn't that the perfect spring weekend.


t-shirts, no coat, one boot..


...sun hat required.


a picnic..
though five chickens and a puppy made that impossible.


..and I tried making home made pasta..without a machine.
I need the machine.

Birds with Attitude...


For the last week, this beautiful Blue Heron has been in our blueberry patch.
I've been watching him.  
Today, I snuck down in my very best national geographic style, to get a shot of this lovely fellow.
He didn't mind my getting close, or so I thought...


Sweet Mother of Pearl, I'm surprised I'm still alive.
I headed back in - it's been very sunny here and I'd left the back door open.
Plus, lets be honest, my house still smells like burnt cookie.


Oh, hey Lola, how's it going.
She smiled at me then walked right out the door.
It must be spring.

Happy Spring...







Hope you have as fun a day as this chick did on the first day of Spring!

Burnt, Browned or Smoked...


On this fine and sunny Sunday night, we had a camp fire cook out dinner.
Everyone, very particular about the marshmallow.
So, I ask you this..


How do you like your marshmallow toasted...
..slow, browned, burnt to a crisp, barely nude, filled with Baileys, squished between chocolate..


think about it and let me know.

Immaturity...


I've never thought of myself as mature.


I did however feel, that I had passed far beyond certain behavior in life.


What am I talking about?
well...I believe that we can 
always, no matter what age, act or do something silly.


Giggle at silly words with double meanings.


Be a fool.  Be foolish.
Be fooled.


But when I hit my knee on the damn dryer today so hard I fell to the floor sobbing like a baby, it surprised the heck out of me. 
Birthing a child and teenage heartache aside, I can't remember ever crying really really hard over something that hurt.
Cursing like a trucker..you bet.  
Sobbing while my daughter wipes my tears away and kisses my cheek ...ahh, no.


So we went outside.
The sun was out.
I found the biggest egg ever laid on this farm.
Took pictures of it too.
Really huge.
I pushed my girl on her swing.


I forgot I had the egg in my pocket. 

The swing came back a bit too hard.
..well you know the rest.
Didn't see that coming today either.


Some days, you just need to walk away from and forget.

Chicken Chat...


Ok, it's no secret, we spoil our chickens.
But they give us these beautiful eggs.


We make them garlic mash once or twice a week.
It's basically some rolled oats, some warm water, sunflower seeds, minced garlic, wheat germ, ground flax, sometimes sliced banana..maybe yogurt.
They even got some chia seed today - it's all the rage now you know.


Chicken tip 101:  
How to get chickens out of the blueberry patch...
...show them the muffin tin!


Why?
because that is what we put the mash in.


Inside I get the same reaction from my girl over these cheese crackers.
Here's the recipe
1/2 pound cheese
5 tablespoons butter
1 cup flour
Grate the cheese and put into a food processor. Add flour and butter then whiz till it comes together into a dough ball.
Refrigerate for one hour - or overnight.  It really makes a difference.
Roll out dough, cut out shapes of choice with cookie cutters. This is where it's fun for kids- they can chomp off animals limbs or make a garden out of the flower shapes.
Bake in oven at 400 for 8 minutes.  
 Don't let them get to too brown.



I know what you are thinking.  
And let me make this perfectly clear.
That muffin tin..
the one we feed the chickens the mash in...
will never enter my house again.
It's the mash tin and it stays outside.

Macaroon Love...


This week has been full of many things.  


Snow...but it was so very pretty, I couldn't get mad at it.


Crafting up some Easter fun for HGTV


And today, we made macaroons.
Chocolate - no bake - balls of goodness.


So easy to make and apparently, very full of antioxidants!
Mix 2 1/2 cups of the very best shredded coconut you can find 
with 1/2 a cup of sifted cocoa.


Enter one of my dearest old friends - Pure Maple Syrup..
and let's introduce it's new best friend - Virgin Coconut Oil.
Add 6 tablespoons maple syrup and 1/4 cup coconut oil the coconut. 
Aunt Jemima is not welcome to this party people.


Grab a fairy if you can find one and mix it all together.
Spoon small balls onto a sheet of parchment to set.
Not that I waited for that to happen.


That's it.
Really.
Enter the shark music...
da num..


da num..


dum dun dum dun dum dun...


Sweet Macaroons!