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| View of the Back Yard (Thursday) |
Thank you, everyone, for your kind comments on March Balanced Life post.
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| Another View of the Back Yard (Wednesday) |
The weather is improving and we are having sunny, warm spring days. Often, though, the house feels cold in the mornings and I have started sitting outside in the sunshine to read my morning prayers. Depending on where I place my chair, I have a slightly different view.
Today, I spoke with former neighbor T in the morning. Afterwards, I walked in the driveway for 15 minutes.
Later, I did a bit of weeding in the back yard and picked some snow pea pods and lettuce.
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| Garden Lettuce Salad |
I've been enjoying salads with the lettuce I pick. Today, I called neighbor S to ask if she'd like to have some lettuce and she said she'd like some. So, I took her a head of leafy lettuce I picked this morning and she gave me some cookies and candies in return!
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| Cookies and Candies from S! |
Yum! She also said that her mother was cooking Easter dinner and she will bring me a plate! How kind is that?!
In the afternoon, I continued to repair the quilt. I have replaced all the obviously torn pieces and yesterday, I washed the quilt and dried it. Then, today, I inspected it, again, and noticed that there were a few other pieces that had small holes and obviously worn out areas. So, I have cut out additional pieces of fabric to replace those worn out pieces.
In the evening, I watched news and knitted. I have finished knitting the front and back of the sweater; need to start on the sleeves, next.
After dinner (leftover stew), I called friend R and we chatted for a bit. Daughter is experiencing disruptions to her internet services so we spoke on the phone instead of video chatting.
Today, I am grateful for:
- Sunny, warmer days
- Having a garden
- Sharing food with neighbors
- Phone calls and emails
- Quiet, relaxed days spent sewing and knitting
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| Flowers on one of the Succulents |
Good Friday will be a quiet day here - no children to be responsible for! Those "madeleine" cakes from your friend look delicious. Just the thing with a cuppa, sitting in the garden in the afternoon sun.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you are able to have a quiet Good Friday, Angela. You deserve to have a quiet, restful day. The madeleine cookies were delicious! :)
DeleteYour garden provides you with some beautiful views allowing you to enjoy your work in planning (& M's labour (col)). We are still having very chilly/cold nights but there is definitely an effort to warm up in the daytime. Your garden lettuce salad looks pretty & yummy.
ReplyDeleteThe garden has provided me with much pleasure, especially these past three years, Mary-Lou, since I am not going out that much! It is looking its best, right now, after all the rain we've had! M is definitely the person who is keeping it going! I hope the warmer weather arrives sooner rather than later, for you. Hope you are having a wonderful Easter weekend.
DeleteYou must have an almost new quilt by now. Do you have to patch the back, too?
ReplyDeleteYes, I do have an almost new quilt! It would have been faster if I had just made a new top for it and attached the top, instead of sewing on a piece at a time! Fortunately, the back seems to be fine!
DeleteYour garden is much bigger than I'd imagined and looks lovely. So nice to exchange food gifts with your neighbour and a lovely Easter meal to look forward to. We've been sitting outside in the sunshine and Tilly is enjoying chasing balls. Our Easter weekend will be spent at home as I live in a tourist area and traffic jams are the norm at Bank Holiday weekends and not pleasant to be stuck in those. We will be having a nice Easter meal too.
ReplyDeleteThe garden is a good size, isn't it? Thank you for saying it looks lovely. It's looking its best right now, with milder temperatures and the recent rains.
DeleteI'm happy I was able to offer some garden produce to my neighbor (she's been declining my recent offers of baked goods). The Easter meal will be something to look forward to.
I'm glad the weather has been nice enough for you to sit outside, Eileen, and Tilly is having fun chasing balls. I hope you will have a wonderful Easter weekend, staying home and avoiding traffic (it's not a long weekend, over here; Good Friday is a regular day of work and there is no such thing as Easter Monday).
I'm glad you are able to sit outside for a while and walk outside. The salad looks lovely and how sweet of S to offer you some Easter dinner. It is hard to cook a celebratory meal for one, isn't it? I hope your daughter soon gets her internet back so that you can video call.
ReplyDeleteYesterday was a pleasant day with lots of sun and the temperature went up to around 53°F. Helpers came and we bottled 16.5 litres of syrup. Today is freezing and windy but at least it is sunny. This afternoon I will go to church for a couple of hours.
Thank you, Bushlady; I walked a bit, today, too. It's another sunny day with a high of 66F. Yes, wasn't it very kind of S to offer Easter dinner? I shall look forward to it. :)
DeleteYes, I hope daughter has her internet connection back - she needs it for her work!
You had a very productive day, yesterday, bottling up 16.5 liters of syrup! Sorry the weather is so cold and windy, today, but, at least it is sunny! Hope you enjoyed the Good Friday services at church and have a blessed Easter.
Your garden is lovely and looks a very peaceful place. The succulent flowers are beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Celie. M cut off the stem of succulent flowers in his tidying up efforts and tossed them on the compost heap, today! I rescued them and brought them inside to put in a vase!
DeleteYour garden is looking lovely. Your salad looks so delicious.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sharon. I bought a few vegetables today to add to my salads. :)
DeleteWhat a lush green image of your garden. The rains have really done wonders and provided your plants with much needed water. It's such a happy place :). I'm sure sitting outside in the morning with your prayers is a nice and peaceful way to start your day.
ReplyDeleteYour salad looks very good. I like mandarins/oranges in salads.
You were nice to share your lettuce with neighbor S. I am looking forward to hearing about what is on your Easter plate of food.
The garden is looking nice and green, isn't it? I really need to get a little patio table (or come up with something to use as one).
DeleteThank you; I have another couple of lettuces in the garden to be made into salads. I'm keeping the main stems in the ground to see if they'll sprout more leaves, but, the weather is warming up and that causes the lettuce to bolt and turn bitter.
I've been told the Easter meal will be fried fish (tilapia), rice pilaf, and cabbage salad. Maybe borek/burek (puff pastry with a savory filling). :) In the meantime, I received a Good Friday dinner of tabouleh, shrimp cocktail, and baked potato chunks! :D
I personally think that exchanging lettuce for cookies and sweets is a very good deal ;)
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Jules. I think I got the better end of the deal, myself! :D
DeleteNever imagined a succulent would have such a pretty bloom!
ReplyDeleteIt's the flower of Aeonium arboreum 'Zwartkop' - the plant has dark purplish leaves. I remember seeing a plant in the gardens of one of the houses you toured - don't remember the name of the place, but, you entered it at one level and the gardens spread down the slope.
DeleteYes, I photographed it first at Coleton Fishacre in Devon (when you commented on it), and then again in the Lost Gardens of Heligan. Both are hillside gardens - well remembered! Now I think of you every time I see that plant! But I've never seen one in bloom. It's astonishing!
DeleteGlad you remembered the gardens where you found the plants, Lady Ella. The plants are grown mainly for the leaves which appear like a rosette. The flower cluster forms at the end of the main stem of the plant which will stop growing.
DeleteEventually, if you leave the flower stalk in place, new plantlets will form along it and the main plant will send out new branches from the base. They may be removed and rooted to make new plants.