Every year we worry the tulip magnolia tree in the front yard is going to get pinched by frost. It’s a glorious tree to behold – the magnificent pink blooms can be seen as one approaches our house in every direction for at least a block. It is the first tree to bloom every year and many neighbors have told us they consider it the first official sign of spring. Every few years though, Mother Nature gets the last word on the beauty of the tree, for unlike other early blooming trees, the tulip magnolia does not react well to frost. In fact, frost makes the large pink and white flowers turn brown, definitely not as glorious. Continue reading
It’s not all rainbows.
This past Friday night found me home alone, as my family had taken off for different sides of the state with one in Williamsburg and the other in Lynchburg for their various activities. What did I do with my glorious alone time? Why I scrubbed out both showers, removing the shower heads to be soaked in vinegar, caught up on some netflix and had pop corn and ice cream for dinner. Of course. Isn’t that what every forty-something wife and mother does when they get alone time? Continue reading
Popping up
Routine.
I have absolutely nothing interesting to blog about today. It has been a rather routine week – not only our second one in a row, but our second ‘routine’ week since some time in January, which is surprisingly refreshing. There’s been no snow, no dinners of note, no one has been sick, everything that was scheduled has happened when it was supposed to with the exception of Edie’s soccer game last Saturday which was called on account of rain. It was supposed to be the first game of the season, so not having it didn’t throw us out of a routine as much as it just put off starting our spring Saturday routine.
Off site, second try.
While it’s still too early and muddy to do much out in the garden just yet, I did spend yesterday down at the new community garden plot with Virginia. Continue reading
Awakenings.
This is what our yard looked like a week ago:
Under the dogwood
On the front proch
Find the garden ghome!
Report from Snuggle Acres.
Our friend Mollie left for India 8 am last Thursday morning as one of the faculty chaperones on an immersion trip for Christchurch School. Our initial plan for the weekend was to head over to Urbanna Saturday afternoon to give Will a hand with the kids Saturday evening and Sunday, but Thursday’s storm threw our plans out of whack. Continue reading
Still Crunchy.
I stumbled upon the most wonderful little discovery the other day. Well, I thought it was wonderful, but I’m not sure anyone else would be as easily impressed. Continue reading
Biscuits, the recipe.
Remember a few weeks ago when I proclaimed to have NAILED biscuits but failed to share a recipe? My excuse was that I wanted to try using whole wheat flour before sharing under the auspices of presenting a healthier recipe – really, I just wanted to make sure those biscuits were not a fluke. I can admit I do sometimes have rather lackluster batches of biscuits – they still get eaten because bad biscuits are better than no biscuits apparently – but they are nothing to write the internet about. I tested my theory of using cream and cake flour in a few batches – including sweet potato ones – to much success every time, so now I’m ready to share a recipe. While the all white flour version are still by far the flakiest, the whole wheat and sweet potato versions (also made with whole wheat) are still not too shabby.
Sweet potato (with whole wheat)
Whole wheat Version
All white flour version
A Sunday book with feels.
Saturday’s snowstorm meant my Sunday paper did not arrive until late Sunday afternoon, which curtailed my usual Sunday morning habit of curling up with the Sunday Times and a pot of coffee. I decided this was a fabulous opportunity to work through the rather ambitious stack of books I had grabbed on my last visit to the local library. Continue reading
