OM Goodness!!

Is anyone else having troubles on Blogger?  I have been so busy getting the patio arranged and the indoor plants out, and getting the garden started....and cooking!  Gotta use those eggs!   That I haven't been here in almost 10 days and everything seems different..it took a while to find the link to VIEW the blog itself...  It seemed as if it changed even since the last time I was here!

I am not sure what to do..stay here?   Change blogger engines???   The last time I came here, I did find it easy to change the background to something more spring-y, but still haven't changed the header..I need a block of time to sit down and do that! 


The garden is a whole other issue this year... I started some spring crops in pots..some lettuce and cauliflower, but not much else.  Nothing was growing!  This winter was such a crazy winter.  I am not seeing the flowers we usually get in the spring.  There were little of no garden violets in the lawn.  Last year we had so many we didn't know what to do with them (the leaves have more iron then SPINACH!  And are great in salad (or cooked like spinach!) and the flowers can be used in salads also.).  The plants are there.....the leaves are not as big, or plentiful, as last year but the blooms are far and few between..   Even at our local stores.  Last year I bought a flat of white Impatience..this year no one even has any...  I am beginning to think learning about foraged plants might be a good idea.  (I know a few of them,  Lambs Quarters have more iron then spinach also.  And they do have taste..as do  the violets..) And then there's Chickweed.  I have a BUMPER crop of chickweed in the garden I have to remove. The chickens work their way through it, but as far as taste?   Not so much...although it is supposed to be healthy...
But all in all, I still prefer cultivated grown garden crops, but that brings us back to the weather and the garden this year. I am growing more and more in pots so they can be controlled, but that doesn't give much space for preserving amounts.  Next weekend (or whenever it stops raining) I'll plant tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, so we'll see how they grow.  And transplant I have to the cauliflower (2 kinds-a white and a golden yellow!) into larger pots.  I will keep them out of the ground until mid June or so, for a later crop.   Meanwhile, once June is up and running, plant beans (4 kinds), summer squash and winter squash, and one of my favorites..cucumbers..I LOVE cucumbers... I'll also plant more lettuce and spinach and other spring plants in pots..to go through the summer and into the fall...
 and of course there's annuals of marigolds and zinnia and more daylily's...

Here is but a few violets I picked last year (I put some up in the last post too) out of the lawn so they wouldn't get mowed and there was plenty more where they came form!  but throughput this winter I would see blossoms here and there...

This year I dared not pick any blooms, because there wouldn't be enough to seed for this spring, although it seems like the winter took care of that....  And the leaves, as I said were tiny this spring.

My indestructible New Dawn Climbing rose is all but dead in the back corral fence.   (the one I moved several years ago from a too shaded back fence..)  I will cut back the dead but after looking yesterday there only appears to be one or two branches still with leaves (I am very sad about that)

Much died over this winter because of lack of snow and water.  Not as many daffodils came up..the chickweed, as I said thrived!!

I am still in transition.  I thought that was over..my life is changing yet again ..(through others in my circle if not directly.  Which means I really have no control over the changes, and do not have a clue where things will end up...)  These changes used to be exciting for me, but at 65 I am wanting some stability now.   At least changes within my control!   I don't mind changes within my "realm" but if they would only stay inside that!

Every time we think we have a handle on what needs to be fixed in this house, something else comes up and we need to re-organize how we are going to go about doing the fixing...

Meanwhile...cooking!!  I made some thing for my sons the other day that was out of this world! (ops no eggs in it, BUT the strawberries were calling)

http://www.howsweeteats.com/2012/04/roasted-strawberry-brie-chocolate-grilled-cheeeeeeeese/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+howsweeteats%2FsmSp+%28How+Sweet+It+Is%29

It is a Roasted Strawberry Chocolate (dark) Brie grilled cheese.......

We just happened to have everything on hand and I made 2 for the 3 of us, not knowing how they would be, and cut them in small pieces......OM Goodness!  I never tasted anything so good!









The roasted strawberries, the butter and toast...OMG!  The melted cheese..(if you can not find brie I am sure a mild melting cheese would work..I am thinking Muenster.. but I think even mozzarella would work too)














I hope you get a chance to go there and try this recipe...I am not sure if it is a dessert or a meal..It FELT like a meal.... delicious, gooey, chocolatey, melt-y meal.... (even with the small pieces)  A decadent MEAL!  And I wanted MORE!

Great blog..."How Sweet Eats"....

That's all for now.  Hope to be back soon. 

See ya later,

Janie

Whew!!!!

Wow!  This has been some year so far!

I haven't yet had a chance to check out the 'new" blogger , to even see if I like it yet!  (Or change my header!)

 So much is happening at once, I don't have a chance to breath!  Do we ever get a rest?   Why am I still asking this?

My roof needs to be done..but I think before that..I need a car!  I have been sharing with my son (which is a pain although do-able so far).  But My old car is stuck in front of the garage..and the garage door just this past week broke!  (I actually knew that was coming because of a "repair' THAT  was done (I can't complain it was a favor, but the door never worked right after) and I knew from the beginning it wasn't right..anyway...I think that I need a car ( for obvious reasons) first, then the garage door, then the roof...whew!   Everything in its own time..I am not a rich person!  One thing at a time..

Anyway I am trying to put things in order..then my email gets hacked!  So I hope i didn't cause any problems for anyone.  (I have a friend in NJ who I think her email is compromised and she keeps telling me it isn't.  But every time I answer her, I end up with some sort of problem!)   Hopefully this time she is fixed..!

I have been so busy I haven't even started a garden yet!  I think this crazy winter we had (weather wise) totally threw me off..so I have lettuce and green onion (scallions) and some other spring things, started in pots...I am about to plant tomatoes, and other summer things..soon very soon...

I LOVE the new chickens.   Although certainly not our first flock, but our first from a new company (to us).  I Love the health and quality of these chickens, and you can order as few as 3!! (depending on where you are in proximity to them) in contrast to most companies that you need to order 25 at a time..  The PROBLEM is in deciding which ones to buy..I want them all!   When the boys were young and I had more personable neighbors ..(things change people move) I could use that many, but now it is just me, and the occasional extra breakfast.   And a neighbor here and there, that wants them.  I had 6 from an older flock left, and added 5 more.  Of course since then some of the older ones have passed, so I keep thinking I want more... (I love variety in egg color!)
  I am getting 6-7 eggs a day...nice...

http://www.mypetchicken.com/

 Well...I am off..my day doesn't end until way later then I hope it does!

 Here is a picture of last years garden. (with Lass still with me...) I am thinking of changing the whole garden (soon) .  Making more raised beds..and putting more in pots... My work is cut out for me... This is last years spring picture.  The beds you see here were farther over to the left (as you look at the picture). I moved one over (the one closest to the shrub on the right in the picture..it's just peeking into the pic) after my husband died..following the sun...  I am thinking of dividing the long beds into smaller shorter beds...  I don't know....I have to think about it...  I'll let you know...

See you later,

OH!  PS..In early May, my son's girl friend and her mother and me went to NYC to the taping of The Revolution....it was VERY fun.   It aired May 7th.   (technically I didn't really watch the show before, but it was fun anyway, and I watch it more now)  Then we met my two sons, and we went to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens..when I get pics loaded I will post them...  In June we are going to the Chew..one of my favorite cooking shows ever!

Janie

Hello!! I Haven't Quit! And Learning the New Blogger!

Well hello!

I wish I could say that I was just SOO busy I couldn't blog, but that hasn't been the case.  After a mild winter the WHOLE family came down with a flu-like virus with a bacteria attached that threw us for a loop.  When one of us recovered, we got it back from another one...it went around and around, back and forth, really depleting us.

Once we felt like we were recovering, I noticed my youngest son was coughing none stop.  And I was getting more and more fatigued (I have had a problem with chronic fatigue before, because I had Lyme for over 10 years before it was diagnosed) and fuzzy brained.  Literally at times tripping over my own feet like I was drunk..and never putting two and two together.  You see Lyme affects everyone differently.  For me it was almost all neurological.  But as years go by I noticed the knuckles on my fingers are getting bigger and bigger, then lately being very stiff, and sometimes numb in the morning.  Still, I thought I beat the Lyme.

Lyme Disease is a lot like malaria.  It revisits around the same time you were first infected, symptoms getting weaker and weaker each time..  At first I knew right away when it was back, and would run for a treatment (I lean towards alternative treatments after witnessing countless other who were treated with antibiotics, and faring way worse then me as time went by...) but as time goes by and the symptoms are smaller and smaller you don't notice them until they are BAD...and in this case it never occurred to me that it was Lyme because it's been so long since an episode.  I really, really thought I was done with this Lyme stuff....that makes me nervous... Problem with Lyme is you can't kill it.  It lodges in the base of your brain, and waits until you are weak from something else..then it regains strength.

So I had a treatment today.  My brain is like mush..I can't even think straight..it has taken me all day to make a food list, and it still probably isn't right.  I don't know why I bothered.  It's taken me over 2 hours to make this readable...But the treatment affects only last a few days so I expect to be back to relative normal soon, and go back in 3 weeks for another. 

THEN I go on the Blog and find Blogger, like FB, has reformatted everything "for you".... Now I need to learn this!

I am not running off to switch to Word Pres,s or any other Blog engine..at least not yet.  I listened to all the talk of panic about FB and was quite panicked myself..about Time Line.  It confused me... Rumors said, "they switch you without warning"  (they haven't), "they "undo" all your privacy settings"  (they haven't), "you have no control" (you have more). 

In fact.. I LIKE FB Timeline....it is even EASIER to make your settings, post pics, check what the public sees if they search for you..monitor posts...and who they go to.

Oh yes, there's SO much drama on FB....  No, there's as much drama as YOU make.  I noticed more and more young ones are leaving FB because of it.  Yet THEY make it by posting every and anything that pops into their brains..meanwhile I have reconnected with cousins in other parts of the country....and friends who have moved.    I have a good many favorite cooking blogs on FB now and I LOVE it...does this mean blogs are done?  Nope...I don't thinks so....I sure don't post things like this on FB..if someone wants to read what I really have to say, read the blog...FB is for connecting..blogs are for blogging...

Meanwhile..while sick as DOGS, all winter and spring..we just found out (at least my youngest son and me) that we have allergies for almost everything around us, and IN the house!  So work is ahead...

Life is about change, and it sure looks like ours is changing BIG time...I don't mind change as long as it isn't TOO fast...and I will post more about changes in upcoming weeks. 

My camera isn't up and running....the garden isn't even started!!  (we got hit with a BIG tax bill this April, and I have MORE to come this year ..then it gets better for us...well not great but better then this year will be... (I rearranged some stuff last year, and I really did know this was coming...not that it will increase anything for me....just make it easier for the boys when ..you know...)

Now!  I need to explore this NEW Blogger...so we'll see how long that takes!   Hopefully Blogger will turn out to be as good, and easy as FB time line turned out to be..if you haven't been switched yet...don't listen to all the hype and scare rumors..it is like an album..and contains as much or a little as you want...AND we get to keep our home page JUST LIKE IT WAS.. In fact I am having so much fun with it, I am posting MORE public things and then going "pubic" to look at it, then ever before!

Oh well..I can't wait til this Lyme is quiet again, and I can think straight again!

So I have no NEW pics to post  (yet)  so here is an old one from last years garden.. Here's hoping for some sort of garden before to long!

My favorite spring shrub....usually out in early May, has come and gone (this season has been s crazy!  I think most of the "May flowers are done!!)  Hope everything is readable.

                                                    


See you later (if I ever figure out the NEW Blogger)

Janie

Anyone Like Good Beer?

One of my son's friend LOVES beer...better yet he loves pairing beer and food..like wine.

He just started a Beer Blog....it's called Beer Blog   It is brand new, and he is mostly local...for now, but who knows... here's to launching a dream career...

http://philchesteakbeer.blogspot.com/

This is his latest...it is about Black Raspberry Lambic...

 (His picture since I don't have black raspberries and they are way harder to grow then red raspberries!)

http://philchesteakbeer.blogspot.com/2012/02/southamptons-black-raspberry-lambic.html

I think we need more GUYS doing blogs....don't you?  (same as we need more on Pinterest)

See you around the corner,

Janie

I Found Another Blog-Dragon Fly Dreams

I found another blog.  On Pinterest.  Dragon Fly Dreams....She does stamping art, as a hobby, and her studio is beautiful...

                                                    Here is a picture of her studio..
                                                
                               http://kimchaltry.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-stamp-studio.html


 

                                                          Here is another angle.... a real dream hobby center....which I understand the organization, given what her "day job" is.   She works in nuclear medicine!
                                                          There are many other pictures of the studio on the link-enjoy ...I know there are many out there that will enjoy this.



http://kimchaltry.blogspot.com/

Have to run now, visiting my sister today....

See you 'round the corner,

Janie

This is Just A Fantastic Plant Story..And A Rant....

Saw this on the news tonight..maybe you did too.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/science/new-life-from-an-arctic-flower-that-died-32000-years-ago.html

 

It is 32000 years old!   Russian scientists found it in the Siberian Tundra..buried by a squirrel (probably anyway) all that time ago...  with a lot more! 


It reminds me of what was supposed to be a  a small ground hugging Phlox I've had coming up in a small bed, for a few years now... I have ever been able to find an actual name for it, or a picture, but it kind of looks look this..even the leaves...

I think it attests to the resilience strength and longevity of plants. Of the earth itself.  It makes me think of the pines that need a forest fire to germinate...  The amazing-ness of the world we live in..could this all just "happen?   Could there be anything but a creator?  That creation just keeps on going on!  A creator that makes sure no matter what happens on earth, no matter what humans do to it, it will never be destroyed, but be renewed..over and over again...what ever it takes... 


If man would just stop trying to make it bend to what he wants......and "go with the flow" of life....work with it..instead of fighting it...or time.....or change....and renewal....it can take care of itself...renew itself...and us too...


Time to think about what BIG business, and corporation farming is doing not only to the planet, to the ground itself, to the seas...to the air and water, but to humans as well..and the animals, and birds and even the insects, and yes, the plants as well, that live on it.   Time to think about what pharmaceuticals are telling millions of people "what they need to ask their Drs for"...  GMO foods....ok..let them do that..but LABEL it so the ones who don't want to poison themselves and their families....OUR families, can say no to it...

They keep saying that "our" voices make a difference...so I figure if no one buys it....they will have to stop right?   But of course they should have to label it.  Wonder if thats why corporate farming doesn't WANT it labeled..  Because after all, it is all about the profit right?


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/annie-spiegelman/genetically-engineered-food_b_1245023.html


Sorry...That's my rant for the night..thanks for listening!  Wish I had some pictures to share...but the camera needs some repair!!  Too many people using it I guess...haha!


See you 'round the corner..

Janie

The NY Giants! Good night! Good Game! Sports And Families...

                                                       
                                                   

                             They did it!  Had no doubt they would...what a great diversion this was!

I made some snacks...I made some S'more bars for dessert.....I will post that tomorrow..I wasn't even sure how they would turn out but if you like s'mores these are dangerous!

Might not seem like a lot to some..maybe even most...My father came from the country...South Western PA. (Crucible to be exact)

Sports, even if you don't play, are a big part of this country...especially if you COME from the country.  Even high school teams play an important part of the country life....the community...Sports may actually be "glue"..even if you aren't a sports fan...

As a kid I wasn't that interested in sports..I did like running.  (only because it reminded me of horse racing..horses..yum....)  But my father and brother ate sports...Even now, a summer nap with a ball game in the back ground is heaven to me.  Especially on the radio!  And as I grew into a teen, as the games were on TV..ANY game.. I would sit in the living room, as they watched and sketch the players in action for practice.  And the family dog.

Horse racing...  Growing up, this horse crazy kid had to scour the sports section to find racing pictures, just to "see'" a horse, in this very non horsey no horse access community, I grew up in....  I even managed to get a hold of TB racing breeder magazines (I have no idea where I found one, or how I got it)!  Just so I could draw them.  (a brutal sport in that the actual athletes are treated like property, and discarded like garbage if they are not money makers (even now).)

Interestingly, my husband did not like sports.  He never watched any kind of sports in the 25 years we were married.  He did play soft ball with friends now and then at picnics, but never watched it on TV.  Me?  I LOVED the Olympics and watched every minute...in between doing what I had to do or go where I had to go with the family....(summer AND winter..) My 2 sons probably trying to figure out why???  Because since their father didn't like sports, neither do they.  Is that weird?  I LONGED for a game of catch with a mitt in the front yard.   I used to play catch with my brother, in the front yard, so he could practice for Little League!...But now I can watch baseball, and football, and if I want to, even basketball  (which I Loved to go see in High School, although not so much now..but I DO like the Harlem Globe Trotters..and now they even have a WOMAN on the team I hear!)  

Does this fall under the heading of "be careful what you wish for?".. I hope not..I hope it falls under the heading of women who put themselves aside (although that might not always be a good thing) for their families, because really, our families are the most important thing...families are what make up communities..even countries... Never mind the husband who likes sports, and their wives don't...but thats a whole other story...I am not talking about the husband (or wife) who excludes the family from what they do.)

But for me..sports are home..a family get together just doesn't seem the same without a game droning in the background...

It might be different for you and your family....whatever helps you all grow...and thats ok too..whatever is good for your family, is what is right to do...

But for today...tonight....for me...was a night of peace for me.....a respite from worries, or sadness...or even what I just "have" to do next...

And that the Giants won!  Was icing on the cake!

So from my picture folder..here's some thing blue for Big Blue...although is kind of violet....

See ya later,  have a great night...

Janie