Thursday 24 June 2010

A garden for all seasons

Not everyone is born a gardener. But I am testimony to the fact that everyone can become one. What with information on just about anything on google, its easy to learn to garden no matter where on the planet you are now. You just need access to the internet and of course the material. Anyways, I wanted flowers early to lighten the misery of early Spring with the snow having disappeared and time left for warm winds to nudge the flora on.

So I planted some daffodils in a bed with a giant hosta. The good things about daffodils is that they do well in sun or shade. So this is what my 'hosta' bed looked like early Spring.
The flowers were a bit of a dissapointment because I thought I had picked lots of different shades and types of daffodils. Apparently not! But you can't help but be pleased and feel all happy when you see these pretty flowers. So simple, so elegant and fragrant too.
After putting on a beautiful show for us they went their way. And in their place I now have giant hostas. I am not sure exactly what this particular hosta is called, but we love it. They are bright green with the most beautiful leaves. You'd never even know the daffodils were there.
Aren't they regal?

Yay for Mrs Mourning Dove!

Why they are called mourning doves beats me. I love these quiet birds. It is always nice to see them in the yard. They are not pesky like the red-winged black birds or the grackle for that matter. Anyways, my neighbour pointed out a nest Mrs MD had built right in front of our house. She was nesting in a really low branch and seemed quite content when I saw her two days ago and took this picture.
Since then I have checked on her everyday to make sure she was there and hadn't abandoned her babies-to-be. Yesterday I was really concerned for her when the weather guys forecast gale force winds and tornadoes. We had also experienced a teeny bit of seismic activity earlier in the day. So naturally, me being me, was super concerned. When heavy rain woke me up at 4:00 am I actually though of her before I thought of my son sleeping in his room.

Well, she seems to be doing fine and sit sitting pretty. Keep your fingers and toes and whatever else crossed for my Mrs MD.

Wednesday 9 June 2010

Paella

I love saying it - paella! The first time I cooked it was when we had asked our neighbours over for dinner and I had no clue what to do. My trusty old friend who always pulled off a fabulous dinner suggested paella. She rattled off a recipe, but she gave me no quantity. So I Googled the recipe and improvised as I went on. Improvisation is my problem when it comes to cooking. Anyhow, we ended up with enough paella to feed the neighbourhood. And it didn't taste that good either. Thank God for wine they ate politely and left.

Yesterday I cooked a vegetarian paella from an Australian Women's Weekly cookbook a friend gave me some time ago and it turned out just like in the book!! How often does that happen? Well not too often in my case. And I did not improvise! And it tasted okay.

The best part about the whole paella effort was that my toddler ate it!! Woohoo!
I always intend to take pretty pictures with the food presented beautifully, but screaming toddler + hungry husband = blurry pictures of food in the cooking pots.