I am celebrating my 28th birthday with my lovely husband on an island in the Western Caribbean Sea.
Cheers!
photo from here
Monthly Archive for June, 2010
I decided that if I could have a peony bush outside of my future home I would always have a smile on my face. So beautiful and fragrant.
We’ve been here in this house for almost three years. I don’t know about how fast time flies these days. In that time we have struggled to make this house a home, but I’m finally feeling really good about the backyard and our attempts at urban gardening. This summer especially the backyard is looking so nice, and I really love to sit out there with a book, magazine, or just by my lonesome. Nathan and I eat dinner out there when we grill, too.
The other day we were grilling, and I decided to snap a few pictures of the backyard and Tucker. It’s not that big, but we’re planning on having a big summer party towards the middle of July!
The first tomatoes of the season have begun to grow! These are the beefeater tomatoes from Genesis Growers. They should be bigg’uns!
I’m expecting the heirloom tomato plant will have baby tomatoes on it in just a few days. There are plenty of flowers already!
Nathan is a perfectionist.
A few weeks ago when we were tilling up the front yard and preparing to plant our seedlings I said to Nathan, “Are you sure you don’t want to measure out the spots for the corn?” He said, “Nah, you go ahead.” (I’m leaving out a part where we chatted about how the veggies should be evenly spaced, and orderly).
See, I knew that if I planted the corn they would not be perfectly spaced. I also knew that if Nathan planted them they would.
I am an imperfectionist.
(See, that’s not even a real word.)
Back to the corn and the garden. I laughed after I planted all the corn, and stood back to admire my work. It was definitely not straight, nor evenly spaced. I said, “It’s a good thing one of us is a perfectionist.” Nathan replied, “I remember thinking I was marrying a perfectionist.”
I sort of scoffed, Did he really think I was a perfectionist until recently? No way! I don’t hide these things. I can’t fold a towel straight, or sew a line, or even kill ants the right way (a story for another day)!
“When did you realize I wasn’t a perfectionist?!” I asked.
He sort of smiled, and said, “As soon as I met you.”
We laughed, and I took comfort that my shortcomings (if you will) were obvious from the beginning. This is also why I am the cook in the family. I mix and toss and dice whatever I feel like regardless of the recipe. Well, this weekend I realized perfectionists can have a place in the kitchen, too. A really big one at that!
A baker!
Yup that is right my husband Mr. Nathaniel Griffin is a baker. A phenomenal one. You know why? Because baking is a science, and he follows directions. He is precise.
Check out these blueberry muffins (blueberries from the local farm) he whipped up Sunday morning. If only you could taste them, too. Light, fluffy, delicately sweet, and perfectly summer.
Whoa… slight addendum to Monday’s post about PEAS!
We not only have flowers, we have PEAS!
PEAS, PLEASE!
Saturday morning I planned to wake up early! Now I wake up around 4:30 am M-F so I savor the time I have on the weekends to sleep in, cuddle with Nathan, and let the sunlight pour in my bedroom windows. But this Saturday I had plans.
Plan 1 - bike to the Farmer’s Market (I don’t know why I always capitalize Farmer’s Market, but I do. So there.) Nathan said the night before that he would like to come, but then I woke up around 3 am to find him asleep in his computer chair, so I doubted he would actually wake up to go with me at 6:30 am! But he did!
So we biked. This was the day after I did almost 2 hours of zumba so my legs were killing me, but it was well worth it. The Farmer’s Market is so quiet if you get there early, and you get first dibs on everything!
I stopped by my favorite booths - Ellis Family Farm for raspberries and cherries, Genesis Growers for cabbage, King’s Hill Farm for eggs (they always have the best variety - I even got a blue egg this time)!
I chatted quite a bit more with a few of the farmer’s this time. I also recently watched the PBS special To Market To Market to Buy a Fat Pig. It was a great special, and really spoke about the relationship with the consumer and the farmer. That is personally my favorite part. I like talking to the person who dropped those seeds in the ground, or who let the chickens out to peck, or who picked those berries off the bush.
We met two really funny flower farmer’s from St. Anne (their farm is called The Flower Garden). I had already purchased three peonies from another farmer, and told them next week I’d stop at their farm first! They were so nice and funny that I ended up going back to them that day to buy a sunflower! Plus I just love sunflowers.
The other day I was surprised to see pretty little white flowers on the pea plants! It’s amazing to think that I started these little plants as a tiny dried out pea seed not that long ago.
The weather is consistently above the 80s mark here on out, so I am doubtful we will get fruit. However the flowers are so pretty that I am satisfied enough with them if that’s all we get this season. I actually saw pea tendrils for sale at the Green City Market yesterday. I bet they are great in salads! I plucked off a leaf last night to try it - a little tougher than a regular lettuce leaf, but full of sweet pea flavor!
Tucker is okay, though we did get a cone. We were told to use it “judiciously.” He was a good boy yesterday so no cone. The best news of all is that Tucker has lost 10 lbs since we took him to the vet last!!!
10 lbs!!
That is like 30 on a human or something. I don’t know the actual equation, but it’s a lot. He should be proud, because I am. Way to go Tucker! And props to Nathan and I for being steadfast in our approach (though we faltered a bit) to his weight loss. He needs to lose another 10 lbs and we should be good.
I thought I noticed he was melting, but didn’t want to get my hopes up.
He deserves another romp through the woods soon!
