Pause and Ponder

Several people I know have died suddenly in the past couple of days. It causes me to ponder our mortality, and just how temporary our lives are on earth. I think it helps us put the proper perspective on which things are important, and what are maybe not such a big deal afterall. Too often, though, we stumble upon such an eye-opening experience, but then pick ourselves up and go the same way we were headed before. I hope I will listen and heed any change in direction I may need to make.

Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life. ~John Muir

Comfort

Once a week, my friends Anna Lyn and Joy and I try to meet together. It doesn't really happen that often. But we try. Last week we met here for breakfast. I served those yummy strawberries on french toast breakfast.


We ate out on the new deck, overlooking the bird garden/feeding area. The wild honeysuckle is blooming now, and their sweet scent filled the air as we ate and talked. We chat all over the map when we are together. About books we are reading. Computer stuff. Jobs. Gardens. Politics. Religion. And yes, we are still friends afterwards :-)

A few weeks ago Anna Lyn graced us by playing her mandolin as Joy and I watered and weeded. She is a gifted stringed-instrumentalist. Her father makes stringed instruments. That truly amazes me! He makes them one by one, completely handmade!

She also loves to read out loud, and has perfect inflection, making her an easy-to-listen-to entertainment. After music, she read to us from a book, Traveling Mercies, by Anne Lamott. I later finished the book on my own. Humorous, yet thoughtful reading.

Those are my raspberry bushes Joy is watering. Joy loves to water, so I put her to work when she is here :-) They need watering right now, too. Maybe I need to have them over tomorrow! Instead, we will be meeting in town at a Smoothie Joint..... yum.....

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our soul blossom. ~Marcel Proust

Bride-to-Be #3 (Elite 8)

Today I tooled on over to Fall City for the wedding shower of Tennyson. She is to be married in 3 weeks to Kyle, and together they will make the third couple of the Elite Eight to tie the knot!

Gorgeous, is she not?!?!

Tea was served in beautiful cups and saucers.....

Tennyson and her mother, Roslyn.
Wonder where she gets her smashing looks?


For you Jones Soda Fans out there!
You can get your own photo on a bottle.....

Piles of gifts. I wonder what is in that Victoria Secret bag? There is a note attached that states it is for Kyle, but she can peek! Hmmm.....

My favorite card!

(Above and Below)

Some of my favorite gifts:

Fun ice cream bowl set!

And look at these heart-shaped teaspoons with cute recipe ingredients written on them ..... 'a spoonful of laughter', 'a heap of love', 'a pinch of patience' and 'a dash of kindness'! I have no doubt that her dishes will turn out perfectly, and win Kyle's stomach ..... oh, I mean heart :-)

Mary (Kyle's mom) made some stickers on her computer of Kyle, Tennyson and family to give to her flower girls and ring-bearers, along with activity/sticker books to put them in! Here she placed a sticker of Kyle in a firetruck (he is a fire-fighter). Talk about creative!

Of course my most favoritest (sic) gift of all came from Aunt Bonnie again! Remember the cute one she made for Andrea's shower? High heel fabric to go with Andrea. Get a closer look at this one for Tennyson!

Double click on it if you can't see it well enough. You'd have to know that Tennyson has this little pipsqueak of a dog that is her baby, and Kyle has been photographed snuggling up to her, too. The dog, that is. It is the same kind of dog (maybe it is a picture of her dog?), that is on the bodice of this apron! And of course not only does the skirt have dog bones, but fire hydrants for the dog to use. How clever, since Kyle is a fireman, too..... You know what? Just double click on this photo whether you want to or not! It is just so dang cute.

Tennyson and Andrea

Mary is so exuberant to be gaining two daughters this year. And such sweethearts they both are! Mary always wanted some girls. My own daughter, Bethany J, was the recipient of much girlie attention from her during her growing-up years. Seems like yesterday. But no. Now the kids are all grown up and living their own lives. *sigh*

Heaven give you many, many merry days. - William Shakespeare

A Bite of Heaven

Recently, I was invited to the home of Lady Godiva (my occasional guest blogger) for breakfast and a tour of her gardens, filled with highly-scented roses, peonies and other beauties! First I will make an account of the scrumptiosis :-) meal:

I need to include the above photo because the one I took of the finished dish (below) came out a bit blurry. Look at that beautiful, choice asparagus!

This is the way the French folk partake in this dish. The roasted asparagus is topped with hard-cooked eggs and then a sauce made from Cremé Fraiche, Dijon mustard, French mayonnaise, a good white wine vinegar and salt & pepper. Finally, fresh basil is sprinkled over all. Delicious, savory, ambrosial, exquisite, delectable..... fit for a king! What else can I say! I ate that entire plateful. Oink!

Next we had Challah French Toast smothered with a fresh strawberry/blueberry topping, and served with what Lady Godiva aptly has named 'Candy Bacon'. It is baked in the oven and basted with maple syrup....... out of this world!!! Sometimes I wish I was still that perpetually skinny young woman I used to be, and that I never reached a 'full' state. It was that good!
Alas, though, I was completely satiated after finishing off with fresh, sweet pineapple. I think I had a little taste of what we may eat in heaven some day :-)

A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked. ~ Bernard Meltzer

A Tour of THE Rose Garden!

After breakfast, we wandered the gardens on Lady Godiva's acreage. If you remember from her steer manure post, her plants are her children. She knows the names of each and every one of them, and tidbits of information that make each one distinct from another. I will let her take over now, and tell you about just some of them! This first rose was my favorite colored one.

Bring it on, Lady Godiva!

Hello, this is Lady Godive Blogging. This one is called Brass Band an unlikely name for such a beautiful rose. I would have called it Peach Melba or Mango Sorbet.

This one is called Double Delight and it is befitting of this charming rose since it has a beautiful fragrance as well as beautiful double colors.

This sassy yellow beauty is Graham Thomas, an English charming, elegant, and very handsome rose.

This gentleman is Mr. Lincoln and he has the most magnificent fragrance, my personal always ready to please stand by, never fail rose.

Tiffany, is she not gorgeous, rather playful with her fragrance.

Fourth of July, how apropos!!!!

Another English Rose, called the Squire, extremely fragrant.

This is a landscape rose, unfortunately, I do not remember his name. He is not fussy, he marches along to his own tune. That is, he blooms when he feels like it, and if he does one thing consistently, is that he never disappoints me with illness or disease. The best performers for landscape roses is called Flower Carpet Roses, basically taking care of themselves. They can be purchased anywhere and they come in bright pink containers. A must for a rose lover who wants to try a rose that needs no care.

Sutter's Gold. No fragrance but then again, I must not be that stodgy!!

Summer Sunshine, an appropriate name for a rose alas not for the State of Washington!!

Sexy Rexy, come on, of course sexy my Rexy!!!

I do not remember Bean Ball taking a picture of this rose and I do not recognize it she must have snuck this picture in to test my rose knowledge!!!!

Kaleidescope, only has four petals.

My favorite rose of all time, her name is Sharifa and man does she have a coquetish demeanor and fragrance!!! She is very much a lady and a rather fragile one. She does not like anything that upsets her, like the wind, the cold etc. She likes it just right!

Yves Piaget, ho ho there is a place in France where the ladies do a dance.....

I have about 25 peonies maybe more, I must be mad since I wait all year for a one week bloom!!

The bees absolutely love this particular peony, I think they like to get tickled in the yellow bits of this flower, I do not know what these yellow bits are called.

These are Japanese Iris, they love the water on their feet, hate it on their head.

Cup and saucer of the Campanula family.

This is an Allium. (From the Onion Family)

Beanball here again: We came across this sleeping bee, waiting for the sun to come out and warm it up enough to fly off. I did not have my SLR camera with me, and how I regretted that. The possibilities of phenomenal macro shots were endless, especially since it had rained earlier. However, my smaller point and shoot did a fair job, and I was able to blow the photo of this bee up to simulate a macro shot!

Bee thankful for good friends, food and flowers!

~Beanball

Strawberry Wreath

Father's Day dessert turned out to be a great Strawberry Wreath, a cream-puff pastry filled with vanilla pudding and strawberries! It is a tradition to make a few times every strawberry season around this household!

Strawberry Wreath

Pastry

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 cup water

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

4 eggs

Melt butter and water in a saucepan. Dump in flour and salt all at once and stir until the dough separates from the sides of the pan and forms a ball. Beat in eggs one at a time until well-blended. Spoon dough into greased bundt or tube pan. Bake in 425 degree oven for 40-50 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from pan as soon as it is done, and slice in half crosswise.

Filling

One 3 3/4 ounce package vanilla pudding

(use either instant or cooked)

3-4 cups sliced strawberries

Prepare pudding as per directions on the box. Let cool if using cooked pudding. After it is set or cooled, spoon it into the bottom half of the wreath. Cover with sliced strawberries.

It should now look like this:

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

2-3 Tbs. strawberry juice

(or milk or water)

After placing the top of the wreath over the berries, make glaze by combining and blending until smooth, and drizzle over the top of the wreath. Like this:

Enjoy!

Happy Father's Day!