Breakfast

We love our farm fresh eggs and we love to share them with our friends ! We have loved seeing everyones recipes for a yummy start to the day.

Pixie Jokisch loves to cook with her parents.

This dish looked great and I had Pixies mother share her recipe-- Thanks Kim!

Dutch Blueberry pancake-YUM

Recipe

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Blend together in blender
4 Large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 cup flour
1/2  teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/4  cup sugar
1/4  teaspoon salt

Melt 2 tbsp butter in skillet- pour batter-scatter blueberries on top- Bake until puffed and cooked through 15 to 18 minutes- Garnish with blueberries and powdered sugar

Dad get up- breakfast is ready!!!!!

Junking

I was in Raleigh for the weekend and got  a chance to go to the Flea  Market ( with the intrepid hunter Deborah) . We all love junk  and we had a great week- See my article in COUNTRY LIVING February 2005- for more on the Raleigh Flea Market.

Yes-two punch bowls!

Punch bowl and tray!

Two sets of Bavarian China to mix and match!

I love the floral for spring or a wedding?

It was a great junking week- of course there is alot more but we have to have some secrets :)

Bouquets !!!!!!!!

Deborah and I did these flowers for the wedding of a friend. Aren't the ice cream buckets great?

Flowers from the yellow garden

Flowers from the cutting garden

In a punch bowl...

Bulbs from Terry- What are they????

Roses

Zinnias in a tin cup

Framed

Everyone loves to look at old pictures,and I have a great collection , but I really love old picture frames- they are works of art...

Every picture tells a story- but so does the frame

The past looks so romantic in black and white

even my past

And funny

in groups

and with sister

Mama and Daddy

Hydrangeas

Due to all the rainfall we have had this summer, my hydrangeas are beautiful this year!  

  

The blue are my favorite but I only have a small patch in the gas garden (below)

Some rust colored daylillies  in the gas garden

  

These are by the pool garden and because of the concrete are pink

Big bouquet

Cutting Garden

I have always enjoyed reading about and seeing different cutting gardens and I was determined this year to start a small one. These are the steps.....

My goal was to have a garden I could cut bouquets from..........

First we dug out an area and added compost.....

Then Filaberto made an edging from old slate tiles

Then in early spring I planted hundreds of seeds

With lots of water

And weeding

Bouquet!!!!!!!

Stormy Weather

A few weeks ago we had a terrible storm in Raleigh.  I was at the farm and Charlie was at the hospital in Raleigh. Our beautiful old red oak in our backyard went down taking the garden pavilion and part of our garage with it. Luckily no one was hurt but what a mess and  what a project! 

This is the Garden Pavilion ready for it's closeup in Country Living Magazine

AFTER

Aftermath of the storm

Happy Fourth of July

Holiday means festive eating -we love my sister-in-law Debbie's Oriental Chicken salad. Perfect for a hot day like the Fourth!

Digging in on the fourth

Recipe for oriental chicken salad

Grill 4 chicken breasts in oven and dice when cool.
2 packages of angel hair cole slaw
2 packages  of Ramen Chicken noodles
1 package sliced almonds
4 green onions chopped
Roast noodles and almonds in oven at 350 till brown about 10 minutes

Dressing
2 tbsp sugar
6 red wine vinegar
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp  salt
2 seasoning packets from the noodles
1 cup roasted peanut oil

Mix dressing and pour on to chicken, cole slaw and green onions.
Then top with noodles and almonds- mix thoroughly

Sweet Dreams

The lavender is in full bloom!  Which means it truly is summer.  I can't wait to start making sachets for the linen closet with my bounty of lavender.  

One of the hens is interested in the harvest. 

One of the confederates joins in... 

I place the finished bundles on top of fresh linens and pillow cases.

I have a huge collection of vintage embroidered linens.
A large amount of my collection consists of linens from by grandmother, Etsie.