Rhododendron Percy Wiseman
Flowering Quince (Japonica)
May 31, 2011
Eek - There's A Gecko In My Garden!
Continuing To Love The Color Pink...
Pink is the color of romance and a friend tells me that the girl with the pink dress at a party is the one who is selected for each dance.
- Alfred Carl Hottes
- Alfred Carl Hottes
Pattern: Holden Shawlette
Designer: Mindy Wilkes
Yarn: Hand Maiden Sea Silk Limited Edition Solid
Color: Silver Peacock
Needles: Circular - 3.75 mm
May 29, 2011
Sleep, Isabella, Sleep
We found this absolutely marvelous planter at Oceanview Garden Centre in Chester this afternoon. I've named her Isabella.
Queen Isabella of France married Edward II, King of England. So now the family has more than one Isabelle uniting two cultures.
She is the perfect size for herbs so I planted her with rosemary - for remembrance.
In Ronce les Bains, France, there is a house a couple of streets up from the sea with beautiful Monet blue planters on the steps going up to the front door. Those pots made such an impression on me that I have been looking for them ever since. This one comes close. I've put it beside a Japanese maple and planted it with Hakonechloa macra Aureola - Golden Japanese Forest Grass.
Blue Brunnera Jack Frost
And a blue glass ball for the garden.
May 19, 2011
Audrey Hepburn: I Believe In Pink
Designer: Loredana Gianferri
Yarn: Tosh Merino Light
Color: Molly Ringwald
Needles: Circular, 3.75 mm.
This shawl is really not as large as it seems in the photo. It is really shawlette size. I chose to knit the smaller version of the pattern and went down from the recommended 4.0 mm needle to 3.75 mm as I wanted to use it more as a scarf with a winter coat. It is a sweet pattern and really would be lovely in a variety of sizes.
The designer has provided a well laid out pattern with the stitch count included at the end of every row so it would be an excellent pattern for an inexperienced lace knitter who wanted to give lace work a try.
May 13, 2011
Pretty In Pink
I have not purchased yarn in many weeks. I was determined after Christmas to make good use of the supply in the yarn drawer and, besides, The Girls 1.0 had given me a stack of gift certificates for Romni Wools in Toronto. I probably won't get to the Centre of Canada until June but what a wonderful time I will have in that store (two levels with a mind boggling inventory) when I arrive.
So I have spent the winter and very early spring dutifully knitting from my yarn stash. Now I am celebrating the late arrival of spring (albeit a grey and wet one) with the purchase of two beautiful skeins of Hand Maiden Sea Silk - one of my favorite yarns.
There is some irony in ordering a Nova Scotia yarn from an online store in Oregon and having it shipped all the way back across the continent. But Color Song is the only store I know of that carries the limited edition solid colors of Hand Maiden Sea Silk. Their customer service is excellent and they ship worldwide for free!
So I have spent the winter and very early spring dutifully knitting from my yarn stash. Now I am celebrating the late arrival of spring (albeit a grey and wet one) with the purchase of two beautiful skeins of Hand Maiden Sea Silk - one of my favorite yarns.
There is some irony in ordering a Nova Scotia yarn from an online store in Oregon and having it shipped all the way back across the continent. But Color Song is the only store I know of that carries the limited edition solid colors of Hand Maiden Sea Silk. Their customer service is excellent and they ship worldwide for free!
Hand Maiden Sea Silk - Honeysuckle
Hand Maiden Sea Silk - Silver Peony
May 11, 2011
The Recipe Box
I found an old family friend when I was rummaging in the basement this morning - a recipe box from our home in north end Halifax in the 1950's. It had fallen behind a shelving unit and remained there for years.
Every girl in Nova Scotia took Home Economics in junior and senior high and the academic year was divided into two sections - cooking and sewing. I dreaded the sewing half of the year. My garments never quite came together - seams puckered, sleeves never set in properly, and, as for zippers - Mon Dieu! I distinctly remember one long sleeve, pink gingham dress with a zipper up the back and white rick rack at the wrists (can you imagine!) - laboured over with no real understanding of the principles involved and completely unwearable! How I hated those projects!
The cooking classes were more enjoyable and always involved transcribing the recipes onto index cards and this box, which was always in one of our kitchen cupboards at home, contains some of those recipe cards in a variety of handwriting. I can recognize that of at least three sisters, my mother's, and my own. Interesting enough, though the box is divided into many categories of recipes, the majority of cards are in the candy, cake, and dessert sections - a testament, perhaps, to the type of food that interested young teenage girls most!
Every girl in Nova Scotia took Home Economics in junior and senior high and the academic year was divided into two sections - cooking and sewing. I dreaded the sewing half of the year. My garments never quite came together - seams puckered, sleeves never set in properly, and, as for zippers - Mon Dieu! I distinctly remember one long sleeve, pink gingham dress with a zipper up the back and white rick rack at the wrists (can you imagine!) - laboured over with no real understanding of the principles involved and completely unwearable! How I hated those projects!
The cooking classes were more enjoyable and always involved transcribing the recipes onto index cards and this box, which was always in one of our kitchen cupboards at home, contains some of those recipe cards in a variety of handwriting. I can recognize that of at least three sisters, my mother's, and my own. Interesting enough, though the box is divided into many categories of recipes, the majority of cards are in the candy, cake, and dessert sections - a testament, perhaps, to the type of food that interested young teenage girls most!
May 10, 2011
Yellow In Spring
Here is an old Nova Scotia refrain:
Rain, drizzle, and fog
We might as well live in a bog
The streets are all wet
And still all we get
Is rain, drizzle, and fog!
May 08, 2011
Rocky Road
2.0 has had a hard week. His cat was booked for dental surgery and no amount of reassurance could convince 2.0 that a feline built like a Sherman tank, with a disposition somewhat akin to a disgruntled, constipated warlord would come out of the experience hardly the worse for wear. She did and we celebrated with the kind of dessert so dear to 2.0's heart.
I had my doubts while putting this concoction together. In fact, just working with the ingredients - a layer of chocolate wafer crumbs, followed by layers of chocolate ice cream, Lindt chocolate melted in cream, marshmallows melted in cream, and toasted walnuts - produced symptoms strikingly similar to Type 2 diabetes. And there's an added pressure when making a meal these days. Movita has become a tough act to follow. She has gone from browsing my collection of family recipes to researching her own and raising the bar higher and higher.
But even though I had convinced myself that it was possibly going to be one of the most ghastly desserts ever produced in the Granite Kitchen, it really wasn't all that bad. However, after partaking in such an intense flavour experience, I will be happy finishing my meals with fresh fruit for the next few weeks!
I had my doubts while putting this concoction together. In fact, just working with the ingredients - a layer of chocolate wafer crumbs, followed by layers of chocolate ice cream, Lindt chocolate melted in cream, marshmallows melted in cream, and toasted walnuts - produced symptoms strikingly similar to Type 2 diabetes. And there's an added pressure when making a meal these days. Movita has become a tough act to follow. She has gone from browsing my collection of family recipes to researching her own and raising the bar higher and higher.
From: epicurious.com
But even though I had convinced myself that it was possibly going to be one of the most ghastly desserts ever produced in the Granite Kitchen, it really wasn't all that bad. However, after partaking in such an intense flavour experience, I will be happy finishing my meals with fresh fruit for the next few weeks!
Rocky Road Sundae Pie
May 03, 2011
My Sister's Birthday
Did I say April was a busy month for special occasions? Well, May starts off with a bang. May 1st is Auntie Diane's birthday. May 2nd is Movita's. And May 3rd is my sister Heather's.
Heather and I spent our formative years at the tail end of a family of seven children in the north end of Halifax when the north end seemed more like a Norman Rockwell neighborhood.
She is five years older than me and when she told me solemnly that I would be kicked out of school in grade primary as soon as they discovered I couldn't cut straight with scissors, I believed her. I spent my first few weeks at school in agony - convinced that I would be shown the door at any moment.
Like all little sisters, I always wanted to tag along with her and, like all little sisters, was never allowed. But I learned a lot about 45 rpm records, movie star magazines and fan clubs, Johnny Cash, Chubby Checker, Bobby Darin, and Frankie Avalon from the sidelines!
I have always admired and envied her free flowing sense of camaraderie. Her husband told me once that she was a social butterfly in that she could go into any situation and come out with a new friend.
We have found in recent years that despite living seemingly forever on opposite coasts of this great country, we have more in common all the time.
Except - damn it- I still cannot cut straight with scissors.
Heather and I spent our formative years at the tail end of a family of seven children in the north end of Halifax when the north end seemed more like a Norman Rockwell neighborhood.
She is five years older than me and when she told me solemnly that I would be kicked out of school in grade primary as soon as they discovered I couldn't cut straight with scissors, I believed her. I spent my first few weeks at school in agony - convinced that I would be shown the door at any moment.
Like all little sisters, I always wanted to tag along with her and, like all little sisters, was never allowed. But I learned a lot about 45 rpm records, movie star magazines and fan clubs, Johnny Cash, Chubby Checker, Bobby Darin, and Frankie Avalon from the sidelines!
I have always admired and envied her free flowing sense of camaraderie. Her husband told me once that she was a social butterfly in that she could go into any situation and come out with a new friend.
We have found in recent years that despite living seemingly forever on opposite coasts of this great country, we have more in common all the time.
Except - damn it- I still cannot cut straight with scissors.
Happy Birthday, Heather. You look as good now as you did back then.
May 02, 2011
Happy Birthday Movita Beaucraft
We celebrated Movita's birthday yesterday by helping Movita and 2.0 sow their first vegetable garden. Planting always seems to me to be a perfect way to celebrate just about anything as it symbolizes hope and renewal. Later in the day, Movita served possibly the best soup I have ever tasted - a carrot ginger in pretty blue ramekins - followed by a Thai beef rice noodle entree.
We had birthday cake, of course, for dessert. Now Movita loves Superstore cake. She would much prefer a Superstore cake to a homemade cake on her birthday. This puzzles and confuses us. At the bakery counter in Superstore, we became increasingly dismayed at the amount of food dyes used in the perfectly God awful icing decorations on the top of the precooked and mass produced cakes that Movita holds so dear (vanilla cake with white icing and colored decorations). We kept moving helplessly from one end of the display case to the other, bewildered as to how to choose between either virulent red roses with brilliant Kelly green leaves or blindingly yellow blossoms or, possibly, the brightest turquoise ever produced in frosting form.
When I asked the bakery worker if we could get one decorated with all white icing, (perhaps subconsciously thinking of Kate and Wills and their magnificently tasteful wedding cake), she stared at some point beyond my right shoulder and said "Yeah - in two weeks."
Finally, we asked her to pack up the Oreo Special, which seemed to us to be the lesser of all the store-bought evils, but by the time we arrived home, I felt as though we had betrayed Movita's trust and called 2.0 with the confession. Always kind and considerate, he assured us that he could supply one of the more "Movita ones" on her actual birthday today.
We had birthday cake, of course, for dessert. Now Movita loves Superstore cake. She would much prefer a Superstore cake to a homemade cake on her birthday. This puzzles and confuses us. At the bakery counter in Superstore, we became increasingly dismayed at the amount of food dyes used in the perfectly God awful icing decorations on the top of the precooked and mass produced cakes that Movita holds so dear (vanilla cake with white icing and colored decorations). We kept moving helplessly from one end of the display case to the other, bewildered as to how to choose between either virulent red roses with brilliant Kelly green leaves or blindingly yellow blossoms or, possibly, the brightest turquoise ever produced in frosting form.
When I asked the bakery worker if we could get one decorated with all white icing, (perhaps subconsciously thinking of Kate and Wills and their magnificently tasteful wedding cake), she stared at some point beyond my right shoulder and said "Yeah - in two weeks."
Finally, we asked her to pack up the Oreo Special, which seemed to us to be the lesser of all the store-bought evils, but by the time we arrived home, I felt as though we had betrayed Movita's trust and called 2.0 with the confession. Always kind and considerate, he assured us that he could supply one of the more "Movita ones" on her actual birthday today.
Recommended After Dinner Digestif : Insulin
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