Loving the month of June...

Hello everyone.. 

How are you?  

Another lovely day here in New Brunswick.. 

I must say I am loving the month of June.. 

I believe May and June are my happy months!  smile.. 

Everything so bright and beautiful!  

Really bright now that I have had my cataracts removed from both eyes!  

I just find the colours so fresh.. 

When I only had one eye fixed I would

cover it and look through the eye that had not been done and you cannot imagine the difference.. 

It was just like a very foggy day.. 

No wonder I couldn't see to type on this computer or anything.. 

I laughed and told our daughter that I was looking at her Dad and thought to myself how many wrinkles he had and then I looked in the mirror!  lol!

That was an eye opener!  grin.. 

No really!  

And the spider webs and such!  

Oh my, I am just so thankful to get it all behind me.. 

Thank you to you dear girls who prayed for me..  

I so appreciate it and for your prayer and comments about us losing our dear dog, Charlie.. 

He is missed!  

Now on with the story.. 

The above pic is from the farm obviously... 

We are slowly getting things in order.. 

We are not sure when we will be moving out for the summer but soon, I hope.. 

Bought a couple of lace table runners that I love for the old table..

So loving lace lately.. 

I always have but tried to do whatever was in fashion until a few years ago when I was finished with the craft business.. 

I decided to do what I love and lace is one of them.. 

Curtains and such... 

Do you like lace and linens and lilacs? smile.. 

 

These lilacs are from my Aunt Eva's lilac tree.. 

She only planted a white one but we now have a new purple one growing there.. 

Hoping to make a Lilac foot soak this week with dried lilacs and Epsom salt, etc.. 

I did get my buntings done for the kitchen and put one up..

Not a very good pic but you get the drift.. 

I ended up cutting up my new tea towel.. smile.. 

I bought a new one though .. 

The herb beds are doing wonderful.. 

Lovage, Tarragon, Compfrey, Chives, Sage and Thyme and new Basil... 

Oh and a Lavender in this bed.. 

This is a bottle of Chive Vinegar.. 

If you have some chives growing just put them in a glass jar and fill with vinegar... 

White wine is the best but quite expensive.. 

You can use just plain white vinegar.. 

I saw this way of doing them on the Tangled Garden article that was published in Victoria Bliss magazine. 

The Tangled Garden is in Nova Scotia and is a place we hope to visit this summer some day... 

It is not necessary to use the stems.. 

Just put the heads in and your vinegar will turn a most lovely pink colour.. 

A friend and I were saying the other day that Chive vinegar is our favourite.. 

Makes a wonderful salad dressing or use on fish or whatever you put vinegar on.. 

After a couple of weeks strain it through cheesecloth or a coffee filter and put in your pantry.. 

I always make extra to give away..

Now is the time to get your gift pantry stocked... 

Gathering some Lovage to dry for seasonings and such.. 

And of course my Tomato Drink that I look forward to.. 

Drinking it from a Lovage straw!  

We have been spending quite a bit of time at the farm and this was one lunch time special.. 

Spaghetti and Meatballs.. 

Flavoured with herbs.. 

Oregano, Parsley and Garlic... 

We don't eat a lot of this but it is so good... 

The kitchen is getting done out there but Terry is so busy with the gardens that I can't get him in the house at all..  

One day I made a batch of jam as you can see on the stove.. 

Love love the stove.. 

There is my new coffee perk my son bought me.. 

It is just like the old fashioned ones and I can use it on the wood stove, too.. 

I have been putting stuff in the cupboard while I wait for Terry to give the doors another coat.. 

Then I will unpack a few boxes from St. Martins.. 

And do it right.. 

Oh my.. 

All in good time.. So I keep telling myself.. smile.. 

This day we had a lovely stew like soup.. 

One of Terry's friends gifted him with a jar of home made stew that they had canned.. 

It was delicious!  

I added a jar of our canned green beans to stretch it but hopefully we will get some stew done up this Fall.. 

Comes in so handy and so quick to heat up.. 

I keep changing things.. grin.. 

Saw a pic on Instagram of little kitchen shelves with old cups on them.. 

Dug out some cups and voila!  

I should have taken a pic of the all the shelves.. 

I will later when I finally get everything done.. 

Well.. 

That about wraps up what we have been doing.. 

Our gardens are mostly planted now so we need to clean up the yard and get our deck and such done.. 

I have been buying a few plants but to be honest I am waiting for sales... 

Surely they will come along soon... 

I thought I would show you this old pic... 

I posted it on Instagram for Father's Day.. 

A long time ago I was his little girl..  

He found the Lord a couple of years after this pic was taken and had a genuine experience that affected our daily lives.. 

What a difference Jesus made.. 

It was the best thing Dad ever did with his whole life.. 

I am so thankful he introduced us to Jesus... 

And that he stayed true... 

Thanks for visiting my luvs and I look forward to your comments. 

Hopefully, we won't be running to the doctors and such and I will answer your notes on Face Book.. 

Welcome to the new followers of the blog and thanks too for sharing my page on FB.. 

I appreciate you all and God bless... 

Acts 2:38  

 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

A lovely Monday...

Good Evening my dears.. 

Hope you all had a great weekend..

It turned into a lovely Monday here in New Brunswick.. 

This afternoon I decided I needed to do a little herbal work.. 

My lovage is at least 4 feet high...

 

As you can see it has taken over half of this raised bed.. 

You can google all of the wonderful things about lovage.. 

All I know is that it is one of my favorite herbs.. 

I had made an experimental bottle of pickled lovage a few weeks ago and I must confess that I ate the whole bottle by myself.. 

Not something that Terry wanted to give his opinion on.. 

Oh well.. I loved them.. 

So different from most pickles...

All I did was to cut them up and wash them.. 

Then I made of brine of ... 

6 cups of water 

2 cups of white vinegar

1/3 cup of coarse salt.. 

* actually, I used lovage salt that I had made last Spring  and still had some left.. 

Bring to a boil ..

Add 1/2 tsp. of red peppercorns and 1 bay leaf to each bottle.... Cover with brine..

I ended up with this much... 

Then I tied the leaves up and will dry out and use for my soup herb bags that I made HERE

Once it is dried really well then I will stuff the leaves into a mason jar to use in salads and such.. 

It has a lovely celery and cardamon flavor.. 

You can also make vinegar like I made HERE..

The chives are all in bloom and ready to make vinegars and dressing like HERE...

I thought I would show you a neat wee thing I bought the other day.. 

A little battery light that goes in water in your vase of flowers.. 

Neat, eh?  

Thank you sweet ladies for your lovely visit.. 

We did not get to the cottage yet.. 

Several things came up but we do plan to get there this week.. 

Just leave me a note so I know you dropped by.. 

Love hearing from you... 

God bless...

LINKED TO....HOMESTEAD REVIVAL'S BARN HOP

What can I do with some Rhubarb and Herbs??

Good Morning, everyone... 

Here I am in the early hours of the day for a change... 

I thought I would do this before my day gets going too much.. 

We are leaving to go to a conference later so I decided to drop you a little line, now... 

It is another beautiful Spring day here in Eastern Canada... 

I was out rooting amongst the garden trying to find something edible... grin... 

My Mom was saying her Rhubarb was really big so I went out and checked ours... Terry says it has been there for twenty years and is root bound.. We want to transplant it over to where the horse corral used to be..

 We had a pony once... Dustin named her Gracie Black... smile.. She is gone now and unlike my relatives I do not need a horse...grin.. If you read this and you are related to me on my father's side you understand what I am saying.. 

They LOVE horses and HAVE horses... 

I like them but don't need one... 

Anyway...

 On with the story... 

Here are my pickings from the garden....

The Rhubarb is coming along... Root bound or not... 

The chives are glorious.

The lovage I picked.... It will grow 6 feet high //

My harvest... 

Isn't it pretty?.. 

God sure knew his color palette, didn't He?  

He CREATED the color palette..  smile...

My two favorite colors when I am being heartful and not trendy.. 

Greens and Reds....

Now what can I do with this wee early harvest??? 

Hmmmm... 

How about a Salad Dressing.. 

Yes, Janet B... another salad... grin...

Want the recipe... 

Just slice up 3 stalks of rhubarb into thin slices and place in a 1/3 cup of water in a small pot and simmer for 7 minutes.. 

Cool for a couple of minutes...

Place in your blender along with zest from 1 lemon, 3 T. red wine vinegar, salt and pepper to taste, 1 tsp. grainy mustard, 3 T. olive or canola oil... I put a small minced clove of garlic in too but that is optional... 

Whisk together until smooth...

Isn't that pretty... Tasty, too... Honest...

Now what to make... 

OK.... 

How about an Herb Salad...

One of my all time faves.. 

I shouldn't tell you but I had 2 helpings.. 

Herbs and Rhubarb Dressing is AWESOME... 

To make HERB SALAD..

I took a handful of Lovage leaves and tore them up, then a big handful of chives and cut them up, 2 handfuls of chopped lettuce and  1 handful of spinach... 

You can use whatever herbs you have growing.. 

Later I will add basil and thyme..

Toss up along with your dressing... 

Delicious, if I must say.. 

And may I add... Very good for you... 

Now, you know me... 

I have wanted to try this since I heard about it from our Prince Edward Island chef... Michael Smith... 

Lovage Pickles..

I only picked enough to do one bottle as it needs to grow more..  

Michael emailed me and told me to just use one of my pickling brines to make them..... 

So... I did... 

I will let you know how they turn out... 

They need to brine for a few days.. grin..

Then last but not least... 

I made my Acadian Salted Chives...

A sweet little Acadian lady from the North of the province came into my shop and told me how to do this... 

ACADIAN  SALTED CHIVES..

Just chop up your Chives with your scissors and layer it with kosher salt... 

Let it sit for several weeks and after a while the salt takes on the chives flavor and you use it for soups, salads, fish.... Whatever... 

All right my dears I hear the laundry calling my name... 

Or perhaps it is the clothesline... grin.. 

I also hear the lawn mower going... 

Isn't God good to give us these lovely seasons?  

I am looking forward to hearing the Word of the Lord tonight...

Take care sweeties... 

Oh... I did want to welcome the new followers and to thank 

you girls who joined the networked blog through your facebook.. 

I don't do facebook but I must say I was happy to see your faces on the sidebar thing... I didn't think it would ever happen.. smile..

And of course I love hearing from all of your faithful ones.. 

It truly makes my day.. 

You guys have an awesome one... 

Hugs....

A Day's Doings and a Quick Supper Recipe...

Hello my dears...

Just thought I would give you a pictorial view of my day... smile..

Not that you are interested but when I began this blog I explained that this is basically what it would be..
Just a day in the life of an old-er (grin) keeper of the home..

So.. this is today...

My sweet husband brought me home a grocery bag full of chives..

Yikes... what to do with all of these.. I grow some but I would have to chop them all down to get this many.. He found them growing in a ditch... Bless him... smile..

Oh well ... here goes..

Heads off for jelly and vinegars...

And then chop the rest for....

Delicious salted herbs...

Four bottles... I can give a couple away and have the rest until next Spring..

And then I went out and did more gardening...

There is a lot of moss growing here in St. Martins so I do mostly container gardening except for a couple of herb beds..

As I  was telling you we found a place selling flowers at clearance prices..

I still have more to do and will show you when I actually get them done..

Then I came in for lunch and had one of my favs...

I grow sprouts all year long..

I know there is fresh greens out there but our garden is at home ..

So instead of paying 3 dollars for a wee pack of sprouts I do my own...

This is a lunch that I have often..

Pita bread with a bit of mayo flavored with garlic and then a layer of sprouts... Perhaps some onion or tomato or cuke..

Not today, though... Just mayo and sprouts..

Terry calls this my hippie lunch...

Peace... I say... giggle.. He doesn't like them...

Oh well, he is not home today... smile..

OK... it is one o'clock and I need to go to the shop..

It was a lovely afternoon..

My sweet friend Tamara (Tammy) and her husband drove 2 hours to come and surprise me... Bless them...

And Janelle and Hannah dropped in..

Hannah picked out her birthday present... smile..

And then I sold 3 of my big dolls... Yeah:-)

I now have to make more bigger ones...

I love making dolls...

And then I came home and made this for supper...

7-HAPPINESS BEEF AND RICE...

Yes... that is what it is called.. I found this in an old cookbook that was over at the shop...

I HATE TO COOK COOKBOOK....

It is a really interesting one.. (I love to read cookbooks.. weird, eh?)

Well, I found this recipe and had to try it..

This is what it says..

The 7 reasons for happiness in making this are:

1..It is meat and starch combined.

2..Neither has to be cooked first.

3..Everything goes together at once.

4..Very young people and very old people like it and the others don't mind it much.

5..The amount of meat depends on what's there.

6..Odds and ends of veggies can go into it.

7..Though it looks like dog food when it goes into the oven it doesn't when it comes out...

Well, that what it says in the cook book..

Now here is the recipe..

1/4 cup veg. oil (I used 1/8)

1 cup uncooked rice1/2-1 1/2 cups of lean ground beef

small bottle of stuffed olives... (I used 1/4 cup of chopped green peppers)

1 tsp. each salt, pepper and paprika

1 medium onion chopped.. (I added a large clove of garlic, too)

1 1/2 cups V8 juice

1 1/2 cups boiling water...

grated cheese..

Mix everything except cheese up in a large bowl..

Place in an oiled 9 x 13 pan and bake in  a 350 degree oven for 1 hour.. Add cheese and cook another 10 minutes...

Believe me... it was DELICIOUS and SO EASY..

Oh, then my dear cousin Dan and Sara came up for a visit..

They are sweet...

Well, my ladies... this is my post for tonight..

Have a blessed and lovely evening..

It is bedtime here in Atlantic Canada and guess what?  It's raining again...

Love and Prayers...