Friday Night In June Album...

Happy Weekend everyone.. 

How are you all?  

Hope you are enjoying these first few days of June.. 

We are experiencing rain, rain and more rain.. 

We hardly recognize the sun when it comes out.. grin.. 

Anyway... 

I thought I would do a post of some pics I have taken during the month of June in the last few years.. 

Such reminders of the beauty that June gives to us here in Eastern Canada... 

The above one is of our daughter going to pick me a few violets..

 Which dry so lovely to make book marks and such.. 

Beautiful cows with a background of Dandelions in a pasture behind them.. 

My favourite herb... 

Lovage.. 

The stems are hollow and makes the tomato juice taste kind of like celery.. 

Yummm.. 

Looking for a few brook trout to fry.. smile.. 

Ducks looking for the brook.. smile.. 

Aunt Eva's Johnie Jump Ups.. 

Clotheslines and herbs .. 

Love both.. 

I think this shade of purple is so lovely.. 

Fields of sheep.. 

Chives... 

Purple Iris...

My hubby lovin' life.. 

Just give him some Spring weather and some chores to do and he is a happy man.. grin.. 

Rhubarb... 

A farmer's geese.. 

I think I am getting two as soon as we get to the farm.. 

Making herb salts and such..

Remember when Terry took this pic of a fawn up by the farm.. 

A couple of years ago.. 

It was not even afraid.. 

Sweet.. 

Had to end with a pic of food.. 

One that we love during the summer the most.. 

Fish Chowder... 

Well, dear hearts this is all for this Friday evening.. 

Thank you so much for visiting and welcome to the new Google followers and on the Face Book page.. 

So glad to have you.. 

Take care and God bless... 

Psalms 20:7

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, 

but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.. 

    

Farm Journal 2...

Hello everyone.. 

Finally getting around to doing another little journal post from the farm days.. 

We have been up several times but still not staying overnight.. 

Like everything else that is worth the bother there is lots of work to do.. 

I think there is a path through but that is about all.. 

We stripped the beds and brought it all home to wash.. 

Tomorrow is to be a bit of sun so hopefully it will all get washed and dried on the line..

We have had several meals there.. 

Just ordinary food.. 

Terry is very happy with meat and potatoes and we eat a lot of carrots.. 

That is the new zucchini relish that I made last summer and will definitely give it another try this year.. It used yellow long neck squash.. 

Then as the rhubarb is plentiful both here at home and at the farm I have been making Rhubarb Pineapple Jam..  

Here is the recipe.. 

This one does not have berries in it.. 

My Mom's Rhubarb Jam.. 

6 cups of chopped rhubarb. 

5 cups of sugar

1 can of drained pineapple (it doesn't matter which size you use)

2 small packages of strawberry jello.. 

In a glass vision ware pot or enamel one bring rhubarb, sugar and pineapple to a boil.. Lower heat a bit and simmer away for 25 minutes .. 

Add the jello and stir well and simmer for another 5 minutes or so.. 

Pour into sterilized jars and seal.. 

I do what they do in Europe and turn my jars upside down for about 10 minutes to help seal them better..

 

You can water bath them if you like.. 

Totally up to you.. 

I also wanted to share this Granola recipe with you.. 

It has lots of dried apples in it and I am loving having it for breakfast over my Greek yogurt (which I do not like on it's own) 

Here is the recipe for it which is a very healthy recipe with no added refined sugar.. 

Dried Apple Granola.. 

2 T. coconut oil (melted) 

2 cups of rolled oats (old fashioned) 

1/2 cup of raw nuts

1/2 cup of seeds such as sesame, pumpkin or sunflower.. 

3/4 cup of dried apples cut up

1/4 cup of chopped up dates, raisins or dried fruit of choice.. 

2 T. honey

pinch of salt.. 

Mix everything together in large bowl.. 

Use your hands to evenly distribute the oil and honey.. 

Place on a parchment lined  cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F. for 10 - 15 minutes until toasty.. 

Store in a glass jar and enjoy... 

A great way to use up your dried apple stash.. 

You can replace any of the dried fruits to ones of your taste.. 

Oh yes, I doubled this recipe as it will last for at least 2 weeks.. 

See what was in our field at the farm last week.. 

Last year we saw two down by our brook and then this year look what we saw.. 

Two more!  

I was so excited!  

They say they will come back every year so we were happy to see them.. 

Then there is one apple tree by the house that is not wild.. 

My aunt Eva loved the apples off of this tree and my Mom tells me they were wonderful apples.. 

See it down there to the left... 

Such beautiful and fragrant flowers.. 

Love sniffing them.. 

I remember when I did craft shows many years ago there was a lady from the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia who sold Apple Blossom soap.. 

I always would buy some from her but she quit the shows after several years and I have not seen any since.. 

How I would love to have a bar.. smile.. 

One day at the farm we had a stir fry..  

I forgot to take a pic of the finished lunch.. sorry.. 

It was a frugal one.. 

I only used one steak.. 

Then for two days out there I have been canning Fiddleheads ...

28 pints.. 

Thanks to our dear son, Trevor for picking them for us.. 

We Maritimers love our Fiddlehead greens.. 

Well, dear hearts this is all for this lovely Sunday evening.. 

We had a wonderful worship service and Sunday School today and then went out for lunch with some sweet friends.. 

Then ended the day at the farm but now we are home.. 

Hope you had a great weekend and thanks again for dropping by.. 

Welcome to the new followers of the blog from Face Book.. 

I thought I would invite a few friends and they were so kind as to like the page.. 

Thank you and I look forward to your sweet comments.. 

God bless... 

Luke 1: 46-47

And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

Making and Doing Spring stuff...

Good Evening dear hearts.. 

Here we are mid week once again.. The Spring is flying by and soon we will be into Summer.. 

Such a lovely time of the year.. 

I woke this morning and put the dog outside and saw these beautiful Forget-Me-Nots nodding to the first rays of the sun.. 

Another Spring flower that I love.. Along with Lily of the Valley and Violets.. 

When I was in Grade 5 and 6 we had a wonderful teacher by the name of Mrs. Elliott and she had a Wild Flower Contest each of those years.. I am sure I have shared (bragged) about this before but it was a little high light of my Elementary years in that I won each time.. My sweet Dad would wade in ponds for Water Lilies and my Mom knew the names of every flower.. No wonder I have such a love for them as does my sister.. smile.. 

We had a Keepers meeting last week and we had a great time.. 

The most delicious breakfast cooked by Chef Carmen.. grin.. 

European Crapes stuffed with homemade Kefir Cheese and honey and such.. Soooo good.. 

Or just spread with homemade jam... 

Then she made each of us an Omelette on order.. 

Whatever kind we desired.. 

Our Pastor's wife gave a little devotional on Sisterhood and it was so true.. 

We need our sweet friends to help us along life's road.. 

The Lord has blessed us with such dear ones..

Then we tried our hand at Pansy Pots and Wreaths with bottles to hold fresh flowers.. 

I think this wreath is being used as a frame.. smile.. 

One of the ladies made a bunch of homemade wreaths for us from a vine that grew along her fence.. 

Thank you, dear June.. 

And we had a couple of visitors and hope they will come again... 

Terry and I were on our way up to the farm and I spied this picture.. 

A sweet old cemetery with a patch of wild violets.. 

Just what I had been watching for each time we have been out driving somewhere.. 

I only needed two cups of flowers and leaves so it did not make a dent in the patch .... 

I love them growing around the stone.. 

I wonder if they liked violets.. 

I made some Violet Salve with them.. 

This is excellent for burns, eczema and skin irritations.. 

I will be selling these.. 

The recipe is HERE..

The Rhubarb is ready to be doing up.. 

Made these Fermented ones.. 

I tasted them today and am going to love them.. 

I seem to be the only one here who eats fermented veggies but they are so good for us.. 

This recipe was so simple.. 

Fermented Rhubarb.. 

5 stalks of rhubarb cut up into 1 inch pieces. 

2 tsp. mustard seed

1 bay leaf

1 clove of garlic

Place this in a quart jar or whatever. 

Then make a brine.. 

Brine is 1 T. salt to 2 cups of cool water.. 

Stir to dissolve salt and add to jar.. 

Push rhubarb down and put a weight on top to keep pieces under the brine.. I used a small glass bowl but you can put water in a zip lock bag to use also.. 

Cover with a piece of cheesecloth and a tie.. 

Keep at room temp for about a week if they last that long.. 

Let me know if you try them.. 

Terry picked me a bag of Dandelion heads.. 

Made some Dandelion Jelly .. 

Recipe HERE..

Hoping to get my jams and jellies and such somewhere to sell for the Summer.. 

Not sure where or when yet... 

We went to town as we call it yesterday.. 

Thought I would post a photo of our nearest city.. 

Moncton.. 

The best city in New Brunswick.. 

I might be a bit biased.. grin.. 

Anyway, this is all for today.. 

I do have a bit more but will hopefully do it later in the week.. 

Perhaps we will get to the farm tomorrow so will work on another farm journal post.. 

You sweet friends have a great week and take care... 

God bless... 

Farm Journal 1

Hello there.. 

Thanks for dropping by today..

Hope all is well in your part of the world.. 

Summer is on it's way here and  we have decided to spend our second summer at our old farm up in the Kent Hills.. 

The dear old cottage in St. Martins will only be visited occasionally as we are again going to raise a few animals and have a bit more garden then last summer.. 

When I blogged about the farm stay last year,  I called it Farm Diaries so this year I am changing it up a bit and calling it Farm Journal... 

So... 

Here is my first farm journal for 2017.. 

The pic above was taken on the way to the farm .. 

Spring has arrived here in Eastern Canada and it makes us all so happy.. 

One of the first sweet sign is of these flowers.. 

Some call them Dog Tooth Violets but my Mom called them Adder's Tongues .. 

Love them whatever they are called.. 

Then a little hall decked out in Choke Cherry Blossoms.. 

As I posted last time my first day at the farm consisted of washing cupboards and dishes ... 

Well, this day I only had a few more to do and then we had lunch..

Tried out this new salad dressing and it was excellent.. 

You could change up the vinegar and oils to suit your taste.. 

I used cider vinegar and canola oil.. 

Very simple and very easy.. 

We try sometimes to eat our bigger meal at lunch and then just a light supper.. 

So as Terry had left chicken in the fridge I decided to coat the legs with a Montreal Chicken Spice and a few oven fries baked in the oven all at the same time.. 

And lemon juice.. 

T'was good.. 

Terry decided he had to do his start of the season ritual by scaring me to death.. (as usual).. 

I went out on the stoop to call on the Lord to please protect him one more time.. 

Charlie kept me company... 

Terry was sure he had a belt there at the farm for climbing the flag pole but forgot he had brought it home to cut down the pine tree.. 

Remember?  sigh.. 

Well, even though he did not have one.. 

Up he went.. 

No belt and the old flag stuck on the metal pole .. 

So he is up there yanking and trying to get it off.. 

Letting go of the pole and trying to get this long metal pole down and it spiralling way out..

It is a long way up there as you can tell by the barn roof..  

Oh Lord!  

I was so scared! 

Why anyone needs a flag pole this tall is beyond me.. 

And our kids wonder why Mom is so nervous!! 

I know you girls who have been reading here for awhile understand why I am!.. grin.. 

I have this huge fear of heights so even looking up at him makes the back of my knees go weak.. Really... 

I find it hard to believe that a man so smart at times can be so ------ at other times.. You can guess what I am trying to say.. 

Well, at the end of about half an hour he somehow got it all unstuck and the flag hung although not to his liking and he says he will finish it the next time when he finds his belt... 

God love him!!

Thank you, Lord.. 

I was so weak I had to go in and make a cup of tea.... 

Some of you understand, eh?  grin.. 

Our garden this year is 3 times as large as last... 

We had one here at home but this time we are only going to do the one there... 

I have a few plans for new herb and flower beds .. 

Was so excited today to see that lavender seeds are up and growing in the sun room... 

Hopefully they will grow quickly for the next month.. 

See my thrift store find.. 

Six beautiful Chowder bowls for only two dollars each.. 

We love fish chowder during the summer, do you? 

I have to do the pantry next... 

Trevor gave me a nice large set of old fashioned Snow White dishes that they had and weren't using anymore..

I love them..  

So much to do before we can move up there but hopefully by the middle of June... 

Some of the herbs that came up again are.. 

Lovage, Comfrey, Chives, Sage, Oregano, Catnip, Yarrow and Tarragon... 

I have Parsley and Basil in pots growing here to take out.. 

Still have a few to buy, though.. 

I also have some flowers growing from seed.. 

Well, dear hearts thanks for dropping by.. 

So glad to hear from you and thank you for your sweet comments here on the blog or on the Face Book page.. 

Have a great weekend and God bless.. 

Going to bed...

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Don't you simply love going to bed.. To curl up warmly in a nice warm bed, in the lovely darkness, that is so restful and then gradually drift away into sleep ----C. S. Lewis