Falling Slowly

The blog title is a bit misleading; it's just one piece of this week.  Dan and I are singing a duet at our ward (church) talent show on May 15th.  We've been practicing in earnest the last few days.  Our pianist is also performing her talent by accompanying us as she just recently learned this piece and performed it at a piano recital.   So we three are doing our bit together and I'm looking forward to all the performances that will take place that night.  Most of the performances you watch at these church events are highly entertaining but some can be cringeworthy and painful - I hope this isn't one of them (us, Kristie, not you - we are fully confident in your ability).

If spring arrived slowly this year, and it has, it is busting out and my son Dane and I (and Dan too one day) finished all the yard clean up over at the Yellow House to get it out of the way for all the fun to begin here in our own yard.  I now feel like I will be able to manage what gardens and plantings have been left there to carry on.  Sixteen years ago I planted 5 rambling roses in front of a fence that separates my old back yard from the yard of the little cottage that I rent out.  Over the years those ramblers grew so enormous they obliterated the fence and I could barely get in there to ever do any pruning so I let them go crazy.  Today it took us hours to chop our way into the painfully thorny jungle and we pruned them down to a few canes each and a foot or so high.  I can now see the fence and all the slats that need reattaching and nails that have popped up and need nailing.  I don't know how well the roses will recover from such brutal pruning but it had to be done.  I'll never let them get this out of hand again!  Here are a couple pictures of during and afters.

The roses in the background are a couple of those ramblers.

Here you see them from the other side of the fence.

We're about 3/4 of the way done here today in this pic

The sagging fence!  The roses pruned and thinned.  And you can tell the tenant in the barn there is an anglophile.

Remember the fence and rose enclosed vegetable garden that was here last week?  This is what it looks like now and we have covered it in grass seed.  I can't wait to take a picture when it has reverted back to lawn.  It was the right thing to do - I feel such a weight gone from my shoulders.

We had some rain this week too so when it was inclement outside, I painted some prettiness and sunshine inside.  Two pieces; one, a still life as realistic as I could paint it, and the other, a one dimensional, more primitive or folk art type.  Both are in the dining room on different walls right now where they will hang until we decide to move them somewhere else.  I also turned an area of our laundry room into a my "art" studio - cleaned out an armoire for all the supplies and then set up my easel.  I've been painting in the kitchen so this will work out better I think; a little more private and the light in that room is tremendous even on overcast days.  

This painting makes me smile - it is almost child like and so happy. 

Along with the yard work over at the Yellow House, and lots of painting and closet organizing here at home, and many other little and big responsibilities related to home and church and family, I've planted a few things here in the Rye yard; hellebores, a couple brand new roses (remember the Sweet Intoxication rose I discovered in Sydney Australia? - look at the final Aussie blog post - It's gonna grow in this yard - yay!), and a big box of dahlia tubers arrived from Swan Island Nursery that will be planted very soon.

This is Ebb Tide - look at that rich purple!  I took a pic of this one in a Aukland New Zealnd garden.  It will now grace our yard here.

Sweet Intoxication - I found both at Jackson Perkins. 

Now, to finish this post, I need to report about a restaurant they we have driven by countless times right down the street on Ocean Blvd, Route 1A but have never really noticed until recently so we decided to give it a try.  The Carriage House.  We could tell by the way the bartender, waitstaff and hostess spoke to people that this place has a ton of regulars.  Even the patrons seemed to know each other - we felt like outsiders.  Well, we will be back and they will know us!  The food was delicious!  And you get a view of Jenness Beach across the street right outside the windows.  We watched 18 surfers (Dan counted) ride the waves as we ate.  Dan had chicken saltimbocca and I had grilled haddock with a killer citrus shallot buerre blanc sauce.  The seafood chowder was so delectable and even in my tiny cup, I had full size shrimp and scallops along with fish and corn.  Again, we will be back!

cuppa chowdah - thin rich broth, loaded with seafood and corn - very savory!

Interior shot on the second level where we sat - the floor level looks completely different.

Jenness Beach across the street - the lack of verdancy will soon be rectified! 

It's just an old beach cottage converted in to a restaurant - very lovely inside with two levels of seating.  

Next week I will be in Utah for a couple days getting Dane back in college and settled in and then I head for Spokane where I will slave away planting gardens and painting rooms for my daughter while she is at work.   I can't wait - we will have a blast!!!

To end all this babbling, lovely things that bring cheer.  Burning in the entry way and making me yearn for May and carnations just being cute on the kitchen island.

Going and Gone (and a recipe)

I went to the Yellow House today to rip out the last quadrant in the former courtyard garden (aka Secret Garden).  I saved seven plants to bring back to the Rye yard but the rest, roses, shrubs and all, went to the burn pile.  I did leave about six rose plants that are really special in the ground in three of the quadrants, severely cut back.  I figured that come Spring, someone will want them for their own yard (I hope).  If I can remember correctly, I left behind a very prolific Climbing Eden, 2 musk roses - one called Moonlight, the other Bubble Bath, a glorious white Damask with a green button center called Madam Hardy, a rugosa named  Roseraie de l'Hay, and the longest blooming once bloomer of all, a Damask called Ispahan.  All of these are good sized, 5 feet or higher.  The Ispahan gets huge.  If any of you want them, they will be yours.  Spring is the best time to transplant roses, especially ones as huge and mature as these ones where, once the ground thaws.  I will have about forty more from the vegetable garden that will be available, free of course, in the spring as well.  All my roses are hardy, antique or old fashioned, very floriferous, strong smelling, no hybrid teas! Take a look at the yard now!  All the bricks will be removed and used to make a brick patio for the barn apartment next spring and the former secret garden will be relegated to lawn.  I've made peace with it all.

In case you are not familiar with how this used to look:

Early May 

After I finished the dirty deed, I went out to the berry patch and ate about 40 raspberries and then to the fruit tree orchard and helped myself to one of the remaining apples.  I only sprayed once this season back in May so you can see how mottled the apple is but oh my gosh!!!  The apple was incredibly sweet, crisp and so "appley",  just about the best one I have ever eaten.  Really.  I went to pick another (I was ravenous after all the yard work) but it felt strange so I looked on the other side of it and found it packed with hornets so smitten with apple nectar and sugar that they didn't even notice my fingers or the click or nearness of the iPhone.  That was close!

Berry patch - raspberries, blackberries, blueberries

Incredible flavor - (dirty yard work fingers)

Can you see them?

Before leaving the property, I picked an autumn bouquet of Nikko Blue hydrangeas and Mozart Musk roses and snapped a couple pictures of loveliness in the vegetable garden.  On my way home I passed by this gorgeous red tree in Exeter near the Phillips Exeter Academy boat house.

rose hips on White Mountains Rambler Rose

Rugosa Amelie Gravereaux - delicious scent!

Bonus:  Last week I attended a nutrition class at the home of my stepdaughter Brittany.  She invited this delightful nutritionist to talk to us about the food we eat, wellness, and the healing properties of food. It was so enjoyable and informative - I always love to learn and talk about food!  One of the recipes she gave us as a handout was for egg muffins.  These muffins have no flour or grain in them, just eggs, meat, and lots of veggies.  And they can be eaten all week.  I made them last Saturday for house guests we had and I ate the last one on Wednesday.  Cold, right out of the refrigerator they are delicious.  I served them warm of course the morning they were made and then reheated a few the following day along with the steel cut oatmeal and three days in a row after, I ate them straight from the fridge as an afternoon snack.  They have about 100 calories if that matters to you and they are super healthy.  Here's how you make them:

Egg Muffins

1 T coconut oil or clarified butter

1 onion chopped

1 red bell pepper chopped

1/2 lb bacon, sausage or ground turkey (preferably from free range, pastured happy animals)

2 cups spinach, chard, or kale

pinch of cayenne pepper

12 eggs (preferably from cage free happy chickens)

1/2 tsp S and P

350 oven - 12 greased muffin tins

Saute veggies in the oil until soft.  Add meat and cayenne and cook through.  Spoon this mix into equal portions in each muffin tin.  Beat the eggs with S&P and add this to each tin - you can fill them up.  Bake 20 minutes.  Scrumptious!  And so easy.