Frenchy's find and a gorgeous evening

I know I haven't been posting a lot about Frenchy's lately and it's not because we don't go... the reason you don't see a whole lot of Frenchy's finds on this old blog is that the finds are quite grim lately. Above is my latest find - a very soft and cozy hoodie which I will wear when we make backyard fires in the pit...

What a gorgeous evening - bright blue skies, no wind and ''almost'' no little black flies. Dave made a fire in the pit while the chickens roamed around the yard.

Random link love :

I am baking these tomorrow night. I have a batch of sprouts in the sprouter which I will use to stuff these yummy pockets.

I made this for supper tonight, minus the tofu. We are not tofu kinda people. We don't consume meat or pork; only seafood and organic chicken (not ours that's for sure) on occasion. It is a keeper for sure. Both Dave and I loved it.

I made soap

With my trusty assistant Dave by my side, I made soap ! It took me a good part of the year to be able to say those three words. I've read a few books on the subject in the past year, bookmarked some delicious looking recipes from the internets and started picking up the required utensils. For my first batch I made this simple recipe. I am going to use these bars to make my next batch of laundry powder.

I followed the instructions exactly as directed and measured my ingredients with precision and my soap turned out lovely. I added lemon essential oil in my batch to give my laundry detergent a lovely citrus aroma. I got 18 bars of soap.

Now I'm going to get all the oils I need to make a batch of hand and body soaps.

This is fun.... !!!

More rain... more food

With the return of ''the rain'' we also see the return of baking in our home. I love most baked goods; really. This coconut zucchini bread with coconut rum lime glaze was delicious. I enjoy a good cup of tea with a nice thick slice of bread. However, if I had a choice, I prefer a plain bread (minus the fancy glaze and roasted coconut). A side note here - the best tasting zucchini bread for me so far is baked by my dear daughter. I've tried her recipe but I can never achieve her results.

Sadly I did not copy the link to the blogger that posted the recipe and I don't feel like typing (although I can type 120 wpm) a one-page long recipe. You will have to take my word - it was very yummy.

I did however, copy the link to this recipe. It might be the canadian in me, but I love the Canadian Living magazine and their web site. So many delicious recipes. A blogger (again, my bad; can't remember who) suggested adding 1/3 cup crumbled feta instead of the tahini paste and I am so glad that I took her suggestion. I love hummus and I will certainly be rotating from chick peas to lentils.

Best of both worlds

I love living in the woods but sometimes Dave and I leave everything we are doing and head for the ocean... to recharge of sorts. Sunday evening we had take away supper and drove here to enjoy our meal. I was born and raised in the woods and Dave was mostly raised next to the ocean. Needless to say he jumps for joy :-) at any chance to head for a walk on the beach or to do some beachcombing (which is one of our all time favorite pass time).

When I was done taking the above picture I turned to my left and took the picture below.

These two wind turbines are located on the university campus where Dave and I work.

We enjoyed our non-rain long weekend but it's back to the rainy, soggy weather today and forecasted for a few more days.

The Edibles 2011

I knew we were starting to have quite a few fruit, berries and veggies on our property but did'nt know we had this much, until I took inventory tonight ...

Cold-frame Dave built for me a few weeks ago.

Scarlet runners (pole beans)
Leeks
Turnips
Rhubarb
Asparagus
Cucumbers
Kale
Tomatoes
Cherry tomatoes
Garlic - soft and hard
Sunflowers
Beets - red and golden
Green beans
Peas

Salad mix

Arugula

Jeruselum Artichoke

Pumpkins

Zucchini

Egg plants

Broccoli

Peppers - green and red

Carrots

Potatoes (are drying, will be in the ground tomorrow)

Cherries

Plum

Raspberries

Blackberries

Blueberries

Grapes

Currents - red and black (cassis)

Strawberries

In the herb garden : mint, oregano, lemon balm, camomile, basil, italian parsley, sage, catnip, tyme and chives.

Some fruit and berries were planted a few years back. The veggies and ''some'' berries were planted in the last few weeks.

Reading, eating, drinking

What does one do when it's been raining for over two weeks ?

My latest read ''Homesteading in the 21st Century''. I have never been one to read a book in a few days or one weekend. I am a very slow reader. Sometimes I read the same paragraph over and over just to make sure I understood what the author was trying to tell me. Very seldom will I read fictions, they're not my thing. I am so happy this book caught my eye 30 seconds after I walked in the doors of Chapters on the weekend. Only about 30 pages read and I can already tell it is going to be a good one.

Drink one ''heavy-on-the-leafy-greens'' smoothie once a day - rain or shine.

A warm galette aux pommes... no recipe needed. I bake like my french ancestors - whip up something with what I have on hand.

Previously mentioned green smoothie - spinach, kale, strawberries, kiwi, apple, chia seeds, nut butter, coconut water, frozen banana (always frozen). All this in one single glass. You would never eat all this in one day. See my fancy reusable straw over there in the smoothie ? never have to put another plastic straw in the trash.

If you've been reading here for a while you know how much I would love to be this amazing woman. I'm hoping that in my next life I will be just like Tasha. I love her so much that I often make recipes from her cookbook (which by the way was a Frenchy find). My latest was her date and nut loaf; delicious with a hot cup of tea.

This has become our favorite bread lately. Perfect for toast.

Can't remember when...

... but one evening last week looked like this. Sunsets have been few and far apart around these parts lately. Atlantic Canada, like many other places, has been hit by heavy and constant rainfalls in the past two weeks. Something we rarely see in our backyard is the lawn soaked way up to the back steps; and today it is.

Hoping to see some clearing in the sky soon. We bought three more blueberry bushes that need planting and our taters are not in the ground yet. I need to write a post with a list of everything we have planted on our property. As Dave says ''we'll need to open a roadside stand''.

Hope everyone's Monday was easy to go through.

Curly

I know these things have been around for a while but for me it was the first time I've ever heard of it or seen one in action this past weekend.

Some people come up with the most amazing ideas. We ate ''lots and lots'' of curly fries yesterday. Our son and his fiancé bought this contraption and brought it over last night.

Duck weather

Is anyone else getting rain ? We've been having rain since Saturday. Rubber boots weather for sure. Forecast for tomorrow is for rain in the morning and clearing in the afternoon. Friday cloudy and yup, rain Saturday and Sunday. I'm happy we did'nt plant the potatoes on the weekend because they would have rotten in the soil by now. I'm not against rain, I kind of love hearing the sound of rain slowly falling. However, when it's being pounded on the windows by gail force winds... not so much.

However, if it wasn't raining we would'nt be able to spend too much time outside on account of the little black flies having a feast with our blood. A no win situation !

Patiance I tell myself, the time will come.

One-day weekend

Yesterday was the Spring Convocation at the university so I worked pretty much all day. It is so nice to see the joy and excitement in the faces of the graduating students. Some of them have been with us for 7 years and being a small university, everyone is family !

Lots can be done in a one-day weekend at home (and no, I'm not talking about housework). Dave and I planted blackberry canes, 3 blueberry plants, 34 strawberry plants and I planted the lettuce and turnips in the veggie garden.

Mother's Day flowers from my son.

Beautiful outdoor ornament from my daugher.

Edited : I should have said married 32 years and together for 35) Part of my anniversary rose bush from Dave. We celebrated 32 years together on May 5th.

As is the case every year, there is a lot of weeding to be done... but I love digging my hands in the dirt.

The guest speaker at yesterday's graduation left us with the following words of advice ''if you start looking forward to Friday afternoon on Monday morning and you get depressed on Sunday night because of work the next day... it's time to move on''.

Happy Monday everyone !!!

In the garden we went

Some favorites of the weekend :

- three protected tomato plants; raspberry canes, zukes and sugar pumpkins. Everything has to be protected from the dirt-loving chickens.

- a repurposed crow from my son's garbage pile now hanging around our strawberry patch. Let's see if this year we can scare away the ''real'' crows.

- beautiful blue skies all weekend.

- basil seedlings.

- see that huge window that Luc is holding in back of Dave's lawn tractor ? stay tuned, I'm hoping to show you the finished product that this window was used for.

A few link love for you :

I need to make one of these for my side of the bed.

I love pyrex and although I have more than my share of bowls, I don't have one of these.

I have a special connection with bloggers from Maine and this one is no different. Maine has so many similar caracteristics to us here in Atlantic Canada.

Hope everyone had a good Monday and that the sun is starting to shine in your neck of the woods.