Quinoa and Rain

We've had some nasty weather in my part of the world. Not far away from my home, a tornado touched down and caused some terrible damage. I got lucky with just a bit of flooding in my basement.

So, the weather has been kind of yucky and because of that I'm taking care of things indoors. Gardening is unfortunately on hold for a bit. I recently became enamored with Quinoa and have tried a few recipes using it. Anybody out there have a favourite? Allrecipes.com has some good ones that I'll be trying.

Have a great Wednesday :)

Just ate for lunch: Lemony Quinoa-1 cup quinoa cooked in 2 cups of water (let boil then simmer until water is gone); add one stalk chopped celery, 1/4 chopped red onion, chopped bunch parsley, juice of one lemon, salt and pepper to taste. Reminds me of tabouleh but without the mint. Delish!

Roses and Lemon Squares

I have a very dear friend who is supportive, loving, and kind. She is extremely allergic to dairy products but loves tasty goodies (who doesn't?). So, I took my favourite lemon square recipe and substituted margarine for butter. You know, they turned out awesome! I love baking but DON'T love having that stuff around so it's wonderful to be able to make things for other people and have one piece for myself :) It was a perfect day for baking as it rained for much of the morning and the temps came down quite nicely. I also managed to get a few more pictures in of some of my other roses. The yellow rose is Graham Thomas (David Austin). The red/pink bush I have dubbed Snow White and Rose Red. The pink was what I purchased several years ago not noticing that it had been grafted onto what is probably Don Juan. The pink is extremely fragrant while the red has little or no fragrance at all.

Hope that you're all having a wonderful Wednesday!

A Rose By Any Other Name...

I love my roses! I wish you could smell them :) I really cut them back last fall and wonder if that might have anything to do with it. I've been so busy with other things that I finally noticed just how overgrown my garden is! Seems it's not just the roses that are out performing past seasons--everything else is too!!! Next week will be an easy week for me as I hope to spend more time just cutting back some things.

For now, I'll just enjoy all the wonderful fragrance and colour that is running riot in my garden. Have a wonderful weekend--I'm off to the U.S.A. More on that later ;)

First Clematis

We've been lucky enough to get a few sunny days in a row here in Windsor. My tulips and daffodils are finished for the season and next up are the clematis and peonies! The top clematis is Josephine. There's a bit of schmutz on her as this photo was taken after the rain.
This one never fails to deliver on big, beautiful blooms. Only thing is that I can't remember its name! Somewhere, I have all my tags so I'll be sure to look it up. I still have two peonies in that back that need to bloom. Hope you're having a wonderful day (we're up for more rain over the next 2 days!)

At Last!

After several days of cold, rainy weather we finally got a glorious, sunny day! I decided to hit the trail and went on a long bike ride. Here's hoping that your Friday is every bit as great as mine has been. Cheers!

(this picture makes me feel like I did when I was a kid growing up in the mid 70's!)

I'm Back!!!

I cannot tell you how depressing it was to find that my blog had been removed! 2 1/2 years of posts, pictures and comments gone!! I left a message with Google and truly did not expect a reply. Well, this morning there was a message from the help desk with an apology for any inconvenience and my blog and gmail reinstated! YAY :)

I hope to be back to blogging and commenting on a regular basis once my schedule slows down. Looking forward to all the reading!

Ah, Wisteria!

Last year I made a mistake with my wisteria. I managed to end up with about 4 miniature blooms that year. This March I set to hacking at that thing to make it more manageable and low and behold, this is what I ended up with! You see, I had forgotten that if you want to have blooms, chop this sucker to within an inch of it's life ;)

Loving it!