A Haven's Food Mosaic

Dear heavens this was labor intensive. My techie skills, even with vast amounts of help from Big Huge Labs, etc., are quite poor. After hours of fooling around, I finally have something that I like — food and lots of it.

There's a gal...when I find her again, I'll pop in her name...who always shares what each item in her collage is. I like that. I'm going to copy her. It's the sincerest form of flattery after all.
(She may be Olivia.)

First row left to right

1. Brown rice salad with day lily garnish

2. Big bowl of Cortlands

3. Blueberry clafouti

4. Basic Tollhouse cookies

5. Brin's skillet cookies

Second row left to right

1. Rhubarb bread

2. Valentine Tea

3. Homemade Pizza

4. An Italian

5. Rustic bread

Third row left to right

1. 4th of July breakfast

2. Bananas

3. Skillet Cinnamon Rolls

4. Crumble Top Apple Pie

5. Pastel M&Ms

You can find many of these recipes right in my recipe box on the sidebar. It's a two-step process, but it may prove worthwhile. You'll find the recipes highlighted in fun colors linked to their blogs of origin.

I think that I'll be baking something for my dear blogging friend Happyone because she's not going to be able to do a lot of baking while touring about in my corner. Surely she'll miss her favorite evening snack and this way I can help her out. I'm so excited to be meeting her and her husband Ken this week and, yes, of course, I'll tell you all about it!

Just click on the title of this post to be whisked away to Mary's Mosaic Monday. Enjoy your week...

A Simple Saturday

I'm gonna get us some water outta this here thing...




Yup, I'm gonna get it done...here goes...




Phew! This is soooo labor intensive...

A note from Nonni: Yes! We've had sun...two entire days of sunshine. I'm beside myself with joy. I know it's tough on you Texans and on those from other points south right now with all the heat and humidity. It's just that up here in the tundra our summer is so short that we hate to give up over a month of it to rain every single day. Wish I could've sent you some cooling weather, though, I really do, and I know that you so wanted to send us some heat. I will pray for an end to the drought because I know that it's equally destructive. Our farmers will not be able to plant for another week because the fields are so wet. Please pray that they'll be able to get the rest of their crops in and that the hay will be able to be mown. Thanks!

Have a lovely weekend...

*A Year Later and We're Still Here*

At six seconds after 4:05 p.m. yesterday afternoon the numbers in the time and date could be arranged so that it read 04:05:06 07/08/09. This sequence will not be repeated in this manner again this century. (source) Pretty special timing for my first wedding anniversary and Mary's thirtieth, don't you agree?

Yes, that was neat and all, but hardly what I was looking forward to. Our little camping trip was down the tubes because of the torrents of rain and the blast of cold Canadian air (yes, we blame all blasts of cold air on the poor Canadians). We stayed home and I fell into a deep, dark funk while John went off to work as per usual. Hrrrummmphhhfffttt...

So basically he and I spent a quiet, cool, rainy day. A rainy day is nothing unusual this summer. In fact, it is the norm. The flowers are waterlogged and beaten down. The slugs are having a heyday. The basement smells. The spirits sink even as the rivers rise.



It felt all so very

The sun did not shine
It was too wet to play.
So we sat in the house
All that cold, cold wet day.

I sat there with John
We sat there, we two.
And I said, "How I wish
We had something to do!"

from The Cat in the Hat with liberties

Besides playing footsies that is...



But to allow an anniversary to float by without taking special note of it? Not to honor nor cherish it? We do not fool ourselves, John and I, having come to this point in our lives and marrying each other well beyond our middle age. We understand a little what it means to number our days. Oh! Did I tell you that the second great-grand was born last week so now John has one of each...a little great-grandson and a little great-granddaughter? They are some kind of cute now let me tell you.

Okay, so we set off for Portland. This was John's choice; my head was empty. (I heard that!) Of course, I'm quite certain that John didn't know the following fact when we left...

"So far this month, every day has been warmer at Fairbanks, Alaska, than at Portland, Maine. Any time that happened in the past, it was colder in both places the following winter." (source)













Were you able to follow that story? We had a very tasty sirloin at Bugaboo Creek of talking moose fame. John had sweet potato fries and I had what I thought were going to be Ree's Crash potatoes, but, noooo, they were "smash" potatoes (just mashed) instead. The tastiest part of the meal was the baby back ribs. The best part was reminiscing about our first meal together at a steak house not so long ago.

We did shop at Borders and The Christmas Tree Shop and the day ended, as all good days do, with an ice cream cone at Giffords. You'll have to take my word for it as I forgot to get a picture.

Now after all this talk of rain, I want to show you the most amazing moon shot taken just two nights ago on the one good day of summer so far...



I still need to work on the composition, but isn't that a beautiful round moon?

Happy Thursday...hope it's sunny wherever you are!

Heading Off for a Few...

Source

We're off! Hope that you have a wonderful week. See you Thursday...

ETA:

Ahhh, well, the best laid plans as they say...



Source

Blessings this Fourth of July

source

May the Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26

A blessed and wonderful Independence Day to all...