The Year of the Statuary

Today let us discuss my garden which brings me a great deal of pride and joy.


My front yard really does have a great lawn. Eventually the plan is to remove alot of the lawn and continue the English style gardening there as well. These were taken several months ago when my garden was just waking up and coming back to life.


I call this the year of the statuary because that is what I desire and have been adding to all my different garden areas. Each item is carefully selected and means alot to me. I love copper such as this hummingbird feeder. My mother had this gorgeous vase with a wrought iron holder for it. The vase was broken by my playfull kittens so I repurposed it into holding a garden globe to add the perfect addition to my ivy.


And, let us have a little competition. Who can tell me the name of my favorite sun garden plant which is now about four years old. It grows very aggressively early spring and is currently in its prime. Anyone?? Anyone??


Our pond that was just put in last year before our wedding.


My new white imperial currant in my sun garden.


My new dragonfly garden stake that glows with my spearmint and grape vines.


My shade garden...wait until you see the recent pictures which I will share in the next few days.


I love this time of year when our maple tree is so full of life and leaves. It also means even more privacy in our yard since that is the one area where neighbors can see in but only during the winter when all the leaves fall off.


Our outbuilding and our part shade garden...


The shade garden...


Our outbuilding from the sun garden...






Why oh why are some of the best plants annuals. The pond has a water lily, a mini cattail, water hyacinths and duckweed in addition to this lovely annual. This year I plan to add a lotus tuber which I am very excited about since most of the plant is delicious.


And this Fleur de Lis was gifted to me by one of my closest friends Jen from one of my favorite stores: The Backyard Bird Shop though technically she said she was giving it to my yard since she spends so much time in it.

Making My First Goat Cheese

Recently my friend Mark Ludeman who owns Ludeman's Farm and Garden Store here in Beaverton was kind enough to gift me raw goat's milk from his huge farm in unincorporated Washington County. I do not drink alot of milk and wanted to make something special so I decided to try my hand at making goat cheese. Now I cannot wait to try it again! It was extremely easy to make and requires very little time or supplies.


Heat a quart of the goat's milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat stirring often. You need the milk to reach 180 degrees which you can test with a meat thermometer.


Once your temperature has been reached remove your saucepan from heat and add 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice to create a reaction. The reaction will be almost immediate and the milk will begin to look "curdled". Do not expect it to look like cottage cheese or super thick immediately - it may take a few moments.


Take a collander and line it with several layers of cheese cloth. Place the collander into a larger bowl to catch the milk run off.


Ladle the milk into the cheese cloth. Tie the cheesecloth and hang slightly from a wooden spoon for an hour and a half.


Go, watch a movie...take a walk...do your nails...knit...


Removed your cheese from the cheese cloth into a bowl and add two grated cloves of garlic and whatever herbs you would like. My cheese received garlic chives, parsley and garlic chive flowers fresh from my garden. Some other ideas are oregano, thyme, sage, rosemary...

Greetings

A shiny new blog! I discovered in my not so distant past I was contemplating changing several things and one of those is how I utilize my blog. A victim of the long winded desire to story tell made my blog impossible to keep up with and before I knew it I was overrun with entries which would never get posted due to the lack of time. So here I start anew with a different approach.

I recently found myself drawn to a photography project called 365 which is just as it sounds, a photo per day. Through this project I have been taking photos since January 1st and discovered alot about myself. I feel I see things differently as well and I want to share things differently. I like living my life in photos. When I first began the project I feared running out of subject matter but the reality is I live a very loud and brightly colored life rich with projects and fun. I want to share not just my photography which is taken with my very simple Canon Power Shot SD600 or my Palm Centro cell phone when I forget my camera at home, but I want to share my projects, crafting, cooking and adventures. Luckily I have become more skilled at remembering my camera since it means better quality viewing for you the reader.

I look forward to sharing the fruits of my photography project.