Around Home

Our weekend has been a quiet one. On Friday night we headed to the big town about 30 minutes away to do some shopping. Driving in the dark after shopping I thought about the pleasure of arriving home, putting on my robe, making a cup of tea and relaxing. With a start I realized that I was envisioning our former home, not our current one. Waves of homesickness washed over me. It's been just three weeks so I need to give myself time, but it's still a bit hard.

The rhododendrons are beginning to open their buds into full flower. We have three large bushes in the front yard. I planted some strawberry plants in pots up on the deck out of reach of the deer, and two blueberry bushes behind a fence for the same reason. The soil here is very different than in Victoria - very shallow sand before hitting hard pan.

In the front yard is this flower bed that holds a non-functioning and crumbling fountain. For now we'll leave the fountain there. The bed was overgrown with weeds so we dug it out, dividing daisies, trimming cotoneasters (I think that's what they are) and planting herbs - rosemary, sage, lemon thyme, oregano and chives. Deer don't like them, but I do!

Talking with the neighbours we discovered that the very tall tree in full bloom just now in a corner of the driveway is a Bing Cherry tree. Oh yummy! I love cherries. I can see Cherry Clafouti, Cherry Cobbler, Cherry Jam, Dried Cherry Biscotti and more in my future.

And inside this weekend I painted the main bath. It's still not put back together, but will be soon. And I made this French Silk Pie. It's a recipe that doesn't use raw eggs like the original. It's rich and chocolately - very small pieces suffice. Find the recipe on my recipe blog.