French Breakfast

Southwest France ~ June 2006

Notice the pink shutters match the climbing roses - how fabulous - and you can click to enlarge and see croissants in the shop window.

I don't push many prepared food products but have mentioned how much I enjoy certain items found at Trader Joe's. We have to drive about 15 mins. to shop at their store in Cary, NC, however, Raleigh will have it's own in about a year - and it will be just down the street from my house, yippee!!!

There is no tiny French boulangerie with freshly baked bread and pastry smells wafting on the early morning breeze near my house. So, just had to mention these great croissants they were sampling last week at the store, and which we enjoyed for breakfast this morning. This little 4X6 inch box holds 8 frozen croissants (takes up just a small freezer space).

You leave them out on a baking sheet overnight, in the morning they are proofed and puffed - brush with beaten egg if desired (I did) - bake for 15 mins. and voila, light, crispy croissants to eat with nothing better than French strawberry preserves. Not for every day perhaps - altho' they don't seem to hurt the French - but great to have on hand for company or a weekend treat. I plan to have them on sunny Spring mornings when we can breakfast in the gazebo and share the crumbs with the birds.

Notice, I'm using my new cake plate already!

Wings and a Prayer

When I drop dh at the airport, as I did yesterday, I usually stop at Homegoods on my way home. I stroll around the aisles and almost aways find a treasure or two at bargain prices.

This lovely cream matelasse coverlet, made in Portugal, was on the linens clearance shelf marked down from $80 to $30. It will take the place of the white one in the guest room as it looks older.......and more French!

China - impossible to get through that section of this great store without buying something for daily use or to add to a growing collection ~ such an amazing selection, great prices! A pink transferware plate to add to my little collection, a beautiful cream glazed edge cake stand, also from Portugal, which will be used to display more than food sometimes!

In the garden section I fell head over heels for this elegant angel. Rather than tuck her in the garden ~ she's so delicate ~ I've placed her on my dressing table for now ~ she brings such a sense of peace.

I think she looks right at home next to the mica star.
Let your arms enfold us

Through the dark of night

Will your angels hold us

Till we see the light

................From 'Prayer' by Secret Garden...............

Visitors at My Front Door

She's such a tiny bird....................but what an amazing one.

Here she sat a few days ago in my back garden, enjoying the Spring sunshine and singing loudly from her large repertoire of songs.

This Carolina Wren has made a permanent home on my front porch since late September of last year. She apparently found the perfect nighttime roost in a corner of the porch ceiling, arriving there each evening at dusk and sleeping until the light of dawn. I know because I set my alarm on a couple of occasions just to be at the window to watch her wake, stretch, and fly away as the first rays of sun touched the porch!

When I left for England in mid October I said goodbye never expecting to arrive home two weeks later and find her still there. In December, when darkness fell earlier and the nights turned much colder, she decided to try a new boudoir, a porch hanging basket complete with a fast dying Boston Fern. Each evening she announced her arrival by singing loudly while perched on a metal obelisk in the flower bed, then flying to a wicker chair and actually looking into the dining room - then she'd fly up into the fern for the night. On a couple of occasions I actually saw two Wrens get in that plant at night - guess love was already in bloom on those cold nights!Needless to say, the dead plant has hung brown and crisp, all Winter, I just couldn't take it down.

A few weeks ago I noticed the faux flowers in the wall planter were in disarray and while working a little floral design magic I spied the beginnings of the nest. I knew it was a wren's nest as they usually build one in the kitchen window box. Watching, I soon saw the male coming and going with twigs, grass and leaves. A male wren starts to build several nests in different locations then takes his mate on a tour, like going on the Parade of Homes, and she inspects each one. Of course the gal always gets to choose when something as important as a home for her babes is at stake, right? The tiny mom-to-be then finishes the nest building, lining a small depression at the back of the cavity with pine needles, grass and soft bits and pieces to cushion her eggs. I'm amazed, and thrilled, that she picked this nest so close to where we come and go all day long - guess she trusts us and thinks we're good landlords after spending six months rent free on our porch! The nest is deep and one has to glance in at an angle. On Easter Sunday I looked in too fast not knowing she was there and scared her, she flew out and there inside were two teeny tiny speckled eggs. Today I can make out three and as they usually lay 4-6 there may be more within the next couple of days.

Guess the Winter floral display will not be changed to something a little more Springy for a while - so the holly spray will have to stay!

Below is a closeup of the nest - as you can see the entrance is somewhat sideways and mom and her eggs are way back to the left. I love these Wrens because they are fastidious in their nesting habits - I know from watching the kitchen window box families from other years. Sometimes dad takes over feeding the first brood while mom renests - having 2 and sometimes 3 broods a year. When the babies fly off and the nest is finished with, it is spotlessly clean - much different from the finches who leave their nests so dirty!

This photo is the Carolina Wren from the Birds of the Carolinas Field Guide by Stan Tekiela - a little book I refer to often when learning about the beautiful birds visiting my garden.

Hopefully we'll have a new family at the front door in a few weeks - I'll keep you up to date on the happenings and perhaps will be able to get a photo of the fledglings to share.

........the Primrose Path

Lead me down the primrose path any day!

The wild English Primrose was always my favorite flower as a child and I wish so much I could grow it here. 'Going primrosing' was a joyful event, a Spring afternoon pastime of country lovers. Ushering in Spring, celebrating Easter time, often the blooms were even ready for celebrating 'Mothering Sunday' as we called 'Mother's Day'.

On with the wellies (Wellington boots) as the fields were usually muddy from Spring rains. Tuck a handful of lengths of soft cotton string in a pocket. A glance at puffy clouds racing across the Southwest sky from the English Channel towards the tors of Dartmoor, showers later for sure.

Along the lanes we hurried, snapping a yard long strong twig from the hedgerow, and almost running down narrower lanes, just one farm tractor wide, toward the little village of Edginswell ~ just about 20 minutes in the fresh breeze.

The tiered orchard had heritage apple trees with gnarled trunks and pretty pink and white blossoms. My memory recalls the farmer was kind and allowed swarms of children to clamber noisily, but carefully, over his land. The primroses, with wild violets tucked between, smothered the grassy slopes. We gathered small bunches in our hands, surrounding the pale yellow flowers with a few glossy textured leaves, tied each with a piece of that soft string, leaving ends long enough to tie to the hazelnut twig. Within an hour, the twig would have bunches hanging along its entire length and, resting it over a shoulder, the trip home up the lanes, a climb across a stile and through a field, would take no time.

Some for the elderly neighbors who couldn't get out. A bunch for the nice man across the street who grew vegetables and sold them from his little barn. A bunch set aside for Tom, our milkman, who came every morning with a fresh pint of Guernsey with the thick cream at the top of the bottle, and half a dozen new laid brown eggs. The rest were placed in Mum's china vases, cream jugs, odd glasses. All around the house these simple pale yellow flowers caught one's eye from tabletops, the tiled mantelpiece, the kitchen window sill, a bathroom shelf. Primroses declared Spring was officially 'around the house'.

..................A memory of my childhood in England...........

Above, a page from the chapter MARCH in The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady ~ Edith Holden's amazing naturalist's diary written in 1906. She captured so well the beauty of the simple wild flowers such as primrose and violet.

Easter Garden

Just a few images from our beautiful Easter Sunday here in my North Carolina garden.

The sky was blue and the air warm........perfect for an egg hunt.

The lilies bloomed..................

My version of a Simnel cake was delicious.......................................
The garden surprised us with fresh violets............................................budding azaleas.......................

.................. perfumed Narcissus....................
................the big Thrasher was back...............

.....................and, I don't have pictures, but must tell you how excited I was to see that Mrs. Carolina Wren picked the nest in the wall planter by the front door and has already laid two eggs today! Just hope she's not disturbed too much as we come and go.

I'm hoping your Easter was beautiful too.

Easter Blessings

~ Wishing you and your family a beautiful Easter ~

Technicolor

A few more photos from my zoo trip this week. Despite a chill in the air and the skies mostly overcast, there was plenty of color to brighten up the afternoon.

Our winged friends were dressed in such brilliant finery............and the blooms in the tropical domes were spectacular.

I've never seen a frog such as this in my garden ~ perhaps it's time to construct a pond.......with a waterfall..........aquatic plants........and at this point in the conversation dh's eyes start rolling back and that pained look appears on his face!

This is a beautiful Mahonia............it brings tears to my eyes because the voles chewed through my beauty this past year after it had reached several feet in height......and then just toppled over one day. Perhaps a tropical dome in our back garden, on a vole proof concrete footing..............just kidding dear!