"Eat Your Greens"

Yes, I know I'm supposed to be doing all those other things on the 'to do' list but I had to post this while taking a coffee break!

I was at our small local Farmers' Market last Saturday morning just as the stalls were setting up. My farmer friend Dean has become my source for the best fresh eggs, the bright golden yolks giving my baked items the glow of sunshine, my soft boiled breakfast egg in my English egg cup the taste of the farmyard, or a luncheon omelet so beautiful we "ooh" and "aah" as we dig in! Dean also had amazing squash - the yellow bicolored Zephyr and small tender zucchini - and bunches of just-picked healthy Swiss Chard - colorful edible yellow and pinky-red stems, the darkest green tender leaves.

See the colorful apron here with my Saturday market buys - it's printed with garden tools and veggies? This was a gift from Vanessa at Vanilla Lavender. After giving her some fabrics to use for her creative sewing projects, she made me this fun apron complete with her adorable signature yo-yo's. Thanks so much Vanessa, I love it and it's perfect for when I'm veggie cooking!

My favorite and easiest recipe using Swiss chard is from The French Market - More Recipes from a French Kitchen, by Joanne Harris (author of Chocolat etc.) and Fran Warde. The photos in the book are gorgeous and the recipes draw inspiration from the rural French markets emphasizing rustic fresh flavors and quick preparation.

Above - Bettes du Vigneron (Vineyard -Style Swiss Chard) from The French Market cookbook.

I served this dish alongside Penne Gorgonzola Sunday evening - a delicious mix of French and Italian goodness!

Dean's eggs - worth getting up early for!

Do you support your local farmers and outdoor markets? Are you prepared to pay a little more for fresh, organic, and locally produced veggies, fruits, eggs etc. from people you see and know? Do you have concerns for your family's safety and health when purchasing so-called 'fresh produce' from a supermarket after many scares about contaminated fruits and vegetables?

Fall in France

Dear friends, see that European country in pale yellow, right where my hair bow points ~ well not MY hair bow, but this Jessie Willcox Smith illustration could have been me in sixth grade perhaps! Anyway, that's France and that's where I'll be in a few months visiting my much loved brother, sister-in-law and niece.

Geography was always my favorite, and best, subject in school ~ now it's somehow become part of Social Studies, buried among many other subjects and not given the importance it deserves ~ such a shame. Even high school kids are often unable to locate a particular country on a world map! I'm certain my generation acquired a passion for travel due to real geography classes. Emphasis was placed on learning everything about each country and it was so interesting that one just longed to take a bus, a prop plane, or that 'slow boat to China' to see these amazing countries.

I visited my now "French family' in 2006. They relocated from London and were living in their former vacation home while renovating their new 200 year old house in a Southwestern French village.

This time I'll be staying in this fabulous house, overlooking the 8th century abbey, taking a morning swim in the pool if it's not too chilly, then walking to the boulangerie for croissants and a baguette - fresh from the oven. I can hardly wait...................................but

.......................wait I must, until October!!

So, not leaving yet, however I have a lot to organize now that dh and I have made our reservations. I need extra time to work on these travel plans ~ including a side trip back to Provence hopefully, do the remaining Spring (now Summer!) cleaning chores I've been putting off, work in the garden, organize magazines which have piled up, clean out the 'frig, catch up with e-mails, make some cards, sew some seams, and hopefully read a book or two from the waiting stack.

I planned to take a little blog break this week, I just need some extra time. But, you know how hard it is to stay away, so perhaps I'll still have time to catch up with you all in a couple of days. I have pics from last week's visit to SuzAnna's Antiques where I met up with my dear friend Vanessa at Vanilla Lavender again ~ more treasures to share ~ so I just know I will see you soon.

Pink Saturday

Up early as it's a busy day!!

I have a double post thanks to invitations from Beverly at How Sweet The Sound and Cielo at House in the Roses. You can enjoy your ice cream......while taking the garden tour which follows.

Have a wonderful weekend wherever you may be.

CREAM . Clotted Cream . Whipped Cream . Double Cream . Heavy Cream .

Organic Cream.Pouring Cream . Sour Cream . Single Cream .

. Creme Fraiche . Devonshire Cream .

. ICE CREAM . we all scream!!!!!!

It's Saturday..............let's get out of this hot house and go for pink

ICE CREAM ~ COOL!!!!

Cielo's "Show Me Your Garden" party

Cielo at The House in The Roses

has invited me to join her "Show Me Your Garden" party today. Thanks Cielo, you are a great hostess and I just know there will be fabulous gardens to view. So let's grab our comfortable walking shoes, slap on some bug repellent - well I must - and don't forget a straw hat - it's hot out there today!

Welcome friends - I'd like you to join me for a quick tour around my North Carolina cottage garden? It's not large by any stretch of the imagination, but we have filled it with shrubs, plants and vegetables, garden structures and lots of whimsy beneath the lovely, lofty trees which have been there much longer than us!

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"What a man (or woman) needs in gardening is a cast-iron back, with a hinge in it."

- Charles Dudley Warner, My Summer in the Garden, 1871

Let's step through the arbor gate where the trumpet vine has bloomed profusely this Spring.


The vegetable patch is coming along despite lack of rain and produces quite well in the sunshine - tomatoes, cukes, French beans, zucchini and yellow squash - all the veggies needed for Summer cooking.

"Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration."

~ Lou Ericson

My purple shuttered potting shed ~ I love this little 'room of my own' which was built about eight years ago. I painted it green to blend in with Nature, adding purple shutters. The vine climbing up is a Five-leaf Akebia which displays tiny purple bell flowers in the early Spring.


The back lawn is small and curved which gives more dimension and little corners like a secret garden - and little people hang out waiting for their bird friends to stop by the many feeders hanging from the trees.


Those of you who have visited before are quite familiar with the deck and gazebo ~ some of you are probably tired of seeing it! I truly love this screened room which allows me to enjoy the outdoors free of mosquitoes. I love it in the morning when I can enjoy my coffee with the birds and squirrels ~ and in the early evening, sipping a glass of wine while watching birds bathe and grab those last few seeds before roosting for the night. Well, to be honest, I just love it at any time!

On this side there is a small raised bed with more tomatoes, cukes and beans, a few eggplants, peppers, squash, and pots of herbs, especially basil for pesto and Summer pasta dishes.

"The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses." ~ Hanna Rion

My kitchen window box is always filled with something fun throughout the year - Summer time means adding herbs and annuals along with ivy and always a brilliant chartreuse sweet potato vine.


As we return to the front of the cottage, if you have time, please sit a while on the porch while I make you a cup of English tea with something tasty to nibble! There are treasures to peek at including my sweet birds.






Well I know you have many other beautiful gardens to visit today so I'm blowing a friendly kiss as you go on your way. Please come back any time - you will always be welcome - we gardeners are a friendly bunch!

"God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done."


"One is nearer God's heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth"

Red Lips and Sticky Fingers

While on a fresh Summer fruits kick, thought I'd share another easy favorite baked treat from my kitchen yesterday. I'm always shocked at the high price of purchased muffins in grocery stores and bakeries. Often they have been frozen, contain yucky preservatives................and far too much sugar.

Fresh raspberries are my favorite soft fruit. Unfortunately their season is short and one has to grab them and use them quickly as their shelf life is brief. Growing up in England we grew our own in the back garden. Our neighbor had even more canes than us and she didn't like raspberries! For those few weeks in early Summer it was heaven, and my little fingers, and mouth, were stained with bright red juice which dripped down onto my cotton sundresses. I don't remember mum ever getting mad though - guess she knew the secret to getting out the stains and we always pegged the washing outdoors on the clothesline, the sun being our bleach!

Let's bake..................some good treats!

Old-Fashioned Raspberry Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon each salt and grated nutmeg

1-1/2 cups fresh raspberries (or blueberries)

2 large eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup sliced almonds and 1 tablespoon sugar for garnish, mixed together

In large bowl mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Add raspberries, stir gently to coat evenly. In small bowl beat eggs with fork, beat in milk and cooled butter. Add to raspberry mixture, stir until just blended (berries will break apart but this is OK). Fill greased muffin cups 2/3 full. Sprinkle with almonds and sugar. Bake in preheated 400 degree oven 15-20 mins. until pick inserted in center comes out clean. Makes 12 reg. size muffins. Can be baked in a 9" square pan 30-35 mins. for a coffee cake.

Illustrations from this gorgeous large format book, a gift from my son -

FRUIT ~ An Illustrated History published by the Royal Horticultural Society.

Cherry Ripe........

Cherry Ripe (1879)

John Everett Millais - 1829-1896

Cherry ripe, cherry ripe,
Ripe I cry,
Full and fair ones
Come and buy.
English Folk Song set to words by Robert Herrick ~ English Poet (1591-1674)

This past week Costco displayed these boxes of American grown cherries ~ firm, sweet and fresh. If you love cherries, the best way to eat them is of course right off the stalk, spitting the stone surreptitiously away from whom ever you may be sharing these treats with, or dropping them daintily into a bowl ~ as I did on Saturday while sharing with my new neighbor and trying to display good manners. We had afternoon tea in the gazebo, flowing lazily into an evening aperitif consisting of a lovely chilled dry Rose accompanied by these cherries.

The remaining cherries were pitted and turned into a Father's Day dessert, French cherry clafoutis.

This is my favorite clafoutis recipe from Ina Garten's Barefoot in Paris cookbook. She tweaks it by using pears which are wonderful, but here I'm returning to the traditional cherry version.

Cherry Clafoutis

1 tablespoon unsalted butter at room temperature

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

3 extra large eggs at room temperature

6 tablespoons all purpose flour

1-1/2 cups heavy cream

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons Brandy or Kirsch (Ina uses pear Brandy for the pear version)

1-1/2 lbs. fresh cherries, washed and dried

Confectioner's sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 10 x 1-1/2 round baking dish and sprinkle the bottom and sides with 1 tablespoon of the granulated sugar.

Beat the eggs and the 1/3 cup granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. On low speed mix in the flour, cream, vanilla extract, lemon zest, salt and Brandy. Set aside for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, pit the cherries (an inexpensive cherry pitter is a great help - OXO makes a nice one with a juice guard). Arrange in a single layer, packed together, in the baking dish. Pour the batter over the cherries and bake until the top is golden brown and the custard is firm, 35-40 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature, sprinkled with confectioner's sugar. Bon Appetit!

Photo from FRENCH - Delicious classic cuisine made easy.

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Below, granddaughter Jasmin choosing cherries from a market stall during our visit to France - June 2006

"The best ones ever Grandma".

Roses for the guys

Not only were my roses drying and dying from the intense heat of the past two weeks, just about everything else was beginning to struggle ~ the gardens, the animals and we the people!

Last night we had some rain, thank goodness. This morning the shrubs have perked up ~ the squirrels look cool in their fur coats ~ the Robins are not fighting over who gets to dunk in the birdbaths ~ and the Chickadee doesn't need to perch on top of the fountain for his morning shower. The leaves dangle wet and shiny from the trees ~ the tiny figs on the small bush may have expanded ever so slightly ~ the basil has reached the top edge of the pots ~ the driveway is washed clean again making everything look brighter. Perhaps more showers later ~ fine with us, and our gardens.

Roses and wishes to all Fathers everywhere today.