Spring is Here

Garden
After all of unseasonable temperatures we had in April, May has been definitely spring like.  I was afraid that we would go from winter to summer, but while it has been warm, it hasn't been too hot.  
Iris and lilacs are flowers I associate with spring.  Tulips too.  But the tulips did not fare well in the cold and were bruised and broken with the weight of the snow we had every week.  

 These iris are in the front yard.  Last  year I divided all of the iris in the back yard so I'm not sure how  many will bloom this year.
This funny lilac is on the same branch!  One white bunch amongst all of the purple.  And it's the only one.

Sadly, the apple and plum trees did not bloom this year.  The cherry tree did bloom, so we'll see what happens in about six weeks.  And I heard the peach trees on the Western Slope got frozen too.  It will be a bummer year for fresh Colorado fruit.  The neighbors crabapple tree did not bloom either.  I'm only partially disappointed because it is the most spectacular pink tree when in bloom, but not so disappointed because my side yard won't be covered in crabapples!

Five Years!

Family
Five years ago today was the biggest wedding celebration EVER.  
Bryan and I were married in front of 180 of our closest friends and family.  We wanted our wedding to be a fun celebration and that is exactly what we got.  It was important to us that everyone have a good time.   We had a Celtic duo playing traditional Irish music for the reception immediately following the ceremony.  Then we had a DJ and lots of dancing after dinner.  We even had a congo line going around the restaurant and through the kitchen!  

In the five years since we have had to compromise (hard for both of us, but we have learned) as a couple.  We annoy each other to no end.  We have fun together and we do a lot of things together.  We have welcomed the most beautiful baby girl into our family.  While it is not always easy, we make it work.  

We are truly blessed.  Happy Anniversary.  I love you.  



Strawberries and Rhubarb


 Strawberries and rhubarb just go together.  We've been eating a lot of pan"cakes" here lately.  I've made blueberry syrup and a molasses syrup to go with our cakes.  The rhubarb seems to be the only thing growing like gangbusters right now so it seemed obvious to me that I need to try a rhubarb syrup as well.  Then strawberries were on sale at the store.  I scoured google to find a recipe that I thought was the best (I'm not sure how I was to decide on the best recipe...) and ended up combining a couple of different recipes to come up with my concoction.  
Rhubarb Syrup-
10-12 stalks rhubarb chopped into pieces
2- 1/2 pounds strawberries quartered
2 C sugar (or to taste)
2 C water
2 T lemon juice
Mix the whole mess into a saucepan.  Stir until the sugar is dissolved.  Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer stirring occasionally for 10 minutes.  I stirred mine occasionally until the rhubarb started to become soft and smooshy.  Line a mesh sieve with cheesecloth over a large mixing bowl and gently pour the mixture out of the saucepan.  Let the mixture drip through into the bowl, pressing with the back of a spoon to get most of the liquid out.  Pour the strawberry and rhubarb mixture into a mixing bowl and pour the liquid into a container and set aside.  
With the left over strawberry and rhubarb fruit I made a pie.  Why throw away all of that goodness?
It was pretty sweet from cooking in the sugar and water so I didn't add any sugar.  In fact I didn't add any spices either.  I made a pie crust from my favorite pie crust recipe.  I have been making pie crust since I learned how as a teenager and still to this day CAN  NOT MAKE A ROUND CRUST!!
After a lot of cutting to make the crust work in my pie plate (which I'm pretty good at by now) I poured the strawberry rhubarb mixture into the crust and put a dab of butter in the center.
Then I put the top crust on and made a pretty design on it and sprinkled a bit of sugar on top.  I popped it in a 375 degree oven for about 50 minutes or so.  After 45 minutes I took the little metal crust protector off and let the edges brown up a bit.  All times are approximate, I just guessed.   Dee-lish served warm with some vanilla ice cream.  
Now for the syrup.  Put the saved liquid into a saucepan and simmer to desired thickness.  I didn't want mine too thick.  Besides a lovely topping for cakes, I wanted to be able to mix the tasty red liquid with vodka tonics.  I ended up with 4 half pints and this one little 4 ounce jar of beautiful sweet, red goodness.  

20/52

The 52 Project
The 52 Project
A portrait a week for a year.
This week: Tired of waiting for dinner.  (of course she had no nap that day and the 20 minute power nap at the table messed up bedtime).

This Moment

This Moment
This moment  
A Friday ritual. 
A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. 
A simple, special, extraordinary moment. 
A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.
Joining with Amanda.  
Have a great week.

On The Nightstand

Books
And on the coffee table.  This past Tuesday I had shoulder surgery and spent a lot of time relaxing (and sleeping) in the recliner.  These are the book that are within reach of the chair.  Corrine came home from Oma and Papa's house on Wednesday and we spent the rest of the week reading.  She (for the most part) was aware of mama's boo-boo so we sat and read.  These are her current faves.  We read We're Going on a Bear Hunt over and over.  And over.  And over.  I tried to hide it under the stack on the coffee table.  Didn't work.  I'm surprised should can't read it to me yet! 
 This is mama's stack of books.  I just finished the Maeve Binchy book A Week in Winter.  She was such a great story teller.  I love the way she weaves together the lives of her characters.  She died last summer shortly after she finished this book.   I picked up the James Patterson book at the library as well.  It's the newest book in the Women's Murder Club series.  It should be a fairly fast read.  I like the short chapters...makes for easy bed time reading.  Shadow Divers is a true story of two scuba dives who found a WWII German u-boat off the coast of New Jersey.  Can't wait to read that one.
What are you reading?  Anything I should add to my ever expanding "To Read" shelf?

19/52

Corrine
The 52 Project
A portrait a week for a year.
This week- it was a company sponsored employee free day at the Denver Zoo.  Corrine and daddy rode on the carousel.

Random Thoughts on Thursday

Garden
On Monday I finally got some of my garden planted.  All of the cool weather seeds are in the ground.  A month or so after I normally plant them, but in the ground.  
And just before the rain this week.  Rain.  Not snow!  Although the mountains are getting snow.   In the ground are radishes (french breakfast and some white icicle), lettuce, spinach, kale, carrots and beets.  The rule of thumb here is to plant the warm weather crops after mothers day.  I'll probably wait to plant them for a couple of weeks.  It's still frosty in the mornings.

Tuesday was shoulder surgery.  All went well.  Even better, my rotator cuff did not need to be re-attached so the time my arm will be in a sling is minimal.  The Dr. filed down the bone spur and cleaned up the cuff.  Now begins the most intensive six weeks of physical therapy.  I had lost a lot of range of motion, so we will begin to get that back.  Not looking forward to it.   I'm kind of still in my happy place right now, you know, better living through chemistry!

A Broken Record?

weather
Do I sound like a broken record yet?  This is seeming to be a weekly happening here in Denver.  This is what we woke up to on the first day of May!  
When I got home late from work Wednesday night I'd say we had about five inches of snow.  It is a very wet and heavy snow.  Luckily the trees don't have leaves yet.  That would be a  mess.  But it's cold again, 25 degrees on the way home.  I'm hoping the cold doesn't harm my fruit trees.  The snow won't stick around.  I'm guessing most of it will be gone tomorrow.  We do desperately need the moisture so maybe this will help the wildfire situation later in the summer.

This isn't the latest it has snowed in Denver.  I grew up in the mountains outside of Boulder and can remember when I was in the 7th grade we got three feet of snow on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend.  The news the Tuesday night said the latest it has snowed was in the 1940 and it was on June 4th!  Now that is springtime in the Rockies!

Yarn Along

Yarn Along
It's Wednesday again and that means it's time for the weekly yarn along.  I'm joining with Ginny and everyone for a weekly update on books and knitting.  I was off all week and really didn't get a whole lot of either accomplished.  I did manage to finish of square number two (brown- on the left) for the April member of the month in my square swap group.  I then quickly crocheted this pink square for the May member.  This is one of my favorite go to crochet baby blanket patterns that I modified to make a square instead of a whole blanket.  Next step- blocking and mailing.  
 

Today I worked for a while on the citron while waiting at the mechanic for my car to be fixed.  (Hubby- out of town.  The G's- out of town.  Corrine- at the babysitter.  So why not sit and knit?).  I am on the fifth section and will probably add two or three more sections to make it bigger.  I have plenty of yarn and probably will not use it for anything else.  I'm not really liking this lace weight yarn, it just feels funny working with something so thin.

I finally finished The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling.  I didn't particularly care for the book, mostly because I love Harry Potter so much and this was such a complete turnaround from that type of book.  I can't say I hated it, but I didn't like it either.  I'm not sure what to read next.  I've got a ton of books on my bookshelf from a friend who reads them then passes them off to me.  She's retired and reads a lot.  I have a two year old and am too tired at night to read.  Ha.  Ha.

Happy Yarn Along Wednesday.

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