Hello everyone, my name is Lisa I am a southern girl born and raised in East Tennessee. I love discovering new places and things to do. I have a lot of favorites, shopping, traveling, knitting and photography are all at the top of my list. I am married with my fur babies my only children. This blog is actually named after my beloved basset hound Patches. She passed away a few years ago but will always have a huge part of my heart. Come with me and we will explore some wonderful places and discover some really fun things. Are you ready?
April showers have definitely delivered the flowers around here lately and it’s not even quite May yet. Well one more day, and I can’t even believe that April is gone. It only lasted about ten minutes.
I had a very quiet weekend. I worked on a crochet project most of the weekend. I can’t show it to you yet because it is a gift and a surprise. I also started another scarf. I just love making scarves. They are easy and soothing and I have probably made a hundred of them. One day when I retire I will set up a booth at one of the craft fairs and sell my scarves and things.
It seems as though everything is springing to life with a “look at me look at me” shout. There are about a million colors of green and so many flowers.
My roses are blooming, the azaleas just finished blooming and it just smells wonderful outside.
My roses have been really pretty this year.
The Azaleas have almost lost all of their blooms. This was just a few days ago and they’re almost gone now.
These are some wild roses that bloom where I work. They smell so good.
The Irises bloomed quick and fast and were gone before I could turn around. I really need to thin them. I think they would grow much better.
I hope you have a wonderful rest of the week. Enjoy your days and don’t forget to smell the flowers they are especially wonderful in this part of the country.
Hello friends, How was your weekend? Easter is always a special family time for us. We went to my sister’s house for a cook-out. I made baked beans and some cookie bars. How did you spend your Easter Sunday?
My cookie bars just before baking them.
I have been sitting in the early mornings listening to the whippoorwills while I drink my coffee. Whippoorwill winter will be here soon. All last week we were experiencing Dogwood winter. The Dogwood trees are now fully bloomed out and the temps have turned quite warm again. Dogwood winter was very nice while it lasted. Cool mornings and warm afternoons.
I think the Dogwood is one of the most beautiful trees.
I mentioned last week that I had visited Harmony Lane Farms in Smithville Tennessee. If you missed that post check it out Here. I took a sample of their sour doughbread starter. I didn’t have time to make the sourdough bread when I brought the starter home. I kept the starter in the refrigerator and took it out last Friday to feed it and get it to room temperature to get it ready to make bread. Just like my yeast bread it is a two day process. If you are unsure of making sourdough bread check out some of the YouTube or Instagram videos out there. There’s so many good ones. I think I’ve watched about a million trying to get different ideas of how people do theirs.
I fed the bread on Friday morning around 5:00 AM and marked my jar to be able to see if the starter was active and rising. I came home Friday night and ran to the kitchen to check the starter and it was rising. It had almost doubled in size. I fed it again that night and the next morning I started the bread.
There is a lot of stretching and folding when you are dealing with sourdough bread. It took most of the day, off and on. I finished it in the afternoon and decided to let the dough sit in the refrigerator overnight. I had read that this makes for a more flavorful bread. On a side note I made more bread a couple of days later and didn’t do all of the stretching and folding and I didn’t leave it in the fridge as long. I couldn’t tell a bit of difference. I did stretch and fold a few times and let it rest and rise for a few hours.
This is the proofing basket. I used to put the dough in after I had folded it and seamed the bottom.
I baked the bread on Sunday morning. I was very happy with the way it turned out. It is very different from my yeast bread and the artisan bread that I make.
I love the color and the texture of this bread.
I celebrated my birthday this week and my 35th wedding anniversary. I don’t know if I told you but I got married on my Birthday. So we have a double celebration. I asked for an ice cream maker for my Birthday. The electric kind not the one you churn by hand. No thank you on the hand crank job I remember those from my childhood. Hubs and I took the day and did a little shopping and went out to eat. Very low key.
My morning view a couple of times last week.
I had read that if your cat has a box to play and sleep in it makes them more sociably comfortable and happy. I fixed a box for the kitties. They were very interested. Gus was the first one in it.
And then Kitty Kitty got in after Gus had finished inspecting it.
As soon as Gus saw Kitty Kitty in “his” box he ran straight into it and pushed Kitty Kitty out. The fight was on. I went down to the basement and got a second box and fixed it up for them. And wouldn’t you know it, neither one would have anything to do with the second box. Now they have lost interest in both boxes. Oh well it was an experiment.
Several of my orchids are blooming and I am just loving all the different colors.
That is what has been going on around here how is your week going?
Happy Monday. How was your weekend? Last week was a long week. I started last Monday taking my sister for outpatient surgery in Knoxville. Then I had to stay late at work three different days. A long week. But the weekend was great!!! And I was so ready for it.
On Saturday my sister, niece and I went to nearby Smithville to visit my nephew. He works in Smithville and has lived there for more than a year. He discovered a goat farm near his house. Harmony Lane Farms, it is a working farm and they sell goat milk, ice cream and even fudge all made from Goat’s milk.
I went online to check it out and saw that they even had a farm tour and baby goat cuddling. We were all in.
We met my nephew in Sparta Tennessee which is about thirty minutes from his house. He had a pizza place he wanted us to try. We got into Sparta almost an hour before we were scheduled to meet him so we drove around the town.
My sister and I chose something different than pizza. Although the pizza looked great too.
Just outside of town we saw a little farm store that was very crowded. We still had some time to kill so we pulled in. The Farmers’ Storehouse. It was the neatest shop.
So many different types of flour.
They make a lot of sour dough and even gave me a sour dough starter. It turns out that my sour dough bread is actually more of a yeast bread than an actual sour dough bread. But that’s okay I can do both. I have already fed the new starter a few times but haven’t actually made bread yet.
The farm tour was so much fun. We rode on a wagon and fed chickens, goats, cattle and watched the hogs being fed. I even got to milk a goat. Then we were able to cuddle the baby goats and even feed them with a bottle. They were just adorable.
It was such a beautiful day.
This farm was so beautiful
The goats know when it is feeding time.
The goats are hand milked twice a day.
Me and my sister and some baby goats. We also got to bottle feed them.
We sampled several different types of cheese and the fudge of course. It was all delicious. My nephew always buys ice cream here.
I got home just in time to capture this beautiful moonrise.
Sunday was mostly resting and some laundry and spending time with my hubs.
This is perhaps the least specific blog you will find. A variety of DIY projects, book reviews, health tips, yoga poses, fashion ideas, recipes or something altogether different depending on my current mood. I've never been pigeon-holed into one category so neither is my blog. Strap in and enjoy the ride!
Southern Patches 