Goodbye March and Hello April!!

I was thinking about the month of March. It’s hard to believe it has ended for another year. March came in like the proverbial Lion. The weather was terrible the wind was so strong it blew our outside furniture all over the deck. We had tree limbs down and lost power one night for about six hours. We had a hail storm that left our deck littered with hail so thick it looked like snow. And then it, March, went out like a little meek lamb. Goodbye March. Until next year.

March was a full month of work and reading, knitting and crochet projects, dinners with family and then with some friends, I was the guest speaker at a hospitality training seminar, my husband retired and is loving it, I was able to visit with my niece who was in for a time from California, I visited a farm that grows tulips, my tulips are blooming and several of my orchids are blooming. So wow!!! Quite a month. I would expect no less I guess.

The Reduds are also blooming. At work we have several visitors who come in and ask “what are the beautiful purple trees that we see all along the roads.” I tell them they are actually Redbuds. Redbuds? but they’re purple, and then I show them the picture of a Redbud when it first blooms out and it is definitely a red bud.

***See how red the first bloom actually is***?

I passed a house that had this beautiful tree blooming and just had to get a picture.

And of course just like clock work we experienced Redbud Winter. The temperatures took a plunge last week which is always what happens when the Redbuds bloom. I truly believe in all the winters that we experience in East Tennessee. If you haven’t read my post explaining them you can read it here: The Five Winters of East Tennessee. Many people I work with, even my husband, poo poo this and don’t believe that the trees budding, and other signs have anything to do with the weather, but I firmly believe they do. My parents always believed this and so did early settlers, for them it was the only way they had of knowing when the last frost had occurred and it was safe to plant crops.

A few weeks ago I became obsessed with the crocheted Easter eggs that are all over the internet. I spent several hours watching a YouTube video while working stitch by stitch with a yarn, turns out was much too thick, to make one of these eggs. You crochet one side and then the other side separately and then slip a small plastic Easter egg inside and slip stitch the two sides together. My first one turned out so large, because of the thick yarn I was using, you could have put three Easter eggs inside of it. Back to my computer and YouTube I went. The second egg wound up on the floor because I got so frustrated, I may have actually yelled and stomped a little, with the yarn. I had picked a thinner cotton yarn. Wrong. The cotton just didn’t work. It kept splitting and it was still too thick. For round three I chose crochet thread, it is super fine. I am using a size 2.75 crochet needle. I finished it and I think I sort of like it. I would like to make a few more and hang them across my kitchen window.

***The third attempt. I think I am better off sticking with the crochet thread. I hung this one in my window and would like a few more. Maybe I will get better with each one***.

If you want to try one of these eggs, just put crocheted Easter egg inside your search bar and lots of them will come up.

So here we are in April. The weather has been so nice and soft. The trees are turning about a million shades of green. Flowers are blooming, and the pollen is going crazy!!! I guess you just have to take some of the bad with the good.

I leave you with one of my favorite April poems.

Have a wonderful week and month!!!

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

It’s Tuesday Let’s Catch Up

Hello friends. I have been a little quiet on the blog lately. My life has been busy but good. I really have no excuse except I have been so tired every evening I usually don’t do much after I get home. So here is a little bit about what has been happening in my neck of the woods.

My sister and I visited the cutest farm on Saturday. We have been planning this for a while. The farm produces tulips every year. For about four weeks out of the year you can go there and pick tulips and take pictures and just enjoy the atmosphere and scenic beauty of the farm. It is really quite lovely. We had put off going for more than a week because the owners had reported a very small crop of tulips this year because of the rain and wind. We finally went Saturday, even though the tulips were a little less than what they will be in a week or two, and we had a great time. The weather was warm and so nice. We picked a few tulips. Most of them hadn’t bloomed out. I put them in a small glass dish and they are really starting to open up. We also had lunch and did a little shopping. I ran into a dear friend I hadn’t seen in a while. She recently lost her husband and she and I have been planning to do lunch forever. I made sure I had her number and we will definitely go in a week or two.

I had to do some work on my orchids on Sunday. I repotted two of them. My orchid Oliver is blooming after almost two years. His leaves were always green and strong but he didn’t bloom. I am so excited that he is finally blooming again. I don’t know why some of my orchids are male and some are female but I just see them that way.

Last week I met up with two of my best friends Lorie and Emily at one of our favorite restaurants in Tellico Plains. It was Lorie’s Birthday and we had dinner and Emily brought a cake. This restaurant has some of the best truffle fries I have ever eaten.

So lots of things going on. I have been working on a crocheted egg for Easter. I will share that with you soon. I’m not sure how crazy I am about them and they are so time consuming.

I leave you with a picture of two of my babies Kitty Kitty and Gus. It looks as though they are on guard, protecting us I guess.

I hope you have a wonderful week.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Making Chocolate Pudding Cake

Hello and happy Monday. It really was a true Monday. I left the house this morning and several miles down the road I realized I had forgotten my purse. I did not go back. I had my phone and my lunch. I can use Apple Pay on my phone if I need to. So I did without it today. It did feel a little strange though. Oh well I guess it just proves I don’t really need a purse. I think I will get me one of those cute little wristlets and hook it to my keys.

It was a great weekend. The weather was so nice. I went outside Saturday morning to check out the tulip bulbs, and there are now fourteen coming up. I am hoping for even more because some of them are just barely breaking through. Of course I had a little helper. Allie.

I spent some time out on the deck reading. I am still reading Ina Garten’s Memoir. The sunshine and warm temperatures were just great. I baked bread and took most of it to work with me today.

When I was growing up my mama made a very yummy chocolate dessert that she called Chocolate Pudding Cake. Think lava cake or something like that and you will have an idea of what it is similar to. For many years we have tried to perfect the cake and make it like hers. I think my nephew and I just about have it down. After we came up with our recipe, other than a few tweaks here and there, my niece casually mentioned that she made it all the time. We are thinking we need to have a bake-off and let the family decide which one tastes the most like my mama’s.

Here is the recipe:
First melt one stick of butter in a 9×5 baking pan or casserole dish.
In a separate dish mix these dry ingredients:
1&1/2 cups of self rising flour
1&1/4 cups of granulated sugar
1&3/4 TBS. of cocoa
after you have stirred these together add:
3/4 cup of whole mild
2 tsp. of vanilla extract
pour into your pan evenly (DON”T STIR) after you pour it into the pan.

In a separate bowl mix:
1&1/2 cups of sugar
1/2 cup of cocoa
Stir all of this together until all of the lumps are out of the cocoa
Sprinkle this mixture over the top of the first mixture (DON’T STIR) after you put it on top of the first mixture.

Boil 2&1/2 cups of water (this is where I am tweaking mine next time and only adding 1&1/2 cups of boiling water.) But I used 2&1/2 cups yesterday and it was still delicious just a little runny while it was still warm. Pour the boiling water over your mixture very slowly. Let it soak in for a few minutes and then put it in your oven at 350 degrees and bake for thirty minutes.

*The recipe we found online, from the sweetest woman from Alabama, Diane Leary, called for 2&1/4 cups of boiling water. Next try, I am only going to use 1&1/2 cups. Diane calls hers chocolate cobbler.* ***Chocolate and cobbler, how could you go wrong?***

***It was delicious. Next time I may even add some ice cream. This is definitely a once every now and then treat. Just a spoonful or two is more than enough. It is very rich.***

That pretty much sums up my weekend. Weekends go by so quickly. I have a full and busy week coming up. How about you? Have a wonderful week

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Hello Monday – Kitties and Tulips

Happy Monday. I had a great and very relaxing weekend. The weather here has been so nice. We were laughing about the weather because it has been cold in the mornings, very warm in the afternoon and then cold again in the evening. Welcome to East Tennessee. You never know what you are going to get.

My husband and I met some family for an early dinner on Saturday. It was a little retirement celebration for him. He didn’t want a big to-do so we agreed on a small dinner at our local Mexican Restaurant. I made a cake. There was just a few of us. We had a great time.

We also spent some time walking around outside. The weather on Saturday was warm but windy. I guess you could say March came in like a lion for us.

Back in the fall hubs and I planted about fifty tulip bulbs. We realized a little too late that something had gotten into them and dug them up and ate and chewed on them. I am thinking it was probably a raccoon. I thought they had all been destroyed. But maybe not all of them. While we were out walking I noticed about ten little buds coming up. I was so excited. I’m hoping a few more might have survived.

***Look at this little bud. I am thinking I will need to cover these up if another cold snap happens.***

The outside kitties love it when we are outside with them. They run and jump and show out. I got a few pictures of Izzy. I think she is very photogenic.

We also found more Daffodils blooming. You know spring is coming when you see Daffodils.

I spent the rest of the weekend reading and knitting a hat for my sister. She loved the slouchy hat I posted a couple of weeks ago so I started one for her. I have the four inches of the knit two purl two brim finished, and it is straight knitting from here on. My favorite kind of knitting. I should have it finished very soon.

My niece shared this little Bucket List of ideas for March. I am going to try several of them. What do you think?

It’s hard to believe that spring is just around the corner. We change back to Daylight Savings Time this coming weekend. I am probably one of the few people not crazy about it. It’s not that I don’t like the longer daylight hours but I say we just stick with one time and it will all work out.

Have a wonderful week.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!