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thank you, mother nature

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Every spring, I prune and prod and weed and water.  I spray my roses to ward of thrips. I do my best to fight grubs and move plants around to fill areas out.  I spend a lot of time plucking new maple seedlings from the ground and fertilizing, fertilizing, and fertilizing with worm poop and Neptune’s Harvest (though eek – just realized Neptune’s Harvest is fish-derived, so I guess I may need to find a new one).  Very time consuming, but oh how I love looking at the fruits of my hard labor every year.

This year, mother nature realized that I just had bigger priorities, so she helped me out.

Everything simply exploded this year. I am not talking about vegetables or annuals, but rather my perennials.  Bit by bit, I’ve accumulated lovely plants.  Many came from my childhood home in Upstate New York.  Rather than leave their beloved perennials when moving, my parents potted them up and I drove back to Boston one April day with a small SUV LOADED with our family’s favorite plants.  Roses, clematis, indigo, forsythia, gooseneck loostrife, a snowball bush, a lilac, and more. Add the others I have planted, such as creeping flox, hollyhocks, iris, broom, asiatic lillies, purple balloon flower, and oh so many others, and I now have a mature garden.  That first year they slept.  The next year they crept.  This year, oh how they have sprawled!  While I was inside in chilly spring weather with my newborn, everything decided to become just what I hoped it eventually would.  I’m nearly out of room now and I’ll have to start pruning! Though, I can always find more room…

I was standing out front planting my dahlia bulbs one day, and a woman yelled to me from the street to tell me how pretty our garden was.  I stopped working, stood back, looked hard, and realized…wow.  It is.  It was hard work, but I love how it ended up.  Some of the plants knew better than I just where they should sprawl and spread to, and I thank them for it.  It suits my personality because they are well-kept and established, yet unorganized and a bit chaotic (in a good way).

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Blackberries, Cancer, and Love

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I never declared myself a good writer.  I can’t write witty fiction or profound essays. However, when I saw an essay contest in Real Simple about understanding the meaning of love, I felt compelled to write something just because I have so much to say about my mother and the love I have for her.  Naturally I didn’t win (the winners are always amazing and often actual writers in life…you can read the winner here), so I thought I’d paste the essay in as a celebration of my mom on Mother’s Day.  Not that any real-life words can describe the love and adoration I have for her.

Blackberries, Cancer, and Love, written in August of 2011.

Funny, I always thought love was just something I was really good at. Can you be “good” at love?  I could hug and send care packages and give pep talks and do good deeds for my  friends and family.  I said “I love you” a lot, so I had to rank higher than the average person when it came to love. I expected the same amount of love in return. Give and take, right?  Isn’t that what love is?  50/50?

As these things often happen, the way I thought of love changed when faced with loss and I’ll never think of love the same way again.  First, love isn’t a “tit for tat” kind of thing.  The joy is in giving it out rather than waiting for it in return.  Second, love isn’t to be taken for granted.  At any moment, one of the people we love the most could be taken away.

There are days you just don’t forget.  March 18, 2011 is that day for me.  My parents had been living in New Hampshire (transplanted from New York State) for just five months. I was overjoyed to have them closer to me and happy they were beginning a new and exciting chapter in life. I began that day in March by cursing at the traffic (completely normal) and then scrambling to get ready for a late afternoon co-presentation with a colleague who had just flown in from California (also normal).  For some reason, I looked at my cell phone between meetings and ho hum work chaos and saw several missed calls from my father (not normal).  His message indicated that my mother, who went to the doctor that morning for an exam, would be staying overnight, but I “shouldn’t worry because everything is fine and we love you!” Something wasn’t right. I tried calling him back.  Nothing.  I tried again.  Nothing.  My legs felt like Jello as my heart pounded.

This brought me to a series of random events that are imprinted in my mind forever.  I walked over to my boss and told him I had to leave with a calm, automatic smile on my face.  I went over to my California colleague’s desk, told her I had to leave as I dramatically burst into tears, and then I walked out of the building, leaving my presentation behind me.  I must have known that the alignment in the universe was off or something. There was no one thing that proved that something was amiss, but I could feel a change buzzing around me. I remember looking at my shoes on the way out and noticing the scuff mark on the front in detail. I remember the pants I had on that day. I remember fiddling with the locks on my car door that often pick and choose when they feel like working.  I remember the color of the car in front of me as I sat at the first red light (burnt orange).  I remember trying so hard to keep the speedometer under 90 as I drove the two hours to a little hospital in New Hampshire.  There was an odd clarity in everything and my senses were all on high as I tried to tell myself that everything was fine.  As it turns out, everything was not fine.  There was a large mass discovered in her body that needed to be investigated further.

We didn’t find out that day that she had cancer, but we did the next day when the doctor called to confirm the biopsy.  I couldn’t hear the phone conversation, but I saw my mother’s beautiful face turn white and I just knew what she was hearing.  “Your surgery will be scheduled quickly…there may be something on the liver…don’t worry, this doctor is the best.”

From then on, there was nothing that mattered more than being with my mother as much as I could while she spent long and painful weeks in the hospital recovering.  It was a horrible recovery, painful and emotionally traumatizing for her.  15 long days away from her kitty and her home and all sources of comfort – even food.

Let me tell you about this woman.  Her laugh is like soft, tiny bells ringing.  Her voice is sweet and feminine.  She looks beautiful in pink. She is fragile and sensitive, yet strong and steady.  She likes to make people smile.  She has these adorable facial expressions that can’t help but make other people—even complete strangers—enamored by her.   She is kind.  Too kind in fact, and easily stepped on by people that aren’t so kind. If there were 10 people in a room, you’d find yourself drawn to her the most.  She loves music and dancing.  She loves to write letters to God asking him to watch over everyone else.  She is in love with the cat that shares her home and is convinced they sometimes share the same language. She likes to read and loves to discuss the books afterwards.   Her passion is learning about nutrition and homeopathy.  She feels everything more than the average person.  If the world is suffering, she carries that weight on her shoulders, yet when there is joy, she immerses herself in it.   She is the epitome of  “the glass being half full.”

One night, when she was home recovering and I was leaving to drive back to Boston, I went into her bedroom to say good night and goodbye to her.  She took my hand, touched her face with it slowly and drowsily, and told me she loved me.  I felt the cool softness of her cheek—the cheek that belonged to this woman that I loved so much—I felt a panic-induced wail start to bubble up inside of me.  This lovely creature gave me her body and blood to give me life and it seemed like her life could be ripped away from me at any time.  In the car on a dark dirt road, I was able to let that wail out and realized that I was utterly shattered.  Seized with terror that I’d lose her. Intense, debilitating terror that was unlike anything I had felt.  I couldn’t stop thinking, “What if I am not able to touch her skin anymore?  What would I do if I couldn’t hear her dreamy, girly voice say my name? ” Along with this panic came love that took me by surprise.  A love too overwhelming for words.

“Maybe if I wear the ring she gave me every day, she’ll feel how much I love her and it will take her cancer away.”
“If I buy her yet another thing with bluebird on it, it will make her happy and happiness can take cancer away, right?”
“I’ll take her to yoga.  Yoga involves mind and body.  I swear I’ve heard of yoga curing cancer.”
“Blackberries.  She needs blackberries.  I’m going to make sure she eats blackberries as much as possible. They will take away the cancer.”

Look, this is not a sad tale. This incredible woman immediately set the tone for how things would be while living with cancer.

And just like that, our little family slowly started to crawl out of the dark, scary cancer cave.  My mother was healing from the surgery and hadn’t yet started chemotherapy.  My father and I were healing from the six hours that we sat in the hospital during her surgery, clinging to one another for sanity.  The panic faded a bit and the days started to feel beautiful and syrupy and delicious.  It was a “Summer Breeze” kind of time and we did feel fine.  We hugged more and gardened and talked for hours.  It was a time in life that moved at a lazy summer pace and consisted of lemonade and laughter.  I remember standing in the new garden my father had created as my mother brought out a tray with  waters on it (one for the cat of course) thinking, “I am happy.  I am lucky.  I want to stay in this moment forever.”


I had the realization one day of how much I’d learned about love through this experience.  Someone referred to having a sick family member as a burden.  A burden?  No, I realized.  Not even a little.  Not even for a second.  I would sacrifice anything for my mother and I don’t expect anything back. Love isn’t about dishing out so that you can be sure you get it in return.  Love is about showering someone else with love.  Lifting them up without wanting anything back and giving all the energy you have to someone else just because you love them so much. I wanted to send every ounce of love I had to my mother to heal her, to make her feel joy, to ensure she knows she is never alone, and to take any fear she may be experiencing away from her.  I wanted to also send that love to my father, to lift him up because his fears could maybe even be stronger than mine. Both of my parents have a way of loving so unselfishly and I hadn’t noticed until my mother became ill.   Sometimes it takes that to realize the important things.

Every day with those you love most is precious.  I’ll never take for granted a single day I have with her and I’ll shower her with overflowing love and tenderness.   I’ll hug her constantly and touch her skin as much as I can.  I’ll call her all the time just to hear her soft voice say, “Hi my sweet girl.” I’ll always hope that bluebirds, blackberries, and my love take away her cancer for good.

vegan chewy chocolate and coconut granola bars

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I mentioned our obsession with using food up that we have in a recent post.  This isn’t just to save moola (though all savings are helpful as I head into unpaid maternity leave time).  Ethically, it makes me ill to throw food away when there are so many going hungry.  Also, why should I contribute to greenhouse gasses by allowing my extra garbage to break down in a landfill? Click here to read more about this.  It has been even more challenging with a new baby.  I’m lucky if I have time to actually eat let alone cook anything.

I had a bag of sweetened coconut left over from a coconut cake as well as half a bag of chocolate chips.  A lactation consultant told me to eat oatmeal to boost milk production, so I had the hubby grab a whole big container of oats recently.  I had this crazy idea that I’d try to make a sweet, soft, chewy granola bar.  I’d love to say it is uber healthy and full of dried fruit and nuts (and it can be), but mine wasn’t.  This one is pretty dessert-y because I was craving sweet!  But, hey, they are still better for you than the preservative-laden granola bars you buy in the store.  There is a problem with these, though…moderation.  I consumed nearly the entire batch in about 48 hours.  My weakest moments were in the middle of the night while being up with the baby.

They are so easy and I’m dying to know if you can restrain yourself and actually share these or make them last for longer than a few days.  Seriously, they are THAT good.

vegan chewy chocolate and coconut granola bars
(but you can alter them to whatever ingredients you have/want really)
*I adapted this recipe from many recipes I found out there
1 1/4 cup quick oats
1 1/2 cup of rice krispies
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup of granulated sugar
1/2 cup of almond flour
1 cup of vegan chocolate chips (more if you are craving chocolate!)
1 bag of coconut flakes (less or more depending on how much you need to use up)
1/2 cup of peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract (if you have it)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup Earth Balance margarine (melted)
shortening to grease the pan
again, you could add whatever you have…dried blueberries or cranberries, candied orange would be amazing, banana chips=yum, nuts you have on hand, etc.

Preheat the oven to 375. Grease an 8 x 8 pan.  I highly recommend laying parchment paper on the bottom because it will make it much easier to get the granola bars out of the pan.

Mix your dry ingredients together.  Mix your wet ingredients separately to ensure the delicious flavors are dispersed throughout.  Then add to your dry ingredients.  I ended up using more peanut butter than I wrote merely because I wanted to use the jar up.

By the way, if Earth Balance isn’t a staple in your home already, I highly recommend it.  It completely eliminated any need we had for butter. The stuff is amazing and vegan. Pretty much ALL of their products are fab.

Press the granola into the greased pan.  Use a piece of parchment paper to push it down if it is sticking to your fingers.  Pop it into the oven.  Bake for 40 minutes.  All ovens are different, so start looking at it around 35 minutes to make sure you aren’t burning the edges.  You definitely want the top to be browning before you take it out.

Voila.

Look at the chocolately deliciousness.
Because they can be crumbly, I would leave them alone until they are completely cool.  Cut them up and wrap them in plastic wrap.
Just because I can’t resist (and we are talking about crunchy granola after all), here is a picture of Andy at mom and baby yoga class.  He is already a little yogi at 4 weeks (eek – he just turned 5 weeks today).

What ingredients would you add to these bars?

happiness and one sweet baby moon

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After my last post, I thought I had lots of time until le petite bebe would join the world.  I had all of these posts I planned to write during my week at home pre-baby life wrap-up. Pair that with the work (like actual “at my job” work) tasks that weren’t yet complete, the car that wasn’t yet cleaned out, the few last baby tasks that weren’t done, the seeds I was going to start (still haven’t), the clothes I was going to unpack in anticipation of having my body back right away (ha!), those extra hours of sleep to stockpile, the thank-you notes that I still haven’t finished, and the list goes on.  Um…yeah.  Right.

Well, nature had much better plans for me and taught me a great lesson: some things are simply far more important than a to-do list; some things are completely impossible to plan perfectly. This I couldn’t possibly have know until my child took his first breath and stole my heart.

How quickly I went from this just a week before the big birthday.

38 weeks…the night of our last date as a childless couple!

And this, on my last day at work with my dear friend, Valerie (who is expecting her first child later this year).

2 mommas-to-be (I’m 39 weeks pregnant here and about 12 hours from waking up to my water breaking!)

To finally seeing my adorable baby boy.

I’m a Boy! Day 1

I felt him kick for months to reassure me that he was OK.  I felt him wiggling around when quarters got cramped.  I saw all of his little body parts on an ultrasound every week and heard his heartbeat twice and sometimes three times per week at the end!

Suddenly, that little life I felt was delivered into my arms.  I’ll share my birth story soon, but I’m way too weepy to even write about it still.  Such a happy day.

I stressed myself out in the months before he was born because I had it in my mind that we needed to go on a baby moon.  We needed that last hurrah.  Some fun before life as we knew it would be over.  The last weekend away when we’d just “be us.”  Life got too busy and we never took that baby moon.  A few days after Anderson was born, I was speaking to a friend of mine.  I was crying  (happily) and telling her how beautiful life was and how much I wanted to hang onto every moment with him.  I described the bubble we were in as a new little family, fumbling our way through our baby’s first diapers and soothing his his first cries and holding him for his first love-filled snuggles…all the while feeling a high that I couldn’t have ever known existed. I explained to her that I had just a few more days before Chris had to go back to work and how I was dreading the burst of our blissful bubble.  Also how I knew I’d fall in love with my new baby, but I didn’t realize I’d also fall even more madly in love with my husband after going through such an intense experience and seeing him as a dad. I received a note from this insightful friend that simply said: “Enjoy this baby moon.”

Suddenly, it hit me.  I didn’t need a baby moon before Anderson came to be with us.  The baby moon that I’ll always remember was having the three of us home that first week to figure it all out and be together. I still turn to mush when I think of that first emotional week.

So, without any further blah blah verbiage…here are some pictures from the first weeks our new love, who will be 5 weeks old tomorrow.  A little boy that makes me choke up daily.  A complete miracle beyond any dream I dreamed. A reason why, even when times are challenging, my life is so full of laughter and joy and love.

momma baby time, 2 weeks old (look at that squishy baby skin!)

Anderson’s first real bath after his stump fell off (around 12 days old). He is definitely a water-lovin’ ocean baby.

smiles at 2 weeks old

3 weeks old, lazy Sunday morning

3 weeks and his loooonnngg limbs are moving like crazy (now I know why his kicks made my whole belly shake)

nearly 4 weeks…on an outing in Salem and getting some love from Daddy

I’ll add more pictures as he grows (I already–tearfully–retired one of the newborn sized outfits).  Every day, he does something new and we see a bit more of his personality.  Here is the most recent picture of our future animal lovin’ little man.

4 weeks old and chatting and cooing

“use up the veggies” risotto

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So, nesting is a real thing I’ve discovered. The desire, no the overwhelming NEED for the closet to be organized is something you just can’t put into words. I do feel like a momma bird who is getting her nest ready for a special little birdie’s arrival. That includes making sure there is a place for everything, cleaning and then cleaning again, and making lists upon lists and lists of lists. Hospital bag packed? Check! Washed the clothes for baby to come home in? Check! Make sure the car seat is in? Check! This could go on and on (and it has).

Chris even has his daddy bird nesting going on. He’s been tirelessly putting coats of paint on the bureau for the baby’s room.
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He bought an erasable calendar for the fridge so that we would know exactly how the next weeks are scheduled. He put the stroller together (which apparently was no easy task).

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He even took it upon himself to take inventory a few weeks ago of what is in our pantry to see what needed to be used up. “I’m getting groceries for a week and it won’t cost more than $100.” OK. Hold up. $100? I’m a Whole Foods produce junkie and we are going to get groceries for $100 for a whole week and weekend? That includes coffee, organic lettuce, and earth friendly dish soap? What about my red grapefruit? What about the gallons of cranberry juice I drink? Hmmm.

Well, using what we had combined with the list and menu Chris made up, we did it (well, he did it). I even got my grapefruit and my no sugar added mandarin orange snack cups. Can’t get enough of the citrus these days. The key is to make a list and stick to it. How often do you not make a list and then leave the grocery store with no real food? We ate so well that week! I made hummus and ate it on Triscuit crackers for lunches with soup. I ate cereal for breakfast (gotta get my iron, so I love my iron fortified shredded wheat) and fruit for snacks at work. We ate lasagna with homemade sauce that was previously frozen and pierogies (a fav from my childhood) one night and vegan pepper steak another. It was amazing and liberating to actually use the food in the fridge AND like our dinners.

This past weekend, I decided to create dinner with what we had because it has practically become an obsession – how not to blow money on food we toss. I had nearly a full container of Arborio rice and some celery, half an onion, and string beans that needed to be used up as well as a random jar of roasted peppers. Voila – risotto that was so filling and so delicious. Here is how I made it, adapted from several risotto recipes I came across. It isn’t vegan because I added some Parmesan cheese and regular cream, but if I had So Delicious cream, I would have just as easily used that as well to skip the dairy.

One other thing to note. Arborio rice has 9 grams of protein per cup (according to Livestrong), so you are indeed getting protein in this meal. If you want to add more, some faux chicken would be a great addition to add at the end, which is loaded with protein. Quorn makes yummy veggie chicken.

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veggie risotto
1 cup of white wine (I didn’t have any, but I did have some cheap-o cooking sherry and it worked just fine)
4 cups of veggie broth
2 cups of arborio rice
any veggies you need to use up
1 medium onion or ½ of a large onion, chopped
4 tbs of olive oil
¼ cup of Parmesan cheese
½ cup of cream (soy, dairy, coconut, etc.)
1 tsp of garlic powder
½ tsp of celery salt
1 tsp dried parsley (but oh if only it wasn’t winter because fresh parsley would have been lovely)

Combine white wine and veggie broth in a saucepan and heat on low
In a large pot, sauté onion in the olive oil for a few minutes.
Add the rice and stir for about 3 minutes until translucent
¼ cup at a time, add the warm broth white wine mixture and stir continuously. When the rice soaks up the liquid, add more liquid and keep stirring. The trick is to get the rice to soak liquid up slowly to avoid crunchy risotto. This process should take about 25 minutes.
Add the spices (and feel free to experiment with your own…I was thinking that curry would be nice in this or nutmeg or even sage (not all together).
Add the veggies in during the last 5-7 minutes. Keep stirring and adding liquid as needed to avoid the rice sticking to the bottom. You may not need all of the liquid but you may even end up needing some extra water. All rice is different.
When the rice is soft and creamy, turn the heat off and let it sit for a few minutes.

The very last step would be to add in the cream and Parmesan cheese and stir. If you are adding cooked veggie chicken, now is also the time.

Please pardon my lame photos. I have not gotten back into the habit of using a real camera just yet.

addition: here is a great link (blog: life as mom) that I discovered. She features recipes often and this particular week is meatless. Click here.

I’ve been gone for a while…

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and how I’ve missed blogging.  You wouldn’t even believe it.  I’d still blog in my mind and take photographs and compose new and interesting posts in my thoughts.  Yet, they didn’t even make it to my fingertips.

So, where do I start?  A recipe for tomato salad I made with homegrown tomatoes and my beautiful shiso?  My last harvest where I pulled up all of my lovely carrots?  The day after Thanksgiving when I found myself outside with my family tearing down the garden and putting it to bed for the winter?  The series of photographs I took to discuss seed foraging?  These things aren’t exactly timely anymore.

I don’t think I can actually go back now.  I think I have to move forward.  There is so much ahead.

So, I truly could blame a huge chunk of my blogging negligence on work.  My job changed which added significantly more responsibility, longer hours, and more stress. However, I’d be lying to you if I used that and only that as an excuse.

I could tell you that it was because chemo started for my mom over the summer and I just couldn’t focus on blogging.  My focus was solely on her.  There is truth in that.

I could most definitely tell you that a main reason was because of my really big news…
Adding suspense…
Making you wait…
Bringing on the drum roll…
I found out in July that I was expecting a child.  With that brought exhaustion, a major aversion to vegetables, the most upset stomach I’ve ever experienced, and of course a severe case of cranky pants!

However crazy life has been, there is one main reason why I took a long recess from blogging.  My guilt.  I, the animal-loving, vegetarian-eating cat mom found myself in a situation where I had to give myself a daily injection of heparin every day.  If you aren’t aware, heparin is a bi-product of pigs.  How was I supposed to write about a great veggie dish or using earth-friendly pest control while injecting myself with something that came from such a regal animal?

Then, I became so ill I couldn’t eat or keep food down.  My weight was dropping steadily right on through week 15 or 16 of pregnancy.  Vegetables sounded gross, hummus and beans made my stomach turn, and I didn’t even know what to eat anymore.  A friend of mine made several jars of chicken broth for me and it literally brought me back to life.  That was a step beyond taking a medication.

Then, things really started to break down in terms of my diet.  The worst was when I found out I had low iron. Low enough to be critical and low enough to make me do nothing but sleep.  I was eating apricots and fortified cereal and taking iron pills twice per day.  Nothing was working. What came next?  You guessed it.  Red meat.

So, there is my confession.  Two of my friends reminded me recently that I’m the one who said on this blog that “nobody is perfect.”  That we should all do the best we can.  That it shouldn’t be about judgment because I’m not judging other people that are trying to be aware and take the right steps.  I’m grateful for that reminder, grateful for the pigs that allowed me to carry a healthy baby and keep me healthy, and I’m grateful for the animals I’ve consumed while being pregnant.  I have three weeks to go.  Everyone keeps asking me if my child will be vegetarian and I think my husband I both agree that answer is a yes.  Will I be a vegetarian going forward?  Absolutely. That is a whole other blog post.

I’m happy to be back and I can’t believe just how much I’ve missed this.  I can’t predict how frequently I’ll be writing once this little baby is here keeping me busy, but it certainly won’t be a half a year ever again.

I’ll be sure to include a photo or two next post.  For now, you get a super cute picture of my first baby.
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By the way, here are some other blogs that kept my interest while I was “away.”

A Full Measure of Happiness: lovely food photos and healthier recipes.  This isn’t a vegetarian blog, but you can skip the meat posts and most definitely check out her cookies, muffins, and green monsters.

The Frugal Girl: all about living frugally.  I stumbled upon this blog when my husband and I were trying to find tutorials of how to refinish furniture.  She also has great tips on saving money and having fun while doing it.  I may just have to start using her Food Waste Friday idea!

Mahoney’s: my favorite garden store ever has a blog.  It is easier to connect to this blog because it is specific to my region.

Ready to Bloom with Holly Worton: a self-help, nice kick in the pants blog that gently inspires you to live life a little better.

Mastering Photo: since this is the work blog I spend time on, I feel it would be a sin to not mention it.  A great, fairly new blog for photographers and photo buffs.

happy anniversary for us

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Just taking a moment to celebrate a very important day!  Two years ago today, I married one of the most amazing people on the planet — Chris.


© Bree Bailey Photography

Here are just a few reasons why he is so perfect.

1. He loves animals.  More than the average person.  Picture this.  Just this past week, I was sick.  I mean SICK.  He ran out to the store at 5:00 am to pick up some medicine after being up with me for hours.  On his way back to the house, he saw a “kitten” on the side of the road with a yogurt cup stuck on its head.  It appeared to be struggling.  He got out of the car to help and realized it was a skunk right around the moment the poor little guy got the yogurt cup loose from his head.  I asked Chris what he would have done if the skunk had not gotten the cup loose.  He said–without pause–that he still would have helped it because the poor thing would die of starvation.  How many people would rescue a skunk?

2. He always takes care of me when times are tough.   Staying up with me all night this past week while I was sick is nothing compared to what he had to deal with last fall.  For a good month or more after my bicycle accident, I couldn’t bathe or dress myself.  Chris did this for me (how romantic, right?) without grumble or complaint.

3. He is the funniest person I know and he doesn’t even try.

4. He is incredibly quiet, which makes everything he says that much more meaningful.

5. A few months ago, when I talked to him about my far-fetched dream of starting a vegetable farm, he looked at me and asked me why it had to be a dream.  He–who once said he never wanted to live more than a T ride away from Boston–now peruses real estate weekly to keep up on available potential farm land for us.

6. He embraced growing with such passion that I still can’t believe.   If I had a dollar for every time I’ve come home to a new plant or project, I’d be rich (and I don’t have a large yard).  It is Chris who decided to grow potatoes.  It is Chris who purchased more pots and planted squash on his own.  It is Chris who searched and searched until he found a great seed-starting system to replace the shoddy make-shift system we had prior. It is Chris who purchased a worm composter and it is Chris who called me frantic at work because some of our tomatoes were starting to get blossom end rot (how did he even know what blossom end rot was?).

7.  The little things he does.  Just the other day, he bought a new shower curtain.  Seriously, what guy goes to buy a new shower curtain? He does stuff like this all the time.

8. He loves my parents.  Those who are married know how much easier life is when spouse and in-laws have a harmonious relationship.  Just recently, my needle and hospital-hating husband came to my mom’s chemotherapy with us as a surprise to her.  She was so excited that he came and he made the day better.

9.He is really thoughtful.  On our one broke Christmas, he literally wrote and performed a love song to me.

10. He cleans the litter box.  With three cats, this is no small task.  Nuff said.

my father-in-law the hero

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One of my top favorite things to do besides garden of course?  Write posts for this blog.  You know life is over-the-top when several weeks go by with no post.  I’ve been a negligent blogger.  My most faithful reader–my wonderful father-in-law, Steve–sent me a text message the other day that made me sad AND made me want to hug him at the same time.

“2 weeks no Veggie post??  Is everything OK?”

So, now that I have a moment to post, I would like to tell you animal lovers about something wonderful that Steve and his wife, Lisa, did.   Yesterday, their neighbors found a kitten in the woods near their house in Maine.  They couldn’t keep the kitty, so they brought him over to Steve and Lisa.  Instead of bringing him to a shelter or saying no, the St.Hilaire’s took him in as a new addition to the family.

One less kitty in a shelter!

Here is a cell phone photo of the kitty eating a healthy indoor meal, safe from the dangers of the wild. I’ll score more photos soon that show this sweet baby’s face.

Sebastian

They named him Sebastian (aka Spaz). Check out that long tail!

Speaking of wild kitties, we have an extra cute one in our yard pretty much every day lately.

the garden kitty

I am pretty sure he is owned by someone nearby because he is a love bug and appears to be well-fed.  However, I just don’t understand why people so carelessly take care of their animals?  This poor kitty was hanging out under our compost bin while trying to dodge a light drizzle.  This is extremely irresponsible of his owners in an urban-ish area like mine.

Thankfully, people like my father-in-law have big hearts and gave an adorable young cat a shot at a really good life!  Little Sebastian is no doubt eating a big dinner or maybe getting pampered with a belly rub as I write this.

Mojito Monday!

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It is SO hard to find date night when you live with someone (whether it be boyfriend, husband, girlfriend, wife – whatever).  Chris and I have started a summer tradition that I sense will last for a long time.  Mojito Monday.  Why Monday?  It is the roughest day of the week, so give yourself something to look forward to.

We have a back deck where we can sit together and have our cocktail while enjoying the garden (when the weather is nice).  When the weather is not so nice, we can sit out on the front porch.  Really, who cares where you are sitting if you have a yummy mojito in your hands?

We have mint growing specifically for this purpose.  We really added some zing when we picked chocolate mint up at Rosaly’s.


Recipe by bartender Chris
Summer Mojito
ingredients per drink
-1/2 of a lime
-a healthy handful of washed mint
– 2 tablespoons of sugar (I highly recommend an organic, unbleached sugar)
-2 oz. of Captain Morgan Lime Bite rum
-1 cup to 1 1/2 cups (depending on desired strength of drink) of Poland Spring Sparkling Water in Raspberry Lime or Lime
-a splash of Lemon Lime soda (Blue Sky Organic Lemon Lime soda is my fav, but Sprite will do just fine!)

Start with a pint glass (or a glass of similar size).  Cut your lime into quarters and squeeze the pieces into the glass. Put the limes right into the glass as well.  Put the mint and sugar in.  Using a pestle, crush your mint, limes, and sugar until you “get a nice big junky mess.”  I interrupted Chris for his recipe while he was learning Purple Haze by Jimmy Hendrix, so it was hard to get any coherent answers out of him!

Put your ice into the glass.  Add in your rum then soda water.  Top off with a splash of lemon lime soda.

The bartender also recommends adding raspberries into your minty lime mixture for a raspberry mojito.  Enjoy!



More good news from the back yard!  We had our first string bean harvest just a few days ago.  Chris also got really curious about the potatoes and dug one up.  We are going to have an incredible potato harvest soon.


If you have climbing string beans sprouting, I recently put a post up about building an easy and super cheap string bean trellis.  If you haven’t started any seeds and have a little space, I think you actually still have time to plant for a later harvest now.  These babies grow really quickly.