Every Day's an Adventure

You would think that at the end of May, I would be puttering in my garden, planting flowers, putting together hanging baskets, seeding cucumbers.  Um, well, sadly not.  It was rather heartbreaking to have the cold rain slowly turn to snow, and then settle in to snow seriously, big fat flakes drifting down and accumulating.  The daffodil picture was taken early in the evening.  My husband actually went out later to shake the heavy wet snow off of many tree branches, which were bowed so low from the weight that they were in danger of breaking.

And the next day, Marty made a snowman with his dad!  The snowman didn't last long, only a day, but still. :-(

In my Frugal Scrapbooker column, I focussed on postcards this issue.  They are inexpensive and are great to use as an embellishment, a journalling spot or throw them together and laminate them to make a quick mini-album. 

For those of you waiting for more food pictures, sorry for the delay.  Life has been running on warp speed (well, warpier than usual) over the last couple of weeks.  Here was dinner on day three.  I forgot to photograph breakfast. 

When I have eaten these, CJ has made these with fresh strawberries and generously dusts them with white sugar, but some of the variations sound yummy too!

Bull River Guest Ranch Scones
2 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup chopped cold butter
2/3 cup milk or buttermilk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen fruit of choice
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix dry ingredients, cut in butter.  Toss fruit in dry ingredients.  In a separate bowl, mix eggs, milk and vanilla.  Add to dry ingredients.  Mixture will be very dry but do not add more liquid.  Drop onto prepared baking sheet and dust with white sugar if desired.  Bake at 350 until golden, about 15 minutes, depending on the size.

To make a savory version, omit all but 1 tbsp. of the sugar and add fresh or dried herbs, gtated cheese, green onion, ham....  whatever you like.  I add garlic, of course, and a bit of salt and pepper.  C.J.

The mornings start with a 'continental' breakfast.  This does not mean a few stale doughnuts and a watery cup of coffee.  Oh no..........   let's see, there were Scotch eggs (eggs covered in sausage, breaded and baked), a yummy oatmeal full of dried fruit, perfectly cooked hard boiled eggs, still lovely and warm, fresh fruit, cheese, vegetable and meat plate, toast, cereal and the delicious strawberry scone!  CJ did give us the recipe for the scones and as soon as I find my copy I'll post it on here.  They are incredibly yummy!

My mom is in the hospital.  She is recuperating from surgery to remove the area all around a melanoma on the top of her foot.  She seems to be in good spirits and not in any pain (yet), but the surgeons dug a big hole in her foot and patched it together with a skin graft from her thigh.  So, she will be in the hospital for a while while everything heals.  Mom is not allowed to bend her leg or get out of bed, and it might be a long haul before she gets to put weight on the foot again.

The good news is that all the tests show that the cancer did not spread to her lymph system or any internal organs.  But it was a nasty virulent melanoma - started out as a mole on her foot which started growing rapidly in the last few months.  Thank goodness it caught a doctor's eye as suspicious during one of her regular check-ups. 

I whipped up a card last night inspired by a card designed by Mary McAskill that I saw in an old issue of Scrapbook Trends.  It uses older paper by Carolee's Creations, a gorgeous Prima flower, bit of lace and a wonderful Inkadinkado stamp.

I'm back from an amazing long weekend at the Bull River Guest Ranch, and I took a LOT of photos!  Mostly of the food, because I had this idea of kind of doing a food photo documentary of how the weekend went.   Words don't describe the food. And actually photos don't do the food justice either, but it's a start!  I forgot to take pictures of the fresh baked chocolate chip cookies that were a mid afternoon snack on Saturday, or the totally delicious and fat-free nachos that were served Sunday night, but you will get the idea of why we all take stretchy pants.

So, my Bull River friends, I am working on setting up a gallery for photo sharing so you can all download any pictures you want at high res (might take me a couple of days to find the time), but meanwhile, here are some pictures of dinner on Friday night.   And if any of you remember details of what the dishes were called or other related tidbits, email me!