An Imperfect Garden

Every summer our garden seems to go its own way. It never quiet confirms to the image of the perfect garden in our imagination.

Despite "falling short" and sustaining multiple deer attacks, it always manages to offer up patches of beauty. It's never the big beautiful manicured garden featured in magazines, but if you look closely, it is beautifully imperfect.

I Want My Raybans Back

These vintage ads make me long for my lost Ray Bans. A big wave took them away last summer while we were in swimming at Cape May. Also lost, a very pink hair clip with a giant jewel. My little one still complains about losing it.

Hmm, maybe I'll track down another one for her as a start of summer treat. Even better, maybe I'll treat myself to another pair of Ray Bans.

A Country Garden

Up on hill behind a white farm house sits a modest country garden with towering sun flowers. The little square is surrounded by vast fields of corn and overlooked by huge silos. A rickety fence guards its tiny perimeter from deer tired of the easy pickings in the corn fields. It's diminutive size contrasting the abundance held with in.
Is there anything better than summer in the country?

Sunflower Safari

We went on a Sunflower Safari this weekend. We didn't have to search very hard to find them. There were 40 acres of bright yellow flowers to look at during our walk through the Duke Farms.

The sunflowers are being grown in partnership with the NJ Audubon Society and will be harvested and sold as bird seed. We are definitely going to support the program and buy some at our local Agway after the harvest.

Our safari adventure was the perfect activity for an overcast day. The bright yellow faces of the sunflowers made it feel like a sunny day.

Endless Summer

There's a feeling in the air that summer is winding down and yet, I also feel as if it's barely begun. Maybe it's that the garden has never really taken off after the deer attacks or there has been one too many rainy weekends. It could be there were too many chore filled days without a sense of just hanging out. Maybe I expected to get more done.

It didn't help not to have a real vacation. Next year no matter what I'm planning a week off in the heart of the summer. Today, I'm envying people like surfers who live in places and have a mind set that is summer centric. I could use a dose of endless summer.

The beautiful surfing images are tintypes by Joni Sternbach for her SurfLand series.

Summer Greens

It's easy to take green for granted during the summer, but I'm trying to soak it in. I think back to how stark and long the winter was this year and I want summer to go on and on. Green is good.

Recession Fun # 12 : S'mores

The other night before bed my daughter said she wanted a snack, specifically a s'more. That made me laugh. At 3 1/2 she's never had a s'more and she probably would have been horrified if I actually had the ingredients or the means to make her one at that late hour. I can imagine the grimace that would have come over her face.

Despite having been both a Brownie and a Girl Scout, the first time I ate a s'more was as an adult. Two girlfriends and I spent a weekend in the Adirondacks and ended up melting marshmallows in the stone fire place of the cabin we were staying in. We assembled our s'mores on a blanket on the living room floor. It was camping fun without the inconvenience of real camping. Needless to say there was no wilderness badge on my Girl Scout stash.

I remember thinking I'll just eat my toasted marshmallow plain, no need to mix flavors, but my friends convinced me and I was surprised how good s'mores really are.

So this week's Recession Fun idea is s'mores. Bag of marshmallows, box of Graham Crackers and some Hershey's chocolate bars. No need to get all gourmet with fancy substitutes, the original is affordable and delicious. Oh and a backyard grill. No need to hike out into the woods either. Said like a true Girl Scout!

Just Peachy

This past Tuesday we snuck in some peach picking among our shopping chores. I was hoping for a hay ride, but since the long holiday weekend was already over for most people, the farm was deserted and we had to walk out to the field by ourselves.

We took a leisurely pace to accommodate small legs. We made our way on a tractor path past a little farm house . I picked some wildflowers and the little one chided me that we weren't supposed to be picking flowers but peaches.

Under the low leafy branches it was cooler and the sun peeking through made the peaches glow a wonderful warm color. It's still early in the peach season so we weren't bothered bees and yellow jackets as we picked. We gathered up just enough fruit to make a few pies and headed back with our basket like two country girls.

The peaches are now in a large bowl on the kitchen counter and should be ripe enough this weekend for part II of our peachy adventure. Hopefully peach pie photos to follow.

The Twins

This weekend we finally got to see the baby deer up close. For a while this spring and early summer it looked as if their were no fawns around. Then we spotted these two being escorted through the back woods at a distance. They were with a group of females so it seemed like it could have been a deer "play date" of sorts.

Turns out they are twins and belong to the most daring of the females in our local herd. Momma deer is always the bravest in the winter when we throw out apples or horse corn during the toughest months. Now when she goes through our yard, she always looks through the back sliding door into our kitchen looking for a treat.

We sacrificed our peaches to her and she brought the little ones over for a few minutes before heading back into the woods for bedtime. No peach pie or cobbler but it was worth it.

Deer Attack

Despite fencing we had a serious deer attack yesterday in our garden which I'm already struggling with this year. I had just planted our tomato plants and thought the fencing I had jerry rigged would be enough to hold them back. Not so.

This weekend I need to find time to continue blockading our produce and try and catch the garden back up. Lucky for the deer they are so beautiful and relatives of Bambi. Otherwise...

A Very Berry Weekend

Our plans didn't go exactly as planned for the weekend, but it all turned out well or I could say berry well. The threat of rain was persistent but berries became the theme of the weekend. Saturday we stopped by a local church for their Strawberry Festival and ate home made strawberry shortcake and had a strawberry painted on the little one's face.

We spent a lazy Sunday in our garden. Sadly our own strawberry plants got chomped by critters and are now in sad shape but hopefully on the mend.

Monday, I was off from work and had planned for us to visit a small amusement park. It ended up being closed, so we had to scramble to find a new activity worthy of my Summer Flex Day. We ended up on a farm picking strawberries. It was an unexpected turn that proved really nice.

We had a great time filling our two tiny baskets and the hayride back from the fields was long and pretty. We finished our day with a visit to Stewart's for hot dogs and then our favorite ice cream stand. Good thing we have some healthy fruit to add to our diet this week.

The little one was completely tuckered out and was happy to go to bed early. She did manage to sneak in some Thomas Carnival Capers on the computer before falling asleep. No wonder she was talking in her sleep about finding Percy in the morning. Looking forward to finding a new adventure this weekend.

Summer Daydreaming

I'd love to spend an afternoon lazing around in one of these summer houses playing house or reading with my little one. Maybe a picnic lunch in tow and some cold ice tea. It's wonderful how structures like these can create a get away in your own back yard.

I'm working on a plan to create our own little backyard retreat and looking forward to the day I can post pictures here.

These amazing summer houses are by HSP Garden Buildings in Dublin Ireland if any one has the means to import one.

Recession Fun # 10: Pick Your Own

We missed out on berry season and while I keep meaning to get to "Pick Your Own  Peaches", I'm not sure what I would do with a big basket of them. I don't have a peach pie recipe and really prefer apple pie to be honest. So from the "Pick Your Own" options available at the moment we selected flowers and picked our own bouquet.

We've enjoyed it so much, we've done it twice already. It's great fun picking out the very best zinnias but hard not to go overboard. Sadly flowers don't sell by the pound but the stem. Still we've managed to have a lot of fun and stay in budget. Maybe best of all, was my daughter insisting I smell each color after she did. She'd grab a flower, name the color, stick her nose in and then make me do the same. In truth zinnias don't have much scent at all but that didn't stop us from smelling the colors. "Hmm, purple!"

Some Pig!

I'm hoping to get our local 4-H Fair this week and soak up some country charm. I haven't been to the fair since I was a child, so honestly I am not quiet sure what to expect. I will fingers crossed run into some little porkers as cute as the one above. I'm sure this cutey has inspired some web writing somewhere. Just look at that smile.

Photo via Rikshaw Design.

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