Actually, I don't know what to say!

No, that isn't cotton growing on my trees....it's just that white stuff that keeps falling from the sky. I just can't seem to get it to stop.

Even my beautiful Lupines are trying to make a valiant effort to grow this year but are now blanketed in a carpet of snow. They have been through this in past winters so I am fairly certain they will survive and reward me with very colorful flowers again this summer.

Well, this is similar to putting up your air conditioner and then the wonderful hot weather goes away. I brought out this chaise lounge and my hammock over the weekend and you can see what I have created. But I am going to fool Mother Nature and just leave them both out and maybe that will encourage warm spring weather to finally arrive here in our little neighborhood.

JW is cutting back on his hours at work so we can spend more time together here in our little home. We hope to get our greenhouse built soon to get those yummy veggies growing. I can taste those beautiful red tomato's already. It will be good to have him around more...I have noticed that even the puppy sits at the front window watching for him when it is time for him to arrive home each afternoon.

The puppy and I were checking out any new growth in the flower beds today when I looked up and saw this pretty site.

A large jet had just passed over our valley and the winds seemed to be breaking up the vapor trail as the jet zoomed over us.

We have had some beautiful weather the last few days so I have been raking up leaves and weeds. I have been able to uncover many sprouts that promise to be beautiful flowers in a few months. And I am pleased to see that my Lupines are making a very strong comeback in all of my flower beds. Most of them are in the brilliant blue colors and they last such a nice long time so we and the Butterflies and Hummingbirds can enjoy them. JW helped me burn my many piles of leaves and weeds this morning before the winds came up. It sure looks better outside.

JW has been spending time in the Machine Shop this weekend and he does enjoy that. I do have a few projects that I need to talk to him about and find out when I can fit them into his schedule. It is going to be a busy spring as he is also planning to build us a greenhouse this year. I am very excited about that.

ENGLISH CHUTNEY

JW spent the afternoon in the kitchen making up a batch of his English Chutney from the recipe his mother brought with her when the family immigrated here from England many years ago. This was a new experience for me as I had not been home when he made previous batches of this amazing food.
These are the items that he used to create this recipe.

The beautiful Red Delicious apples were found in our local store and they were grown in the beautiful state of Washington and actually were from our home town. They still taste like my memory tells me....good.

This shows the spices brewing in a kettle of vinegar....they did help to remove the terrible smell of the simmering vinegar every where in our house! And of course they brought a wonderful flavor to the Chutney as well.

All the apples have been sliced and added as well as the rest of the ingredients and the golden and brown raisins were the last to go in.

The pot simmers and simmers...............

And finally it is left to cool in the kettle. It sure smells good JW!!

A beautiful batch of Chutney in their jars and ready to eat...at last!

I tried this treat on crackers with cheese and I enjoyed it very much. The English apparently like to eat this on their french fries. Thanks JW

I am beginning to reach the end of my cold so life is looking so much better. And JW returned to work today for a half day shift. He has been home ill with a cold since Tuesday. It has been a rough 2 weeks with both of us sick but I think we are beginning to see the end of this terrible illness. I told JW he has to get better because his 9 day vacation starts today when he leaves work. And we certainly don't want him to be sick on his vacation!

We are still getting snow storms almost everyday. Some days it is gone from the yard by late afternoon. But the skies are clear at night so the temperature drops quickly and then the snow appears every morning. The TV weatherman has finally stopped using the word Spring in his weather reports. Thank you.

I've been sick

I have missed posting to my blog but I have had a very bad cold that kept me in bed sleeping for about 36 hours straight. I am feeling much better today but I am afraid that DW has come down with it now. Poor guy, he has spent the last 24 hours sleeping so I hope he is on the road to recovery soon.

This pretty bloom is from my grandmothers Hoya Plant that she gave me not long before she passed at the age of 103. It is such a hardy grower that I have had to trim it back several times during it's life time. For some reason it has not bloomed since some time in 2002. I have no idea why it hasn't bloomed by I was very surprised to see several groups of pretty flowers growing on it this week.

The flowers are a very subtle pink petals with copper colors in the centers.

They do put off an odor but I don't care for the smell at all. Maybe that's why they didn't bloom for so long.....I always complained about their smell!

This photo shows a group of flowers that haven't opened up their petals yet and the ones in the background just open today. The closed ones appeared to be coated in wax but look velvet when they open.
It's good to be back at the computer today. When I sat down to post yesterday I could not get on line. So I called Wildblue Satellite to send someone out to repair it for me. And when I went into my email account today I realized I had been offline since last Thursday! So it is good to be back in the cyber world again.