Happy Spring

I woke up yesterday morning and it just felt like spring was in the air to stay today!
My rose has tons of blooms on it.
I found my first sugar snap pea in the yard and all the local birds and their partners are back eating in our backyard. So I decided to take out my favorite spring skirt and wear it to work today. All you crazy northern friends still in the snow...come visit, the weather is perfect and everything is green :)

Happy Easter

Matt and I had a wonderful Easter. We dressed up for church and then spent the day in the garden (well Matt actually watched some car race on his new extended cable) and that night Z came over to walk the dogs with us and share dinner. I hope all of you were as rejuvenated and blessed by the Easter Sunday as I was. Here are a few pictures:

I tried to decorate a little. Seema and I went to Austria last year around Christmas and they made these wonderful Easter eggs that you can hang....Thus our egg tree.

Also...my first rose has bloomed. It looks amazing and the Satuma smells like heaven, I wish I had a smell picture for you.
Oh yeah, Chaquita has discovered her new favorite place to be in our house....boy were we surprised when we walked out of our bedroom.

Which one is which?

To help you vote on Sugquita or Chuggles....here they are combined:
Its a hard choice but I think I am leaning towards Sugquita. Z probably thinks otherwise...you should check out his blog on which the dogs appear regularly.

Fun in the Kitchen

I had a little accident in the kitchen yesterday...you should just watch the movie below for a good explanation :)


Matt is starting to threaten to take away my lovely knifes.

Dinner actually turned out really great it is the perfect summer pasta salad. Here is the recipe:

One small onion - chopped and carmalized
6 oz. of sugar snap peas
6 oz. of asparagus cut into 1inch pieces
gluten free rotinni pasta (couple of handfuls)
A large handful of fresh basil cut into small thin pieces
the juice and grated rind of one lime
Grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (or your favorite hard cheese)
a little olive oil and some salt and pepper

Make the pasta and add the asparagus and snap peas into the water for the last 3 minutes of cooking

Carmalize the onion in a separate pan

Mix everything together and serve warm or cold. It is easy and yummy!

Newest Projects and Joy in the Garden!

Well I have fallen behind in my posts, whats new?

Matt and I really enjoyed seeing everyone in Houston, both of my brothers were there and we saw multiple friends. We also helped my brother begin to turn my parents house into a bachelor pad for him....boy was that strange! I'm not sure my Dad knew what he was getting into when he decided to work in London and have my 24 year old brother stay on at the house. It could be very interesting when he comes back to ride in the MS 150 next month.

When we got back the garden had come alive, the Satsuma decided to bloom,
some red flowers in my window boxes had gone crazy,
the little trees have started to leaf out
and in the back, my rose even has blooms on it!Why is it that my garden always seems to do best when I leave it for a weekend? Maybe its just coming back and seeing it with fresh eyes.

On Monday I even got to plant the Jade in my newest pot and begin a new project.

This time I am going to decorate a hummingbird feeder. I decided to put hummingbirds and Fluer de Lis flowers on it.

I hope the finished product looks great but so far I am happy with my progress.

I also have finally found an organization to volunteer with here in Baton Rouge, it has been hard because I've wanted to do something far removed from the disaster world. The Baton Rouge Audubon Society is looking to put a bird watching station in at one of the local schools. The school already has the most amazing garden in it, next time I go I will bring my camera so you can all see. I only wish that I grew up with a pond, dance circle and flower beds at my elementary. I am hoping to be able to help with the installation and development. Plus they are active at many of the local events, so Matt and I and hopefully Z will be busy running kids games at their booth.

Last Night

Last night one of Matt's coworkers, Z, invited us (including the dogs) over for dinner. He made a great steak and salad for us. The girls (combined chuggles or sugquita can't quite decide yet) enjoyed begging for steak and hanging out on Zak's couch. All around it was a great night.
Snuggs couldn't help licking her lips at the thought of getting a piece of the yummy steak

Snuggles' newest ploy for getting attention is to pretend that she is dying whenever we ask her to go outside or on a walk...see videos below. It was maybe 55 degrees out but you would have thought that it was 20 below the way she was behaving.

All we did was tell her she had to go outside when we returned from work....what a reaction!
Once she got outside this was her response to actually being told she had to get up and walk:


Every time we tell her we are going to take her to the vet and/or walk away and ignore her, she completely stops and acts normal which is why we aren't super worried that she is actually sick or anything. Plus her sister just ignores the behavior also, which normally she would not do.

In other news we are off to Houston this weekend. I am super excited because I am going to see multiple friends some of who just happen to be coming into town this weekend also! I will also get a chance to check on my mother's plants and see if any need rescuing.

Spring Projects

When I got back from San Diego, I was lucky enough to still have two days off (I love working part time), so I decided to complete some of the projects for the garden I was working on before I left. Here is my completed pot:

I still have to put the Jade in it...hopefully it will be happy with it.




While I was gone Matt put the rest of the lights up. Here are a few pictures:


I also got the front porch rearranged. I clumped together the shade plants and also the tropical ones.
I also received 11 trees in the mail because we made a donation to the Arbor Foundation....we are starting them up in pots.
Any tips or pointers would be appreciated, since Matt and I are at a loss as to how to make sure they are protected from the Baton Rouge wind but still get plenty of light.

In other news, my Dad left for England two weeks ago. We miss him but have discovered Skype. We added a camera to our laptop and now we can all see each other whenever we want (well not including time changes and working). He posts pictures from his weekends and it looks like he is enjoying the nice weather they have been having going to see gardens and museums.

San Diego

My girlfriends and I just spent the weekend in San Diego. We had lots of fun and enjoyed the chance to get together and chat. We live so far apart that it has been over a year and so much has happened in that time! The view from our room was awesome:


We sat in our beds and enjoyed it almost as often as we enjoyed the hot tub.

During the first full day we went to Balboa Park, the highlights were the Cherry Blossoms in the Japanese garden:

and the crazy stuff in the desert garden:

Later in the week we also got a chance to go whale watching. Of course all we saw of the grey whale was a little spit in the air but we did enjoy some great views of San Diego:

and of the birds flying in the bay:

Over all it was a great trip. Just what the doctor ordered :)

Well I have been slacking and thought it about time to post some new thoughts and gardening fun. Matt and I have been driving back and forward a lot between here and Houston so the garden has suffered a little but I spent the weekend puttering around in it and have discovered lots of new blooms and buds. Of course now that everything is starting to grow it is crazy windy and may fall to freezing this week. I love the south's complete and totally unpredictable weather.

The magnolia actually bloomed and now it is putting out leaves and even more of a miracle, the Satsuma has buds on it too!

A few of my annuals reseeded them selves and I have some flowers going but mostly the only color in the garden is stuff that I added from the flower stores in town (As you can see below all is pretty green though!).
I have decided to hang some lights on our front porch, that is my project for tonight, I think it will make it even more inviting and I rearranged all the pots on it to make it different and I think grouped better.

My other major project has been mosaicking (is that a verb? this is my first mosaic project ever and I'm not sure of the correct lingo) a large pot for a Jade plant that Matt bought. I am using a few pre-made square pieces and lots of those half round pebbles that people put in vases and then, most fun of all, I am using pieces of glass left over from my Dad making stain glass windows for his church. I cut them into petal shapes to make big flowers. I am currently grouting the entire thing and hopefully it will be done soon.

In other news Matt and I inherited my families two dogs this month. They seem to like the back garden lots and we have been taking them to the park as much as possible. They have been a great catalyst to getting Matt and I more active. Here are a few pictures:
They are sisters from a Chihuahua/Dachshund litter. They are old now (9 years) but are still like puppies when we let them off their leashes in the park.