Plant Swap

My sister-in-law, Ellen had a plant swap this past weekend which I enjoyed. There was a fun group of ladies there.  A plant swap is just what the name implies, guests bring plants to share, either from their garden or purchased, and then everyone takes a turn picking what you want.  Anything to do with gardening can be swapped including magazines, pots, decor etc.  It is a great way to get some new plants or other goodies and also learn something new about gardening too. 

My sister-in-law, being the great hostess that she is, always has some sort of yummy (alcoholic) drink that she has created.  The one she had this time was delicious and despite the fact it had 2 types of rum in it, didn't taste like it had any alcohol in it at all.  That is the best kind of drink in my opinion!  I think she needs to write a book about cocktails or at least blog about her concoctions.
 Anyway, back to the plants, I brought 3 plants-rosemary, levender and columbine.  I made plant stakes with a wine cork that I wrote on with a sharpie. Then I just stuck a bamboo skewer in the cork,  cut it a little shorter and stuck it in each plant.  I also brought some magazines as well as some hand scrub and herbal salve. In return I got 4 new plants for my garden and a cute pot.  Ellen also sent everyone home with pots of herbs that she provided for everyone. Good Times!

Local Goodness

A few weeks ago Dom and I had a chance to go to the Made in NH Expo.  This is where local business get to show their stuff.  I think it's a neat way to discover and support local businesses. So here is my little stash of goodies I bought. 

About a month or so ago I discovered Sap House Meadery at Johnson's Marketplace.  I tried their hopped blueberry maple mead and it was sooo good!  They happened to be at the expo and I got to learn a little bit more about the company and found they try to buy most of their ingredients locally and also sell some products made by other businesses in the area.  One of those products is wildflower honey which is in their meads.  Another product is soaps with scents named after some of their meads -Like Hopped Blueberry Maple!  It smelled so good I had to get some as well as some honey.  I've been on a honey kick lately picking up local honey whenever I see it.

Just Naturals & Co. had lots of neat natural products and their doggy deordorizing spray caught my eye.  It has a pleasant kinda of lemony smell and is supposed to help with ticks and fleas too.  I haven't noticed if it actully helps with the fleas and ticks but it does make the dogs and their bedding smell much better! I also picked up a little first aid kit with an herbal cream and some essential oils.

This company also sells many natural cleaning products and soaps which are used at Sap House Meadery to clean their tasting room.

Spooky New England is a book I picked up from Bondcliff Books.  This company has lots of books specific to the New England region.  Books on hiking, railroads, ghosts, history -pretty much anything to do with the northeast!

There were many more neat businesses at the expo, lots and lots of food-pizza and cupcakes seemed to be the trend.  It was a really good time and I encourage anyone to get out and support your local businesses.  Check out the above businesses by clicking on the links.

Tuukka and the Vaccuum

Tuukka doesn't like the vaccuum.  I don't blame him,  I don't like it either-it's too noisy.  But I don't have a choice, with a house full of furry critters and lots of carpet I have to vaccuum.  If I could do it over again I would have all hardwood floors that I could easily (and quietly) sweep and  mop to keep clean. Who knew cleaning spilled milk, dog vomit and mud out of the carpet on a regular basis would get old so quickly?  Obviously not me.

But I digress.  Tuukka hates the vaccuum, but instead of taking a hint from the kids, cat and Boomer who all scatter like cockroaches when the vaccuum comes out, Tuukka chooses to stand two feet in front of me and act like I brought it out just to torture him.  I've tried reasoning with him, telling him to just go wait in another room until I'm done but he doesn't listen.  I've also reminded him (and everyone else) to wipe their paws on the doormat before walking through the rest of the house.  And if you absolutely must vomit please do it on the kitchen floor.  It's a big floor easy enough to do.  Again not listening.  Silly dog.

Coloring Eggs

It just wouldn't be Easter if we didn't color some eggs.  Becca wasn't all that interested but she did check out what we were doing and joined us for a little while.  I guess she is getting too old for coloring eggs, though in my opinion you are never too old!  The eggs came out all nice and brightly colored and a few eggs even got the glitter treatment.

We spent a nice Easter with Dom's parents and the girls now have enough candy to last until Halloween and they haven't even been to my parents yet!  They  got a bunch of
Cadbury cream eggs which is the one Easter candy I have the hardest time resisting. Oh well, they are popular with everyone in the house so hopefully they will be the first to disappear!

Nosey

I think I have mentioned before what one of the chickens main
goals seems to be trying to get in the house.  They stand on
the chairs on the porch and peek in the windows and make
quite a racket at times.  I think they see the comings and goings
of people, dogs and cat and wonder why they aren't allowed
to come in too.  It is very often that the dogs and cat will just stare
through the slider at whomever is in eyesight in the hopes that someone (usually me) will let them in.  The dogs will scratch if
staring doesn't work and even the cat has been known to poke
at the door for results.
The other day I spotted a small figure out of the corner of my eye
and was suprised to find Henrietta staring at the me through the door.  I was suprised because she was sitting there so still and quiet, not making a racket and bobbing her head around as she would normally do while looking through the slider.  In fact, when I first noticed the little figure I thought it was the cat.  I continued to ignore her and she continued to stare at me.  It started to get a little unnerving and I began to wonder if she had observed the other animals get results from staring through the window.  Was she that smart??

Spring Herbs

With no snow on the ground for weeks and getting a tease of summer with the warm temps a few weeks ago I've had the itch to plant something but it is way to to early to plant things outside.  I  have been reluctant to start any seeds because we have a potential trip planned for the end of the month and I am afraid the seedlings won't survive not being watered for a week.  So I have decided to just buy some when I can plant them outside.

Then I found a recipe that I wanted to try that called for some fresh herbs which I normally would just buy from the grocery store.  Unfortunately you can't always find fresh herbs.  I actually did find everything I needed except for dill.  So now I needed to decide whether to try the recipe without the dill or just hold off making the recipe.  On my way home from the grocery store I decided to stop into home depot and see if they had any herbs.  And they did, though most were kinda sad looking.  I did find some dill, and while I was there also grabbed some basil and rosemary.  I had a beautiful rosemary plant that I'd had for several years that I accidently killed over the winter-so sad. 

I brought the plants home and planted them into some larger pots out on the deck.  The activity attracted the attention of all the animals especially the chickens who thought the little plants looked mighty tasty!  The project took a little longer than it should have do to the fact I had to keep shooing my feathered friends away.  Once I was done I placed them inside in front of the sliders and away from hungry chickens!