Take a deep breath

"You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry. Don't worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way."   Walter Hagen

Winter and early spring are dominated by rain, snow and cloudy days.  In Southern California we get our share of sunny warm days too but I'm posting  today because this is not one of them 

When I walk around my garden these days there is not much to look at.  I't a dormant time of year for garden plants but every once in a while I am surprised by my garden's gift.  I take a quick breath of surprise and then meet the surprise with my nose and take a deep breath.  Won't you join me?  

Pink hyacinth - deep and heady - smells a little like a lilac.

French lavender - clean and relaxing - we all love this one...especially at night before bed

pink jasmine - growing right outside my bedroom window - ahhhhhh

citrus blossoms - a California miracle !  The all begin this month.  If you don't live in a citrus area  go to your local garden nursery and see if they have greenhouse section.  This is my Meyer Lemon tree just 6 feet away from the jasmine.  It is lovely to walk down the pathway that divides them in the evening

Julie Andrews rose.  Who wouldn't put her nose into this beauty?  

Sweet peas .  Can you smell them from where you are?  My grandmother carried these as her wedding bouquet.  I make it a point to lay some on her gravesite around her anniversary(which also happens to be her birthday) each year.

So take a walk outside.  Search for natures perfume and take a deep breath

 

Nana camp part II, watercolor, citrus week, rock star week

So then we took camp outside and did some water coloring of flowers we found blooming in our gardens

Reina's tulip

Gabriela's leaves

my poppy garden

The next week was Citrus week!!!  Special request for Key Lime Pie!!!!

While we waited for our Key lime juice to arrive Nellie and Joe's  we made felt coasters in the design of citrus slices:

Thank you to Purl Soho for the free pattern:

supplies for citrus coasters

assembled pieces

pieces in place

pinned in place

stitches in top layer with some seed spaces

coaster set

"grapefruit" coaster and wine glass

OK  Now for the Key Lime Pie

recipe from Williams-Sonoma-classic Key Lime Pie

The Nellie and Joe's 100% Key lime juice arrived and the girls did a great job.  They used graham crackers for the crust; I used the Ginger snap cookies.  They whipped up their cream right before the served it to their parents that night.  I topped mine with a little toasted coconut:

classic Key lime pie with gingersnap crust and toasted coconut

So citrus week was complete and yummy.  Good work girls!!!

The word of the week....."scurvy"

The next week the girls were rock stars.  We studied rocks....well we painted rocks.  The girls found smooth rocks around their yard (remember we're under quarantine- how dare we go off the property) about the size that would fit in their hand.  We collected paints and paint pens and thought about positive phrases we would like to be reminded of:

supplies for rock painting

Reina's rocks "Be Happy"

Gabriela's rocks - love the confetti, don't you?

my rocks - "Dream big"

OK then back to the kitchen to make rock cookies

We used the chocolate chip cookie recipe on the back of the Nestle bag and added "rocks" in the form of chocolate chips, white chocolate chunks, M & Ms, caramel bites and Heath English toffee bits:

Gabriela's rocks

rock star cookies

word for rock star week - "lapidarian"
Stay tuned for the next three weeks