Don't have to bark to be noticed

From leFigaro Magazine

Country curtains

I have always loved country curtains. Unbleached muslin trimmed with little fuzzy balls hanging on the fringe- that's perfect!  I remember curtains like this in our farm cottage,  when I was a child.

In the 1960s I found them again at Country Curtains shop in Connecticut, when came across a  small black and white ad for Country Curtains in the back pages of the New Yorker magazine, and ordered some to grace the windows in our big old house in Westchester Counnty.

The ones in the dining room were made (by me) of unbleached muslin and ball fringe.

It just feels comfy having them.

Rhubarb, strawberries &......

Our strawberries started ripening last week, and there is still plenty of rhubarb in the garden. Now is the perfect time for a fresh strawberry rhubarb pie.  I used a new pie crust recipe, one I found in

"From Our House to Your House" 

a spiral-bound cookbook from Southwestern Historical District, Troy Ohio 1987.

 Troy was the birthplace and family home of my mother-in-law, a beautiful town well worth visiting!

PIE CRUST

"The recipe won first prize at the Ohio State Fair some years ago. A never-fail pie crust every time" 

3 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1-1/8 cups shortening (or 1-1/4 cup for extra rich crust)

1 egg

5 tbsp water

1 tsp vinegar

In a bowl, cut shortening into flour and salt.

In a small bowl, mix together egg, water and vinegar and pour into flour mixture.

Mix well until dough forms.

Roll out on well-floured board or pastry cloth.

Makes 3 single pie crusts. Can be frozen uncooked. 

I found this dough a bit flaky and not too easy to roll out.  But worth it, it is very tender and tasty!

Goslings!

Poppi and Cookie hatched 3 goslings! Poppi has found a hole in the fence that the geese can squeeze through and parade around the yard.Our geese are so graceful and beautiful. They come when you call them, and they go in their house at nightfall but only if you call out   NightNight  to them.

"Daffodils" (1804)

I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,  
A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:

I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

By William Wordsworth (1770-1850).

_______________________________

Hester

Hester came to us in May 2002. A beautiful full grown hen who laid blue eggs.  She was a willing partner for our roo the minute he saw her, and hatched two sets of baby chicks that summer and every summer thereafter. One summer she even set 3 hatches, and she once set a turkey egg and mothered the poult! She was an excellent Mom a good protectrice who chased the cats all the way to the barn if they even looked at her chickies!

Hester was our Alpha Hen, which meant that no other hens chased her or her babies away from the feed.

We lost her late fall this year...sure miss our Hester. The tiny chick on the right would be Angel, who the kids fed angel hair spaghetti later that summer and who grew up to be a tiny rooster, and quite tame.

Vegan Cupcakes rule the world

Katy came to stay with us over Thanksgiving weekend college break, as her home is on the other side of the USA!  It was also her birthday! hmmmm I've never made a vegan cake. Anyway I found this vegan cupcake recipe on line ... and voila, Katy's birthday cake.  Really good too.