Saturday, August 18, 2012

Teatime Date

My neighbor is a very talented ,creative person. Earlier in the day, she threw a shower for her dear friend's grand daughter and offered some of her treats for my husband and I to enjoy. This was a perfect opportunity for another date to celebrate our 25 beautiful years. Yep ,he was going to take late afternoon tea. Pulling out some of my treasured depression glass, elbows up! This green vaseline depression glass was made in Cambridge ,Ohio. It is called Decagon because of it's 10 sides . It was my mother's and before that, her best friend's mother's.
The mini muffins are carrot and a lemon poppyseed. The dessert treats include a lemon custard in phillo and topped with a candied peel, gnash brownie with tiny delicate chocolate leaves, an almond cheesecake, and a pecan tassie pressed into a delicately pressed graham crust.
A pot of Earl Gray and we enjoyed teatime together. He admitted that ,"this time honored ladies tradition could grow on me!"
It was great to stretch his horizons about our sensibilities as ladies!:) posting to :


Sunday, August 12, 2012

Summer Garden 2012

A welcomed  summer rain
This is the before garden , we took out trees and
 added a lot of plants plus changed trim color to blue

I love Roses and these ever bloomer Knock Out Roses do not disappoint
I had to try her, she is a climber, scented, and thornless/ Zephirine Drouhine
Scooby looking out over the Lavender and Boxwoods
Clematis peering over the fence
 Lavender, Tickseed, and Yarrow greet visitors
Lambs Ears,Mums, and Sedum  filling in

The Garden : Easily I can break the budget buying plants for our garden and when someone gives me the right plant, well, I am ecstatic. I go crazy at local plant sales, and when I am on vacation, I try to visit garden centers.  Sadness arrives when frost, drought, and other weather conditions  affect the plant's health. Anger arrives as the Japanese Beetles, slugs, etc attack my roses, plum bushes, and mock orange. Last summer, was the worse I've seen for  Beetle Invasion. While this year's drought had obvious disadvantages, there were a few benefits; fewer mosquitoes and Japanese Beetles were lessened. We saw our yard frog more often, as he was probably looking for water, and it was easier to keep up with trimming and weeding.
Shasta Daisies and Stella D'Oro near the lampost
Plenty of Lavender, cut and shared with neighbors
Our resident frog looking at Scooby
Sunbathing and watching Scooby too.
and Scooby watching them!
Roses, Peonies, Bachelor Buttons, Irises
 
  
Hydrangeas and ferns creeping out from under the Weeping Cherry

Joining the Garden Party at Fishtail Cottage and

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  • Wednesday, August 8, 2012

    25 Dates for 25 Years

     Celebrating our 25th Anniversary 2012

    Loved our backyard reception , everything was done by our talented, generous family; from food to flowers, to rentals. That cake not only looked good, it tasted good. The 2 side heart cakes were for our parents.
     In August, my husband and I will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. The years have flown by and except for some creaky joint and insistant gray hair, neither of us can believe how much time has passed! As our Silver Anniversary approaches, we kicked around the idea of getting away..maybe the ocean, in the Carolinas somewhere. However, as summer unfolded we realized we had to change our much anticpated plans because of our dear sweet aging dog Scooby. He is 17 now and just too old to have someone care for him in our absence, or us be away too long, in he needs us. After all, he is a four- legged family member (save that for another post)


     Still 25 years is a big deal and it only comes once! The first 25 has brought us so many gifts, the biggest is the birth of our children. Job improvements, modest travel, a home, family celebrations and Holidays...Special plans will call for more creativity. Then it came to me, why not recognize each year with one special date, that means 25 special dates to to plan! It took some planning and a wonderful evening of reminescing to plan our 25 dates. Here is what we have planned to are some of our 25 dates celebrating 25 years:
    1. Friends/Family get together , a BBQ/Swim to thank them for being there for us then.



    2. Romantic BnB get away night (our son has agreed to watch Scooby)I'll post this later
    3. See the Cleveland Museum of Art, followed by romantic dinner in Little Italy (our honeymoon included the Smithsonian Museums)
    4.Sunset picnic at the Lake (reliving our second date)
    5. Late nite deck dinner and midnight swim under the full moon
    6. Go bowling with another couple, (where we first met)
    7. Driving and hiking in the country.
    8. Johnny Carson Dvd Evening (we never missed his show)
    9. Day trip to Rock Hall of Fame and follow the new Painted Guitars Tour
    10. Snuggle watching old 60's Sci Fi Movie
    11. Candlelite Porch Dinner and exchange our " love you because.." lists
    12. Take a country drive and visit an Amish Farm( admire the lifestyle)


    13. Ride the Maid of the Mist at Niagara Falls
    14.  Spend an afternoon at a winery
    Toured Breitenbach Cellars
     had lunch on their patio, weather was perfect. Jeff's fave was their Blackberry wine and mine was the Reisling,in the beautiful blue bottle, perfect for Summer.

    15. Stargazing ( reliving our first date)

    (courtesy the weathernetwork.com) While our viewing looked like this, we didn't take this beautiful photo. We actually viewed the Milky Way and the beginning  Perseid Showers.
    16.Another Friends/Family get together , a BBQ/Swim to thank them for being there for us then.(getting everyone together at once is impossible, except for a wedding lol)
    17. Taking in an afternoon movie, usually an impossiblity due to work.
    18. Take in the Imax Theatre at the Great Lakes  Science Ctr
    19. Explore the Cleveland Museum of Art

    Amazing gallery and FREE!

    20. Spend an afternoon at the Botanical Gardens (my fave date spot so far)


    21. Take a drive to Lake Ontario
    22. Stopping by a pick your own fruit farm apples anyone?!
    23. Arrange a dinner out with our kids and share our albums
    24. View 3 more astronomical events together
    25. Promise List of next 25 years!
    So, our 25 dates have begun, the ones in blue letters, we have already been on..our plans are simple, not much different than dating, with one exception , they are focused on the fun it's been for 25 years. I'll continue to update our dates as we celebrate beautiful 25 years.
    If you have any memories or ideas, please share!


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