Heels and Hay

My sisters and I were dressed for a luncheon tea in town, long skirts, heels, and I was wearing a wide brimmed hat. We’d already made our appearance at the grocery. Mother asked us to stop on the way home and pick up a couple bales of alfalfa. You read that correctly.

Uh, huh. We are very dutiful girls, but it was with chagrin that we anticipated meeting the farmer who had already previously commented on far less dressy attire.

We were spared.

He wasn’t home, everyone from the farm was at a horse event except his wife, who would sell us the hay. Yes, not load, sell.

When duty calls, one answers, so my sister and I, heels and all, each loaded a bale of hay, weighing about 80 -90 pounds each. (I’m not quite sure on the weight, but others with more experience say it is so).

Indeed.

Afterwards, I paid out of my pink clutch, returned to the car door and dusted off the alfalfa leaves and retrieved my white silk scarf from off the seat. This I draped around my neck, tossed the end over my shoulder in a dramatic gesture and reentered the vehicle. When you do unusual things, do them with flair.

Heels and hay? Well, why ever not?

This Was the Week

It was high time for me to get a cleaning routine going. Months after our move, the house still limped along. I finally decided enough was enough, and being inspired by Pleasant View School House, I got down to business and mapped out a cleaning schedule.

Before we moved to our current abode, I had a routine to clean the entire house quickly. Being a beautiful old home, it wasn’t exactly low maintenance, but with a long ingrained system, I was usually able to go over the entire house daily.

Then we moved to a much, much newer house that should have been a quick clean. But I’d lost my routine. I didn’t know the new house and so it has gone along, surviving with occasional spurts of cleaning. I like things clean, very clean, as a matter of fact, and so I have been less than pleased.

Determined to change, I first penciled out a basic schedule that would encompass everything I needed to do to keep the house top cleaned, then this week I did a practice run to see how it would work. I like the basic routine and now I can expand upon and fine tune it. Because of all the dear little mess makers around here, I think I will have to make a time every day to do a quick run through and pick up everything that has been left out. I might have to do this twice a day, once in the morning and then sometime in the afternoon.

It was the perfect time for a change with the wildflowers springing to life on the mountainside, the daffodils and grape hyacinth coming cheerfully to life in the yard. Perfect because I love flowers, and what better way to finish a nice cleaning job than to place a fresh bouquet of them as a seal of completion. Not just flowers either, I love cuttings of new greenery just budding forth for a simple, inspiring touch. It’s a good time of year.

Have a lovely weekend!

The New Puppy

This is Miss Ailish, our new Irish Wolfhound puppy! This is perhaps not the best picture, but it is very insightful. She is eight weeks old in this photograph and it was her first day home! She really is very sweet. However, I noticed early on that she was inteligent and very determined, something that time has only confirmed.

Even though she is very young, I see lots of Wolfhound traits in her. She likes to lay at your feet when you are working and she wants to be with her people and she thinks she's a lap dog. She still hasn't learned that Irish Wolfhounds are stoic and don't cry. She's such a baby.

The fun thing is she is related to our families first two Irish Wolfhounds.

Hopefully I can get a picture posted with her wearing her pink bow. Pink seems to be her color.

Isn't that the sweetest little face?

A Quote Worthy of Remark

"I felt myself very unwell and directed a little chocolate which Mr. McClellan gave us prepared of which I drank about a pint and found great relief."
-William Clark, excerpt from his journal on September 13, 1806

I always did like history.

Carrot Filling

1 cup finally grated carrots

1/2 cup chopped pecans

5 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 scant teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon vinegar

A couple pepper grains and a few drops of Soy Sauce

Combine all ingredients thoroughly and serve in sandwiches on whole wheat bread.

You can substitue walnuts for the pecans and use lemon juice instead of the vinegar. I have always used lemon juice but for want of that ingredient I substituted vinegar the other day to very good effect.

I found a variation of this recipe awhile ago in an old cookbook and have made it several times since. I'm so glad I tried it in the first place in one of my more experimental moods. Even if you don't like carrots, I suggest you try it, at least once. I served it at a tea at my grandmothers once and a lady less than fond of carrots found it quite enjoyable. That time I also used lightly toasted white bread and then prepared as usual for tea sandwiches.

I think it would be very vintage served as a late night snack with hot chocolate. I have not tried this last one yet, but I shall have to remember it. Of course in order for it to sound like it might come straight out of a vintage novel, I suggest that all parties partaking first live a very exciting and harrowing existance (which of course includes spies) culminating in the capture of the bad guys and then have servants serve these sandwiches on silver platters while everyone listens to the hero explaining what exactly happened while a hot fire crackles, chasing away the chills of the stormy night. He also must occassionally turn to smile at his beautiful girl, which of course after a stormy relationship, they have just come to an understanding when he rescued her a few hours earlier from the perilous perfidy of one of the spies.

Well, sandwiches and hot chocolate I might be able to manage. The perils and stormy night would come readily enough.....

...it's the servants and silver platter that might be difficult to arrange.

Our House Guest

Introducing Eeyore, which he is rarely called around here. Among others, the more prefered names being Puncher Pug, Franklin and my personal favorite, Mugs McGuinness. Really, I don't suppose it's every house guest that you address by the name that you happen to think suits them best, but he's a good sport. I think all the nicknames are a sign of distant affection. He really is very well behaved and is lots of fun to have around. I’m going to miss him when his mother returns home to claim him. He likes to sit up like this and beg. Homemade bread seems to make him very excited.

Isn't he cute?

My Brother's Wedding

The last week in March, my sisters and I traveled to Oregon to help with our brother’s wedding. The last few days were rather hectic, by we managed to squeeze some non wedding events into the first part of the week.

Early on the morning of the 22nd just as the sun was breaking through the morning fog, we set out to meet one of our brothers on a hike at Silver Falls State Park. It was lovely to hike the wet trails, enjoying the lovely twists of the paths as we followed the creek and wound through the woods. Spring was evident everywhere, parading forth in fresh greenery and wild flowers.

Early in the week, we met a good friend for coffee at Starbucks. Over various and assorted beverages, we caught up on the happenings in our lives, debated on just which language the guys at the other table were really speaking, wondered who the guy was that two police officers met for coffee, tasted the coffee cake they were giving away because they couldn’t sell it - no surprise, I thought it had too much flour. And finally went our separate ways, knowing we would see each other again later that week sometime over the wedding festivities.

Then it was wedding preparation time!

We had a bachelorette tea rather than a wild party. We couldn’t help getting our sister-in-law to be this ring that lit up. We’ve long teased our brother in emergency personal about his love for lights and joked that he was going to get his bride a flashing ring. Well, it didn’t flash, but it did light up. Can you see her real engagement ring in the photograph? It is a beautiful vintage ring and I absolutely love it.

And here is the wedding cake. My sister-in-law and I combined efforts for this confectionary masterpiece. At least we thought it was a masterpiece. It wasn't perfect (thanks to me) and I'm a perfectionist, but for a first attempt, it turned out relatively well. Everyone seemed dually impressed with the results. I rather was too, and very relieved. It was a chocolate cake with a chocolate filling and a mint frosting. I baked the cake, and did the basic frosting. My sister-in-law did the decorative frosting. She did an amazing job- though rather tired being several months pregnant!

And another first – I put together all the bouquets! The bride was there to approve the bridesmaid’s bouquets but then she took off before I started on her bouquet. It had to be done that night, and fortunately she had mentioned what she wanted, so I put it together and hoped she liked it. I did. I actually even wanted to catch it! After I made up example boutonnieres and corsages, my sisters helped do the rest of those. Thank goodness!

I don’t have any of the professional photographs, but here is a back view of the bridesmaid’s dresses. The bride wanted a vintage themed wedding. She chose a very basic style for the dresses, and with the right hats, shoes and gloves, the look came together beautifully. All the gloves were authentic vintage, borrowed from my sister’s collection and my grandmother brought some in from Colorado.
And the lovely little vintage inspired caps. I thought up the design, my sister CheeringOn made the design work and then it was team effort to put them together at the last minute. We weren’t sure the bride was going to approve the hats, so we hadn’t made them yet. Yikes! We did get them done at the last minute.

It was a very busy time for me as maid-of- honor, wedding coordinator, as well as heading up almost all of the decorating! It was a lot of places to be at once. I did enjoy the challenge and it was a good experience. Oh, but lots of sleep was needed afterwards!