It is cool and cloudy this Mother's Day. I feel it is past danger of frost and so planted some heirloom variety tomatoes and peppers in my new garden bed. [I still have the lasanga garden bed from last year, too. It is producing lots of leaf lettuce in reds and greens for out table right now, as well as dill which as come up "volunteer" and cilantro! The new bed is in a sunnier location.]

Having had good luck with the Cherokee Purple tomato (above) last summer, I have put in 2 plants this year. Below is a new/old variety called Purple Smudge. Being an artist, how could I resist????

Then some bell peppers, this one called Chocolate Beauty...yummm?!!

This beautiful red is Olena Red! Brilliant!

One last tomato variety, Ananas Noir, or Black Pineapple. This one can have up to four colors on one ripe tomato. The flavor is said to be wonderful....so I'm excited to see how these grow!

All of the plants are from Bean Mountain Farms in Deer Arkansas. You can also visit them here.

MORE GOOD SWEET STUFF......

I have been watching my front porch for a brown package which will be my yogurt maker...yesterday a box was there! But the outside said SUCRE.....something else was "up"! [Hmmm...the French word for "sugar"....]

Inside was a candy stiped pastel box with a pink ribbon. Lovely!

Opening that box, was a "menu" of the contents......

Seems that Mother's Day is this weekend and I was not overlooked! LOL!

Aren't they pretty!!!!?????

Thank-you, thank-you, Laura!

Visit SUCRE to order your own macaroons, or to surprise someone!

We are having glorious May morning here...goddess of spring indeed!!!!

Steve (husband) and I got up early in order to drive Lizzzzzzzy to the airport...we picked her up from her front door at 6:00 a m. It was dawn...Saturday, the weekend!!!!
Our airport is in the middle of farmland about 30 miles from where we live.
We had vistas of early morning light on foggy fields with sleepy cattle...lots of trees too... silhouetted against the rising sun.

After dropping Lizzzzzy with hugs and wishes for a wonderful trip, we began to wake up and see the possibilities of this wonderful day! We could just keep driving and explore...or more important, find some coffee (and food).

(As we rounded one curve, we came upon a large tortoise creeping across the blacktop...we didn't hit him, thank-goodness! It amazed me to think of all nature's creatures who are still out there, "dwelling", watching us "fly by" on our way to who knows where! )

It took us about an hour for the round trip back to our part of NW Arkansas and by then the local Saturday morning breakfast spot was opening. This is not a chain...but called "The Rolling Pin" and of course it has a collection of rolling pins on the back wall.

We talked to the waitress, Patti, about canoeing on the local rivers, something she was doing tomorrow for her Mother's Day (her MOM is thinking of getting a kayak!). Had eggs, hashbrowns, grits and biscuits and sausage gravy (how Southern is that?). We used to canoe every spring...it is one peaceful way to travel!

After breakfast, we went to our town square.....on a mountaintop....where our local farmer's market is held. the square has an old post office building in the center...3 story brick...from early 1900's...with lots of sheltering older trees.

Around the old building are lovely flower beds and rock work with a fountain on one corner. I bought fresh asparagus for lunch... and a pot of thyme for the herb bed beside the driveway. While there, we met and chatted with many acquaintances and local characters (I think my husband qualifies as one of the "characters!"); we have celtic music and clogging for atmosphere on one corner and a women's drumming circle on the other! It is fun to be in a funky town!

(NOTE: the photo at the left is from a different weekend last year, we aren't to the gladiolas stage yet this season, but we didn't have a camera along today......)

(It's THAT weekend in May again!!!!)

Happy Mothers Day to all of us....




I am fortunate to still have my mother....I will visit her this Sunday.

After a nice meal, we will probably sew...or I will...as I listen to her or watch her doze...(she'll not like that if she reads this!)

Some of my earliest memories are of "hanging" around her while she was "trying" to sew.

Sometimes she wouldn't tell me what she was making until it was ready for me to try on....she sewed almost all of my dresses! (One exception, that I remember choosing from a shop window...I must have been 5 years old. It was pale blue, with short puffy sleeves and a big white collar. There were cut work tulips on the color and pale pink batiste inserted for a bit of contrast. I loved it! )
Most of the other dresses I remember were her creations...and sometimes she would make 2 alike so that my little sister and I could "match". (poor sister would then inherit a hand-me-down just like the one she had outgrown!)
Mom saved the dress scraps and planned making "sunbonnet sue" quilts for us...all of her enthusiam for quilting was passed on to me too....I have been blessed!

May you all find a lovely memory of your mother and/or spend some time with someone you love this weekend!