Corners of my Home ~ Outside

I am trying to sneak in late, hoping no one will notice...sorry Lisa! :)

On my back deck I have an old enamel top table, which I thought would make a nice spot for tea ~ a 'Summer Corner' as Clarice would say. I covered it with a thrifted linen table cloth and brought out the bentwood chairs from the dining room.

I made this blueberry buckle with some of the blueberries I picked the other day...it's scrumptious!

Blueberry Buckle

1/4 c. butter, room temp

2/3 c. sugar

1 egg

1/2 c. milk

2 c. flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp lemon flavoring

2 c. fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream the butter with mixer, add the sugar and beat, then add the egg and beat for 1 minute. Add milk & lemon flavoring, beating til blended. Combine dry ingredients & add to creamed mixture. Beat about 2 minutes, til combined. Gently stir in blueberries. Spray or butter an 8 inch square pan; pour batter into prepared pan & smooth the top.

Topping:

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp lemon flavoring

1/4 c butter, room temp

1/2 c. coarsely chopped pecans

Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, & lemon flavoring. Add butter and cut in with a fork til it is like a coarse meal. Add pecans. Sprinkle topping evenly over top of batter. Bake about 60 - 70 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool 5 minutes before cutting. Enjoy!

Our garden is in front of the barn. In one section I planted flowers...these are the zinnias. Jessica, our darling pony, is in the background...

Here are the sunflowers, with dark blue morning glories (volunteers) climbing up...

Some more zinnias against the blue morning glories...

We're having a beautiful, sunny day here...hope you are too!

Anne kindly gave me permission to share the photos of the Menorah pillow she made from Handknit Holidays. Isn't it beautiful? The yarn is Elann’s Filatura Di Crosa 501 Tweed in color 010, Ecru. She did a crochet edge instead of the I-Cord edge specified in the pattern.







I really need to make this pattern myself one of these days.

The Teaching Company has a free lecture you can listen to on Mozart.

Garden Walk pictures...

First of all, thank you everyone for your kind comments on yesterdays post; and thank you Jody and Cyn for giving me some great ideas for my big shortening tin/bin. It is still so hot here...not much crafting getting done...actually not much of anything getting done. The humidity in our house right now is registering 100%...is that possible without it actually raining? :) I believe I know what it feels like in a rainforest.

Last weekend Mike and I went to a local Garden Walk. There were over 200 gardens listed and we only saw a fraction of them...the ones that we toured were beautiful. Next year I hope to go again and see more of the ones I missed.

Here are a few of my favorites:

There was a small neighborhood comprised of these cute brick cottages, some of which date back to the 1800's...

The homes were as fun to see as the gardens.

Below, a beautiful Victorian, where the owners were serving homemade peach iced tea...

This is another of the brick cottages...I love it!!! Could I possibly hope to duplicate these window boxes next year for my house?!

This garden was at a beautiful Victorian home, where the owners were both dressed up Victorian style, including a little black bowler hat for the husband and a lovely Victorian gown on the wife...

After the garden tour I had the desire to hit all the garden stores on the way home and buy up tons of plants. The heat, however, and my budget won out...so I didn't come home with any new flowers, but lots of great ideas!