Linwood Gardens

Today was a truly beautiful day. Rachel and I took a field trip to Linwood Gardens and drooled over so many tree peony varieties and gorgeous walled gardens and had a most delicious picnic lunch overlooking a valley and spied 2 swallows taking turns feeding their chicklets and took lots of photos! Here are some of our favorite varieties.. I should have noted which were which. The website has a bunch labeled.



We ate homemade english muffins (thank you Rachel) with raspberry butter, mustardy potato salad, hummus with carrots and pita chips and our favorite, wacky cake. I will have to remember to share the recipe soon.


About halfway through our morning the camera got wonky and it may mean a shopping trip in the future for a new one. Here's an example - note the water lily flower amidst the chaos.

Design*Sponge

Check out this great interview over at design sponge with Rachel from Red Prairie Press..!

I've realized that remembering to get on here and update the blog and etsy shop gets a whole lot harder when the weather is beautiful and I'd rather be playing frisbee.

This is the second week of our CSA. I cannot tell you how exciting it is to be eating green vegetables after a winter of potatoes and carrots. I would like to post here each week with our share contents and hopefully photos. Just a list this week (I keep forgetting to charge the batteries in our camera): eggs, asparagus, arugula, bok choy, chives and blossoms, tarragon, carrots, spinach (yay!), 3 purple radishes and 2 types of lettuce.


I've put a new warp on my loom (sky blue and periwinkle) and am currently experimenting with a looser, lacier style. I am restraining myself from using heavy wools and attempting light summery cottons. Below, a photo of Pidge being naughty as a kitten in our old room. Can you believe the loom used to share the bedroom with us? The blurriness is a result of snapping the picture as quickly as I could so I could chase her off- I remember being so mad (but thinking it was so cute).

And it's 40 degrees.

Here are a few photos taken while strolling the neighborhood looking for flowers. Above, a gorgeous chestnut tree. Below, a baby buttercup and a rather large lilac bush in the gardens of the Eastman House. They were having a plant sale and it made me long for a yard to garden in. I've been taking flowers pics to hopefully catch a bee in some.. working for Albert's uncle's honey company (Honey Gardens Apiaries- they sell raw honey and plant medicines) with their facebook page. If you're into that- become a fan on facebook and you can view the rest of my Rochester in bloom photo album.

Now that winter is over

I've been meaning to share this recipe that I've been adapting all winter. We made it pretty much every week as we had probably 40 pounds of potatoes by the end of our CSA share (which, by the way, starts again next week and I am so excited). Colcannon is pretty cheap to make and really fills you up.

My friend Jen and I went rhubarb and asparagus picking last week and though I wish there was more asparagus to pick, it was still really fun. I sauted the asparagus with the last shallot from winter, some garlic, a tsp of lemon zest and fresh lemon juice.

Colcannon (a mish-mash of recipes)

2.5-3 lbs potatoes (I really don't measure- just cut up enough potatoes into big chunks (skins on) to cover the bottom of a big pot by an inch or two (maybe 6-8 big potatoes?).)
2 tsp salt, divided
1/2 a green cabbage or 1.5 pounds of kale, finely chopped
1 broccoli, super-chopped (I mean baby florets)

1 cup chopped leeks
1 cup evaporated milk (or half and half for more decadence)
1-2 Tbls chopped parsley (optional- I chop parsley when I have it into ice cube trays with a touch of water and freeze for all winter- this translates to 1 parsley ice cube)
1/2 tsp pepper

Cover the potatoes and 1 tsp salt with water (by 2 inches) and boil for 15-20 minutes or until tender. Once the potatoes are on, I chop the cabbage and add that so they all cook together.

While the potatoes and cabbage cook, in a small sauce pan, combine the milk, leeks and parsley. Heat on medium for 10 min or so (I do this until my frozen leeks and parsley ice cube are defrosted and cooked. This will probably finish before the potatoes are done- so just turn off the heat and let sit.

At the end of the potato cooking time, throw in the broccoli (they only need a minute or so in the boiling water).

Drain the veggies and return to pot. Add the milk mix, 1 tsp (or more to taste) salt, the pepper and some plops of butter. I mash it all together with my immersion blender, but mash however you choose (a potato ricer works okay- but you have to scrape it frequently b/c of all the potato skins and cabbage bits). That's it!

I always mean to add lots of cheese and bake this in a casserole, but forget to. Leftovers are great for breakfast on a skillet (I think this is called bubble and squeak).

On hopefully the last chilly day for months, Pidge slept in a paper bag all day with her chewed up pal, Mousey (thanks again Sam!).

Congratulations Ms. Lee!

It's been a few really beautiful days. Sun sun sun and good sleeping weather. Above, Pidge looks up interrupted from her sunshine bath. Below, lily of the valley I picked at Cobb's Hill Park in the middle of the woods. I put the mini vase in our kitchen window and it made the whole room smell wonderful. This weekend I'll be figuring out my next warp, hopefully some looser, lightweight scarves for summer... we shall see.

Baby Abbie

It makes me smile to see my first baby knit creation in use!

Pony laughs

A happy little surprise- a scarf woven a few years back I had forgotten to post on etsy and here. Still good as new! And the cutest little barn kitten I snuggled all afternoon. (Thanks Sam!) I've named him Pony and wish my Pidge wanted a new friend around here...

Happy Mother's Day!

Here are a few photos I took the other day in our neighborhood hoping to capture bumbles and honeybees collecting pollen. This seemed like an easy task, but proved near impossible!

I just love these cherry trees. I wish the blossoms were closer to the ground so I could roll around in them.
The trees below are on Portsmouth Terrace near where George Eastman's horse is supposedly buried.
(p.s. one new scarf coming soon!)