Just Intensely Blooming!

The Fairy is in Full Bloom

When I try to put captions on photos then I struggle to be able to type a little something below the photo!  Yikes.  There are some days that I hate Blogger!  Well, we got a couple of new roses planted in the garden today.  We aren't planting that much new stuff this year.  You'll understand later.  One of my favorite roses in the garden is the 'Fairy'.  This one is pink.  We just planted a red one as well.  We also got a climbing rose for the front where the hummingbird vine was.  We are taking seedlings out everywhere!  Hope you had a great day wherever you may be.  Talk to you later!

The Elderberry is Blooming!

One of my favorite herbs in the garden is my cutleaf elderberry (Sambucus canadensis).  I bought it at one of my favorite herb farms Mulberry Creek Herb Farm out near Cedar Point.  They describe the cutleaf elderberry as and I quote from them: 

Think of this plant as an inexpensive, faster growing green "Japanese Maple" that blooms in June. Purist might pale at such a comparison, however, for "Japanese Maple" challenged gardeners, it is definitely hardier to wind and temperature. With finely cut leaves and blooms as attractive to bees as it is to fritter-lovin' folks, it is not a second rate choice.

 It is a great plant for the garden.  Mine is doing well even with the shade it is getting from the Chinese Chestnut tree.  Hope you are having a great day wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.

A Moving Afternoon Tea from Whistler!

Bad pic of the train but at least I have one.  We took the Rocky Mountaineer back from Whistler to Vancouver.  A three and one half hour adventure and we had the pleasure of afternoon tea catered by the The Fairmont Chateau Whistler.  It was really deluxe!

We both had a "cocktail" before, ginger ale and apple juice.

A very nice assortment of sandwiches, golden beet, cucumber and watercress, ham & cheese and smoked salmon.  I just love afternoon tea anywhere!  It was very well done.  Then, of course, came the scone, Devon cream and jam.

And I had jasmine tea.  They had quite a few choices.

Then came The Herbal Husband's favorite, dessert.

From left to right, a chocolate covered cream puff (The Herbal Husband got mine and I got his lemon tart which was in the middle of this photo and of course, a chocolate covered strawberry.)  It was a lovely, lovely tea and the scenery was wonderful as well.

We had great service on that train ride.  I called them the Three Mountaineers!  They gave us history of the train and region and were frequently pointing out special places and were a great team.  Soo if you ever get the chance to go on the train and have tea, do it!  Make it an experience!  I think I'll join Bernideen for Afternoon Tea.  Still hot and humid in the 'Burgh.  Hope you are having a pleasant weekend wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.

I Had Better Show You Whistler!

Really there are mountains at Whistler, but it's so much more!  Lots of recreation to do in the spring and summer there besides skiing.  They were still skiing there through the end of May at least.  Mostly we were there to eat and shop!

So in amongst the mountains, snow, water and beauty, there was a tea shop and lunch!  We had to eat early enough because there was afternoon tea on the train going back.  There was a method to our madness!  I got The Summer Collection of teas from David's Tea.  Of course, they let you try a sample to get you in the mood.  The choices are:  Banana Daiquiri (had a sample of that one), Papayarama, Blazing Strawberries, Midsummer Night's Dream and Luscious Watermelon.  I'll share my experiences as I try them.  Need to get them out so I remember they are available to drink!!  The mind is feeble in this heat!  That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.  Many of the teas have clever titles!  It was a fun experience.  Just smelling the box is making me thirsty! 

Then came lunch or brunch.  We scoped out a crepe place called Crepe Montagne.  Very French/Swiss with crepes and fondue.  Of course, we had to try both!  Puff out your cheeks!  It was a lot of food!  But delish!  All in all Whistler was a great day.  Beautiful weather and not too many people!  So I promise my next post will be the train ride back with afternoon tea!  Cooling down here finally!  Talk to you later.  Have a great weekend!

It's An Embrassing Fact About Eating Roses!

FlowerLady asked what my favorite recipe was using roses!  I hate to admitted it, but we don't eat our roses as much as we should!  I have a lot of one time blooming roses.  My mistake.  Although my Rosa rugosa 'Alba' has now started to bloom and it is a most delicious rose and a repeat bloomer, that I will use in my salads.  Just the petals.  The petals have a white tip that you should cut off before eating because it is bitter.  I have never made rose petal jam or jelly.  I think I just love the rose smell outdoors and if I cut too many, I won't have that rose fragrance any more!  By the time I think I should be making it, they are gone for the season.  I just found this recipe for rose muffins on The Herb Companion website.  I love muffins and I think FlowerLady does as well and maybe you do too!  It's just not as easy as putting rose petals in the muffin mix, but maybe it is!  It makes rose jam and that jam goes into the muffins.   I'll get back to you on how this worked and with some other recipes soon.  In the meantime, here is a great edible flowers article from Cathy Wilkinson Barash who also wrote a book about edible flowers some years ago.  Still hot, hot, hot in the 'Burgh.  Talk to you later.

Eat Your Roses, Please!

My gardening friend and "Mrs. Know It All" from the Organic Gardeners radio program on KDKA 1020 on Sunday mornings, Denise Schreiber has just written a new book called Eat Your Roses...Pansies, Lavender and 49 other Delicious Edible Flowers.  Denise got me thinking about edible flowers way back in the early 2000's when she started her Edible Flowers Fest at the Buffalo Inn in South Park.  The first one was free and I think there were more than 200 people there.  It was the first time I spoke in front of that many people!  Now this year will be the 11th Edible Flowers Fest and it is $20.  If you are in the Pittsburgh area and haven't been, now is the time to go.  It will be held on Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 7:15 PM.  Denise goes all out with the food and it is always a delicious event.  Nancy Knauss from the Allegheny County extension office will demonstrate how to make an edible flower container.  You can check out the menu from far away by clicking the link above.  Looks good again this year, Denise.  The book has lots of good information and delicious recipes, but also makes you aware that there are inedible flowers and you have to be careful.  It is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Borders.  So check it out!

My roses are just glorious at the moment.  One rainstorm could end it, but for now they are blooming their buds off!  Hope you are having a great day wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.  More Canada photos soon!

No Words To Describe It! Maybe Photos Will Do!

I will say if you have a bucket list and a float plane ride is not on it, you need to change your mind!  It was one of the greatest experiences I have ever had.  They can only fly if it is a beautiful day and this was one gorgeous one!  The last photo shows the welcoming committee up at Whistler.  To think we might not have gone on this flight even with the gorgeous weather.  They called two days before we left for Vancouver and said that they had a group of 38 people sign up for a flight to Whistler.  So even though we had a "reservation", we were on the outside looking in!  So I put The Herbal Husband on the line and the police dog bit down and didn't let up.  We didn't find out until we got to Vancouver that we were going!  All is forgiven because it was a fantastic way to go to Whistler.  We took the train back and had afternoon tea.  I'll share that with you next time.

We have finally gotten rain for the garden, but it is going to be hot and humid the next couple of days.  Thought the rue might not come back, but it is beautiful.  Hope you are enjoying your day wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.

From the Beginning-Vancouver 2011

Somehow in downloading or uploading or whichever loading it may be, my pictures got all messed up!  Soo I need to get my journal out and refresh my memory!  This is the bed & breakfast called La Villa Antoine B & B we stayed in right down the street from The Herbal Husband's nephew and family.  It is an enormous craftsman style house.  We stayed in two different rooms because we took a little side trip and rented a car and went down to Victoria on Vancouver Island and into Washington state off of Bainbridge Island to see my cousin and his wife.  We were busy, but were able to relax here.  It was like being at home.  Within walking distance of a lot of great shops and restaurants, it was very nice and with a great breakfast.

Including a shop called Thomas Hobbs who is a famous Canadian garden designer and if I had realized that we could have visited his nursery called Southlands.  Not enough hours in the day especially when The Herbal Husband is planning them.

The Florist shop was next to the design shop and looked like it had been a bank in its former life.  Well, he must be very good because he was selling basil plants although it wasn't warm enough yet to have the basil go in the ground in Vancouver.

We tried to walk to VanDusen Garden which I told you about the other day, but we came up just short and went back to the room to get ready to go to tea.  We had to have a small mid-morning break at Cobs Bread with a cheese and chive scone!  Oink! There's that bite out before I could take the photo!

We went for lunch at the The Secret Garden Tea Company in the neighborhood.  The Herbal Husband had lunch and I had the demi high tea.

The Herbal Husband's lunch, a spinach, bacon, red pepper and pimento cheese quiche with a small tossed salad with vinaigrette and a sweet apple scone for dessert!  Always has to have his clotted cream!

My demi high tea consisted of a chicken salad and cole slaw bite and a salami and roasted red pepper mini croissant and a mini sweet apple scone with clotted cream and jam.  Dessert was a lemon tart (YUM) and the pink triangle was a coconut surprise (YUM, YUM) and the other was a piece of The Herbal Husband's scone!  Thanks for sharing dear!  If you are in the neighborhood make reservations for high tea.  I think you will enjoy it.  Well, this was just the first day.  I jumped ahead and now in my next post I'll show you our float plane ride to Whistler mountain.  Hope you are having a great day.  We are off to see the new Pirates movie and dinner at Red Robin. Yum!  Talk to you later.

It Was Just A Beautiful Day in the Garden and A Couple of Yippee Moments!

One thing about being away is that some usual herbal projects like making chive blossom vinegar have gone by the wayside this season!  The blossoms get so heavy that as you can see they make the plant collapse.  Once you clip off the blossoms, you can help it get its shape back.  If your chive plants look like the one above, clip off those blossoms, you may get a repeat bloom.

I worked on getting beds trimmed and weeded.  I also had to clip the Virginia creeper off the fence in the front garden.  It was choking out my apothecary rose that has started to rose as The Herbal Husband likes to say.

This was some of the vine that I pulled off the rose bush. 


This was the view I was looking for.  My 'Alba' rugosa rose in the center of the photo and blooming.  Yippee!  My other yippee moment was that my horseradish jelly gelled!  A double yippee!  I decided to check it last night after waiting for the technician to arrive to reset our internet and phone.  It had set up!  What a relief!  So you can use the horseradish jelly recipe I gave you earlier with confidence that it will set up.  The recipe makes 8 8 oz. jars exactly.  I made 6 8 oz. jars (not 7 as it said in the recipe) and 4 4 oz. jars for people to sample a smaller size.  We are going to have a great stretch of weather so hopefully I will be able to get caught up with my trimming and weeding.  Hope you have had a great day.  We certainly did here.  Talk to you later.  More adventures from Vancouver to come.  Have a great weekend.