Does anything say “Early Michigan Summer” more than this! On the way home from up north we stopped in St. John’s, and picked up these delectable, delicious, just picked strawberries.
Tonight I made simple old-fashioned strawberry shortcake. Tomorrow, I will make spinach strawberry salad for dinner, along with a batch of strawberry-rhubarb sauce for the freezer. Hmmm, what else?????
Look at those eyes…that intense stare, she always knows what she wants.
Willie was waiting for us at the animal shelter. Just biding her time, knowing that her family would arrive any minute. I saw her first, in the kennel. It was love at first sight between me and that puppy. Jackie was with me, but was otherwise occupied when I first saw Willie. I just wanted to see what would happen when Jackie saw the pup on her own, would she walk on by, or would there be a connection. A few minutes later, I was playing with the kittens, and Jackie came in. ”Mom, you have to see this puppy, she is our dog….you are going to LOVE her, she is the sweetest, cutest dog I have ever seen.” “Oh really, lets go see her” I said. But before we could move, here was 4 month old Willie being led to us by the shelter manager. Honestly, magic happened. We would have rather moved into the shelter than let Willie stay there without us. So we took her to the cottage, on consignment, just to try her out. But, let me digress….
We lost our dear collie, Toad, just the day before. She was very ill for a long time. Jeff and I both said that we probably did not want another dog “for a while”. Hmmmm…see where this is going.
Jeff said that the minute he saw Willie, he knew he had no fighting chance at winning the “no dog” argument. We were dogless for less than 24 hours. Willie, renamed Marlo has been a member of our family for 9 years now. We don’t know her real birthday, but I have proclaimed it to be July 4th. Happy birthday, Marlo. Some things are just meant to be, even if the timing is not quite what you would have chosen.
Marlo is really a blessing to our family, and we would have missed out on the most expressive dog I have ever owned….she smiles when she’s happy, she squints when she’s guilty, she sings for her supper (earned the nickname Merlot the whiner) and holds conversations with us….sighs, gives glaring looks of disgust, and plots ways to tiptoe to the garbage and somehow nose out morsels of scraps without disturbing a thing. Yep, she’s our big hairy fur ball of unconditional love!
Every Wednesday, I post a Way Back photo….won’t you join me this week? If you have a Way Back Whensday to share this week, add your name to Mr Linky:
A person’s character and their garden both reflect the amount of weeding that was done during the growing season.
How old would you think you are?????
I asked the Wii this question, and took a test to determine my age. First I must tell you my husband’s age was 27. I married a younger man. In fact, he’s younger than our son! Huh. My age according to Wii is 42. I’ll take that, maybe if I can fool the Wii, I can also fool myself and act like I am that age most of the time!
Today I had a beautiful day to celebrate my birthday. Jeff, Steph, Jackie and I went on the Livonia Garden Walk. I loved the gardens this year, for what I saw in them was what I was looking for. Unpretentious gardens, vistas of natural beauty that don’t call for high maintenance. Yet, attention to detail with vignettes of delight and humor.
Because its my birthday week!
To start it off, I’ve decided to show you a smorgasbord of cute little Debbie pictures.
Some things never change, I still want to wave my hands franticly when I’m excited.! Luckily, I can resist. 
I still like to show off a little.
And this picture (above) has to be one of my favorites. I recognize myself in this photo for some reason…maybe its the clothes.
I look at this last photo as inspiration…fearlessly marching onward.
So here we go, another year has slipped by. But who’s counting the years, I’m just counting the moments and memories, and the family and friends that I love!
Its actually late for my white meidiland rose to bloom. They are stars blooming in a galaxy of green!
And my right baby toe is purple…all I can say is that I must be in a deep sleep by 1AM and do not handle finding the ringing phone gracefully at that time.
There are some lovely things blooming in the garden right now:
Climbing Hydrangea
Goatsbeard
4th of July climbing rose
Corydalis
Hope you all had a lovely Sunday, and a Happy Father’s Day.
We all love rhubarb around here. All spring and summer we harvest rhubarb from the backyard. With June being a big birthday celebration month, the most requested cake is definitely rhubarb cake. It is moist inside, crunchy on the top, just sweet enough with small morsels of tangy rhubarb in every bite. Right now I’m trying to forget that there is half a cake in the kitchen.
Of course, for illustration purposes only, I need to show you the best way to serve it:
With a side of vanilla ice cream of course.
Here is the recipe for a 13 x 9 pan. Usually I multiply it by 1.5 to fill my larger glass pan. A side note, I always use glass, not metal with rhubarb, it can pick up a metallic taste.
Rhubarb Cake
3 cups of rhubarb cut into small pieces.
Mix together:
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened
Mix the above with a pastry fork, like a pie crust, cutting in the butter. Set aside 1/4 cup of this mixture, adding 1/2 cup brown sugar for the topping.
Add:
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
Beat by hand until all is smooth.
Add:
1/2 cup chopped nuts
rhubarb
Transfer to greased 9 x 13 pan. Sprinkle on crumb topping. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until done.
It’s Father’s Day this weekend.
But I just wrote a feature of my dad.
And there is another person I want to help celebrate Father’s Day this year….
This is his first ever Father’s Day.
And he has a little son who is very much like him.
How much so remains to be seen, but they sure do look alike.
Somehow I do believe his son will be a bundle of energy and curiosity, just like him.
But there is also another reason to stop….
…something that is cause for a celebration
Its also this young dad’s birthday, his last 20 something birthday!
!
Happy Birthday Teej! From your mama XOXOXO
Today was one of those simple pleasures kind of days. It was a beautiful day outdoors, and I spent a good deal of it out there. But that whole thing of “what’s for dinner” was hanging over my head. Sometimes its just harder to decide “what” to cook then it is to actually cook. Do you find that true? Earlier in the day, I asked TJ what he wanted me to cook in honor of his birthday that is coming up. He said, “Hamburgers, beans and corn on the cob”. He’s a simple guy in the food arena. So today, as I’m puttering away, that menu kept running through my mind and sounding really really good. Three guesses what we had tonight for dinner…and will be repeating the very same dinner soon.
My story continues, enter d’mama, who joins us for Sunday dinner when we are lucky. I thought she would not be so crazy about this dinner. I did make her and I a veggie burger instead, and we had the corn, beans, and watermelon. But it was just so basic and EASY, nothing special. You know what she said….”this was the best dinner I’ve had in a while. It just tasted so good.” And it did taste good, delicious. I’m all for simple cooking. So, what do you all cook when you want a quick, easy, simple but delicious summer supper?
Our little man is six months old.
And will soon be driving his Grandpa’s jeep!
He helped celebrate his mama’s birthday the other day….singing his unique version of birthday greetings
He’s quite the party guy……
Marlo and him are in a competition……
Who can give the biggest, juiciest kiss!
I’ve also added some photos to the family photo album page.
