Gone to Pot

I had a glorious conversation with my mother earlier this week, though that's not saying much, because conversations with her are always glorious. Of our many topics of conversation, however, was the prospect of growing trees in pots.

Lemon, lime, orange, and kumquat trees, to be precise.

One of our dear family friends does it quite successfully on her back porch. She brings them in during the Winter, I think, but her portable orchard produces citrus abundantly.

Can you imagine!?

To the root cellar, summer kitchen, white picket fence garden, dairy barn, and pig wallow, you can now add "screened in back porch" to my list of "requirements" for the dream house.

It is, after all, a dream house.

Green Bean Bumper Crop

I have a lot of them.

A lot of them.

I planted lots and have now frozen about as much as we can eat (and I have room for) until next year.

I do plan on giving quite a few away, but I'd like to try some new methods of eating and/or preserving them.

Any ideas? Recipes?

I definitely want to try this and will let y'all know in a few weeks how it goes.

Obscure Saint of the Day

Today is the Feast Day of one of my confirmation saints. I was a greedy teen and took two.

When I was younger, I was rather fond of obscure saints. I figured nobody was tapping them up for intercession and so I'd be much more likely to have my prayers heard by them than if I went to an overbooked saint like St. Therese, St. Francis, or St. Joseph.

Yes, it was a juvenile understanding of the Church Triumphant, but I learned a great bit about a great many otherwise forgotten saints. And they were, and still are, quite generous intercessors (besides the few I deemed rightfully obscure when they ignored my fervent requests).

Anyway, I saw a 7 1/2 hour movie (with subtitles) of St. Teresa of the Andes and was immediately smitten. In hindsight, the movie isn't quite as great as I thought it was at the time, but it made quite an impression on me and I fell in love with her.

Shortly thereafter a kind Aunt sent me a book about her which arrived, coincidentally, on the good saint's feast day. After watching the movie, reading that book, and another book about her, I knew she was going to be my Confirmation patron.

She was young (died at age 19), was a contemporary (died in 1920), was a Carmelite (my favorite spirituality), she was also a glutton for multiple names (her Baptism name was Juana Enriqueta Josefina of the Sacred Hearts Fernandez Solar though she was usually called "Juanita") and she was obscure. Score!

Even though she's not on the American calendar, I still encourage you to learn more about her and celebrate her feast today, July 13th.

St. Teresa of the Andes, pray for us!

Who is your Confirmation saint, and why did you choose him/her?

Finding My Decorating Style

When I moved into this little rental house after our honeymoon, I wanted to make it comfortable... but not too comfortable. We were only supposed to be here a year, you see. It was our "temporary home," before we bought a "real house." I didn't want to get too attached to it, so I didn't want to make it too cozy.

Well, years have passed, and it doesn't look like we're moving anytime soon. The time has come to make it feel really comfortable, because, by golly, it's our home!

But I've never really decorated before. I mean, my dorm room at college had some nice artwork cut out of a book and sticky-tacked to the wall, but I could hardly pull that off here.


I don't know what my style is. Simple, I think, but functionally elegant. I don't like clutter, or little breakable trinkets that need to be dusted and carefully guarded.

Painting, sconces, ironwork, artwork, candles, mirrors, wreaths, curtains, rugs, pillows, topiaries, furniture... I'm not quite sure where to start.

For now I think I'll start by straightening the picture on the wall.

What's your style?

On Their Best Behavior

Our 24 laying hens, the notorious egg eaters, are enjoying their last Summer days. Due to their insatiable appetite for their own eggs, I ordered a new batch of bad-habit-free chicks and in a couple of months will send the naughty cannibals to our freezer.

No doubt attempting to foil our plans once again, lately they've been averaging 22-23 eggs a day!

The average production when I purchased the new chicks was 7-8 a day.

Blast.

Maybe we should stay the execution. But then what would we do with 50 hens?

Any ideas?