American Gold-Finches in Our Garden

My husband took these photos of finches feeding in our garden. I'll look their correct name up and post it later. We live in town, so it's lovely to see them. Yes they are American Gold Finches.

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes

Rain, rain go away, Come again, Another day.

And today it did. So I was a busy little beaver.

Yes today was the day I planted my tomatoes. Well not all of them, but a lot of them. I am now dreaming of Tuscan Spaghetti Sauce, Tomato Chutney, Tomato Salsa. Yes I should have enough tomatoes for these.

Rob gets through an unprecedented amount of Salsa, and I therefore need to make my own. Does anyone have any good recipes out there? I always think of Salsa as the Hispanic Chutney. Great on a lot of things, especially omelet.

I worked all morning to beat the rain. It has rained soooo much, that turning the soil was quite a chore. But it's mostly done and I'm happy!!!

I also planted hot peppers and sweet peppers, and some flowers.

Some things that are flowering in my Garden. Great to be in the garden.

Pottery and Cooking

There are certain things you use in the kitchen which are just special to you, and that is this casserole dish, which comes from the South of France, Vallauris. The handle is great to hold when lifting it out of the oven. Pottery has been made in this part of France, since before the Romans.

This is my Bretagne chicken casserole.

I decided to make baked apples, which I haven't had in years. I wanted to use these dishes which are specially made for baked apples. I have four and they are Hartstone Ware. With a piece of the pottery that comes up in the center of the apple to help cook it.

I didn't have any raisins, so added walnuts and honey, they were delicious.

All this pottery was found at the thrift shop.

http://pages.prodigy.net/cgleason/valfriends.htm

A Day at Sea, Fri 25th April 2008

Another day at sea. Sao Miguel, is 750 miles from Lisbon. After the Azores we started to hit warmer nicer weather.

The Bridge of the Norwegian Gem

Lunch aft at the Garden Cafe outside

A warm leisurely afternoon on deck. Rob reading his book.

The bar area by one of the two swimming pools.

The Grand Pacific main dining room, seats 500 people one sitting. It's a beautiful dining room, I would say in a Deco style, it reminded me of the Queen Mary, docked at Long Beach, CA. Especially the floor lights.



Evening dinner in the Grand Pacific dining room, with the huge aft windows behind us.

A moment with Rob.

Bo and I later in the evening at the Blue Lagoon.

The Azores, Sete Cidades and Ponta Delgada, Thurs 24th April 2008

The island of Sao Miguel is very, very green. With little lanes and stone walls. Mist rolls in from the sea and the island being volcanic, makes the soil rich. The hedgerows are full of lilies, ferns and lichen. It is beautiful.

Sete Cidades (Seven Cities). These two volcanic crater lakes have a story which goes with them. One is blue and one is green. The story is the King's daughter met and fell in love with a shepherd boy. The King found out and held his daughter under house arrest, there was no hope for their union, tears were shed, hers blue and his green, forming the two lakes.

This is the little town that sits there today. There never was a King or seven cities, these are all tales. But the Azores have always held an exotic ora about them.

Beside the lake

I fell upon a copse of trees and walking into the middle came across a beautiful gardenia bush.

The gardenia bush.

An Azores house in Sete Cidades.

An old lady of the Azores doing her gardening.

The temperate climate lets them grow oranges, which was until one time their major trade, with Britain, until an epidemic wiped them out. Now they export dairy products from all the Frisian cattle, to Portugal and also grow pineapples.

At the pineapple plantation

A menorah. Jewish people came as slaves and later as refugees in times of persecution.

Mr cat, doing his rounds. They keep cats at the pineapple plantation to keep the rats down.

In the town of Ponta Delgada.

A guard at the old fort.

Leaving the port of Ponta Delgada, the tug boat seeing us off.

Views as we leave.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azores

A Hotch Potch of Thrift Shop Finds

Yesterday, these were my finds. This is about ten yards of a vintage fabric, I think you would classify it as bark cloth. It's one continuous length, it was possibly a swag, I have been looking for some vintage bark cloth, so I'm thrilled to find this. I would like to use it for bags. I have to think about what I will use as a complimentary lining that will do it justice.

This is a dress I bought, truly just for the buttons. But I will use the fabric to line bags. The dress has a school teacher theme.

It has seven china buttons, this is just one of them. Wish I could have taken a better photo. This photo shows the little apple theme fabric too.

This is a little liquor glass. I bought it because we have been to Knoebels. It's a lovely, reminiscent of old time theme park. You do not pay an entrance fee, but just buy tickets and each ride is so many tickets. We've been with friends and have many happy memories here. A couple of times we have stayed at a campsite nearby.

This is a set of four desert dishes, I think could be used for icecream, fruit and yogurt, jelly, or jello as they say in the States, what ever. I love the fluted, holed edging. I do not think they're old, but on the sytle of vintage glassware.

Last but not least two little outfits for a baby shower. A friend is having a little boy. These are brand new outfits with the tags still on.

Were there fun finds on your Saturday?