tania howells

big , medium , small

The hollyhocks are just amazing!  These are still from the seeds I stole from some rogue hollyhocks nearby, a few years ago.  I have two bright pink and one pale pink in the front and a handful of these maroon-y ones in the back.  They make me think I am in the English country side.  Next I need some foxgloves..  but there  isn't anywhere really to put them!  I need a meadow...



MM quiche!  I made these on Saturday night for brunch on Sunday, to avoid heating up the kitchen.  We had some friends round from Victoria!  Very nice.  I could have baked them that morning though because the weather has been so lovely and cool lately, it would not have mattered, and they are nicer fresh out of the oven.  The one on the right was my favorite- sun dried tomatoes, goat cheese and chives from the garden!  YUM! the other was broccoli and cheddar but to me it tasted of nothing.


Some peas I have growing in a pot by the back door.  These only produce enough for a pea pod on my way out the door every now and again, but they are so cute!  There is a cosmos mixed in, no surprise.  Those seeds get in everywhere!

I had big plans to turn this doodle into an animated gif but I have already forgotten how!

So just picture the swallows swooping around and her eyes

blinking and I will go look for a tutorial again.

from the vault....

 

 

I have worked at my job for almost ten years and had never seen this book!  Someone had pulled it out for some research or other and I was in love.  It is so "of an era", not that I would know exactly, but it is so campy and super!  You can't go wrong with a barn dance!  Now that my days are numbered, I am much more carefully noticing the treasures in our collection.  It is a goldmine of awesomeness.

(sorry, this blog template cuts things off at the right, it also makes all my very old posts totally pixelated, back from when I had a low res camera...)

I remembered again something I liked about blogging back at the start, which I had forgotten.  If I post about some silly little things that cheer me up, I will feel cheered up.  It doesn't matter if it seems pointless, the act of recording things that make me happy, makes me happy, so I might as well carry on with it!  We had baked yam fries with a veggie burger for dinner last night and rhubarb and ice cream for dessert.  I think I will have a sandwich for lunch after I finish my iced coffee...it's really the little things.  Oh, and a massage after work! Yippee!

The taxi on Japanese TV

The taxi on Japanese TV, originally uploaded by JonathanHowells.

Have a look at what my crazy brother is up to now!
He has been working on a documentary about a couple who drove across the world during the late 1950's in a 1934 London taxi cab.
Have a look - it really is fascinating!

Alfred and Jakobine

le weekend

Well, Monday you are here again, but first lets remember the weekend.
There is some stewed rhubarb in my breakfast.  It is my new favorite thing, so refreshing, so tart, like a swim in a cool lake on a hot day (preferably in the middle of nowhere).  MM rhubarb.  When I was a little girl, my dad and I had a rhyme with the word rhubarb in it... what was it...
Something about a bird... I remember the last line- "he makes his nest in the rhubarb tree and whistles like a cow."  Perhaps google will know the answer.

There is Jazz who I had to pleasure of feeding and walking over the weekend. 
What a nice old girl.  One of my other favorite things is to say to dogs, in that doggie voice is "good girl!" or "good boy!".  It just feels good.  Then they look up at you and smile.



Garden!  My 5 by 5' patch is exploding with vegetation and I am enjoying playing God by weeding and pulling out rogue Cosmos.  I am investigating the idea of pruning the tomaters to avoid the jungle I had last summer.  I really do not know much about gardening, and had assumed you just let plants be for the most part, but it looks like tough love is the way to a bountiful harvest.
I have planted beets which may or may not produce in my rocky soil, plus I keep stepping on them trying to water the tomaters.  Also 3 zucchinni plants which I aim to trail upward on a trellis this year.  We'll see how that goes.  I guess I may have to tie them.  In the background is a great bamboo fency thing someone was throwing out.  I am trying to train morning glories and sweet peas up it, but the cosmos has grown so tall already, they get little sun.  Phew,  who knew I had so much to say about plants?



One more thing, behold this lily!! My granny next door gave me a few...tubers?  in the spring and they actually are blooming.  What a reward!  I hope they spread they way hers have.



No weekend is complete without a lemon tart at Dufflets.  MM!

lum te tum dum

 

Some doodling to reflect the inside of my head lately.

One minute I have ideas, the next they are gone.  One minute I feel good about the uncertain future and jobs and the next I am all scared again.  Worrying is an olympic sport in my family and we are gold contenders.  I like to picture the day in series of time slots these days.  If I can make it through the next five minutes, the next hour, the next afternoon, I am doing well.  Then, every night I go over the nice things in each day and say thanks.  Worrying is all about the fear of what might happen, it always seems much much worse that it will likely be and if I can only remember that right now things are pretty much a-ok, I start to feel better again.  I have made a big decision that things are starting to look up in July!  One foot in front of the other and onward, ho!  The year gets better starting right now.           

Happy weekend!