The B Farm

We had a great Memorial Day Weekend at the farm and it rained here at the city home...much needed rain. We had clouds, a few sprinkles, then sunshine at the farm. A perfect weekend to enjoy and to remember  all who have served/are serving. We are very blessed by you. Thank you!


I finally took pictures of the outside of the house with its new paint job...bye-bye streaky, half done yellow paint! So much better! We painted the porch ceilings blue - supposedly it keeps birds and wasps from building their nests there. Well, it didn't keep the swallow away. No wasps though - we'll see. It looks pretty anyway whether it works or not.


 Although it's hard to tell from this picture, the posts are white and the eaves are a sand color. It looks really nice with the brick.






Bruce worked on putting up a fence in the backyard. When done, it will keep the pups from running off after the deer or interrupting events next door. ( there's a bed and breakfast/ events venue next door) :o)


We…

I love seeing what's blooming and growing at the farm. It makes me dream of the day when we move there and I get to have a huge (well ok, maybe not huge but big!) garden and lush flower beds. One day, I'll have all sorts of things to cook that come from our farm and flowers to bring in the house. In the meantime, it's exciting to discover what plants are showing off.

This last weekend, we found these just starting to ripen:

Blackberries!!

Our son went with us...before I knew it, he was out picking them. He got enough to make one of these:

And yes, he's the one who made it!

YUM...

Thank you, Jay! It is delish!!

Here's the recipe he used:

Recipe for Blackberry Pie:

Double-crust pie pastry (see below)
4-5 cups fresh blackberries (can use frozen)
1 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of flour
1 1/2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 Tablespoon butter

*Roll out 1/2 the pastry to 1/8" thickness on a lightly floured surface. Place in pie pan and trim edges.

*In another bowl, comb…

I finished the dresser. She's gorgeous with an English twist:


I knew she could be pretty even though she was rough around the edges and sporting golden oak - a color that had seen more popular times. Here's a refresher on what she looked like:




Now we had a chest of drawers, but it was too small. And even though I had painted it inside and out, there was still a lingering cigarette smell. ( Trust me, if I had realized that when I got it, I would never have brought it home but it was free. And I have plans for Still Stinky). 
It took me a long time to find the right piece. I looked at all the GoodWill and Salvation Army stores. All were either too damaged and "are you kidding me it cost that much for that piece of junk?" or just plain too expensive for a used dresser. (they're thrift stores for crying out loud! But that's a rant for another time).
Then I saw this one...ok, maybe she would work. She had beautiful lines but there were some issues:  a peeling fini…

This is not a post about the farm...Although I have projects I'm working on up there, here in the city I've been working on my paintings. So this is a post about my art.

 I usually paint pictures to stir the imagination like my unicorn painting called "Midnight's Journey": Midnight's journey

or the painting I did of my twin sister and I from a comment my mom made long ago about us being as different as the sun and moon:



Lately however, I decided to try some landscape paintings. I never liked landscapes. They didn't work for me; they didn't excite me. But there were some photos I really wanted to paint. One was of my son when he was two, walking down a dirt road on a foggy day. You can see it here: "Exploring His Limits"

The other was from our trip to New England a couple of years ago. I had always dreamed of visiting New England in the Fall. It was beautiful and we got to go with friends - so much fun!


The scenery was spectacular - we don…