Happy Mamacita Day….

Wordless Wednesday - 8th May 2013 - Mathiasella bupleuroides 'Green Dream'

I'm So Behind But I Need Help With a Tablescape!

It's been a crazy busy spring, or perhaps I should say winter.  With the heater still going it is hard to imagine that it's spring but the calendar says May and my seedlings are up.  Mother's Day is next weekend.  Yep, it must be spring!

So blog friends, you have been on my mind and I seriously need help.   The help I need has to do with tablescapes so Susan at Between Naps on the Porch and the Tablescaper are the perfect resources.  If only they would read my post! 

We tweeked adding our building and a more personal logo

We are having a tablescape competition with some colleagues at work.  A group of us are participating in an upcoming retreat and we had to pick some of our favorite topics (I picked Downton Abbey) and at one of the dinners, our team will have exactly 20 minutes to set a table using the theme and tying it back to our workplace.  We've come up with some great ideas but we want perfection and we want to win!!!  How would you tie the show to a law firm and more specifically, our law firm culture?

We are using black, silver and white (with a touch of red) for our theme.  We've gathered some lovely items and made a few things too but our team really wants to WIN!!! We are battling teams with themes like Exotic Travel, HGTV, Food & Wine, Sports, Toddlers & Tiaras....I mean some great themes and I've heard that one table is bringing in turf! Another is building a doll house....seriously?  We've got some serious competition!

If you are a tablescaper and if you have ideas, please send my way!

Shall we?

Carry on.

Greening The Gabion

It was last May when the gabion project got underway and now a year later one of the finishing touches has been achieved. The wall itself was completed some time ago - the above photo shows but a section. The gabion wall was built after the land it is sited on had been cleared and raised. Originally the area sloped down rather alarmingly towards a small stream and was uncultivated. Now we have a clearly defined boundary and have reclaimed some land. The wall is is bigger than I envisaged and has looked rather grey and bleak during the winter. We had decided though to plant up the top with something green. Eventually the decision was made to go for sedums but we have been waiting for spring to order the sedums and then plant them. Preparation for planting began last Wednesday, when 'trays' of chicken wire lined with weed membrane were constructed to sit on top of the walls. Early on Friday morning 4 tons of top soil arrived, followed later on by a delivery of a special planting mix together with 99 sedums. As with all the best laid plans of mice and men, I had arranged to meet a friend for lunch and then had food shopping to do, so had to leave him to toil on his own. The above photo shows what the wall was looking like when I left the house. This is what I came home to :

Special planting mixture and 99 sedums all in place! It will take a while for it all to knit together and form a carpet, which will hopefully cloak not only the top of the wall but which will also then start to tumble down over the edge. However just that little bit of green has made a huge difference. Discussion on the rest of the area goes on and has proved to be rather a contentious issue. Himself seeing it as a car parking space whilst I see it as a planting place. After all there is only one driver in the household and we do have a garage. The debate goes on but in the meantime I have gained some extra planting space at the base of part of the wall. This has involved removing some of our sad mossy excuse for a lawn but no tears here. 

In the evening himself sat down to a well deserved pint then he started to worry. "What if a bird takes a fancy to the sedum for nesting material and flies off with it in its beak?" he asked. I was not able to reassure him that there was no likelihood of this. Then the wind started to rise with a vengeance and as the night wore on he envisaged the sedums flying off into the stratosphere. My idea of hairpins to keep them in place was scorned so I suggested that perhaps he should mount an overnight vigil. Needless to say he did not and needless to say that when we did a sedum count come morning all 99 were present and correct.

Cinco de Mayo requires….

A tad of Margarita Ice Cream…

:: cha cha cha ::

Anyone?

Margarita Ice Cream
makes about 3 cups
1/4 cup Triple Sec or Cointreau
1/4 cup Tequila
4-6 medium to large limes
1 cup granulated sugar
2 cups heavy cream, chilled
2 Tablespoons orange juice concentrate
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
In a small saucepan, bring the Triple Sec and Tequila to a simmer. Reduce to 2 tablespoons. Transfer the mixture to a small bowl and refrigerate until well chilled.
Finely grate the zest from two of the limes. Juice 1/2 cup lime juice from the the zested limes and the additional remaining limes. Whisk the sugar into the lime juice. Add the heavy cream, concentrate, salt, and chilled reduction. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer's directions. (The mixture will be just thick, not solid.) Transfer the mixture to a freezer safe container and freeze until firm; several hours and preferably overnight. (Ice cream will be of soft-serve consistency.)
Scoop into bowls or, for effect, small dishes rimmed with lime juice and kosher salt. Enjoy!

Recipe: the galley gourmet

Wordless Wednesday ~ 1st May 2013 ~ Take Three Days