My Little Friend

Happy Birthday, Kenn!

Since my friend, Kenn, is so very passionate about gardening, I decided to make him a Flowerpot Cake for his birthday. The only edible flowers that were in bloom in my garden were my chives, so I made him an herb pot. I think it turned out pretty cute! The recipe is available at marthastewart.com. Kenn has the most beautiful garden and is probably happiest when he has his hands dirty and he is digging in his compost rich soil, so I think this cake is very fitting for him. He knows a lot about gardening and has shared many tips that he has learned. I can't wait to see what his garden will look like this year once everything is in full bloom.





Kenn is one of the most loving, giving, and caring people that I know and I am so glad that I have gotten to know him and that I can call him my friend. He is a very talented individual and he is a great writer. He is so eloquent and is very thoughtful when he expresses himself. He is so often the voice of reason when things get a little out of control over on the MS board.

He loves all things Martha and is a sucker for the Martha Stewart logo. But, he is probably more of a sucker for photos or store displays with Martha. We tease him about his Martha museum and I do believe that he just might open one up someday!

Kenn, I know you got the birthday gift that I sent to you early, and I had the opportunity to wish you a happy birthday by phone the other day, but I still wanted you to know that I was thinking of you on your birthday and this cake is my way of honoring your special day. I hope you have a very wonderful birthday, Kenn! We love you!

A Walk Through My Garden

I snapped a few photos in my garden yesterday. My pelargonium is looking quite beautiful.




And this is my bougainvillea that I thought I had lost during some freezing temperatures this winter. I kept watering it even though it looked like a bunch of dead twigs and lo and behold it is now blooming!

Blogaversary Winner!

Claudine had her two year blogaversary a few weeks ago and was having three great giveaways in celebration. I was lucky enough to be named one of the winners! When my package arrived I couldn't believe how many wonderful scrapbooking items were inside. Most of them were from Martha Stewart Crafts and there were some Making Memories products as well. Claudine was so very generous in her giveaway. I couldn't believe it when I just kept pulling things out of the box! What was truly amazing is that I didn't have a single one of the items - not even any of the Martha Stewart Crafts!

Claudine made this beautiful thank you card and has step-by-step instructions on how she made it on her blog. You can see all the wonderful things I won below, except for the glitter - I took it out of the box so fast that I forgot to put it back when I took the photo. Notice the pretty damask tissue paper - in pink no less! I am so thrilled and happy that I won your blogaversary giveaway. Thank you, Claudine!

Now I only need a few lessons on how to use some of the Making Memories stuff...

Happy Birthday, Mike!

Today is my friend Mike's birthday, and to honor his birthday I made him a Hummingbird Cake. The recipe is from the Martha Stewart Living magazine. I made this for him because I know that he loves birds even though he grumbles about those little sparrows that make a lot of noise in his backyard!

Mike has the most wonderful sense of humor and we can always count on him to say something to make us laugh. Sometimes though we aren't sure whether he is serious or not and the benefit of communicating via e-mail is that we are often left wondering, "Did he mean that?"

He is also a person who is very supportive and he has this wonderful gentle and thoughtful side to him. He is known as the master baker and can make the most perfect cookies of anyone that I know. He bakes every Thursday night and takes his delectable treats into work to share with his coworkers - they are so lucky! They do appreciate him, so much so that they gave him an award at work recognizing that what he does each week is a definite morale booster.

Mike is also passionate about two of his favorite hobbies, running and gardening. He runs 11 miles a day on the weekends - even in sleet and snow, and is always training for the next run. He gardens as soon as the snow melts enough and plants different kinds of lettuce to give variety to his fresh salads. His flower garden is beautiful and he is always wanting to learn more about plants and flowers and is always willing to try someting new.

It's your special day, Mike. Have a wonderful birthday. We love you!

Garden Conservancy Open Days

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of visiting three gardens in the Sacramento area as part of The Garden Conservancy Open Days. The Garden Conservancy is a wonderful organization that works to preserve the beautiful private gardens in the United States and to help open these private gardens to the public for education and enjoyment. I learned about them through Margaret Roach, on her Web site, A Way to Garden. Margaret opens her gardens to the public each year during Open Days in her area in New York. One day I hope to visit her gardens, but until then I will content myself with seeing some of the private gardens in my own neck of the woods.

The first stop was at Maple Rock Gardens in Newcastle. It is situated over three acres in the Sierra Nevada Foothills. The owners, Ruby and Frank Andrews, have created beautiful garden rooms. There is the Memory Garden, Rock Wall Garden, Vegetable Garden, a Croquet Lawn, a Plant Hospital, a Railroad Garden, Orchard, and a Japanese Garden. There is also a wonderful Pavilion that is a shady retreat where you can meditate. We could have stayed there all day! Maple Rock Gardens has recently opened for weddings, corporate gatherings, family reunions, and other events. There were so many things I loved about these gardens, each room was different, but they each flowed effortlessly into the other. The owners are truly artists!


The second stop was at the Golden/Darville Residence in Lincoln. This garden is created on approximately 2.3 acres and is a wildlife garden. There is a spectacular lily pond with a cottage that takes up a good part of the acreage, a vegetable garden, and perennial gardens. We spent quite a bit of time near the lily pond eating cookies and drinking lemonade and soaking up the quiet and peaceful ambience. The small, black Guillards were fun to watch swimming and playing among the lily pads. This garden was so different from the Maple Rock Gardens, but just as lovely. The owners/gardeners have created a very special place here.




Our last stop was The Gardens of Springhill. The gardens are on 54 acres in Lincoln and "is gardening on a grand scale." [The Garden Conservancy] It includes a 400-foot-long statuary garden, a ten-ton, nineteen-foot high fountain; Tequila Hill has hundreds of agave plants, there is a pond with a wooden walkway so that you can view the wetlands and wildlife, close to the house is the rose garden, knot garden, a shade garden. Leaving the gardens you walk through a 500-foot-long arched pergola. Half-way through this pergola is a stop to Uncle Rob's Crazy garden, a gnome and pink flamingo filled garden. Last, but not least, is a small (well, not so small) version of Stonehenge. The owner is English and he and his wife were gracious hosts that day. Peg Poswall made delicious cookies and served them along with bottled water and coffee. John Poswall, a Sacramento attorney and author, drove his golf cart around and stopped and visited with everyone. They supplied us with a hand drawn map with their suggested route through the gardens.



All three gardens were truly remarkable and inspirational. I hope that I can take some of the design elements that I saw and apply them to my little corner of the world.