Hello Spring! Hello 2013

Hello World! How have you been? I hope you are doing fine. I am exhausted, but I am content. Thank you for showing me the truth, thank you for guiding me to the right path and thank you for awakening me. You have shown me what is important and worth fighting in life and those one could care less. I hope the rest of 2013 is going to get better.

Sandy came and left.

Sandy was a category 1 hurricane. Although it was the least dangerous compares to other categories, it was still scary. We have a huge (>50ft) pine tree in our front yard and I was so worried it was going to fall. But it stood strong against Sandy. However, some neighbours weren't so fortunate. Our neighbour's fence fell (1st picture) and a neighbour down the road had a tree fell into their yard. We drove around the neighbourhood on Tuesday (0.5 mile radius) and saw a total of 6 trees down. Part of the main road was closed to clean up a tree. There was no power in other side of the town. We were fortunate that nothing major happened to us, just the patio furniture cover was shredded to pieces by the 80mph wind gusts, and some branches from Mr. Pine scattered in the front yard. Our thoughts and prayers go to the people in NY and NJ who experienced the worst of Sandy.

To calm me down during the storm, I decided to bake dog treats for dogs in the shelter I started volunteering. It was a very simple recipe of 4 ingredients, but I should have used a mixture of whole wheat flour and all purpose flour instead of whole wheat only because the aroma of the whole wheat is strong in the cookie. The other 3 ingredients were sweet potatoes, eggs and applesauce. It was a very simple recipe, I hope the dogs will enjoy it.

Thanks World for watching over our little family. We are very grateful!

Summer's Joy

...... blissful sigh ......

My favorite time of the year!

Goodbye Summer! It has been an awesome one and I will miss you. However, I am ecstatic that Autumn is here and I got to try my first corn maze, eat the best apples ever (they were excellent with no bruises at all!) and look for my pumpkins at the pumpkin patch. The Autumn sun is 'different' from the Summer sun, but it makes me feel so cozy being in the house when I look out at the World. And the chrysanthemums, they are blooming everywhere. And the girls are sleeping next to the heater especially during the night. Even the sound of the furnace starting up put a smile on my soul. And me? I am in a baking spree! Special chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, soft fluffy rolls, and red velvet whoopie pies. The recently purchased 20lbs of flour will give me endless joy in the kitchen. Above all, I am so ready for Thanksgiving. We cannot stop watching online food channels featuring Thanksgiving menu. We have so much to be thankful this year even with some unpleasant bumps along the way. I see them as lessons/opportunities in life. Thank you Mother Earth, for watching over us. Thank you for the beauty you give us!

Summer's Wonderful Gifts

When you turn a house into a home, magic happens eveywhere, inside out.

Need I elaborate? I don't think so!

Garden Update

So what's new with the garden? This one:

Which became this:

Which made this little one happy too:

And remember my hydrangea propagation/rooting attempt, shoots are growing from this one:

And this one was big to begin with, but little shoots are visible from the nodes:

I have 3 little ones growing with it as well. I hope they all propagate. Tomatoes are getting big. This year we will have tomatoberry, honey bunches and purple tomatoes. Banana peppers are huge, and the birds are eating my thai chilis. I am waiting for one green pepper to turn red and tangerine peppers to turn orange. Happy Gardening and Happy Summer!

Hello Summer

My new obsession? HYDRANGEAS!! I think every house should have at least one. We have a tree with hydrangea leaves, except that it is a tree, not a shrub like most hydrangeas. Turns out to be the PeeGee type. I'm excited because I trimmed it down and I just found out that PeeGee blooms on new woods while the others bloom on old wood. Therefore, if one prune hydrangeas that require old wood to bloom, you just say goodbye to your next years' blooms. Thanks www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com! I learned a lot from your website. My PeeGee flower buds are visible now and I can't wait for them to bloom. I even went a step further to get some mopheads from a wonderful friend of ours and tried rooting it, which leads me to my garden! This year I decided to grow some tomatoes, peppers, strawberries and sunflowers. My back yard will be beautiful when the flowers bloom. With the new extended patio and pretty soon a pergola, I almost believe that happiness is here for good! With the fireflies, bunnies, birds, and a chipmunk, hello to the elements of happiness. They are like angels protecting us from the demons and keeping my yard as happy as happy can be! Now, if only I can stay in my yard forever, life would be ABSOLUTELY marvelous. HAPPY SUMMER and let the MAGIC start!

Lifeclass Lessons

Everyone who came to this country entered with a dream of endless and equal opportunities. Unfortunately, very quickly, uglies came and told most of them where they should stand because they have one thing that they cannot change. Miraculoulsly, living among the uglies were these sightless ANGELS whose works no one knew except by those who experienced the enmity. These ANGELS, little did they realised, had given a special gift to their children because of what they did to somebody's child. As for the uglies, although they would never received the miseries they inflicted on the non-fairness, they had already defined the life of their children, transferring the wickedness, unbeknownst to them. To the ANGELS, thank you! To some, remember your switch; To others, thank you for the lessons.