YESTERDAY ~ ~ ~

Eight ladies came for a lunch and house and garden tour!! We had a great day ~ they were very nice gals ~ 7 quilters and 2 rug hookers ~ I know that makes 9 but Anne, the lady who organized this for her group, does both!! This is a lame picture of the table but it looked pretty cute ~ I'm not much of a tablescape person ~ I like to concentrate on the food to be served and the overall presentation of house and gardens. But the center of the table always gets done last! Always in the middle is an antique bread-rising board from an old bakery ~ it most often has boxwood and dried pomegranates and there was some dried up moss from last spring! I didn't think that looked very Spring like, so about a half hour before they arrived, I ran downstairs and got these little white pails that I have had for a coon's age (old person's term) and ran outside to the leftover pansies and garzania that hadn't gotten planted yet (I had shoved them all in some old tins so it looked like they were planted!) and stuffed some of each into 5 little pails. It worked to spruce up the table and today they'll go in the ground!! I was really pleased that no little critter crawled out during lunch ~ that would have been a nice touch!

This is a really close up picture of the Black Forest cake that I served for dessert ~ I've baked two of these this weekend (one for the Friday night dinner) ~ it's a lot of work but most people really like it ~ a recipe from my very good friend, Marilyn, who is gone now ~ I think of her every time I bake it! I also served Rosemary Lemonade as a 'welcome punch', broccoli quiche, assorted muffins and 7-layer salad! It was all a big hit and I'm ever so glad ~ I swear when I cook for people, it worries me to death that it will all turn out okay! The quiche was my friend's recipe and the first time that I've made it ~ they were beautiful to look at as well as very tasty!! Thank you for sharing, Carol!

This bright little Cardinal was outside the window the other morning ~ he kind of brightened up things so I thought maybe he'd brighten up your day, too! The cardinal is Ohio's state bird for those of you in other places ~ of course, this is the male ~ the lady birds are very dull in color ~ I guess nature wants the males to be more showy ~ just like at my house!!!!

Today is a day of getting all the dishes put where they belong, putting the big Ligonier Sheep back on his sled in the middle of the dining table, laundering the napkins and placemats ~ so everything will be ready for the next little event! It's a gorgeous day today ~ good day to be outside! Actually, we will be tonite ~ another Little League game for two grandsons (on the same team, thank goodness) and there was one last night for Logan and Jordyn, brother and sister ~ T-Ball ~ first time for either of them!! It was better than a comedy club watching thirteen little duffers try to figure out the game of baseball!! Oh my ~ it was pretty entertaining, to say the least!!

That's it for today ~ enjoy yours!!
Alice