Double-Double-check!

Ever been in a hurry and taken yourself for granted...well I just did!
My Rhubarb Buttermilk Loaf was missing 'something'.....well I did not double, double check!
My apologies to anyone who might have tried it before I could correct....So sorry!
The name says it all..where oh where did the buttermilk go....??......left the brain.....I never have.......
buttermilk on hand, I just normally create my own....but would you know that....no.....so.......even when a good friend called and asked about it being 'lumpy'! Still did not twig in...really!
My own solution to 'buttermilk' is skim milk with a 1-tsp of vinegar to it stir and I have created what I want.  Buttermilk will make it richer and cream-smooth.......

Your choice.....I have updated and added to the info of the 'Rhubarb Buttermilk Loaf'

Berry Happy Blooms Spring 2012

 Anemone Blooms

 Chokecherry Berries

 Hope for Humanity Rose (Annie's Favorite Colour)

 Strawberry Bloom

 Anemone Blossoms

 Apple Blossoms

 Bird Sanctuary

Official Greeting Committee

In Spite of...........

Canadian Favorite Kickoff.......

RHUBARB CAKE:
6 cups rhubarb                                 1 white cake mix (Duncun Hines/Betty Crocker)
1 cup white sugar                                 'mix according to directions'
1 3oz. strawberry jello
2 cups mini white marshmallows
Layer
1st- Rhubarb          2nd- sugar     3rd- jello powder    4th-marshmallows
5th- pour cake batter over the marshmallows
Topping
Mix together 1/4 cup brown sugar & 1 heaping tsp. of cinnamon
Sprinkle over entire cake
Bake
350 - oven for 1 hour
                                        Serve with or without vanilla icecream

RHUBARB-BUTTERMILK TEA CAKE
2-cups chopped Rhubarb
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Add to:
1 1/2 cups flour                             1/4 cup vegetable oil
1tsp- baking soda                         1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp- salt                                   1/2 cup buttermilk (or milk with tsp. vinegar)
1- egg
1 cup brown sugar

                                  -lightly spray bottom of 8x4 loaf pan

Combine all ingredients and place in pan.  Bake @ 350 F. abt: 70 min.  test by inserting knife into center of loaf. Knife should be clean when removed.
Mix Together
1 cup sifted icing sugar and 4-5 tsp lemon juice

Drizzle over warm loaf , letting it run down the sides

Serve with a hot cup of lemon tea!

Spring or Winter gusts of wind...

This is an edgy time of year....are we waiting for the final big snow fall or are we getting comfortable with the actual idea Spring/Summer season is here for a few months? After last eve, I would think winter is not giving up without a fight! Cold, Cold, and more Cold....
On the garden yesterday, experienced about three weather shifts....and last eve at a bar-b-q-well!
almost froze! Ugly cold wind....

Per----ser----vere! Canadian gardeners are tough......nothing wimpy about us.......we will soldier on!

Presents!

My green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning to see things from the plant's point of view. ~H. Fred Dale

I so can relate! but that's the fun of it all...!!..if you try and succeed good for us! if you try and fail...good for us again, cause we can go shopping for new plants!  thats where the presents come in.....
The rain has ceased now hopefully for a couple of days, and it is suppose to be warm and sunny, so hope so.......cause my order from www.ttseeds.com arrived!  and right behind that  www.veseys.com  order showed up. 

Now I would have liken'it to come about a week ago when my son was here helping me but oh well...it didn't.....and it is still like Christmas!
Will have to wait a couple days tho cause it is pretty wet in the new west garden...like....
3" of beautiful water from the heaven's.  What more can I ask for!!

Have fun, fellow gardeners......the green house's will be just a hummin' now.......

Anenome

fun,fun,fun,

Enjoy creating ideas, destinations and products, services and memorable experiences from seed

I resigned from active public activities to explore personal creativity again—something executives don’t get to do much between meetings.

Meetings of which I realize are a necessary waste of good creative time.

Day before 'the' Rain

Yesterday evening...wow! wind and dropping temps....cooled off throughout the evening and Today The Rain! Much needed as it has been a very dry fall winter and spring.  Winter 2011-2012 saw very little snow.  Never in my life time has it been +9C in January in Alberta.  The fall plants we placed in 2011 were not enveloped in the usual snow fall, needless to say they all suffered drastically.  Have had a couple of sprinkle rains in late April early May but now they say it will settle in for possibly three days.  It will be so helpful to address the fires that have been burning as of late. 

 getting the interior of the new venue closer to being completed

 trimmed the spirea's and raked the winter left overs up

 Weeping Birch looking really nice for the new season

Spring budding of the Aspen.

grass in dyer need of a cut, will have to wait until after the rains stop and it drys some

When the weather does not cooperate it is had to get the spring chores done but we will take whatever comes.

Today as inspiration

Earth is here, so kind... that just tickle her with a hoe and she laughs with a harvest

How Come?

Well...as you cruise through my various postings, you will no doubt wonder why there are NO Vegetables on the hillside garden...right??
Yep, your right...for 46 years of my planting 'life' VEGETABLES came first! and by the time I got the half acre of seeds in the ground, I was too 'pooped' litterly! to plan or tend to a flower garden.

Although I always did have a few flowers around the house or on the edge of the
VEGETABLE garden most definately the veggie garden came first, any extra went to the farmers market table for sale.....Understandably, the family needed to be fed and I enjoyed all the fresh produce too.....but I yearned to create and express myself through the beauty of flowers......
....But.....I do give the veggie gardener kudo's and I so admire all they produce....and I love to eat it! I will go to the markets and gladly give them their financial dues for the pleasure of partaking in their harvest!

So for the past 14 years and into the next 14 years....it WILL BE....sweet treats (berries) and all colours of beauty (flowers & shrubs) AND I will stand along beside the Veggie gardener with equal pride and know I am also feeding....THE SOUL....

    All the while brushing off the constant comments of:  'you can't eat flowers'!

Garden: Raspberry Hill Gardens - Owners

Garden: Raspberry Hill Gardens - Owners

Raspberry Hill Gardens

I do hope you, the viewer will enjoy my creation of the past 14 years.
There is much more to come as we move into 2012 and forward. ' Enjoy & learn from the past, revel in the present and move into the future' Growth and Expansion is exciting, invigorating and necessary to continue as life itself, evolves.
May Nature's Creations forever give you joy..............
....As I eluded to earlier,  about the many gardening informational items one finds to enjoy or to learn from... each of us receive our pleasures from THE 'gardening experience' ..differently. It can be hard to actually relate those feelings and thoughts verbally to our friends and family....Some put their feelings on canvas some take pen & paper in hand and now we have the computer or social media to express and share those personal thoughts and emotions.

While I labor in my garden my eyes and mind are always drinking in the many scenes. On one particular afternoon I looked across to the south and admired my farmer neighbour's crop......poetry entered my mind. This poem being the first of more to come........

Garden of Gold
Golden stems rustle in the breeze
In my garden of soul
Here is where I toil away the hours
Enjoying the true feeling of peace
Understanding the true meaning of my
spirit
Understanding the true meaning of
beauty
As God has created all that surrounds
me
I am just the instrument of care
As I witness the growth of my years
past
In my garden of soul
Copyright (c)2007 Barb Gulka

               Gardening Elf

           Harvest of Valiant Grapes                 
                                                        

 Rows of swathed wheat

 View from the top

 The beauty of Yellow

 One branch of the apple crop

Heading for the table vase

Special U.S. visitors enjoying the many garden colours

The start of a Harvest Season

Highbush Cranberry Shrub

&

A very true message!

Looking Back......

 As you can see-these are from 2005. Other photo's of the Peony are more recent as of 2011.  The Beauty has become more abundant in size and growth.

 This being 2005

 This one, same view as the 2005, you can just barely see the deer's head above the juniper! and it is the 2011 photo shot!  Both looking west,,,Many visitor's ask me if my ornamental deer has been mistaken for a real one....So far so Good, we're all still together!  The setting sun peeking through the tree, setting in the west......

 One of the many bird home's for the

visitors each season..........

History

As early as 1980, when I would toss hay bales over the farm fence to feed the livestock, calves, horses, and whatever else needed to nibble, as they wandered the hillside pature, the beauty of the view would catch my breath and fire up my imagination anew. I would take a few minutes, lean on the fence and dream of a beautiful hillside garden. I could envision lilies, roses,, lilacs, every possible colorful bloom came alive....
As I wound along the path of life, my dream began to unfold. Spring of 1998 was the year the little garden house arrived, and raspberry canes were the first to be planted 'on the hill'! A friend wanted 'those' awful raspberry canes removed from her yard...I spent an afternoon digging them, loading, and delivering and the next afternoon planting the canes on a new homesite. That being the beginning...of....
Raspberry Hill Gardens.  The hill became the home for many more residents of beauty...and so many wonderful hours in 'the garden'.....
Over the years, past.....amongst the petals and leaves, the ring of laughter, a funny story of the now and the past, dreams of the future, catchup with family and friends and even tears, sad and happy tears shared with so many, treasures beyond words.
This all shared with a few wild critters that dare to tread upon my territory, singing of happy birds in springtime, rustle of the leaves in the quiet of an afternoon, fireflies, the golden wave of the neighbors wheat fields.....this all to be viewed in the beauty of Gods sunset.....
Not to forget the brightness of the city lights so close yet so far....in the distance.
The Gift....Today....Thank You....for being a part of the beauty & the life that lives here on ...RASPBERRY HILL.....

Work IS in progress!

Physical transformation never moves as quickly as the mind can invision!

The Creation of the New-In the beginning July 2011

The beginning of the 'West Side'