Lola Nova's Entry

Lola Nova - Whatever Lola Wants

To me, seeing cookbooks in a home like this, gives me the same calm, serene feeling that I get when I see clothes on a line. What is that all about? I have pondered it many a time, and believe it may be that, at that very moment, all is well with the world. . . .In our minds eye, we see Lola Nova go to her shelf and choose a book that she will use to express her love for the people she is about to serve. . .Is there anything better in life?
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Lola sent in her photo, promptly, last night. She stated that this is just one of several places that they house their cookbooks. There are also 2 other large bookshelves elsewhere.
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Sherri B.: Well Lola, what cookbook will you choose if you win?
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Lola: I would love that Barefoot Contessa, Back to Basics book.
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Sherri B.: You do not have to choose a book off of the pile in my photo, that was just a few of my books to show you. My fault, I should have been more clear about that...So you can choose whatever you want.
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Lola: Thanks for the clarification, silly me. I actually almost bought the Barefoot Contessa one before. . .but. . .if I can pick any. . . maybe. . . Last years "Gourmet Today". . . or this one sounds interesting, "Savory Baking, by Mary Cech". . . Really there are too many to know!
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Sherri B.: Not to fear, there will be plenty of time to ponder this...I think it will not hurt a thing if the winner changes their mind.
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So we see Lola Nova has several on her wish list. This makes it that much more interesting so you all are invited to do the same.
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Don't forget to get your entries in as you would not want to miss out on this. Details on contest are here.

Choose Your Cookbook Giveway

My love affair with cookbooks is no secret and I am not ashamed. I will continue to collect them whether I need them or not and if necessary I will move to a larger home to house them. There is something else I must confess....I love to see which cookbooks others own. When I see kitchen shots in magazines, I will squint to read the titles of cookbooks on shelves and have been known to get out the faithful jewelers loop to take a closer look (this is beginning to sound like an illness). So now on to the giveaway...I want to see your cookbooks and in order to do that I am bribing you with a new cookbook of your choice if you win.

I just pulled down a few of my collection to give you an example of how simple this will be. It is not a photo contest of any sort but a glimpse at what kind of cookbooks you own. These can be a few of your favorite, well used ones, or a shot of a bookcase full of ones you just like to look at. In a nutshell, it is about what you like for whatever reason.

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Contest Rules

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Take a photo of the cookbooks you want to share.

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Email it to me with a comment about your photo and the title and author of "Any" new cookbook you want if you win. littlehouseinparadise@gmail.com

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Contest starts today, July 30th.

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Photos must be in by August 12th.

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Winner announced Friday August 13th.

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Looking forward to your entries....Have a wonderful weekend .

The Hound

This is The Hound, and he is, or I should say his Mum is, celebrating his 4 years with her after she rescued him. Is he not adorable? He also has his own blog now which is equally cute entitled Shop Dog. His Mum has, as she describes it, a sumptuous floral emporium in the United Kingdom.

I highly recommend you stop by this lovely blog of Miss Pickering where you will get inspiration and a few chuckles along the way.

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Tomorrow (hopefully) I will be announcing an exciting giveaway, so make sure and stop by. . . .

Here is a tease for tomorrow. How would you like to win a cookbook of your choice? Friday will bring all the details. See you then.

The Growers Daughter

This is baking day at this new blog titled The Growers Daughter. I can't remember how I came across it but I am glad I did. It appears she just started it this month. Please go take a look around, I think you will be pleased. I guess I had better go and let her know that she is featured here.....Be watching for a giveaway that I have planned, you won't want to miss it!

Blueberry Crumb Cake

Blueberry season is here and I wanted to share this recipe from Pioneer Woman Cooks. I know most of you probably have her on your favorites but in case you don't it would be a shame to miss out on this. I haven't tried it yet but it sounds pretty straight forward and I will be testing it. My blackberries are starting to come on so I just might adapt the recipe for them first.
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Have a happy Tuesday!

Goldie Goes To The Top

" Mr. Brooster, I have an appointment with you, sir."
"Yes Goldie, I see that you do. This is highly unusual as you girls are to use the proper pecking order and Bertha should be tending to any hen house matters. Please explain."
"Well sir, I did go to Bertha about the other hens not letting me back into the flock after my injury and she just chased me off in the direction of the others and let them go after me, I even thought I heard her cackling."....."Oh no, here she comes, I must go hide."

"Goldie, come back, it is alright."
"No, I am staying away."

"Bertha, I need to have a word with you. I am hearing some disturbing reports."

"What reports, I don't know of anything disturbing."

"I think you do, little Goldie claims that she is being treated poorly and is not being allowed back into the flock."

"There isn't any problems, she is just making this up because she wants attention."

"Why aren't you looking me in the eye Bertha?"

"I am busy scratching bugs up for Goldie to eat, yeah, that's it, I am getting food for Goldie, see I am taking care of her."

" If that is so then why is Goldie hiding from you over there, can you explain that?"

"That little blonde snot."

"What did you say Bertha?" "Are you going to take care of this problem?"

"There is no problem, I told you that. That's my story and I'm sticking to it."

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What will happen to Goldie? Will she ever get back into the flock or will we find that there is some underlying reason that Bertha doesn't want Goldie around? How long will the people be able to have her in the dog carrier in the living room but more important how long will she fit in the makeshift coop?...To be continued.

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Wishing you all a joy filled weekend.

What Is Wrong With This Picture?

The other day when I was watering my window boxes, I noticed a 'few' little mushrooms in the left side of this window box. I was amused but didn't pay much attention. Well, this morning I went to check the soil for dryness and let out a bit of a yell when I saw mushrooms covering the entire box.

The back corner of the box above, is the only spot not covered (perhaps by the time I post this it also will be).

I do wish I knew how to identify mushrooms as these look like they would love to be in my saute pan.

Has anyone had this happen? I bought the best bagged organic potting soil that I could find and used the same in the other window box where there is no sign of them there.
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I would love to hear from anyone who knows anything about this. Thanks in advance.

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Stay tuned for an update on Goldie and her problem getting back into the flock. She had no choice but to make an appointment with Brooster the rooster for advice.

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Have a good Wednesday.

Dreaming In Color

" Honey, what are you thinking about now? "

" Well, I am thinking of using this fabric as inspiration and a jumping off point for bringing some new life to the kitchen. Hints of lavender and even a touch of aqua... not too much aqua of course. Can you just picture how nice that will look, honey? . . . .Honey?

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Hope you are sharing some happy new dreams today, even if others can't quite see it.

Jude Has A Happy Brain

We had a very good report from the Neurologist yesterday. Doctors office called our daughter and reported that Jude's MRI shows that his brain is clear with no abnormalities. Thank you Lord! Mom and Papa have decided that there will be no more tests at this time on him. Full post on this at daughters' blog. I want to thank you all for your thoughts, comments and prayers, it was most helpful.
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Have a great weekend.

Jelly In Our Future

I just had to share my sighting of the first blackberry ripening. Soon I will be sporting purple fingers and scratched up arms, proud battle scars of free fruit for my jelly. We allow these to mingle with our roses along our driveway. It makes it so easy to keep an eye on them and pick at just the right time. Maggie enjoys helping me pick and is my official taster as you will see when it is time to fill our buckets.

Another free fruit for jelly is the Oregon Grape.

Unfortunately, the birds are gingerly picking the ripe ones little by little so I don't know how many I will find when they are ripe enough for our human tastes...we'll have to wait and see.

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Have a happy and productive day.

Meet Goldie

I would like to introduce you to Goldie the lucky chick. Why, you ask, is she lucky and how did you come to name her Goldie? Well now, that is quite a story and one I waited to tell you until I knew that the end would be what you would want to hear.

If you will recall the post about Mr. B. and his Barred Rock Chicks, you know we got them at the feed store and Goldie had asked to come home with us too. She promised to be a very good chicken and hatch many wonderful chicks for us. We discussed it and decided that she looked like an honest sort so she packed her little bag and came along with.

Mr. B. made the chicks a nice condo on the floor of the coop with central heat a kitchen and play area (open concept design) and a swinging door that could be properly secured at night to keep out the undesirables in the neighborhood.

The days went by and they grew and ventured out on their own to the 'big' chicken run. Brace yourself for the horrid details, the story I couldn't tell you until now....Well, I looked out the kitchen window to check on everyone and saw two buzzards circling around above the run. If any of you know anything about rural living you know that is not a good sign. I ran out the back to see that the rooster had everyone in the small run by the coop (he thinks that is the only covered run) but the little Barred Rocks were running around frantically still in the big run. When I got to the gate I could see Goldie (not yet her name) caught up in the chicken wire fencing with a bloody neck and I presumed, dead. I hurried and got the two chicks in with the others and closed that run off so they would be safe as I didn't at that time know what killed her.

At this point I must tell you a bit about myself..I might live out most of my time here in rural land and I might clean out poopy chicken coops and help Mr. B. with projects etc...but I do not, and I repeat, I do not do, bloody, dead or alive, animals. So with that said, you know it took all I could do to go over and try to figure out what had killed her in the short amount of time between me checking on them (a bit obsessive about it). When I got there she started squawking and trying to get free but she was really intertwined and the back of her neck was peeled back and blood was all over....I ran in the house and got my scissors and ran back out (I know I shouldn't run with scissors but I did hold them properly if that counts) and as carefully as I could I cut her out, put her in a towel that I grabbed and called Mr. B. who hurried right home and took a good look at her and said that her scull was showing. Great! She was not bleeding anymore and didn't seem to be injured anywhere else so Mr. B. called our Vet and off I was sent to another Vet about 30 min. drive, two towns away with a wounded chick in a box....Wonderful. The drive seemed forever but when I got there the Vet said he had seen worse and could stitch her up good as new. I won't tell you how much the 'good as new' was, but that is the answer to your question, why we named her Goldie.

Here she is in her private 8'x8' run. The rest of the chickens are mean to her so until we can get that worked out she must be kept away from them. At night she is back in the house in the large dog carrier/coop that I made up for her to recover in.

Mr. B. built her run by the other one in hopes that the chickens will get used to her. Chickens are an odd lot.

I did the interior design work keeping with the ever popular rustic theme...I will keep you up to date on Goldies progress.

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It looks like it is going to be a nice day. This is looking south and right behind the trees is the beach so I can usually tell if something is creeping up on us. The wash will be on the line soon.

Here is my sorry attempt at a shelter/fort for the chickens to get out of the rain or get some shade. It fails on design but they love it and it works. Oh, and the tires serve as a makeshift nesting area for lazy chickens who don't want to take the time to go to the coop. Mr. B. filled a small basket with eggs he found in one of the tire towers last evening.

Hope you enjoy your Tuesday.

Outdoor Areas

All images from House Beautiful. Hope you are enjoying your weekend.

Jude Update

Jude made it through his MRI with flying colors. To bad all of us who love the sweet little guy so much did not get the same medication that he did....Thank you to those of you who prayed for him and I especially want to thank Debby at Cozy Blanket for leaving a comment so that I knew someone was.

Have a nice weekend.

Saveur Subscription $5.

Our Daughter put this on her blog yesterday and I couldn't believe it. Saveur is my favorite foodie magazine now that Gourmet is gone (sob, sob). and for $5.00, well any subscription for that price is a steal. I followed her directions and sure enough it is for real. So head on over and check it out as I don't know how long it will last. Here is her blog post about it.
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I will be heading out tomorrow morning down The 5. Our little 3 yr. old grandson, Jude, is having an MRI on Thursday to take a peek into his brain. He has had some muscle development problems and Dr. is trying to figure it all out. Basically he is healthy so we are not expecting anything horrid just maybe some reasons why. So at this point I am asking for prayer for him to not be traumatized by the procedure. He will be anesthetized but it still will be frightening for the little guy. Thank you in advance. I will update about how it went on Friday.
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This is our sweet Jude. He's at his new swimming class that he hasn't quite warmed up to all the way.
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Have a good evening.

Anacortes Fourth

This is the park that we go to for special celebrations held in Anacortes. A very unique park with structures built with many smallish stones as you can see.

Here is the side of the stage.

The special war memorial.

A member of the Navy leading us in patriotic songs.

I hope you can click on this photo so you can see in the center the little twin boys in the stripped shirts with the flags and the little girl next to them. Well...Mr. B. and I were watching the girl running through the crowd proudly waving her flag and when she got over by the boys we could see them having a sword fight with, yes, ...the flags. I tried to catch it with my camera but when I got home and down loaded found the end result instead.....I sure hope you can enlarge to see what happened...how funny.

Part of the crowd, quite a nice turnout.

The beautiful stage.

A pastor from one of the many churches in Anacortes gives the Benediction.

Lemonade....Hummm, Mr. B. should be somewhere close.

Yep, here he is picking up a gallon jug of the yellow goodness and giving a generous, I might add, donation to a very good cause.

Here's my stop, The Boys Scouts have some homemade, White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut, cookies that have my name on them...Yummy.

We didn't stop here, but not to fear as we shop at the Kiwanis thrift store on a regular (twice a week at least) basis.

I wanted to share this sweet home across the street from the park all dressed up for the event.

Small town U.S.A.

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Hope you all had a wonderful 4th.

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There is a giveaway to tell you about. It is over at Annie Mason and she is giving away a cute hat. She is hoping to get some more people to sign on, please go and take a look.

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Have a great Monday.