I won, I won, I WON!

Yipppieeee...I'm a winner!
Lori over at Lipsmacking Goodness (she's on my sidebar over there on your right )had a contest for her blogaversary a while back. Lori is cooking light and she bought this Cooking Light book for herself..and one a a give away to her readers. I love to collect cookbooks so I was particularly interested in the contest.

Here's the deal. I never win. The Husband is the winner around these parts, not me. So imagine my surprise when Lori picked my name out of the hat! I about fell over. The neat thing is that I was one of her first commenters when she started her blog, I was also new to blogging and when I saw her first posts I wanted to encourage her to keep up the good work - and helllooo...the girl posts wonderful recipes.
The book came in the mail today and it's fabulous. Much like Lori I'm trying to
lighten up my cooking a bit. When I diet I tend to stick to the same old recipes, afraid that if I branch out I'll completely fall off the wagon - which of course always happens. I looove good food, good cooks, parties that good cooks host where they serve yummy stuff. If someone tells me they went to a party my first question is usually about the food, not "who was there" or "what did you wear".

So, thanks to Lori...I can still be all about the food, it will just be a bit lighter - and hopefully so will I :)
Cheers!

Pop on over to Lori's ....there's lots of yummy stuff. The last recipe of hers that I tried was the miso salad dressing... it's fabulous!

*Sorry about the sideways photo, Blogger is being a bit snarky lately.

Sunshine and Lollipops

And blue skies and flower buds and

...oh...sing along my friends!

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

Green acres is the place to be, farm livin' is the life for me!

Uh oh...

I've been making this farm thing look like the sweeet life, and it is...most days... unless you go for a walk, out back, where I gave up.

I used to pick up all of the sticks and winter storm damage from the trees....and then I stopped.
And then a tree fell down and went through the roof of the heifer barn.

And then another tree fell down, and it's leaning against another tree...who wants to fall down too.

Ayyeeee....

Another realtor called yesterday, this happens a lot. No, we don't want to sell. Yes,I know there was a tree through the roof of the barn, uh huh, we fixed that. Yes, I know that tree fell down last year, yes...that's a lot of firewood...no..we don't have a fireplace and the chainsaw is broken, besides...that sideways tree is still alive...it's growing sideways and it's making a cool hut.

My friend Jerrie says sideways happens...embrace it.

One of these days another realtor will call, and maybe we'll say yes. Stop the madness!

What the heck am I sayin'. What on earth would I write about if I lived in a condo?

What are the odds?

One of my fave blogs is Liberty Post.
I had been checking her blog often to see what she had to say, one day she mentioned my favorite Canadian designer Brian Gluckstein....and I was hooked. Gluckstein is a regular on Cityline, a Canadian morning show that I can pick up on my rooftop antenna....you got that right folks, no cable here at the farm.
Anywhoooo....this morning I popped over to Liberty Post to see what's going on in her groovy world and lo and behold. She's got a post about Oprah's latest magazine and there are photos of O's Retreat in Montecito, the goofy thing is...right there next to my laptop is O's magazine opened to the same page that Liberty referenced in her blog. I can count the times I've bought O's magazine on one hand, I have a weakness for magazines but O's doesn't make the cut. This weekend while I was racing through the grocery store, the cover of this magazine with the fountain photo and the garden vista grabbed me and wouldn't let go. It's spring and I'm hopeless when it comes to resisting lush garden photos, especially when said garden installation probably cost more than I will ever spend on all of the gardens in all of the places I will ever life in my whole life, but I can still look, and dream....
Of all of the garden photos, in all of the mags...and all of the blogs...that these two end up side by side?
Kooky, huh?

Blogger Friends...Near and Far

When I first started blogging a longtime friend of mine said "don't get so caught up in your blog world that you abandon your real friends". I smirked a bit, because this whole crazy blog thing started because one of my real friends had been blogging and encouraged me to start one of my own. I had been reading her blog for a while and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a great way for me to stay caught up with all of her projects, her family...she has teenage boys that I have known since they were babies.

So, with a lot of encouragement from my pal I got going with my own blog. It's a great exercise for me, as I age I feel like I'm getting complacent...this keeps me focused on what's happening here on the farm and in the world around me. I'm looking closer at my cooking, gardening, home projects....it's a motivator. I'm taking more photos than ever before and working to get better at it.

Of course, as with any other project we learn from others. I started checking out other bloggers, what they were writing, what they were taking photos of. I started to find some favorite blogs and got brave enough to leave a comment or two ...lo and behold..they commented on my blog as well, I was so excited. One of my commenters is Lisa, I don't remember if I commented on her blog first or if she commented on mine. I check Lisas blog often, we have a lot of the same interests, I think of her as one of my blogger-buddies. I love to see her photo on my comment roll and see what she has to say about my posts, she's always positive, she's often funny...just what I look for in a friend. I check Lisa's blog often to see what's new in her world.

Sunday morning I checked Lisa's blog and there was a picture of her husband...under his photo Lisa had noted his birthdate, and Saturdays date. He had passed away. I gasped, I was so very sad for my new friend...my heart went out to her. In a post yesterday Lisa said that she will be shutting down her blog very soon. Her husband helped her make her blog happen, without him her blog can't really exist. Yesterday while I was out working in the yard, I thought about all of the posts that I had been looking forward to sharing with Lisa, who is also a passionate gardener. I was hoping to learn from her about butterfly gardening, now when I see butterflies in the garden I will always think of her, and her boys...moving ahead ...without their much loved husband and father.

I will miss you Lisa, thank you for being a bright spot for me in blog-land...
My heart aches for you.