A San Diego Spring

A few weeks ago, my mother sent me a beautiful mini essay on the beauty of spring in Oregon. It made me miss being back home for the arrival of spring, but it also caused me to look around my own little neighborhood to discover that San Diego has it's own "arrival of spring." It might not be as dramatic a change from winter to spring here in this city with it's pleasant-all-year-round reputation but it's enough to mollify my wish for the usual fresh and vibrant signs of spring.

 A beautiful jumble of daffodils and violas. They are so charming!

 

Beautiful red flowers in a little circle flower bed. 

 

Tiny Peaches

Yesterday, while grocery shopping, it was all I could do to keep from squeeing my little self silly in the middle of the grocery store (oh wait....I did squee myself silly; public scrutiny has no hold over me) over the itty bittiest peaches I've ever seen. I carefully plucked up as many as I thought I could reasonably fit into a quart sized jar and brought them home to turn into home canned peaches. I considered halving them before canning them, but couldn't resist the totally adorable fact that they are small enough to be comfortably canned whole.



I was actually a little bit disappointed because once I had canned them I realized that they simply looked like boring old apricots instead of super, duper, teeny, tiny adorable peaches. Oh well, I know they are peaches and that makes them cute enough for me.



I only made one quart sized jar of peaches because I know that's all I'll be able to eat on my own. Matthew has no interest in canned peaches and I wasn't about to actually seal these properly in a water bath. If I do that, I'll never end up eating them. This way I absolutely must eat them up within the next couple of weeks! That's a good thing for an obsessive little food saver like me =)

Recipe for Tiny Canned Peaches:

Some really teeny, tiny peaches
pot of boiling water
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
1 mason jar

blanch peaches in boiling water for 30-60 seconds. Remove to cold water bath and when cool enough to handle, peel peaches. Clean out blanching pot and add the 2 cups water and 2 cups sugar together, bring to a boil and add the peeled peaches. Cook till peaches are heated through. Remove peaches to clean mason jar and pour over syrup. Seal jar if desired. I left mine unsealed!

My little gangster chicky

I started out this little easter egg project with the loveliest of intentions. I wanted to make a darling little eggy baby, but my little chicky in an eggshell turned into the toughest, meanest looking little creature. He looks kinda scrappy, with mean eyes and a hard mouth. I'm afraid he might take off with our TV and Laptops in the night =)