other pretty growing things

The hops aren't the only things growing well for Matthew's parents; they have lots of lovely little plants. In fact, this year, they have a real, dedicated garden, which I've never seen them have before. It really is adorable. Small and sweet.



For whatever reason I found these blue candle holders charming, probably because they are tiny replicas of a chimneria style baking oven. And, as with last year, I kept taking photos of the lavender.



Not much had been harvested from the garden, just a zucchini and a few pear tomatoes.



Such a cute pair of pear tomatoes



Probably the exact same branch that I photographed at Christmas, but it looks so vastly different in the summer time, still lovely.



A few flowers among the vegetables, for color.



Now, I realize and fully understood at the time I took all these silly bee photos, that many professional photographers have taken amazing bee on a flower photos. There was no reason for me to waste my time with the task, but I still couldn't help myself. The bees were just so cute and fuzzy. I wanted to pet them.

happy hop plants

Last spring, Matthew ordered several hop rhizomes online for his parents to plant on their property. They, not only planted the hops, they also built a lovely little trellis for the vines to grow up.




The hop flowers are hardly big enough to cast a shadow.



Thanks to his parents hard work and attention, the hops have thrived and now look lovely. Of course, they have yet to endured the cold winter weather. For now, we are mighty pleased with their development. If the lives of these little hop plants had been left in my hands, they would probably have withered to dry, grey, dusty creatures, like all the rest of my plants.

special watermelon

This poor little watermelon isn't actually very special, in fact, it sat in that white basket for a few days before I even cut it open. We ate the first half within three days but the other half just sat in the refrigerator for much longer than such a tasty fruit deserves. Now, it's past time for us to finish the watermelon so I decided to give it a little extra special treatment, a dash of rose water. The rose water just adds a slight hint of floral scent and flavor- it's delicious. And, finally, this neglected little melon receives a reward for all it's patience and understanding.

fancy fancy cookies

When my employers went on a buying trip up to LA, they brought back these lovely little macarons for me and my coworkers.



I had many more colors/flavors, but ate them last night. It was too dark to take photos and I just had to try them.



Fortunately, I ended up with a couple left over this morning and they are just adorable.



Yum! Yum!

Watermelon in a basket

Here's a cute little picture of my first watermelon purchase of the season. The watermelon is seedless, which means it will be flavorless and dry. Gotta have the seeds- they make the watermelon worth eating. But I still liked the cute little image of the watermelon in an old fashioned plastic basket, just like the kind of baskets my Grandmother used when I was a kid. I never realized how much I missed them until I saw this little white basket. I just love it!

Eggies

It was actually quite some weeks ago, the same day as the blueberry puff debacle, that I made Creme Brulee. Matthew and I recently purchased a mini cooking torch because I've always wanted one and Matthew loves to play with anything that produces fire(matches, candles, torches) and we absolutely needed to try it out on an authentic creme brulee. So, despite the horrors that it inflicted on my waistline, I made the creme brulee and we ate all six of the little custards, three for each of us. Very fattening, but absolutely delicious. In the midst of making these little treats, I was fixated by the egg yolks and how pretty they looked in the glass bowl. I decided that they could warm up a bit while I took some photos. It was fun!



Yolkies with the little whiskie



This was fun because the TV provided a interesting contrasting background



So pretty!

blueberry puff

Originally, this Blueberry creature was supposed to be a sour cream blueberry turnover made with puff pastry. Unfortunately, the turnover opened mid baking and created a tart like treat.



Basically, it's just Puff pastry with a bit of filling baked into the center of it. Quite tasty, not much to look at.