The WORD on Wednesday--but on Saturday this week:)

The LORD is my shepherd;

I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: 

He leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul:

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His Name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil:

for Thou art with me;

Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

Thou annointest my head with oil;

my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

~

Lord, be my Shepherd for all the days of my life.  

Help me to recognize your provision and always be grateful for it.

Help me to surrender to Your will,

 as Your only begotten Son,

Jesus

did

 so that Your purposes may be accomplished

and Your Name be glorified.

Keep me from wandering off the path you have set before me

and

help me to rest in You alone.

In Jesus' Name,

Amen.

~

I will be taking off some time during the upcoming Holy Week for
 reflection, prayer, and family.

Wishing you all a blessed week.

Blessings, peace + love,

Aimee

 

 

Note:

Psalm 23 KJV

 

Almost Spring Garden Walk--continued...

Part 2...

It is at this time of the year that things change on a daily basis...

and I mean daily:)

Pieris--love these!

Forsythia--isn't this yellow glorious?

I am craving yellow by springtime...

sunny, cheerful yellow!

Our spring camellia...and yes, our autumn/winter blooming camellia is STILL blooming:)

It is going to need a long rest and TLC after blooming for all these months!

One of our many daffodils...

yellow, beautiful, yellow:)

 

So what is going on in your garden?

Blessings,

Aimee

 

Lots to do in the garden this year...

got any plans for yours?

Of Ducks, Geese, an Old Church + Spring Daffodils

Yesterday my path led a friend and I into Polk and Yamhill counties,

part of Oregon's so-called 'wine country'.

But we were not in search of wine...

we were in search of pretty rural views like this...country!

And we were in search of these guys and/or gals...

By the way, I've been thinking.

If I were a Canadian Goose,

would I be the one in front...

leading the way,

taking the full force of the wind

or one of the geese in the middle...

protected somewhat from the perils of the journey,

a follower.

Or would I be the one in the back...

trying to catch up with the others,

maybe one who was weaker...

or perhaps a loner,

or maybe just someone who has their own way of doing things.

Hum...I think I've been a little bit of all three at some point in my life.

What about you?

What kind of goose would you be?

I prayed I would see a goose close up...

as this has been a somewhat disappointing winter for viewing Canadian geese.

This was really, really close up.

I wonder if he/she was injured?

We did our best not to scare them...

staying in the car and pulling slowly away when we left.

On one side of the road in the flooded marsh area there were ducks;

the other side had the Canadian geese.

Here is a closer view of some of the ducks.

I know one is a Mallard,

does anyone know what kind the brown one is?

Both had beautiful markings,

but I LOVED the brown one!

Our journey also brought us past many farms,

vineyards,

some little towns,

up and down rolling hills,

and to this historical church built a long, long time ago.

It is set on a bit of a hillside and as is often the case,

has a small cemetery by it.

Did I say we passed a lot of camellias in bloom?

Oh, and a lot of flowering trees...

The church's bell tower.

LOOK at that beautiful blue sky:)

And, our journey brought us here...

to the little town of Amity,

where they will hold a special festival this very weekend

in honor of a very special flower...

Daffodils...

amazing, beautiful, sunshiny daffodils.

Definitely one of the things I love about springtime.

Have you had any recent journeys?

 

Blessings,

Aimee

 

Notes:

Amity Daffofil Festival

(including a volkswalk in the beautiful countryside, art and daffodil shows, food)

https://sites.google.com/a/amity.k12.or.us/amity-daffodil-festival/

http://www.ava.org/gen3/data/event_details.asp?eventid=95584

I've never been but it sounds interesting.

Another place I've never been, but want to go someday is the Monastery there...

I do know they have heavenly fudge because I bought some at Oktoberfest one year.

Mmmm, chocolate...

 

Wildlife photos near and at Baskett Slough NWR, Polk county.

If you visit here, you might also consider seeing the arboretum in nearby Dallas.

LOVE that place!

Dallas also has many historical homes if you enjoy Victorian houses;

I LOVE old houses too~

And as long as you're there, you could take the King's Valley Highway,

one of my favorite roads, and see

the Ritner Covered Bridge, near the little town of Pedee,

  Falls City (with a beautiful waterfall and more)--located off the main road

(above link has a photo, part way down the post, of the river above the falls.

I can't find my main falls post right now nor my photos of the arboretum in Dallas for that matter.)

 Harris Covered Bridge near Wren.

 

Historical church in rural Polk county

(my photo collection keeps growing--yippee!)

 

Daffodil field in rural Yamhill county.

St. Patrick's Day 2013

A quick look back at this year's celebration...

On the menu for St. Patrick's Day:

Corned Beef

(I also bought lamb shanks for Irish Lamb Stew later this week.
I love lamb; hubby prefers corned beef--this way both of us are happy!)

Sauteed cabbage

(made like colcannon but without the mashed potatoes)

Champ--wonderful, delicious champ...

an Irish version of mashed potatoes, but better I think.

My northern Irish ancestors most likely ate this...
I could eat it at least once a week.
LOVED it!
 

 Sauteed carrots, onions and scallions...

Irish soda bread (purchased)also made an appearance...
but I forgot to buy yummy Irish butter this year to spread on the bread.
Boo! I missed it:(
 

Sparkling apple cider and a layered dessert

(by that time we were too full to eat any dessert so we ate it the other day).
 

Of course I had to celebrate the occasion,

 with a little reminder of my blessed childhood,

so breakfast for me that day was...

besides I needed that sugar energy for all the cooking I did:)

Blessings,

Aimee

Note:

Found this interesting blog yesterday

Irish American Mom

(lots of recipes here on this blog created by a mom born in Ireland now living in the States.)

 

Here are some other links to Irish dishes:

Colcannon

http://www.wiveswithknives.net/2012/03/13/st-patricks-day-dinner-colcannon/

 

Champ

http://oneperfectbite.blogspot.com/2012/03/champ-scallion-mashed-potatoes-for-st.htm

I served it in individual bowls making a 'well' in the center of the bowl for the lovely yellow butter...

the photo above was taken Monday when I was devouring the leftover champ:)

 

Irish Boxty

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Irish-Boxty/

Next time I make champ, I will try this with the leftovers.

 

Corned Beef

I made mine in the crock pot this year--SO much easier and very, very tender!

 

Dessert

Simple...layered chocolate mousse or pudding, whipped cream, pistachio pudding...

with a bit of chocolate of course:)

 

Sorry--most of the photos of St Patrick's Day are still on my phone so I can't show you the cute leprechaun hats I found for $1...

 

Never Again...Today's Experiment:)

My Farmer Boy loves his hard boiled eggs...

he loves them just as they are,

and he loves them made into sandwiches,

and he loves them made into angel eggs.

So I,

on occasion,

make hard boiled eggs the old fashioned way...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiled_egg

(or using a variation of this method)

UNTIL

TODAY that is!

Now, I can't and won't take credit for this new modern method..

but right now, I am definitely singing a very happy song because Easter eggs

will be a whole lot easier this year:)

Raw eggs awaiting their time in a preheated 325 degree oven

**(my eggs were large in size)

Eggs baking happily in oven while Aimee does other things...

or perhaps it is Aimee doing other things happily while the eggs bake?

30 minutes later I transfered the baked, very hot eggs carefully to a pan

to take a cold shower/bath under the faucet

Aimee didn't have ice to make an ice bath for these lovely babies;

the cold shower/bath worked fine.

 (I occasionally dumped the water in the pan and refilled it with cold water).

**The eggs 'chilled out'...LOL...for about 10 minutes.

Chilled eggs awaiting peeling...

will it work???

Verdict: success!

One dozen creamy, yummy eggs awaiting hungry hubby's tummy.

LOVE, love, love this method!

Sometimes change is good:)

 

Has anyone tried this?

I was really impressed --

no cracked eggs,

no hot steamy water,

lovely, lovely, lovely texture with no green...

NO more boiling eggs for me.

**Some people that have tried this have reported tiny brown spots on the egg. 

I did find one or so on the white...

but it was not a big deal at all and didn't affect the taste:)

 

Now on to my next experiment.

Wonder if I get my love for experimenting from my dad?

 

Blessings,

Aimee

 

Notes:

**updated notes

Repeat, repeat--I DID NOT come up with method.

Here are 2 links to others who have posted about baking 'hard-boiled' eggs...

http://www.theburlapbag.com/2012/03/make-hard-boiled-eggs-in-the-oven/

I love using a muffin tin like the above blogger does.

http://lifehacker.com/5345372/use-your-oven-to-bulk-cook-hard+boiled-eggs

Another way to bake them...from 2009.

**Another link of interest

http://www.familyfreshmeals.com/2012/11/how-to-make-perfect-hard-boiled-eggs-in-the-oven.html

In addition to these links there were others describing this method.

 

And here, on wikipedia,

some gorgous photos of Easter eggs for your viewing pleasure...

love these!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_egg

Almost Spring Garden Walk

St. Patrick's Day was great and I will post some quick photos later.

I prepared a new recipe,

one native to Ireland,

and fell in love with it!

~

Are you counting the hours till spring?

I am SO excited...

since our first day of spring is calling for rainy weather,

I decided to do a walk in our gardens today to celebrate the coming change in seasons

and take some photos--

just in case the weather forecasters are right:)

You're invited to join me...as my honored guests

Blueberry--Earliblue.

The first of our blueberries to ripen each year,

and one of my favorites for eating fresh from the garden!

One of our evergreen huckleberries...beautiful year round.

Wild plum--the first of our fruit trees to bloom each year.

Blossoms on this tree always make me happy because I know good things will follow soon.

Dapne Odora.

Yes, that yummy, delightful fragrance you are smelling is from this beauty!

 Wallflower-bowles mauve.

First of the wildflower/perennial garden blooms.

~

Sometimes our home problems get very discouraging...

but a walk in our gardens,

especially on a sunny, warm day,

is enough to remind me again of the blessings God has given me.

It is hard to not be grateful when one is enjoying a walk in ANY garden on a nice spring day:)

 

More later....

Blessings,

Aimee

 

Note:

sorry some photos are a bit blurry,,,