We brought a rug for sitting on,
Our lunch was in a box.
The sand was warm. We didn't wear
Hats or shoes or socks.
Waves came curling up the beach.
We waded. It was fun.
Our sandwiches were different kinds.
I dropped my jelly one.
~Dorothy Aldis
Welcome to the 25th Loveliness Fair! Are the skies clear outside your kitchen windows this Monday morning? Are the birds calling joyfully? The well watered flowers are blooming madly here and we are eager as can be to be outside with them as soon as our feet touch the ground in the morning!
Lisbet, who is looking smashing this week at Joyful Chaos, agrees! Two of her little ones enjoyed oatmeal in jewel-toned bowls on the veranda in Mother, it is such a beautiful morning!
Alice, one of the most beautifully creative women I know, shares a must read post, Picnic Time, at A Number of Things wherein she shares a very practical and very lovely printable for planning picnics as well as several dainty, yet utterly useful items from her well stocked picnic basket.
Marjorie, who scatters the most amazing photos throughout Lettres de mon Moulin, shares A Woodland Picnic Feast with us today. She inquires, "Do you have a party coming up? Make it a picnic! Eating en plein air adds an indescribable pleasure to a meal. Fresh sardines grilled over an open wood fire, succulent figs plucked from the tree, wild grapes harvested from forgotten arbors along the shore, handfuls of still warm blueberries and tart, icy lemonade - all taste better out doors."
Cheryl, who usually quietly expresses herself at My Thoughtful Spot has written a A Monkey Poem that simply begs to be chanted as loudly as can be! It brought a wide grin to my face with it's sprightly rhythm.
Dawn, who will be hosting a Late Spring Field Day this Thursday, shares a few Alfresco Memories to alleveate the unseasonably chilly and wet weather she has been experiencing at By Sun and Candlelight!
Jennifer, who speaks the truth in An Afternoon Tea in the Garden, reminds us that "Summer fruits are much more enjoyable when eaten outside in the June garden. The ripe peaches were warmed by the sun and the iced tea was perfectly refreshing on the first day of truly hot weather. " She chose the most beautiful Music and Entertainers for the tea with her daughter at As Cozy As Spring.
Roxie, at A Natural History Home shares her homey spot in the great outdoors. In Taking Meals Outdoors she states, "We truely are an outdoors family be it meals or as you see much lounging seems to go on as well!"
Suzanne, has made Gladdest Hours one of the most inviting outdoor areas I've ever seen. How has she done this, do I hear you asking yourself? She will set your questioning mind at ease by telling you that It's all about the tables!
Phoebe has shared a delightful tradition, White Light Dinners, with us. She writes:
We finally had our first white light dinner in our current backyard at our new house. It was just as spontaneous as the first time we did it. I just saw an opportunity and sprang for it. The kids were playing outside, the sun was about to start setting behind the trees, and there was a card table. We set the card table in the grass beyond the patio and the crape myrtle trees. I was making an extremely easy dinner of pesto pasta and garlic shrimp and I had a bottle of wine. Out to the card table it went. Plastic plates for the kids at their little table and real white stoneware dishes at the 'big' table. my parents who live across the street graciously assented to dine with us. I lit sandalwood sticks to scare off the mosquitoes who are also so fond of that hour of the day, and we lit a torch of citronella oil as well. When my Dad arrived, he had the honor of stringing the white lights between the two crape myrtle trees for our very first white light dinner. We could only see the lights as the sun set lower and lower, but they added a magical quality to the air as their white contrasted with the deepening golden pink of the air around us. Sitting out there on the green lawn with the children playing and the wine bottle on the table and the sparkle of lights in the trees around us, we could easily have been a big family on hillside in Tuscany. It has always been a secret ambition of mine to become such a family. Now all I need is a pergola adorned in grapevines.
Thank you for joining me this day for the Loveliness of Taking Meals Outdoors! It is my hope that your time here was enjoyable and you will find inspiration. My heart is filled with gratitude for the lovely and patient women who participated in this Loveliness Fair and especially my sister, Vanessa for the images you see here today!
Please mark your calendars, the next Loveliness Fair will be held by Paula at A Catholic Harvest in honor of Fatherhood on June 18th!
Let us find ourselves enjoying life to the fullest this seson by embracing the loveliness of the outdoors, even at mealtimes.
As Okakura Kakuzo wrote so memorably a century ago in the
Book of Tea,
The afternoon glow is brightening the bamboos,
the fountains are bubbling with delight,
the soughing of the pines is heard in our kettle. "
| Living Lives of Loveliness |
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Comments [12]
June 2, 2007, 11:10 am
This has become one of my favorite times of the day. A bracing cuppa java and the local paper on the porch as the scent of jasmine wafts by on the breeze! This particular paper still features a great Food section one day of the week. Would you believe I cut out my first recipe from this paper as a child? Amazing how little things change in this area after so many years!
Details on submitting an entry for the Loveliness of of Taking Meals Out of Doors here. Please help spread the word!
| Living Lives of Loveliness |
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Have you ever wondered how two girls from Maui and a couple of Key Westers react to the first sight of snow in years?
First we shiver.
Then the snow is carefully analyzed.
It is approached very cautiously and lightly touched.
All too quickly these girls remember what snow is good for.
Note the shoes, please.
I think this is getting rather out of hand now, don't you?
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My, my! Have we been busy! Hiking, Kayaking, Biking, all in this lovely mountainous region of our country (oooh, my legs! Florida is rather flat you know! LOL!). However, all this outdoor activity does not stop when mealtime rolls around. Some days a granola bar and an apple are quickly handed out with a water bottle while still astride our bikes, while other days finds us spreading our striped picnic cloth and laying out quite the feast!
Have you moved outdoors for the summer too? With the lovely weather we've been experiencing how can one resist the call of the Spring birds and remain inside? Would you consider sharing your favorite (or not so favorite - ants?!?) aspects of dining out of doors with us?
On June 4, I will be hosting the Loveliness of Taking Meals Out of Doors here at the S/V Mari Hal-O-Jen. Please send submissions to lettso3 AT yahoo DOT com. This will be my very first time to host such a wonderful event and I'm quite excited!
The information I will need with your submission:
1. your name
2. your e-mail (not to be published)
3. your blog address
4. your post URL
5. a brief summary of your post or photo/entry
One does not need a blog to participate, if you have a photo or two, I would love to include them! (I love photos!)
A review of a book that inspired you would be great, as would recipes! (I love to collect recipes nearly as much as I love photos!)
Do you have secrets to share like how to build a smokeless campfire for S'Mores? Or perhaps the best ever method for making S'Mores? We are big S'Mores fans around here.
Is there one particular spot that you look forward to all winter long? And when you finally bite into that perfect sandwich while underneath the spreading bows of a blossoming cherry tree you know that summer has arrived!
Just a few ideas to spark your imagination, in the next few days Marianna and I will be taking many of our meals out of doors as we head for a brand new to her ocean - The Pacific!
| Living Lives of Loveliness |
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May 26, 2007, 3:40 pm
We've arrived! We hit the ground running! We haven't stopped since!
Marianna's cinnamon rolls, deer sightings, picnics,
really cold pools, pingpong, dogwood blossoms...
Mom and Dad by a big goose pen in a big old tree.
A bear in a meadow in Yosemite.
The Three Musketeers: Marianna, Veronica and Vanessa
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Can you imagine the miles this coconut has seen?
for a few weeks as Marianna and I
do a bit of traveling ourselves!
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May 15, 2007, 4:25 pm
How are you doing?
I'm great, fine, and dandy!
Actually...the jets are flying over again and the wind direction is blowing all that stinking JP5 smell over here. And did I mention the rain? As in bucketloads? As in it has been an entire month since the last raindrop fell and we are soooo pleased but now the sun came out this afternoon and everything is steaming - literally.
So, Yeah! for the rain settling the awful coral dust and Waa! for the rain soaking the decks my dh was prepping for fiberglass work.
In other news, this is our last week for 6th grade and we're TESTING. Can you believe it? Last test she took was 3rd, no scratch that, 2nd grade. It was time. Incidently I think she is more concerned over the fill-in-the-bubble part of this project than the information part.
Oh yes! I nearly forgot the update on the Solar Oven. Have you heard of the Florida-Georgia Wildfires? Have you any idea where the smoke has been traveling too? That's right! The Florida Keys. Even our sunny days have been so hazy with airborne particulate matter that Marianna cannot even melt a chocolate chip in that oven she built. This is after completely liquifying a fairly large candle in a short amount of time on the trial run. We'll have to revisit this at some other time.
Now that we are all updated I think I'm going to get out my new aromatic cleanser that I just picked up and scrub the decks while they're still a bit damp. Get this - the irony of this just hit me - my favorite odor of the cleansers that I just had to have was Brisa Caribena or Caribbean Breeze.
Ummm, yeah!
| Neverending Chores that come around and around... |
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To celebrate the migration season, our local Tropical Gardens have been having fun Saturday programs for kids. We had such a good time at the Snake Fest, that we were thrilled to hear the next topic would be Butterflies.
Butterflies are one of my favorite animals, Marianna can have her snakes, I'll hold the butterflies!
If you recall, last fall Marianna and I attended a Monarch Watch event in Missouri where we discovered that Florida Monarchs are a bit of a mystery to Lepidotorists. There may be a resident population that stays in Florida year round, there may be migratory butterflies that pass through on the way to Cuba and there is thought to be a third group that travels even further to Hispaniola or even Mexico.
The Florida Keys are home to several very rare butterflies including the Miami Blue and the Zestos Skipper. The Miami Blue requires a host plant with the best say-aloud name - the Nickerbean. Go ahead say it out loud, isn't it great? Unfourtunately, it is rather rare too. In fact, I've only seen it once on Indian Key.
This page has a great list of host plants for various butterflies. It goes far beyond the milkweed for monarchs idea. Browse through and be inspired!
| Nature Study |
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May 9, 2007, 4:23 pm
Yeah, that's our first baby cuke!
| Nature Study |
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May 8, 2007, 2:59 pm, Aft Deck
One thing this particular boat is missing is an oven. We've owned several types including a great alcohol fiddled version, but have opted not to install an oven on this boat as we find it is a major waste of space in the sub-tropics where all the cooking is done on the grill.
We never miss it unless someone like Cay decides to post a scrumptious cookie recipe to tantalize her readers with.
Well, it was the last straw for Marianna. She had to have homemade cookies!!!
To bake homemade cookies a person is first going to need an oven. Then that person is going to have to determine how hot the oven will get.
Marianna designed her oven from two foil pans lined with black paper and my only saran wrap which happens to be green (Merry Christmas everyone!). A support stick or two, a bit of string and some tape completed the oven.
To determine how hot it would get she decided to place a candle inside and see if it would melt since Hal wasn't home with his super cool infrared thermometer. An hour later we had one melty candle, green saran wrap and all!
Tomorrow at noon a batch of cookies will be placed in the oven and watched very carefully. We'll let you know how they turn out!
| I'm all at Sea with this Recipe! |
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