Shopping Local

Hi everyone! Do you love the farmers market? I know I do!

There is something wonderful about saying hello to the nice young woman who grew that gorgeous butter lettuce on her family farm!

Just picked this morning!

Today she had broccolini, butter lettuce, and tiny fragrant red strawberries....

I used the lettuce tonight, in a light salad with slivered strawberries, blue cheese and a champagne vinegrette from Trader Joe's.

The rest of the strawberries will be for desserts this week, just dipped into yogurt or a bit of sugar? [Splenda, really!]..

And isn't this the most beautiful bread!

An artisan baked sourdough whole wheat.

Along with yummy fresh butter and marinated olives...all for weekend deck nibbles.

                         

Plus some mushroom ravs for another night..

Tonight I made lamb meatballs (the ground lamb unused because of gale-hampered BBQ last weekend). I made them with feta cheese and fresh dill and mint, served them with a yogurt cucumber sauce and TJ's delicious white bean hummus.

Broccolini [above], lightly steam-sauteed on the side (I start with a bit of water and olive oil, cover the non-stick pan, cook on high quickly. The steam blanches the veggies then the olive oil jazzes it all up, especially with a sprinkle of fresh black pepper and a smidge of Parm?

Because my market sells only locally grown items, there are no cut flowers right now. Lovely herbs and  annuals, but I wanted something for the house too. These are stocks, from Trader Joe's! Very old-fashioned and charming, I think...

The grocery store  and TJ's both had exceptional cut flowers, how to choose! Bells of Ireland! Peonies! Pale blue and chartreuse  hydrangeas, cut orchids, teeny tiny roses.

Oh I wish I could buy them all and fill my house with flowers every week.
But no.

So the stocks were my much pondered choice! Because, other than in my dad's garden...I don't think Ive ever seem them, and never  to buy.

Have a lovely week! Buy local if you get a chance!

love

           lizzy

gone to the beach...........

Little Miss Grumpy Cheers Up

What, what?! Memorial Day? The pool is filled, the lifeguards are in their highchairs (oh you know what I mean, although they do seem younger every year!) High. chairs.
With a view.

[Because out of towners always manage to drown each summer, sigh.]*

It was hot, it was muggy, there was thunder and lightening. Many people appeared on my beach!!! Eeeew!

my pale winter feet
I don't know those people!

Summer is here? How is that possible? Did we not just buy pumpkins? X shopping days til Christmas? Snowstorm alert, better stock up!
I'm not ready! I didn't piece---or even cut out---my planned winter quilt project! Nor did I paint the living room....
I didn't buy a new swimsuit yet. Or flipflops!
I did get these awesome beads, to made a special summer necklace, just for me:

From Kristy at Seashaped: one is a grey beach pebble! The other is two slivers of seaglass!! Check out  Seashaped 's etsy shop, her pix are way better than mine! I want every single thing in her shop. Awesome, perfect....

Time seems to fly these days.

                      

So I must be having fun.

The good news is, lots of my hearts were sold! Yay! And thanks! Don't they look so adorable in their travel outfits and tags?

  

now back to my summertime rant:


*Please only swim near a lifeguard stand (with lifeguards on duty); pls don't let your kids wade in rough surf, especially at dusk. I think 22 people drowned on my area beaches last year!

*Please respect, and teach your kids to respect, our shorebirds and other marine creatures. An ancient horseshoe crab is not a football for drunken teens to hurl around. The birds have babies to protect and feed...it's not easy, is it, parents? Let's have some empathy here. And human intruders give seals panic attacks; then they get sick. The tadpoles in the swale are infant endangered spadefoot toads...let them stay and live; no neon buckets please.

*And stay off the dunes! They are a fragile ecosystem that protects the rest of this tiny island. Your kids don't need to climb them and build a fort.(And there are ticks! Lyme disease, so...please.)

*Take your garbage home with you.

                     

Try to be good guests. You're sitting, uninvited, in my usuallly pristine front yard!
 

[smile]

love


           lizzy


           gone to the beach
 

Foggy Summer

Oh dear....the fog rolled onto the beach, just as we set up our chairs and picnic. The airshow was invisible (but audible, lol!).

Now my BBQ is cancelled because the wind is howling off the water. And it's cold. Maybe a good thing, because I didn't get around to scrubbing the grill yet?

So instead of party food and handsome boys in boardshorts, drinking beer and flipping burgers (!?) I'll show you some recent treasure, culled from the tideline before the summer hordes arrive,

A very old intact beer bottle!
As found, full of sand:

and washed carefully:

c. 1905

Wonderfully weathered and iridescent.

Says Ruppert Brewery New York. The Ruppert family once owned the NY Yankees and the brewery in Manhattan produced beer from the early 1800s to the mid 1900s! A fun find.

And below is the bits and pieces of a c.1950s Coke bottle// Coco-Cola bottle. We've been finding the pieces all spring...photographed with another more intact bottle section, found years ago.

I think the Made in Newark base is very neat!

And a whole lot of sea glass!

My kids can sweep the beach clean! I went along a few minutes behind them and not a scrap to be found.

 I almost asked them to put some back. But that's not how the game is played. Finders/ keepers and all that.

And the next tide's passing brought more and more....

My daughter has even been finding rare blue and white china shards! The most precious find. I was so envious.

So...keep your eyes wide open! And never give up.

Happy Memorial Day, with thanks to all those brave Americans who served or are serving in our armed forces.

love

                lizzy

..................gone to the beach

ps I think the comments thing is fixed? Try it?