Avoiding the rutabaga...

Girding my loins to cook my rutabaga meant actually trying out that White Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Cookies.

Oh, my!  Even salivating over the recipe, I was not prepared for just how tasty the cookies are!  Mine are a bit squished because I was a tad hasty in moving them from the stoneware tray to the cooling rack so that I could then move them to my mouth.

That poor rutabaga languishing in my refrigerator just cannot compete.

Remember those Rose of Sharon bushes I found all clumped together and moved to the other side of the yard?  Summer 2011?

Well, they have just thrived ever since I spent all that time picking off the dead buds from two summers ago. 2012 was that dome heat wave in which all the buds just browned a bit.  I suppose trying to bloom from year-old buds was just too much of a strain last summer, getting them to at least open kept any other growth from happening.  Free of that burden, the bushes have grown at least a foot thus far.

Today, I spotted the first blossom!!

I cannot wait until the bushes are all covered with blossoms.  My Rose of Sharons in Alexandria were always in full bloom by the end of June, but we are not yet that far into July.  And there was that wild winter here.

That basil??

Monstrous!  I have just got to gird my loins enough to try blanching so I can get started on the homemade basil paste and the basil butter.  Though, with all the herbs I have, I think I will make it herbed butter of basil, sage, rosemary, and thyme.

Tomorrow.  Tomorrow I will brave the rutabaga.
Then, maybe, Friday I will tackle blanching.
Maybe.

2011.

This is my sweet little nursemaid before his curls developed.
Before the pit bull nearly destroyed us both.
Before we became huddled masses of quivering flesh.

2011.

When I met Baby Bunny.

And Mr. and Mrs. Robin.  Their four children, hatched this year, are still with us.  Scrawny teenagers next to plump mom and pop.  It's hilarious to watch them try to take a worm from the ground and fly to a perch without dropping it.  One of the cheeky twits is oft seen trying to hold two worms at a time.  At least they are not taking worms from my raised bed.

2011.

When the parlor was still a confused space.

Would that it were I could bring such clarity of purpose to my mind as I did to the parlor (and half-bath).