My New Summer Top

My birthday is coming up this weekend, but I am already receiving gifts. This crocheted summer top is from mom. I already have a few crocheted tops from her as she makes me a new one every year. Some of them have elaborate patterns, others are not so fancy.
The pattern of this particular top is quite simple, but I think it’s all right. The top has such a vivid color that an elaborate pattern would probably overdo it.



Here I am “modeling” my new top ;-)



I'm linking to Cindy's Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home.

Filoli Estate

Last Friday, my husband, my son, and I went for a field trip to Woodside, CA. We visited one of the most beautiful estates in America – Filoli.
The mansion is surrounded by magnificent formal gardens. I hadn’t seen such variety of flowers in my life. I found it very inspirational to walk around and explore all the paths, ponds, little fountains, and shady corners with neat benches.
It is worth mentioning that Filoli was used as the Carrington mansion in the TV series Dynasty. I loved watching this series when I was a little girl. I admired everything about the show – beautiful actors, gorgeous settings, and fabulous outfits. How wonderful that the beauty of Filoli is accessible to the public nowadays!

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I'm editing my post. Instead of all the pictures, I upload this photomosaic (which I learned to make just now). Hope you like it :-)



At Little Red House there is a Mosaic Monday party going on. I'm joining the fun!

Banana Bread

1 ¼ cups sugar
½ cup butter or margarine, softened
2 eggs
1 ½ cups mashed very ripe bananas (about 3-4 medium bananas)
½ cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease bottom only of a 9x5-inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, mix sugar and butter. Add eggs, bananas, buttermilk and vanilla; beat with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Stir in flour, baking soda, salt and nuts just until moistened. Pour batter into the pan.

Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from the pan to cooling rack. Cool about 1 hour before slicing.






I'm linking my banana bread to Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum.

First Fruits of My Labor

My little garden provides me with herbs and green onions all year round, but today I harvested the first veggies for this year. This little bunch of radishes came from the pots in my garden.
Radishes are quite cheap to buy. Last week, for instance, they were sold at Lucky for only twenty cents a bunch. However, growing my own radishes is fun. My radishes are organic and I am sure more delicious than the store bought ones.
These little crispy balls will be a great addition to a spring salad.



Also today I planted tomato plants – four “Early Girls” and four “Better Boys”. I hope these will soon provide me with nice and tasty tomatoes.

New Rose in My Garden

Last autumn, my son and I went to the Rose Garden Park for a walk. I noticed that all the rose bushes were trimmed in preparation for winter. Big piles of trimmings were all around the park. From one of such piles, I picked three twigs, which I assumed came from the same rose bush.
When we got home, I stuck my twigs into the ground in my garden, and there they remained throughout the winter. In spring, however, my little rose twigs sent out leaves and rosebuds appeared soon too.
I wanted my new rose plant to grow big and strong, so I thought it would be a good idea to remove the buds for the first year. I removed all of them except one. I was too curious to see what color my new rose is. A few days ago, the rosebud opened up and now I know that my new rose is light pink.
That’s how I got a new beautiful rose for my garden for free.





I'm joining Cindy at My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday.