Gulf Shores 2011

First Pointe Shoes

July Garden

We started our summer plants a little later than normal since our spring veggies were so productive. Here's a picture of our garden this morning. We installed a pvc pipe irrigation system in the late spring. The pipes go down every row with 1/16 inch holes drilled every 12 inches. They are separated by shut off valves at the top of each row.

You can see the red knob under the zinnia plant. We usually run water on 2 sections at a time. This has been a huge time and water saver. It was very easy to install and cost around $100 for supplies.

Zinnia and tomato plants

lettuce leaf basil

Japanese eggplant

Started green beans, several squash, okra on June 6

Green Beans from the trays above.

trombone squash from trays above

green beans from trays

more squash--yellow, zucchini, butternut

First Favorite Summer Salad Recipes

I don't like cooking in the summer. The house gets hot in the evening when I've got the oven on. There's only so much our A/C can do when it is 100+ degrees outside and our gas stove is pumping heat in the kitchen! Here are some of my favorite quick and easy cold salad favorites.

Chick Pea Salad (some people call it mock tuna but I like to call it what it is not what it's not)

2 cans chickpeas chopped in food processor
1/2-1 onion chopped
1-2 celery chopped
1-2 carrots chopped
1 cup mayo** or add amount you like according to your taste
Salt and Pepper (fresh cracked black is best)

Chop beans in food processor then add them to the rest of the ingredients.
**I like Veganaise brand vegan mayo. It is by far the best tasting eggless mayo.

Use this salad on sandwiches with fresh tomato and lettuce. Also can be served in a wrap with lettuce, sprouts, etc. Also can be served on crackers.

I'll post another later. Go here for pictures and variations.

Homeschooling article

Here is a fun article by a public school teacher who encourages homeschooling. Her 3 children are in school but she lists 10 good reasons why homeschooling is better.

A Public School Teacher Talks Homeschooling

Many reasons to love summer

We are taking a short summer break from school and dance until the week after July 4th.  We have had the pleasure of seeing so many old friends and family over the past few weeks.

After the recital the girls and I took a trip to Isle of Palms, SC with my mom and cousin for the day. Then we were off to Boone and Mountain City where we got to hike on the Blue Ridge Parkway and bike on the Virginia Creeper trail as well as see grandparents, cousins and my close friends from when we lived there almost 10 years ago. Daniel is teaching summer classes while writing so he stayed home. As usual when I away, I missed him terribly:(

Hiking Rough Ridge Trail. Daniel and I used this trail often in college and we both have fond memories of taking the girls here in backpacks and carriers. They cruised right up this steep trail and we were all able to enjoy the beautiful views from the top.

Biking the Virginia Creeper Trail. We rented bikes in Damascus, VA and they shuttled us up the mountain where they dropped us off for a 17 mile bike ride down the mountain. The trail was so peaceful and pretty.

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Then I traveled by myself to Charlotte to spend the evening with my college roommates and best friends. I'm not sure how many years it's been, maybe 10, since we've all sat down together for more than a few minutes. It was a sweet time. I love how even after years apart we were still able to pick right back up where we left off. Good friends are always that way and I'm thankful for these ladies.

I got some QT with Daniel's family while in Charlotte--a special brunch with Anna and Gail (no pics). Mom met me in Charlotte with the kids and we drove back home and had a surprise visit from our dear friends Scott and Anna from NC.

 

We had a week before our next visitors so here's some photos of what we do with our time at home. Lots of reading--especially comics. The girls just love them. Even if they are reading other novels they will still take breaks and pick these up. Here's Ellen reading her favorite one, Tintin. Other favorites are Far Side, Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes and Asteri.

 

Nature programs with our favorite instructor, Ms. Chanda every other week during the summer. Last week we talked about water quality and identified bugs from the pond. We have learned a ton from these but most importantly we have a great time with our good homeschool buddies. We always bring food and stay for a long time after so the kids can play around the pond, forest, and gardens.

More bike riding but this time with our friends and at Saluda Shoals in Irmo, SC. Great paved trails along the Saluda River. Lots of room to run, play and explore.

 

Most recently we had a wonderful visit from my Dad who came up from Baton Rouge to spend a few days at our house. This was a special time for us and I'm so thankful he made the trip. We had lots of time to hang out and it was around Father's Day too!

Daniel's dad also met up with us for the Holiday. Here are 3 amazing men that I am so blessed to have in my life. Handsome, loving, kind, generous, intelligent, funny...seriously, I'm a lucky woman.

Recital 2011 The Red Balloon

Our studio had its recital last weekend. The theme was The Red Balloon taken from a French short film about a little boy and his adventures with a curious red balloon. Our red balloon took our dancers all over the world.

Ellen in her Spanish ballet costume. This costume was gorgeous. I think it is one of my favorites of all time.

Here are a few of the classes I teach waiting for the show to be over.

After the show with their contemporary costumes on. I had to watch youtube videos on how to apply makeup:) They look so old here.

We had a nice weekend with family in town for the show. Now we are taking a much needed but short break from school and dance for about a month. Quick trips to the beach and mountains planned for me and the girls. Daniel still teaching summer school.

Chimney Rock NC

We needed to make a trip to Asheville to get some gardening supplies. I'll post more about that later. Friday was also our 11 year anniversary. So we turned the trip into a little sight-seeing vacation.

As you can see from the picture above, there was not much of a view when we first got to Chimney Rock. We posed on Vista Rock but we were laughing because it was literally surrounded by a cloud. There could have been anything (we were imagining a beach, aliens, big city) on the other side of the fence. We couldn't see anything.

We stopped for a rest in the Opera Box to get another view of the cloud.

We hiked our way up to the highest point and it was beginning to clear up. We posed for an anniversary picture:) Photo by Ellen.

On our way down the mountain we stopped at the Chimney again and we were excited to see the clouds had parted a bit and we could see Lake Lure and the village.

We hiked down another trail over to the waterfalls.

Arianna found a baby salamander. Ellen caught it and wanted a picture for our nature journal.

Looking up at the falls. They were so tall I couldn't get a good picture of it from the bottom.

They found a crawfish eating a dead snake.

They were on the edge of the falls. We had a great view from this point--huge waterfall on one side and the valley on the other.

Here's another view of the mountains on the other side of the valley from the trail on our way back.

 

Here is a view of Chimney Rock from the gift shop and parking lot.

 

The view of the lake from the same spot.

 

 On our way home we made a wrong turn and instead of going back through Hendersonville we realized we were on the way to Black Mountain (which is the opposite direction). So to make the best of our mistake, we stopped in downtown Asheville to eat at one of our favorite restaurants The Laughing Seed.

I admit, I was wrong

We can't eat all the greens that we are growing--at least not fresh. So, while still eating about a pound a day (and giving away several pounds) we were able to blanch and freeze 6 pounds (3 lbs collard, 3 lbs kale). Daniel and I spent the evening in an assembly line of washing, chopping, weighing, boiling and freezing all this.

 From the picture below you can get an idea of how tall and big our onions have gotten.  I was standing up while taking the picture. Some of them are as tall as I am! (I took this picture the same day we harvested a ton of greens) The biggest are multiplier onions that we planted last year, but instead of harvesting them all we left some in the ground. Daniel also planted some other onion sets and slips that I purchased at a local shop.

These beautiful blanket flowers came back from last year. We started them from seed a few years ago and they have really taken off. From now on I should be able to have fresh flowers inside for the rest of the summer.