Showing posts with label
southern
When
was the last time you tried a pork rind? I’ll admit that pork rinds aren’t my favorite
crunchy snack option, but since my husband loves snacking on a quality pork
rind occasionally, I’ve acquired a taste for them. Sadly, not all pork rinds
are created equally, and over the years we’ve tasted a few lack luster pork
rinds. Imagine my delight when I was asked if I would like to try Southern Recipe Small Batch pork rinds. Southern
Recipe? Small Batch? I’m in! They were kind enough to send me a complimentary snack
bags of two of their tasty flavors that I’d like to share with you today. They
are running a really fun summer snack packing giveaway too! Details below.
Happy Wednesday!
Please share in comments: What's blooming in your garden this week?
The weather calls me outside and into my flower beds who need my attention desperately! Still, I have blooms aplenty in my front flower bed that make me smile and simply ignore the weeding I must do this weekend.
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| Light Pink Prim Roses |
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| Pink Azalea |
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| Dark Purple Clematis
Happy last Wednesday of April! Share in comments: What's blooming in your flowerbeds?
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October is knocking on the door and I for one am thrilled to
see summer fade away. Good bye hot and humid days, good bye endless mowing
sessions, good bye weeding… oh wait; I still have to weed in the fall.
Goodbye ugly, over grown flowerbeds, goodbye stringy tomato
vines. I bid you all farewell with an apology for not doing what a garden
loving lady should have in summer.
I neglected you and
it shows. I was too busy in here, writing and growing my business to take care
of you. I would be appalled if company were
to saunter up my walk today and see the state of my flowerbeds; so please don’t
come over just yet.
I’m going to get things whipped into shape for fall. Then
you can come over! I’ll scrub the front porch and rockers and I’ll plant Mums
in my pots and allow my poor, worn out wave Petunia’s to finally rest.
I’ll weed and pull up that old Rose bush I keep saying I’m
going too. I’ll turn over the mulch and add some new and I’ll put in my new
solar landscape lights. The front yard is going to look great when I’m done.
I’ll clean off the back deck one more time and invite you to
sit, have some tea and chat a while. And while you do, you can see my lovingly
tended shade flower beds, full of neatly groomed Azalea bushes and Hosta. You
may even catch the faint scent of my Rosemary, still doing well in her pretty
blue pot.
Once our cups are empty, we’ll take a leisurely stroll
towards my pumpkin patch, the one crop that seems to thrive without any love
and care from me. Okay, sure, it is an accidental pumpkin patch. One we never
dreamed would take root right on the fringe of our burn pile/bone-fire spot.
We chucked our old pumpkins there last year and voila! Here
it is, producing small little pumpkins of happiness. We were able to cut one,
tie a pretty bow on it and give it to our new neighbors in a true show of
southern hospitality. Thank you accidental pumpkin patch for coming through!
Hopefully, these pumpkins and my fall gardening efforts will
be enough to make up for my summer of garden laziness. Now that fall is here, I'm going to be ready for company.
Please share in comments: Did you have a productive and happy
summer gardening season, or did you get
too busy like me?
Fall is rapidly approaching folks and I for one am happy to
see that one of my favorite times of year officially starts in 11 days. Fall is a fun season, full of great outdoor
events and festivals.
You can find all sorts of festivals to attend- everything
from sports and family fun to beer and wine festivals, just head to Google and
type in your zip code and festivals. We
were looking for a family event, when I discovered a unique festival coming
to Nashville, TN. in October; a book
festival. Yes! A book festival!
We are a family of avid readers, so how I didn’t know about
this festival, which has been held in Nashville since 1989 is beyond me. Better late than never as the saying goes! I
knew I had to extend a warm, southern style invitation to all of you to come
visit us in Nashville and check out this festival!
About the Southern
Festival of Books: A Celebration of the written word:
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| Source |
Humanities Tennessee's Southern Festival of
Books was first held in Nashville on the second
full weekend in October in 1989, and has been held annually on the same weekend
since then. It is one of the first book festivals of its kind, a
true celebration of the written word, and has
inspired hundreds of similar book festivals throughout the nation and
beyond.
The festival
is free and open to the public. No advance registration or tickets are
required. All seating is on a first-come basis.
The
dates and times for 2014 Southern Festival of Books are:
Saturday, October 11, 2014: 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Sunday, October 12, 2014: 12:00 noon - 5:00 p.m.
This
festival isn’t just for adults; there are lots of fun activities for the kids! They
will have an opportunity to meet renowned children’s and young adult authors,
see favorite book characters, and listen to musicians and storytellers too.
To learn more about the events for children and young adults, including a list of attending authors, go here.
Fall is a
wonderful time to visit Nashville. The heat and humidity of summer are a
quickly fading memory and Nashville welcomes you with classic southern charm
and hospitality. Plus, by this time of October, you’ll get to see all the
pretty fall leaves.
Ready to come to this Festival? You’ll want to
check out their handy Plan Your Visit page,
which gives you full directions, hotel accommodations suggestions and more.
Whether you
can make it to Nashville or not, I want to wish you and yours a happy, fun fall
season. Head on over to Google and find out what is happening in your
neighborhood and get out there and have fun!
Please share
in comments: Is there a fall fair, festival or event you can’t wait to attend
this year?
Yesterday was all about Family and Football around here and
with the exception on answering a phone call or two; I didn’t watch or read any
media until the puppy bowl started.
In the back of my mind I was wondering if Punxsutawney Phil had saw his shadow foretelling of another 6 weeks of winter. If
you are like us and I’m betting you are- we are done with winter and need a
sign, any sign that spring is on its way.
So once I got the kids on the bus to school- 2 hours late
mind you because of the forecasted sleet and snow we didn’t get, I decided to
go on my fact finding mission.
Sure enough, according to the Washington post, that silly northerner Phil had in fact saw his
shadow yesterday. But, he was wrong last year remember? He said we would get
spring early last year. Instead of leaving as soon as I read spring was another
6 weeks a way according to Phil, I decided to keep reading the whole article
and there it was at the bottom- a beacon of hope for this southern lady.
Seems there is a southern groundhog based out of Atlanta;
General Beau Lee is his name and he has been predicting the comings and goings
of spring for the Southeast for 33 years.
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| Source |
How in the world did I not know about Beau?
A quick click of my mouse and Hey! Beau says spring will
come early for our region! And Birmingham Bill, (based out of Birmingham Alabama
naturally) agrees with Beau.
I like these
southern groundhogs.
This made me realize maybe you don’t know about your own
regional groundhog either and you’d like too. After all, we don’t plant our
gardens full of plants out of our growing and hardiness zones, so why should we
listen to a groundhog out of our region?
Here is the link to other groundhog prognosticators.
Since there are parts of North America currently not covered by a groundhog, the folks at AccuWeather were kind enough to make us a spring weather map.
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| Source |
I know this whole predicting of weather is a hard thing to do, so I'll take any signs of hope at this point. It's been such a cold, long winter, we are all ready for spring aren't we?
I’m looking for
signs of spring everywhere. And it may be just wishful thinking, but I swear I see the
hint of change on the branches of our trees and a few sprigs of green wild
onions coming up in the lawn.
A special thanks Beau for giving me and all of Southerners much needed
hope! Please share in
comments- do you see any signs of spring in your region? Where are you on the
above map?
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