New England's Narrow Road

My New Breville Juicer

My business has been doing well and I decided it was time to do something nice for myself.

Now that I am getting a bit older… ahem… I am trying to eat better foods and do more to keep myself healthy. I thought that the kids might like a juicer too, so I splurged and bought a juicer.

I scoured Amazon, reading all the comments on many different juicers and eventually decided that this one was affordable and had also had great reviews.
So far, I love it. My problem is in finding decent fruit (haven’t done the veggie drinks yet) to use for my drinks.
I love the apple and carrot combo and even my daughter thought it was good (after turning her nose up when hearing “carrots”).

I also love the pineapple (I cut up a fresh one), and strawberry combo.
It’s very easy to use, and must be cleaned right after use. The little mesh basket has it’s own cleaning brush and the entire thing is easy to clean, but I wouldn’t want to try it once the fruit is dried on.
I also bought a book with recipes, but haven’t tried too many of them yet.

juice drink — Apple & Carrot Juice - YUM

Summer Planting In A Rental

I bought my geraniums – a pink one and a red one; planted my pansy’s and tomatoes and cukes.

In fact my garden planting is just about done. It’s pretty small and holds three tomato plants and two hills of cukes. I am trying to grow some summer squash from seeds and have a few strawberry plants.

The cosmos from last year have self-seeded and I threw down some of my saved seeds so I should have a good bunch of them growing.

I don’t do too much since the yard belongs to my landlord. Even though it’s in my blood to plant and garden, my heart is just not in it.

I used to love riding around and seeing what types of flowers and shrubs my neighbors were growing and visit the area garden shops searching for a new perennial addition to my yard.

Now I pay little attention to what homeowners do.

If you rent too, and feel like I do, just grow what you like. I am fortunate enough to have a deck and I plan to fill it will herbs for cooking and drying and maybe a few of my favorite flowers.

Pansy dog planter — Old gift from my daughter

My daughter gave me this little puppy dog planter years ago for either my birthday or Mother’s Day. It’s not easy to get something to grow in such a shallow holder without drainage. So far, the Pansies are doing okay and it brightens my deck.

I planted a peony last year and it has a couple of flowers coming – they are my favorites – so the investment was worth it to me.

I feel like it’s here for me to enjoy for as long as I’m here, and when (and if) I leave, I have made this spot a bit prettier for whoever lives here next.

Veggies and Simple Dip

vegetable party platter — This is the way to eat!

I made this veggie platter to take to a neighbor’s 50th birthday party. It looked so pretty that I got a photo and thought I’d share my dip recipe.

Here it is:
Buy a container of whipped cream cheese and chives. Stir in a few big spoonfuls of sour cream and some onion powder and/or garlic powder. That’s it!

Pretty tasty.

My thoughts these days: In fact I would now use plain yogurt in place of the sour cream. I am getting away from eating dairy and Greek yogurt is a better choice. And goat’s milk yogurt is even better.

And don’t worry about finding non-fat. The type of fat in yogurt is not all that bad for you. I look at it this way, avoid the things that are really bad and fattening, and include the fat in foods that are basically good, like yogurt. My homeopathic doctor taught me this philosophy and it makes sense. I also buy mostly organic veggies these days. I try to grow my own if possible, but with a short growing season here in the northeast, I eat my own crops for only a few months. In fact I can grow everything shown on this vegetable platter, except the broccoli. I’ve never tried to grow it. My carrots do not grow nice and big, but they are edible. Summer squash and zucchini is super easy to grow, as are the cherry, or grape, tomatoes and celery.

Now That’s a Bug Bite!

I apologize for the poor quality of this picture, but you are probably thankful you CAN’T see it very well.

I took this picture in the mirror after I realized how huge this bite had become. I had a total of about 5 of them that got this swollen – thankfully none were on my face!

Kinda gross, I’ll admit, but this is what happens when the black flies bite me. Not every bite does this, only certain ones – maybe the bugs with the really big teeth…

I suppose I am allergic to them, but I don’t have any trouble with other types of bug bites.

Black fly season is over — yipppeeee — and I can go outside again without fear of becoming deformed.

THIS IS NOTHING – check out the one from THIS year (2012)