Time for Skywatch Friday again. There is a new blog dedicated entirely to the Sky Watch. If you have never checked it out, it is definitely worth the time to do so.
This is my submission this week – a sunset in our valley one day this past week. I didn’t mess with the color at all – it was this intense. 
I have gotten two awards this week, and if I don’t post about them right away, I will probably forget, and and we can’t have that.
First, my favorite bovine guardian, Flea gave me this:
Thanks Flea – I am glad that you find fun here! And I have to pass this along. In so doing, I am going to employ a heavy dose of nepotism. Cause, like, it’s my blog and if I can’t plug and award the blogs of those near and dear to me, I’d like to know why not.
1. My younger daughter Lauren who is serving in Iraq right now. She only has the time to post a couple times a week, but she always finds something interesting to write about. And she got to meet Gary Sinise last week – there is even a photo! Go say hi and tell her I sent you!
2. My older daughter Ellyn. She is fun because she posts photos of the World’s Most Fabulous Grandchildren. She is having a little problem with ants right now, but I haven’t seen any on her blog, so it’s safe to go and check her out.
3. My sister Weezee is a new dog mommy so her blog is full of very cute puppy photos. The best reason to go there right now though is to see hers and Scott’s wedding photo – I will let that speak for itself. And give her some trouble about not posting any pics of the puppy lately.
4. Cathy at Noble Pig deserves this award – her wide world of potato event is way more fun than my hips need to be having. Go check out the recipes and then get on the stairmaster.
5. Kellan also gets this award from me – if she isn’t fun, then I don’t know what fun means. Her slice of life posts about her family are wonderful.
Secondly Ruth gave me this award:
Thanks so much Ruth – when I found out what this award stands for in terms of blogging, I was very honored to be receiving it.
This one is a little more complicated – it has rules!
Here are the rules of the award:
1) Pick five (5) blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4) Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Arte y Pico” blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award which is here: “Arte y Pico“.
That site is in Portuguese [I’m pretty sure it is anyway], but there is an explanation of the award in English: Wow. The Best Art. Over the top. So, in my case these will likely be some favorite photography blogs.
1. Donna’s blog at Quiet Life is always gorgeous. She contributes to the photographic section of Pioneer Woman’s site, which is how I found her. Her photography is great and I love seeing photos of her daughters.
2. Ashleigh at My Trivial Ramblings. I love her art – make sure you check out her flickr page too.
3. Next is Jules at The Way I See It. She and I often photograph the same kinds of subjects, but she is a lot better at it than I am.
4. Asthma at Is My Cape Fluttering has great pictures from her hikes. And food that she eats. What’s not to love about that?
5. Finally, Kate at A Picture A Day. Kate has two blogs and this one is devoted entirely to photographs – one gem each day. Lovley lovely lovely!
So there you have it – thanks for the awards Flea and Ruth and thanks also to those I have mentioned above – your blogs all add something to my day!
Things are blooming like crazy right now. All the rain we have had along with a lot of sunny weather has turned Upstate NY into a lush paradise. Our summers are not always like this. 3 summers ago we had a very dry year and in 2002, we did not get a single drop of rain at our place from early June until late September! Fortunately for us that was the year we got the new house which meant completely destroying every garden I had, to accommodate the new place plus the new septic system. We also didn’t have time for a vegetable garden that year. That meant it really didn’t matter much to us that it didn’t rain. Rain would have meant a sea of mud anyway. And in the end, all of our gardens – decorative and practical – ended up in much better shape than they had been before. But I digress. Back to the photos – all from the garden this week.
When this first put up some scapes this year, I thought I knew exactly which daylily it was. Then last week ago, I realized it was something else entirely and that I was going to have to wait until it bloomed to figure it out. Yesterday it finally did, but I still couldn’t figure it out. I looked through all my invoices until I ran across one from a seed place that had sent me a “Little Business” daylily as a bonus. It is anything but little and other photos I have seen of it before do not do it justice. I love it – and it was free!
When we got married, I took a sprig of Chicory to the florist and told him I wanted my bouquet to look as close to that flower as possible – he used cornflowers and bachelor buttons. These are growing where they should not since Chicory is actually a weed, but I always let a few of them creep in here and there.
This is Moonbeam Coreopsis. In a few years this clump will die out in the middle and I will have to dig it up and replant the edges more compactly. I love the airy softness of it and my garden would seem incomplete without a few patches of it.
This is Baltimore Checkerspot butterfly, enjoying a little snack on my Profusion “Fire” zinnias. He looks like he has an attitude doesn’t he?
One of my bigger hostas – Regal Standard – is getting ready to bloom.
Finally, I know I just said the other day that I have a favorite daylily. I may have a new one now. I missed this blooming last year, because I was down in Virginia, watching Mark while his parents were at the hospital bringing his new baby sister into the world. I bought it because of the name – “Quilt Patch”, which reminded me of my Grandma K since she made about a ba-jillion quilts in her lifetime. So I was thrilled yesterday to see it put on a stunning display. It is also the flower of the day, so don’t forget to click on the thumbnail of it up there on the lefthand sidebar before you leave.* 
*I should say it will be the flower of the day when Blogger gets the photo issues figured out this morning. Yeeesh!
Hard to believe another whole month has slipped by! If you are new to my blog, you can check this meme out here. A lot of the people originally tagged have not been participating for one reason or another and that is ok – you should only do it if it’s fun. But anyone can join in at any time – it is an ongoing thing and you can participate just one month or every month or once in a while. No pressure. No stress.
The idea is to see the changes in our surroundings from one month to the next. Here is Upstate NY, out in the middle of nowhere, the changes are quite dramatic. Our weather can range from 95+ in July, down to 30 below zero in January. It is like living on two different planets in one year and I always marvel at the contrasts.
But other people’s contrasts – or lack of them – are interesting too which is why I like to see lots of different entries. So – leave me note in the comments if you want to join – I will try to get around to all the blogs of the people who have been participating, to remind you. Here is a link to all my previous photos.
And here is July.
The back [please ignore the weeds in the lawn. And the fact it needs mowed back here]
The rest of the back
And the front
Do you see what is missing? The hay is gone!
Beginning later today, there is going to be a new feature for your viewing pleasure – a Flower of the Day. It will be at the top of the left sidebar. There is just so much in bloom right now that I have to show you how pretty it all is.
Have a great day and leave me a note when you get your meme photos up!
Cathy, over at Noble Pig is hosting the first Potato Ho-Down on her blog this week. Here is the badge for participants:
Wild isn’t it? If you go to her site, you will see that all participants must have a Potato Ho-down name. Mine is Riley Marie – you have to go to her site yourself to find out why. Today is the last day I can post a recipe and have it be included and I am nothing if not procrastinacious, so Monday will be recipe day this week. Come back tomorrow if you were looking for the usual scintillating repartee I am sure you have come to expect.
This is a very timely event for me – we got potatoes people! Unfortunately, I was really busy yesterday, so there is only 1 photo, that of the finished product, so you will have to take my word for the fact that we have a lot of potatoes. I can’t even go down to the garden and take a photo there, because as you no doubt realize, potatoes grow under the ground and in the dirt and my underground lens is in the shop and besides it is pouring rain.
In fact, the potatoes are really impressing us this year and the ones I used can only really be termed new-ish. They are still new in the sense that Larry dug them about an hour before we ate them, but usually new potatoes are expected to be small. The rainy summer we are having is really revving up the garden and like everything else, the potatoes are bigger than normal for this time of year. Cooking potatoes this fresh is very much like watching Mario Batali whack some big fish in the head with a cleaver before he cooks it on Iron Chef. Well, except the potatoes don’t flop around nearly as much. You get the idea though. Anyway – I threw this together a couple weeks ago when we had the first potatoes from the garden this year. I tweaked it a bit and simplified the flavors and I think you are going to love it.
First – the potatoes. Little, fresh red potatoes are best, but really any potatoes are better than no potatoes, so whatever you have is going to be good. Wash well and cut them if necessary to get them all the same size so that they cook evenly. I used about 2 lbs here, but the sauce can be doubled or tripled to expand the number of servings. Leave the skins on unless they are in bad shape. Put them in a saucepan, throw in a teaspoon of kosher salt and put enough water in the pan so the potatoes are just short of being covered. Cook at a simmer until they are done, but not at all mushy. Drain.
Meanwhile, smash and mince up a couple cloves of garlic. We like garlic, so I used two large cloves – you can use less if you aren’t as big a fan. Or use more if you don’t have to talk to anyone face to face for the next couple days. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a small pan and add garlic. Keeping heat very low, sauté the garlic for a couple minutes. Do not let it get brown. Add about 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon all purpose flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir and cook for about 2 minutes. Very gradually, add 1/2 cup of half and half that has been mixed with 1/2 cup of 1% milk*, stirring constantly, until all the dairy has been added and the whole thing bubbles and thickens. [Any combo will work here, including all half and half or all milk – let your hips be your guide. Larry’s are narrow, mine are wider so I split the difference] Adjust the seasoning, adding salt and pepper to taste. The idea is to have a light cream sauce – not a thick bechamel. I wanted to keep the dish light and fresh.
Coarsely chop 1/4 cup of fresh flat leaf parsley.
Using a fairly wide serving dish, layer 1/2 of the potatoes, 1/2 of the parsley and 1/2 of the sauce. Repeat layers and finish with some coarsely ground pepper. It should look something like this
And here is something I am going to try and do from now on – the recipe without all the hogwash:
2 lbs new red potatoes
2 tablespoons butter
2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1 tablespoon, plus 1 teaspoon all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup half and half
1/2 cup 1% milk
1/4 cup fresh flat leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
salt to taste
fresh coarsely ground pepper
Boil potatoes in salted water, just until done, drain.
Melt butter in small pan, add garlic and sauté over very low heat for about 2 minutes. Add flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt, sauté another 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Combine dairies and gradually add, 1/4 cup at a time, stirring constantly, until each addition is thickened. Taste and add salt if needed. To assemble, put 1/2 of the potatoes in a wide serving dish, sprinkle over half the parsley, pour over half the sauce and repeat layers. Finish with fresh coarsely ground pepper. makes about 4 servings as a side dish.
If you love potatoes, make sure you hit Cathy’s site on Wednesday and check out all the recipes.
