mockingbird – In the Vintage Kitchen: Where History Comes To Eat

Happy (post) 4th of July! It was a rainy one here in Ms. Jeannie’s neck of the woods, so instead of traditional fireworks, she and Mr. Jeannie watched fireflies, grilled in the rain and made frozen lemon mousse for dessert (recipes coming soon!). It was a magnificently delicious day.

It has been so stormy here for the past week, but luckily, this afternoon, there was a brief break in the clouds and the sun appeared for a little bit. And do you know what , dear readers? No one seemed more excited about this occurrence than the birds, whom immediately took to the birdbath. This seemed sort of ironic to Ms. Jeannie – but who is she really, to question the bathing habits of her feathered friends.

Anyway, it was a bevy of activity. A veritable line up of birds, waiting patiently to get in. Some opted for a full fledged bath…

While another bird just opted just to get his feet wet and wade about…

Mockingbird was making a big production of his pool time. The others were in and out in a flash…

But that Mockingbird, he just wanted to take his time.

wading — Sort of la-de-dah-ing away the afternoon.

The other birds thought they could share the pool – but Mockingbird would have none of it. “Wait your turn,” he said.

Wait your turn. I'm not done yet. — I’m not done yet.

But Mother Nature knew how to reprimand his inability to share, for as soon as he chased Brown Thrasher away, the sun disappered, the thunder rumbled and the rain came down again…

Rained out. — Bath time’s over. The pool is closed.

Now Mockingbird is nowhere to be seen. But you can bet he’s close by. Ms. Jeannie is just sure that he’ll be the first one pack in the pool once the sky clears again:)

On another bird front…Ms. Jeannie is pleased to announce that she has joined the great big blue bird’s nest on the internet…Twitter!

She’s not quite sure how to use it all yet – but she’ll get there eventually. You can keep up with her here if you are around the neighborhood. She looks forward to expanding her horizons and reading all that you post. So of course, if you are on Twitter as well, please let Ms. Jeannie know so that she can follow along with you.

Cheers to a sunnier weekend!

Oh my dears, Ms. Jeannie was giddy all weekend in anticipation of this very blog post! She is happy to announce that on Saturday morning, her birthday, she was able to walk out into her garden and clip her very own birthday bouquet. Just as she had hoped for all those cool, dreary months ago, when she was planting seeds in the soil and dreaming of a lush summer garden.

sunflowers_redsm — The first bouquet of the season! Moulin Rouge and Drop Dead Red varieties.

Since Saturday, flowers have been opening up, by what seems like, the minute. Every time Ms. Jeannie steps out she sees something new in bloom! If you recall Ms. Jeannie planted a bevy of sunflowers, in a range of colors. Here’s what blooming today…

sunflower_yellowmix — A multitude of sunflowers! Clockwise (left to right): Autumn Beauty, Girasol and Del Sol Hybrid.

bouquet3 — Moulin Rouge Sunflower – not quite sure what those whitish splatters are!

bouquet7 — Del Sol Sunflowers. They all contain clusters of blooms! The more the merrier Ms. Jeannie says!

These particular Gold Honey Bear sunflowers (below) definitely remind Ms. Jeannie of the Vincent Van Gogh paintings she blogged about in March…

And what’s fun about the Moulin Rouge variety…

is that some of the backsides of them are just as interesting as the front! Some contain stripes of golden yellow on the backsides…

while others are as black in color as a flower can possibly be. Darker then espresso, even. Ms. Jeannie took these photographs so you could see the color difference yourself…

bouquet_compare — From black to red – sunflowers are quite diverse!

And a close up of the black one. It’s very striking!

sunflower_black_sq — Drop Dead Red Variety

These two on the vine are forming a lover’s knot!

bouquet13 — Sunflowers are peeking out everywhere!

bouquet12 — And they wave happy in the wind!

Ms. Jeannie even has a fellow appreciator of the garden, who as recently taken up residence above the Mexican Sunflowers (those flower pictures coming soon).

Here, he is perched on a bird feeder up above the vegetable garden. Ms. Jeannie saw him pull a fat tomato horn worm off her tomato plant the other day. Thank you Mr. Mockingbird:)

It’s so rewarding to be a grower;)