Livin for the weekends, right?

Friday dawned beautifully here in middle Tennessee. I woke up at 4:15 and started my morning routine. Wally was upstairs sleeping, the dogs were sleeping on the front porch and the horses were already grazing on the other side of the outdoor kitchen. No one paid me any mind so I had the peace and quiet all to myself. It was really quiet that early in the morning - only the birds to let me know dawn was coming.

It's still cool enough to leave the windows open all the time so my shower was very refreshing. I don't have to turn on the fan to cool off as soon as I get out because a nice little breeze comes in through the bathroom window. It's so comfortable and still no need for the air conditioner to be on. I'm sure that day will come though.

I didn't get to take Hwy. 100 home so I didn't get to stop at Publix last night. I wasn't about to stop at Wal-Mart in Dickson at 4:00 in the afternoon so the groceries I need will just have to wait until I can get to Food Lion tomorrow. I didn't need anything for dinner or my lunch today so all was well. Besides you know how I feel about Wal-Mart - where is Marcia when I need her????

Wally wasn't home when I got there so I moved the garbage can and my step stool from the kitchen into the spare bedroom and swept and mopped the kitchen and hallway floors. While the floors were drying I got a couple beers out of the frige, grabbed my magazine and headed for the front porch. It was nice and cool out there and I was being entertained by the dogs barking at the horses and the horses ignoring them completely. I'm reading a Farm Bureau magazine that I found laying around and it has some awesome recipes in it. After I try them, I'll add the ones we like to the blog. How does ham and cheese biscuits sound? Reminds me of Mike's (from the Oriole's) ham and cheese bread that I loved so well.

While I was sitting there I happened to look out over towards what I thought were daffodils that failed to bloom this year. I was actually worried that Rebel was about to eat them and then I'd have to get up and run him off, but he didn't mess with them. He just gingerly stepped over them and kept on munching. Now, I know I told you the story of us finding the abandoned homestead and helping ourselves to some daffodil bulbs - I can't hardly call this stealing because people share bulbs and since no one was living there we didn't have the opportunity to get their permission to share. Therefore, we helped ourselves to our "share." As winter came and went the daffodils never bloomed. I just figured they needed more time in the ground and hoped to do better next year. Well, what a surprise I got!!

First of all, they aren't daffodils - egg on my face :) and secondly, I have no idea just what the heck they are - more egg please...  As I was watching Rebel avoid them, I noticed that every single one of the bulbs had a plant spike on it that ranges from about a foot to two feet tall. At the end is a bud. What kind of bud it is eludes me as I've never seen one like this before. Hey, I'm not from around here so give me a break. Indeed, there should be a learning curve for gardening in a new zone.. but I digress.

I got out of my chair, set my magazine of recipes on the chair and headed over to check out my new flowers to be. I'll tell you what I was so happy to see that something else was going to bloom in our yard I could barely contain myself. I'm sure I was talking to myself but that's only because no one else was around to listen. I kept saying "what the heck are you?" "I got flowers coming-woo hoo!" "please bloom tomorrow or the next day, please, please, please."  LOL  you can just hear me out there can't you? Oh man I can't wait to see what they are. There's only one flower bud on the very top and the buds are very tightly wrapped in a pale green covering. They are shaped like an upsidedown spinning top - remember the toy? Your guess is as good as mine and suggestions are welcome :)

So now I have daylilies and mystery flowers!! I wish you could see them. Francis, tell Erica that Daylilies are my favorite too. And she's right, they should call them Todaylilies because the flowers don't last much longer than that :) Life is good when the lilies are blooming!! Who knows what tomorrow will hold for the mystery flowers but surely that's something awesome to look forward to - at least for me anyway.

When Wally got there I was about to explode with the news but of course he wasn't nearly as excited as I was. He said he didn't really care that they were going to bloom, he only cared that it made me so happy to see it happen. Well, that's just how he is. Don't tell anyone though, he wouldn't want to ruin his reputation...

We strolled around a bit and then went inside to watch tv and have dinner. I took the chicken breasts and cut them long ways like you would for stir fry. I seasoned them with some adobo, black pepper and crushed red pepper and started browning them in some olive oil. We had leftover peppers, mushrooms and onions so I tossed those in and then chopped up some broccoli and tossed that in as well. I added some Worcesteshire Sauce and some apple cider vinegar to the mix along with a cilantro bouillon cube (my newest and most wonderful find in the grocery store) and brought it all up to a simmer.

While dinner cooked I stood on the porch and watched the horses grazing away or as Wally calls it, "mowing." He says we have a 2-horse mower, ha ha ha ha ha.

Dinner was good even though it didn't have a name and we polished off almost all of it between the two of us. I don't know if I could duplicate this one but we'll see when next I give it shot. Of course we started watching Criminal Minds and made it to the first commercial before heading upstairs to bed. It was just getting dark and the stars were lit up like a blanket of Christmas lights on a shrub in your yard. I like to stand there and look at them but my neck gets to hurting so I don't stay long. 

My friend Kris (from high school days!) wrote to tell me that I should turn the blog into a hardback book and put a copy of it in the outhouse for reading material... LOL She seems to think no one would ever come out once they got started reading it! Oh that really cracked me up this morning when I read it. I was laughing all by myself at my little work cubicle and it didn't even matter. She said she reads it every day and doesn't want it to end, just like a good book about some person she doesn't even know (except clearly she knows me). I know that not everyone has that same sentiment but I try not to disappoint :) I hope I meet your expectations Kris!

It's Friday folks and I'm ready to get home. First I'm going to meet Wally for lunch. He happens to be in town today so he called a little while ago to see if I wanted to meet him. Well, of course I do!! As always I won't be able to write until Monday so to all you Mothers out there, "Happy Mother's Day!."

I hope you have as nice a weekend as I'm planning on having... mostly I'll be sittin on the porch just waitin for something to bloom! Until Monday, I'll leave you with this:

"And when your back stops aching and your hands begin to harden,
You will find yourself a partner in the Glory of the Garden."- Rudyard Kipling, 1865 - 1936, The Glory of the Garden