I Love My Purls

These next pictures were taken on my new phone - so I need to practice, they are not perfect - I really want to only have one gadget to carry with me.  So far I have been able to download my Nook books, so I can read whenever, where ever.  The phone is the Droid X - so far I am very pleased with it.  So much better than the old Droid I had.

The weather is warming up and we are happy to be back on our porch and in our yard.

New wreath.

Isn't she cute?  Bad hair day!

Some of my herbs are coming back strong, some not.  This is lemon verbena.

Bay Leaf.

Tarragon.

Rosemary.

This is a Rose of Sharon Tree.  Dug this from Kari and Lance's yard.  Flowers most of the summer and they spread like crazy.

All those little sticks - new Rose of Sharon Trees.

We will tackle the vegetable garden soon.

I was reading a great blog recently and the writer rates wine that she enjoys on the weekends.  I usually drink a generic cabernet that comes in a box - I am not a wine snob.  But I thought it would be interesting to try out some new and different wines.  Whatever strikes me when I am grocery shopping.  I usually choose a bottle of wine by the cool label. 

This was a very smooth, a little fruity Chardonnay.  At $6 I would definitely buy it again.  Dave seemed to enjoy it.  It went great with our meal...

This was one of the best dinners I have made in quite a while.

Chopped fresh rosemary from my garden.  Combined with fresh lemon, scallions, butter ---

Divine.

Picture from the blog "ramonagreenspan".  Those diced red potatoes were delish - roasted in the oven with lemon, butter, salt and pepper.

I made this spinach salad from "The Sisters Cafe Blog" (another favorite cooking blog).  I used strawberries instead of the apples.

I was going to make the salad dressing, but saw this in the store and wanted to try it - Good Stuff!

After dinner we walked around the yard to check out the lighting. 

Not sure why Bandit's eye is green?

The dog's love walking in the yard anytime.

Another very good Chardonnay - This was served when we ate at Ruby Tuesdays on the way home from St. Louis - they had run out of their House Brand.  Very good!!Love the name and label.