Spring Chicks, Flowers, Garden Awakens

Spring is in the air and are we ever enjoying it.

Daffodils are beginning to bloom and tulips will follow soon.  The appearance of morning dew is actually rain in the night.

And if that's not enough of a taste of spring, here are photos of the nectarine tree in bloom.

 

This next photo maybe isn't the best photo, but it was as close as I could get with the lens I had on at the moment without sliding down into the creek to get closer.   Anyway, it gives you the idea what's blooming today and why I am so happy.  There are flowers everywhere.

Bonda's garden is waking up.  The lettuce and peas are in but not showing yet.  The tomato tires are going to go away.  Bonda's husband Bondo, met a man at the farmer's market last spring who said you get better tomatoes if you plant them in tires because they hold the heat in.  That did not work and I won't put up with the look of the tires two years in a row.  They will be leaving soon.

 In our neighborhood we have a family who provides fresh eggs.  Her chickens live a good life because they are protected from the plentiful predators plus grounded. (A blog for another day).

Our neighbor lady works at a store I often shop at so as I was going through her check out line the other day she said, "I have eggs if you want them."  Never, do you turn that offer down because she has plenty of people who will buy them from her and I so enjoy the rich yellowish orange yolks and the large size, and on and on.

Anyway, she said she has baby chicks and the children could come over and hold them after work.

So we did.  These will be the source of our future eggs.

Mini Cheesecake Natural Food Coloring

Cheese cake batter made from scratch in the food processor ready to be divided into 6 colors:

There is a very important 3 year old  (just turned 4) child in my life.  She has spent some time on Pinterest selecting a birthday party theme.

Everything brightly colored was a noticeable theme including rainbow colors in her Pinterest pins.  A rainbow cake was requested and I volunteered to make cheese cake rather than regular cake. Should I be using petroleum based food coloring?  I made a quick dash to several nearby stores which should carry natural food coloring and when I could not find anything suitable I dashed back home and ordered this from Amazon.  Yay!  It arrived with one day to spare.

The colors are pretty enough before baking.  For this cheese cake I used the Demarle Round Tray.  Each opening holds 8 ounces, but I didn't even fill them up half way.

                               Raspberry (intended on red),     yellow,               blue ???,

                           Orange                            Green?????                      Lavender????

As you can see, the colors are not really turning out and after baking they were even more questionable.  After baking, the green turned tan so we skipped using that one.

Fun balloons, yellow plates and purple table linen came from Sandy's U-Rent Party Store.

From around the house we gathered brightly colored objects to anchor the balloon centerpeice.

Interactive is always better, so the children added their own sprinkles...Naturally colored sugar sprinkles from Providence Fine Living.

I like the miniature size portions.  Two small cheese cakes served 9 people with two pieces left over.

For the main dish: Washington State University Cougar Cheese in the Sweet Basil flavor was used for Macaroni and Cheese.