Spring Flowers

These are some of the latest additions to our yard; most are from the Tohono Chul Park spring plant sale. I love buying plants there because they often have hard to find species. The above picture is of Penstemmon Ambiguus commonly called Bush Penstemmon. I like that its foliage is so frail looking, fine and very drought tolerant but, when it blooms, it pumps out these dainty pale pink flowers that stay around all summer into fall!
This is a Hibiscus Cardiophylla-cute little guy!

One little figgy,..

This is the first flower from this really cool Pedilanthus or "Lady Slipper"-they call it that because the flower kinda looks like a slipper?

Blood Flower

"Bat-Faced" Cuphea

Salvia

de Otono

Kaffir Lily

Lo Greco Lemon Creations 2009

After a sweet haul of lemons from our tree, I was in a quandry for what to do with all of them. I think we started with 30 lemons or more....I spent 2-2 hour sessions just zesting and squeezing the juice through a sieve. Not pictured are the 6 batches of Lemon Bars...they were really delicious-especially warm. Thomas also made 2 batches of Granita di Limone-sort of like an icee or shave ice but, traditional to Sicily. It takes time to make the granitas, you have to freeze the mixture slowly, stirring every 30-45 minutes over about 6-8 hours...that way, the ice crystals are very fine and melt very quickly without being crunchy like most icees. Delicioso!

In the photo are a Lemon Tart(the second one I made) and Limoncello which we made for friends. I found a lot of recipes on line and just melded them together... the Limoncello took about 15 lemons!!

Of course, we also made basic Lemonade and use the lemons for marinades and salad dressings. After all this baking, we only have 4 lemons left :(

Buon Appetito!

Bug Springs Trail, Mt Lemmon

Bug Springs Trail Head at ~11.5 mi. we started from Molino Basin and took the road 6 miles to the upper trail head. Steep "hike a bike" for the first half mile...then some of the sweetest rolling, fast, tight singletrack around! Rob demonstrating a mean "cosmic crunch"
Stepped drop-offs -reminiscent of the steps at Catalina State Park (anyone remember the Great Pumpkin Race??)

No crashes!

Rollin' through the pines--can you smell it?

OK so, there's more than just that initial push--sweet rock cairn!

(Okay, don't know why thiese pix are sooooooooooooooooooo small?)

Easter weekend and spring fling at TCC west!

We had a blast and the weather was perfect after a freaky Saturday rain and wind storm! Sunday was warm and sunny with just a light breeze-perfect for playin' outside. We messed up on a couple of songs but, all in all, it went great and we got some great feedback. Rob just keeps gettin better with the strings..he was rockin' it! I just started voice lessons with the notorious Crystal Stark. It's really humbling but great to get some professional help (for my voice I mean). Anyway, we'll see where it leads!

Kitchen Project 09 counters

Some more pics of prepping the kitchen-Rob had to cut the old duct work and install a new venting duct that would feed from the new hood to the existing duct-as you can see, its an 8" round to an elbow to the rectangular duct. Our friend Steve from church helped us out-thanks Steve!

Looking up the duct work

New drywall

Patched and ready for paint

So, the first coat of paint didn't turn out quite like we wanted.....the small patch in the middle is the color we end up choosing-called "Summer Heat". I stayed up until midnight trying to get the color right-hope it looks good with the counters!

The new hood-sans duct cover-counters are coming in the early morning!

This is Rob's turn to stay up late getting ready!

Substrate

Tada! the new range top looks great! I love it!

We just have to wait for the caulking to dry and then we can use it!