summer weekend

we watched our bees pile into their hives, legs heavy with what we think is sunflower pollen

my new scented geraniums are happy in their thrifted tin 'pots'~ I look forward to bringing them in when it's colder so that we can enjoy their lovely and varied scents indoors.  But I will happily wait many months for the cold to set in...... there's so much summer to still enjoy!

I peeked in on the parsnips, grabbed a few to dice and add into the mix tonight for our stuffed zucchini, made with one of several large zucchinis that we were sent home from a friend's house with last night.  

I froze most of it.  Maybe I should do something with the growing pile of yellow and patty pan squash from our own garden..... more squash pie, I suppose~  You can't really go wrong with flaky, buttery crust, sharp cheddar, onions and squash.

Mike opened the hives and oh-my-goodness those girls are rocking it this year!  Such a sweet satisfaction, knowing they are doing well.  Thriving.  I admit I kind of held my breath this year, waiting a while before I let myself exhale and get excited.  It was disappointing having our single hive fail last year.  But, we learned a lot and here we are.  That up there is a nearly full frame of capped honey.  It was pulled from the second box of the back hive, so it will be theirs to help them get through the winter.  But there is some action in the third box, the (for now) top one.  And that might just be ours for the taking.  We shall see.

Dinner with friends at their house.  A house within walking distance to town and still surrounded by 1.5 acres.  Enough for 11 chickens, a large garden, these 2 dwarf Nigerian goats and Vinca the horse, below.  We ate outside with all of them roaming around and it really couldn't have been any more pleasant.  Claire and their almost-four-year-old son played together wonderfully for well over an hour, I hung with the sweetest little baby girl (not my own) and my mind briefly wandered into thoughts about maybe having another one day.  It didn't stay there long, but it was sweet while it lasted.  Baby goat Violet snuggled in my lap looking for petting.  I may have also carried her around a bit.  Maybe.

Claire tried on her new bud's harness and got swung around by papa and then by a rope hanging in the barn.  She loved it.  We've been thinking about getting her one and now I think it's all but a done deal.  We went home with full bellies, an armful of zucchini, and a pint of fresh goat milk from Petunia, Violet's mama.

Rain (and a desire to stay home, eat pancakes *recipe below*, and do nothing) kept us from the market Saturday morning.  It was a nice slow morning that maybe could have been slightly improved by there having been bacon with the pancakes, but you know, we survived.  Both of our neighboring girls had birthday parties.  Which means birthday cake times two.  Not that I really have a problem with that.  Beeba came for a visit.  We ate lots of melon.  The sun and blue sky made appearances off and on throughout the weekend.

All in all, a sweet weekend filled with friends and family and food.

our "go-to" pancake recipe, adapted from Laurel's Kitchen:

1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup flaxseed meal
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (you can use any mix of flours here)
1/2 cup oats
2 t baking powder
1 T brown sugar
1/2 t sea salt
2 (or more) large eggs
2-3 cups milk
2 T coconut oil (this time I couldn't get the lid open, so I used apple sauce and they were great)

mix dry
combine with slightly beaten egg and milk
add in oil

heat up the pan and cook 'em!
(makes 15-20 pancakes, depending on the size of course)

*these also work well for savory pancakes, I just mix in whatever veggies/herbs I want, plus an extra egg and voila!



*linking up with amanda over at the habit of being