home from the hospital

Random came home yesterday after a week's stay at the vet.  The poor little guy was having a urinary tract problem.  It was awful not having our furry friend around the house, hanging out, purring and being beautiful.  Needless to say, he was missed.

He's now back to his normal activities, as you can see.

fresh eggs

 

Date of Lay: 6/11/10

Date Christopher brought them home: 6/12/10

Date we ate a tasty breakfast: 6/13/10

Although our eggs were a few days old by this morning, I just had to marvel at that little sticker.  Our eggs were laid just 2 days ago and traveled a total of approximately 30 miles from the farm to our kitchen.  

We've been attempting to eat fresh and eat local as much as possible and I'm honestly starting to feel like it truly is the best way to eat.  I do feel more connected with my food, like people say.  I like knowing where it came from and meeting the people who work the farms.  If you take a moment to ask the farmers, they always have great ideas and suggestions about how to prepare, say, the squash that you just bought.  And, mmmm, fresh food really does taste better.

I've found this little chart from Philadelphia's Grid Magazine to be very helpful.  We've been using it as our guide for fresh veggies.

green thumb

Rosemary, Basil, Chives... the start of our garden.

My newly developed green thumb is even having success growing weeds inside the house...

I've never experienced this before, but there's nothing quite so satisfying as watching a plant break its first sprouts through the soil's surface.

Our first success with growing our own vegetables.  Tomatoes are next on the plate.

great find!

What a lucky thing... last weekend we found this rug laying out on the sidewalk--unstained and in perfect condition.  Free for the taking!

It's the perfect size (6' x 8') for our living room and the colors go great.  

I've been wanting a new rug for a while now, but haven't been willing to pay some outrageous price for one.  By some crazy fortune, we just happened to be walking down that one particular street and this one particular rug that just happened to be the right size and colors magically appeared on the sidewalk.

And, to top that off, Christopher's parents just happened to have their carpet steamer that weekend, planning to clean our other rugs... (Thank you!!)

It makes the room feel so much warmer and homier.  I'm kind of amazed.

chai tea

With Christopher's folks in town this weekend, we headed over to the Random Tea Room & Curiosity Shop, the tiniest and most lovely of tea rooms I've ever had the pleasure of visiting (twice now).  We ordered the Chai Masala, having heard raves about it from friends.

They serve it to you as a candle-lit teapot on your table with small (2-3 ounce) tea cups, allowing you to share or drink yourself.

And, ohhhhh, I wish I could share our teapot with you over this blog....

Perhaps you and I can start experimenting and come up with our own chai recipe...

Maybe start a new tradition.