MAPLE SIDE CARS

   The  side cars is a cocktail that goes all the way back to the 1930's Paris and was fashioned of Cognac or Armagnc. Now a days they are often made with Bourbon. I made Maple Bourbon side cars for my Christmas party "On A Stick" here is what I came up with.....                        

A Sugar Maple twig, widdle to a point, egg white brushed on,sugar sprinkled and a lemon rind added. 

Raising the bed to raise the plants

Coburn Woods Nashua New Hampshire

This was a great landscape design project that we did at a condominium development in southern NH. The goal was to up date the community center and create a place the would draw tenants to the recreation facilities and make it sustainable.

The raised beds were for tenants to grow their own crops, and so they are! 

4"x4" with lap joint corners make for added stability.

Coburn Wood
http://www.coburnwoods.com/

SunCholked!

I

 

I Love this plant. Helianthus tuberosa Beautiful and tasty!
I haven't tried this recipe yet but as soon as my crop comes in, and I hear you can even make flour out of it!
More later on the Jerusalem Artichoke.





http://allrecipes.com/recipe/231247/roasted-jerusalem-artichokes-or-sunchokes/

BUGGIE BIRTHDAY

Birthdays are one of my favorite parties to throw! This was my sons 5th birthday party bugs and all. We had it at Drumlin Farm part of the Audubon Society here in town. I had a terrarium full of ladybugs for the kids to look at and this buggy cake.

I hid small sticky back lady buds all over the room for the "bug hunt" and of course a buggy pinata outside. 

The Cake was a piece of.....A vanilla layer cake with home made lemon curd coconut grass, and marzipan lady bugs.

I put the coconut in a bag and put drop of green food coloring in and zip and shake till coated. 

I sculpted the lady bugs from Marzipan and painted them with a food coloring, they were a big hit with the  kids.

Sienna Landscape Inspiation

Oh Costalpino..........

PIN OF THE WEEK

PIN OF THE WEEK

This is a great use of potted materials. Water is key as in any potted plant, but the aesthetic statement is sublime!
Love the Birches in  white pots agents the dark grey.


http://www.mylandscapes.co.uk/10-best-ideas-for-pots-and-planters-in-a-modern-city-garden.htm

C Design: URN RESPECT

C Design: URN RESPECT: URN RESPECT CMC AND CGM AT THE GETTY IN LA http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/ The Getty has a great Open Content Program over 99...

URN RESPECT

URN RESPECT

CMC AND CGM AT THE GETTY IN LA


http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/

The Getty has a great Open Content Program over 99,000 art images you can look at for free!

CODMAN COMMUNITY FARM

   The town that I grew up in, and moved back to, has many wonderful qualities and attributes. A nationally recognized contemporary art museum, an Audubon Society farm and preserve, revolutionary war sites, colonial and modern architectural historic buildings , the possibilities go on for the intellectually curios, but the one close to my heart is the Codman Community Farm. 

   I grew up attending the Codman Fair every fall, with vegetable judging, pies, live chickens in crates, the smell of hay, fiddle music, a black smith, hay rides and water balloon fights boys verses girls. A wonderful tradition that I am proud to help uphold, thanks to friends on the board who drew me into the cause little by little. 

   The farm was originally part of the Codman Estate and when Dorothy Codman passed away the barn and acreage was left to the town. The Codman Community Farm was established in 1973 bye citizen who wanted to preserve our agricultural heritage. It was a CSA(Community Supported Agriculture)before there was such a thing as a CSA.
    The farm has been run by a farmer and volunteers since then, and has grown to include community gardens, meat and eggs that are raised on the farm and local milk, cheese and other local goods are sold on site. There is education, lectures, events and fundraisers that are all held in the barn. It is family friendly and a great place for children to learn about the animals and get up close.  

   I'm very happy to be volunteering to help on their landscape and hope to have many future posts about the farm. 

www.codmancommunityfarms.org/

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Pinner

Pinterest Addiction
There is this thing that I do if I am sitting with my phone, its pin, and pin, and pin, for me, for friends, for clients. I pin, and pin,  and pin. Check out my Pinterest pages. Maybe you will be inspired too.
https://www.pinterest.com/carolmcard/


Some of my favorite work is there too!
481040803918742043

Art Insperation

Art INSPIRATION

Inspiration from this WWII food ration poster. I took this picture at the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum in Lexington MA.


FUNNY WE SHOULD STILL EAT THAT WAY!!

2015 Highlights

Two days into the New Year and sure there is lots of looking ahead ( I have 5 lists going) but I want to pause and look at what a great year 2015

was.....

Italy, France, Germany and Switzerland!

So many great meals, views, art and architecture, and the ideas the trip sparked are endless.
I am truly blessed.
Carol
P.S. enjoy the eye candy......

P.P.S I love tourists........

Just in time for Valentines day a favorite new site Love Adorned.https://www.loveadorned.com/

LATE WINTER FRUIT TREE PRUNING

   With late winter here it is time to prune the fruit trees!
Apple produces, pears, quince, even crab apple and ornamental cherry need a good clipping. They benefit from the cold to keep the chance of disease down and not be clipping off ripening fruit.
Here are a few tips on pruning.

• Keep your tools sharp. Make clean cut don't tear the bark along the branch.
• Keep your tools clean. If you are working with a diseased area wipe down your tools with rubbing alcohol before you move to the next tree.
• Clear out the dead wood first, then you can see what you are left to work with.
• Cut off vertical suckers. Most fruit trees you wont to encourage horizontal growth(its easier to get at the fruit)so any thing that goes strait toward the sky is the next to be clipped out.

There are different ways to prune different trees so get a good pruning book for more details, but this is a good rule of tomb, and don't ever cut off more than1/3 of the tree off at any one time. More than that will stress the tree too much. People new to pruning tend to get a little clip happy and go to far so take your time and stand back often to see how it looks.

Before you know it you will have a beautiful tree that produces more fruit!

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CHRISTMAS ON A STICK

   I have been hosting the same Christmas party since I was a junior in high school. It's been 28 years now and they don't seem to be growing any smaller if this years attendance is any indication. Many friends attended this year who came to the original party where all I served was a pot of home made pasta sauce, pasta and garlic bread( when you 17 thats all you really need right?)! But I learned to make pasta sauce for that occasion and since then I have been concocting new recipes and finding themes to entertain my cense of creativity. My unsuspecting guests have endured Scottish Haggis, a recycled cardboard box Christmas tree and this year Christmas on a Stick( because I was "sticking" to having the party).
    Here are some "Sticky" ideas that came from the party......

Maple Side Cars were the signature drink and we cut sugar maple branches and carved them into picks and coated them in sugar!!! They were a big hit.(see recipe on another post).

AND LOTS OF THINGS TO DIP IN THE CHOCOLATE FONDUE!!

Home Brew

Home brew in January and have a great St Patrick day, green food coloring not required, but not restricted ether!!!

FORCING SPRING

      Getting spring to come early here in the North East is a passion of mine.
I have spent many years forcing branches and bulbs for flower shows and for my self.
Here are a few tips for forcing bulbs.

Plan ahead! Make sure you keep your bulbs in a dark and cold(35 degrees) place for the minimum time, daffodils need a good 6 weeks of cold.

Pot them up with good potting soil and come compost and a table spoon of bone meat for an 8 inch pot.

Keep the bulbs at the surface of the pot so the roots have all the room, and crowed then in next to each other so you will get a full pot of blooms.

Keep them watered but never soggy! Bulbs will rot easily if they don't have a chance to dry out each week.

When plants start to sprout move your bulbs to a full sun window, or the growth will get leggy, week and flop if the plants are not getting enough light.

In no time you will have flowers and fragrance that sooth the winter blues.

NEW PLAN

   I have been working on the planting plan for our landscape that surounds the new garage that we are building. It's energizing to work on it and makes me forget about all the snow on the ground!

Add caption

VIVA LA THROW PILLOW!

WHY DO MEN HATE THROW PILLOWS?
   In my experience most men hate throw pillows (most men, not all). It seems there is a need for comfort on the part of women that men don't require. My husband can sleep on a bus station bench all night if need be, and has on occasion. I have no scientific evidence for this dichotomy of the sexes, but, based strictly on the anecdotal evidence, men don't need to "nest" the way women do.

Well here is a project that might make men come round to the throw pillow.........
.......maybe..........DIY French patriot  pile........Hipster bean bag.......or whatever you want to call it. 

I'm a bit of a Francophile, so this was an attractive idea to me. You could also use a British Union Jack which is very popular right now or an Americal flag seems obvious, or run with your own nationality or symbol. Design-wise, these flags have a strong graphic, almost pop art quality. Any time you bring a strong graphic symbol into interior design it can have an edgy, urban or industrial feel, like advertising as art, and even convey a sense of irony, which permeates so much of design and art today. 

I started with 18 French flags about a foot long, printed on a smooth cotton.

I stitches up this pile of French flags that were already closed on three sides so I just filled them with foam, pinned them closed,  and hand stitched them up.

 I used the filler foam from this bean bag chair and then topped it with the pillows.

   I haven't seen my man lounging on this yet but it looks like a good place to drink a beer, watch the game or at least have a pillow fight!!!

VIVA LA DIFERENCE !!!! 

1 PALLET:15 THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH IT! Insallment 1

Here are some uses for a free pallet......
1) VERTICAL GARDEN

Client and friend, Patrick Cahn, used his free pallet he got from Harvard University dining commons to grow kale, swiss chard and salad greens this summer in his Summerville, MA yard.

He said his two daughters Lila and Sofie helped him plant and harvest their greens, the girls like the kale the best.

He used strips of landscape fabric to cover the sides, he simply stapled them down.

Then he covered the openings on both front and back with a piece of plywood and poured in a planting mix, composed of compost and planting soil (Coast of Maine products and my first choice and what he used here).

Then he wet it down well to make sure the soil would adhere to itself and the pallet.

Then he could remove the plywood. The whole pallet needs to lean back about  5% from vertical and face full sun so the soil wouldn't fall out and your vertical garden is ready for planting.

Patrick said the hardest part was keeping the planter watered!!!

If you are  an organic gardener like I am you might want to make sure that the pallet that you use has not been exposed to industrial usage, sometimes materials get spilled so knowing your source of  is important.