Summer garden

Some of the best times in Ukraine were spent in my Aunt's garden. 

Berries, flowers, steamy tea and a nice conversation with my cousin. What can be better for a lazy summer afternoon. 

I picked some red and black currants and we made a pie. I fell asleep right there on a swings since I was still on jet lag mode. It was so peaceful and quiet. Just a great way to have a break from a busy city!

Lavender summer

I felt under stress recently. There is something important  going on and I am worrying. So no cooking, no knitting, no stitching, no meetings with friends. I am just sitting in front of TV watching movies and counting hours until H hour.

I put a jar of lavender buds on my desk and it makes me feel better. I wish I could spend the day at the lavender farms but I can't. Instead I made this treasury is for you.

 The Russian Artists and MCTT team members works are featured along with the other great artists and crafters. Please enjoy!

Ocean Breeze

Hot, hot, hot! While it is nice and breathable in some parts of country it is just miserably hot here in Phoenix. I am melting, melting...

A drink of cold water is a natural way to refresh yourself, however a swimming pool or a lake is another way to get relief from the summer heat.

In the evening when the temperature goes down try to relax by the pool with a glass of something delicious. I love to have a mojito from time to time but I also tried some new recipes.



The one pictured here is called Ocean Breeze.


To make this you use 1 oz each of Gin, Blue Curacao and Triple Sec. Pour this over ice and add about 3 oz of cold tonic and a slice of lemon. Try it and enjoy!


Stay cool, my friends, the summer is almost over :)

Mushrooms picking

Since everyone around was talking about mushroom picking lately I had this thought sticking in my head. It was growing and getting bigger until I was obsessed with an idea to go wild mushrooms picking :)We jumped in a car last Saturday and went up north to Flagstaff. We called my friend on the way and she joined us, together with her mother and three kids.Two hours of driving and we are in a mushrooms paradise.
Except... how can you tell? which one is good and which one in poisonous? Choices, choices :) I know some edible mushrooms but I guess I became more careful with age, so each mushroom we picked was sniffed, bitten by my friend or her mother to check for bitterness and either approved or disapproved.
It was fun! we spent about 3 hours running between trees. For the first couple of hours we had about 4 of red headed Russula mushrooms but then we moved to another spot and that's where the fun began! We got 2 buckets of lovely wonderful smelling mushrooms and feel like we can find them on our own now !Well, the sad part begins at home. I am drowning in doubts. Should we eat it? or not? They looked great and our other friend said they are edible (she threw away some from the pile, anyway) and book said they are... but there is so many almost the same looking mushrooms which are not good for you!Anyway, I spent the whole day yesterday cleaning, washing, cutting, boiling and freezing mushrooms. I've decided to take a small bite from each pile every day to see how I will feel... Do you think, it will work?
Doubts, doubts... Maybe, I will better just take a walk in a woods next time :)

Late summer garden

It is still hot here in Arizona and not much you can do in a garden right now. You can still run outside and quickly do something at about 6 o'clock in a morning when it is finally getting a little cooler but other than that there is no time for gardening yet.
During day I am quickly running outside to walk dogs and it is brutal... I am surprised that my garden has survived this summer! We had some wonderful monsoon season rainy days earlier this Month, I wish there would be more! The desert needs it !Well, on a positive note, my roses are starting to bloom again which is a good sign. That mean Fall is almost here with it's moderate temperatures. I can not wait :)Another nice thing is that we got our first harvest of bananas! We planted this small banana bush 3 years ago with intention to give our garden a tropical flair. Well, 1 bush turned into the tree, than another one, and another one... it is very pretty and huge now but the sad thing is each tree dies after producing fruits. Pity ! The good thing is the new one is quickly growing since it is multiplying from the rhizomes. There is still hope we will be lucky to have it for years to come! :)
I did some canning (yes, I thought of my friends & family, the jam is a lovely Holiday gift) and finally digged out the spring bulbs of freesias, hyacinth and paperwhites. It is time to dry them and prepare for the Fall storing!