Spring wine shipments are here! It’s one of my favorite times of year seeing which wines were included as part of the shipment and to venture out to the wineries to pick them up. Picking up wine shipments is always a great excuse to go visit wine country! I just love the views from Sokol Blosser, we’re members there, and it’s one of my favorite places to hangout on the weekends.
I know I’ve been a bit quite on the honeybee front, especially after our visit to Ruhl Bee Supply back in March, but we’ve really been doing all sorts of work to get ready for the spring beekeeping season! I’m always hesitant to do a blog post before the finished project is ready to present, so you’ll have to forgive me with the amount of pictures and text in this post…this project has been a long time coming!
It started with a conversation between myself and The Renaissance Man about beekeeping and what we really wanted in the year ahead. We unfortunately lost one of our hives this past winter (we’re pretty sure it was a sugar ant invasion), and were trying to figure out our strategy for the coming season. I wanted to get involved this year with a few hives of my own, and so the decision was made to add two more hives and replace the hive we lost. And what does a crafty girl do when you give her bee hives? She paints them!!!
The best part of waking up last Saturday morning was knowing just what we’d be having for breakfast! Signs had been posted all around town for several weeks for the Annual Dundee Firefighters Pancake Breakfast, and we weren’t about to miss it. The event has been happening for over 50 years!
I was so happy to finally attend The Newberg Camellia Festival! Last year we were out of town when it happened, so I made sure to get the date on the calendar early so we didn’t miss out. For those of you not familiar with the Camellia Festival, it offers an exploration of Asian-Pacific Rim cultures through art, food, performances, and horticulture.
I LOVE BLUEBERRIES!!!
Seriously, blueberries are one of my favorite summertime fruits. Growing up as a little kid, my parents had about five bushes in our backyard and picking blueberries was always one of my chores. Although I’ll confess, I probably ate almost as many as I picked! ha!
It was time to finally make room for blueberries in our backyard!
Our garden last year was the first in our new home. We had all sorts of backyard projects going on, so unfortunately our garden didn’t get the attention that it probably deserved, and our herb garden didn’t even get touched! This is what the “herb garden” looked like most of last summer…see empty concrete rectangle under the corner windows?
It’s not every day that you find a Praying Mantis Cocoon at the grocery store…or in your shopping cart. But then again, not everyone goes grocery shopping with The Renaissance Man. His keen ability to find the most interesting items is superb!
I was in the garden section scoping out a trellis, and the next think you know I looked down to find a Praying Mantis Cocoon in our shopping cart sitting normally among the strawberries, frozen spinach, eggs, and shampoo.
Who doesn’t love an Easter Egg Hunt? When I was a kid, Easter was my favorite holiday and I’m pretty sure it was because of the “hunt.” I was competitive even back then! Ha!
I had been seeing signs around town for the Annual Dundee Easter Egg Hunt, and so The Renaissance Man and I headed over to the Dundee Billick Park around 10am on Saturday to watch it all happen. Nothing beats seeing little kids exploring the wonder of something new. The event was put on by the Dundee Community Committee and they did an amazing job!
Some of our “chosen family” was in town at the end of February, and yes I know it’s almost the end of March, but I had to share. They’re huge foodies from the East Coast, and so we decided it was time to finally try out The Painted Lady. The Renaissance Man and I have been hearing about The Painted Lady since we moved to Dundee and I can tell you that the rave reviews were well earned!
We had an eight o’clock dinner reservation and the whole upstairs room of the house to ourselves. What’s neat about the location is the charm of the old Victorian house. The house is part of the “painted lady movement” thus the restaurant’s name, The Painted Lady.
Last Friday night, The Renaissance Man and I both got off work late…it was a loooonnnggg week.
By the time we had dinner, it was already after 7pm, but I really wanted to go into Newberg and explore First Friday! Despite wanting to stay home and hunker down, I managed to successfully convince The Renaissance Man to join me. When we arrived downtown, we popped in and out of a few shops and then wandered into Valley Wine Merchants.
