A Day in the Life...

Another weekend here in Central Oregon has come and gone.  We were blessed with some wonderful weather and a lot of motivation.  Each season brings its own beauty to our yard, and that can be said with an exclamation right now.  Our daffodils and tulips are in full bloom, painting our yard with vibrant colors of yellow, pinks, and reds.  This only makes checking things off my list that much more enjoyable!


 First goal of the day was to get the water feature back up and running that Cam and I built a couple years ago.  I began by removing the stagnant water - which has been sitting, freezing, thawing, re-freezing, and thawing all fall and winter - one bucket at a time. After about seven 5-gallon buckets had been removed, I finally had to turn to my trusted 'shop-vac' to get the rest of the water from the very bottom. My shop-vac efficiently removed all of the water and some of the leaves, but when the water was gone, I figured it would be just as easy to remove the semi-decomposed leaves and muck with my hands...so I dug in! Once the debris was completely removed, and one very 'yucky' find, I was left with only some scrubbing of the pond lining to do! Easy!

I filled it, plugged it in, and made a few minor adjustments to the rocks forming the waterfall, and stepped back to enjoy the very tranquil sound, and sights, of my newly working water feature!

I felt so accomplished...this took me a bit of time and a lot of work to finish! But with only a calm wind and a warm, yet cloudy sky surrounding me, I knew there was much more to be done, nay, and more importantly, that I wanted to get done.

Our garage has been a sore spot between Cam and I ever since we moved into this house...four years ago! He wants it one way and I dream of it another. Needless to say, it's simply a disaster now! His sports equipment and stuff  is everywhere, as is my gardening paraphernalia. We've both allowed it to fall into despair and now we're trying to figure out how to fix it! We finally decided that a small outdoor storage shed would be the perfect solution to our very cluttered garage. In order for us to make this happen, we needed to create a space in which a shed could sit. This was almost too easy because we have noticed a very sparsely planted bed along the south side of our house that is home to two very aggressive bushes. They are sending shooters through the entire bed and are even starting to grow under our siding...it was time for them to go!

So I spent the latter half of my day removing a very large and semi-old bush, and all of the suckers it has decided to try to create! A chore, but a fun one!

Needless to say, we've had a busy, but very productive day! I have enjoyed myself immensely which is something I've been longing for for the past several months...several days dedicated to my garden is heaven in my book! It has been wonderful!

At the end of the day, we had saved up enough energy to reward ourselves with a new and fun dinner recipe! We sought something fast yet delicious, so the shrimp in our freezer created the perfect jumping off point. With a little improvisation (due to lack of specific ingredients so I adapted the recipe to our 'on-hand' ingredients) this was a perfect way to end our day of rewardingly hard work!Here is what graced our plates tonight:

Lemon-Garlic Shrimp & Veggies

Serves 4

4 tsp. olive oil

2 large red or orange bell peppers

2 pounds of asparagus (or, I used garden fresh baby broccoli and tender kale flowers) cut into 1" pieces

2 tsp. freshly grated lemon zest

1/2 tsp. salt

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound raw shrimp

1 c. chicken broth

1 tsp. cornstarch

2 Tbs. lemon juice

2 Tbs. chopped fresh parsley

Directions:
Heat 2 tsp. oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add bell peppers, asparagus, lemon zest and 1/4 tsp. salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until just beginning to soften, about 6 minutes. Transfer the veggies to a bowl; cover to keep warm.

Add the reaming 2 tsp. oil and garlic to the pan and cook, stirring, about 30 seconds. Add shrimp and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Whisk broth and cornstarch in a small bowl until smooth and add to the pan along with the remaining 1/4 tsp. salt. Cook, stirring, until the sauce has thi9ckened slightly and the shrimp are pink and just cooked through, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in lemon juice and parsley. Serve the shrimp and sauce over the veggies.

(recipe adapted from EatingWell)

This was absolutely delicious! The tartness from the lemon with the rich shrimp, sweet veggies, and fresh parsley...my mouth is still watering! We served it over a bed of brown rice with a side salad.

I have been anxiously awaiting days like today! And now that they've returned, I'm determined to make sure I don't waste them or take them for granted! I'm so excited!!

Enjoy!