The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

I was looking for a light summer read with a bit of substance, lilt and character depth. With GL&PPPS, I found it and more. This was a beautiful story written in letter form- from the protaganist's pen, Juliet, to her recipients. Set on a beautiful British Channel island after the German Occupation, it sheds light on the strength and weaknesses of the human spirit after such a devastation as WWII. The main character, Juliet is so endearning that you want to be like her and be friends with her at the same time. Lastly, the setting for the book on a breezy, salt air, wildflower laden, farm filled island made me long for my own Guernsey to be able to admire egg shells, plant radishes and paint with watercolors.

Hope you pick up this book someday. It is worth a read.

Next up? Alexander McCall Smith's The Sunday Philosophy Club series or the 44 Scotland Street series. Not sure how I will like these, but I am willing to try even though mystery novels are not my cup of tea.

Crab Louis Salad

Went crabbing this last weekend with my dad out in the San Juans and came back with a few crab to share. (If it wasn't so messy, it would have been gone before I got home.) With some of the produce in the garden and eggs in the hen house, we made a scrumptious Crab Louis Salad with homemade Thousand Island dressing...

Fresh Swiss Chard+ Peas + Broccoli= Dinner

i went out to the garden this evening with Reed to see what we could conjure up... the three below came fresh from the dirt... i added a few other things from the fridge and pantry.

add the above to a hot saute pan plus onions, diced carrots, scallions, 2tbsp brown sugar, 1/4c soy sauce and rice vinegar. then serve over brown rice...

Lots of green, little flowering

thanks to our very wet and cold summer, I have had much greenery and no flowering buds... wonder if it will be a horrible year for tomatoes. fyi- don't put a fertilizer on your garden with too much nitrogen! you prob don't need much more green leafage if you live in the pac northwest!