This is a little jar full of things from my garden I brought to a friend on her recent birthday. Mostly I just had roses, because it was a funny, transitional time for the garden. But there are some other things in there, too: ghost fern, cranesbill, a little furry pre-foxglove shoot, and then these delicate, crepe-paper, peach flowers I love, but couldn't remember the name of. Luckily, I try to save most of my plant-markers, so I managed to find out it is Helianthum.
Helianthum peach! I love you. I want a million more of your fairy flowers twining everywhere.
Some little bits of randomness:
- I made homemade Twix bars, also for the aforementioned friend's birthday. I had been waiting for an excuse! They were wonderful. The shortbread is quite sophisticated - I used hers, though I used my regular Bittman caramel recipe. I'm starting to think I can only judge the done-ness of caramel by color. It goes from buttery brown to dark toffee so quickly! I made it much too firm the first time (nobody wants to break their tooth on a Twix.) The second time, I was careful to leave the caramel quite soft.
- Continuing my odd mail-order candy habits, I discovered you can order 1 lb boxes of single flavor Dum Dums directly from Dum Dums HQ. I realized we really don't eat about two thirds of the assortment bag (bubblegum, butterscotch, blue raspberry, among other culprits) and I got kind of crazy about their fruit punch flavor. Josiah's a root beer man, so he got a box of those.
- We are going to see Moonrise Kingdom this weekend, and even though I've been assured by everybody, everywhere that it's wonderful, I'm trying to keep my hopes from getting away from me. But I am so excited!
- More flower girl paintings are coming soon.
Happy Friday to you!
