Holy goat!

Interesting weekend. First of all we thought we were having Swedish guests and Swedish treats at the house but a volcano changed all that. So not cool. My parents never made it out of Sweden and I guess it's a relief that they are at home and safe. As of now they have rescheduled their flight for Sunday the 25th and we hope they can make it!

So James and I got right back on killen knot weed (Fallopia japonica). I'm using a garden fork that we bought for a dollar at a tag sale and I stick it into the big motherload stumps and pull them out like heads of Medusa. 

This is what you find under some rocks. Shudder. So gross.

But we have new allies in the knot weed war.

This is Sage. And that is not what she is paid to eat. There's knot weed right there and she is climbing around our Valborgs pile. (Short version: Valborg is April 30th in Sweden and we light big bonfires and sing songs to welcome spring.)

And this is Cinders. She was pretty focused on the knot weed but there was equal parts lawn consumed. What are you gonna do, cheap labor. 

And this is the knot weed field after an afternoon with our furry mowers. They can do some damage I tell ya. This picture must have been taken on day one of our experiment because on day 2 we had to add another cinder block for Cinders. 2 was easy enough for her to drag home. Sage only needed 1 block to keep her put but she must have ran to the end of her leash about 1000 times thinking "this time it might be longer". 

We kept a half eye on them because the entanglement possibilities were endless and if we tried to help out we got equally ensnared. Cinders almost took me out at least once by taking a swift lap around my legs with the leash and pulling taught. Then she rubs her head all over you. They're very social and nice to have around these creatures.

Florence has a third goat, Gaby, but she has a nervous condition and Florence couldn't get her to come over. When she gets stressed she goes stiff and falls over, she faints basically. We'll be sure to pick some knot weed and bring it over to Gaby and her sheep pals.

Florence brought us a mint plant. It found a home in a pot by the dining room window.

Our darling Dog Wood tree!!!

Azaleas in bloom. 1 pink, 1 white, 2 red bushes.

We are so focused on KILLIN and massacreing  that we have overlooked planting and bringing new things in to the garden (except for some random grass seed that we spread a few weeks ago... it was a stoopid city folk thing to do and it's mostly just feeding the birds I think...). 

Rosemary's little painting made us think though. She has painted in two bushes at the foot of the porch stairs and it changes everything. Why couldn't we just do that? It would hide a bunch of uglyness and help the front of the house get nice. 

So this weekend I found myself at Lowes buying a pot for our new mint plant and saw this Dappled Willow bush. It said on the tag that it likes morning sun and that is what's best about our front porch! It seemed meant to be.

Uh... hmmm... 

Yeah exactly - click on the picture to enlarge.... More than ever... But they'll come around!

We cooked burgers on the grill and for a Sunday treat I made kladd kaka for the first time in 20 years. It's like a Swedish brownie and it's like delicious and too easy to make.

Beat 2 eggs with 1 1/3 cup sugar.

Add:

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 pinch salt

1/2 table spoon vanilla extract

Stir together and finally add - YES! 1 STICK OF MELTED BUTTER!

Put in a buttered pan and bake for 40 minutes at 300˚.

Once every 20 years or so it's OK to make one and just eat it up between 2 people. We ate and watched Lost In Translation for the the 100th time and it's still pretty magical. Now we want to keep the magical mood and Harold and Maude is on the marquee for next weekend. Followed by Tillsammans (Together). MMMMmmmmmm

All pics were taken with my phone in this post so pardon the image quality. But I had fun with them in the app camerabag to make them a little more special. 

Tills vidare!