Social distancing ~ finding a place of normalcy

With the world in chaos it is such a blessing to be able to retreat a bit into a place of normalcy.

One of those places of calm for me, besides the garden, is my kitchen. I have had the urge for some reason to go back in time and make old recipes of the long ago past. Last week it was pasta, and this week it is baking a cake that I used to make with great frequency when my family was young, probably because it was no-fuss, fast, easy, and I always had the ingredients on hand.

 Velvet Crumb Cake, is an old-timey recipe that used to always be featured on the Bisquick box. Bisquick can be hard to find now but I had a brand new package in my pantry. (I won't include the recipe because it is so easy to find on line.) Some things, if they are good enough, never seem to go out of fashion and this cake is certainly good enough.

If you can get your hands on a box of Bisquick you might want to give it a try, it is the broiled topping that really elevates this cake - yummy!

And back to the garden.

Many of my climbing roses are in full bloom and one of the loveliest is the antique rose, Glorie de Dijon. I remember wanting this rose and having to search for it for quite a while before I found it - all that effort has paid off when each spring it absolutely covers itself in bloom. 

I took two pictures of it this morning, one below looking toward the house... 

...and this one looking out toward the street, I couldn't decide which one to post so I put up both of them and will let you decide which view you like best.

English gardeners have ferneries, rockeries, and stumperies so I decided that I could have a seedery, a word I made up to describe what has become the place on my back deck where I am propagating lots and lots of seeds this year. I could have put it all in the greenhouse but I find it better to keep young seedlings closer to make sure they get the proper care. Some seedlings are just beginning to emerge and others are almost ready to plant out. I still have quite a few summer blooming annual seeds to start and I have also started some cuttings under the cloches on the window shelf. 

Lastly, I will leave you with another picture I took this morning. I love iris and there are so many glorious types with color patterns that are almost impossible to imagine, although I love them all my favorite goes back to the quite ordinary Grandma's Purple, I have them spread throughout the garden, you see them below along the path adjacent to the pond. Last year I made a point of  radically dividing them which has resulted in longer stems and more profuse flowers. 

Thank you for visiting I hope no matter where you live you and your family are keeping safe and healthy.

Take care.

Adrienne