spring fever!

for the past few days we have had miserable weather: snow, sleet, freezing rain, rain, winds...the lot. rain on top of several feet of snow is not pretty. we have a small flood in our barn right now, which happens to be situated conveniently at the lowest point on our property. grrrr. today, thankfully, it is sunny and mild. melt snow, melt! i'm ready for warm weather and green grass and flowers!

this past weekend we bought seeds for our little garden in the back yard. i've been thinking a lot about gardening...i haven't had a decent garden in several years now, and i am so excited to grow flowers and vegetables this summer! so far we're planning to grow tomatoes, cukes, chard, beets, zucchini, salad greens, and peppers. i also want to plant some winter squash, basil, cilantro, and perhaps carrots, but there are lots of perennials in the existing garden and i'm not sure we'll have the room. gotta wait and see what comes up.

i've also been thinking a lot about cooking and traveling. pete and i haven't been on vacation in forever...our last vacation was in 2005 when we spent two weeks traveling around northern italy and switzerland. sigh. what a wonderful trip. i'd love to get away for a while, especially to europe.

which is why i am addicted to reading clotilde dusoulier's fabulous blog chocolate & zucchini. she is an excellent writer and her recipes are intriguing. as soon as i have a free moment, i plan to make her honey hazelnut cake. yum. i recently read her post recounting a weekend visit to brussels and was daydreaming about moules, frites, and belgian pralines for the rest of the afternoon. i've been to brussels before, but only briefly, and i wish that i had some pointers about where to go for fabulous eats. there are spectacular eateries all over brussels, and it's a bit overwhelming.

aubrey is at a good age to travel right now...if only we could scrape up the money and time to go. gotta work on that.

oh yeah, aubrey is on the mend...no more fever, but she still has a runny nose and awful cough. we're gettin' there.