Jasmine Hill Gardens~ A Spring Day Trip

We recently took a day trip up to Wetumpka, AL which is north of Montgomery to visit a place called Jasmine Hill Gardens. Bryan and I had visited Jasmine Hill prior to having children but had not been back since so our kids had never experienced the place. It has always stood out to me as one of the most unique and prettiest gardens that I have personally been to in Alabama.

Jasmine Hill is referred to as "A Little Corner of Greece". It sits atop the southernmost outcroppings of the Appalachian mountains. It was conceived in 1928 by Benjamin and Mary Fitzpatrick and has grown into a virtual outdoor museum featuring reproductions of famous Greek and Roman works of art. The story is of an Alabama couple who spent their early married life busily establishing a chain of stores in the South and then retiring to their hilltop haven to create a living memorial to ancient Greece. Getting a jump on the depression, the Fitzpatricks sold their store holdings in 1927, just before the crash. After the depression came, they were reluctant to venture into business again, so they came to Jasmine Hill to stay and make their home in the 1830-era cottage within the gardens. The garden is huge- and it did not develop overnight. In fact, the Fitzpatricks made over twenty trips to Greece to purchase their art objects, to study at the American Classical School in Athens, and to simply enjoy Greek culture. Their love of Greece is so evident throughout the gardens!

In 1995, The Olympian Centre was built with its front facade designed as a recreation of the Temple of Hera as it looked int the 7th Century B.C. In 1996 the Olympic Flame originated at Olympia, Greece's ancient Temple of Hera ruins and came to the world's only full scale reproduction at Jasmine Hill's Temple of Hera ruins. The Olympic Flame burned there in the cauldron on its way to the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta.

Emmy wasn't able to be with us when we went and we really missed her but outside of that, it was a wonderful day exploring the gardens and enjoying the art within. I took so many pictures that I put them in a slideshow to share.


If you want to read the captions you can scroll through the slideshow manually to do so. If you would prefer to see the pictures larger than they are in this slideshow you can click on over to the Picassa album they are in and view them there.


"The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses." ~Hanna Rion

Homemade Crusty French Baquettes!

I love trying new recipes that I find- most of which come from over on Pinterest. I usually share my favorites in my Monday Simple Diary posts but about a month ago I made a bread recipe that was so amazing I think it deserves a blog post of its own!

The recipe is for homemade crusty french Baquettes! They are easy, quick, and taste sooo yummy! There is a secret to the recipe- you throw ice onto the bottom of your oven as the bread bakes. It causes the outside of the bread to turn out crusty while the inside is nice and soft. I had never done this before but thought it worth a try. By the way- if you concerned about hurting your oven by throwing ice into it- you can place a baking pan in the bottom of your oven and toss the ice onto it. Same results! I would actually recommend that to anyone who isn't sure if the ice will hurt their oven.

Quick & Crusty French Baguettes

2 cups very warm water
1 packet yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
3-4 cups flour

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together the warm water, yeast, and sugar. Set the bowl on top of your preheating oven for ten minutes. Stir in the salt and add the flour a half-cup at a time, until the dough becomes soft but not sticky. Knead the dough until elastic.

Cut the dough into four even pieces. Roll each of them into four long, thin ropes. Twist together two of the ropes to form one loaf. Twist the other two ropes together to form a second loaf. Transfer both onto a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

You can now bake the loaf right away (if you’re in a hurry) or allow it to rise for an additional 15-30 minutes on top of your warm oven.

I like to let my loaves rise because the larger the loaves- the better- in my opinion. ;)

Now for that SECRET: Fill a large bowl with 3-4 cups of ice. Open your hot oven and place the baking sheet with the baguettes inside, then toss the ice cubes on the bottom of the oven and quickly shut the door. Do NOT open your oven for 15 minutes. Bake until golden brown, about 15-18 minutes. Recipe makes 2 loaves. *See my comment above if your concerned about hurting your oven with the ice*

My crusty loaves!

I've made a lot of homemade bread through the years because it is one of my favorite things to bake and I have to say that this is my favorite recipe yet. I am sooo excited that I found it and just had to share the joy! The original recipe was pinned on Pinterest from, HERE.

House Progress~ 5 months

Yesterday was 5 months that we have been in our home. Most of the work that we did these past two months was focused outside rather than in. The weather has been gorgeous overall and we have enjoyed getting a start on flower beds and some gardening this Spring.

Our first outdoor project last month was the front flower beds around the house.

As you can see their were a few bushes in the front flower beds when we moved in but nothing else.

We started by pulling out what the previous owners had put down to prevent weeds and laying a new fresh layer of it on both sides of the front walkway.

Camden helping to hoe the weeds.

We planted some new bushes and flowers on both sides.

Ally helping to plant an azalea bush.

Right side of walkway. We also started this border around the flower beds.

Left side of walkway after first weekend of work. We planted that azalea bush on the end and the other bush in the middle. The other two larger ones were already here when we moved in. I am considering pulling out that back corner one and putting a gardening bench back there.

The front of our house faces due north so it gets very little sun. I planted these two pots of ivy for the front walkway because it does well in shade. I love ivy!

After we got all of the plants and flowers planted that we wanted we put down some bark in the beds. I love the way bark looks in flower beds- it always makes it look so clean.

The front right flower bed after the 2nd weekend of work.

Left of front walkway after 2nd weekend of work. We still need to get a border and a little more bark put down on this side. We are hoping to do so soon.

I also planted two big pots of pansies to put on the edge of our driveway.

The other big project we finished was to plant our first tree in the front yard.

It is a Japanese Green Maple. I love this tree! It will get a little taller than that window behind it.

Our next big project in the front of the house is that we want to put down a walkway in between this tree and the flower bed behind it.

In the backyard we began on some gardening at the start of March.

We started with one raised bed off of our back porch.

Bryan built the bed for me and he put down sand under the soil to help with draining.

Our raised bed all complete and Camden watering the seeds for the first time.

Our raised bed. This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago. Everything has grown even more since then. This is zucchini, squash, and tomatoes.

I also started some container gardening on the back porch last month. With my Fibro I cannot get out and pull weeds in the garden when the heat kicks in here in Alabama. I have tried in the past to get out early in the morning or even late evening to work on it but once that humidity kicks in it doesn't matter what time of day- I just can't do it. It really messes me up. The raised bed and container gardening is our answer to me being able to still garden. I don't have to deal with the weed issues and I don't have to go far to water anything on my bad days. It's all on my back porch or right off the porch. :)

Strawberries on back patio. By the way- that Grow sign is from Camden's garden that we planted in NC when he was in the hospital after his early birth. :)

Lettuce on back patio.

Lettuce at end of March.

My lettuce two weeks ago. It's getting close to being ready to use. The heads have almost reached full growth. I planted more (three different types) in the other three pots here. They have sprouted and I am hoping it will mean we can have fresh lettuce throughout the summer. Our plan is to plant more seeds in a few weeks and continue for the next month or two so that we can have a good supply through fall too.

Strawberries and more tomatoes in the smaller pots.

A couple of weeks ago we managed to get two plum trees planted in the back yard too. One was dwarf plums and one regular.

Our plum trees.

We also got one rain barrel set up in March......

It has already paid for itself by helping to water our garden and plants and keeping our water bill down. Bryan would like to get a few more installed sometime this year so that we will also have a water supply in the event of an emergency.

In addition to that- our next outdoor goal is to get a couple of pear trees and a handful of blueberry bushes in the ground. We also have cantaloupe and watermelon seeds to plant. We hope to get three raised beds off the back patio this year.

So thankful for the gorgeous weather lately. It has been wonderful to invest so much into our yard/property recently. Always feels good to soak up that sun!

My Favorite Pictures from Easter Sunday

The kids and I at church.

Dinner at McAlisters after church that evening. We rarely eat out on Sundays, let alone holidays. We don't like to support businesses being open on those days but we made an exception this year and treated ourselves out.

When Ally saw this Auburn sign in McAlisters she walked over to it and booed it, made this face, and gave it a thumbs down. LOL!

This Alabama sign was hanging next to it. She walked over to it and gave a thumbs up. She definitely has Roll Tide blood running through her veins. It cracked us up. The chef in the kitchen was watching her. We were just hoping that he was an Alabama fan and not an Auburn fan. Given that our food wasn't poisoned and we are still alive, I do believe he rolled with the Tide. ;)

Emmy- my texting girl.