Is anyone familiar with the flowering plant, Coral Bells, or Heuchera? They are one of m

Is anyone familiar with the flowering plant, Coral Bells, or Heuchera? They are one of my favorite perennials and do so well in our area (DC, zone 6/7). Additionally, they come in a huge range of leaf coloration so you can combine multiple types in your yard providing consistency yet diversity.

This first pic is my newest Coral Bell, Berry Smoothie. I thought its magenta leaves were totally magnetic and an earthy way to liven things up, introduce a little spiciness into the yard. The second pic is a pan shot of 1/3 of the yard -please ignore all dead grass due to lingering wood piles; this part is mostly shade so I’ve spent the last few years nurturing shade-tolerant or shade-prefering perennials (better bang for your buck, peeps!). The azaleas remind me of Louisiana, snapdragons are one of my favorite, favorite blossoms, and you might be able to discern the various Coral Bells that pepper the yard.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, gardening is a balm for the soul.

Ode on a Great Husband

My dearest hubby of nearly 7 years,
Just did something that almost brought me to tears,
In a good way, in a good way.

So supportive is he of little old me,
That the humble, but with dreams, blog em-i-lis,
Is now also, is now also,

A real site, http://em-i-lis.com/ !
~~

Check out the little fleur icon he made for it too (top left corner of the tab above the URL).

Food and the weekend, wine review

My sister and her BF are coming to town this weekend from Italy- YAY! I haven’t seen Elia since -OMG, has it been this long?- Christmas, and I have not yet met Michele, her extremely wonderful-sounding BF. If anyone would like to hire them, please do because it would be tremendous to have them here in DC.

In anticipation of cooking up a storm for/with them, I believe Mr. T and I might do take-out tonight or a simple grill. Have I told you about my incredible homemade BBQ sauce? Insane. Will talk more about this later.

Anyway, there is definitely a rhubarb dessert in the plans, and I think I’m going to have to make Yotam’s burned eggplant with pomegranate molasses again so perhaps we’ll have a middle eastern night.

While I figure this all out, I did want to tell you how freaking good the Qupé Bien Nacido Cuveé 2009 Viognier/Chard was last night. Mamma mia, that is a good bottle of wine.  DD/D, I really think this is the bottle we shared at Oyamel. YUM! I’m going to get more of this for sure- great summer wine. Keep a lookout for it!