In the Garden

Technically this is the backyard... but "In the Garden" just sounds so much prettier.
Anyway, some good news and some bad...
Good:
My irises have come up. I love the color lavender, and since lavender/purple is a darn difficult color to find in plants and flowers, I have expanded my love to blue. Note the lovely blue rosemary in the background. Ignore the date on the photo (the camera doesn't seem to know what "no date/time" means, ugh).
I love perennials that have the audacity to naturalize and thrive in my 'garden'.

Bad:
The mole/vole/gopher/stinking varmint fight continues. I suppose if we had a smaller yard, this wouldn't be a problem. But when you have 1/3 of an acre, the dratted animal can just move to another part of the yard. These seven piles showed up two days after we thoroughly watered the holes about 15 feet from this spot...

Gluten free scones

My dad is mostly Scottish, so I've a fascination of things Scottish. Shortbread and scones are part of that. My wee one is allergic to eggs (plus onions, leeks and cabbage) and we're avoiding a few other allergens (garlic, wheat/gluten, milk, peanuts, nuts) until we verify they are safe. So, I haven't had 'real' shortbread in a long time. But we found a box of delectable shortbread cookies in the gluten free section, so I'm satiated with those. Although, I'm working on finding a good GF/DF/EF shortbread recipe.
Then I ran into a recipe for scones...  I somehow missed trying a scone when last in Scotland. And I haven't been thrilled with the options at Starbucks, etc. So, I'm not exactly sure what they are supposed to taste like, but I liked what I made.

The recipe calls for cardamon, which I don't have. But cinnamon and dates worked well. Walnuts and chocolate chips are even better. It also called for arrowroot flour, I substituted tapioca starch flour.
My first batch disappeared so quickly I couldn't take a picture. This time I made a double batch and added the dates, nuts and chocolate combinations after dividing up the batter. I used the sugar on top to mark what's in them. The baby gets the plain nut-free ones.