bird feeder Archives - A Storybook Life

This is a quick, easy, cheap, come back for seconds family dish!

Pasta salad is the perfect side dish for any summer meal! You can also change the recipe very easily by tossing in any of your favorite ingredients right from the cottage garden!

Cook your favorite kind of pasta while you’re making the sauce to save time! (we like using small pasta such as angel hair or bow-ties)

* Feel free to double the recipe – or add your own favorite ingredients 😉

While your pasta is cooking, mix together the following ingredients & let sit until pasta is done.

4 cups chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped basil leaves
2-3 cloves pressed garlic
1 can sliced olives (I prefer mushrooms)
2 T. balsamic vinegar
2 T. olive oil
Add salt & pepper to taste

Top your pasta with this delicious sauce & be prepared for seconds 😉

Some ideas for extra favorite things to add:

– Cheese bits (or freshly grated parmesan cheese)
– Diced green, yellow, red, or hot peppers
– Broccoli
– Beans
– Sugar snap peas
– Celery
– Onions
– Chicken
– Pepperoni
– Bacon

I know your family will enjoy this one!

I also wanted to share some of the newest guests to our bird feeder with you!

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I call this little guy Fred 😉
I thought he had a piece of string tied to his tail! It took several days of seeing him at the feeder to realize that his little leg was broken. He gets around very nicely – even though he is “disabled” 🙂

My bird feeder gets lots of traffic! This wild turkey is our latest guest 🙂 Don’t forget… although we have several acres of land surrounding our cottage in the woods, we do live in a little Victorian village! Nice to see such a variety of “guests” come out even in the village 🙂

I wanted to show you this great new humming bird feeder that I picked up at my local Walmart for $9.95!

The reason it caught my eye (besides the fact that it was deep red – my favorite color… for now ;), was because I thought that it was a thick red wine bottle that had been made into a humming bird feeder. It reminded me of some of the other thick bubble glass that some of my other garden features are made out of.

Upon closer inspection, I realized that it was actually plastic!

It has the look of a vintage wine bottle with a cork. At first, you might think about how hard it would be to keep the feeder filled after you take out the cork, but you actually unscrew the bottom of the feeder, turn it upside down, fill it, then turn it right side up – (after you put the bottom back on of course :).

Both the hanger & the bottom of the feeder are made out of metal, both of which help add to that vintage feel.

I purchased this feeder a week or so ago, but while I was working in the office today, I saw a little humming bird come up to the window. He was trying to get to the beautiful begonia flowers that a friend had given me (he must have been spying on me through the window :). So… I figured it was finally time to share the pretty red “vintage looking” feeder with him – and not just keep it all to myself 😉

If you get a chance, go check out the garden center at your local Walmart… maybe you can find one for your cottage garden!

Delicious Summer Pasta – and new visitors to the cottage garden

Humming Bird Feeder – Vintage Glass Look