My Greatest Triumph Many years ago, my husband and I took a 6-week beginner's course in Foil Fencing. Now foil fencing swords are thin and straight with a protective cover on the tip. It's more of a classic dueling style of swordsmanship. Victory in foil fencing is gained by getting past your opponents sword defense to stick your sword point against their chest. It's all about stance and form and is tends to be over fairly quickly. I believe our instructor used the 3 touch point method for a match. The fencing stance form generally taught is French: you stand in a sideways position, sword in one hand aimed at opponent while your other arm is held aloft behind you, bent at the elbow. (Think of any Three Musketeer movie you've ever seen---this is their stance.) The general over-all goal of foil fencing is to keep the body area that can be stabbed by the opponent to a minimum. However, it's important to understand, in fencing, it's not about strength but rather a
Thanks to a garden club, I've learned how to better care for my rose bush and this year it's thriving! It's thick, bushy and covered in blooms! This is a Julia Child Floribunda Rose. I selected it because I wanted a smaller size rose for my front flower bed and this one grows a max of 3 feet tall and wide. I learned from the garden club the proper time to trim a rose and that's what has made it so bushy. Roses here in Northwest Florida need to be trimmed and shaped the week of Valentine's Day, Feb 14. The right time will vary from growing zone to growing zone in different places where it's colder, but the correct time in any zone is evident when leaf buds are showing along the stems with even a few small leaves beginning to pop out. The other important thing is buying some Rose Food and fertilizing according to directions. Tons are dark blue Bachelor Buttons are blooming adjacent to this yellow rose, so the show of blue and yellow is quite striking!
Welcome to the first week of February! It's supposed to be 31 degrees tonight, so after cleaning up the front walk beds, I went around covering various things that either are blooming, about to bloom or that have sensitive leaf buds, like my hydrangea's. I picked all the yellow daffodils and brought them inside for a cheerful vase on my counter. For Garden Pic Wednesday this week I have an excellent photo of a pine tree flower! You didn't know pine trees flower? Well, you'll have to stop back for a look! Today's Good Eating Recipe is a family favorite my Mother used to make often for us as kids: Old Fashioned Cinnamon Raisin Bread Pudding! What Old Fashioned Cinnamon Raisin Bread Pudding Looks Like This is just your basic wholesome old fashioned bread pudding made with just eggs, bread, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, sugar & raisins! No sauces to make. Just simple bread pudding. We'd eat it hot with a little evaporated milk poured over the top.
The Mama Kat Prompt topic for today is: "Show Us a Before & After." Last fall and this spring I had two major drainage issue locations: one in the back yard and one on the side of the garage. After hours of TLC they're greatly improved. Here's the before & after on both: First: The Back Yard Pond : This happened every time we had a heavy rain: After: Same spot as it looks now. Paradise. I took advantage of the naturally concave area by edging it with flagstones and filling the center with gravel & water loving plants. The Chocolate Elephant Ears here are gorgeous! Second, The Other Pond: This bed edges on the garage near the front of the house. After: I edged the bed with paving blocks, raised the dirt level on the grass side, then planted grass plugs. Now that it's late summer, it's nicely filled in! I consider rate these two projects among my most successful---though not all gardening exp
The Mama Kat topic for today is: "Share a story about the best or worst gift you ever received." You wouldn't think chocolate could be a worst possible gift, but, in this case, it was. It wasn't even wrapped. It was just a Dark Lindt Chile Chocolate bar that a guy from our singles Bible study handed me. He was a regular at our Sunday night study, a Navy guy in the school for learning how to disarm explosive devices. He knew I fancied chocolate and he happened to fancy Lindt's spicy Chocolate Chile bar. So, one evening at our on base Tuesday Bible Study, he called me aside and handed me one of these Lindt Chocolate Chile bars. "Here, this is for you, " he said. I said, "Thank you," accepted it and slipped it into my book bag to take home for later. " No, " he said, his face clearly displeased I'd dare keep it for myself. "I want you to share it with everyone else." What? You give me a gift, the
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