Choice Morsels

I have two Garden Pics to show today! On Monday, when it was raining all day, I had to go out and move hoses away from a drainage area and I ran across this itty-bitty baby Box Turtle! I brought him inside and took a photo with a quarter nearby for perspective. He was only slightly larger then a quarter in size. Here he is: Next: My Wandering Jew in Bloom! I keep this beautiful houseplant outside in a shady spot all summer. In late fall, before it gets cool, I trim off a bunch of stems, put them in a vase of water and keep them inside all winter. (They root easily in a vase of water.) Then in spring, I put them back in their pot of dirt for summer.  They're part of a display out front under the aspen tree.  It's hhad a prosperous year this year with me keeping them watered and now they're blooming. Wandering Jew was the sweetest little lavender tri-petal flowers!  Like most houseplants, it needs to be root-bound to bloom. That's it for t...

There's a large band of much-needed rain moving eastward across the southeast today--including here! It's been raining steadily off and on since around 10 last night.  My rain garden is pooled with water for the first time in months! And other good news--a Panera Bread is finally being built on our side of town! Less then 3 miles away! We're very excited about that! Today's Good Eating recipe is actually an experimental extension of last weeks Frozen Fruit Cobbler that I call, "Black Forest Cobbler!" It was suggested that cake mix over either cherries or strawberries might be a good combo, so I bought frozen cherries & tried it out this past Sunday.  And it was good, though I think with frozen cherries more then two bags is needed. The cherry/chocolate cake mix combo was tasty, but not very sweet. (That might be a plus if you like less sweet desserts!) I'm thinking I might like to try a box of brownie instead of cake mix next time to see...

In Florida, it's possible to have both a spring and fall veggie garden. You have to grow different things, but still--gardening is an option twice a year.  I grew up in the north, so getting into the groove with this is something has been a process. Florida winter weather is perfect for cabbage, broccoli, carrots, onions, garlic, cilantro, romaine lettuce and some kinds of beets. So, planting my winter veggie bed is something I did today: I'm using this bed, which runs along the house for rows of beets & Romaine lettuce. (You can see my pepper plant in the lower front corner of the photo still going and that upside down milk carton is for deep watering it.) To prep the area I removed a bucket's worth of surface soil, then dug in garden soil & fertilizer. (I used Park Seed that I'd ordered.) I actually meant this bed to be a strawberry bed and there are a smattering of strawberries in it, but they like the other end. They don't like thi...

After Zumba this morning, I worked outside a bit. The weather is warm, but not humid, which makes it fairly nice. I finished putting in some edging and planted a few mums and a Coral Bell (Heuchera)  plant we purchased at Walmart last weekend.  I picked out the late 2 light pink mums and one lavender to add to the area under my kitchen bay window along the walkway. In Florida, mums will bloom twice: once in spring, then again in late fall/early winter. Today's Good Eating recipe is a Pinterest recipe for "Frozen Fruit Cobbler." It only calls for just 3 ingredients:  frozen fruit, a box of cake mix and one can of 7-up, Spite or other similar soda. However---and this was a big however --the recipe called for just dumping two bags of unthawed frozen berries or other frozen fruit into the pan, but I found out it might be better to thaw the frozen fruit first, if you don't want an excessive cooking time. I think if you used just berries, like strawberries or bl...

Today's Mama Kat blog writing prompt topic is, "Share something you wanted to be when you grew up." I graduated in 1975.  That means my growing-up years were the 50's, 60's and early 70's.  Career option considerations for women back then were a little bit different then they are now. There were no personal computers, no smart phones and the employment opportunities for women beyond being a school teacher, a nurse, a secretary or a factor production worker were still in their early days of expansion. Dr. Saddler & Dr. Grant (Laura Dern & Sam Neill) with a Triceratops in Jurassic Park 1.  I had 2 career ambitions while growing up: First, like most grade school kids looking at a few dinosaur pictures, I wanted to be an archaeologist.  Then I learned how painstakingly exacting and boring digging for buried history actually was and lost interest. I realized I didn't have the patience. Roy Desoto (Kevin Tighe) & Johnny Gage ...

Today I was doing more fall clean-up like trimming off expired Hosta stems and picking up pine cones. I picked up around 40.  I also dug up a couple of giant Hosta's that were not thriving where they were to a new location. Also moved some Ajuga to the same location. Today's Garden Pics are Red & Purple Salvia! Salvia is a member of the Sage family. I didn't know that. Easy to grow and drought tolerant. Bees and Hummingbirds love Salvia; Hummer particularly like the red. These photos are both of my own Salvia's taken several about a month ago: Red Salvia: This pretty shot captures the Salvia in my large container garden in the front yard. The red is showier then the purple and makes a nice splash of red in the garden or container. Here in the South it can be perennial and will bloom well into winter as long as it doesn't freeze. I've seen stems sprout again in spring and sometimes they re-seed themselves. But I haven't been lucky enough ...

It's been so cool the past two days we turned the A/C off and opened the house up! It was so nice getting in some fresh air in! But a low is coming in by Wednesday with rain, so good-bye sweet fall temperatures! Today's Good Eating Recipe is: Tuscan Bean Soup w/ Kielbasa!  It's based on a Pinterest recipe I found, which called for fresh zucchini, yellow squash, celery, carrots and kale. I skipped the kale and celery. For me, buying a bundle of celery just for a couple stalks for some recipe isn't worthwhile, since I usually end up throwing the rest away after a couple months. It just sits there, unused. This Tuscan Bean S oup is supposed to be a "meatless meal," but  my Hubby isn't into "meatless" anything, though he gave the first round of soup a fair try. He really wanted some Kielbasa added to what was still left to eat! So, that's my why Tuscan Soup has Kielbasa in it--and actually, it was better. When I decided I was going t...

I spotted another new Amy Canary melon today! The vines seem to be so much more productive now, then earlier this spring! Also, as this time of year, insect problems can be less. My remaining Miracle-Gro had turned to blue water, so I used it up  giving all my flowers, containers & garden a "fall feed." That helps all the bulb flowers, day lilies, regular lilies iris, hydrangeas and so on perform better in spring. (Fortunately, the Miracle-gro is in a plastic liner inside it's box.) I also planted my remaining Atlas carrot seeds in a patio container today. Park Seed had a free-shipping special over Labor Day Weekend, so I ordered some seed. The majority is for next spring, but I got some beets and Romaine lettuce for right now. It's already shipped. I should be able to plant it next week! Today's Garden Pics: Fall Zinnia's Both these Zinnia's pictured were volunteers, coming up in various locations on their own. I prefer Zinnia's wit...

The Mama Kat blog prompt topic for today is,  "Share the fruits of your labor from your garden this year." My garden isn't new, though it was newly walled in with a couple rows of castle wall block this year. That certainly helped keep the melon vines in and the Box Turtles out. (Box Turtles will enjoy your ripe melons before you will, if you didn't know.) My garden patch has been taken over by melon vines. The sudden change from humid summer to dry fall weather has given all the melon vines a second wind and has spurred fresh growth. Water them with a little Epsom Salts didn't hurt either. (The potassium in Epsom Salts helps them fruit.) The pictures below were both taken today: First Picture: A ripening Canary type "Amy" Melon. I should be able to harvest it sometime later this weekend. I'm working on a Honeydew we bought right now. The white dust is Sevin dust. It's there to keep Cucumber beetles away. Nasty buggers bore into ...

It's been very dry here for about two weeks. The weather just suddenly switched from humid summer to dry fall. I've been watering the garden, garden containers & flower beds daily. The weather change has been a boon to the melons in the garden--the Amy vines have entered a fresh cycle growth and bloom and the watermelon abruptly started setting fruit. As I was watering this afternoon, I came across an unexpected thing:  I've been rooting 3 small branches of Lantana in tiny pots that I keep in a plastic tray I can add water to. This tray is in a herb bed opposite my front door. Yesterday, I noticed two honey bees and a potter's wasp in the tiny pots of Lantana---since I sort of washed them overboard with my hose spray. Today, as I approached the tray, I noticed about a half-dozen honey bees coming and going from those tiny pots of Lantana. The plants have no flowers. On closer observation, I observed the Honey Bees were there to get a drink. They either ...