Choice Morsels

A Box Turtle Enjoying Popcorn Hubby likes to eat a big tub of popcorn at the movies, then gets the free refill and we bring it home to toss out for the birds and the occasional turtle. Got this shot last weekend. He has his eye on me, even though I'm a good 10 feet away. Big Blue Blooms! I recently read watering Hydrangea's with a little baking soda mixed in water helps them flourish, especially if they're not performing well.  (I realized the woman sharing this had white Hydrangeas and watering with baking soda added to water is a great idea for white or pink Hydrangeas, which, of course, aren't negatively effected by it.) But for blue or purple shades of Hydrangeas, do not use baking soda to water them, unless you want to change their color to pink or light lavender.  To keep Hydrangea's their bluest blue, they need a sulfur based fertilizer, which you can buy or you can use Epsom Salts. For things you want to stay Blue or Purple: add one Tabl...

A few amusing Pins from my humor Pinterest board: #1)   Quote by Albert Einstein combined with a photo kids all on smart phones: "I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots." Years ago, back in the 70's, I read a short science fiction story about technology advancing to the point here on earth where people didn't ever have to leave their homes. They could do everything remotely by computer: socialize, earn a living, order food or whatever they needed. No one talked face to face.  Everyone forgot how. Seeing technology today, I often remember that story and it gives me deju vu.  #2)  Statue of Liberty with Light Saber. #3) Millenial Anti-Theft Device   We've successfully raised an entire generation that, for the most part, can't drive a manual transmission. 

Today, a nice shot of my Gardenia Topiary. Years ago, I found a rooted stem under my big Gardenia shrub out front, dugit up, planted it here and trimmed and trained it to grow into a single stem, short tree, roundish at the top. It always puts on a good show every year! My Veggie Garden: A  Pretty Bouquet of Garden Flowers: Really, I like growing flowers so I have some to snip and put in a vase. Glads, Hydrangea and a Trumpet Lily pictured here. The big white face isn't a Easter Lily, but a different breed of trumpet lily that came with a mixed set of cutting lilies I ordered last spring. It's more wide in front and not as long as an Easter Lily. Lasted all week in the vase. I like putting a Gardenia in my vases for the smell, but the flowers have a short life, regardless of whether they're on the bush or in a vase.

T his recipe was actually a Pinterest recipe for Garlic Spinach Pasta---since I have a bunch of Spinach in my garden and needed something to do with it.  After making I realized the oil & garlic ratio made this recipe perfect for pasta combined with ANYTHING! I added sliced Portabella mushrooms and fresh garden spinach to my first round, which was good, but I felt I'd like the dish more if it it had shrimp or imitation crab in it. Or Kielbasa. One thing about fresh spinach---if you want it to distribute evenly throughout the pasta, cut up the leaves before adding them to the skillet to saute. Whole leaves wilt, then glop together in gooey blobs. (The photo is my dinner I made using this recipe with pasta, sausage, sugar snap peas & mozzarella.) Garlic Anything Pasta 6 cloves of garlic, minced 1/4 cup Olive Oil 12 oz to 16 oz of your favorite pasta, cooked & drained Salt & Pepper to taste 1 cup of your favorite shredded cheese: Parmesan, Rom...

A Riot of Easter Lilies in the Front Bed! I have them scattered both thick and thin all sorts of places. Next View was Today's Project: Hedging the Landscape Ivy The ivy is that row of green running to the A/C unit. The Pink Hydrangea you can see there is looking pretty this year. Last View: New Purple Leaf Shamrocks They bloom pink flowers, but the leaves are this deep purplish-pink. They are one of this spring's purchases. I bought them for contrasting color. There are about 10 here and there different places.  (You can see one along the bottom of the top photo in front of the container of Hen & Chicks.)

I have several photos to share this week: First: A Shot of the Tree Guy Working on Cutting Down Our Neighbors Pine Tree. Getting the cutting done of branches on some of my trees as well as getting this giant tree cut down was a coordinated project between ourselves and our neighbor with the tree company.  He, Hubby and myself stood outside in our driveway, me with coffee mug in hand, watching the whole process starting at 7 am.  This tree was easily 100 feet tall. They removed every branch first, then sliced the trunk down in 4 foot chunks. Took about 2 hours.  Today's Garden Project: Cleaning up this bed was really the last of my bigger garden projects. It needed raking off and fresh mulch, which is a combo of pine bark mulch and mower mulch over newspaper. (keeps the weeds down) The two plants in front are Purple Bell Peppers. In the containers are container blueberries. The row of spiky green leaves are my various hybrid day lilies of assorted speci...

I'm a day late this week, doing Monday's post on Tuesday, but a great recipe is good anytime of the week and this one for Date Bars truly is! I remember making Date Bars when I was a kid in 4-H and after my sister made some, I decided to look through Pinterest for a good recipe to have on hand and found this. I've made this recipe a couple times now; first just halved for an 8 x 8 pan (photo) because I only had one bag of chopped dates, but the recipe is for a 10 x 13 pan.  Old Fashioned Date Bars Ingredients: 3 cups pitted chopped dates (or 2  8oz bags of Dole Chopped Dates) 2 cups all purpose flour 1 cup quick oats 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 cups brown sugar, packed 3 eggs 1 cup butter or margarine (2 sticks)  1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 to 1 cup pecans to taste Directions: Prep a 10 x 13 baking pan by spraying it with oil spray and preheating oven to 375.  In a medium bowl: sof...

Today's "find" is using Coffee Grounds in the garden! I usually keep a small bowl on the counter lined with a plastic bag (like a Walmart bag) and to empty my grounds into, then I  dump the wet grounds into a 10 x 13 foil pan, shake it to spread them out and let them dry  in the sun. I find them easier to sprinkle over soil if they're dry. I understand you can ask Starbucks for used grounds and they'll give you a large quantity---good if you want a lot. Things to Do with Coffee Grounds: *  Sprinkling grounds over the surface of soil around Hostas and other garden plants is a great deterrent for snails & slugs, who don't like the texture. *   Dig grounds (wet or dry) into the soil in around any acid-loving plants: Azaleas, Roses, Hydrangeas, Camellias, Blueberries & Citrus Trees. Mostly for a nitrogen boost to your soil. Looser soil also attracts earthworms, who enrich the soil. *   Make your own liquid feeder "tea" for...

Around the corner from us, a neighbor has a couple Giant Agave plants. I've been waiting for them to bloom, so I could photograph their unique flower head up close. Finally one of them is putting up a bloom stalk. Giant Agave are huge . Just to give you perspective on size, I had Hubby stand next to one. He's 5-8. That giant asparagus-looking stalk behind him is the flower stem.  It's thick as a flag pole and will rise 16 to 20 feet before it blooms. Giant Agave are fairly common around here. They have about a 10 year lifespan and bloom around the 10th year, then they die. They pup new ones around the base like an Aloe. I think they're unique looking, but to just stick one in a woodsy pine tree landscape doesn't make sense to me. I don't care for them, but if I were going to have a Giant Agave, I'd want to set up a corner as as in more of a desert landscape with rocks and pebbles and Yucca and succulents or a mix of more tropical pla...