Garden Pic Wednesday: Stinkhorn Fungus & Alyssum

-

Last week, one winter day when was warmish and muggy after a rain, I found this "Stinkhorn" Fungus in my flower bed that's along the walkway to the front door. 
Also known as Column Stinkhorn or more amusingly, as "Dead Man's Fingers."
Stinkhorns have emit a smelly odor to attract flies and so on, who then brush against spores and carry them off--that's how it reproduces. 
They are quite unique---though I don't put my nose up close!


 

Last week we had our first hard freeze--everything except this Alyssum and the Broccoli in my raised garden got freeze-fried. 
I was out of town right then, so unfortunately I wasn't able to cover my Salvia or anything. But amazingly, this Alyssum carries on!


Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for leaving a comment!

Popular posts from this blog

Garden Pic Wednesday: Early Winter Color

-
Image
This is front yard boarder the lays along my property line with my neighbor. It's looked this pretty until just yesterday, when it got a little cold over night that put a dent in the Mexican Heather and some of the white Vinca, but the Marigolds persist. (Those are their solar flamingo lights, which look pretty at night.) And this is a shot of my front bed by the mailbox: That pretty light green plant with the magenta blossoms is a 4'Oclock called "Limelight." This is a fresh growth that sprang up in late September, I think. Here in Florida, 4'Clocks are perennial.  There are actually 3 of them in this bed; this one is the largest.  
Read more

How To Make Your Own Card in Zazzle

-
Image
Zazzle is an American Printing Company that offers print-on-demand products with designs either created by free lance artists ready for you to buy that may allow you to customize photos or text OR be created by YOU!  So today, I'm going to show you basic steps to using the Zazzle design tool, which works a little like Canva, to create your own Save The Date style card: #1)  Select yout card template you want to use here:  Zazzle Card Templates  Shown is a 5 x 7 flat card that is popular. To the right, click the blue "Edit Your Image" button to open the Design Tool. #2) Now you're ready to design: First, what kind of background do you want?  Red arrows point at either a plain color background option or a pre-designed color or print background? (all free) I added one of the pre-designed backgrounds. #3) Next, do you want to add clip art? Click the word "Icons'  on left side bar to open this drop down menu indicated by red arrow. I selected a pair of rings wit...
Read more

Mama Kat Thursdsay: My First Car

-
Image
 My first car was this: A baby blue 1978 Ford Pinto Hatchback, 4-speed standard transmission just like this. I bought it after I got out of the Air Force. It was 1980 and I was planning on going to college. I saw it for advertised for sale by an individual in the local paper. Price was great and it was in great condition. It got 45 miles to the galleon on the highway--which actually puts modern, lighter gasoline burning vehicles to shame, considering that blue body was all metal. Heavy, too--on a good downward hill in neutral it could coast 50-60 miles an hour flat out.  It took me to college the next years and was our primary vehicle after husband and I got married for another year or so. I looking back, I regret we didn't keep it after we bought a new car. It would've been smarter to have kept it. 
Read more

Mama Kat Thursday: Favorite Local Restaurant

-
Image
The Mama Kat prompt I'm doing today is, "Share your favorite local restaurant." We have a couple favorite local restaurants, but I'm only going to share one today: The Aegean Restaurant. This one is located in Shalimar, Florida, across the the street from the county administrative building, around 10 -12 miles from where we live. Distance here is kind of relative, since the Air Force base is the center  of everything and the towns are spread out on either side of it, so getting from one to another involves driving around the base; Shalimar is on the West side of the base and we live on the East side. It's Greek and the family that owns and runs it are Greek as well, so it's authentic. Here's an inside view: All the food on the menu is delicious and they have a good mix of Greek specialties as well as entrees, pastas, salads for those who rather have something more ordinary. One thing I like that they serve, if I'm in the mood for ...
Read more

Garden Pic Wednesday: Holly Flowers!

-
Image
I've been making bread about once a week with my relatively new bread-maker and today decided to make some old-fashioned cinnamon & raisin swirl bread. That's basically like making a giant cinnamon roll. It's doing it 2nd rise now, then I'll bake it. Today's Garden Pic is Holly Flowers! This is an Oakland Holly tree and it's going to be loaded with berries! The berries are edible for birds! The tree is about 4 feet high. It's a holly tree of shorter suited to the South, slow-growing, grower, self-pollinating and naturally holds a triangular symmetry without hedging.  All perfect in my book! This week was also Valentine's Day and Hubby got me a HILARIOUS card! I laughed out-loud when I read it. I took pictures and here it is: Outside says, "This Valentine will bring tears to your eyes..." Inside says, "I farted in it! Anyway, Happy Valentine's Day." And he gave me a Mounds bar--my most favorite ...
Read more