On a recent camping trip my nephew brought along a survival hammock. This lightweight, full sized hammock fits inside a small bag and easily opens up into a strong and durable, weatherproof hammock. We were amused at how prepared he was for any problems he might encounter. All within reach were his flip-flops, a hatchet, and a fly swatter. He was prepared for any emergency.
These hammocks are quite expensive, but for the serious camper and hiker, worth the expense.
Papa loved the new disc swing so much he wouldn’t give anyone else a turn on it. Just kidding though…big boys and little boys, and even Nanny (me) loved the new swing.
This project was so easy to do. Find a sturdy tree limb, buy a wooden disc at the lumber store, drill a large hole, string a strong rope and tie it onto the tree limb. Voila! A terrific swooping swing.
You always crave what you can’t have. I don’t know how much I “love” hot dogs, but because I have a bad reaction to the sulfites in them and other foods that contain this chemical, I don’t eat them. So, of course I crave hot dogs, but never eat them at picnics, fairs or barbecues. I was so happy to find these Angus Beef hot dogs in the supermarket this summer. They are free of artificial preservatives. Hooray! They were worth a try, although I found them quite expensive compared to other hot dogs. The flavor was good, not spectacular, the skin a little chewy, but I was eating a real hot dog.
If there were any sulfites, they were negligible because I was fine and never felt ill effects.
Here is information on sulfite allergy: Sulfite allergies
My Square Foot Garden is still going strong. I have replanted my spring section with Fall vegetables. The summer section is bearing fruit, and I am harvesting the bounty. The peppers are delicious, the eggplant are producing fruit. The newcomer, spaghetti squash, is huge and starting to turn golden. The bush beans are quite a thrill. I planted some new varieties and have had so much fun watching them fruit and dry on the vine. I have to check my cucumbers daily to make sure one isn’t hiding away becoming a MONSTER of a CUKE. The photo below might not seem like such a large cucumber, until you realize it is a Kirby pickling sized cuke.
In my garden containers, the tomatoes are cascading over the tops and are bearing quite a bit of fruit. Even though the rascally squirrels steal some of the bounty, I have brought some of the tomatoes inside to my windowsill and they are ripening. (A neighbor has since told me that this is due to the dry drought conditions we are experiencing. The squirrels ease their thirst with the juice inside the tomatoes.)
Black Brandywine, Amish Paste, Cherry Tomatoes & Kirby Cucumber
I’m excited as I daydream about what surprises my Autumn garden might bring.
To say I have an abundance of books is an understatement. I am blessed to have extra rooms to spread out in, and I have collections of not just my books, but the treasured volumes of other family members too. Still, at times, I feel I don’t have anything to read. I love to look through the donated books in library sales and thrift stores, and almost never buy a full-priced book. Recently I came upon a copy of Dr. Zhivago. I absolutely love the movie, the first version starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie, and also thought the new version starring Keira Knightley and Hans Matheson was done quite well.
The book is filled with some of the most beautiful prose I have ever read. I understood why when I visited Wikipedia’s page on the life of Boris Pasternak. The link can be found here: Boris Pasternak. Pasternak writes so vividly and with such skill that I can perfectly visualize the scenes he describes.
“It was a dry frosty November day with a still, leaden sky and a few snowflakes coming down one by one. They spun slowly and hesitantly before settling on the pavement like fluffy gray dust.”
I am on page seventy-three of the 560 pages. It will take me awhile, but the reading of the familiar story will be well worth it to me.
Here is a beautiful Youtube slide show I found accompanied by Lara’s Theme.
“…Whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” Galatians 6:7
I love this Susan Boyle rendition of Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day.” The song is not only perfect for the Christmas season, but a good message to keep in your heart all the year through.
This is just a little blurb of a post about a “phascinating” natural phenomenon. Hundreds, upon thousands, most likely even millions of baby clams in the surfside sand at Strathmere, NJ each year. Smaller than a dime, many amazing colors, stripes and patterns make up the tiny clamshells. The baby clams wash up in the waves, they dig down, they wash up, they dig down. It is one of those endless cycles you can become almost hynotized by as you watch. Here’ s a little blurb.
Baby Clams on Strathmere Beach
It all started with this crazy-happy placemat I found in Macy’s…I love it, and even better, it was on sale for almost nothing. As my Mom often says about her great bargains…”They were almost giving them away.” My husband and I had repainted our back porch in the traditional white woodwork and gray floor, but I wanted something wild and colorful and inviting as decoration. Sometimes it is hard to come up with the perfect color scheme, but I found all the inspiration I needed in the placemat, and I was off to the decorating races.
I painted a few thrift store tables and chairs a glossy black. They took a lot of time, but I was really pleased with the way they turned out.
I added a few throw pillows and repainted the porch swing a bright, vivid green called, “Tree Frog.” I love the paint and I love the name of the color, and I’m on the lookout for some tree frog additions of some kind…I’ll post when I find them.
I also painted a large acrylic canvas for the back wall.
Plastic Adirondack chairs are bright, resilient, and very easy to keep clean.
A few more pieces of this and that and the porch is near completion, and yes, it is used daily, usually more than once. Every morning I sit on the swing and have my morning coffee and devotions. I feel God’s presence all around me as the birds sing and the sun shines, or the rain patters, and I rock and read and pray.
My grandsons helped me make this special floral arrangement for the table. A dollar store beach bucket filled with sand from their sandbox, an inexpensive and durable windmill of butterflies, some fabulous “jewels,” and the kid-friendly porch and dining table was ready for our first meal together…pizza for lunch. Happily, the wind was feisty and blowing, the windmill spun and fluttered and happy little voices cried out, “It’s Spinning!!!” God is so good to me!
I know I’ve mentioned it before, and I’m sure I will mention it again, but one of my favorite sites on the Internet is Pinterest. I have found so many good ideas there for fun projects and activities to do with my grandsons. Here is a link to my Grandkids Fun board.
Pinterest Link: Grandkids Fun on PINTEREST
We’ve been working on creating pictures using paint on their feet. It’s a “ticklish” business and so much FUN!!!
The beginnings of “Butterflies.”
I was recently sent a link to this terrific flash-mob concert video. I love it…especially the exuberance of the children who enter in the joy of the moment by dancing. Enjoy.
I love visiting the quaint town of New Hope, Pennsylvania. The town of Lambertville, known for it’s art and antiques, is just a stone’s throw across the river.
The town is great, but leave plenty of time for navigating the traffic flow. I took the pictures below as we made our way through town on a holiday weekend. New Hope is crowded, but well worth the visit. If you have time take the NewHope-Ivyland Railroad and visit the sister town of Peddlar’s Village.
I’ve been creating pressed flower greeting cards using some of my stored pressed flowers combined with favorite Bible Verses. I think the two go together well. The flowers on the card front are: florets from the top of a marigold bloom, magenta lobelia, vinca, ferns and other wildflower foliage.
“But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Isaiah 40:31
I had a second crop of lilies bloom in the last few weeks. They are very long-stemmed, some nearing almost four feet in height. We’ve been having some violent and windy storms so I cut most of the stems and brought them indoors to enjoy. When I came downstairs the morning after bringing the flowers in the fragrance had become so strong I almost couldn’t breathe. It filled each room with a scent that was good, but almost wasn’t…does that make any sense? If you have ever smelled Stargazer Lilies it will make perfect sense to you. The fragrance was sweet, but was also over the top, and suddenly began to smell like a room filled with stinky gym socks. My solution was to place the vase of lilies on the porch where they could emit their fragrance without overpowering my sense of smell. The solution was perfect. I could still enjoy and smell the lilies without feeling overpowered.
Floral Arranging Tip: The anthers of lilies are notorious for staining clothing. Most floral arrangers remove the anthers. Conservatories such as Longwood Gardens also remove the anthers to keep the orangish-brown pollen from staining the clothes of visitors. If all these precautions fail and you do get anther pollen on your clothing, instead of rubbing it, which will only set the stain deep into the fabric, use a pipe cleaner bent like a paper clip and gently tease the excess pollen onto the chenille of the pipe cleaner. It won’t remove all the pollen, but it will save the stain from being as noticeable.
My gardens are beginning to produce large amounts of vegetables. I am gloriously happy as I pick the fruits of my labor and place them in my trug basket. I have many cucumbers, squash, tomatoes (the ones the squirrels don’t eat) herbs and a new bush bean called Appaloosa Beans.
I let these beans become completely dry on the bush. I only grew a few since it was something I hadn’t tried in the past. I am very pleased with the look of the bean. I don’t have enough to make a bean dish with them so I am going to save them and use them as the star attraction in winter soups and stews.
Although they appear to be the ideal subject for pressing, Queen Anne’s Lace can be tricky to press. Because they radiate in smaller blossoms from a center stem, pressing the flower as a whole means the center stem will need to stay intact. I cut as close to the last floret petal stem as possible and then place the whole flower into a hard back book. I press under extremely heavy weights to crush the remaining 1/4 inch of stem flat. This usually works, and since the Queen Anne’s Lace is relatively dry, the flower presses well. I have also cut individual florets apart and these work great in smaller compositions.
You will find that Queen Anne’s Lace is loaded with bugs. There are microscopic bugs and then there are larger shiny black beetles. Be careful of squishing or handling the black beetles in any way…they put out a powerful and repulsive scent when scared or harmed. I usually work above newspaper and gently dump these bugs back outdoors.
A great article about Queen Anne’s Lace can be found here: Queen Anne’s Lace
Oh my…oh my…oh my! Once in awhile I come upon a perfect recipe. I found a recipe for Frozen Banana Bites on Pinterest, pinned there from the blog of “(Never Home) Maker.” The recipe on her blog post was for Vegan Frozen Banana Bites. Since I’m not a vegan I adapted my banana bites in my own way. Here is my adaptation:
Frozen Banana Bites
2 whole ripe bananas
1/3 C peanut butter
1/3 cup chocolate chips (I used Ghiardelli 60% cocoa)
Pecans for garnish chopped fine
The recipe is so EASY!!! Cut ripe banana into about 8 – 9 pieces. Set aside in a bowl. Melt the peanut butter and chocolate chips 20 seconds at a time in the microwave. It only took me 40 seconds in all to melt the chocolate. Don’t heat the chocolate too much or it will seize up on you and turn into a big lumpy ball of useless junk. Stir the peanut butter and chocolate until they are mixed and smooth. Place parchment paper on cookie sheet, dab a bit of chocolate on parchment, top with a banana slice. Spoon chocolate over each banana slice until they are coated. Don’t worry if the chocolate puddles out a bit…this makes an interesting shape and delicious chocolate bite. Top with chopped pecans or leave plain. You can also use coconut or rainbow jimmies. Freeze for several hours. Take off of parchment paper and eat or put in a bowl and pop back in the freezer for a later date.
Don’t feel guilty as you enjoy this treat. The bananas are loaded with potassium and other good things. The chocolate is full of antioxidants and facilitates good moods, the peanut butter is loaded with protein, and the nuts are full of vitamin E and protein too.
I have a grandson who has a peanut allergy. I am going to try and make these with marshmallow fluff in place of the peanut butter and use jimmies as the topper. I hope they work. I’ll update with a blog post when I try them out. Check out Pinterest on the internet, so many good ideas!
Here is (Never Home) Maker’s Vegan Recipe:
FROZEN BANANA BITES
What you’ll need . . .
•2 large bananas
•1/4 to 1/3 cup vegan chocolate chips
•1/4 to 1/3 cup natural peanut butter
•Unsweetened coconut flakes
Here is a link to her outstanding blog: (Never Home) Maker
My tomatoes are loaded with green fruit. They are just beginning to show deepening yellow, orange and red tones. Unfortunately, the squirrels have noticed too, and to my great “phrustration” I have realized I waited too long to thwart their voracious appetites for fresh tomatoes. I am annoyed with myself for I was prepared in advance for this problem. This past Christmas season I remembered the gardens of summer and bought what I had read was a preventative for hungry squirrels stealing tomatoes…cherry red Christmas Ornaments. I bought three packs at the Dollar Store and set them aside ready to be put to good use.
The trick: Before your tomatoes set fruit place “Decoy” tomatoes on the branches. The squirrels supposedly will try to bite them and learn they are inedible. It’s a great idea, but I blew it…I waited to put the balls in place until the fruit was already showing red color and unfortunately had already been sampled several times.
I used up all my pungeant spices and baited the Christmas balls with a peanut butter glue coated with garlic, salt, onion powder and Adobo spice. For good measure I pounded a clove of garlic with a hammer and strew it in between all the tomato plants.
I hung my decoys near the lushest and best looking tomatoes. The variety above are Amish Paste. The next day to my dismay I found one of the decoys on the grass, torn off the plant and tossed around as if the squirrels had a late night soccer game.
Adding insult to injury, later in the day…
I spied this cheeky fellow on my lavender adirondack, eating one of my cherry tomatoes with another one waiting at his feet.
Perhaps my ploy might have worked if I had “followed the directions,” something I’ve always had a hard time doing, and placed the decoy tomatoes on the branches of the plants a few weeks earlier in the season.
This is Blue. He is a Western Scrub Jay. Blue is a frequent visitor to the yard of my Aunt Myrna. Blue likes to land on top of heads, especially if a peanut is awaiting him. He also will land on the chest of a person sitting in a recliner if there are peanuts to be found. I have bluejays in my yard, but they are not as friendly, or quite so brilliantly azure blue as a scrub jay. I hope to be able to travel out west one day and meet Blue.
