Quote – Peace
Author: Timelesslady
Married with children and grandchildren. Reader, writer, painter - maybe a bit of an artist. Gardener... Led by the Spirit.
Project – Flowery Potpourri
I’ve posted in the past on how I use the heat at hand in a closed car for drying herbs. A few days ago, hoping to save the scent and color of a few of my rose petals, I dried them in my car.
A metal cookie sheet works best for me. I spread an even layer of my flower petals, or herbs if that is your choice, and leave them in the closed car. Within a few hours I have dried plant material to use for projects or in my cooking.
The flowers shrink down to about half their original size, and retain their vivid colors.
I can add a few drops of rose essential oil, or another flowery scent, to enhance their natural fragrance. Give this a try…I promise you it’s amazing!
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Photograph – Endangered Sightings – One to Infinity
Numbers “Equations. Clock faces. Cash registers. Numbers are everywhere: this week, share a photo that puts them front and center.” The Photo Challenge at WordPress
On the drive to Fortescue, New Jersey, and the Delaware Bay last weekend, we saw a Bald Eagle having a meal in a cornfield. Bald Eagles are thriving in our state and 40% of them live in the lower counties. Years ago, the only eagles I encountered were in the Philadelphia Zoo or on the wildlife television channels. What thrill it is now to see them flying high, or to zoom in with my camera as an eagle brings down prey in a field.
Horseshoe crabs are also considered an endangered species, but since they have been protected, they are impossible to count. The infinite number of eggs they lay on the local bay beaches keeps the crab population growing, and provides food for shorebirds, many of them also endangered.
Horseshoe crabs often upend in the waves. Unless they manage to turn themselves over, and many of them don’t, they will perish in the hot sun.
While my husband fished, I turned over dozens that lay with their undersides exposed. It’s amazing how fast these creatures can move when they are heading back to the cooling water of the bay.
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Plants – Fragrant Roses Yes! – Trumpet Vine NO!
I planted several roses in April of this year. I replaced the cottage garden annuals that grew in the long border with a half dozen rose bushes in hopes that the labor intensive area would become easier to maintain. I chose varieties that promised fragrance, and I haven’t been disappointed. Heirloom, Fragrant Cloud and Singing the Blues are definitely roses with a beautiful scent. (These roses are available from local retail stores and through Star Roses)
I enjoy cutting ready to burst buds from the bushes to enjoy indoors. Adding a few sprigs of foliage is a perfect foil for the beauty of the bloom.
I use ivy and variegated vinca vine growing along the borders of my yard. These plants work well with flowers in arrangements. I also have an abundance of sprouts growing from our original trumpet vine. The trumpet vine sends out long-reaching roots, the roots send up dozens, if not hundreds, of sprouts, each one capable of growing into another gigantic trumpet vine. I use them in floral arrangements, but they are not long lasting, and wilt quickly. The smaller leaves of the trumpet vine press well and look pretty in my greeting card designs, but would I ever plant a trumpet vine again? Absolutely NOT!
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Pots & Pans – Homemade Ice Cream Cake
We celebrated four family birthdays in May. We all love ice cream cakes, so that was our dessert of choice. Store-bought ice cream cakes can be pricey, so for the last birthday in the month, and because we had repeated the same brand of cake twice; I created an ice cream cake of my own.
The cake turned out sensational. Since I buy my favorite brands of ice cream when they are on sale, the cake cost half of what I paid for the store bought cake, and fed double the people. Hooray!
Homemade Ice Cream Cake
Ingredients:
2 Cartons of Breyers Chocolate Chip Mint Ice Cream
1 pkg. Keebler Grasshopper Cookies
2 tbsp melted butter
Rainbow Sprinkles
Redi-Whip Whipped Cream in a can
These ingredient choices are easily changed to make your own custom cake. Half the ingredients will make a smaller cake. (8×8 pan)
Spray bottom of 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Process grasshoppers to crumbs. Mix half the crumbs with melted butter and press into pan. Bake for about five minutes. The chocolate on the cookies will also help the crumbs stick together. Set remaining crumbs aside.
Let cool. While cooling, take out ice cream and let it soften until it is easily spread with a spatula or back of large spoon. Before I begin to spread the ice cream, I mix it around in a bowl to be sure it is ready to spread.
When the pan is completely cool you can begin to add the ice cream. I like to space out six to eight dollops on the crumbs, and then begin to spread it. If the ice cream doesn’t spread easily at this point, wait until it softens a bit more. If you try to spread while the ice cream is still too cold, you will break up your cookie crumb crust and create a big mess.
Sprinkle half the remaining cookie crumbs evenly on the top of this layer of ice cream. Gently press into ice cream with back of a spoon or spatula.
Repeat with the second carton of softened ice cream, spread carefully until you have an even top layer.
At this point I used two large, rectangular container lids I had on hand, and laid them on the top of the pan as a guide. I created diagonal lines of sprinkles, with a line of cookie crumbs alongside each stripe of sprinkles.
Wavy strips of whipped cream added a third decorative element. A border of whipped cream around the edge of the pan created a nice finished look.
Cover and freeze your finished cake for several hours. Just like a store-bought ice cream cake, let the cake thaw for about twenty minutes before you attempt to cut and serve. Enjoy!
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Planting – A Salute to Garden Volunteers
Anyone who has read my blog over a period of time knows that I love the garden plants that spring up as volunteers. I found a few volunteer tomato sprouts amongst my roses and blue lobelia this week. (The sprout in this post stands to the left of the larger plant in the photograph) My best guess as to the original location of the seed was soil I used this year in my winter sowing .
Happily for me, an empty spot in my Square Foot Garden was the perfect fit for my volunteer. I dug up the sprout, transported it on my trowel, and planted. It’s a mystery as to the variety, and that makes it all the more fun. Oh the gardening life…what a joy!
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Posies – Arranging Gangly Flower Stems
Lance-leaved coreopsis is blooming this week in my wildflower garden. The plants are loaded with dozens of flowers, providing the perfect opportunity for creating a tabletop bouquet.
The stems of Coreopsis lanceolata (Lance-leaved Coreopsis) are gangly, and quickly droop upon cutting. To use them for an indoor bouquet requires breaking the traditional rules of floral arranging. Instead of placing foliage sprigs beneath the flowers, place the blooms around the rim of your vase, allowing the foliage to take center stage. The vase supports the weight of the flowers forming a circle of gold around the bright green foliage. Beautiful! A lovely informal bouquet for your kitchen table.
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Quote & Place – East Point Lighthouse
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Peculiarities – Strange Nests
One morning this week, the sun shone warm and bright; a perfect day to go to the park and feed the birds. The ducks, a few adults and several ducklings, were appreciative of the bread and stale cereal we fed them. Afterwards, we walked the few hundred feet to the playground. As my grandchildren climbed aboard the ladders and slides I spied something odd in the scene.
At first glance I thought it was a snapping turtle, but noticed the smooth shell and markings of its head and underbelly, the turtle was the painted variety, not the dangerous snapper.
The turtle was about the length of half a football field from the lake. She lay in a depression in the dirt digging with her hind feet. I zoomed in with my camera and spotted an egg being laid.
She seemed quite oblivious to the close proximity and commotion created by the children, and lay several eggs while the children played. I was thrilled to be able to see her laying eggs in person. Usually that type of an experience is only available through wildlife channels on television.
“The painted turtle (Chrysemys picta) is the most widespread native turtle of North America. It lives in slow-moving fresh waters, from southern Canada to Louisiana and northern Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The turtle is the only species of the genus Chrysemys, which is part of the pond turtle family Emydidae. Fossils show that the painted turtle existed 15 million years ago. Four regionally based subspecies (the eastern, midland, southern, and western) evolved during the last ice age.” ~ Wikipedia
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Photograph – Spare Carnivores
WordPress Photo Challenge -This week, get inspired by the many connotations of the word “Spare”
The carnivorous plants in the Longwood Garden Conservatory always have a spare appearance to me, but looks matter little in trapping their prey. Many carnivorous plants depend on sweet mucilaginous glands to lure insects in.
Moral of the Story: Sweetness is often more alluring than glamour.
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Phun – Throwback Thursday/Adventure/King of the Hill
WordPress Discover Challenge – Adventure
Remember when your best adventures were as simple as climbing, or defending, a large pile of sand?
Throwback Thursday – Do you remember playing “King of the Hill?”
“King of the Hill (also known as King of the Mountain or King of the Castle) is a children’s game, the object of which is to stay on top of a large hill or pile (or any other designated area) as the “King of the Hill”. Other players attempt to knock the current King off the pile and take their place, thus becoming the new King of the Hill.”
~ Wikipedia
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Phavorites & Place – Morguefile and Mars
The planet Mars is close to earth in June of 2016. This week will provide you with a good opportunity for viewing the red planet. Nasa’s website provides good information on how to best view Mars. Nasa – Mars in Our Night Sky.
“In 2016, the planet Mars will appear brightest from May 18 to June 3.” ~ Nasa Website
Since I don’t have a photograph of Mars for this post, I searched one of my favorite royalty-free sites for a good example. I found this interesting atmospheric photograph, taken of Mars in 2014, on the Morguefile site courtesy of Tom Wildoner.
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Phlowers – Ten on Tuesday/Pinks
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Quote – Memorial Day
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Praise – Romans 12:12
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Pheathers – Jubilant
JUBILANT – The emotion I felt upon finding a robin’s nest within my wisteria bush.
Birds visiting my yard and feeders is one of my chief joys, I was delighted to discover a beautiful robin’s nest this week. Now, I must tiptoe around it, and hope the mother does not abandon her roost when lawn mowers and other noisy machines create a racket.
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Photographs – Wordless Wednesday/Sunshine & Roses
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Praise – Moving Forward
The weather in my area, in what should be glorious Springtime, has been grey, cold and dismal. The greyness is getting into people’s moods and outlook for the future. In the midst of another weekend of rain and gloom, I must look forward and seek out God’s Word to remind me that I need to keep on making small steps and not let myself become weary in spirit. The clematis vine is a good illustration of that point, at Winter’s end it is completely buried under the ground, but by small increments, and moving forward (and up) each day, it will soon cover its support with blossoms and leaves. I need to do the same in every aspect of my life. “FORWARD ALL!” Blessings on your day.
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Pareidolia – Birds
Pareidolia – “The word is derived from the Greek words para, meaning something faulty, wrong, instead of, and the noun eidōlon, meaning image, form or shape. Pareidolia is a type of apophenia, which is a more generalized term for seeing patterns in random data.” ~ Live Science – Pareidolia
The Daily Post Photo Challenge for this week is Faces, a perfect match for the driftwood I found lying on the beach of the Delaware River in National Park, NJ this past weekend.
Do you see the faces of two birds? I do. I couldn’t leave these pieces of river-drift just lying on the beach to wash back out with the next tide. I don’t know exactly what I will do with them, but I’ve seen some stunning examples of driftwood painted for display. I am wondering if these birds need a bit of paint, or perhaps some feathers. Hmmm…what do you think? Paint, feathers or left au natural???
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Problem-Solving – The Flip Side of Moths
The flip side of moths is the damage many can cause if they get into your cupboards or drawers. I once found a cherished wool sweater ruined by moths. A few years later my pantry became infested with moths, and I ended up throwing all dry goods and pasta away.
Three herbs I grow in my garden are good moth repellents. Bundled with a rubber band, rosemary, lavender and sage, hung inside a cupboard or laid in a drawer, will work as a moth repellent.
