Hanging Baskets

My hanging baskets are great! I use angelwing begonias every year, and every year I worry they won't be pretty. But they are very reliable. Later the blooms will cascade more, but they are nice now.

I made five and a half pints of blueberry preserves this morning. It looks like they set this time.

I picked blackberries to add to the ones in the refrigerator. I plan to work on them tomorrow. I want to make jelly and maybe blackberry cordial. I'm going to have lots more blackberries so I'll probably do the same again in a few days.

I fertilize stuff with a weak solution of fertilizer each week. I did the flower boxes and baskets yesterday along with flowers in the front flower beds.

Today I fertilized with strawberry plants, cucumbers, tomatoes and eggplants in my tire garden.

The temperature has just been in the 80's for a couple of days so it's been ok working outside.

Try Again

I picked three heaping quarts of blueberries today and a bowl of strawberries. i ate the strawberries and plan to try again for blueberry preserves tomorrow.

Is That a Threat?

I recooked one jar of preserves the way the directions said and waited 24 hours. It still didn't set. I told Larry I was going to toss it. He said he was going to pull up the bushes. Really? Who likes them? They are healthy but pretty tasteless to me. He likes them. Poor baby.

Dahlias

Dahlia blooms have started. Larry is a fan. Both yellow ones are blooming. The red and white ones aren't, yet. They look better than they did last year.

Happy Sunday!

Great Day! I put off annoying things and enjoyed the day. Tomorrow is soon enough to tackle the jelly fiasco.

Jelly and Preserves

I spent a good portion of the day making jelly and preserves. I'm not finished with either one. I thought I would be almost finished with the blueberry preserves but it didn't set. So tomorrow I'll dump all the jars out, add more surejell and maybe sugar, and reprocess the preserves. I'd feel worse except there's a portion on the surejell directions about fixing it if it doesn't set. So it can't be the first time somebody screwed up.I also haven't finished the blackberry jelly. Tomorrow. I kept looking at the jars thinking it might make decent blueberry syrup or garbage. I hate to give up on the work I've already done.

Porch June 25,, 2016

The angelwing begonias show up well. I have several other things that aren't easily seen yet. I started the begonias from cuttings. The seedlings are doing all right, but they aren't really big enough to show up yet.

Coyote

We have a big yard, but today Larry saw a coyote at the edge. Some of the neighbors have animals but we don't. I don't want coyotes, either.

Yesterday

Yesterday I picked blackberries, changed clothes and went to the Marina for lunch. My favorite part was the chocolate shake though the hot dog was good, too.
I've started gathering up the stuff to make blackberry jelly. It's a mess because the stuff I need is stored all over the place and crushing the berries and squeezing the pulp through a jelly bag isn't tidy. I think I'm getting to the part where I can actually finish the jelly today. Until I get to a new line on the directions, I don't realize I have to look for something else.

The Pursuit

The Pursuit is the latest Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg novel. Lee Goldberg is the author of the television series Monk, which I liked. Janet Evanovich writes the Stephanie Plum series. I've read a bunch of them but stopped around #18. I like this collaborative effort. 

Do They Know?

I was talking to a lady at lunch who complained that the school wanted her son to go on medication. She said he has a lot of energy but she has no intention of putting him on medication. I listened to her explain how having a lot of energy is a good thing. She said they want everybody to be the same. I asked her if they know how boring they are. She laughed. It's interesting to hear other people's problems and not have to try to fix them.

Sunflower

The bees are all over the sunflowers. I don't know if they get nectar, but the have loaded up on pollen. They look as if they are sporting yellow saddlebags.

Yuck!

We've moved most of the hummingbird feeders to the back porch because they lured honeybees. Moving the feeders mostly got rid of the bees. But today I was drinking a mug of black coffee and found a honeybee floating in it! Larry suggested using a beer stein with a lid. I just tried to look before sipping.

Lasagna

I love lasagna. Everything in it is on my low-carb diet except the noodles so I tried a recipe for eggplant parmigian I found in a Prevention magazine a long time ago. I first did the recipe as directed. But it took a long time and was a lot of trouble. So instead of letting the eggplant drain while covered with salt, then coating it with wheat germ and putting it in the oven for a while, I just boiled the sliced eggplant, drained it, and then made lasagna using the eggplant instead of noodles. I used all my usual lasagna ingredients except for the boiled eggplant. 

I suppose zucchini would work. I made up pans of it in disposable aluminum brownie pans and froze it. Larry only liked it freshly cooked, but I packed it in lunch-sized servings and took it to school for a healthy, delicious meal. 

Mostly when people say they are on a diet, nobody drools over their lunches:)

Blueberries, Blackberries, and Plums

It is seriously hot to pick this stuff. You think how nice it will be to have fruit from your own yard/garden, but you don't think what a sweaty mess it will be to pick it.

Air Fixed

Last night was pretty miserable because the air conditioner was out. The repairman who came about 7 pm wasn't able to do much besides decide what needed to be done. But today around two a guy came out with the replacement part and it works again.
The little fountain we put in the carport flower bed evaporates pretty fast in this weather. I had to add water twice today.

Air

Our outside thermometer said it was 96 not counting the heat index. The air conditioner went out. I called the guy who installed it and found out he died two weeks ago. I called another place and they had been bought out but one of the workers from the last owner worked there. He came by, said he'd done something so it would work tonight, but it isn't working. He is supposed to come sometime tomorrow to fix it. I'm pretty unhappy with just fans. I remember when I was young we didn't have air conditioning. We had an attic fan. I like air conditioning much better.

Another Reality

I've always loved to read. The last few years I've liked audio books, too. Audible had a sale on books recently. Some of the authors are familiar to me and I thought how lucky people were who would take advantage of the sale to become acquainted with these authors. Then I thought maybe I could find new favorite authors. One was about time travel so I got it. It was well done, but the setting and characters were not comfortable for hours of listening.
Now I'm listening to Lev Grossman's The Magician. I don't know if I'm going to like it enough to get the whole series or not. I liked how it started out, but it has started to lose interest for me.
I got the first of the Sue Grafton alphabet series. It was pretty good...I'll probably get at least one more in the series. So the idea of trying different authors on sale has been reasonably good.

Baby Birds

I went out first thing this morning to see if the baby birds were all right. They were all gone and the mama bird was hanging out with an insect looking for her babies. I don't know what got them, but they were gone with no debris left.

Half Mast

It is awful that a guy went into a club in Orlando and shot the place up. People ought to be able to go out for fun without being slaughtered. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness...bigots ought not to think it is their right to deprive others of those rights.

Porches

The front porch is covered with honey bees so I decided to set up a place on the back porch only to discover a bird nest with baby birds. One is pitiful-looking on the floor and an adult bird was nearby so I had to leave the back porch, too.

I don't mind bees a lot but I'm not crazy about them crawling on me. They are apparently curious.

Mimosa Tree

We dug a mimosa tree out of the woods and put it beside the driveway. It has grown nicely and blooms beautifully. Somedays yellow butterflies cover it. The bad thing about it is that it seeds freely and I have to keep the seedlings pulled up or chopped off or we would have a yard full of mimosa trees. I had no idea they were so invasive.

Scattered Gardens

This little garden spot has garlic, brussel sprouts and cabbages in addition to dahlias.

June Color

The day lilies and lavender have started to bloom.

Update on Turkey Eggs

We drove the gator out to the field where we'd found the turkey eggs. They were all broken and scattered. Some predator had feasted. I didn't think they would hatch when we found the nest unattended, but I don't think a turkey could defend against a fox or whatever got to the eggs. That's the fourth nest that has been destroyed.

Butterfly Bush

This butterfly bush was given to me by a friend who has passed away. I think of her when I look at the bush.

Small Lilies

The blooms don't last very long, but they are really pretty. The brown part is where we've been trying to get rid of bee balm which is one of three things trying to take over.

Honey Bees

The neighbor has honey bees. They've discovered our hummingbird feeders.

Turkey Eggs

A neighbor cut the hay in a couple of our fields. He caught sight of this turkey nest just in time to avoid it. I knew we had wild turkeys on our property, but I'd never seen a nest. It was in tall grass.

Asiatic Lilies

This was a freebie, but we've enjoyed them. We had four colors but I tried moving the pink one while it was blooming. The stalk broke off and it didn't grow another one.

Fruit Cup

The strawberries are about finished, and the blackberries are just starting to ripen. It isn't much, but letting it go bad just isn't reasonable. That's a condiment dish, so it really isn't much. I added a dollop of sour cream.

New Fountain

We made a little concrete pad and wired it but couldn't get the fountain we already had to work. We couldn't replace the motor because of the size of the connection. So we finally bought one today. It isn't very loud but it's peaceful.

White

The daisies, magnolias, crepe myrtles, and gardenias are giving me a lot of white in the yard right now. The roses are between blooming cycles. The day lilies are mostly yellow right now. I had a lot of pink, but that has pretty much run its course. The flower boxes and baskets have red angelwing begonias that are coming along, but they aren't as lush as they will be in a couple of weeks.

Bluegrass

A friend gave me a start of blue grass in three different colors...blue, purple, and white. It was three years ago. The blue and purple grew, multiplied, and bloomed immediately. The white never showed up so I thought she had accidentally given me two purples and one blue because I could tell all three clumps had survived. But this year the white one bloomed for the first time. It is a lovely, snowy white.

Sirloin Stockade, Murray, TN

I overheard a couple of people at the hospital talking about the Sirloin Stockade in Murray, TN. So today we tried it. It reminded me of the Golden Corral. We both enjoyed it and plan to go again.

Atkins Lunch

Mexican style chicken and vegetables was today's lunch. It was a frozen meal that was on my diet. I liked it enough to have again.

Hawk

Larry was really excited when a hawk flew past his windshield holding a squirrel he'd caught. I wish I'd seen it.