I turned my back, and it all grew wild.............

 Hello everyone, I hope this finds that you are having pleasant fall weather.  Here in our Texas area, we have gotten a good amount of rain with comfortable cool days.  The soft wet earth and the cool temperatures have inspired me to spend time outside to work on areas that I used to have well kept and pretty, but over time, have neglected......due to extreme heat that I cannot tolerate working outside in.......and.......sigh......getting older and slower.   I am a tad embarrassed to post photos for you to see...........but......I'm keeping it real.....and maybe if I work harder on things, I will have better photos later on.

When we moved to our country home, there was an old large satellite dish left on our land.

I had expressed that it would make a great pond.

 My husband and son dug a large hole and placed the satellite dish in and covered it 

with pond liner. The boards were placed to give the fish some shade during the hot days.  

We then placed rocks around the pond area.  These rocks are ones that I had collected 

through the years on visits to my mother's place where and old lake bed used to be. 

I made decorative cement stones for a path.  For a long while, we really enjoyed this area and had the pond for a good several years.  Eventually the fish got old and passed away and the work of upkeep on the pond became

a lot for me to handle. After the last fish died, I let the pond go.

Now, just the bones of the pond remain.  The beautiful rocks are still around it. 

I am thinking that I could possibly get fill dirt placed into the pond area and 

it could be a pretty garden with the rocks around it.

The cement stones I had placed for the walk way had been long covered up by years of blowing dirt.

I unearthed them and gave them a good washing.  I plan to use them for another path in another area later on. 

I was delighted to see that the shells I had placed in them were still beautiful.

A couple of years ago on a trip, I purchased a very small Mother of a Thousand succulent plant.

That little plant has grown to be a tad over 8 foot tall.  I was able to get it moved into the greenhouse to live out the winter. As you can see, it is bending over at the top of the greenhouse ceiling.

With the nights getting cooler and soon the days will be cold, I have moved all of my plants to the greenhouse. 

There are still pretty flowers growing and blooming in the flower beds.

They are so vibrant at this time of year. 

So......tell me.......

Do any of you have a pond? A natural one or a man made one?

Do any of  you have a greenhouse?  Do you use it for winter storage and to also sprout things in?

I would love to hear.

 

October

 

In shadowy woods the brown nuts fall

As sweeps the wind through tree tops tall...

In golden bars through leafy doors

The sunshine falls on forest floors...

A brooding calm in all the air,

A dreamy quiet everywhere...

A golden glow to light the day

That fades in purple mists away—

This soothing calm, this presence bright,

October's sweet and mellow light.

The softened light, the veiling haze,

The calm repose of autumn days,

Steal gently o'er the troubled breast,

Soothing life's weary cares to rest.

Phebe A. Holder, "A Song of October," in The Queries Magazine

October 1890

Farewell Summer

Farewell summer, your beauty has been seen in all things and in all forms from large and small,

 from the harshest to the most gentle,  from morning to night.

From

the thorny prickly pear cactus,

the forever hungry horn worm,

the whimsical praying mantis,

the season's prettiest geraniums,

the prairie wildflowers,

the strangest hail stones,

the quiet early mornings,

to the evenings after a strom,

it has been a great season.

 

Autumn Apple Walnut Cake With Caramel Glaze

 

School has begun, Autumn decor is popping up everywhere in stores, enticing us

to embrace the time of telling summer farewell and yearning for autumn.

It's also the time of those wonderful fall flavors including 

apples and caramel.

I just made this wonderful cake.......full of the scent and taste of

Autumn 

Autumn Apple Walnut Cake With Caramel Glaze

1 cup of vegetable oil

1/2 cup applesauce

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

4 large eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. nutmeg, cloves, & ginger

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3½ cups Granny Smith apples peeled and finely chopped (approximately 2-3 large apples)

1 cup pecans finely chopped

For the Caramel Glaze:

1/2 cup salted butter (1 stick)

1 cup light brown sugar

¼ cup evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 Preheat the oven to 325°F  Thoroughly grease and flour a tube pan, or alternatively, two loaf pans, to ensure easy removal of the cake once baked. 

Batter:

In a large mixing bowl, combine the cooking oil, applesauce, sugar, and eggs. Beat together until smooth.

In a separate medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and salt.

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing just until combined .

Stir in the vanilla extract.

Fold in the chopped apples and pecans

Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s). Place in the preheated oven and bake for approximately 1 hour. Testing by inserting a toothpick into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is done.

Preparing the Caramel Glaze:

While the cake is cooling, prepare the glaze. In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.

Stir in the brown sugar and milk, and bring the mixture to a boil over low heat. Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer, continuing to stir constantly.

Allow the mixture to boil for 10 minutes until it thickens slightly, then remove from heat.

Stir in the vanilla extract and let the glaze cool slightly; it should still be pourable but not too hot.

Finishing with Caramel Glaze:

Once the cake is slightly cooled and the glaze is the right consistency, pour the caramel glaze evenly over the top of the cake, allowing it to drip down the sides. 

ENJOY! 

Late August Days

"some days in late August at home are like this,

the air think and eager, 

with something in it sad and nostalgic 

and familiar.

                                                            William Faulkner

This stitched piece is from a vintage crewel embroidery 

kit that I came upon in a junk store. Instead of using yarn,  I used embroidery floss for the 

stitching and added extra flowers to it to make it "my own".

To see how the piece looked before stitching, you can visit my embroidery blog.

Yesteryear Embroideries

 

It's HOT!!

 

(Photo borrowed from internet)

Whether you are on the shore/beach of the lake, in the shade of your front porch, sipping ice tea,

or in your backyard swimming pool, there's no other way to say it..........

it's HOT !!

It seems everyone, everywhere, across our nation and in other parts of the world are 

experiencing sweltering heat.

Any kind work in the flower gardens that needs to be done, I do it in the very 

early morning before the heat finds me. 

The sweet blogging friend, Granny Marigold, asked me how the nasturtiums

I sprouted inside were doing?.......to answer you, dear friend, they were green and pretty,

but as soon as the heat hit, they surrendered and did not make it.

The zinnia and cosmos are doing well and seem to enjoy these hot summer days. The zinnia are just about to bloom.

I have finally been successful sprouting avocado pits. I currently have 4. 

I have tried and tried over the years to grow these with no luck.

This time, I chose the wet paper towel method over the common toothpick method.

It certainly works for me. If you are interested in trying this, I have a good video from YouTube 

at this link

Germinate Avocado Seed in Paper Towel

this shows how to sprout and how to plant

The wildflowers are also vibrant and growing well.

The mesquite trees are putting on their beans

and they, at this time are very pretty with the red and yellow clusters 

hanging on their branches.  Soon the whole ground will be covered with 

drying mesquite beans.  Much of the wildlife do enjoy eating these.

They are mostly enjoyed by rats and mice.

I have been keeping maple syrup bottles after we finish up the syrup

and filled them with colored water to depict the changing seasons .

They make a colorful window in the entry way.

The wild birds have been such a good entertainment lately. Wild Quail have been 

bringing their offspring to feed 

and to get water.

Doesn't this road runner really look like he is running a race?

 

Many of the birds all get along and eat side by side, but 

there are a few occasions when a fight breaks out amongst them.

It adds a bit of comical whimsy to bird watching

The talented person who created this funny short on YouTube has

captured the sentiment well .  You can view it at this link

If Birds Had Arms

I hope this finds all of you enjoying these summer days.

  

Woods are filled with the music of birds, and all nature is laughing under the glorious influence of Summer

Charles Lanman, "The Dying Year," 1840

Hail, Cactus, and Pressed Wildflowers

 

Hello everyone, I hope this finds you are enjoying pleasant spring weather.

We have had lovely pleasant days, days with nice rain, 

some days dipping down into the 60s, many days reaching 100, and 

 one day with tennis ball size hail.  Some of the hail was the regular round tennis ball shaped size,

while some was the odd spiked tennis ball size as in the photo above. 

Once again, I am overwhelmed with the ever evasive prickly pear cactus

that has been taking over our land and everyone else's land around us. 

I spend much time, chopping it up, only to have it instantly grow back in just a few weeks. 

One cactus, I have decided to let grow instead of destroying is this tall one.

It has thorn barbs that are so painful when you get stuck and even more painful to remove. When it is only a few inches high, we immediately chop it up.  But these past couple of years, I found this one growing in the middle of our acres........not close to our house and no one gets close to it except for me when I walk and the wild life who roam here.  I am really glad I have left it alone. It has the prettiest blooms and is about 4 ft tall.

It's the time of year that the moonflower has grown well and is blooming.

The potted flowers on the porches and patio are blooming well.

Last year, our youngest son gifted me a flower pressing book.

A few weeks ago I took a long walk and gathered a multitude of wildflowers

growing along the grounds.

I arranged a dried pressed bouquet and affixed it to card stock

to send to my son.  I just shipped it and I hope it makes it to where he lives without

it getting crumbled and destroyed.

I also made an arrangement in my dried flower scrapbook.

I had so many dried flowers left over that I have devised a storage 

for them in folders that are then placed in a plastic storage container for later use.

Do you pick and press flowers? If so, what do you do with them once they are preserved?

Do you have a special way to store them? I would love to hear!

Here's wishing you pleasant days and safe weather.