Friday Morning

Good morning Folks ~ Hope you all have a great day today and a wonderful weekend.  Time sure is zipping by these days.  It is hard to believe it is already the middle of July.

It is partly cloudy and rain is expected.  We didn’t get any rain yesterday and only a tad the day before, so I do hope we really get some today, although I wouldn’t mind if the thunder and lightening didn’t accompany the rain.

Someone commented on my love of cooking and baking and maybe I could do baking for some income. Thanks but no thanks.  That is hard work, you have to meet health standards, etc. for selling to the public, and I’m a one woman operation, doing something I love for DH, myself, friends and family.

The other night I made a huge pan of a ‘sort of’ paella.  It was delicious and filling, and we have other meals of it in the freezer.

My love of cooking and baking started in 7th grade Home Ec classes.  As a newlywed, my late MIL sent me recipes, I clipped them from magazines, and started collecting cookbooks by joining a cookbook club.  I now have a collection of well over 300 cookbooks. I save recipes from websites, and blogs too.  I love to try new recipes, love cooking from scratch, love it that I can cook a fancy recipe, we don’t have to go anywhere for it and there are left overs.

Yesterday morning I made a loaf of banana bread as the bananas were getting softer, and that made the place smell yummy before I left for work.  We had some this morning with our coffee.

I love using my bread machine, which I’ve had about 12 years now.  I buy bread flour in bulk, regular flour in bulk, and yeast in bulk.  The bread machine does not use much electricity and doesn’t heat up the kitchen like using the oven would.

I love gardening too, as you all know, which most gardeners do or we wouldn’t be doing it. I got a late start in life with this, around 1980.  We had a huge grassy piece of property when we moved in the summer of 1973, now we have very little grass.  I love the scents, colors, textures and shapes that make up gardens.  For me, it’s basically been done on a shoestring, I’m no great gardener,  I just have a love of growing things and seeing the beauty evolve.

There is so much inspiration here on the internet, and especially in blogland.  I thank all of you for putting yourselves and your gardens out here for us all to enjoy.  It’s like going on little garden tours all over the world.

With that, I’ll close today’s post with some latest pictures from Plum Cottage.

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Here is a new growth on one of our cactus at the back of the property.  We have 3-4 different kinds back there. I’ve never seen any flowers on this though, and don’t know if it even gets any.

We see this type of spider all over the place.

Li’l Thinker sits on a pedestal in the main garden. We got him many, many years ago at a flea market or yard sale. He’s made of cement and has a nice aged patina on him.

Penelope buds and an almost spent bloom.

Next is a picture of a small stained glass piece that we also got many, many years ago.  We have two of these, this is the better one, and even it has broken glass.  This is sitting in our unfinished bedroom window.  We hope to start working on finishing our bedroom remodel this winter.

I guess that’s it for now. I need to wash dishes, make the bed and get ready to head off to work.

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Gardening is about

enjoying the smell of things growing in the soil,

getting dirty without feeling guilty,

and generally taking the time

to soak up a little peace and serenity.

Lindley Karstens

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