Strawberries, Blooms, Rain

Good morning Folks ~ It is a gray, drippy Tuesday morning and I'm not complaining. We finally got some much needed rain yesterday. It started in the morning, let up for awhile, then we got some more later in the afternoon, early evening. We had some thunder and lightening, and more of that is expected today. I just hope it's not raining as I drive to and from work. I am working a 5 day work week this week, so there won't be much time for gardening at all.

My lower back is slowly mending. Sheesh! DH has given the area some deep tissue massage, and that hurts like heck, but in a good way. He even did some reflexology on my feet the other night, and I couldn't believe the sore areas in both feet. I'm taking herbs and vitamins, and DH has used an essential oil blend I made up for massaging into muscles, and that works good too. I'm not as young as I used to be, so need to do things differently. Lifting heavy items takes its toll on you. Anyway, thanks to all for your feel better wishes. They are greatly appreciated.

Here are my strawberries, not real ones, but beaded ones. DH had gone to our friends yard sale the other day and he was given this to give to me. DH bought the beaded parrot from this friend awhile back at another yard sale he had.



Now here are blooms that are going on now.

This is Jane Cowell hibiscus.

I don't know the name of this red hibiscus.

The next few pictures are of Mme. Laurette Messimy.

She is a sweet little China rose, from 1887.

Her scent is a dear rose scent, and greatly enjoyed by me.



Here we have Old Blush once again.

I sure hope you all never tire of seeing my roses over and over again. :-)

This is Duchesse de Brabant.

Dainty Bess ~ A real sweetheart of a rose, with a wonderful clove/rose scent.

Cocktail rose on the wane.

Last and certainly not least, Kathleen. She's a hybrid musk rose and one of my favorites. I bought her and Cocktail about the same time, many years ago. They both are growing in huge terra cotta pots.


That's it for now. Hope you all have a great week.

***

It is always exciting to open the door
and go out into the garden
for the first time on any day.
Marion Cran


Gardening is medicine
that does not need
a prescription ...
And with no limit on dosage.
Author unknown


***

Happy Gardening and Happy Living,

Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL

Another Gorgeous day

It was a chilly 43 when we got up this morning and with the wind chill factor felt like it was 38. But it has warmed up nicely, 65 right now, and the sun is shining and it felt wonderful being outdoors earlier. I cut back the star jasmine hedge out front that was way out of hand, and I'm pooped. That's just the east side of the front gate, I still need to top the west side, but had done enough for one day. The bread machine made a loaf of bread while I was out working. I made us salmon pattie sandwiches with the bread for lunch.

Tonight I am planning on making a home made pizza, since we've not had one in awhile. We always enjoy that.

My boss told me last night before I left work that I will probably be working more and that was good news to hear. In the middle of the night when I couldn't get back to sleep for awhile I thought, uh oh, I'll probably not be blogging as much, or beading and embroidering as much either. I started both of these ventures about two years ago when the economy went south, and I had more time on my hands. So, I may not be in here as much as I have been in the past, we'll see.

Anyway, here are some pictures taken in the last few days. Click on the pictures for larger view.

The first three are of a sweet single rose named Cocktail.






Here we have Bon Silene.

White Ducher

Duchesse de Brabant

George Tabor Azaleas

Homere.

Not sure about this one.

Mm. Laurette Messimy

Pink Pet

Star Jasmine

Vincent Godsiff


******

You do not need to know anything about a plant
to know that it is beautiful.

Montagu Don

******

Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL

Latest project, etc.

Hello Everyone ~ Hope you are having a great day wherever you are. It's a partly cloudy, warm and humid day today. We've had a few sprinkles, but that's it. It would be nice to get more, time will tell.

This morning I wanted to tackle a project I started about a week and a half ago. Progress was waylaid because I helped DH with another project for a few days, which wore us both out. All we have to do to finish my project from this morning, is dig out some dirt, cut some roots, mix up cement and fill in the area from patio up to the border.

I had done the border around the palm tree, and when DH saw that and how nice it looked he thought it would be nice to make the area around the strangler fig (ficus, not a real fig tree) smaller, and give us more patio space.

While I was outside working,
a loaf of bread was making in the bread machine. :-)

The pics below show before.





Here we have from this morning.


We curbside shopped the cement border blocks quite some time ago and I thought of using them this morning to contain this area. Then I got the idea to place the rocks that had been the old border, on top. We collected these rocks years ago, mainly from TN.
I then went around the property gathering up Moses in the basket plants and set them inside the border. When I showed DH what I had done he said, "Nice." That made my morning.
Now he gets to do the hard work of mixing and pouring cement.





The next two pictures are of the Duchesse de Brabant blooms I saw out my window this morning so I had to go out and get pictures.






Below is the basil I grew from a sprig that I rooted in water, think I'll do some more.
The yellow flowers are from my tarragon. I love this plant and love cooking with it too.
I need to get more cuttings going in water from this also.



The planter below was out in the screened porch off the kitchen when I got home from work last evening. I brought it indoors to take a picture of it.
DH had gone to a yard sale and got this for $10. It is 15 inches high and 15 inches in diameter. It reminds us of Spain, and all the pottery made there.
This one is made in Mexico.
I don't know yet what I will put in it or where it will be placed,
but I am very happy with it.




******

The very essence of the creative is its novelty,

and hence we have no standard by which to judge it.

Carl R. Rogers, On Becoming a Person

******

That's it from Plum Cottage.
Hope you all have a great week.

Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL

What a difference ...

... a few days makes. This morning when I first went out, I could really feel and sense a difference, fall is coming. It will no doubt be very hot and humid again, probably until the end of October, but fall is definitely on its way. It is cloudy this morning, we had a little rain last night too. Right now it is 81 and feels like it is 91. Lately it's been in the high 80's and into the 90's and feel like it's around 105. So, today is a wonderful break from what we've been having. Birds sounded happier this morning too.

Here is a youtube presentation of the song "I Can See Clearly Now", that sounds right for today. Please turn off my playlist on the sidebar in order to listen to this piece.



Here we have Duchesse de Brabant and colorful crotons.


The pictures below are of a bromeliad bloom.











Here is a whimsical photo to end this post.



******


Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

Winston Churchill


******


Every day may not be good,

but there's something good in every day.

Author Unknown

Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL

A 'humongous' rain barrel, and other happenings :-)

This morning I made up a list of things to do and got maybe three or four of them done. I do feel good about what was accomplished and tomorrow will be a gift of another day to continue on.

After breakfast, I got a load of laundry going, then headed to the back of the property to measure, then haul out a humongous barrel that we are going to use for a rain barrel. We 'found' this many years ago, now it will be put to good use. We will set it up on cement blocks to raise it off the ground. We have to re-route the gutter to the top of this, cap a pipe in the barrel so the water won't run out and we should be ready. Although, we don't know if this thing leaks or not. DH said what if they threw it out because it leaks. If it rains anytime soon, we'll find out whether it does or not. The thing is 55" high by 34" in diameter, made of fiberglass and whatever. It already has a spigot.

I had to dig up some baby crepe myrtles that were in the space where we want to put this, and they are resting in a bucket of water, until tomorrow. I have to figure out where they will go.

Below is a picture showing it at the back of the garden. Haven't decided yet what to do to camouflage it. This was just the first phase of getting it set up. Since we lost our well, we 'need' this indispensable tool.




The top of it is up to about to the top of my shoulder.



Here is Tork, our little outdoor girl, she was waiting for me to come in and make her breakfast. I mix up dry cat food with a spoon or two of canned cat food, and some brewer's yeast for fleas, and some fish oil for skin and hair. When it's made she runs down the hall to the back door so that she can go out and eat it in the screened area off the back of our cottage.







Here we have a heavenly pound cake I made for the first time this morning. We both love this.



Here is the recipe which I found at Food Network

Ricotta Orange Pound Cake with Strawberries

Ingredients

* 1 1/2 cups cake flour
* 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature, plus more to grease the baking pan
* 1 1/2 cups whole milk ricotta cheese
* 1 1/2 cups sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
* 3 large eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used 1/2 tsp. vanilla and 1/2 tsp. almond flavoring)
* 1 orange, zested (didn't have so used dried lemon peel instead)
* 2 tablespoons Amaretto (didn't have so used Triple Sec)
* Powdered sugar, for dusting
* 1 pint strawberries, hulled and quartered or 3 oranges, cut into supremes
(Didn't have strawberries, but do have nectarines and cherries to cut up to serve on slices. Today we just had it with a cup of tea, plain.)


Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pan with butter. In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir to combine.

Using an electric mixer, cream together the butter, ricotta, and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. With the machine running, add the eggs 1 at a time. Add the vanilla, orange zest, and Amaretto until combined. Add the dry ingredients, a small amount at a time, until just incorporated. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick comes out clean and the cake is beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 45 to 50 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Using a mesh sieve, dust the cooled cake with powdered sugar.

Meanwhile, place the strawberries (or orange supremes) in a small bowl with the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar. Let sit until the juices have pooled around the strawberries.

To serve, slice the cake and serve with a spoonful of strawberries and their juices over the top of the cake.

******

Here we have Queen Crepe again. I just love these huge blooms and they smell nice too.



Here are a couple of Duchesse de Brabant blooms to end this post.



In reference to our hot and humid weather I will close with this quote.

******

"What dreadful hot weather we have!

It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance."

Jane Austen

Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL