Saturday, May 29, 2010

Herb Garden 2010

HELLO! I'm Back!
Well, I haven't really been away.
Just not able to be online long enough to keep things updated here.
I have been busy as usual, but hope to be able to get back to posting recipes & things about our garden.
We've been gardening for years, but this is only my third year to have an herb garden. I love having an herb garden. Love it!
So here's the first garden update of 2010, specifically an herb garden update.

Today I havested my first load of Chamomile this year. I enjoy drying the flowers & having nice chamomile tea with honey in the cold weather.


You can see that our chives have flowered. Some folks like to add these flowers to a salad. Our 7 year old son likes to eat them right off the plant. Wow, it gives him BAD BREATH! LOL

You'll be able to see that I haven't weeded yet.
Actually, I haven't done anything in the herb garden yet, except pick chamomile flowers today.
You can see, it is quite a mess. But the chamomile are flurishing & flowering. The cilantro (to the left of the chamomile) seems to grow so quickly that it goes right to flowering & then to seed. I'll probably just pull them up, because I still have tons of corriander seed. Tons! You can't see the thyme, it's right behind the camomile, & I have plenty of it. Ha Ha, yes, I have plenty of thyme, but not plenty of time. It is flowering & looks beautiful with all its little pink flowers, & smells divine. There's a sage plant back there too, & the fennel is back also. I hope it flowers & goes to seed because I use a lot of fennel seeds. I also have weeds flurishing & I hope to get those out of there soon. :) The dill is coming back, and the basil has not arrived yet. I thought it was annual so I bought new seed last year, but the basil ended up returning. So we'll see if it comes back this year.


We have also planted most of our regular garden. We have planted our rows of corn & green beans, our hills of zucchini, 24 tomato plants plus 1 yellow tomato plant & 1 cherry tomato plant. We also planted our green pepper plants, broccoli, & cabbage. I planted half a row of radishes, & will finish the row in a week or so. That way we don't get all our radishes at once. We still have some planting to do. We've just been doing a little here & a little there, & we are almost done. We need to plant our beet seeds, & find a new place to plant cucumbers. We also still need to plant our onions.

Sorry I've not been able to keep up here. I have taken lots of food pictures & hope to post some recipes soon.
Tomorrow we're going to grill chicken, & I'm make
KFC cole slaw this evening to go with it.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Freezing Fog

Now that it's almost Spring, I'm finally getting around to adding my pictures of the freezing fog.
I'm running a bit behind on things on this computer.
That's an understatement.
This winter season has been a long one on a few fronts.
I've had a lot of extra babysitting kids, which is a wonderful thing.
I had to quit a set of brothers that I've been babysitting for 2 1/2 years, which was an incredibly hard thing.
We've had a hard winter weather-wise. We've has lots of snow & wind & ice, & even some freezing fog.
February was the hardest with the loss of my Mother-in-Law. I was blessed to call her Momma for almost 25 years. I'm so thankful to know that she called Jesus her Savior, so I KNOW she's in no more pain & living with Him for eternity. Praise the LORD. I miss her & the grief hurts, especially for our children.

I'm ready, oh so ready for Spring. I've seen my first robin, which always brings tears of joy to my eyes, some years even more than others. I really had to choke back the sobs this year!

So just before we shout HELLO SPRING, here's one last quick look at something wintery:
Freezing Fog

This fog hit us for 3 or 4 mornings in a row. I'm not sure I understand how this freezing fog works. We had about 10 inches of snow on the ground, & these few days the temps were staying around ZERO, & we got this fog every morning. I wouldn't want to drive in it, but it sure was beaufiful to look at what this fog left behind.





The freezing fog left this really thick layer of what looked like snow, but was actually more of a freezing mist or frost. It was really cool.









Then the sun came out & burned away the fog, & left this beautiful sight.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Books I Read in 2009

Here's my list of books that I read in 2009. I enjoyed reading almost all of these, but thankfully I have learned that I can put a book down & stop reading it if I'm really not enjoying a book that much. I used to have to finish a book I started.
My least favorite in this list was Before the Sun Goes Down by Elizabeth Metzger Howard. I just didn't like the story at all, & didn't care for the writing either. It was after reading this book that I decided that in the future I would put a book down & not go back to it if I wasn't enjoying it. I just do not have the time to put into a book I don't like.

I had a few favorites this year & can't pick just one. I would say my favorites were Chesapeake by James Michener, All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot, any books by Beth Moore, The Chronicles of Narnia books (I'm reading them out loud to our almost 7 year old son), & I also enjoy the Yada Yada Prayer Group books by Neta Jackson.



A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot

Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik

Anne of Avonlea by L.M.Montgomery

Armageddon by Tim Lahaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

Before the sun Goes Down by Elizabeth Metzger Howard

Bible (NASB-started read through 5-5-08 reading 4 chapters a day, finished 2-27-09

Blue Ribbon Recipes: Country Fair Winners (published 1968)

Chesapeake by James A. Michener

Desecration by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

Going Rogue: An American Life
by Sarah Palin


In The President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect by Ronald Kessler

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Jesus the One and Only by Beth Moore

Kingdom Come by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

Levi's Will by W. Dale Cramer

Maggie-Now by Betty Smith

Moon River and Me by Andy Williams

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Poems of Faith by Helen Steiner Rice

Prairie Tale
by Melissa Gilbert

Praying God's Word by Beth Moore

Prophet by Frank E. Peretti

Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen

The Case of the Runaway Corpse
(A Perry Mason Mystery series) by Erle Stanley Gardner

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis

The Gardens For All Book of Tomatoes by Dick and Jan Raymond

The Glorious Appearing by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

The Remnant
by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

The Shack by William P. Young

The Winds of War by Herman Wouk

The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Real (book 3) by Neta Jackson

The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Tough (book 4) by Neta Jackson

These High, Green Hills
by Jan Karon