Our grandbaby is 2 YEARS OLD today! Her name is Chloe and she is the cutest thing!! I want to dedicate by blog today to her!!
This is the first time we got to hold her....here she is with Gampaw!!
We thought it was great that she had the same hairdo as Gampaw!! We went up to the top of the Empire State building, and she stayed bundled up to keep warm!!
This is when she was 1 Year Old!!
....and now she is 2!!!
Isn't she so sweet??
We wrote her name on the sand on Sanibel Island when we were there in April so she would know we were thinking of her!!
Life is not always fair. Sometimes you get a splinter even sliding down a rainbow. ~Terri Guillemets
I don't have anything special to post, just thought I would update you on the happenings around here. The mama duck never returned to the eggs in our garden, which is so sad. Unfortunately we had another visitor though....I was sitting on the top step, and just casually glanced over at the nest, and was startled at what I saw!!.....
In case you can't figure it out, it's a black snake that has dislocated his jaw to swallow one of the duck eggs!! Those eggs are larger than a standard chicken egg, so he's a pretty good sized snake!! I ran into the house and grabbed my camera, ....and my hubby!! I video taped him taking in this one egg, it's really pretty amazing!!
We then decided that we wouldn't let him feast on the rest of them, and proceeded to 'nudge' him along into the woods next door....he really was not at all interested in doing so, so it took us a long time! We finally 'convinced' him, and he slowly went on through the fence into the woods, but I forgot to get a picture of him to show you how long he was....we guessed he was about 4 feet long!!
Just swallowed it....
Talk about stretch marks!!
Slowly moving down!!
I guess we lost that battle!! The eggs had rotted so we went ahead and tossed them over the fence as well, so the 'circle of life' continues! :(
While we were messing with the snake, we saw this guy who was watching too!! (You can see the eggs in the background) That seems to be a favorite corner of the garden for all the wildlife!!
I do have good news though.....my plants are showing signs of new life!! Each of them has sprouted some flowers! While they still look pretty pitiful, each one has shown signs that they may make a comeback!! Check it out!!
My Mother's Day Petunia!!
My Mother's Day Plant from Jess!!
....and the white is blooming on my Patriotic plant!!
Maybe they will come back completely, at least there are signs of life on all of them!!
My Dad and I went fishing last weekend, we went super early so we could leave early evening and get home at a decent hour, so I could get up Monday morning to go to work! We had a few strikes, but only caught one bass that passed the limit, so we sent him free so he could grow up! It was so calm and so beautiful there that morning before the heat set in, I took a few pictures to share with you....notice the minnows stirring up the water!
We saw some more cypress knees that seemed to be posing for us.....what do you see? Click on the pics to look at them full sized!!
Life is like riding a bicycle – in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving ~ Albert Einstein
In the spirit of eating healthy I decided to try something for dinner, grilled veggies...sound good? I thought so! When we were in Sanibel, we decided to do a little shopping in Periwinkle Place. For those of you that don't know, it is sort of a strip mall that is set back into beautiful tropical foliage. Several of our favorite stores had closed, which was very sad, but there was a new store there that Jess and Brad found...it is called Sanibel Olive Oil Company. It's a small store with nothing but flavored oils, spices and balsamic vinegars. They have little cups by each one where you can sample the different flavors! Jess had me try the Cilantro Garlic Balsamic vinegar and I loved it, so of course I had to buy a bottle, she and Brad did too....(and another flavor also)! They even offered chocolate flavored...not sure how I felt about it, it did taste like Chocolate...but was strange since it was a balsamic!!....Anyways...I've been thinking about how to use it so I came up with this idea to keep it healthy and we would have grilled veggies! Well I must say, it was amazing and very easy!....(and I got to use Hubby's Father's Day Grill from Jess!) I did take a couple of pictures this time, though I felt rather silly....guess I shoulda taken pictures cutting up veggies etc...but remember I'm a newbie at all this blog stuff!! :) Here goes.....
The recipe: Grilled Summer Veggies
The seasonings: 1/2 to 2/3 Cup Balsamic Vinegar (of course I used the Cilantro Garlic Balsamic) 1/3 Cup EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil) 1/4-1/2 cup water Garlic Grinder Spice (you decide how much!) Sea Salt Grinder " "
The Veggies: 1 Zucchini-Halved longways and sliced fairly thin 1 Yellow Squash-Halved longways and sliced fairly thin 1 medium sized Sweet Onion-Halved and sliced thin 1 Green Bell Pepper, sliced thin 1/2 package fresh mushrooms (Buttons or Baby Bellas) sliced ~ 1/4 " thick 10-12 Baby carrots sliced into 1/4 " thick 'coins'
Slice all veggies, put into casserole with lid or ziplock bag.
Mix all seasonings, pour over veggies
Let marinate for 4-5 hours stirring or shaking fairly often, you will notice veggies absorbing the dark balsamic and begin to soften. Grill in foil or on a grill pan @ ~ 350 degrees, stirring often to cook evenly for 30-40 minutes or to desired veggie doneness (how about that for verbiage!)
Really bad picture...sorry!
Serve over steamed rice!!
I think I need to work on my plating! :)
It was Yumm-o!! We had applesauce as a side, and it was great!!
We will definitely have this again!! And so healthy!! :)
Prior to our mini cookout, many of the animals around here entertained us.... between and during the thunderstorms!! The squirrels have been driving us nuts hanging on the goldfinch feeder socks, and the 'squirrel-proof' feeder! We had to move the feeder from the deck up high on the front of our shed, with hopes that they wouldn't get to it....They will actually eat the plastic on the feeder so that it will no longer slide down and cover the holes!! Today I actually 'darned' the finch socks to close up the holes!! (does anyone know where I can buy finch socks made out of stainless steel?)
While I was at the store buying feeder #3 (since spring) I was looking for, what we call a 'hat' to put over the feeder, well I bought the wrong thing, but out of frustration we decided to put it over the feeder anyway, and leave it loose, so it would move around, hopefully making it a little more difficult for him to reach the feeder. We enjoyed watching this squirrel try to get to it twice....and I actually got to video it!! (I played with youtube video editing on this one!)
This guy was hilarious to watch!
Then he just stood upside down on the roof....still trying to figure out how to get to that seed!!
After watching this for a while, I went out front to the porch and was 'greeted' by the duck 'teenagers', obviously looking for food...and I have NEVER fed them, but this time I couldn't resist!! Notice there are 5 brunettes and 1 blonde!! They are so sweet....if you listen closely you can hear them 'beeping'!!
Unfortunately no Mama Duck yet on the eggs in the garden :(
We also had many finches on the socks today!!
Hubby's favorite Goldfinch and a House finch.....Notice the rubber-band on the back sock...too many holes!!
Don't forget to stop every once in a while and actually thank God for blessing America - he gets a lot of requests, you know. ~Carrie Latet
Happy 4th of July!!
We didn't celebrate with all the traditions this year....our plan was at least to have a family cook-out, but 3 weeks of lack of yard work finally caught up with us! So I went out this morning and started trying to make some sense of my overgrown gardens, and Hubby had to go and buy him a new weedeater, and then of course, he needed badly to use it since we haven't had an operating one at all this year!!
I worked most of the day on just the front 2 gardens, the potted plants and the garden down the driveway!! Whew what a mess!!
Here is the before pictures....(I had already done a little, but you see what a mess they were!)
The yard had jumped up into the garden, and taken over!! I did get to see all kind of neat things inside all this growth!! Check out this cool spider!!
I have never seen one like this....looks like modern art to me!! Right next to him was this guy, and he just let me zoom in on him!
If you click the pictures you can see more detail....check out the grasshopper's face, it almost looks like someone drew it on there!!
I finished one side, and began tying up the glads on the other side...and ran across this.......Can you see it?...look closely........
Here it is zoomed in and leaves moved!!....Duck eggs....Eight of them!!
I'm afraid that Mama duck has left them though as we haven't seen any ducks here since we got home.....I hope she returns and takes care of them! But I'm afraid they will end up like the wren eggs :(
I worked on the potted plants, cut away all the dead that I dared and added some fresh soil, and we had a good soaking rain last night and tonight, so maybe they will come back!!
The patriotic plant....the white is trying to come back!
My Mother's Day plant from Jess!
My Mother's Day plant from my Hubby!
Here are the 'after' pictures! I think it looks pretty good, the glads still have a few new sprouts coming up, plus I leave them until the leaves fade, because they tend to 're-seed' themselves!
Notice that I didn't pull everything up over the nest on the far left, hoping Mama Duck will return!!
It took us most of the day...so we were pretty wiped out! it got to ~ 93 degrees here today with HIGH humidity so we forced water....but didn't eat at all...that isn't smart!! I got to feeling pretty bad, so instead of our intended cookout, we took our showers and went out to a restaurant.....I'm feeling better now....**Note to self...eat before going out in the heat next time!! It looks so much better around here, so I guess it was worth it....plus I ended up 'standing up' my parents and a cookout!! :\ (sorry Mom & Dad)
The callas are thinking about blooming some more also....see him peeking out?
I got to talk to Jess again tonight on Skype....she is working really hard, and learning lots in the vet hospital in India! She says it is REALLY hot there, and they have "rolling" power outages, which turns off what few AC and fans they have in the hospital!! She is pretty tired, but having fun!! Here is a pic of her and her classmates on their way to surgery....she is the third one from the right!! {Not that I'm a proud Mom! :) }
If you are interested, she is updating her blog as she goes here!
A house that does not have one worn, comfy chair in it is soulless. ~May Sarton
We made it home Sunday evening, all safe and sound! We had an uneventful 2 day drive back from Sanibel, which is good. We stopped just outside of Savannah, GA on Saturday night, and made it back home around 5:30 pm. Two weeks of vacation is absolutely wonderful!! But...it sure does make it hard to go back to work!! Of course, these days, there are the endless number of emails that have to be read, sorted, answered and saved! Then catching up on work, and 'picking up' where I left off was next!! It wasn't too awfully long and I was back in the groove....I guess!!
When we got home, the first thing I did was look at the wren eggs, I was suspicious when they were completely covered over by the nest.....I made sure the mama saw me move it, but I guess she gave up on it, they looked pretty bad!! I'm sad for her!!
But we do have at least one new family here!! We have some new baby ducks! Six of them!!
They are adorable, and seem to be healthy and doing very well!!
We noticed that our grass had grown so high, we evidently had a lot of rain, but it wasn't enough for my potted plants!! We've had more rain, so they may come back. I hope!! It appears that they are trying to green up a little! When I get a chance, I'll trim them back and see how they do!!
The Patriotic plant (left) hanging petunia (center) and the plant Jess gave me for Mother's Day (back)
The rest of my gardens looked pretty good though! The gladiolas had nearly finished, but we had several of them blooming to greet us, and still are!!
I have a lot of work to do, but look forward to it, my fingers in the dirt is my therapy (since I can't walk the beach at Sanibel! )
Got a message from Brad last night that Jess had made it to India safely....I flight tracked her plane up over Nova Scotia, and across the Atlantic until she was over Europe....some how I felt better once the plane was over land. There is 9-1/2 hours difference in time, they are ahead of us, so it makes it weird to figure the times out! Night time here is morning there!! I managed to see her and talk to her tonight on Skype!! I felt great after that!! They are having issues with internet there, it is spotty at best, so that type of communication will be few and far between I'm sure!! But I saw her, and that helped!! I think she is going to have a great time....she's a trooper and adjusts quickly to whatever is thrown at her, I know she will really enjoy this trip!
