April 29th

Good Day Sunshine!
It is 70 degrees, and not a cloud in the blue sky.
Beautiful day.
We have several remembrances for today.....
1) International Dance Day - being not much of a dancer, as in,
     the rhythm "isn't in me", I can merely just be a bystander.
2) National Pet Parent Day - now this, I can get behind.
     The chicks and the dog allowed me to hug them.
      Not a pretty sight, me running after hens, them running away...... you get the picture.
3) World Wish Day. This makes me happy.
      I wish for lots of things, from the sublime to the mundane.
      (and some are totally selfish, just for me)
In the area of my wishes, here are a few.....
Why can't modern science come up with a pill that makes you lose weight while asleep??
Why can't people get along? Everyone doesn't have to be right ALL the time. 2 words, Golden Rule.
Why do people expect pristine fruits and vegetables in the store when they spend an inordinate amount of time squeezing them?
Why, when my nose is stopped up, does it sometimes whistle with no real musical talent at all?
Why can't they make underwear that doesn't need extrication from between your buttocks?
My mind is like my kitchen junk drawer.......
Just sayin'

The sunflower finally opened.

It's really beautiful.

Here's a close up...

(FYI: the bud doesn't taste like an artichoke)

😜

fractals in nature!

All that means is a mathematically repeating pattern.

If you start to look, they are everywhere.

Astonishing, how simple yet complex.....

 

 

Last time, I went on about my edible flowers...

Well, these are pansy's.

Wait,

How do they taste, you ask?

Like lettuce.

Pretty much, no taste.

Lettuce needs stuff to make it a salad, right?

Croutons, dressing, cheese.........

Same here.

Besides being pretty little things,

they are full of goodies like,

Vitamin C, Vitamin A

Potassium, antioxidants

and they reduce inflammation.

I pick them when fully opened and dry the petals.

I can either put them in salads, make teas or use them in soap.

(caution! teachable moment coming up!)

Tea isn't some complex thing.

All it comes down to is; putting something in

hot water, letting it steep,

draining it and adding whatever you want after,

like, sugar, lemon, ice....

Don't add milk to an herbal tea concoction,

it'll curdle the milk.

 

 

Can't really see down in there, but there's a bud!

An artichoke.

We are kinda novice backyard farmers for some of the things we grow,

so we never really know exactly when to pick the artichokes before they bloom.

                                                 We are always learning about our plants.

 

(Still looks like the Sarlac pit to me.)

 

 

Wild Morning Glory's entwined in the spokes of a bike.

How southern is that, y'all?

 

The infamous

Pickle plant,

AKA

Cucumber.

 

There are about 8 or so babies.

Their flowers are edible too, I don't pick them because I want the cucumbers.

So, no picking those little guys.

So far, I've pickled the last 2 big ones.

(warning, yet another teachable moment coming....)

An easy recipe for pickling your own veggies is to

keep the liquid from your favorite type of store bought pickles,

Wash the item to be pickled very well. Place in the liquid.

Try to immerse it as much as possible,

then leave it in the back of your fridge for a couple of weeks.

It'll change color slightly, but remain fresh in the pickle juice,

and voilà!

Pickles!

 

 

 

 The blueberries and strawberries are doing fine.

So far the hens haven't tried to eat them.

Keeping fingers crossed that they don't.

I'd love to use the fruit in canning some jam.

Depends on how much I get.

 

 

 

 Lucy, always the curious one,

and Ethel, her partner in crime.

Same as their TV namesakes.

 

 

 This is Sandy, following me, hoping for a handout.

As, I walk around the yard, I weed or prune.

I also sample the veggies, fresh and warm from the sun.

Delish!

I was munching on some kale, but started choking.

Needing water, I thought, "chocolate wouldn't have done that to me!"

Back to the narrative....

Sometimes I find an unsuspecting bug.

That's when I offer it to the nearest hen.

Can't show partiality here.

That's when chaos ensues.

 

 

 

Pepper, Ethel and Sandy.

Finishing up a tasty leaf of spinach.

 

 

 

 

Last entry, I took pictures of the flowers on my potatoes.

That was the first time we'd ever seen potatoes flowering.

This is the weird alien fruit they produced.

 

So, knowing me, I looked up

"potato flowers and fruit".

This is one of the many sites I found.

Well, so much for that!

I did know that a potato was a member of the nightshade family.

Same as tomatoes, eggplants, bell peppers and,

weirdly,

tobacco and belladonna.

So, although the flowers were pretty,

we tossed the fruit in the garbage.

We weren't sure if they'd decompose into a poison

in the compost heap.

 

And,

speaking of potatoes,

This is my potato salad.

It is made of, almost exclusively, everything from our garden.

Eggs, potatoes, celery, green onions, and pickles.

Only thing we bought for this was the mayonnaise.

(has to be Blue Plate, of course!)

Pretty cool, huh?

Sustainable living at its best.

 

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And this.....

 

To paraphrase Forest Gump,

"You can pan fry, deep fry, stir fry. Then there's pineapple chicken,

Lemon chicken, chicken soup, chicken stew,

Chicken and potatoes, chicken salad,

That's about it"

 

This is just too funny not to post.

 

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Somebody is eyeballing me.

Its time to go for a walk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Don't forget to hug someone*

Or say "I love you"