April 18th

Listen my children,

and you shall hear

of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.

Yep, that's today.

248 years ago.

Amazing.

Here's a few things you may not 

know about Paul Revere.

1. He wasn't just English. He was part French.

His Dad, Apollos Rivoire, came to Boston

at 13 years old and Anglicized his name.

Paul was one of 12 or 13 kids. 

2. He fought in the French and Indian war,

but was a silversmith by trade, and his

side job was a dentist.

This makes sense because gold

or silver wires were used to hold

ivory teeth together for dentures.

(Nope, he didn't do the dentures 

for Washington.)

3. He was a bit of an artist too.

He did copper plate engravings for

books, pamphlets and menus.

4. He was a spy. He founded a 

group called the "mechanics" after the

Boston Tea Party, who

spied on English soldiers. That group

evolved into the Sons of Liberty.

5. The poem wasn't totally correct.

3 men rode out on the 18th, 

not just Paul, and they met up

about 40 more guys so the 

word would spread.

(Did you think the Revolution

depended only on 1 guy?)

Revere was temporarily detained 

by the British at Lexington, 

and never finished his ride.

Dawes lost his way and Prescott 

was left to alert Concord.

6. He never said, "The British are coming!".

Why go to all the trouble to be covert

only to yell at the top of your lungs

alerting the British militia?

And,

a lot of colonists still considered

themselves British,

so why stir up that bees nest?

So,

how can you celebrate this day?

Listen to a few 

Paul Revere and the Raiders, songs!

*****************************

A few of our harvest.

Beets (white, stripped and red),

Carrots (yellow, white and orange)

Purple Broccoli

Tomatoes

Tomatoes, Banana Pepper and 1 

Cherry Tomato.

Broccolini

Yellow Squash

More Yellow Squash

Corn

Asparagus

 

Thyme

Chicory

This plant is a kind of experiment.

We're letting it flower to attract bees.

I wonder what the flowers will look like.

The leaves make great salads,

and the root, when dried, can be added

to coffee.

No, we don't intend on doing that,

we will just eat the leaves.

😃

******************************

Louisiana Irises

Gardenias

Amarylis

Snapdragons

Pansies

Aloe and flowering Portulaca

Sweet Potato Vine flower

Heavy rains the other day

beat down some of the flowers,

so I decided to cut them to

enjoy inside.

Lucy and Ethel patrolling for a meal.

Marigolds

The girls are following me while

I putter in the garden.

Minew has to get in on the fun too.

Nosey cat!

***************************

Blooming Echeverria

African violet leaves.

Hopefully, they will grow!

Mother of Thousands,

closeup.

Blooming Echeverria

on the kitchen window sill

on a rainy morning.

Rooting a piece of 

Holy Basil

Rainy morning window sill.

**************************

And this...

Stuffed artichokes for the win!

(no, we didn't grow these)

********************

Thanks for reading...

💓

💙💚💙

 

March 31st

 I’m having trouble with my blog,

so I won’t be able to post anything

for a few days. 

Sorry 😞 

March 19TH

It's National Poultry Day,

so we are pleased to present

our geriatric girls!

Lucy and Ethel.

I shouldn't call them geriatric,

because Friday we found 2 eggs.

I hope it's a trend and not a last gasp

kind of thing.

They are French Cooper Marans

who lay "chocolate" eggs.

This breed is notable for the egg color,

and their feathered legs.

These 2 eggs are smaller

than the ones they used to lay.

That could be attributed to

their age.

We don't know if the eggs are both from Ethel,

because the CEO found her

sitting on them, 

but, it's possible both girls layed eggs.

We are hoping they get back into production.

I found some interesting

chicken gear on Amazon.

What hen wouldn't love arms?

She'd be the talk of the coop.

or this...

Showing off those pretty 

dinosaur-like feathered legs

while strutting around the

neighborhood..

Did you know...

Chicken wasn't a popular food until

beef and pork shortages happened during World War II.

Wings were considered inedible until 1964,

when a restaurant in Buffalo, New York

served them in barbeque sauce.

Americans consume nearly

80 pounds of chicken per person,

per year.

Shhh, don't say anything 

about eating chicken...

The girls don't like that!

So,

in honor of Poultry Day,

we'll start with a rendition

of the Chicken Dance,

then watch a Looney Tunes

episode with Foghorn Leghorn,

and finish up with 

yummy treats for the girls!

********************

Spoiled rotten!

They wait patiently till being handed

a cabbage leaf.

Minew isn't interested in veggies.

Onion flower.

A member of the allium family

The flowers are edible and taste

milder than the actual bulb.

They can be used to infuse vinegar

or olive oil.

It's preferable to harvest onions before

they set blooms because it can 

diminish the taste of the bulb.

Purple and Sweet Basil.

Parsley.

Chocolate Mint.

Broccoli.

Corn.

Beets and Carrots,

with Marigolds in the front bed.

Asparagus.

New leaves on the Bay Laurel bush.

Blueberries.

This is a Minew plant,

or,

as I like to call it,

"Sleeping in the Oregano".

(better than sleeping with the fishes, Ha!)

To keep her away,

I put chopsticks and a small 

piece of chicken wire.

So far it's working.

Picture of an unhappy cat.

😀

******************************

Gardenia buds.

Amaryllis.

I lost several beautiful bulbs 

since last year,

but, these are blooming nicely.

Pansies.

Portulaca.

Portulaca and Sweet Potato Vine.

Succulents.

These are Kalanchoes.

Sedum, with its' yellow flowers.

These are my indoor succulents.

This is called a Pleiospilos,

or, rock plant.

It looks as though a rock

split in two.

That's a bloom in the center.

Variegated Kalanchoe.

Various Echeverria.

The one at the top has a bloom.

(The turtle is not a plant. Ha!)

More Echeverria.

********************************

Getting ready for Easter.

My spring garden wreath.

This morning,

after we opened the coop 

for the girls to forage,

the CEO checked for eggs.

Lo and behold!

Another egg!!

Yay!

We don't use a prepared feed for the

hens, the CEO mixes his own.

It's a mixture of wild bird feed,

laying mash, calcium supplements by

eating crushed eggshells, 

dried worms and of course,

the contents of the compost bin.

They also forage in the yard,

eating earth worms, bugs, frogs and our

harvest if they get their

little beaks on any.

***********************

My Granddaughter received.

these beautiful roses

for her Confirmation.

I've been trying to keep them alive.

I replaced the water and noticed

that there were small shoots

coming from a few of the stems.

I've tried to grow plants from

shoots before,

 but was minimally successful.

I'll certainly try again.

These roses are beautiful,

but hardly any smell.

*********************************

One of my distractions...

Crime, Mysteries, Science Fiction,

Historical... basically anything.

😊

Just a thought...

Be a Froot Loop

in a 

world of

Cheerios!!

💚💙💗