itibits 11-16

TEAPOT on lace table cloth

my dh(dear husband) mr. geek.  LOL  love you hun!!



















my broken flower pot and garden charms

spring garden 6

this hypertuffa pot is by the back steps and porch.  there is 2 corsica mint-mini leaf, with chocolate mint in the middle.











this is my siberian iris-beautiful-up in my front bed













this is hardy geranium by the back porch











these are some of my seedlings, that i still have to plant, but i hope get alittle bigger before i do.

this is my mushroom composed pile

spring garden 5

these are my 2 sorrels the right one is starting to flower and the other is purple veined.  (sorry it is sidways)

this is my mulberry tree with the beginnings of berry's-YUMMM

this is one of my blackberry bushes starting to come in bloom.

this is some apples, there are only a few.

this is one of my peach trees, i need to spray again this week

spring garden 4

1. this is my main asparagus bed that probably was put in 6 years ago.  it is the first thing i get to harvest in the spring.    there are a goose berry on each end.  i also transplanted strawberries and dill from my burmuda grass infested far west corner bed   

2.the bed next to my main asparagus bed also has asparagus in about 1/2 of the bed.  i also have rhubarb and another gooseberry.





















3. the purple flower is my comphrey that is blossoming
















4. purple flower on my chives.  i will have to make potato salad and decorate with the edible flowers.

STARTING IN THE LEFT TOP CORNER AND GOING FROM LEFT TO RIGHT is a pic to the 2 beds that have the peas and lettuces and cress, raab, and giant spinach planted from last year.

the next 2 pictures are of lettuces and some onions.  the next picture-with the pool in the back and arche and trellis'  will be my main bean and cuk bed.  they both have onions-red and white.  the left one has been invaded by sun chokes(which is my fault)  i am trying to get rid of them in that bed-but i am not doing real well.  the left bed also has some rhubarb.  i put 2 tomatoes in the left bed also.  the right bed was my tomato bed last year-'09.  the bottom left pic is some more lettuce-i will have it coming out of my ears very soon.  the right pic might be little cone flower seedlings(I hope!)  i had an cone flower there but moved it to the back fence.

spring gardening 3

these 2 beds put next to each other to the right of the shed against the north fence.  i have peas growing up in the back on a cattle panel in front is brocoli raab and cress that was planented last fall.  i need to trim the flowers to see if it will come back.  i have lettuces and spinach and radishes mixed inbetween.  the next picture is a closeup of my peas, which are coming along.  the next picture is of my  new spinach plants.  yes i need to weed out some grass seedlings!

this is an spinach that i planted last fall. giant something.

spring garden 2

This is my other new bed this year.  this is my main tomato bed, and i will put the cages up soon.  i have lots of peppers that i bought on the left hand side and many of them i will move out to another bed.  at the bottom of the picture i have pots with seeds i am trying to start. i coninually have a problem with labeling,(i am always trying something new) so i beieve that they are peppers. the sharpie faded.  i have a wandering perennial onion in the bottom right above the pots.  i also have rosemary and i got a hardier rosemary and some other herbs in this bed also. i am hoping that a green house might be on my wish list for christmas.  this is a small one that can be taken up and down very easily.  shauna found it!  back to labeling-the next new thing i want to try is with an old fashioned label maker, so that when it fades in the sun the raise lettering will still be there.   that seems to be my biggest problem-fading.  i even bought an industrial sharpie(at staples) and that fades, too.

spring garden

Today planted alot of my seedings-tomatoes and herbs and herb plants that i bought this past weekend at mouse creek.  it is a wonderful perenial nursery.  these are my 4 new beds.
  my cinder block bed has 2 tomatoes, 2 tomatillos, and lots of herbs.  some in the main bed and some in the cinder block holes.







in this new bed i have a small nursery of sorts- of tomaotoes and peppers i am trying to start.  i have 2 tansy, a sweet annie and some other herbs.  i have an old cattle panel that i will attach to my t-poles and i will plant squash and melons here.  i will move the tomaotoes and peppers to another bed if they make it.











in this tall box bed i started a new purple aparagus bed.  i also transplanted strawberries from my to corner beds to the west of the yard.  i also have some herbs and some heirloom martha washington asparagus in the rectangle plastic pots.  they are small but doing well, and i will transplant them when they appear to be well established.

my friends new blog

my friends new blog

some of my other birds

here are my 11 geese, who are laying wonderful big eggs right now my 4 ducks are laying also. the white ducks are hiding behind the other 2. they are all acting beyond silly as this is breeding season.

mantanza great horned owl and yummm

these are itibits that i am finishing up my trip to Florida. at the mantanza fort there was a great horned owl. that i blogged about earlier and i also blogged about the chocolate covered strawberries. YUMMM!

THE TALE OF 6-1+3=8

we got 6 guineas from a friend on Jan. 22, 1020. her girls had been raising them for almost a year, until her neighbor decided he didn't like them and started shooting them. so out to the farm they came . these bird were treated like pets. when we "inherit" peoples pets and they come out to the farm, we see that they don't know how to be "guineas" or chickens or ducks or............anyway we had them penned up for awhile in one of our animal sheds, so they would learn this was there new home. when they arrived here in a crate one was not doing so well. it was probably getting picked on by the others. when we finally let them loose on the farm this one was smaller than the others and always lagging behind. it just disappeared one day}}~; so now we have 5. because they were "pets" they didn't know how to roost up in the trees at night and they would not go back in the pen and shed that they were first in. they roosted on the barn doors, which made them very vulnerable to predators. the day before Easter and the day I left for Florida my 15 year old Dd said<"hey mom, why do we have 8 guineas?" i said,"we don't, we only have 5." she then had me come to the window and count, and there were 8! so i guess these 3 heard ours and left and came to join ours. i have NOOO idea where they came from. the great thing(besides now having 8)is they have taught my 5 to roost up in the trees and i think they are less vulnerable. 6-1+3=8

lynn's 1st 7 itibits

here are my 1st itibits that i did in florida. the first is a peach blossom from my garden. my 2 peach trees were just full of blossoms. my Dd took the picture.

the bunny is for Easter and is from my button collection.

3 of us from a homeschool support group, here in East Tennessee headed for florida represented in the next square-FL and a palm tree. and my blogs above tell that tale.

i am a lighthouse freak! i loved lighthouses way before they became popular and have seen every light house in the lower penninsula of michigan and over 1/2 of the ones in the UP of mich.

soo, of course we went to the st. augustine lighthouse and climbed the 219 stairs.

the next 2 squares are a pelican, of which we saw many flying over the water and beach and the next one is my beach scene that has sand surf and waves, shells and a petrified sharks tooth.

ENJOY!!{~;

ps. i have a few more that i want to do of the trip to florida and they are coming.........

OLD TOWN ST. AUGUSTINE

SALLIE PAULA AND I....had a leisurely morning of working on our itibits(which i will post later). we then headed out and had lunch at the cab co. it was ok. i had an interesting salad with smoked salmon. then headed for old town St. Augustine. we walked around looking at different shops and old streets. i got the girls some cute beaded key chains in the shape of a shell and some chocolate. then we headed out of town to a 600 year old live oak called "the old senator" with spanish moss hanging all over it. amazing and beautiful.

then drove down a street lined with live oaks covered with spanish moss. it was like driving down a canopy covered street. a small house a block from the beach that was in the neighborhood was for sale for $649,900.

we drove to see the owls again but the park was closed.

we are leaving in the morning}}~;

Paula and i headed out early, while Sallie slept in. we went to Vilano beach. it is on the other side of st. Augustine. it is alot different from our beach(picture shown). alot more gets washed up on Vilano. we found lots of shells and there were rocks that were interesting.

we both got sunburned.

later in the day we went to our beach.
in the evenings we have been playing games that Sallie brought. working on crafts and stitching our"39 squares", we have been having lots of fun with this, watching movies, cooking and eating.

LYNN COOKS DINNER AGAIN

I MADE QUICHE....tonight for us ladies. i brought a crust that i already made and i had in the freezer. i made it with my new flour blend and used "jules" recipe for gluten free crust.

LYNNS SPINACH BACON QUICHE

i like to pre-bake my crust about 10 mins. that helps to insure that you do not end up with a soggy crust. (rabbit trail) we are in florida on vacation, so as you can see our condo didn't have a pie plate so i bought an aluminum pie plate-10 inch.
anyway.......
i sliced up bacon and started cooking as i chopped up an onion and added that. i still had some spinach left from my garden and paula chopped that up and added that to the saute.

i rolled out the dough and placed it in the pie tin and pre-baked as above.

i cracked 4 eggs into a bowl and added 3/4c. of milk(or dairy free of choice) and 1/2c. cream. mix or beat well.
when the crust is done and cooled, add the saute to the bottom of the crust, and top with 1 1/2 c. grated swiss, or jarlsburg or a swiss type of choice. pour the egg mixture on top of all and bake at 350 degrees for30-40 minutes.

i also served a gluten free flat bread that i made earlier(i will have to post this later) with my flour mix and "jules" recipe.


YUMMM!! FOR DESSERT WE HAD CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIES....paula put these together. i used a dark chocolate and melt in a(makeshift) double boiler. the strawberries were washed and dried. make sure they are dried well. this insures that the chocolate sticks to the berry. we had ice cream also(not that we needed it) {~;

SALLIE'S JAMBOLLYA

FANTASTIC JAMBOLIYA

biol chicken til tender and done. cut up chicken when done.
SAUTE: 5 stalks celery
3 large onion
1/2 bell pepper
garlic hot sauce.,
2C. white rice
large can diced tomato
pour beer in to pot add all the meats-chicken, shrimp, and sausage(peeled)
spice with garlic salt, cajan seasongs, and hot sauce

cover with lid. cook 30-40 min. tilrice is tender.cover with a lid and cook 40 mins. sprinkle with shrimp. serve with corn.

DEE--LISH!!
from sallie stoud

FORT MATANZAS

AS WE ARRIVED.........at the fort there were a bunch of people standing around with very high powered lenses on thier camera's and all looking up in the trees. there was a great horned owl and her very fuzzy large chick. it was exciting to see them. the locals in this crowd have been watching them for awhile. (rabbit trail) paula and i were excited to see the birds because we have been watching molly and mcgee online, with molly caring for 4 chicks. it was exciting to see owls for real.

we then went on to ride the boat to head over to the fort. it was very interesting, learned about the history in florida-land of the flowers, named by the spanish. the british also occupied the fort.

a fun and interesting morning.