Christmas Notebook

a few garden pics

August 21, 2008 – 12:55 pm

Yesterday, DH and I worked in the garden a bit. We pulled grass and weeds from the lettuce beds and prepared them for a fall crop. I took a few pictures around the yard.

The garlic chives are beginning to bloom. The flower stalks are pretty in a large group, making a striking picture. I wish I could capture what it looks like in the garden. The picture doesn’t do it justice.

Just beginning to open, these buds look like they’re sharing a first kiss.

The berries on the red stemmed dogwood shrub are beginning to ripen. A pretty shade of purple.

I’ve been using the flowers stalks from the hosta ‘Royal Standard’ in bouquets for church.

The redbud trees are beginning to get a few yellow leaves. A first step toward winter.

Blue this summer, now the hydrangeas are a soft pink.

I didn’t get a great picture of this little guy, but the hummingbird clearwing moth was fun to watch as he flew from flower to flower.

Here you can see the wings.

There’s always something new to see in the garden. I’m sorry fall is coming on already. It has its own beauty, but I love spring and summer the best. Especially spring. 🙂

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in our garden | Tagged garden | Comments (0)

the garden in august

August 19, 2008 – 4:36 pm

Seems that fall is trying to inch its way in. The garden has that look…kind of tired. Parts are overrun with weeds, parts have plants that are just beginning their trip into dormancy with leaves starting to turn yellow. The dogwood tree has a few red leaves on it, and the elm trees along the edge of our property are dropping tired old leaves.

But there’s plenty of pretty left. The surprise lilies have been abundant and beautiful this year. I’ve used them in bouquets for church the last three Sundays.

I dug the original bulbs for the surprise lilies pictured below from Grandma Ruth’s garden, as well as some lily of the valley from the west side of her house. I’m glad to have them.

There are still some surprise lilies just opening. They have a beautiful shade of bluey-pink when first open.

The hostas are flowering, too.

Some in lavender.

Some in white.

In the fenced garden there are a few hollyhocks putting out fresh looking blooms, but most are about done and hard at work ripening seeds.

‘Zebrina’ looks like a miniature hollyhock, but it is actually a malva. A beautiful little flower that seeds itself all over the place. Could be good, could be bad. Depends on how willing you are to yank out seedlings when they come up where you don’t want them.

A great flowering shrub for this time of year are the crepe myrtles. Huge splashes of color in the yard. We have red, white, pink, and a red/white one called ‘Peppermint Lace.’ Here’s a pretty pink one.

The grasses are pretty this time of year, too, sparkling in the sunshine when the breeze moves the long arching leaves.

Out in the back of the yard, where we have a little woods, the ironweed is blooming. Such a beautiful shade of purple.

The ironweed blossoms are about half an inch wide.

The elderberries are ripening.

Near the back door, we have the potted plants that come out in summer and go back in for the winter. I don’t have many, as I’m not good with houseplants, but I do like the papyrus and the rubber trees.

It will be time to move those back in before I am ready, I’m sure. ~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in our garden | Tagged garden | Comments (0)

menu plan monday / august 18, 2008

August 18, 2008 – 10:15 am

Before making the menu this morning, I asked DH and DD what they would like to eat this week. Mashed potatoes (DD), tilapia (DH), salmon (DH and DD), and fried chicken (DD), in that order. I don’t do fried chicken very often anymore, so will make oven “fried” chicken instead.

Monday
leftovers
salad
corn on the cob

Tuesday
tilapia
rice w/ summer squash
sweet and sour cucumbers
green salad
corn

Tilapia:
Place the fish in a single layer on a baking pan lined with no-stick foil sprayed with cooking spray.

Drizzle the fish with lemon juice if you like, or add some to the Parmesan/mayo mixture.

Mix 1/2 c. freshly grated Parmesan cheese and 3 T. light mayonnaise and spread on fish.
Mix 1/2 c. Italian bread crumbs, 1 T. basil, 1 T. oregano, 1 tsp. dry onion flakes, salt/pepper and sprinkle it over the fish.

Bake at 400*F for 10-15 minutes, depending on how many fillets you are using and how thick they are.

Wednesday
oven fried chicken
mashed potatoes
corn on the cob
spinach salad with strawberries
green beans

Thursday
baked salmon with honey/Dijon sauce
steamed red potatoes and green beans
green salad
corn

Friday
hamburgers / buns
veggies / chips / dip

Saturday
turkey / cheese sandwiches
fruit
veggies with dip

Sunday
eating dinner at my sister’s house

Lots of menu ideas here.

DD enjoyed a week-long 4H cooking class a few weeks ago. She enjoys cooking, especially baking. Last evening we were to take snacks to church for refreshments after the Atlanta mission team’s report. DD made cookie bars. All I had to do was empty the dough onto the cookie sheet, as the bowl was too heavy for her to wrangle. She cleaned up afterwards (a good thing). 🙂 Her first day of school is a half day, so I think we will make focaccia this afternoon. We haven’t tried this recipe before. Should be fun. And it is SO delicious dipped in olive oil that has been sprinkled with freshly grated peppper! Yum!

~~Rhonda 🙂

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in menu | Tagged menu | Comments (1)

first day of school

August 18, 2008 – 9:38 am

DD enters fifth grade this year, with a new teacher she has yet to meet. She was eager but a bit apprehensive this morning. DH fixed the usual pancakes with mini chocolate chips. He’s quite the pancake artist. I should have taken a picture…he made a squid today.

The book bag must have been packed, emptied, repacked, etc., at least twenty times in the past few weeks.

With each neatly packed book and carefully chosen pencil, I know she’s ready—nervous excitement and all—for another year of discovery.

As last year, while we waited for her ride to school, Oreo was right there, wanting pets.

It was cool this morning…about 60* as we sat on the porch. The sunshine felt good.

DD was ready for school. I am certainly ready for some time to myself. It’s a good day. 🙂

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in family | Tagged family, first day of school, oreo | Comments (0)

a little weeding, a little pondering

August 15, 2008 – 10:41 pm

We’ve been having some cool weather (cool for August in this part of the world anyway). I spent some time outside pulling weeds on the north side of the fenced garden.

There is a small path of stones that leads between the fence and the snowball bush. It gets a bit weedy sometimes… 🙂

My usual tools: a chair, my gloves, a big cup of ice water, a garden fork and a bucket for the pulled weeds.

Along the way, I found a couple of friends…a wooly worm…

…and a shield bug.

Looks better now, right? I took a wagon load of weeds out of here.

Did you know that snowball bushes (and hydrangeas and Russian sage to name a couple more) will make baby bushes if a branch stays in contact with the ground long enough? I found a little snowball bush today. We’ll pot this up and find someone to give it to.

And where does the pondering come in? Weeding is a great time to think. Sort of like quilting. 🙂

I’ll leave you with a picture of my constant gardening companion…Pippin, the kitty with the crooked smile.

~~Rhonda 🙂

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in our garden | Tagged garden pippin summer | Comments (0)

playing with light

August 11, 2008 – 11:10 pm

This morning I was taking pictures of a framed mirror for Macro Mondays, a group I am a member of on flickr. DD brought in the hand mirror from the bathroom and discovered how much fun it was to play with mirrors and the sunshine coming through the east window.

By shining the light through the chandelier prisms, DD made rainbows and shimmering light on the ceiling.

She even used the big mirror I was photographing.

Then she discovered the “well” in the mirror…that upside-down space that makes you feel as though you might fall in. And with our 12′ ceilings, that was a deep well!

After she played with the mirror for a while, she sat back to chat. I was able to catch some relaxed shots of her with the great play of light from the window.

Found a hair…

Three in one…

It was a spontaneous opportunity and I was glad for the chance to get some unusual pictures.

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in family | Tagged DD#3, mirror | Comments (3)

menu plan monday ~ august 11, 2008

August 11, 2008 – 1:17 pm

I’ve had a quiet morning, but the afternoon will be busier. Several things on my agenda. Here’s the menu for the week.

Monday
sloppy joes / buns
tomatoes / sweet and sour cucumber slices
chips / dip

Tuesday
chicken fajitas

Wednesday
leftovers

Thursday
country pork chops in crock pot
rice with summer squash
green salad
corn / peas

Friday
four cheese spinach pizza

Saturday
leftovers

Sunday
turkey
mashed potatoes
corn
green beans
tomatoes
spinach salad

There are more menu ideas at Menu Plan Monday on Laura’s site.

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in menu | Tagged menu, Menu Monday, recipe links | Comments (0)

going away party

August 6, 2008 – 10:28 pm

Our church is blessed to have many members who are seriously interested in missions and missionary work. One of our young ladies is preparing to go to the Philippines to attend the Newlife International School of Midwifery. On Sunday, we hosted a church dinner at our home to show our love and support of her and her plans.

DD made the cookie bars and I decorated them. “Bethany, the Lord bless and keep you. ~all our love and prayers”

Bethany didn’t know the dinner was for her. She had been with the mission team in West Virginia all week and had arrived home Saturday evening. We have a blackboard by the front sidewalk of our yard to advertise plant sales and DD wrote, “We’ll miss you, Bethany!” on the sign. She saw that and thought it was nice, but didn’t give it much more thought than that.

When she came in, she found her pictures from her Haiti trip on a slide show in the living room, which she said did surprise her. But the light bulb moment was when she walked into the kitchen and saw her name on the cookie bars. (I edited out her name before posting the picture on flickr.) Then there were tears, but they were good ones. {{{{Bethany}}}}

We also had pictures in a slide show in the office of the mission team’s trip to Atlanta in July.

Adam had just arrived home last Wednesday from his mission internship in Nairobi, Kenya, and he also had pictures to show.

In the past, we’ve set the food on the kitchen table. This time we tried two tables in the front hall and it worked very well. I think this is going to be SOP for future church dinners. We had more room and I think the flow of traffic was better, too.

The temps were supposed to be in the high 90s, but turned out to be about 20 degrees cooler than expected. While most of our guests ate indoors, we all gathered outside for Pastor Bob’s devotional.

After the party, there was lots of help cleaning up, taking chairs and tables back to church, picking up, and washing dishes, etc. A big thank you goes to Paul who washed all the dirty dishes and gathered and took out all the trash. And thanks, too, to Susan who took all the tablecloths home and washed them for me. What a great gift. Thank you!

We had a wonderful time, and will miss Bethany a great deal while she’s gone. But we are thankful for her shining testimony of her love for Christ and her willingness to follow Him in service to others. Bethany, we will be praying for you!

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in Bethel | Tagged Bethel | Comments (4)

menu monday on tuesday :) / week of august 4

August 5, 2008 – 1:53 pm

Last week was very busy. On top of party prep (had 74 people here for dinner after church Sunday), my mower quit, my frig quit, I lost a diamond earring in the lawn, cut my finger and DH had to put four stitches in it, MIL was in the hospital for a few days, DD had softball tournament games, and my housekeeping help and my garden help were on the mission trip. What a week. Here’s a shout out to my friend Margaret and her niece who came over on Friday and cleaned my house for me. What a blessing! Thank you, Margaret!

This week seems a bit slower, thankfully. The mower is in the shop, the frig is working, and I am rested from getting ready for Bethany’s going away party.

caterpillar club

August 4, 2008 – 5:40 pm

DD found a caterpillar on the Virginia Creeper vine on the front porch. We’ve raised caterpillars in the past, so decided to give this one a home and watch it develop.

To make a home for the caterpillar, we collected a plastic jar, a small container with a lid, dirt and water for the container, a rubber band and a bit of screen. We punched holes in the lid of the small container, put the dirt in the container, and filled it with water to hold the food.

This particular caterpillar was found on Virginia Creeper, so that is what we stocked the larder with, putting stems through the holes into the watery dirt. Putting dirt in the container, as well as water, helps to hold the stems upright.

Here you can see the caterpillar in question.

Species Alypia octomaculata – Eight-spotted Forester

After putting the small container into the jar (I used a large pair of tongs to put it in place), DD covered the jar with screen and fastened it with a large rubber band. In the past we’ve used fish bowls covered with screen and held in place with elastic. Those are much easier in which to place the food container than a narrow mouthed jar. Keep that in mind if you want to try something similar.

Home Sweet Home…now we wait while he eats and grows. I need to find out if this particular caterpillar will want some dirt to burrow in when it is time to cocoon.

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in summer | Tagged insects summer | Comments (0)

Christmas Notebook

a few garden pics

the garden in august

menu plan monday / august 18, 2008

first day of school

a little weeding, a little pondering

playing with light

menu plan monday ~ august 11, 2008

going away party

menu monday on tuesday :) / week of august 4

caterpillar club

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