leder legends

  Great recipe - Arie says I can make it again.  Lots of ginger ... I think I used too much. It calls for egg noodles but I had to substitute.  I had a box of rigatoni.  It worked out fine.

  Asher turned 5 and we celebrated in a park. Even though it was way too hot, the breeze and sitting in the shade made it tolerable. He had fun!

  Aaron planted so many sunflowers around his greenhouse. They really need water. He planted rows of vegetables- pole beans, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, habaneros, pumpkins and more( I think).  He didn’t weed- lol. I not sure how or why but things are growing despite the lack of water and the friendly weeds! We went and foraged and came home with a lovely harvest.

  Last week I helped clean up a yard at a rental. We bagged old leaves left over from last fall.  We hauled away old dead branches and yard debris. Lots of scrub trees had sprung up so we cut those down too.   On Saturday I filled my van up twice to haul branches to the yard waste dump. It was sort of fun to see how much I could actually stuff into the van. My helpers kept saying it was full but I was able to much more in each time.  The only unfortunate part of the entire deal was that the leaves on the branches had dried up and crumbled as I stuffed them in the car. I ended up small bits of leaves everywhere. Today I took out a powerful leaf blower and attempted to blow out the leaves...unsuccessfully! So pulled out the vacuum. This is a task I absolutely hate to do.!! Regardless, it had to be done. It took forever ... well more than two hours! And that was only vacuuming. There were bits of leaves in every possible crevice and I’m sure there are still lots left be...

I shredded a bunch of zucchini and bagged it up for the freezer but then changed my mind. I still have a few bags of frozen zucchini from last year that need to be used so I baked. A double recipe : 1 large loaf, 4 small ones and 42 muffins.  I used this recipe before but this time I added walnuts, raisins and dried cranberries. I’ll do it again. Tasted great and will be easy to overeat so I’ll wrap it up and freeze it.  

  I think I have enough! Actually, I know that I have enough! How many daylilies are in my yard?  Well, this morning while strolling in the garden, coffee cup in hand, looking for the elusive poison ivy, I thought I would count my daylily plants...doubles too. How many actual plants are there in my normal sized city yard?  I counted 53! Keep in mind that daylilies don’t take up much room lol! That sounds like enough, doesn’t it? Last week I gave away 13 large daylily plants because they were old doubles and some of them were ditch lilies that had sp rea d. I was thinking at the time that I would make room for more but at 53, enough is enough! Of the 53 there are only 11 doubles so I have 42 different ones. No wonder all I do is post pictures of them. I was truly amazed. I am also amazed that 7 of them are still blooming today...August 7. Counting the daylilies got me thinking about the Hostas in the yard.  Great Expectations   I have lots of doubles even though...

  Leaves of three- let them be! I know that...I have known this for a long time YET every few years I get the lovely, itchy, nasty rash!   This year again I have a few spots of rash- on my ankle ( I guess I should wear socks lol ), on my hand ( gloves??) and on my left arm ( long sleeved shirt) ! This is not something I choose to do in the Michigan heat and humidity! This morning I went through the entire yard and could not find evidence of any leaves of three!  I’ll have to keep looking!  Nasty stuff!

  Beautiful cool weather makes it so much easier to do things like baking! I also told myself that I should include some baking in a box that I will be sending to Alaska. What to bake??  I started with boterkoek because I know that’s a favorite with all.  I have some fresh zucchini sitting on the counter that reminded me of the frozen grated zucchini in the freezer from last summer. So I made zucchini apple bread.  I also have had a few packages of almond paste in the fridge that have been there way too long so I also made almond bars.  All three treats pack up well so it will not all stay here.  Good stuff!

  Yesterday I put a post up on Facebook entitled color in the yard and added a bunch of pictures. I look back and realized that the pictures were of daylilies and phlox. Lovely plants all of them but by no means the only plants with color. Geraniums, coreopsis  , rose of Sharon, rudbeckia, Hostas, false sunflowers, cannas, sedum, etc. Enjoy!