Snacking in the Garden

I know, three posts in one day is a little extreme, but I just had to share this. After school, I looked out into the garden to see Teenage Monkey eating morning glory blooms. I know, weird. He has always done it. I checked and the blooms are safe to eat, just stay away from the seeds. A few years ago, his Meme (aunt) decided to try them too. She did not understand the appeal. I am going to take her word for it and leave them alone.

I watched my son for a few minutes and went out to see what else he was snacking on. He ate the ferny tops of the asparagus. He ate Swiss chard straight from the plant. He ate basil. He finally, found a small zucchini and that seemed to satisfy his snack attack. Better than milk and cookies, if you ask me.

Rainy Day Ramblings

Its raining, its poring, my husband is snoring.

Really, he is and I am stuck inside.

Here is the spider that was up in the corner near my computer desk. Pretty scary, don't you think? He relocated to a rosebush.

Rainy days always cause me to daydream. Today I am dreaming of roses I want to grow. The roses in these pictures are from the Earth-Kind Rose Trial at the Texas Agrilife Extension office in Kaufman on highway 34. If you live around here, do yourself a favor and check it out. The roses look awesome. They are not fertilized or sprayed. The variety above is Julia Childs. I don't own a yellow rose and must have this one.

This one is Bright Melody. I think it is a buck rose, but I need to verify that.

Finally, Rainbow Knockout. Hopefully, this Knockout will perform as well as the other varieties.

Now I am off to finish my scarf for the Scarf Initiative organized by Kathryn of Plant Whatever Brings You Joy. Do you think I should put fringe on the scarf?

Compost Tea Anyone?

It is finally raining. We have not had rain in this area since Ike. The bog garden filled up. Hmmm....That sure looks like compost tea to me.

I wonder how many times it has to rain before it looks like water and not coffee?

Birthday Cake Torture

I have found a new way to torment the Monkeys. I had to buy a birthday cake for a fellow master gardener. The party is after the meeting tomorrow morning, so I had to bring the birthday cake home. I tried to hide it on the top shelf of the fridge thinking they might over look it. Nope. Apparently, Baby Monkey has a special cake radar and he found it.

Him, "Why do we have a birthday cake?"
Me, "It is for Frances."
Him, "When is she coming over to eat is?"
Me, "She isn't. It is going to the master gardener meeting in the morning."
Him, "But you bought it."
Me, "I bought it, but the master gardeners are paying me back."
Him, "Can you have the meeting here?"
Me, "No, there are too many people and the schedule is set."
Him, "But, you bought the cake."
Me, "No, the master gardeners are buying that cake. Do not eat it!!"
Him, "But..."
Me, "IAMTELLINGYOUIFYOUEATANYOFTHATCAKEIWILLGETKICKEDOUTOFMASTERGARDENERSANDYOUWILLPAY"
Him, "Okay."

I still think I need to hide the cake better.

As I was typing this Teenage Monkey comes in and asks, "Why do we have a birthday cake?" ARRRGG, that cake is doomed.

Stupid Ref

I have a confession. I am a soccer mom. I promise this is not about politics. Soccer momming rarely is.

Anyway, above is Baby Monkey, in orange and red(don't ask), playing goalie. He is in the goal box for about half of each game and plays midfield the rest of the time.

While he was playing midfield today, a player on the other team tripped him and then shoved him to the ground with one hand on my son's shoulder and the other on THE BACK OF HIS HEAD. Needless to say, I went a little crazy and almost got myself removed from the game. I would not have said anything, if the ref had called the foul. The ref was right there, I mean right there. COME ON!!!

This was not the only call he missed. Actually, he had not made any calls at all. He was just standing there keeping time and making sure they threw the ball in correctly.

After I had a fit and fell in it, the ref decided to call every little bitty thing he could on our boys. It stank and I should have kept my mouth shut. The boy was not hurt. It would have been better to just let Baby Monkey get mad and get even. He usually scores when he is angry. Actually, he did score a few minutes after the shoving incident - Good Boy. We ended up tying the game.

STUPID REF

I will be back to garden blogging or making fun of the Monkeys tomorrow. Thanks for letting me vent -Again.

Have you ever wanted to kick a ref?

When Pumpkins Drink

I thought this was too funny and just had to share.

Here are some more pumpkin posts plus a gratuitous link to my sister and Monarch butterflies

Poor Richard's Almanac -The Pumpkin Book

Garden Joy 4 Me - Pumpkin People

My Sister's In Stitches - Monarchs

Go check out Adventures in My Garden's fall header

Sue at Cottage in the Cedars has pumkin boards

If you have something pumpkin related leave me a message and I will link you up.

Cool Down

Manly Man and I went out for an early lunch at the Cotton Gin before noon this morning. The Cotton Gin is a restaurant inside an actual old cotton gin. The food is home cooking with things like chicken fried steak, squash, mashed potatoes, red beans and rice, and an awesome breakfast.

Outside, it was still hot with blazing sunshine. This made me pine away for fall even more. The mosquitoes are loving this weather and eating on me. When we came out of the restaurant, it was still blazing and burning and making me sad.

We had been home about fifteen minutes and I wandered out into the garden to check on my fall tomatoes. Things felt very different. There was some cloud cover and the wind was blowing nice and cool. I pulled the thermometer out of the compost pile (the one that works, thank you) and it dropped down to 79. Yipee, cool weather outside at noon. We may even get a little rain.

So on a totally different topic, last night I made hardtack. Why would I make hardtack? I made hardtack because Middle Monkey gets extra credit in social studies if we do the occasional odd thing like making hardtack. So I tasted the hardtack and it tastes just like a cracker. I have tried to make crackers before with icky results. Apparently, I was over thinking it.

Hardtack
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water

Mix dry ingredients together. Slowly add water to the dry ingredients until it makes a soft but firm dough. Roll the dough out to 1/2 inch and use a fork to prick holes in it. Cut dough into 2' squares and bake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes. Turn them over halfway through baking.

So I figure if I add a little shortening and say rosemary then roll it out to a quarter of an inch then brush it with olive oil and sprinkle on some salt I might come out with some good crackers. Stay tuned, I am going to try it tonight.