Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Unattended Garden

Unattended Garden


 This is what happens to a garden when it is abandoned.


I have not been able to do much with my garden since August.  In two days we will celebrate Christmas and I finally had a chance to look at my poor garden.  I was delighted to find a few tomatoes ready to pick.



 It looks like I have an onion that will be ready if the weather holds out.


 Here is a snail that has devoured my strawberry plant.

 They still have some flowers and berries on them.
 If I find time to care for them I may have strawberries in February.

 My peach tree looks dead.  Something has broken off the top.
 The blue berry bush looks good.
 Don't know about the pomegranate bush.  It may do OK in a few years.

 Two more blueberry bushes but they are overtaken with sand.
 T?he old garden looks bad.

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Words Used During the Christmas Season

Words Used During the Christmas Season


Christmas conversations often use the same words.

Here is a small list.

                                   
Son of God      Jesus         Christ     King          Prince
Most High     Holy Spirit     Spirit      Savior        Glorious     
Baby              Child         Almighty    Born       Birth     Nativity             Stable        manger    Inn         hay
Peace               Love          Joy           good      heart
praises              music        singing      glory     worship
Star                  heaven      holey          tidings     Blessed
Everlasting     throne     Kingdom     righteousness   Greetings      forever         praising   Singing     Glorifying  Worship     Overjoyed     praises     Glory 
Favored     Woman    Mother    Pregnant     Womb             Mary       Virgin   Expecting    Angel    Joseph     David     Luke   Matthew   Isaiah   Abraham  Gabriel     Elizabeth   Caesar     Augustus     Quirinal's     Shepherds     Magi    Wise men      Presented   Treasures    Gifts     incense     Myrrh    Frankincense     gold  Merry Christmas      Heaven   Bethlehem      Nazareth     Galilee     Judea   Israel       Village          East                Fields     Flocks     Donkey         Jews            Romans     Tax     Decree     Census        Appeared  Dream    Night    

Friday, November 27, 2015

Wake up Call

Wake up Call
 My alarm clock has fur.  Every morning at six A.M. a black monster comes and starts to make sounds that wake me up.  If I try to ignore all the commotion I get a bite on the nose or lip.
Sometimes I try to cover my head so I can get a few minutes of sleep but this black, furry, monster starts to claw through the blankets.  She has even clawed my new bed spread one  morning when I attempted to hide under it.
Well I'm up now. " Love my furry alarm clock!"

Princess Flight

Princess Flight
 Today is Friday and we will stay inside and eat left overs from Thanksgiving .
If the truth be told Flight will only get cat food.  There is a big rule in this home, " No table food for Flight".
There have been a lot of articles about how bad table food is for your pet and we will take no chance on our little princess.
 Flight likes to climb up on the chair and slap at me if I don't pay her enough attention.
 It's time for my exercise, Flight seams to say as she looks up at me.
 I always try to make Flight get some exercise but I'm only able to chase her around the house one or two times a day.
 Flight said, "Mom does a good job with the loud machine that sucks air up off the floor.
I believe she said it was a vacuum.  It is offal loud."

  What's this?  Flight seams not to understand when I tell her that she is shedding.
 Attention she seams to say as she waits for her brushing of the day.
Flight may have an issue with being disturbed when playing with my toys.

Now it is time to sit and relax.
Princess Flight on her throne.

Awesome day for a Bird Bath

Awesome day for a Bird Bath
It is a little funny that the old lady next door has a bird bath and feeds the birds at the same time she feeds about forty feral cats.

This lovely cat seams to be asking, " where did all the birds go?"



Saturday, November 14, 2015

Winning the War is Never Giving UP

Winning the War is Never Giving up
The Survivors are the Winners

Often when the world is so hard and our hearts are broken we want to give up.  When the people in the world are so evil to each other we just want to escape away from this life.
The problem is if we give up and allow the evil people to take over then we let them win.  If all you do is survive you win.  You are the one person they were not able to take out.  
So hold up your head, take a breath and do what ever you can to live another day.
Don't let them win.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Cat Eyes

Look at those cat eyes.

Playing with my camera I have found that it is best to turn off the flash when taking pictures of a cat.
 It does give an eerie look when the eyes almost glow.

Fish Management Area

Conservation and a park.

Jacksonville had a good idea placing a park, retirement center and conservation all in one area.
 The flowers were lovely.
 We had a lot of fun walking around to pond and looking at nature.



Saturday, September 12, 2015

The Rain Has Me Inside

No gardening in the rain.  Instead of gardening I will stay inside and play with my cat.

 Flight doesn't seem interested in playing today.  She would rather sit in her window and watch the rain.

Thursday, July 9, 2015

How to save seeds

 How to save seeds and the containers to use when saving seeds.

If you research there are a lot of ways to save seeds.  My way doesn't work on all seeds.  A lot of my seed saving has come from trial and error.
Harvest your seeds at the right time then clean and dry them.

Beans and peas will dry on the vine then you may set aside on a dry area for a few days before placing in your bottle or bag.
Peppers need to have the seeds cut out of the fruit and place the seeds on a paper towel to dry a few days.  When dry place in your jar or bag.
To ferment seeds such as tomato or melon place slimy seeds in a quart glass jar with just as much water as seeds and strings.  Set in a warm area, ' not in direct sun."  for about seven days.
Place a paper towel or cheese cloth in a calender. Drain then let seeds dry.  If seeds grow roots before they dry just go ahead and plant them then start a new jar of fermenting seeds.  If your seeds started to root next time drop a few days off the fermenting time .
After seeds are dry store in containers in the refrigerator . Only store until the next planting season.

Garden from seeds

I find tomato's are the easiest plant to grow.  

This year I planted : Romano, Yellow Pear, Mortgage lifter heirloom, and Cherokee purple heirloom tomato's.
 I found out that planting cucumbers on a fence is not always a good idea.
 I planted the cucumber  and yellow tomato together.  It is a good combo in a large planter.
I had to cut off most of the leaves on my tomato plants because they turned brown.

 Don't know what has happened to my Cherokee Tomato the top looks sick.
 My container garden is not pretty but it is functional.
 The Mortgage Lifter tomato is full of tomato's but I had to cut off the leaves because they turned brown.
 This strawberry started small in one pot and I move the runners into other pots.
The zucchini plants are making flowers but no fruit.

The Romano Tomato's have done OK, I have only picked about five off this plant. 
  I planted Sweet Basil in the same pot as my tomato plants.

The fig tree is about five years old but I only get a few figs a year.

 My peppers have note done well this year
 I don't know if the pepper has bugs or a fungus.
 Tomato plants are doing well even without leaves.
 I get just enough to have a few every day.
 Yellow Pear tomato's have done well this year.
 I am working in a few small pots to see if tomato plants will produce and survive in them.
 I am able to get tomato's from the tomato plant in a small pot.
 Blueberry plant below.
 The blueberry plant above is almost finished for the year. With three plants all at least three years old I only gathered a couple of hand fulls.
This year my  pepper did not do well.

 This watermelon plant's above have flowers but no fruit yet.
My thyme and cilantro are in small pots all alone.

My mint plant is in a large container and it may look bad but has produced a lot this year.

 I have only harvested two squash this year. One crook neck and one winter squash.
 I wish I could grow about six or seven different types of squash.
 The flowers on the cantaloupe are pretty.
 The cantaloupe plant may produce this year.  The little green ball above is cantaloupe.
 Queen peach tree below has not done well since I purchased it six years ago.
 My peach tree is sick and has not produced in six years.
 My strawberry plant is taking off but the berry's are not good this year.
 Cherokee Tomato
Hot Pepper

A few plants that did not grow well this year were the wildflower assortment, nasturtium DWA, marigold mix, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato Squash, shelling pea, purple hull, green beans, celery, yellow crookneck squash, butternut squash, zucchini, cucumber, cantaloupe, watermelon,  scarlet globe radish, cherry bell radish, mesclun spicy mix , Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce, red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, green bell pepper, red hot cherry pepper, banana pepper, jalapeno Pepper, Oriental pepper,