Garden News, and New Listings

The nectarine tree is loaded with blossoms. It does every year but never seems to set much fruit. I'm not sure if its birds or just bad luck. But since its such a pretty little tree, we enjoy it anyway. The french isis hasn't bloomed yet this year. I look every day for any buds but so far no.

                      We cooked beet greens last night and they were yummy. First greens of the season,

and the strawberries are blooming and have green berries that will be ripe in a few days.

The weather has been wonderful, warm and sunny. We've had a few winter rain storms which are so needed and the hills are covered in wild flowers. Below are lupine.

                                                               Its a great time of year!

  I've also listed a few new things in my Etsy shop....two puppy cards and a wall hanging...

Plus our Trio Blog will be having a March giveaway very soon. I hope you will all sign up for it. I'm giving away another candle mat and this one will reflect the time of year with a big sunflower!

Wildflowers, Garden Update, and June giveaway

We found these pretty white wildflowers on our walk yesterday and I picked some to take home...these bloom white and as they mature, they turn a very pretty primitive rust color.....and dry well without losing their petals.....when we got home, the mailman came to the door with a box from Linda at Parkers Paradise...she sent me some goodies and I was really blest.......it made my day really...

I quickly used this wall pocket for my picked wild flowers....its pretty now but will be even better as the flowers turn to a pretty rust..

....she also sent me a punched metal lamp cover, a candle, a paper mache box and battery tea lights..plus another wooden wall pocket which I will share another day.....I am thinking of  painting the box black...with a blackwork stitchery on the top.. an experiment.....I am working on the last of the patterns from Bird Brain

Someone asked if I do requests...yes, I do......

We enjoyed beet greens last night...they were so delicous, it was unbelieveable...I just washed them throughly, and steamed them...served with a little dribble of apple cider vinegar...

 The corn is starting to tassle...

and we have melons!

These are new for us..we normally don't have good luck with melons....this melon is called Early Silver Line..the tag says "Unique elongated oriental melon. White, crisp flesh, sweet and fragrant...a small delicious gourmet melon rarely found in markets." sounds good, doesn't it?

be sure to sign up for my June giveaway! If I get 100 followers (50 so far) I will give away a second stitchery...I have it stitched...just have to frame it....hint..sheep....

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Tuesday Chat

I recently acquired this little cook book and am making a recipe from it after I get off the computer....I have another of this authors books and like it so thought couldn't go too wrong trying this one out...

I will let you know how it turns out....you can use either chicken or tuna and fairly frugal...I plan on serving it with a green salad with fruit for dessert.

We spent yesterday being empty nesters.....Donny had to work and Matt spent the day at the beach with friends...we enjoyed the garden and watched old movies on TV..they had alot of old war movies on....we both enjoyed the movie, "The Longest Day" , about WWII storming the beaches of Normandy...neither of us had seen it before so it was new to us...of course, we put our flags out too....
Did you know there are over 10,000 of our war dead in Europe? We couldn't believe it when our President went around apologizing....they'd all be speaking either German or Russian if we hadn't stepped in...my great uncle is buried in France.

We worked this weekend on the garden, doing weeding, cultivating and Alan staked up the tomatoes...they are mostly full of small green ones right now but in a few weeks! Some of the corn is over waist high and below you can see the shallots I planted... I knew we liked them but never grew any before.....the shallot plants are the ones in the center with the spiky leaves...I just bought a bag of them at the store and planted them....

Our big old toad watches over the garden for us.....he is such a crack up...I just had to bring him home....


Just a note....I have opened up my Daniv1951 shop to international sales...just sent a small order to Canada......I wanted to share one of my other favorites that I am surprised hasn't sold yet.....this is a pattern for making very cooling looking rugs from recycled grocery bags...its for crochet

Wednesday Dog of the Week....Dixie Lee

This is Dixie Lee, a mixed breed Papillion...she is about 4 years old and needs someone who will be patient with her as she is distrustful of strangers but very loyal to her family....probably not for a family with children, but for a single person who needs a loyal companion, she would be a faithful friend...she is small, about 8 lbs or less.....I met her on Saturday when I was at the rescue...she barked when I first entered the patio...but showed no real aggression....stood off when the other puppies piled on me and I could see she was curious but wary....very pretty little dog...just like people...some of the rescue dogs have special needs....Dixie is one of those.
You can find Dixie and many other rescued dogs at the Sun City K-9 Dog Rescue




Yesterday I did some dead heading of the roses and picked some for the house...these are from our climbing rose bushes...I think they are gorgeous....the bushes are just loaded right now...I did feed them with some epsom salts earlier and I think it really helps them to bloom.....

I wanted to also share what our vegetable garden looks like.....thought you may like to see its progress...Cabbages, beets, and yellow crook neck squash

Corn

Tomatoes and peppers

We went to the town meeting last night...they had a contest for the new town seal..Alan had put in a entry...so was invited to come for the announcement of the winning entry....here is our new
Menifee town seal.....

No, its not his but nevertheless very colorful and does reflect Menifee's rural background..this entire valley was once all farm land and there are still wide open areas. We still have barns, tractors and sheep.....many houses are on large plots of land.
well, that's about all for today....if you want to see what kind of crafts I've been making, please check out my other blog...the link is on the left...or click here