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  • Crabapple Blossoms

    My little crabapple tree is blooming now. I love SPRING!

    It was a perfectly beautiful day today, and I spent as long as I could outside in the garden. There is so much to do, but working in the garden is a pleasure when you have the time to do it and it is a pleasant day. 

    I got four daylilies in the mail today, too, and planted them after supper. Those are the only new daylilies I am getting this year. Since I ran out of room to plant more, I had to quit bidding on lilies at the Lily Auction. I have dozens and dozens of varieties already, and watching those clumps mature and bloom will fill my cup just fine.

    Find of the Day: You Know
    Another: 100 Resources for Web Developers
    Recipe: Impossible Pie

  • Daffies, a Report, and a Recipe

    First, two images from the garden today. I am not sure what their names are. I think the first might be "Te ta te" or something like that. It is a tiny daffy. The second one is more normal sized, but I haven't a clue what its name is. I really like it, though.


    I'm really happy about my Blood Chemistry Report Below. I think my doctor is a riot... Do you think she was an elementary school teacher in a former life?


    There was a request for the recipe of the prune cake I made yesterday, so here it is:
    Helen's Prune Cake

    Cook 1 ½ cup fresh prunes for 30 minutes in
    2 cups water
    Put prunes in large measuring cup and fill with enough of the cooking water to measure 1 1/2 cups.
    Set aside

    In another bowl:
    Cream together ¾ cup Crisco and
    1 ½ cups sugar
    Add 4 large eggs one at a time.

    In another bowl:
    Sift and measure:
     2 ¼ cups flour
     teaspoons each of
         soda
         salt
         cinnamon
         nutmeg
         allspice
    and 1 ½ tsp. baking powder

    Add dry ingredients alternately with 1 cup buttermilk to creamed mixture
    Add prunes. Mix in with mixer.

    Grease three 9-inch cake pans, press a round of waxed paper in bottom of each pan and dust sides of pans with flour
    Bake at 350° until done. About 30 minutes (or until cake begins to pull away from sides - or an inserted tooth pick comes out clean. )
    remove from pans and cool on racks while you make the filling.

    Filling for Prune Cake
    1 pint sour cream
    2 Tablespoons flour
    3 eggs
    1 ½ cup sugar
    1 ½ cup raisins

    1 ½ cup pecans
    1 tsp. vanilla

    Put the first five ingredients in the top of a double boiler and mix really good, then cook over boiling water, stirring constantly until thick. This takes a long time. Add nuts somewhere in the middle of the process and the vanilla after it is thick.

    When the cake is cooled completely and the filling is warm, but no longer really hot, spread on each layer as you stack them up. Cover cake very good and keep covered for 2 days or so before serving.


    Find of the Day: A Late Easter Card

  • One more time

    I made this prune cake today. Doesn't look all that yummy and the name is not that inspiring either, but trust me -- after a couple days under an air tight cover, this is going to taste like heaven. It's one of those cakes that need a day or so at least for the flavors to mingle and the moisture to equalize.

    The cake is a family tradition. My husband's mother used to make a prune cake for every holiday and we all loved it. She died ten years ago and we haven't had one since. Not because I didn't have the recipe, but it is a very rich heavy cake and on holidays we have so many other good foods that our desserts are usually lighter now.

    But ever since we went out to a pecan orchard last fall and bought some new crop pecans, my husband has been saying that he wants one more prune cake before he dies.  He's feeling fine -- so don't think this is a dying wish or anything -- but when one is over seventy and lives a very disciplined life, such decadent indulgences are not on the menu normally. So even though he is half joking, this prune cake might very well be his last.

    I kept telling my husband I would make one for him any time he said he was ready, but he waited until I was just about to use all the pecans up -- mostly in fruit salads --  then he took action. He saved back enough for a prune cake, and  bought the other ingredients needed. So this is the week for the last prune cake.  Wednesday we'll cut it... and we are really going to enjoy it.

  • More Martin


    Here is another picture from Martin Nature Park. I have to admit to adding a bit of spark to the scene. When Gill and I went there, it was a gray colorless day, and most of the shots I took looked pretty bleak. I used a little trick from yesterday's "find of the day." In the new version of Photoshop, you can match the color scene in one photo to another. It had been in the Image Adjustments menu all along, and I had never noticed it, let along tried it out.

    I'm feeling better than I did last night -- not chipper but better. I've done virtually nothing but rest today -- to try to fend off the cold I was getting. Maybe I will be lucky and this is going to be just a shadow of the cold my husband had all last week. That would be nice because I have lots of garden work to do next week. I'm hoping to help Chris with some weeding next week, too, since she is using a cane -- the aftermath of a fall on the ice a few weeks ago. (Yes, she's been to a doctor about it and had an MRI, too. It will be a while before she is up to garden work)

    Find of the Day: AOLer Translator

     

  • More Daffies

    We're having beautiful weather and the daffodils that were looking pretty droopy after the heavy rain are looking perky again.
    I, on the other hand, am catching a cold. My husband had for the last week -- and now it is my turn.

    Find of the Day:  Improve your photography with classical art.
    Picture of the Day: Cute Birdies

  • Spring Stuff

    The garden is soaked still from the two inch rain earlier the week. A handful of the daffodils had a hard time holding their heads up after the heavy rain and were lying in the mud, so I brought them in, washed them off and put them on the table.


    It will be a few days before the garden needs any more moisture, but
    I'm working now on getting the soaker hoses checked, fitted with easy
    connectors and laid in place where they will stay for the season. I
    need to get them down early so the plants can grow around them. It will
    be much easier now than trying to thread them through the flowers later
    in the spring.

    The snap on connections are a new thing this year for
    me. It will be so much better for my arthritic fingers than screwing
    the hoses on an off each time I move the hose from one soaker hose to
    the next. I also cut the soaker hoses into shorter pieces because it
    waters so unevenly when the hose is over15 feet or so.

    That means that
    I'm having to fit the cut ends with new hose endings. I started
    yesterday with the project and will work some more when I get home from
    doing Mom's laundry this afternoon. I hope to get them all laid before
    the end of March.

    Find of the Day: Danger Foods

  • Blossom


    I don't know what these flowers are, but I think they are lovely. It was a flowering tree at Martin Nature Park.

    Tomorrow morning I go for my "welcome to Medicare physical."  I am supposed to fast, so I'm glad it is fairly early. As I understand it, the initial physical is a preventive measure essentially. I'm sure the doctor will recommend several tests -- to screen for all kinds of things. Anyone my age has a list of aches and pains, and I'm no exception, but I think I'm pretty healthy really. Actually, one reason I think I'm healthy is that I don't take all the pills that doctors have tried to give me over the years -- and I usually take a "wait and see" approach to problems instead of running to the doctor all the time, and so far that has served me well. Our bodies have an amazing ability to heal themselves if we give them a chance. That being said, I do know that not every illness can be addressed that way, and I'll take the tests (well maybe not a colonoscopy) and I'll see what the doctor has to say.

    Find of the Day: Four Hour Photoshop Crash Course
    Another Find: Time Lapse Video of Guy Driving Across the Country

  • My daisies are not blooming now... this is an image from last year. I was just practicing some techniques in photoshop and I happened to grab this one first.

    I've been pulling my hair out over something. A friend of mine has been trying to send a pdf file to me that I need to update a website. She did manage to send it to me at first, but it must have been corrupted because I couldn't open it, so I asked her to resend. Now I can't even get email at all from her. Maddening! Computers are great when things go well, but sometimes you just want to scream.

    I worked outside in the garden for a while this afternoon. It had rained a little  -- just enough to make weeds easier to pull. I didn't get too much done, really, before it was time to come in to fix supper. There is always tomorrow.

    Find of the Day: Free Actions for Photoshop Nuts
    For the Rest of You: Bureau of Communication

  • More From Martin

    The four images below are from Martin Nature Park. I took them when Gill and I were there last Friday. Even though the park is barren this time of year, and virtually the only green is man-made, we did find beauty in the brown and gray starkness.



    Find of the Day: A Game to Waste Time

  • Spring -- in places

    The first shot is from the visit that Gill and I made to Martin Nature Park Friday. The others are from my garden, where Spring has finally arrived. The colorful blooming bulbs are only in spots here and there. Most of the garden still looks as barren as Martin Park. But plants are making their appearance above the ground all over the garden, and I'm getting excited about this years growing season.

    I'm not going to keep a formal garden journal the way I have the last few years. In fact I've replaced my homepage with just a page of links to the pages that I really want to keep. It was just to much to keep up with, and was starting to be not so much fun.  Most of the stuff on my homepage is gone now. I need to simply my life, and doing away with the detailed journal this year will help. Xanga will be my garden journal -- and the heart of my web presence. Perhaps I'll enjoy the garden more and post to Xanga daily again. I've been doing good lately to post 2 or 3 times a week.



    Find of the Day: Gimundo: Good News Served Daily

Alice

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