around the yard

We've had lots of thunderstorms and rain showers this summer allowing all growing things to live up to their potential.  My Gladiolus have the nicest blooms I've ever seen. 
They just bow down with the weight of the flowers.

A few more Glads mixed in with the Crocosmia...

A bright fuschia pink colored Glad with the red Crocosmia. The gaudier the better for me!

Below is a blooming May-Pop vine.

I have had better luck with Elephant Ears this summer too.

My container-grown Japanese Eggplant is producing.  Their beautiful dark purple color is as pretty as any flower.  They do need to be watered between the rains though.

But the storms can also cause problems.  A big chunk of one of the sassafras trees cracked off and landed on the pool house roof.  The Sasquatch got it down for us.

 

It was bigger that it looks and heavy too.  See the red circle below? It fell from there.

No visible damage though. That's fortunate!

working on some quilts

Earlier this spring, I did a lot of sewing and finished a few quilt tops but I didn't get around to pin- basting them with their backs and batting until recently.

Now there are five of them waiting for quilting!

I think I showed you this one.  I had it rolled up on a pool noodle in this photo. I laid out the batting and backing for it and smoothed it all out, then rolled it up again.

It will have to be pinned before quilting.

 I pieced together some batting scraps for this one. It will be the one I quilt first. when it's completely finished I will show it here and tell a story about it.

This one is from a kit.  You can see it's a little poufy in the middle. Hopefully it will flatten out with quilting. 

I'll show it afterward too and talk more about it.

This next one will be a donation quilt.  I could only find this photo from before it was fully sewn together. It also got a scrap batting (Franken-batting).  

I think it will be cute and I'll show it again when it's quilted.

The fifth one waiting to be quilted is top secret for now and it may be awhile before I can say anything about it.

Since I'm so far behind on finishing all of these quilts...I thought "Why not start another?"

Well, this one will be for a baby who has just arrived.  I didn't even know he was expected so I wasn't ready with a quilt.

Here's how I've started...

The elephant is pretty big...about 27 x 36 so I'll add a few rows of pieced blocks and it will be toddler sized.

These hot July afternoons are good for staying inside and sewing so hopefully I will be able to make some progress on these six quilts!

the patient

 I haven't been a hospital inpatient since my sons were born.  That was over 42 years ago!

But, one morning I woke up feeling very short of breath and like I was all puffed up. I had gained 3 pounds in 2 days!

  I had been noticing that I was huffing and puffing when climbing stairs but one tends to think that just comes with getting older and being out of shape.  But this day it was worse.

I thought maybe I had an intestinal blockage or something- and that it was keeping my lungs from expanding.

All morning I kept talking myself out of going to the emergency room.  Finally I went, but sat in the parking lot awhile considering turning around and going back home. 

Now I'm glad I went. It turned out that my heart was beating way too fast and was in atrial fibrillation. It could have led to a stroke. Fluid had collected all around my heart and also in my lungs.

I had good care at the hospital and they took steps to get everything running properly again. I ended up having to stay a few days for more tests and to get the right medicine dosage established.

I am mainly telling this because...

I urge you to Trust your Gut Instinct. If you think something is wrong - go get it checked out.  Don't wait around!

I have to say the bed was comfy and I got a lot of sleep.  The oxygen line wasn't ordered...one of the night nurses came and put it on me because I kept snoring and setting off the oxygen sensor alarm.

I thought this is supposed to be the "Golden Years?"

Why do they have to put all this stuff on ones right (dominant) hand?  It makes it hard to eat and hard to take care of things in the bathroom...and you can't wash the hand anyway.

And the IV line right in the bend of my arm?  The place where it's going to be jostled around the most and you have to remember to "keep your arm straight" so you don't pinch off the flow.

See how I have my purse in bed with me?  No, it's not weird. I sometimes do it at hotels, too.

This is the hospital version of a meal for a diabetic patient.  Starchy rice, starchy bread stick, the chicken had breading and sugary fruit for dessert. 

 One evening a nurse asked me if I'd like a snack before bed. The choices were pudding, ice cream or graham crackers with peanut butter...All sugary and carby!

But I had enough to eat even with avoiding the bad stuff.  It was nice to eat something besides my own cooking.

Here is a sort of funny part of the story.  I had to have Lonnie bring a few things for me...including under garments.  I was on the phone with him directing him where to look in my closet for the underwear I wanted him to bring.

He said..."Okay, I found the white ones...and here's some with shoulder straps."

What?  I assure you I do not have any underwear with shoulder straps!

I told him where to find a tote bag too, but I guess he was tired of looking because instead of bringing a nice zipper bag (which I have many of) he shows up with this huge, transparent, open top, crinkly plastic bag...with my unmentionables casually tossed inside. Sheesh!

shown here with a tee shirt inside for demonstration purposes

Really, I wasn't mad about it...more amused than anything and I was glad to get the stuff.

But... I think I will fix up a small bag of necessary items to keep in my closet so if something like this happens again it will be easy to locate when needed.  Maybe a change of clothes, under garments, chap stick, dental floss and so forth - and a paperback book.

I left the hospital with my crinkly plastic bag, a fist full of new prescription drugs, and an ugly bruise where they went through my wrist to get to my heart for imaging (the right wrist of course - then told me not to use it for the rest of the day).

Overall, I was glad to have everything tested and checked out and the good news is there are no heart blockages.

But I would be happiest if I could now stay away from hospitals for another 42 years!

what? more soup?

Yep,  I don't know why, but my husband will say he wants soup for supper nearly every day of the week. Even as the weather warms up he still thinks about soup.

That's okay with me!

So, I made two soups again.

This first one is a spicy one...chicken, canned tomatillos, tomatoes,onions, jalapenos.

This one is more hearty, ham, cabbage, potatoes, onions, carrots, plus a few leftover peas.

I stocked up the freezer again with some in pint containers and some in quart containers, but I'd better start thinking about what good combination I can come up with for the next soup cooking day!

blooms indoors and out

This year I managed to actually put fertilizer on some of my plants - including the indoor ones. It certainly makes a difference.

I have a lot of windows in my house but not many good places for house plants except here by our back patio door, where I have a few pots of different succulents.

My Aloe Vera plant sent up a tall flower stalk. The small tubular flowers took a long time to open and were not at all showy, but still kind of interesting to see it happening.

My Sansevieria (snake plant or mother-in-laws tongue) also bloomed.  Frilly white flowers that dripped sticky nectar.

Outside the Clematis is blooming.  The bright green leaves are a different plant that has a nice lemony smell - but I can't think of the name right now - maybe Lemon Balm?

These yellow Coreopsis came from the mark-downs shelf at Lowes last fall. They were mis-labeled and not what I thought I was buying, but I like them. I've had them before and they do self-seed and spread around the flower bed.

The Orange Lillys or Ditch Lillys always bloom around Fathers Day. I have them in a couple of places where they won't crowd out other plantings because they can be real bullies.

Nepata or Catmint (not cat nip) by the back porch. Bees of all kinds just love this.

I am excited about this next plant. This is one my friend, Isolde, gave to me. She started it from seed. It is an oriental vegetable called "Bitter Melon".  I had never heard of it.

I know it looks like I planted it in a weed patch here but I wanted to go ahead and get it in the ground before the temperatures get too high.  I will weed and mulch as soon as possible.

Just a while ago I commented here on how the field next door to our house hadn't been bush hogged in several years.
Strangely, just after that, someone was over there cutting about a hundred foot wide swath.

I am happy to be rid of all the blackberry vines that would snag me when I drove by there on the mower, but I sure don't want to see neighbors moving in this close!

I'd rather deal with blackberry vines!

the Sasquatch goes fishing

The Sasquatch sent some of his photos of an all day fishing excursion on Taylorsville Lake.

He likes fishing but hasn't gone in a couple of years.  The thing that made this day a lot more fun for him was renting a jon boat instead of fishing from the bank.

The boats can be reserved and rented for the day at the marina there - website. They also have large pontoon boats, canoes and kayaks to rent.  The Sasquatch said they are very helpful and provide a map and show the areas to stay away from and emergency phone numbers in case you run into trouble on  the water.

He traveled nearly 19 miles around the lake that day trying out different fishing spots.

A lovely sunny day...fluffy clouds...blue skies.

Lots of coves to explore and see what's biting. 

A Green Sunfish

Another Green Sunfish.  

A Bluegill...all were small fish...not big enough to keep but fun to reel them in to see what's on the line. 

A wee little Smallmouth Bass. 

Another Bluegill.  They all got released to grow bigger.

Here is one I'd never heard of - a Blue Catfish.  Way different that regular catfish - not bottom feeders, but still those long "whiskers" or mouth feelers.  Back he goes!

A nice variety of fish even if they were small.

The Sasquatch said he is looking forward to going back some time this summer.

He didn't inherit the fishing gene from me.  I have tried it a few different times in my life but found I'd much rather just go somewhere and order a fish sandwich!

summer sausage

A few weeks ago when there was a bit of a fresh meat shortage, I noticed Kroger had  pre-packaged ground beef in a brand they don't usually carry.  I thought it looked pretty fatty so I didn't try it out.

Later I saw that ground beef discounted since it was getting close to expiration so I bought a couple of 3 pound packages, with a plan in mind to use it in making Summer Sausage. 

I couldn't find my old recipe for Summer Sausage.  I used to make it every year at Christmas time but for some reason I'd stopped making it and my recipe had disappeared.

But I easily found recipes and instructions online...a bit different than I remember though.

The important ingredient is Morton Tender Quick curing salt which sort of dries the meat and the fat.

I still have a bag of it from years ago.

Besides the curing salt, you add spices and Liquid Smoke to the ground beef and refrigerate for 3 days...kneading it like bread dough once every day.

On the last day it gets formed into logs and baked.

When the Sasquatch found out I was making this batch of the sausages, he brought over a 3 pound package of regular Kroger ground beef that he had bought and asked if I'd make some for him also - so I just combined it with mine for one huge batch.

This is before baking. The meat is rather unappealing at this point.

My old recipe instructed to bake the sausages at a very low temperature over night. The recipes online said to bake shorter times and higher temperatures.

After baking...

I compromised and baked about 3 hours at 210 degrees. 

 I don't know...maybe they still aren't so delicious looking.  When my sons were young teenagers there were lots of jokes and snickering about the appearance of the sausages...and I referred to it as "beef sticks" back then...resulting in much hilarity for the boys!

They are tasty. Better eaten cold.  The yellow dots you see are mustard seeds. I also used garlic powder, black pepper and red pepper flakes.

I started with 9 pounds total of ground beef and ended  up with over 7 pounds of finished sausages.

I wrapped them in freezer paper. They stay good in the fridge for days but I put them in the freezer for longer storage.  Good for lunch or for a snack.