1. Rocket races
We continue to get great delight in watching one of the fawns who makes daily visits to our place. This is the only year we have named one of them. Rocket seems born to run, and if Rocket were a horse and I were a betting person, which I am not, I would bet money on this one. The mother of Rocket has her hands full. One moment Rocket is right beside her and the next moment it is anyone's guess where the finish line was. Many times she has cut her visit short to go find Rocket. This week we watched Rocket run pell mell from near our house down into the forest and then come running back and then did a couple more laps like that one after the other. We have never seen another fawn like Rocket. Click here to see Rocket probably within a day or so after birth when even then running was a thing!
2. Brush bunny sighting
Depending on where you live, jack rabbits or possibly brush bunnies may be quite common and maybe pests, but we don't see rabbits often on our place. This week I was surprised when I was driving to see a brush bunny by the side of the road. I think they are cute, but I am certain I wouldn't appreciate their presence if I was growing a garden.
3. Raspberry Ricotta Cake recipe
This week the local veggie and fruit box I bought contained some fresh raspberries. I decided to look for another recipe to try, although making another cobbler would have tasted good. Since I had some low-fat ricotta cheese in the refrigerator, this recipe sounded really good. I used my fresh raspberries instead of the frozen berries in the recipe. I baked it in a 11" x 7" pan instead of the 9" diameter pan and used 1 cup of low fat ricotta cheese plus 1/4 C low fat milk. (I didn't have the 1-1/2 C of the ricotta cheese called for, and I was willing to experiment a little.) It tasted yummy! Do you follow recipes to the letter, or are you willing to experiment and do your own thing?
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| Raspberry Ricotta Cake |
4. I received a vase of flowers this week.
A week ago I shared a couple of recipes and photos with a FB group for those who get the same local produce boxes I get. I was surprised to receive a beautiful bouquet when I picked up this week's order, just because I posted some photos and shared the recipes I'd used.
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| Beautiful bouquet |
5. Neowise
Many of you probably started looking for Neowise, the comet that makes an appearance about every 6,800 years, earlier than this week. After seeing a number of photos online of Neowise, we decided to postpone bedtime and venture outside one evening to see if we could spot it with our binoculars. It was worth missing a few minutes of sleep.
6. The second of our butterfly bushes is now blooming.
The scent of the blossoms on butterfly bushes is something I look forward to each year and so do the butterflies.
7. Discoveries while weeding
When my husband and I were doing some weeding this morning, he used the scraper on his tractor to make quick work of a difficult area to weed. As I used a rake to get the weeds removed from the soil, I discovered a little oak tree. Now I know why it is so hard to pull these little trees up by hand, or even hoe them out of the soil.
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| Little oak tree complete with acorn and roots attached |
8. The blackberries which grow wild on our property are beginning to ripen.
This next week I will be able to start picking as many of these wild Himalayan blackberries as I want. They grow pretty prolifically in the northwestern states of the United States.
This next week I will be able to start picking as many of these wild Himalayan blackberries as I want. They grow pretty prolifically in the northwestern states of the United States.
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| Wild Himalayan blackberries |
9. The Kalanchoe starts have rooted.
It was with some reservation that I followed the directions for trying to start some new little Kalanchoe plants from my rambling Kalanchoe plants. I am happy to report that placing the cuttings into perfectly dry soil for a week was just what they needed.
It was with some reservation that I followed the directions for trying to start some new little Kalanchoe plants from my rambling Kalanchoe plants. I am happy to report that placing the cuttings into perfectly dry soil for a week was just what they needed.
10. I am thankful for Vic and for our family, always and forever.
Rocket sounds like great entertainment. Yum to raspberries and blackberries! The flowers are beautiful. :-)
ReplyDeleteHe is! We picked another gallon of blueberries this morning, and then I went out and picked a cup of blackberries. It is supposed to get up to 95 degrees here today, so I didn't want to stay out any longer picking blackberries. The bouquet is lasting pretty well.
DeleteMaking changes to a recipe is typical around here, in fact, some of my recipes are whatever i have on hand.
ReplyDeleteA lovely list of thankful things, i am also one who can appreciate rabbits only because i do not have a garden to protect.
It didn't take me long to discover that I didn't need to strictly follow recipes to be able to put something edible on the table. HaHa
DeleteI came to enjoy seeing the deer around a lot more after we put up deer proof fencing around an area of our property, so we could plant a garden that didn't get destroyed by the deer. At this point we are not tending a garden anymore, not because we don't believe that is a good idea, but because it is physically much more difficult to take care of one. So now we get enjoyment from watching the animals. :-)
Lovely list! I'm always changing recipes because of diabetes. That cake looks tasty.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I totally understand how health conditions require making adjustments to recipes. Yes, the cake was so good!
DeleteRocket is adorable! Poor mom! The cake looks fantastic! I'm one of those cooks who changes up recipes, mostly because I rarely read through the whole thing until I'm already deep into it and find out I (a) don't have an ingredient (often a crucial one) or (b) I don't LIKE an ingredient (often a crucial one). My husband would crawl over broken glass to get fresh blackberries. We rarely see bunnies in our neighborhood, and I think the fox family that lives nearby might be the reason why. Love the baby oak tree!
ReplyDeleteI think we have only seen one fox in our neighborhood, and that was nearly 40 years ago. We do occasionally see coyotes though, and there have been numerous sightings of cougars recently. I am glad that I haven't seen a cougar recently.
DeleteIf we still had little ones at home, I would have let one of them take the little oak tree to show in sharing time.
#2 is interesting. We have a couple of rabbits, are not aware of what type they are, other than 'Eat Clover and things and get Una to bark'* rabbits.
ReplyDelete* they barely acknowledge the dog barking in the picture window.
From what I discovered, Eastern Cottontails most likely are the type of rabbits in your area and are larger than the brush bunnies we see here. Glad that Una enjoys watching them.
DeleteI think rabbits are cute too. So far they have not visited my garden as far as I notice. I have chicken wires around my pots, scare owls, and pinwheels. Or maybe they just do not like my veggies? I was just looking online for berry shrubs for sale like up to $30 each. I envy you that yours just grow wild.
ReplyDeleteThe Himalayan blackberries that grow in the northwest are invasive. They grow all over the western parts of the states and require vigilance to keep them at bay.
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