Fleur de Aleta

I've always wanted an herb garden.  Even before I started learning how to cook.  I can't explain that lack of logic. So, I found a cute little plant stand from Big Lots on sale.  Then I went to Home Depot and fussed about their limited options. I know one is Parsley, another is Sweet Basil and a third is mild jalapeño peppers... but the fourth didn't come with a tag and I haven't a clue! Have you noticed that I like things in my garden.... like the little gnome dancing with the turtle. :)

When my friend, Kim, told me that she was giving me a purple potato plant, I had to bite my tongue.  I just couldn't see a potato being a pretty thing to plant.  And a purple potato? But honestly, the leaves are cool.  I have a variety of purple in my garden and I like how the leaves drape down.  The first shot is because I think spider webs with morning dew on them are neat (as long as I don't see the spider).... Though the leaves are a pretty deep purple, the potatoes are white.  Below is a gardenia bush.  Oh and I love angels in my gardens :)

When we visit with my grandmother, sometimes we go to lunch at TJ Ribs.  I get chicken.  Go figure..  I have to be the weird one at the table of ribs.  Ah well.  The chicken is REALLY good though! First, you have to know, this is purple and gold territory.  LSU - Geaux Tigers!  (College football for those that don't know).  The restaurant is very proud of the team.  They have this large tiger (not real) and I can't guess how many people have sat on it for pictures. My husband couldn't resist.... Another fun/silly thing about the restaurant is when the waiter comes to the table, he/she will write his/her name on the paper ..... upside down.... from left to right (backwards and upside down).  So, of course, Mom and I had to try to do it too.  Mom sat across from me and she wrote her name left to right, but she didn't write it upside down. I wrote mine left to right and upside down.  Greg sat next to me and watched as I...

I have my first flower casualty.  My grandmother gave me a delicate red flower.  I don't know the name of it.  I planted it in the garden and for two days it looked good.  But it's the first goner in the garden.  :(  This is what it looked like on the drive from MawMaw's to our home. Isn't it dainty?   *sigh*  I wonder if MawMaw will trust me with another one for a second try....

I'm such a nerd for water drops.  Morning dew?  Mist from the garden hose?  I'm grabbing the camera before the first drop will fall!  I'm uploading the pictures in medium size, but when I see them in large, those droplets are so cool! I call this elephant ears, but I know that's not the correct name for the leafy red and green. This is a butterfly plant.  It's supposed to attract the flying fancies.  I hope it happens soon :) I believe Kim told me this is a Firecracker plant.  I've seen the bloom in the nurseries - it's a tiny red fella.  Mine still looks weedy, but I'm patiently waiting for the blooms. Oh gosh.... I don't remember the name of this flower.  It vines though.  Pretty in Pink, that's what I'll call her.

Don't pop the champagne and pour the orange juice.  I'm not talking about this mimosa.... (Though with all the gardening, it would quench the thirst) My grandmother not only grows flowers that bloom.. but trees too.  Mawmaw loves her mimosa trees.  I think they look like spring bonnets when they flower.  She has one in her front garden and one by her pond. I took a close up picture of the bloom.  They are feather light that even the slightest breeze will send them dancing.

My husband asked me to cook him scrambled eggs.  He had a conference call and was in a hurry and hungry.  He usually cooks breakfast.  Little did he know that I never cooked scrambled eggs before.  I winged it and he said it was very good :)  I'm sure most people know how to scramble eggs, but I'm putting this recipe here to remind me for the future, because it worked out so well. Ingredients: 2 large eggs bell pepper salt/pepper butter or Pam fat free cheese Directions: In bowl, beat eggs with a fork. Cut up small pieces of bell pepper and add a touch of salt, put them in a microwave safe dish and turn on the microwave just for a few seconds to soften them up. In a small pan, use butter or Pam to coat the bottom so the eggs don't stick. Add the eggs (I know some people add milk to the eggs to make them fluffy but I'm not keen on fluffy eggs). Use a spatula to move the eggs, from the outside (cooks the fastest) to the inside.  When you see the eggs whites a...

I'm backtracking from blooms back to Mother's Day.  My husband and I sent flowers to our mother's.  Dad, though, brought tears to Mom's eyes with his gift. It's an incredibly soft throw with family pictures on it.  I don't know if Dad can top this gift.  Awesome.  He picked pictures from when we were little kids through our Disney trip. It's not just amazing for the quality of the pictures, but some of those pictures are really old ones that Dad scanned in.. yet it looks great on the throw!  Mom said, "Best Mother's Day gift yet!"  Way to go, Dad!

Do you have a favorite plant nursery?  I found two close to home:  Charvet's Garden Center and Jefferson  Garden and Feed.  I purchased flowers from both and haven't gone wrong.  They aren't as cheap as Home Depot or Lowe's, but I think they are healthier. But the best flowers to get?  Those from friends and family.  My friends, Kim and Sue, shared their treasured plants (the ones they were planning on thinning out) and helped me fill out my garden.  The only problem is... I don't know what's in my garden.  Kim can tell me in a heartbeat what is what, but all I see is green leaves :)  In fact, when something blooms, it's a total surprise for me!  I feel like a kid at Christmas time and the present unwraps itself  :) Just recently a very light purple flower bloomed on what was formerly all green.  I had to drag my husband out to see the tiny bloom.  "Look, Look, Sweetheart!"  I'm sure he thought I was silly, b...

I once tried to grow roses.  Without much luck.  My grandmother, on the other hand, grows some of the beautiful rose blooms I have ever seen! After researching, I wrote down a list of roses and started a hunt to the nurseries. Knock Out Roses.  I thought MawMaw was kidding me when she told me that was the name of one of her roses.  Sure enough, that's what they are called.  Knock Out roses are great to grow in Louisiana - very hardy and they can survive our horribly humid summers. The employee at the nursery was very informative.  She confirmed the information about the Knock Out roses but also added, "They have no smell."  What?!  A rose with no smell?  What about "stop and smell the roses?"    Even still, I decided to buy one when the employee explained, "They are good roses for someone just starting into roses."  Sold. So far, so good.  It's only day 2 and still alive.  Knock Out roses don't make big blo...

Ingredients: Roast Pepper, Salt Garlic Oil Onions, Bell Pepper, Celery, Parsley Directions: Stuff the roast with garlic pieces and rub a lot of pepper and salt on to all sides In a large pot, add oil to coat the bottom of the pot.  When the oil is hot, add the roast.  Brown on all sides to a nice dark brown.  (Start the browning process on the fat side/bottom of the roast and end of the fat side/bottom of the roast.) Add onions, bell pepper, celery, parsley and any other seasoning. Add water to about halfway the height of the roast. Cover and cook for 2 1/2 hours (less if it's a smaller roast). I tried something similar to this with the crock pot, but now having tried this on the stove, I prefer the stove flavoring.

My husband greets me with: "Mary, Mary, Quite contrary, How does your garden grow?" Because I'm getting up at the rooster's time and watering the garden I love how Tigger gets in the window for his morning sunshine and watches me water the garden. Another lovely sunrise.... If you don't like flowers, you might want to skip the next few posts, because I'm all about the gardens right now :)   I feel incredibly fortunate to have this time to make our home so happy, on the inside and out.

In the last couple of posts, I mentioned my attempts at weeding.  I've found all sorts of critters, from squishy worms to bright green caterpillars and other creepers I don't know the names of and personally, I don't want to find out.  Oh and spiders, which really do weird me out.   I've also scared one of the neighborhood cats.  She's completely white with pretty blue eyes.  I was weeding and she came around the brick wall and stopped.  The look on her furry face was to say, "WHAT!  What is a HUMAN doing up this early in the morning!  Maybe if I stay as still as a statue the human won't notice me."  Which is what she did... stood statue still.  I smiled, turned back to my weeding and she slowly, ever so slowly walked away.   Then later in the day, after picking up my gloves and tools and cleaning up from my morning weeding... I saw a dragonfly on the ground.  I went up really close to it and thought, "Awww.. poor thin...

I love sunrises and sunsets.  My husband gets up very early in the morning for work.  I wake up with him and sometimes I drag myself out of a comfy bed and watch the sunrise.  Below are shots all from yesterday morning.  The front door glowed in a fuchsia color, so I knew to grab the camera before even going outside. It was lovely!  The second to last picture is a reflection of the sunrise on our door, which I thought was neat :) (I'm waiting for the neighbors to come out of their home one morning and ask why I'm constantly taking pictures of their house...  I can't help it that the sunrise behind them is so pretty :)

My mom.  Dad calls her, "His Princess of the Rose Garden."  She's also the princess of tulips.  I love this picture!  It was taken on their recent trip to Maryland.  Behind Mom, further back to the right, you can catch just a small glimpse of the yellow tulip.  I don't know why, but seeing the yellow amongst the red and white makes me happy.  I guess because it's different.  And I like different :) My Mom has taught me so much and she continues to, through her love.  I won't go into all of the details, but Mom has been through an incredible amount of change, challenge and stress in the past year.  She showed me how a person can be strong, even with tears.. how a person can adapt to change even when the heart aches... how to make the best of things with honor. I love you, Mom. Happy Mother's Day. And Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful Moms out there!

I'm a slow weeder.  (What a strange sentence.)  I've learned that the dog doesn't just dig... she eats grass and weeds.  My husband claims that Penny can eat the weeds faster than I can pull them!  So, get to it already, Penny! Tigger came outside with me this morning.  He meowed, as if to say, "Why are you digging in the garden like a dog?!" Oh and did you know that weeding a garden is a good workout for your gluteus maximus (butt).  I felt it in my tush more from the gardening than I have on a stair master!  Progress though.... My cheerful tools - pink gloves, blue bucket and yellow knee pads :)

If you loved to doodle when you were a kid or if you like the Draw Something app, check this out.  When you click here , it will bring you to a box where you are asked to draw a stickman.  The site takes your stickman and animates him in a story, where you need to draw other things.  There are two different episodes, both are really cute :) My husband found this on Stumble Upon.

Laughing Dog... And this.... is a tired dog :)

I've mentioned on my blog before that I'm not a cook.  Things are changing.  I have started to cook more often and I'm enjoying it :) Here's another quirk.  I'm not a gardener.  I love, love, love flowers!  But I can't stand the hot and humid summers in this area.  Sure, it's "spring" somewhere.. just not here.  We have two seasons... summer and summer lite.  This is summer lite and it won't last much longer. That said.. as I have the time and inclination, I want to do something with the garden.  Where the dog dug to China.  Sadly, she didn't dig out the entire garden.  She left plenty of weeds. My friend, Kim, knows flowers and gardening.  We went to the dollar store and I picked up some garden gloves.  I worked on a itsy bitsy part of the garden to weed.  I'm a slow weeder :)  Below are before and after pictures.  It's going to take me a while :) I'm also going to try to work around the morning glori...

Our dog, Penny, makes this expression when she's missing one of us or... if she's done something wrong... It's a look that's supposed to melt your heart after seeing what she did.  As if to say, "But Mom, I didn't mean to.." And what she did... was dig a hole to China. You might not be able to tell from the picture, but Penny can fit into this hole.  In fact, the neighborhood cats sleep in the hole during the day for shade and safety. We should have called her Digger instead of Penny.

My husband saw this video clip and asked me to come watch it with him.. "You know it's not a good thing when a skunk is involved."

I got Tigger from the animal shelter the year before Katrina.  He was 5 years old when I adopted him.  Needless to say, he's a chill cat.  And every now and then.... I see age catching up to him.  That's why cute little moments like this make me smile... It might be easier to view at the Picasa site, click here .

I know it's silly, but small things like the first bloom on our trees makes me happy :) Ever since it started warming up, I walk by the trees (while walking the dog) and look for the blooms.  

My husband makes me smile and makes me feel very appreciated :)  He sent the below email to my parents :)  Mind you, I'm the one in the family to "not know how to boil water." **** I think Aleta is finding yet another successful creative outlet. First beading… then she took over the “Alpha-Male” position with Penny and Tigger… and NOW…. now she is getting PRETTY damn good in the kitchen. Yesterday evening for dinner we had seasoned pork medallions with an INCREDIBLE side item… it was hollowed out Zucchini and inside of the zucchini she put in a mixture of… sautéed zucchini (the part she shelled out, onions, galic, fresh tomatoes and italian seasoned bread crumbs,,, then after that was put inside the Zucchini “Canoes” she melted a light layer of shredded mozzarella/provalone cheese. IT WAS INCREDIBLE! She made a MEAN stuffed bell pepper last week too! Incredible.. Chef Aleta is on a roll.

I went to Lafreinere Park early in the morning.  A lot of cleaning and preening was going on.  Did you know that swans will dip their head and neck in a straight line under water, then tilt their body to the left and right in order to get the water on their feathers.  Then they preen. There are five black swans at the park.  When I first arrived, two white ducks were very close to me.  Then one black swan came up close.  The ducks weren't happy about it :)  If you can't see the video, click here to go to the video on my Picasa site. I was shocked when the swan got out of the water, very near to where I was! This next picture makes me laugh Ok, enough of the swans, let's get to some other fine feathered friends :) Going to the park in the morning was a great experience.  Not many park goers and the animals were waking up to their routine.  It was so nice! I didn't...