Gardening, anyone?

Anonymous

At a naturalist's garden near here, this is really the mailbox and mail is left there.

At the wildlife wetlands near here, just as colours are beginning to break.

Purchased beautiful huge red cameo apples. Last night made a gluten free organic pie and it turned out well. Am going to make mulled cider now. Found this in Taste of Home if anyone is interested - there was talk of vodka and wine a ways back, made from potatoes. Here's beverage with apples and grapes.

MULLED RED CIDER

INGREDIENTS

• Cinnamon sugar, optional
• 1-3/4 cups apple cider or unsweetened apple juice
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 cinnamon sticks (3 inches)
• 4 whole cloves
• 1 bottle (750 milliliters) dry red wine (edited to add, I am going to use grape juice)

DIRECTIONS

If desired, moisten the rims of seven mugs with water. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on a plate; dip rims in cinnamon sugar. Set mugs aside.

In a large saucepan, combine the cider, sugar, cinnamon sticks and cloves. Cook and stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved.

Add wine and heat through. Remove from the heat. Cover and steep for 10 minutes; strain. Serve in prepared mugs. Yield: 7 servings (3/4 cup each).

coachvicky

Teka

Not sure how I would ship those potatoes!

Funny thing is I didn't buy the plants. I just let one potatoe from last year grow eyes and planted those in several eifferent areas.

Coach Vicky

Teka

Bluebird,

The following was my public post to Wren on a different thread.
I once tried to overwinter an outdoor geranium causing an infestation of spider mites on the houseplants. Luckily, able to treat the houseplants with rubbing alcohol. I learned my lesson. ;o)

Wow...definitely a country mailbox!

Coach Vicky,

I'll get 5 sweet potatoes at a local farmers market.

Do you make sweet potato pie for Thanksgiving?

Jazzygirl

Teka- I need to bring in some geraniums to winter but one is too large and may not be able get it in. Going to debug the house plants and geraniums today as we may get a hard freeze tonight, or if not, soon. Usually by now is the time to bring things indoors.

I think we have some folks from down under on this thread and thinking they are in the throes of spring? Bring on those spring blooms south of the equator peeps!

coachvicky

Teka,

We follow a low carb, high protein diet so pies are a way of the past. Since diagnosis I have lost 53 pounds and my husband 85 pounds. Trust me, we needed too.

I do make a sweet potato bread from the following pumpkin bread recipe.

PUMPKIN BREAD

Preheat your oven to 350°.

Grease your pans / tins.

Combine 2/3 cup water and 1 cup raisins in a microwaveable bowl. Heat for about 1 minute in the microwave. Let cool. Separate the raisins from the water. Set both aside. Whenever adding raisins to a baked product, plump them in hot water. Otherwise, the raisins are hard in the baked product.

Sift 1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour and 1 and 3/4 cups whole wheat flour.I sift three (3) times. This makes the bread light. You must combine the wheat flour with all-purpose flour.Otherwise, the bread is heavy and dense.

Add to the flour the following:

• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 and ½ teaspoons spices.

Use at least 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, 1 teaspoon cinnamon. The other 1 and ¼ teaspoon can be any combination of cloves (just a little!), allspice, and nutmeg .Add a dash (about ¼ teaspoon) Ancho Chile Pepper*.

In a large bowl mix the following:

• 3 cups sugar or 1 and ½ cups Splenda
• 4 whole eggs
• 1 can (16 oz) pumpkin not pumpkin pie mix. I substitute cooked sweet potatoes.
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• The cooled and set-aside raisins

Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture alternating with the cooled and set aside raisin water.

Pour into greased muffin tins, or two 9 x 5 loaf pans, or smaller pans.

Depending on the tin or loaf pan size cooking time varies for larger loaves at 60 minutes and 40 minutes for muffins and smaller loaves.

*Why add the Ancho Chile Pepper?

There is something this spice brings to the pumpkin bread. The flavors are more pronounced but not hot. With this chile spice I receive compliments such as "That was great pumpkin bread!" Without the chile spice, I get compliments such as "Thank you for the bread."

Coach Vicky

Jazzygirl

Coachvicky- congrats on the weight loss. I have lost 35 myself in the past year and a half, 25 in 2017 alone. Got another 15-20 to go.

I don't eat sugar anymore and gave that up awhile ago so no pie for me either......

coachvicky

Great news JazzyGirl. I bet you feel better!

The bread is good with the Splenda but I watch that as well. It is a real treat to have something like the pumpkin bread.

Coach Vicky

Jazzygirl

Coachvickey- I do feel good! Stronger than I have felt in a long time. I bet you feel good as well? My docs were all very pleased at my visits this summer with how much had come off this year at that point.

coachvicky

JazzyGirl

Nothing like cancer to make me get healthy. Dang.

Coach Vicky

Jazzygirl

Coachvicky- well, I hear you. Things got out of control in my 40s with starting my own business, elder care responsibilities, etc. I put on a good 50 pounds in a decade and hit my highest weight in the spring of 2012. By later that year, I had my dx. I had challenges loosing weight on the AIs, but had some other issues too and got help from an endocrinologist which is what changed a lot this year. It is no easy road for any of us, but now I am on a mission!

I have gotten a lot of my plants indoors, will cover a few others for the evening and finish bringing in the rest tomorrow. I have one geranium pruned and in, two smaller ones need to come out of planters to winter. There is one beautiful coral one and may try to transplant it, but the container it is in is too heavy to move. Debugged (I hope), pruned up and hoping for the best. I noticed one of my big jade plants is about to bloom, along with buds on what I think is a Xmas cactus (maybe now a Thanksgiving cactus?) Well, perhaps I will have more blooms to share with you!

Heading out for a nice fall walk to see the foliage. Trees will be done soon. Frost on the horizon. I hear it's sleeting in Texas....

Teka

Coach Vicky,

Thank You for your pumpkin/sweet potato bread recipe.

Jazzy,

I'll be looking forward to more pics of blooms.

I once tried to overwinter an outdoor geranium causing an infestation of spider mites on the houseplants. Luckily, able to treat the houseplants with rubbing alcohol. I learned my lesson. ;o)

The following 2 pics were taken from Facebook.

My favorite Fall pic of a paper wasp nest high up in a tree was taken by a neighbor on a Fall walk.

This pic of a paper wasp nest only 3 feet off the ground was also taken in the North Country.

We've had a lovely Fall.

We could all use a mild Winter!

Wren44

I drove down a long street on my way to art class. It is lined on both sides with large maples and purple autumn ash. Shades and shades of orange to purple.

TwoHobbies

Pretty pics, ladies. Jazzy I keep thinking I want to move to New Mexico when I see your photos. I had a "christmas cactus" that bloomed at halloween, so yours seems to be on the same schedule. I left it with my mom when I moved. I keep thinking I need a new one. It was so gorgeous.

Autumn finally arrived here. We finally got a frost and cold 2 or 3 days ago. I really didn't need that! I dragged my mandevilla indoors, but not sure what I'm doing with it since I filled most of my bay window with fairy gardens! My dog will be mad if I take his last sitting/viewing space.

Jazzygirl

Wren- I have an ash in my front yard and is very purple right now. As we get in to November, the leaves will fall and as it got pruned in Sept, hopefully will be less than last year. That tree is large and loaded with leaves!

Two hobbies- when I moved here from the east coast, people said "why do you want to live there, everything is brown". Well that is not true as you have seen. We have rocks of different colors, the most amazing skies and some pretty nice foliage. The desert southwest is truly beautiful.

I took a walk down in our bosque (spanish for wooded wetland) yesterday which is the ecosystem around the Rio Grande River. Founds some new pretty trails and here is a photo of the light in the trees late yesterday.

Wren44

Beautiful, Jazzy. I like the desert. It's vegetation without the clutter. It seems so drab at first and then you notice all the small details.

Scottiemom11

Wren. . .I think it's a red-shouldered hawk which are native to Georgia. We've had as many as 11 hawks in one of our trees in any given year. We see this one most often. I think she goes after the chipmunks that live by our stream.

Teka . . .omg on that wasp nest. Ds and I are highly allergic to them. We had an underground nest of yellow jackets a couple of years ago. DH got stung several times and we had to have an exterminator come treat it. Scary.

Scottie

Teka

Scottie,

I had to be careful not to disturb yellow jacket wasps if nesting in the stone wall, or in the ground while doing clean up this Fall.

Jazzy,

Did you hear any birds during the walk?

TwoHobbies,

I've outdoor flower pots and planter boxes that need to be cleaned out, but waiting until killer frost.

Jazzygirl

Teka - yes the sandhill cranes are back. More migrating in too 😀

Jazzygirl

Because some of this is derived from the garden, I thought you would enjoy the humor.....

M0mmyof3

Too funny!!!!

GmaFoley

Went to the park for photo shoot - looking for Fall colors before they went away - I found Blue Leaves???

Jazzygirl

GMA- my ash tree turns purple. Will take a pic today and post tomorrow.

Those look like some type of oak?

Wren44

I thought a maple.

GmaFoley

There were so many different trees - I think it is a maple - the oaks around here have crunchy brown leaves that are elongated.

TwoHobbies

There are some purple leaf maples. My neighbor has two.

Jazzy love the pumpkin display photo. So clever.

Wow,KB, so lucky to find some raspberries left.

My little maple that replaced my emerald-ash-borer-destroyed ash is small but beautiful. This is the view from my bay window. Stuck inside on a rainy day.

Wren44

I would love to have that view from my window!

Jazzygirl

Sunset with some cottonwoods during the full moon this past week

Teka

I'm enjoying the pumpkin butts pic along with all the pics!

I woke up to a killer frost. Finally, cleaned out the outdoor flower pots and planter boxes.

A neighbor posted the following spider webs in a barn pic on Facebook.

I do believe the spider webs are covered in dust (hay and manure) which makes them look awesome.

I've on morning walks seen dew covered spider webs on dead trees that also looked awesome.

Jazzygirl

My red oak in full fall color now. Prettiest I have ever seen it. It was planted in 2012 and then the top died a couple years ago, but the tree company saw another limb climbing up to be a leader and so we cut off the top and that limb helped the tree to recover and go way up! The tree has grown sort of funny (maybe planted too close to the corner), but the tree company will be back this winter to do a hand pruning job of it to help it fill out above.

Jazzygirl

I am going to Dallas for Thanksgiving to visit a friend and spend some time in the area (I lived in the DFW area long ago for school).

Saw this place on FB and going to be there the very last day of their Pumpkin Village exhibit, but something like 66 acres of gardens to explore and also a tasting session to try seasonal vegetables pared with wine. Whoot whoot! I bet you are looking forward to the pics.

Any of you ever been to this place?

http://www.dallasarboretum.org/