The Come Back Kids!

It's amazing what a little patience can do. Or just my penchant for not tossing out live plants. I almost... *almost* did it. Man am I glad I didn't! Two great come backs here on the ol' homestead.

First - Goldie

As you all might recall, she got pretty munched by a swarm of tomato worms. But I hung on, clipped off some of the dying stems, and kept watering (and added osmocote like all the others). I believe I even showed you an in-progress pic.

Take a look at her now! 

Bushy, full of leaves, and better yet - blossoms! 

Heck yeah, she's going to give some tomatoes! How could she not at this point? I'm watching carefully for those nasty worms, of course. But how cool is this!

Second - those Pepper Plants!

Again, I was sure they were on their last legs (figuratively speaking, of course, lol). I had almost decided to pull them up, empty the pots, and see about planting some seeds. But then I decided to just water the heck out of them for a few days, see what happened. Couldn't hurt, right? And then toss them when they finally did give up the ghost.

Lo and behold - those things are producing again! Look at all these:

There are *4* peppers of varying sizes on just *one* plant! 

And the other plant (here's a pic. Not a good one, but a pic) is loaded with blossoms too! Just... amazing.

So now, of course, I water the heck out of everything, everyday. Let's see what happens!

:)

Apologies

Hey all five readers! ha ha

Sorry I've been absent for so long. I've been having some not marvelous distractions the past few days, which is annoying at best and well, it's been more than annoying, ha ha!

Thing is - I have a bunch of cool stuff going on to let you all in on! So - hopefully I'll get a chance to catch it all up soon. 

Thanks though, for those who keep on reading. You're awesome!

:)

Nothin' Like a Good Spider

Spider Haters - Beware! Click off this post if they give you the willies, lol. Personally, I like most of 'em. When I find them in the house, for example, and can beat the cats to them, I'll scoop them up on a piece of paper and toss them outside. They eat pesky bugs, after all.

Let me introduce you to Gustavo Augustus:

Can't see him? Look close - right in the middle. 

Gustavo (or one of his/her descendants) is a huge, beautiful spider who shows up around this time every year, spinning the most glorious webs! They are pretty much in the front flower bed, sometimes to one side of the porch. Once he'd built one *across* the porch, and I had to break it and move him in order to get out of the house. But it was huge and amazing!

And hey, he keeps the bugs away, too. Here's a (debatably) better picture of him. At least you can see him in this one,  even if the picture is fuzzy:

So -don't hate on my spider, man! Gustavo Augustus is awesome!

:)

Mixed Feelings

Yesterday should have left me with a great, tremendous, fabulous feeling! And overall, I had a great day, yesterday. But just a couple of incidents kind of left me with... mixed feelings. Or maybe I should just call it what it is - annoyance, disappointment, that kind of thing. You be the judge.

Uncharacteristically for me, I wanted to get out of my house yesterday. And not so uncharacteristically, I wanted a huge breakfast, even if I can barely make a dent in it, ha ha. So I went to the breakfast place that's just a few blocks from my house, ordered an omelet that came with hashbrowns and biscuits, and ordered a side of sausage gravy to go with. I had a book, read for a bit, packed up all my leftovers, and off I went. Great #1!

Then I went to the bank, and across the street from the bank a yard sale was going on. As soon as I saw it, I realized that was what I was in the mood for - a day of yard-saling! I headed over, looked around, and was even excited when the people spoke Spanish to me (that was another plus more than once yesterday!). 

Now - I live in an area that is predominantly African American. There are some Latins, and even a few other pasty whites like me, but we aren't the norm. Still a very nice neighborhood, area, etc. However, the people running the yard sale sure were a lot more gracious about helping me than they were some of the African-Americans there. It wasn't overt, but I just kind of left there with my silver spoons and an odd feeling, wondering if that had really happened. 

Came home to look up more yard ales on Craigslist when Amazing Andy called and wanted to bring me two avocado trees. Of course I said yes! He came over, and as a fellow gardener, we looked at mine, talked about produce, organic, all that stuff (Good grief - I know! Are those of you who know me sitting down? Ha ha!). We also talked about both wanting lemon trees but how hard they were to find. Which also got me in the mood to track down a farmer's market, btw, but that's later in the story.

Andy left, and I trucked on over to the other yard sale I'd found. Got a couple of good deals, then decided the yard sale thing really wasn't working out so I'd focus on finding lemon and lime trees (the lime is for me - gotta feed my margaritas somehow, hehe). Found a nursery not to far from my house that I hadn't even realized was there, despite the fact I pass it every day on my way to work. Whoa - how observant am I? lol

It was the nursery that got to me the most...

Click read more to... read more. Ha!

Happy Day After Valentine's!

A day late as usual, but hope it was a good one for you! Kinda chilly here today, for South Florida anyway. So perhaps a good, hot breakfast is in order...

:)

The Come Back Kid!

Goldie just might make it!

If you recall, this was what she looked like after *six* tomato worms got her:

Now look! New leaves are growing, a couple of her tomatoes are turning color...

This picture was taken a couple of days ago, and she's got even more leaves and such! Trust me when I say that I am going to keep those plants dusted from now on, lol. But maybe... maybe she'll just make it after all. 

:)

Ooops, I did it again...

Yes, I know that's  the name of a Brittney Spears song. But it seemed appropriate because...

Oops! I did it again!

I said I wasn't going to plant anything else until it was officially Spring (or at least until the end of this month after I looked stuff up, lol). And I intend to hold to that! At the moment, I'm getting a handful of golden cherry tomatoes a day, and there are a million pea pods out on the peas. Bunch of little squash on my lone surviving plant, but as soon as they start getting bigger, something kinda sucks the middle out. 

Long story, and more details later. On to what I planted.

Potatoes.

Specifically sweet and white. It's not really my fault though - I swear!

Well, maybe it is. They've been sitting in the potato bin long enough to have sprouted. And I had two huge tubs out there full of dirt. So for kicks and giggles, I cut 'em up and planted 'em. Here they are:

We'll see what happens. Like everything involved in this garden business, I've learned not to hold my breath. But if you never do, you'll never know, right?

:)

Another Side Topic

Yep, take a look at that bad boy.

That is a game played by my students on Friday. It is the best Scrabble game I've ever seen (which may or may not be saying something, lol.)  But I was proud of them - they did it without any help from me. Admittedly, this is an advanced class, but still. Better than I usually do, ha ha!

:)

New in the World of Cooking

No, nothing earth shattering. Just a few things that I've done lately that turned out really well. Or I think they have anyway  :)

First up - Breakfast Casserole!

I made this a while ago for one of my classes. If you recall the Awesome Postcard Gift, this was the "thank you" for the student who brought it. Turned out pretty well, I reckon. There was *none* left. N-o-n-e.

Then there's this awesome homemade pizza! I had a hankerin' for pizza after a Costco run. Yes, I did purchase a (huge) slice there for cheap, but it didn't totally stop the craving. And a while ago, I learned of this "pizza yeast". It is yeast - but you don't have to let it rise. I was skeptical, but here's the finished product to prove that it does work:

I probably should have wiped the stove before taking the pic...

And lastly - tonight's spaghetti sauce. I had some leftover that I was thinking of freezing. And a pile of little tomatoes on my counter. I saw a recipe for making pasta with fresh tomatoes, etc, and decided to combine the two. So I heated up the old sauce, cut up the little tomatoes and tossed them in, along with some more fresh basil. And voila! It was awesome - even tasted "fresh". The only downside? It was really, really, *really* hot! Some splashed out somehow and onto my foot. I yelled in pain. True story.

That will do it for the recent cooking adventures, I reckon. Nothing else I've cooked has been nearly as exciting. Still looking for suggestions for this, though...

:)

Postcards Take 2

As promised, another featured postcard! From the awesome collection one of my students gave me.

As you might recall, knowing I collect postcards, a student was at a rummage sale and found a small photo album full of old postcards. See more in this post:  http://hoemsteadwannabe.blogspot.com/2014/01/and-another-new-topic.html

I said a couple of nights ago I was going to show another one the next day. Obviously that did not happen, but hey, only an extra day isn't so bad, right?

So here is Postcard #2:

The front

And the back: 


I have no idea when this thing was published, but obviously a while ago if it's featuring "Elixir of Opium" as one of its products, lol. 



But seriously - talk about a piece of history right there... Just awesome.

So there it is. And I'll keep 'em coming as I have the time and stuff. Let me know what you think!

Thanks!

:)

Snow In South Florida?

Henrietta, George, and Ruby all covered...

So, with the whole polar vortex and stuff that hit everyone, even those of us in South Florida felt a bit of the chill. Oh, nothing compared to the rest of the country, but it was chilly here - for us.

That's not what I'm really talking about right now. This goes back to the Icky Tomato Worm Incident from last week. I dispatched those worms, but it was truly gross.

Today, I took steps again to keep that from happening again. Diatamaceous earth all over the tomato plants. And I did not skimp on the stuff! (Not that I ever did since I'm not exactly sure how much I'm supposed to put on the plants in the first place, lol.)

So here are pictures of the closest we'll ever come to snow here in South Florida:

Seymour - the uneaten side...

Poor Goldie - or what's left of her... Still a few tomatoes clinging to one of her branches...


So there it is. Let's hope the problem is solved for now. 

:)