I was gone 12 days ...

...on a business trip and so MUCH changed!  Please ignore the weeds. The West garden has filled in with moss roses.

The sedum joy is beginning to bloom. 

A wild flox has bloomed.

Duchess has accepted 2 abandoned kittens and is helping us take care of them.

The bachelor buttons and moss roses have filled in the flag pole garden.

The monarch  butterfly appreciates the late season flowers.

I am excited to see the moss roses blooming well.

Yes, there are a lot of weeds. Some of the weeds are very pretty. But they will be pulled ... eventually.

Salsa Sunday

Enough of the tomatoes made it.  I was concerned when I left for Maryland that everything was going to ripen while I was gone. 

Dale's cousin picked some of the Roma's. I ended up using more of Dale's Big Boy tomatoes which are more watery.

The jalapenos and onions are ready. (I picked too many.)

I made 3 1/2 pints with the skins on to use right away.  The ingredients were:

Tomatoes

Onions 

Garlic

Cilantro

Jalapeno peppers

Lime juice

Simple slightly sassy salsa!

Then I blanched the skins off the rest of the tomatoes and processed 3 quart jars and 4 pint jars of salsa.  First batches of salsa COMPLETE!  Hurrah!

Hi tech parking

This has been a busy week. I am working on Kent Island in Maryland. Tabatha flew out for the weekend. We went to DC together.

I got off work early Friday afternoon. I picked up my rental car early but a storm was rolling in. I prayed that the storm go around me. I set my GPS for a mall and took off as I stayed sky aware. God sent me to a parking garage.

Along the parking row were red and green colored lights. Red mean no openings amd vreen meant openings.

At a fast glance, you could see that the section was full.

There was a sensor on each side of the light. Pretty cool but there was more than that.

They had a sign that showed how many open spots in each direction.  Those last six must have been for motorcycles because it always seemed to be 6 while the other side changed.

Good evening!

I am staying at Holiday Inn Express on Kent Island in Maryland.

I was down at the dock around sunset. It was amazingly beautiful!

From the end of the dock, it is so peaceful...

Look at all the colors and textures to the North and Northeast.

The bridge leading to the island so enormous. I catch myself watching the strings of traffic going back and forth over it.

Okay, well maybe not. Right after sunset, the birds fly in for supper. It is fascinating watching them dive into the water and come up with a fish in their mouths.

Fascinations

In the front yard of the hotel is this almost perfect  circle of mushrooms. It is at the edge of the parking lot and on a bit of a hill.

Some we're grouped together and were growing over eachother.

Others grew in a curved line.

Growing in a natural circle.  Was there a tree in the middle that is now history? It's a mystery.

I've notices the last 3 days the clouds have peek hole to the sun in the evening. 

Beautiful view straight out the dock.

Look at that boot?!?!?

It lost its heal as it stepped down.

Then soon it turned into a pinwheel that blew away with the wind.

Ready set travel

Oh no I look worse than my passport picture and I'm just leaving.

That was yesterday. It was a very long day.

Sumac 8/12/2017 ... catch up

This tree propagates by suckers. There is one at the bottom of the left tree.  I tried to transplant another one but it didn't make it.

I love the color and texture. I would really like to have more in the area.  The one on the left is not going to make it very long.

Travel treats

What can I say, I try to eat fewer calories more frequently. With that in mind I decided to make myself a healthier trail mix.

Sometimes pictures say more than words.

I mixed them together then repacked them into snack bags for traveling.

YUM! Is that my word of the week?

Business trip Vs Salsa

I leave Sunday afternoon for a business trip. Dale will be home and Willard and Dean will be here when Dale is working.

I planted everything for Salsa. But will it be ready when I get back from Maryland or will it be harvested already?

Roma Tomatoes and jalapenos.

My Cilantro is already almost dead.

About 3 rows of onions. We didn't plant as many as last year. We've started using them for other meals.

Garlic. Half of my garlic died off. I still have some of last years left. I will use that first and give the fresh garlic a few more weeks to mature.

There are my Salsa ingredients!  I sure hope that they wait until I'm back August 26th so that I can make my Salsa.  YUM!

Manna from Heaven

As I feed the chickens their cracked corn in the mornings, I can't help but think of God providing the Israelites manna from Heaven in the desert.

Exodus 16:13 to 15 talks about the people of Israel after leaving Egypt and wondering in the dessert crying out ot God because of a lack of food.  He provided quail in the evening and manna in the morning.

The manna appeared as the dew dried off the ground.  It was thin flakes like frost on the ground.  It was white like coriander seed and tasted like it was wafers made from honey.

They were to gather what they needed every morning. The day before Sabbath was the only day that they were allowed to keep the food overnight.