Mostly About Tea

Mid afternoon yesterday . . . I guess we had a few things going . . . Or something 🤪 . . . 

Found this new-to-me tea at the store yesterday and now it's my favorite for now!  I go in spurts.  Last week or so its been Bengal Spice.  Before that, this Chai tea in the nicest nylon baggies - the best boughten Chai that I have found ( and I don't it at the bent and dent) . . . Oh, and a lovely black tea ( most any kind or your favorite brand, I am using all kinds of brands that I bought home from the bent and dent when I didn't really like black tea 🤪) with a drop of lavender and a bit of creamer . . . 

What is your kind is tea these days . . .  or nights . . . I almost always brew a cup at bedtime.

Abundance

It all starts coming in at once it seems and piles up on top of each other . . .  and I have only tiny flowerbed gardens with a bit of fresh veggies!  . . . .Maybe God wants us to experience abundance full and overflowing so that we are reminded of His spiritual blessings that He promises in abundance!!!!

Tomatoes, celery, yellow summer squash, zucchini, basil, parsley, green beans, peaches, apples, sunflowers, strawflowers . . . Harvesting and harvesting and putting up food, canning, drying, freezing and sharing with friends and neighbors.  What an abundance!  What goodness of God! What joy!  What flavors and textures and FRESHNESS!  What gifts!!!

Compost

What do you do with your food/garbage?  What does your compost pile/bin look like? 

I don't remember having a garbage pile or compost bin when I was growing up . . .   I asked mom today and she said that she just dumped her foodscraps/garbage into the garden and it got tilled into the dirt.

I have not always had a garden, as much as I like to grow things.  This year trying to garden on sand, I have come to recognize the urgent need for a large compost bin.

I rounded up some old pallets and had the boys screw them together . . . Though they weren't there more careful about the looks of things so they look at bit shipshod, but it works.  Most of the summer I have gathered grass clippings from a neighbor/ friend ( our grass clippings don't hardly amount to a "hill of beans"), some leaves from last fall from another neighbor who puts his junk wood things to burn in our burn pile ( with our consent), and some straw/ hay (with a bit of horse and donkey manure in it) and a little bit of garbage from our kitchen.  Most of our kitchen scraps go directly to the chickens.  

Since most of the year, things are frozen, I'm not sure how long the garbage will take to break down.  I have never done this before.  The first bin I didn't add water and that was a mistake.  

Yesterday, I started turning it with a pitch fork for the first time.  And by late afternoon, I brought the water hose to help moisten things a bit.  I was so grateful that it is close enough to the outside water spigot that with three garden hoses I could reach where I needed to.

This last (first) bin needed water the most, so I had a helper nearby to run the sprayer for me so it didn't take so much time stopping every few minutes.

Can't wait to use this stuff next year.  

What is your experience with composting?

Perfect Job for Little Girls

Recently, I came upon a nice way to dry small squash rounds.  I do not own a dehydrater. I haven't had very good success with drying zucchini in the oven.  So we are trying this method today.  The girls voiced great delight when I stated what we were going to do.  They love stringing Cheerios even if they don't get to eat them for awhile. This technique calls for you to string a large or medium sized button in between each  squash round to keep them from sticking together as they are drying.

Harvesting Holly Hock Seeds

So I learned something this morning.  I learned the best way to harvest Holly Hock Seeds.  In my eager endeavor to save seeds and keep the colors separated, I fubbed up. Most of them are immature and probably will not work for seeds.  Not that I don't have enough, mind you. I do. But I had this grandiose idea that I might try to sell some seeds at a "craft" stand sometime later.

I'll tell you what I did and then what I should have done and what I will do next year.

Though I am glad I tried . . . Because if I hadn't tried, I probably still wouldn't be the wiser about the best way to do this.  In other words, because I tried. I learned. There is beauty in this though . . . There is satisfaction in learning. There is joy in journeys, truly(as we've all heard about:) )  It is not all waste, though it would be nice to have perfect success the first time . . . I'm sure you are wise enough to know that is not usually the case. 😁

All summer as the Hollyhocks began to bloom, I started thinking about next year's flowerbed and gardens. I said in my mind that I wanted to keep track of the different colors.  I should have tagged them, as they started blooming, because I never did . . .  and then I harvested them and even though I got most of the seed's colors saved, I still didn't exactly know which "mother" plant out there is what color. Grr. So much for procrastinating and then being too impetus about bringing them in right away.

So last evening after being excited about harvesting garden things, I eyed my Holly hocks and decided that today's the day to collect seed.  After being in Oregon and knowing that life out there is "all about collecting seed,"  I was eager.  It was almost bedtime when I grabbed a knife and headed out the door with some bags.  The white grocery bag was for the white Holly Hocks, the large black canvas bag for the burgundy/ dark red ones (which we really, really loved this year), the bread bad for the light pink ones, and another bag for the light, creamy peach ones that I was't sure I would keep. But the pale yellow ones, I cut down to throw away as I don't care for those and I didn't want more baby plants of that color.  My dark pink ones still were blooming fairly well at least the one plant I saw.  There are a few I am too late to record the color of.

I brought them in and stashed them on the island, informing the family who were sitting in the living room that these were my Holly Hock Seeds and "Don't mess with them and mix them up!".

This morning, as I considered my stash, realizing that most of these weren't gonna be very useful as seeds, I pulled up info online as to how people harvested seeds from Hollyhocks.  Ok. There ya go. That is a much better way and now I know.  

So what I learned was that I should have taken a brown paper bag (marked with the color) and holding it underneath the dried, ripe, paper-like seedpods used my thumb to run loose the individual black seeds and let them fall into my collecting bag.

I want to also identify my plants somehow with a tag or sting or colored yarn marking the color of the plant. That would be helpful to me as I have needed to know or wished I had in the past, when I have had plant sales.

So, there ya have it.  A better way.

Here's my eagerly collected stash. 

Zucchini Pizzas

We've been eating these almost every day now . . . The little girls have taken to prepare them . . . Makes me happy!

It is the simplest thing.  And it uses the largest of zucchini!  . . . and it uses all of it!!!  .   . No waste of fiber whatsoever! 🙂

You just slice then about 1/4" think and place them on a cookie sheet or bar plan. Spoon some of your favorite pizza sauce on each circle and then a pepperoni or two or three and top with a bit of shredded cheese. Pop them in the oven at 425 degrees for between half and hour to forty-five minutes depending on your oven and how thick your slices really are 😉.

As some of us love these and others do not, we usually serve this as a side dish unless it's lunch time and everyone at home that day agrees. 

Fresh Herbs and Such

I think I almost enjoy the scent of fresh basil as much as I do a rose!

Trying to preserve herbs for winter . . . 

Today, I am also trying salted herbs . . . 

Zealous All Day

"Do not let your heart envy sinners, But be zealous for the fear of the LORD all the day;" Proverbs 23:17

These waves pound against the shore day and night, and have done so since the day God created them . . . And will until He returns . . . They are constant.  They have never ceased. They continue and continue and continue. Wave upon wave, wave upon wave . . . After wave upon wave.  They are zeolous all right.  I don't think they envy anything one bit . . . They wash the shore clean of footprints and disturbances.  They fear no foe.  They live to diplay His glory and His grace. They wait in humility rolling to the drum of the Almighty God.  

Proverbs 23 says don't let your heart be bound up tight with burdens and sin . . . Seek and dwell in His Almighty plan for you day after day after day. Be zeolous for the reverence and admiration and devotion to the One who saves you and loves you and redeems you.

" Be zealous for fear of the Lord ALL the day."

My Friends Affect Me

I love the color white.  And I have for awhile . . . But as I look back over the years, I noticed that colors come and go in my favors . . . though, pink has always been a mainstay and I haven't traveled too far from it.  It has me on a leash I do believe.

I remember as a newly wed my mother-in-law  and sisters-in-law really, really prized purple hues.  After a while I began to do the same thing maybe not quite as ardent, but close.

I have a friend who loves earth tones.  I have now rejoiced greatly at those colors as well and reveled in them.

Another friend wears neutral solid color dresses . . . And I have been enjoying the exquisiteness of the simple.

And yet another dear friend love all colors bright and cheery!

My mom has a very soft spot for yellow. Yellow has it's place in beauty! There is such a happy, hopeful joy in it all!

So this past week a few of my girls and I went up the road to check out a garage sale.  I found a stack of nice bowls which would be wonderful to add to our housewares at home seems we didn't have many that many microwaveable ones anymore. What happened to them I wonder?  The bowls had a moose in the middle - perfect decor for Northern Minnesota. Just maybe I'd use them in our hunting cabin, but wait, we needed them in the house for everyday use.  Digging in the boxes nearby, we found a set of dishes with lovely mixed colors, blue, yellow, orange and a turquoise. I bypassed them . . . But hey, so and so would love them! . . . The more I thought about it, they were beautiful!  I could use either these or the moose ones in the cabin or in the house.  But in the meantime one of my daughters set her heart on getting the moose set for her hope chest . . . So we left with two sets of dishes.

I, who love white and had the house trim ,inside and out, painted white and walls a neutral tan/beige/gray, bought orange and yellow and teal and blue dishes!

What happened here?!?! 🙂

Friends are a good thing!  They affect you in good ways. 

One Worships

It is so amazing . . . The different shades and tints and hues God displays . . . Changing every hour, even less . . . Great is our God . . . One feels mighty small standing before the ocean, feeling the winds, seeing the power and strength and largeness of it all!!! One stands in awe . . . And worships . . .

Peace Always in Every Way

 "Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all." II Thessalonians 3:16

For this to be true, one has to rest in God's sovereignty and be ok with all that God has allowed to pass through His hand. There is peace in that . . . Knowing God is in control.

The Lord be with you all.

Do My Words Fall to the Ground?

"So Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground." I Samuel 3:19

Pondering this verse this morning . . . So who exactly "let none of his words fall to the ground"?  Did God keep them up and make use of them? Did Samuel make sure his words were honest and right and good?  . . . I'm sure they had to be sweet and pleasant and true . . . not angry and bitter and rotten . . .

What happens to my words and your words . . . As they proceed out from our mouths . . . Picture them there in the air . . . Will God let them fall or will they be "honorable" and carried forth by God used and blessed and alive . . . or will they tumble down to the ground and stink and cause a stench for all who pass by?

May the Lord be with us . . . and may He hold our words . . . and may they go forth in His name!