Bonne Annee, Feliz Ano Nuevo, Selamat Tahun Baru, Gott Nytt Ar, Frohes Neues Jahr, Felice Ano Nuovo! And Happy New Year too!

The felicitations are all in the languages of my followers, France seems to hold the most dedicated of my fellow blog readers.

Thank you to all who follow me and good wishes for a peaceful 2017 and very good health to you and yours.

Merry, Happy, Joyous, Peaceful!

It is amazing how differently each Stollen turns out. This year when I put them to rise I thought they'd be uniform and smallish! Ha, this is the big bully, the smaller one has been frozen for Valentine's Day as is usual. I often wonder who else is making this 1976 recipe from Woman's Day magazine. If you are, please let me know, and tell me of your variations on the ingredients. I have a list of 10 different fruit and nut combinations I use, it varies year to year. Rarely the ones stated in the original recipe. I also chill it over night before mixing in the fruit and baking it.

Merry Christmas and a Sane 2017 to you all!

The December Super Moon as seen from my office!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all

It just came out of the oven, I'm running late this year! Pumpkin with pecan crust!

 

The older I get the slower....is this happening to you? Sorry about that.  But, adapt and carry on.

I hope that everyone is adjusting to the election and will not be fighting with anyone ever again.
To the victor go the spoils or something like that, so we can just curl up for the winter and laugh.
That is my plan, that and doing everything I can to help those not as fortunate as some.
Instead of shopping for gifts I'm donating those amounts to my favorite charity,
The Salvation Army, in the recipients honor and asking everyone to do the same.

Happy Holiday!

Winter is coming.......

I know, I know, I couldn't have trained that bird to fly into my photo at the exact spot. How lucky was I?

We are now in the run up to winter, supposed to get a killing frost this week and we finally have some snow on the mountains.  We have had a huge bird migration in the last week and a few Eagles have arrived to keep us company. They certainly stir up a racket with the smaller birds.

I've been drying herbs for winter although the biome of my herb garden does allow for picking them fresh all winter. Sometimes one just wants a slight sprinkle of the dried one.

The miniature Kale that I planted is indeed that, I think the largest size plant is 4 inches tall. We'll use it like an old timey plate decoration instead of a sprig of parsley!

They say being a gardener allows one to live a longer, healthier life.  It certainly is a pleasure for me and helps to keep me saner. Particularly with today's political fiascos. Around here we call it "hacks incorporated reborn with new faces."

Keep gardening!

Apples, apples, apples

From the top of the tree to the ground below we had, have and will have apples. All four varieties are prolific this year and the largest they have ever been. We even have red ones that never turned this red before. We keep the tree totally organic, no sprays of any kind ever touch the fruit or the leaves. As a result we have the most amazing produce. No worms, just birds trying to get at the ripe fruit.

We had to brace the lower branches to keep them from breaking

The first picking and it's creation. Cheddar Cheese Pie crust and apples!

Sunday's picks and the apple sauce I  made from them. Just water and apples.

Happy Sauce! Happy Autumn!

Just in time...

This has to be the summer to end all hot summers! Luckily I dug the garlic before the extreme heat set in. Filaree Garlic Farm did it again! We have the most splendid crop, now cured and ready to enjoy. I have been buying seed garlic from them for years, and while it has been trial and error as to what grows well here in the mountains, their garlic always provides a great crop. Some better here than others, of course, as we have extremes of weather and temperatures.

This is Inchelium Red, the largest of the three I grew this past season. Amazing flavor.

This is also Inchelium Red, an Artichoke variety. Grows very well here.

In the background on the white tray is the garlic sea salt I made this morning. I grind 1/4 cup sea salt with 8 small cloves of garlic until well chopped. Then in a large bowl add another 1/4 cup of sea salt and mix well, spread the mixture out on a tray and allow to dry for a day or two and when totally dried bottle it in shaker jars. Enjoy! I also made Basil sea salt to use part of that crop. And I may mix part of them when I store them.

If I haven't planted it in a planter it hasn't thrived. No matter how much I watered everything just withered and is dying. I'm saving the water for humans now, when it is close to 100 degrees every day and windy nothing stands much of a chance. It is time I do my Rain Dance.

Thank you to all who served.....

We honor you all today with great thanks for your courage. To my husband, my brother, my sister, nephew, friends and all who heard the call to protect our freedom, thank you very, very much!

Please, may we be included in your garden?

Aren't these the most adorable sunflowers? I sit and mentally place them in the vegetable garden, then the fringe garden to the lawn, then.....well, I just don't have enough of them. Back to the nursery to get more. I've tried raising sunflowers from seed with no luck whatsoever.  I think they need more water when germinating than I give them, or should I forget to water, woooohooo!

Here is my favorite little whiptail lizard, she was annoyed because I was following her movements on the wall. Haven't seen her today, do you suppose that she finally had her babies? They are so tiny and so fast in a couple of days after birth. Have to be careful where we step the next few  days.

I don't remember the name of this iris but I adore the color. It is one of the ones that I thought had
no future when we dismantled the iris garden and moved the blue and white ones inside the south garden. Fooled me! Guess what will be moved come August? What a hit it will make in the center of the blue and whites!

And then she watered...some more

My continuing rant about the wind is still in effect. We have been having gusts from our usual breeze (7 to 14 mph) upward to occasional 46/59 mph. It dries everything out faster than one can imagine. Sooooo, in my photos you will sometimes see the ubiquitous watering hose lying around. As I can be quite lazy at times I don't always coil it up neatly. Here is an example, the garden yesterday.

 

The garlic is looking so healthy, I think I chose wisely on the kind we are growing this year. 

We have already eaten some of the early green garlic and it is wonderful. Needs a little weeding today! The garden is tiny compared to the one I had back East but as I'm a great many years older it takes me about the same amount of time to keep up with it. I also find that just sitting and plotting new garden amendments is very enjoyable! The mint has taken over as you can see at the bottom of the photo, out, out damned mint! It is delicious but how much can two people use in a year?

The Sweet Woodruff  has been blooming for about 10 days and it smells wonderful. I just love the funny faces on the pansies. The red Peonies are blooming and I'll cut them this afternoon and bring them in as we are to have a hail storm tonight. The Aquilegia is close enough to the wall that it might make it without help. We'll cover the apple tree and the tomato plants and then hope for the best.
Always something. I guess I'll go and water!

April Fool? No, it is snow!

                                    Daffodils with beards! Snowy beards!

Tulips popping up! What a fun surprise this morning. And then the sun came out and we have a lovely melt of moisture!

Hoppy Easter

We might get rain or snow flurries tonight so we had an instant Easter egg hunt just now. The winds are fierce and blowing so rather than hang my wonderful (Thank you, Gillian) eggs in the apple tree I placed them gently in the daffodils. The garden is awash in yellow, even the Ribes are blooming. It will be an early spring for sure. We need rain again, we aren't in a drought yet but perilously close.

I discovered another sign that nature never wastes anything. We had cut a low hanging branch off the maple tree and the sap was dripping onto the flagstone below, a large wonderful circle of heaven for the ants.  We are the proud (?) caretakers of about a million tiny ants and they swarmed all over this manna from above. See below.....

If you'd like something to count, double click on the photo and have at it! The following day all of the original sap was gone. When the sap ran again a couple of days later, they were back and cleaned up that batch as well.  Just as the coyotes keep the rabbits in check and the snakes the mice, the ants keep the sap from being a sticky mess.

I have ordered poor orphan snakes from the local snake catcher so that we can put the balance back in our yard. Some of my citified neighbors kill the wonderful creatures and wonder why they are over run by mice and pack rats! Hello? They also feed their dogs outside! Not a good idea. We had 4 coyote kills the other night. Don't know what they got but the ravens were having a ball the next morning with the leftovers!

I got the garden cleaned up last week, the garlic is up 6 inches and happy and green. Time to plant!
Yes!

Happy Spring!

The view from my perch yesterday afternoon.....I should  move it to see more of the garden but the tree blocks the sun from my eyes, it won't be long and I'll move the chair to the alcove in the herb garden.

I mangled my knee weeding last week and so there is still an enormous amount of work to do. We are having wonderful, but dry weather. Thus I spend a fair amount of time watering the seeds and garlic.

We have a huge towhee community and their favorite thing is to dig up newly seeded areas. I found the solution to keeping them at bay. Coffee grounds! We have exceedingly alkaline soil so this might not work in more acid soil areas but it sure keeps the birds and cats out. Plus, and a big plus, it helps to neutralize our soil. I think if you enlarge this photo you'll be able to see the garlic leaping up!

AH, warmth and growth

We are a couple of weeks early in the flower department here at Casa Manana due to a warm winter and global warming. This is the bowl of pansies that has resided on the portal all winter, left over from last year's spring planting.

I adore this color, it speaks to me every time I look into the cute little faces and just makes me so happy.

Another favorite are these miniature daffodils. Every year when the markets carry spring flowers I buy one or two pots of these little darlings and enjoy them on the dining table and then plant them outside when possible. A goodly fertilizing and fresh soil and they reward us with blooms for weeks the following spring.

I have been working in the garden almost every day for a week and a half, cleaning up and cutting back. I pruned the apple tree yesterday but still have more work to do on it if I am to "be able to throw a cat through it," as the old saw states. Sounds mean to me, but I understand the need for space and air. It is hard with a five apple grafted tree, however, I'll try to get it in shape.

The garlic is up about 4 inches and looking very healthy. We are still enjoying some of last year's plants and I'm tempted to try a spring planting of the ones that have formed green center shoots. I'll
let you know. I was talking to a local nurseryman the other day and got the wildest story on how to grow garlic I've every heard. If you don't know the answer, wing it must be his motto. I just laughed.

So exciting....

I spent yesterday finishing up some of my many unfinished projects. Here is the sweater I made for
our local shelter. The pattern is an easy one, I don't know why it got put on the back shelf, anyway here it is finished complete with fabric tag.

The exciting part about yesterday was the Bobcat in the south garden. I was in the kitchen fixing dinner when I turned around to see my pal sauntering through the garden. Long tail wagging happily, sniffing around and with one bound up on the wall.

What I didn't know was that JB had just driven into the garage, left the outside door open and came in to put something away.

As JB went back to the car, there was our nosy friend looking at him. They seem to be friends as neither bothered the other or made a sound. Satisfied that he was with friends, he just sauntered off to annoy the neighbor's dogs.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo as the camera wasn't available. Time to put up the trail camera.

A new idea for me

As I look around my studio, house and just about anyplace I inhabit, I find unfinished projects.
Being the Queen of Procrastination is not going to be my style anymore. She said!


Anyway, my idea is to put each project in my FINISH IT  basket. See below.

I was going to name it the "finish it today" basket, but I put that off as too taxing!  See, I'm incorrigible. This morning I finished a scarf that I started knitting last week with my knitting pal. Step one!

The item in the basket now is a child's sweater which I started about 18 months ago. When I finish it I'll post a photo. Stay tuned.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

 

I have to tell you the story of this wonderful, ancient and adorable once upon a time a jelly pop!  

It is now harder than a rock! I wonder why?

I bought it a couple of years ago, five maybe? It was just jelly and sugar candy and smelled of lemon and orange! I thought it was too cute to eat, so I saved it to give away Valentine's Day.

I forgot about it when the big day came, it has languished on my drawing table ever since. I still love it and thought I would share it with you. 

This is my message to you, I truly appreciate all of you who are in my life. I wish you love,

health and happiness always.  I hope that you will tell your friends how much you appreciate and love them tomorrow and always.