Alps from Above

Early one Sunday morning I stumbled onto this wonderful show, Alps from Above.  The scenery is so breath taking and beautiful, I literally started to cry.  The show is on every Saturday and Sunday morning at 7:00 on AXS channel.  They have wonderful travel shows on this channel.  Stephen Fry's Across America, Rick Steve's Europe, Paul Meron in India.  I know what you are probably thinking, Travel Shows, really!  But I'm really hooked on travel shows.  Love the narrative, and the music that they play with Alps from Above is beautiful.  Rick Steve's did a wonderful show recently on Iran.  They have some of the most beautiful mosque's I've every seen.  The most gorgeous colors and designs.....just amazing.  When I think of Iran, it's desert, shacks, barren, no vegetation, certainly not desirable.  What he shared was beautiful in a lot of ways.

I have a dear friend in Chickasha who traveled to Italy several years ago with her cousin.  When she returned she was telling me about her trip. They had seen all the sights in Rome and then spent several days in the country.  They stayed at a quaint little country inn and the next morning they got up and went outside.  Much to their surprise, they were very near the Mediterranean.  They walked to a rock wall and looked over the edge to this beautiful turquoise water.  She looked at her cousin and she was crying.  She looked at her questionably and her cousin said,  "it's just amazing to me the beauty of God's creation, it's almost more than I can take in."  I've always remembered her response and that is exactly how I felt as I watch Alps from Above that first morning. 

In Chickasha, Oklahoma we certainly don't have the beauty of the alps but we have the vast plains which permits us to see the most amazing sunrises and sunsets.  Not long after moving to the country, I was coming home one evening from the city as the sun was setting and it was amazing.  As I marveled at the grandeur of this beauty, this thought popped into my mind, " this is my gift to you today." Since that time, I have been the recipient of some of the most spectacular gifts.  Not only the sunrises and sunsets but the most beautiful rising moons.

I'm not special, these gifts are to us all.  We just need to stop long enough to be conscious and take it all in.  And much to your surprise,  you will find the tears running down your cheeks!

Here's My Watermelon

Ok, the picture on the seed packet shows the meat to be a orange-yellow.  I'm a little disappointed in the flavor.  It was sweet but not the best watermelon I've ever eaten.  I won't plant this variety again.  I was looking forward to delivering wonderful watermelons to family and friends......well, not this year.  I want to amend the soil in the raised beds this winter and that will help the flavor of whatever I plant.  That may be why the color of these melons were not the orange- yellow.  

These are some observations of nature that I have noticed over the last five years.  Number one, there are hardly any geese making their flight north or south.  When we first moved to the country, this was one of my favorite things.  We moved to the country in late September and I'll never forget being awakened by all the honking one morning.  I ran outside and there were hundreds of geese flying south in formation and they came in droves for a month.  Now, literally there is almost nothing.  :(  We may see a small formation of maybe 20 geese once or twice and that is stretching it.
Number two, the migration of the monarch butterflies.  In the last three years, I've seen maybe a couple.  In contrast, we would see groups of them landed in the flower beds, flying over the back roads in the country.  One year, we were exploring and came upon a riverbed where there were hundreds.  It was one of the most beautiful sites.  I had never seen anything like that and until then I didn't even know that monarchs migrated.  Number three, This one is about turtles.  In the spring, we see lots of turtles again, out on the back roads in the country crossing the road.  I would never get out on one of these roads and not see 5 or 6 turtles crossing the road.  I've not seen one turtle this year. The last one is about our hummingbirds.  They left this year for a month.  They have never done that before.  They are usually here all summer.  They came back about a week ago. 

Mother-in-law's Tongue

I started this plant from a small 6 inch pot that I bought at Wal-Mart.  My grandmother always had a mother-in-law plants in her home.  She would move it outside on the front porch in the summer and bring it back in the house during the winter.  I don't know where she got the name mother-in-law's tongue but that is what she always called it.  By the way, she loved her mother-in-law, just thought I would throw that in.  :)

For over a year, I left the plant in it's original pot and it was root bound when I transplanted it.  I put it in this pot and it took off as you can see.  The one spike grew at least 6 inches and it produced this flower.  I don't remember ever seeing one of these plants flower.  I was so surprised when I saw it.  The blossoms are so delicate.  I took several pictures but know of them do it justice.  I was excited to see this bloom and wanted to share it with you.  These are great house plants and very easy to care for. 

I have mentioned this before but I water my house plants with the water that I have used to steam vegetables. Every time I water I don't always have the vegetable water but whenever I do steam vegetables I always put it on plants.  Don't throw that good water down the drain.  You plants love it. 

The Art of Living

The master in the art of living makes little
distinction between his work and his play ,his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body
his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which.

James Michener

A Gift

A gift from the Creator.  He knows I love hearts! 

Basil

Today was harvest the basil day.  I have been trying for 4 days to pick basil and make pesto and I could never get to it.  But I did it first thing this morning.  My basil is doing exceptionally well this year.  The dark purple basil is so pretty and it has little pink flowers when it blooms and it has a little stronger anise flavor than the regular basil.  I bought a sandwich leaf basil this year.  I have never seen this before.  The leaves are huge.  This would be wonderful with some wheat bread a little cream cheese spread over the bread a big leaf of basil and a big slice of a garden tomato and some sweet onion. 

I made all the basil into 3 pints of pesto for the freezer. Last year the summer got away from me and I had no pesto for the freezer.  I also grew more basil this year for just that reason, more to eat and freeze.

Sunflowers!

These are some of my sunflowers and they have just started opening up.  I thought these were sunflowers with mammoth heads but so far they don't look like they are going to be that big.  I plan on preserving some of the heads to decorate with. 

Last week, I was tying up some of the stalks on the taller stems and when I put my hand behind the lattice to tie the string I was stung by a yellow jacket wasp.  Last year, I was stung several times by regular wasp and I put the chewing tobacco on those stings and it neutralized the venom within an hour.  After this sting, I came in the house and put on the tobacco and wrapped it up and went back outside to continue working and when I looked at my hand the swelling was extending down into my knuckles.  I went into the house and the tobacco was not touching it.  I put lavender and purification essential oils on my hand plus more tobacco plus an ice bag and it continued to swell.  Every 45 minutes I would reapply the oils and continued with the ice pack.  The swelling finally stopped a little past my wrist.  The next day after about 24 hours the swelling started to go down. By bedtime that evening my hand was looking more normal.

I found out later that a yellow jacket sting is a lot more toxic than just your regular wasp.  I will have to say that I have never had aggressive wasps.  When I have been stung I usually am close to a nest and I just didn't see it.  I'm invading their territory, unknowingly. 

My husband was stung by a yellow jacket a couple of years ago and he ended up going to an AM-PM clinic because his swelling went all the way to his elbow.  They gave him a shot and told him to keep ice on it. 

Well, that's our escapades with wasp.  I hope you are able to avoid all contact with the wasps this summer.  :)

Wishing you a relaxing summer Sunday afternoon.