We have Fish

   Good morning Friday, It was nice to see our friend that stopped by this week.  He is a young man that is  also a chef and works as a bar tender sometimes as well and may soon get a management position. He works in Kansas City Mo and lives nearby in Kansas.

  His family owns a small lake home not too far from us and he loves to fish. Mostly for the challenge of large cats and right now he is here for spoonbill.   We met him when we first moved to the lake. I suggested for Larry to find  a fishing partner as I did not want him fishing alone in the boat with all of his health concerns.  So he put it out there on Facebook and that's how we met our friend.  

  The two of them talked for hours and then he says ok if I go fishing-of course.  Not 5 minutes later he says the crappie are biting do you want some for the freezer? I love fish so Yes I say smiles.   He cleaned them and fileted them and they are now in the freezer. He went back out and caught at least 10 more that he put back in the lake. He suggested that they make great tacos so will look into that.

  The first photo is his before cleaning, and I took a photo of the fish in the bucket

   I am hoping to start the weed eater to cut grass today. Will see how my body handles this task.

   I have been quite ill.  The last month or so I thought my asthma was getting worse but instead I have acid reflux which I have heard of but didn't know what it was.  This issue blocks my airways some how in my throat and esophagus and I can't breath.  So the doctor gave me a month of medicine. I searched online to read more about this-and sigh now even more food restraints.  This morning after a week I finally do not have the severe burning in my chest and stomach. My throat is not back to normal quite yet.

      If not controlled this can turn into cancer-don't want that for sure.  So no spicy foods, tomatoes and acid foods are the worse to eat now-so I read up on what the safe fruits and veggies etc are. No chocolate no caffeine which I knew about before-my body spikes with a high b/p reading if I have any caffeine. I did search on Ebay on this subject and bought a couple of books to read.

  On a more fun note-- Yesterday I finished the slow stitches on my second bag, and will begin to sew it into a bag. 

   Happy Friday and weekend!

Good Morning Tuesday

   Good morning Friends,  

We have a warm up again for a few days before the temps drop again. Loving all the sunshine especially. We had a lot of rain a few days ago-so will be needing to get out the weed trimmer to begin cutting grass soon -ugh.

 I planted the bluebells the other day. The seller was very helpful and said he likes to plant the seeds in a Tupperware container so I had the perfect one. I keep this damp for 4-6 weeks and then place in the frig for another 4-6 weeks and then plant outdoors. This will put me into early June I think to plant outdoors.

  I bought garlic chives and regular chives seeds on Ebay I received the garlic chives in the mail yesterday-such a lovely card to protect the seeds in an envelope-I love it.

   I have almost completed the slow stitching for my second bag-working on the last two handles, and then I will stitch this to the lining and finish up.

  

  Oh and I follow Free the Ocean where they send me a new quiz every day. They raise money with this some how as well. I have been doing it for several years, don't always answer the quiz every day but today I hit 1000 and am now an Explorer  I was in the whale pods for a long time.  here is a link  I enjoy getting their email quiz each day as I am always learning something new. My percentage of correct answers is 53%  Which I find pretty good as I am guessing most of the time  Smiles

 Here is a copy of the page with the different levels

Sea Star

1-25

Seabird

26-75

Fish

76-150

Sea Turtle

151-250

Dolphin

251-350

Whale

351-500

Whale Pod

501-999

(every 100 pieces adds a new whale to your pod)

Explorer

1000 – 1249

Marine Biologist

1250 – 1500

Narwhal

1501 – 1800

Helping make the ocean more magical!

Have a good week everyone

Happy New Week-BlueBells and Slow Stitches

  Happy new week everyone and Happy St Patrick's Day if you celebrate. 

  We are back to warm weather today and tomorrow before the next big storm comes through with lower temperatures.  We are safe here at the lake but many areas in Missouri were hit hard with tornadoes and a foot deep of hail-wow that's a lot.  A couple cities were hit with major damages not all that far from us so am very thankful.  This same storm is on it's way to the east coast now so hoping all of you will be safe.

  This is the first year in over 40 years maybe close to 50 years when I think about it-that I didn't pick up a corn beef and cabbage to boil up. We love the meal and I always buy rye bread for my husband to make reuben sandwiches the next day.  When I went food shopping a couple weeks ago the stores had very small packages with a high price tags so I passed on it. I need to go food shopping this week so will see what is available.

  I have been buying a few flower seeds-will use them to fill up my big tubs mostly. Today I was looking at the perennial bluebells  I found these on Ebay  -- English bluebell seeds-hyacinthoides non scripta native englishe bluebell    Reading through the listings these are the more pure form of seed others are crossed with another seed.  One of those seeds you need to chill them first or they won't germinate.  Here are the photos from his site-   These need mostly sun and will fill an area so I like that-and Larry prefers I plant mostly perennials.

  Do you have these or have you grown them?? They look beautiful

Over the weekend I set up the water bottle "greenhouses" just a few so far. Larry loves snapdragons so I bought a package of those. I lost my bee balm plants so started those seeds and also blue salvia.

  I lost my echinacea plants too with that water issue from the well last year, so I also ordered those seeds-I find Ebay is a good source for seeds.

  I am making progress on my second slow stitch bag. I am almost finished with the last large piece on the one side of the bag and then just the handles to stitch-and I can work on putting another bag together. I am still enjoying this project very much. My stitches are not all even for sure but I am not going to concern myself with that.

I like how the stiches came out on the mimosa dyed yellow-click to enlarge for better viewing If you find them there are several square boxes within the stitches

Happy Monday and have a good week

Did You See Eclipse?

   I missed the eclipse last night but before that the moon was bright and large. Caught a few photos as it was getting dark

  If you are not familiar I watch sky events here at the Virtual Telescope Project

My new camera takes fairly good photos at this time of day.

   This morning the daffodils are blooming-I thought I had more planted than just these few clumps.  I love tulips but  don't plant them anymore here in Missouri-the wildlife dig them up for food-smiles

I am  making us fajitas for our 2 pm main meal-one of Larry's favorites. I make refried beans to go with it as well.

We are bracing for a threatening storm-stay safe everyone-this is pretty wide spread.

Signs of Spring

 Good morning Friends,

    This week we have been so spoiled with 80 degrees F Quite an adjustment after such a frigid winter. It is March though, and tomorrow will bring very very strong damaging winds and perhaps tornadoes in the area as well.

  I did spot spring buds though, daffodils and the lilac bushes budding

The grass is even greening up-Nooooo  am so Not ready for that just yet-

Last weekend I wrote a note to my doctor's nurse that I really needed to get in somehow-Monday I got a call and I have an appointment  Have to wait another two weeks but at least I am in.

Stay safe if you are in the path of these spring storms

Happy Weekend-This and That

 Good morning Saturday,

   Looking at the forecast for next week-Wow almost every day will be in the low 70's F   I am hoping I can get warmed up and feeling better.

  I still can't get into a doctor sadly and unbelievable to me. Took my temperature the last few days and it's 97  no wonder I am cold. I am never at the normal  temperature but don't remember being this low. I took a short walk yesterday near my house but didn't tackle the steep hills. I will try to move around more. My chest is not clear so continuing with the homeopathic teas etc.

  I get a newsletter from The Buffalo Wool Company  

  They are always doing interesting things and developing new products with buffalo fibers. Right now they are in Alaska for the Iditarod  

  Last week they shared a book by a native american for children-with lovely paintings. They were sold out on their website so searched online and found the author published two books. The paintings are awesome. I wanted to share these  books. There are many used copies online with all sorts of prices too..

  Not sure what is going on with our post office. Packages arriving very late or lost. I went into the  post office to mail my tax papers to our accountant on Monday. He still has not gotten it, hoping they didn't lose it. Also the tracking doesn't work-never had that occur before.  It is going to a city about 4 hours away so should have gotten mid week.  Anyone else in the states having this issue?

   This week I baked up chocolate chip cookies for both of us. My gluten free cookies baked up sooo perfect. This hardly ever happens with gluten free flour. I used organic fair trade sugars., butter and coconut oil These were chewy and a bit crunchy-just a perfect bake. I froze most of them so I don't get tempted to eat too many smiles

  Still enjoying all the different water birds, we may start getting more boats on the lake with warmer weather coming in next week.

Here where I live we have to change our clocks-I don't like this but I guess they are saying our country is 50/50 on this issue so this continues. There are a handful of states that passed laws not to change time twice a year.

 Enjoy your weekend