Awkward April

Oh! Those April "showers" -yeah, snow showers- will kill my flowers! 

The walkways are treacherous, the daffodils are sad and the little birdies are frozen! The truck doors won't open, and James wants a new outfit! The good thing is that the sun is rising. It's 6AM April 16, 2014. I have demanded that it shines strongly ALL DAY!

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Mother Nature! 

Do you hear me??

Computer Play

I've been fooling around with pictures again. 

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The Bench

Swan Lovers

ZAP

Pokey

Crackle

DARKROOM

I Knew You Were Coming So I.....

...baked a cake!  Not just any cake - a POKE cake.  A friend shared her recipe and it is plain and simple and basic. That's the kind of recipe I like! OH! I forgot sweet! SWEET!

There are many recipes "out there" for poke cakes, but this is what we like best!

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 The cake has been baked and poked and covered with sweet mixture.

I covered it with pineapple that was processed very finely and drained.

It has been tasted and shared. In fact, we had an unexpected surprise visitor drive up at lunchtime today. Alvin, age 87, used to be my employer at a personal care boarding home, and he was THE cook for over thirty three residents. I ate many delicious meals when I worked there. I was so happy to see him and serve this cake while talking over old times.   

     Here is the recipe:

One yellow cake mix 

One vanilla instant pudding mix 

Mix the cake mix as instructed and add the dry pudding mix. 

Mix together: 

One can Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk. 14 oz

One can cream of coconut. 15 oz

After the cake is baked, immediately, while hot,  punch holes in top and pour mix into holes. 

Let set until cool. Cover top with drained crushed pineapple (optional)

Put in refrigerator overnight. 

Then add cool whip and coconut flakes or pineapple chunks (optional) on top to serve.

Keep refrigerated. 

Good Fences #3

Last year on April 28, we took a ride to take springtime photos and I found these fences. The stone one is a continuous downhill serpentine, wrapping around the eight trees.

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 On the way home the daffodil fence line took my eye!

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The Run*A*Round Ranch Report

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Flower Manips...

As I was waiting for my oven dinner to be ready, I took time out to play with a couple of my flower photos and try to relax a bit. Creating these manipulations is very relaxing for me and the end results  are OK once in a while. Sometimes I throw out the whole batch. It really doesn’t matter.

These three suit my fancy and I won’t feel bad if they aren’t to yours. 

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There are no gardening mistakes, 

only experiments  

                              -Janet Kilburn Phillips 

The originals were photographed in March in SC.

Apple Pie in April

In December of last year, I had several of the wonderful Macoun apples still being stored in the refrigerator and knew I had to do “something” with them. I peel, cored, sliced them and spread out the slices on the window screens and place them in front of the propane heater.

Dehydrating Apples Blog Link

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They dried quickly and well so then I stored them in two mylar bags and dug out my old Seal-A-Meal appliance and they became safely preserved. That appliance is OLD (like me). It is from the early 70’s. It works very well.

I rehydrated the apples, and baked a very delicious apple pie.

It was hard to not take large pieces. We want it to last a couple of days. Five months have passed and we still had those very special apples to eat. Nice. (used them ALL!)

I bakes and he rakes!

Good Fences #2

I took these in April, 2009 when I first started to use a digital camera and had no idea what was what! In a few days, I'll go back to see if I can get a better shot of the wheel fence. With full intention to take a picture of it this winter covered with snow, I forgot! We don't travel on that road much.

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The boulders must still be there so we will see them again, as well.

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Daffodils Are Late

I just spent an hour trying to find the pictures I took last year of the flowerbed in front of the cabin coming to life. Now I know for sure that we are running behind by two weeks. Last year they were in full bloom on April 20!

This is today and you can see the seedum is only peeking up. The tips of the daffodils are very yellow. I think they froze when they first appeared!

These were taken on the same day last year and you can see the difference!

Mother Nature rules!

Goose Egg

We found this note that was written on Wednesday, March 26 by our daughter, Missy, who lives across town. She always stops in the cabin to turn up the heater a few days before we arrive.  As usual, she left homemade foods for us. In the past she has left baked mac & cheese or a ham and potato casserole or meatloaf so I won't have to cook the night of our long ride back. She doesn't usually leave a note and we don't usually leave the bridge lamp on, either!

The soup was delicious, turkey vegetable, and we haven't yet tried the goose egg. The dozen of brown eggs were also nice to have. Her neighbor has her take care of the chickens when she leaves and she can have all of the eggs during the time. She has to hunt and find them as the chickens are free roaming and lay eggs everywhere. 

This is the goose egg.  

This is the goose and Missy.

Missy and the chickens.