New Gardening in Florida (and some baking)

[JuliettaRossi]

So, I haven't been on here in quite a while but I noticed the Garden Journal from Peri and read through it and thought I could come back at least and do a little bit of writing about my new time occupier - gardening.

We moved into a new place a few months ago - the selling point was the tropical backyard and the Florida room. For those not living here in Florida, a "Florida-room" is just a sunroom or solarium lol. How we claimed it as our own, I don't know. The room is huge though - the length of the house and really wide. It's got windows the entire length that open, but have no screens right now and the mosquitoes are horrible this year, so we haven't been able to keep them open for very long. I have a few working tables, a tv and stand, a few chairs and a couple of shelving units - all fit comfortably in the room with plenty of space for all the plants. 

Now, disclaimer - I've never grown a thing in my life. I've killed anything I've tired to grow or plants brought home. They just never made it, so I stopped trying, until now. It's also hot as HELL here and the humidity is crazy here, so I know there must be plants I can't grow, but I'll figure it out as I go...

I started with pulling out the gardening tools that I had accumulated over the years where we didn't have a backyard, or we did but it was like the surface of the sun with no shade and no real area to work in. I had a few packets of seeds - most that were moldy from being in the garage of the last house we were in. There were three that grew though - the Roma tomatoes, chives, and moonflower. That was the start of essentially my new obsession.

My husband has a shop full of wood working tools. He made me a raised bed planter that I can garden in standing up along with a trellis that I can walk under for the cucumbers, zucchini and other climbing plants. I have a few different types of bean plants (black beans, pinto beans, and lima beans) on the other side at the moment. I'll be adding beans in shortly. He's also stacked a bunch of pallets and we placed a kiddie pool on top and it's filled with different buckets of pumpkin plants.

(raised bed, trellis, zucchini flower, cucumber flower, baby cucumber growing, beans, pumpkin flower)

I scored a huge load of free containers, grow pots and such from someone cleaning out their greenhouse a couple of weeks ago, which has helped tremendously. We are making our own potting soil - a mix of vermiculite, top soil, manure and coconut coir, which has so far been cheaper and better than any of the huge bags of mix from Home Depot or Lowes which seem filled with sticks, rocks and huge chunks of mulch. We have also started a composting container as well, which will hopefully be added into the potting soil in about 2 months. Starbucks and the the people in my office have been helpful with coffee grounds which are also mixed into the potting mix.

I don't know how I'm going to actually get everything growing - if it does grow. I've got over 140 plants growing right now. I've only had trouble with the watermelons, onions and carrots so far.  The grow so far, then fall over and die... I'd be discouraged, but...I have a room full of plants lol. I'll get those right later.

If I even have a fraction of what I'm growing actually produce anything I'm honestly not sure what I'll do. I'm doing this more for the pleasure of growing something than for the need for vegetables. My body doesn't like many of them. The thought is that if I only produce a little it will go to friends. If I product a bit more than that, perhaps donating some of the produce to the shelters/soup kitchens/food pantries in the area, and if more than that- if I get everything growing well...perhaps I can actually sell some of the items! It would certainly help if I had some income from this. The seeds and such have been pretty low cost. As has everything else. My husband eats a ton of yogurt so I get his used containers as perfect little starting containers. Same with any plastic soda bottles, which are then cut in half and used. I start some of the larger seeds (pumpkin, cucumber, zucchini, beans) in plastic snack bags with wet paper towels until they sprout, then they are planted.

I've only had a little bit of trouble from caterpillars - one on the bean plants on the trellis that has been eating away at them, They produce blue skipper butterflies so I've been trying to carefully pluck them from the plants and relocate them elsewhere in the backyard. I have a couple plants in the Florida room that had the tops eaten off them before I found the caterpillar culprits and got rid of them. They were to become moths before I found them eating the cauliflower and pepper plants. Since then I haven't had any problems inside. I'm checking and plucking caterpillars every few days from the bean plants outside.

(Morning Glory, Bean plants, Green Pepper)

[JuliettaRossi]

It's been a little over two weeks since my last post. Things have heated up here in Florida. So bad that over the course of 2 days about a week or so ago, almost everything died :( I've been replanting almost everything that was in the Florida room and starting over.

In addition to that, I found little green caterpillars on the cucumber plant...That in combination with the mildew that attacked it and the zucchini plant have left me with this... I have one off-shoot of the cucumber plant that seemed to know trouble was coming and tried to steer itself to the left - broke away from everything but the roots and seems to be doing fine. The birds came out and helped clean up the caterpillars after I cut off most of the leaves that were left.

Most of the following pictures are from in between the last post and this one. The purple flower is the flower on the black bean plants.

The one cucumber that made it was later turned into Greek Pasta Salad - cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion, Feta cheese and sour cream along with the best Greek seasoning out there!

The pepper plants I have been growing are doing well for the most part - I'm transitioning everything that didn't die in the Florida room outside and I've transplanted everything from inside the raised bed into individual containers - Jalapeno, Pinata and Serrano Chile Peppers, Garlic Chives, and the lettuces, but they don't seem to have survived the transplant well... I've replanted a lot of in-ground types into the raised bed - like rutabaga and turnips and such, along with more peppers and some okra. The corn I have growing is doing ok as well. I need to do more transplanting into the trellis bed - some more bean plants, a couple more cucumber plants. Depending on how the zucchini and the cucumber that is there now looks by the weekend will determine whether or not I cut it completely out/down and start over. I have plants ready to put into the ground there. I'm just worried that the same thing will happen - the caterpillars and the mildew. Time will tell though. I'll also be dealing with whether or not I give up on the pumpkins - they haven't done well since I moved them from the Florida Room, outside.

[Cailleach]

Hi JuliettaRossi,

I feel your pain with regards the heat and the caterpillars. I live in the South of Ireland and we've been experiencing a very unusual heat wave the last few weeks. All our plants that normally do well in our climate have either perished or grown too fast and we can't keep up with the produce so it becomes mush. The heat has meant a lot more slugs and caterpillars too than normal but we've started drying out egg shells and crumbling them into our coffee grains to spread around the bases of our plants and so far it's working at keeping them off.

We never sell really, we blanch it, cool it and then freeze them for eating during the winter months. I do a lot of gardening with my family but have only really been doing it for the past three years. Keeping a journal is good, writing in what worked and what didn't, best time to plant, sew etc.

Best of luck with your produce.

[JuliettaRossi]

Thank you Cailleach for the words of encouragement and your experience!

The caterpillars and the mildew fungus won the first battle with the cucumbers. I've gotten rid of all of them plus the zucchini plant. That whole side of the lattice is empty right now. I've also changed up my potting soil mix because of all the fungus gnats  (now it's coconut coir, coffee grounds and I'll be adding vermiculite and some fertilizer - no "soil" to see what happens. Right now I've got 3 flats of seeds growing in the coir/coffee mixture and most of the 1st flat I planted (a couple days before the other flats), have emerged from the mix. The cypress vine is taking off and I've got the Amish Pie pumpkins pushing through as well as two new tomato varieties - Aunt Ruby's German Greens and Mortgage Lifter, which I bought because of the name lol. I've also got Purple Coneflower (Echinacea), Carnival Blend sweet peppers, Luffa Gourd (yup the same luffa from the shower is grown in a gourd!!!), green and red bell peppers and I'm replanting some of the ones that didn't do well earlier in the hot weather including a couple of lettuces.

I've been cutting the beans from the plant as they dry on the vines. I've never had so much respect for a can of black beans or bag of lima beans in my life. It takes a TON of these to make anything!! This city girl is getting a bit of education while doing this... Don't laugh. Most city kids don't understand where their food comes from because they've never been exposed to the part before they or their parents buy it. When I was a kid and I watched my aunt make REAL pumpkin pie for the first time I was blown away. Pumpkin came in a can...not from that huge ass orange thing you got out the garden, chunked up and roasted in the oven!! Yes, I've grown since then - and now I'm leaning to respect a farmer a bit more too... I've got 4 or 5 little stalks of corn growing right now and that is my biggest accomplishment yet I think. They have corn growing on them!! I'm excited. I don't know if they will make is - I just found some gnarly looking little squash bugs on them today, which I got rid of, but I'm sure there are more. I can't even imagine trying to grow fields of anything and the problems you have with that!

(Mushroom growing in lattice bed, Pepper plant flower, little red bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, corn growing, flower and bee)

[JuliettaRossi]

Oh! And I got back to a little bit of baking (thank you Martha Stewart...). I made Nutella French Meringues!!

[Anouk Daae]

Another Florida girlie here!

Your garden looks amazing and so inspiring. As a baker by profession, your meringues looks exquisite too!
This is so awesome, thanks for sharing!

[RedRose]

This is gorgeous. I'm considering getting some plants again, though I'm not gifted at gardening! That's inspiring.

[JuliettaRossi]

Update...and not a good one.

Because of all the garden pests I've been encountering, we bought a bottle of Sevin. I sprayed down the beans, and peppers because of seeing a multitude of aphids along with squash bugs, caterpillars and other insects. Everything is dying now. They went from health, productive plants to dying, rust-covered, leaves falling off stalks. I'm disappointed, but I have new seedlings started in the Florida room. I had hoped to get more planted this weekend, but the weather here is atrocious, even for August. My back and hip have been giving me problems as well. Those two things combined don't allow me to sit out in the Florida room for any amount of time.

I've got a few other pictures of stuff around the garden - the pumpkin blossom that surprised me (one of two little bits of pumpkin tendrils still surviving after the heat of this summer), some small jalapenos, a small green pepper and a balsam pear (bitter melon), which I jut discovered growing over in the corner of the yard. I found those along with a patch of what looks like nightshade being devoured by squash bugs, which didn't make much sense because they don't eat anything in that family of plants. They weren't on the balsam pear, which was some thing I would have thought they would be on, since it's in the melon family.

More meringues were made today. I was testing out different flavors. I did a couple plain ones, plus coconut cream, chocolate coconut, raspberry, lemon curd, sea salt caramel, and nutella cheesecake. They came out pretty well I think!

[JuliettaRossi]

Been away for a little while - vacation time. Only a couple pics from the garden. We left friends in charge of the new seedlings I had planted just the week previous. Almost everything was dead when we got back, I was extremely upset. Not just the time and effort, but the fact that everything was GROWING when I left. I was apprehensive even having them watch over our place, but what can you do when you leave for 4 days? Ugh. Back to replanting. I'll restart all those plants again next weekend hopefully.

The pictures I have are from the morning glories that opened on the fence where I planted them. I did transplant 2 more morning glory plants, a moonflower pot and a pot of passionflower to the fence yesterday as well. The heat is just horrible right now though. I could only stay outside for a short time. Saw a black racer at the fence as I knelt down to plant the flowers as well...

The beds where I sprays the insecticide are actually starting to come back. There are new lima bean pods and the leaves are coming back nice and green. Apparently I didn't kill *everything* with the spray.

Some pictures from vacation...If you know where I was, don't name it please! Keep it a secret!

[RedPhoenix]

Your garden is beautiful thank you for sharing it. :)

[JuliettaRossi]

Thank you Red Phoenix :)

I spent some time transplanting most of the plants to larger containers over the past couple of weekends and I still have more to do. I changed up the mix I use to plant them in. Instead of the original mix I was using - top soil, manure, coffee grounds, coconut coir and perlite, I've taken out the top soil and manure, added vermiculite, bone meal and fertilizer. With the previous mixture I was having a problem with hydrophobic soil - soil afraid of water... Yes, it's a thing. The soil turns hard as a rock and won't soak up any water, thus killing the plant. I lost quite a few plants to hydrophobic soil so far which didn't make me happy. So far, the new mixture seems to be working well and the plants like it. I'm finally seeing more growth and the plants actually starting the produce.

I was able to cut the jalapenos below off and give them to a coworker who makes pepper sauces. In turn he will be giving me seeds to plant more pepper plants - win win. I have more jalapenos almost ready on the plants as well as two little serranos growing on one plant. One of the okra plants is starting to flower - it should be open tomorrow.

I picked up an almost dead discounted plant from Lowes a number of weeks ago. It's now doing much better and produced pretty pink flowers. Also had a tree frog make it's way into the Florida Room and stick around on the sliding glass doors for a while. I've also had a little bird who comes to visit while I work along with some squirrels out on the palm tree eating out of the suet feeder. I noticed a female squirrel hanging out on the planter I was growing the corn in, earlier this past week. I knew that babies were either coming soon or had already been born. Today I got to see her with one of the babies - it's bigger than I thought it would be, so there may actually be more babies.

The tomato plants are growing quickly and I just saw a flower peeking out on one today. Hopefully tomatoes will be in the near future. I'll also be planting the "fall/winter" plants. The weather is getting nicer here...but I'm sure that won't last.

[CrownedSun]

Oooh, this is beautiful. XD

[JuliettaRossi]

So a lot has happened since I last posted. I became ill not long after my last post. I was possibly the closest to death I'd ever been by January. I was in the hospital receiving transfusions to keep me alive. I had treatment in February. I changed jobs in March. We moved in April. We've been in the new place a little over a year now. I haven't stopped gardening - in fact the last I think 3 or 4 trips were moving gardening items from the last house and we still ended up leaving a few things. I have a new potting bench and new raised bed built for me (in addition to the one I already had at the last place). Instead of the bed with trellis for the cucumbers, which I've had very little luck with here, the front walkway of our home follows the curve of the house with a gardening area. I've put up trellis netting from the ground to the roof where there were already nails, just waiting for me to use them. I have morning glories, moonflower and cypress vine growing there so far. We are still putting up the wood border on the edge of the walkway to build up the raised bed, so that project is not done. When it is done, I will have cucumbers and beans planted along the walkway, growing up the trellis as well. I received new seeds yesterday and I've got a bunch of seeds soaking for planting. I have a ton already growing and plans for the side yard that will hopefully get completed within the next couple months - putting the gazebo back up, building planter boxes for in front of the fence on either side of the gate to transplant the sunflowers and corn to, with an arched trellis in front of the gate for training the birdhouse and luffa gourds, raised stands for two of the corners of the gazebo for the multitude of tomato plants, and some repurposed dresser drawers turned raised bed planters for the herbs and peppers.


Black Beans and Zucchini growing and my new potting bench



Acombo of peppers harvested, tomatoes growing and belladonna (yes, belladonna...no, not intentionally planted)



A baby tomatillo growing, corn growing, morning glory on the front trellis, okra flower, black bean flower

[JuliettaRossi]

The last update was gardening... I really should rename this blog. Here's some of the baking I've been doing as well over the last year or so.



Zucchini bread, Vanilla bean scones with homemade rosemary apricot jam, making marshmallows, toasted coconut marshmallows



Making macarons, macarons for a friend's wedding, eggnog macarons from Christmas



Pineapple cupcakes complete with little chocolate pineapples on top, Italian Wedding Cookies



Eggnog Cheesecake and soft pretzels with homemade cheese sauce

[RedPhoenix]

I'm glad you recovered!! Your new garden looks amazing and those peppers.....yum!

Glad to see posts from you again! :)

[CrownedSun]

Seriously, that looks like an AMAZING garden. XD

[JuliettaRossi]

Thank you both. I've not been doing much here outside of the storytellers cafe. I'm going to try to post more often.

I got the boxes done for in front of the fence today so the sunflowers and corn were relocated there before the mosquitoes got too horrible. I'll get pictures up soon. Hopefully the corn and sunflowers like it better there. One step closer to having the gazebo put back up.

The wood border along the walkway to the front door is a little more than halfway done as of today too. I can get more stuff transplanted there tomorrow (beans more than likely), but this will require another trip to home depot for soil. Looking for free dressers and such to repurpose for a tiered raised bed planter and I'll be a bit closer to getting the yard to where I want it. This will also depend on if we are changing the brakes on our car tomorrow or not.

[Aislinn]

You have a beautiful garden! You are posting two of my favorite things in the world - baking and gardening! I hope once I move into my new house I'll be able to do something similar.

And that dark purple morning glory is gorgeous!!

[JuliettaRossi]

I had vacation time not long after my last post. I didn't get to do much for multiple reasons. I did get the canopy put back up, the potting bench moved under it and the large work table moved from the front side yard (where it was quite the eye sore) to under the canopy as well. It's now covered with potted plants - squash, melon, tomatoes and cucumbers mostly. The wood border along the front walk way is almost finished. I think I might need one or two more sections.

We went to a local nursery and bought some ladybugs. I had aphids on the bean plants. They were so cool. I released them at dusk but I think it was just a little too early. They stayed for a short time, ate their way through some of the aphids...and flew off.  The bean plants were moved up along the walkway and some promptly died. I'm in the process of planting more beans because of this. Moved more morning glories, cypress vine and moonflower up front along the walk way as well.

I don't know what happened to the little tomatillo. The husk around it dried and it never got any bigger than a small cherry tomato and remained white. Meh. The plants all have blooms on them. Hopefully something will grow. A few of the roma tomatoes got blossom end rot and ended up being tossed. One of my mystery tomato plants had these cute little brownish-red  tomatoes on them. After a couple of days of rain they both split. We fed them to two of our squirrels. They loved them :)

The sunflowers I moved up to the new flower boxes in front of the fence are getting huge. They all have blossoms growing on them. One is a little more "advanced" than the others and slowly, day-by-day is closer to opening. I have a few more ears of corn growing as well. I grew some potatoes... I've been reading more and more about each of the plants I'm growing and I had actually written off the potato experiment as a failure - until I read that the potatoes are ready...once the plant is dead. Ugh...lol So I went out to my near dead potato plants and yup...I had potatoes!

We were sent a notice by the HOA about our driveway and that we needed to have it pressure cleaned. It was apparently our job, even though we were renting. After looking into renting a pressure washer, I ended up buying a small electric one that omg worked wonders. I've done the driveway, the sidewalk and the fencing. I'll be asking the neighbors if I can do the siding that faces our house. The houses here are kinda odd - one whole side of each house is essentially the next neighbor's yard. They have no access to one side of their house unless they go through our yard. It's just strange to me.  Either way...I think I like pressure washing stuff lol

I did more baking during my vacation time - a Japanese cheesecake, German Beesting Cake, banana whoopie pies, Key Lime cheesecake, soft chocolate chip cookies, French macarons and tiramisu.

[RedPhoenix]

That's all lovely but that squirrel is so cute! :)

[Aislinn]

I had vacation time not long after my last post. I didn't get to do much for multiple reasons. I did get the canopy put back up, the potting bench moved under it and the large work table moved from the front side yard (where it was quite the eye sore) to under the canopy as well. It's now covered with potted plants - squash, melon, tomatoes and cucumbers mostly. The wood border along the front walk way is almost finished. I think I might need one or two more sections.

We went to a local nursery and bought some ladybugs. I had aphids on the bean plants. They were so cool. I released them at dusk but I think it was just a little too early. They stayed for a short time, ate their way through some of the aphids...and flew off.  The bean plants were moved up along the walkway and some promptly died. I'm in the process of planting more beans because of this. Moved more morning glories, cypress vine and moonflower up front along the walk way as well.

I don't know what happened to the little tomatillo. The husk around it dried and it never got any bigger than a small cherry tomato and remained white. Meh. The plants all have blooms on them. Hopefully something will grow. A few of the roma tomatoes got blossom end rot and ended up being tossed. One of my mystery tomato plants had these cute little brownish-red  tomatoes on them. After a couple of days of rain they both split. We fed them to two of our squirrels. They loved them :)

The sunflowers I moved up to the new flower boxes in front of the fence are getting huge. They all have blossoms growing on them. One is a little more "advanced" than the others and slowly, day-by-day is closer to opening. I have a few more ears of corn growing as well. I grew some potatoes... I've been reading more and more about each of the plants I'm growing and I had actually written off the potato experiment as a failure - until I read that the potatoes are ready...once the plant is dead. Ugh...lol So I went out to my near dead potato plants and yup...I had potatoes!

Looks like you have a whole lot of full sun where you are...(as sunflowers, veggies and morning glory all love full sun!) The house I'm in right now is all full sun and it's been a challenge to find things that can deal with that. However, I'm selling this house and buying/moving to another in a few weeks that is part shade and all shade....so a whole new scheme to get used to. Lucky for me, it's fully landscaped with enough room for me to plug in some things from here that will probably appreciate the location of the new house better.  ;D

[JuliettaRossi]

It's been a couple of weeks now. There's a hurricane off the coast. It's just a Cat 1 and we aren't feeling a lot of effect from it outside of some wind and a little rain here and there. I was really hoping for more rain than this - perhaps we'll get a bit more this evening. No need for much prep except to move plants down onto the ground outside. I say that like I wasn't out there yesterday morning sweating my ass off getting everything prepped in fucking horrid humidity, no breeze and omg the fucking mosquitoes are outrageous this year. I blame it on Covid keeping people inside. They are as starved for us as we are for getting back out. The sunflowers are lashed to the fence to keep them from blowing around too much. There's bags of top soil holding down the canopy legs, any plants not on the ground are huddled together under the canopy on the ground now and any raised platforms are on their sides to keep them from falling over during the storm. All loose items have been brought in or placed on the ground up against the house. I really should have waited until this morning to do it so there would at least be some breeze, but I didn't know if the storm would change course at all as it moved northward.

The heat, humidity and mosquitoes here have been intolerable. I haven't done much outside because of it, but the sunflowers are loving it. I've gone out for an hour here and there after work to just get new seedlings planted into larger containers and water everything, but that's about it.

I had not seen bees out in the garden until the sunflowers started opening. Now they are everywhere at the fence line. They love the sunflowers and the heat makes the whole area smell like sunflower seeds/oil. I cut off a couple of the finished blooms to harvest the seeds - it reminded me of picking the seed out of pot! It was sticky, I ended up with 2 piles - one to toss, the other to keep and the pile I was keeping ended up in a bag. Plus there is a smell to dismantling sunflower heads, much like with pot. I brought in a couple of the sunflower heads that were finished but not dried yet and split them between our squirrels. They loved them.

Sunflowers are very strange plants. I didn't realize this until I started to grow them. All the ones I have pictures of currently are Autumn Beauties. I've planted other varieties since these have grown so well, but they are still quite small. If you've never seen the alien-like growth of sunflowers, here you go. I'm fascinated by them. I don't have the very last stage - the dried head with dried seeds yet. I'll be leaving the sunflowers to seed like this instead of cutting them early like in the pictures above, but here are photos from start to flower.

Almost none of the other plants like this heat. Even the peppers and tomatoes aren't producing. It's so hot the pollen is actually sterile and nothing is growing - no little tomatoes, no little peppers. The radishes, beets and the handful of okra that have grown have all been fed to our squirrels. One of my corn stalks died and it had one little ear of corn on it. It didn't get pollinated correctly so there were just a random few corn kernels on the cob, The squirrels loved them anyway. Since moving some of the plants under the canopy it has cut the heat directly on them and I have a couple of tomatoes on the vines and the peppers are starting to bloom again. This impatient gardener is definitely learning the work and time it takes to grow things. I'm also seeing people on Facebook gardening communities in cooler climes who have gardens overwhelming them with food and leaves that are huge. They have pumpkins and baby watermelons and baskets full of cucumbers and zucchini and their tomato vines are heavy with beautiful tomatoes. It's a little discouraging, but I know in part that it's the heat and how quick everything dries out here, not to mention the bugs we have here. I was going out and watering morning, afternoon and evening, but I cut the mid-day watering because I was doing more harm than good with the water actually burning on the plants from the crazy sun we have been experiencing. 

I haven't done much other than work and watch tv, do some genealogy work and read. I'm making another Bee Sting Cake as I type this. I have 30 more minutes for it to rise before putting that lovely almond and honey topping on it and putting it in the oven and I need to finish the from scratch vanilla pudding/custard/filling for the center. I'll be making more sugar cookies later today.

[JuliettaRossi]

Looks like you have a whole lot of full sun where you are...(as sunflowers, veggies and morning glory all love full sun!) The house I'm in right now is all full sun and it's been a challenge to find things that can deal with that. However, I'm selling this house and buying/moving to another in a few weeks that is part shade and all shade....so a whole new scheme to get used to. Lucky for me, it's fully landscaped with enough room for me to plug in some things from here that will probably appreciate the location of the new house better.  ;D

Hi Aislinn,

Yes, we have an amazing amount of sun for the small side yard we have. It was quite a change from the last place we were at - which had a TON of shade and so much greenery and it was easy to grow things, to here, where things shrivel in just a few hours - they can be fine in the morning and then dead by afternoon. The yard is shaped like an "L" here and the back of the house is mostly shade. I've considered moving things back there, but I can't see anything back there and  the bugs are even worse. When we went back there to clear some debris we found a huge amount of squash bugs and it just squicked me out. The planning of the houses here was horrible.  The only was to really use the yard well and to keep your sanity would be to install a screened patio that wrapped around the house. We are just renting, so yeah, not doing that. If we ever buy a place outside space would certainly be a huge consideration with plenty of space for growing and such.

Good luck with your new place! Post pictures of your garden so we get to see!

[JuliettaRossi]

In the past two weeks we've had some bad storms, which is the norm for summer in Florida. Don't ever be fooled by the "Sunshine State" motto. We may have wicked sun and heat, but we also have a monsoon every afternoon. You can almost set your watch by it. It smells different before the rain too. If you aren't from here you might have heard at least one Floridian or seen a meme about our craziness about the smell of the rain. It's apparently got a name - petrichor - the smell of the first rain drops hitting the ground, interacting with the bacteria there that create this smell. I choose to think of this as one of Florida Man's super powers. It serves no purpose (because Florida Man isn't gonna get out of the rain anyway and he doesn't own an umbrella, so...) but it's like an internal alarm for Florida Man/Woman and by law, they are required to say something along the lines of:

Now, you may be asking yourself, does this person really have to announce the rain each time they smell it? Yes. Like Monk, this is a gift, and a curse and each gift has it's yin and yang.

Now, as for growing stuff...Yeah, not a lot here for that. More sunflowers. Another huge harvest of sunflower seeds (that's one of my industrial sized sheet pans btw...). The two green tomatoes from the earlier post are now red and off the vine and sitting in my kitchen.  The eggplant is actually growing. I dunno what I'll do if I actually grow an eggplant. If you haven't caught on, I don't eat much out of a garden. I just like growing things. I mostly feed anything I grow to our three squirrels. The flowers I've been anxiously awaiting out front have started blooming. They are morning glories, but they are doubles called Sunrise Serenade. I think they are really pretty. The cicadas have been abnormally loud - like all day loud. I found a shed exoskeleton of one clinging to the side of the house. I left it. I'm not messing with it. I hate cicadas. I'm sure some of the damage to my plants has been from these nasty things. Not bad enough with the aphids, mealybugs, snails and cutworms? At least it's not grasshoppers. I'd burn it all down if there were grasshoppers...(this is what you can call trauma....summers in Florida and grasshoppers ugh...)

So, if I haven't dissuaded you from coming to Florida (let alone those wanting to move here)...We can talk later. I've got more. And yes, I love my state. I'm a native. (Not many can claim that!) I have never seen snow outside of on tv or in pictures. I'll take a hurricane over a tornado, earthquake, fires, etc any day. I wear flip-flops or go barefoot - I abhor closed-toed shoes but they are sometimes a necessity. During this pandemic I have rarely worn shoes and only worn flip-flops to go out. I love the swamps and gators and palm trees and oranges and beaches filled with shells. You can keep your snow shovels and chains on tires and winter wardrobe(?) and no sea breeze.

If the weather holds I'll be planting more morning glory seedlings up front along the walk way today. I transplanted some pepper and tomato seedlings after a rain storm earlier this week. I'm going to try to add more soil to the sunflower boxes and transplant some more sunflowers up there as well. I think I have some dwarf teddy bear and one other variety ready to be planted in the ground. I still need to find some old dressers people are giving away in order to make my herb garden. "What do old dressers have to do with an herb garden?" Well you see, I'm planning on using the drawers in a stair step fashion (held up by stairway banisters and flat wood at the bottom to give it a structural base) and sectioned into well, sections, to plant my herb garden. Right now I've got herbs, in pots, sitting in my raised bed planter where I could actually you know, try grow things like carrots and onions and chives and beans instead of it just being a place where pots are sitting. Pinterest and I have a love-hate relationship...Here are some of the "I want to do this ideas" I have going right now:

Herb garden using dresser drawers, clay garden markers, seed storage, a bee watering station, and a place for my gardening tools using an old rake affixed to the side of my potting bench.

I had some visitors to the garden over the past two weeks. There was a little lizard who was watching me take pictures of the sunflowers (our yard is overrun with the little dinosaurs), a spotted oleander moth, more sweat bees, a huge mason bee who is making a little bee in our bee house (yay!!), a variety of dragonfly called a Halloween Pennant, and of course more bees!

We did get out of the house for a little while one afternoon after the rain and went to a local lake area. It was beautiful right before sunset, but the mosquitoes, humidity and body aches didn't allow for much time out.

Onto some more pictures. I did of course, finish the Bee Sting Cake. It turned out quite well, if I do say so myself. I didn't finish it, so the left overs were turned into bread pudding.

[JuliettaRossi]

So not much has happened in the past few weeks. Quarantine has almost become like Groundhog Day. My mother came up for another visit. We made more yummy things including homemade strawberry jam and homemade pineapple jam and pineapple upside down cake made with fresh pineapple. We sent half of it home with my mother for her to share with my uncle. I also had my first order for French macarons since the start of the pandemic - Rose macarons with rose buttercream, coconut macarons with my homemade pineapple jam in the center, and vanilla almond macarons with strawberry buttercream. Not having made them in months showed. I ruined the first batch by hurrying and completely forgetting to add the granulated sugar. One of the batch of coconut macarons I overwhipped trying to get the coloring right and I knew it before even baking them. They came out of the oven almost flat. They still tasted good, but I had to make another batch for my client.  (Insert woe-is-me look here.)

As far as gardening, it's been too fucking hot out. There are no other words for it. July and August are the worst months in Florida hands-down. It's so nasty out. The tropics have been heating up and the bowling balls of storms are rolling in. We've been spared much of it thankfully. It's raining out again - there is some tropical wave or storm or something shearing across the state. It will strengthen once it hits the gulf and likely cause more trouble for Louisiana, as if they needed more rain. Nothing concerning for us at the moment. Two hurricanes are spinning out in the open waters, they don't seem to pose a threat to anyone. Just awaiting the news of the storms coming off Africa and if they will form.

I did get out and plant more morning glory, moonflower and cypress vine seed out front. I also got the raised bed filled and planted. I planted 4 marigolds down the center line (they help keep some of the problem bugs away), transplanted some of the bunching onion and spring onions into the bed along with some beets. I planted more black beans, pinto beans, and black-eyed peas there as well. My pumpkin plant is roaming the garden. It is currently climbing up the side of my canopy and along the side of the other raised bed, twining tendrils around my okra and pepper plants I have in pots at the base of the raised bed.

The eggplant in the raised bed actually has a baby eggplant growing and one of my poblano peppers are growing a little baby as well. The pictures below are a flower (same family as tomatoes, so the flowers look like tomato flowers, but larger and a light purple) on Aug 26 to baby on Sept 9, and growth as of today for the eggplant. My baby bubba okra is producing now as well (flower on Aug 19, half grown okra pod on Sept 9, almost full grown today). I had one okra grow on the regular (spineless) plant and fed it to the squirrels after harvesting the seeds from within. My tomato plants and tomatillo plants are starting to produce flowers again as well. If the rain and heat let up a bit I'll be planting some cucumber along the front walkway. I did put out a bee drinking area down at the base of the sunflowers. The sunflowers are actually not doing well with all the rain. One bed of them is practically dead. The other has something akin to rust spots and damn mealy bugs are taking over, farmed by stupid fucking red ants. Yes, I said farmed...the ants farm the mealy bugs because as they feed on the plant they secrete a sweet liquid the ants drink, so they move them and protect them on the plant - essentially looking after their food source...

While spending time inside I changed up how I'm keeping my seeds. I now have a (more) compact container for them - a 3-ring binder that is completely filled with seeds. I spent a few nights cutting the old seed packets I kept - knowing I would eventually use them somehow - to fit into baseball card sheet protectors, 9 to a sheet, the seed packets I made fit between the front and back portions of the seed pack paper. I've gotten just about everything into the binder. Anything I had too much of (beans mostly, but also plastic bags filled with pepper seeds I've taken from the inside of various peppers) was put into a zippered pencil pouch at the start of the binder.

I'm planning on getting outside to plant a fall garden as well - which is a summer garden up north... ::) I'm hoping my tomatoes I have seedlings of and maybe some more peppers will take off. I think I'm going to plant more corn and sunflowers after I rip out the dying sunflowers in front of the garden fence as well. I have more room in the raised bed where the eggplant is. Maybe some kale, lettuces, etc will go there for fall/winter. I'm still planning on doing the herb garden made out of old dresser drawers or possibly wine crates if I can get them free, since I don't drink wine...

We got a new crate/house for one of our squirrels. He seems to be enjoying it. We also had a hawk who was quite pissed looking after he couldn't attack the squirrels inside. I think he was more than a bit confused by the sliding glass door.

We will see what the next few weeks hold...

[JuliettaRossi]

So, once again, not much has happened over the past couple of weeks. At least it feels like that.

My hibiscus has bloomed a couple more times. The Clarke's Blue morning glories have started blooming. My eggplant is still growing and every day I'm out there trying to hand-polinate each of the new flowers hoping for more eggplants. I've never eaten eggplant outside of a couple of tries over my life of eggplant parm and I hated it. It's a mouth-feel thing I think. I found a couple recipes I would like to try if my eggplant makes it to being full-grown.

More of my morning glories have bloomed, same with the cypress vine flowers and moonflowers. I've started harvesting the seeds from the pods so I can plant even more. I think I've harvested more than I've planted. The lima bean plant I placed into the sidewalk planter has a ton of little flowers on it and it's packed with green pods. I planted cucumber seeds as well over the past two weeks and I have a bunch of little seedlings coming up.

I have a green pepper growing and a couple of little starts of green peppers. The poblano pepper is still growing and I have a fat little green chocolate habanero growing. I'm starting to see little flowers on the handful of pepper plants I have.

I cleaned up the tomato plants – doing what I've been putting off for weeks-months. Most I planted at the start of the year have not made it. It's just been too hot.

The sunflowers are gone from the planters in front of the fence. I've harvested 3 ziplock bags full of seeds. They were decimated by mealy bugs and heat and they turned a rusty color and shriveled and died. I've turned the soil and I planted more sunflowers and corn. I'm hoping the cooler weather will be better (you know...cooler than 100 degrees every day...)

I planted garlic and the beans I planted a couple weeks ago are growing well (black beans, pinto beans and dragon tongue beans) in the tall raised bed planter that I moved the chives and marigolds to. I also planted more potatoes again and they are starting to sprout.  Potatoes are crazy easy to grow and absolutely insane in how they start. Take a potato. Cut it up. Put it in dirt. You'll get these crazy green stalks that grow – out of cut up potatoes. When the stalks turn brown and die you dig them up and there are potatoes in the dirt waiting for you. That's it. It's stupid easy.

I've done a bit more baking. I actually killed my Kitchen Aid mixer. Did you know you could kill them? Ok, so it was more like I broke it's arm. Inside that metal beast of a mixer is a gear that has vinyl teeth. It's made to fail. This is a good thing. Crazy scary when it happens, but it keeps the actual motor from burning up. The mixer makes noise and you know it's still “on” but it's not turning. I was making brioche chocolate chunk pretzel dough. The chocolate had not been added yet – it was just the dough being beaten by the paddle attachment. And then...it wasn't. I finished the pretzels literally by hand – I kneaded the last part – the butter, into the dough, then the chocolate. They came out great if I do say so myself. I had actually made strawberry jam marshmallows just before thankfully. I had played with the idea of making the pretzels first because they had to rise for a little while.

I'm not one of those who chucks the broken thing. This is more than evident in my life. I got the tools out, watched a YouTube video and opened up the Kitchen Aid. It's pretty amazing in there. Full of grease. The gear shredded and there were shards of yellow vinyl in the grease. I needed to open it up to make sure it was the gear – there are multiple pieces that can fail, but this is the main one – meant to fail and very inexpensive to replace and I was hoping beyond hope that it was the problem and it was. I ordered the replacement part (2 of them...just in case) and they arrived thanks to Amazon, 2 days later. The broken mixer sat in pieces on the dining room table until it arrived and 15 minutes later I had a fixed mixer.

[JuliettaRossi]

It's been a month... I feel like nothing has happened and I'm exhausted.

There has been very little in the way of gardening. It's still been too hot outside, too humid. I have still been hand-pollinating the eggplant (or at least trying to - nothing has taken yet). Most of tomatoes have died in the heat. My marigolds have bloomed and the beans are growing in the raised bed. I've been harvesting more and more lima beans out front along the walk way as well as seeds from the cypress vine and the morning glories. I've harvested so many seeds I'm considering selling them - I'll never be able to use them all!

The bell pepper never got very big but its already turning red, so it's ready to pick. The poblano is still growing well. I harvested some more okra and the one eggplant - all of which were fed to the squirrels. My two days off from work started at 5 pm today. I'm hoping to get outside and plant some more things. The weather should be turning a bit better, so I'm hoping I'll be able to tolerate being outside. I've baked a bit as well - oatmeal raisin cookies and chocolate chip zucchini bread and my first try at making Italian Rainbow Cookies. They didn't last long enough to actually get pictures of them cut... I'll be making more of those. During the next 4 days I'll also be experimenting with mirror glazing hopefully - add one more skill to the arsenal.

We are already thinking about Thanksgiving and what will be made. We are trying to figure out how we will all get together during a pandemic – if it will be like previous years, as if nothing else was actually going on. No one has traveled. This would be essentially the first time any of us will be really going anywhere or seeing anyone outside of home. Most of us have done nothing but quarantine at home for the sole purpose it feels that we might be able to do Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have a couple of recipes that are made every year that have become staples, but I'll be adding more this year I think, especially since I'm working from home and I have more time off this year than I ever have previously. Before I was always stressed for time and almost never had time off before Thanksgiving to bake. This year...I have time off starting from the Friday the week before! I'll have so much time to bake and I'll have pictures...

A couple of days ago a next door neighbor let us know that there was a baby squirrel outside. So...we have a new baby. Mom didn't make it and we found out today there was another baby that didn't make it either. The little girl is tiiiiinnnnnny! She's feisty though and she seems to be doing well. We had just released of our other squirrels about a week or two ago. Here we are with a new little one. At least she's past syringe feeding and she doesn't scream like other little ones have done. She's currently sleeping in her sock, sitting on my knee while I watch last Sunday's 60 Minutes.

I try not to bring “real life” into my writing on this blog, but I feel like politics and the pandemic are getting to me a little. The passing of RBG and the disgusting rush to push ACB into the empty position. Down to her wearing almost the identical handmaid's tale dress during questioning (Even though she's more of a wife ready and willing to give up rights and freedoms than an Offred any day). I'm just...I can't. Everything we watch is recorded so I can fast forward through the political trash. Election Day can't come fast enough. My cousin is offering help if we seek asylum in France. If I had the ways and means we would already be over there. I also can't speak French - I've tried. Everything comes out with a Spanish accent lol

[Oniya]

I don't know if you're aware, but Bob Ross used to have a squirrel friend.  https://www.twoinchbrush.com/animal/15

[JuliettaRossi]

Aww, I was not aware of this :) I find out more and more that squirrels are a normal-ish pet of sorts with the more people I meet. I don't know if it's just here in Florida with the storms we have - there is a propensity for squirrels raining down during high winds and storms. We have met quite a number of people who have rescued and/or kept the squirrel inside after the discovery. We get busy during hurricane season - luckily, this year has been relatively quiet and we have not been busy with critters. Things have been crazy enough without having (more) squirrels to add to the issues.

[RedPhoenix]

What a beautiful garden and adorable little fuzzy friend. :)

[JuliettaRossi]

The day after I posted the last entry our car died - while driving. Just shut off. Luckily we were not on a busy road and there was area to pull off immediately. We coasted to a stop and sat there for the next two hours waiting for AAA - around the corner from our home (because you have to be there for the tow truck). Once the truck got there and took away our car, we walked home - thankfully, as stated, around the corner from our house essentially because while Covid-19 rages, the tow truck drivers aren't taking passengers. We ended up burning out the starter trying to figure out what was going on - was it the battery? The alternator? The starter? We had it towed to a mechanic from our home. He replaced the starter, but couldn't for the life of him, figure out what was going on. It just would not turn over. There was a recall on the car. We had it towed to the nearest dealership. They kept it a week, supposedly fixed the recall issue and said it was running. Ubered to the dealership, to get back a car that now drove with a concerning knocking sound coming from the engine. The car died again while driving a week later - with the knocking intensifying and unable to go over 2500 rpm/speed up with any urgency. We had been driving between 35-40 mph most of the time during the week. When it died you could hear a "gurgling" sound coming from the engine... When it died, we were in traffic, but able to coast into a car dealership. We once again waited for AAA and Ubered home. This time we had it taken directly to another dealership location. They kept it a week before doing the test needed to figure out that it was due to the recall on their engines. Despite the aggravation and inconvenience, we are getting a new engine free of charge and we have a rental car paid for by the dealership. We have no timeline for getting our vehicle back though... Thankfully it's a really nice rental vehicle...

During this time, we spent A LOT of time at home. Very little of it was spent outside as the heat turned up here. It was mostly work and during the weekend working on side business stuff (more may be revealed in the coming months). I harvested seeds from the vines out front. The vines are looking horrible. I need to cut most of it back, replace the netting with something a bit more durable in this Florida heat - it started disintegrating and just shredding, so we pulled most of the netting down. The only parts left are those with vines, but even in that area it has started to shred under the weight of the vines.

The sunflowers I planted earlier are all starting to bloom. I think these are the lemon sunflowers. They didn't get as tal as I thought they might! I had visions of the the height of the autumn beauty sunflowers. These only grew about 2 feet tall then bloomed. I have corn coming up as well - about the same height right now.

I did harvest more okra, another eggplant and one lone poblano pepper. I have another pepper growing and the eggplant plants are full of flowers. The marigolds are blooming. I harvested what little black eyed peas grew and I'm still harvesting little lima beans out front. I did have a little lizard that took up residence on one of the leaves of the black eyed pea plants. Every day I would go outside and he was on the same leaf. It was very cute. I loaned out my seed book to a relative and haven't gotten it back so I can't plant anything right now.

Thanksgiving came and went. It was a small very strange affair. There were people missing this year - family held 3 different Thanksgivings around the state instead of us all coming together. It was the first time without my Uncle. He's pretty much my father figure. My cousins are very much like my brothers and sisters to me - or at least as close as I know to that. I'm an only child raised by a single mother. Unfortunately we don't know how to scale down...there was once again so much food - definitely something to be thankful for - it created those leftovers to feed us all for the coming days. We needed that little bit of get together time - even if it was just a handful of us, it was quality time spent with family. Everyone is back to quarantining in order for us ALL to be together for Christmas.

For Thanksgiving I made the stuffing this year - a recipe passed down from grandma. I don't know if you've ever had cornbread stuffing - raw. Yes, I mean eat it raw. It's fabulous. Screw concerns of salmonella. I think it's better raw than cooked honestly. I bought more supplies to make more this week. We had two turkeys - one fried, one smoked. My cousin did great with both. His girlfriend, who I adore, makes absolutely wonderful riced cauliflower with garlic and mozzarella and cream cheese. I need her recipe - I have all the supplies for that too! As for me - I baked. And baked. There was the yearly spice cookies and pumpkin dip, a perfect pumpkin roll (thank you British Baking Show), fresh cranberry sauce, pecan pie brownies, yeast rolls, and two kinds of French macarons - pomegranate, with homemade pomegranate jam centers, and pumpkin spice cheesecake macarons. If you've never seen pomegranates, never peeled them, tasted them, they are beautiful. The inside is packed with little garnet gems. It's one of my favorite fall flavors.

Next up is Christmas. Time to start looking at recipes and making a plan. It looks like we will be traveling south for the holiday. It's been a year since I've been home due to the virus and car issues (we were supposed to head down there the end of Oct/early Nov).

[JuliettaRossi]

Happy New Year from the land of falling iguanas and absolute crazy people.

We got our car back after Thanksgiving – complete with a brand new engine free of charge due to the recall. Don't buy a KIA. You've been warned.

I fell after Thanksgiving. I fell hard. Off a step-stool onto the concrete walkway while cutting down the old morning glory and cypress vines out front. I fell backward and onto my back with my head bouncing off the (thankfully) grassy ground – the concrete stopped just above my shoulders. I kinda got lucky...kinda? My back has been killing me. I think I had a slight concussion – complete with headaches and soreness, my neck aching. I also tweaked a wrist that I put out to try to catch myself (and I guess thankfully caught nothing, but hit the concrete instead).

Needless to say, I haven't done much of anything since. It hurts to stand for more than a few minutes. With walking in even less time. I'm spending a lot of time on the heating pad and have been taking an insane amount of ibuprofen (for me). I have done nothing – absolutely nothing outside since falling.

I made French macarons for a repeat customer for a baby shower and she allowed me free reign for design and sent me a picture of the cake to go on. There is nothing more that an artist, a baker, a designer, etc loves than when a client gives you a theme and says go for it.

We did go down south for the holidays. I got to see a handful of family members – all of us have been quarantining in order for this to happen. Still there were some who couldn't make it. My uncle has Covid, He likely got it from his wife who is a nurse. There are absolutely no protective measures happening in their area of Georgia. The facility my aunt is working at has no criteria except feeling well or not feeling well. They aren't testing, aren't checking temperature. I doubt they are wearing masks. This is deep in denial/hoax/”it's only the flu” country. On Christmas day my uncle was allowed out of his quarantine room to watch presents being opened by other family members. He wore a mask and sat off in the dark while everyone else didn't wear masks – with my aunt there among everyone while she is the one taking care of him. He's been in and out of the hospital with this and he has extenuating circumstances that make him more likely to die from Covid as well.

I did get some baking done for the holidays. I was really feeling those German Christmas roots this year. I made a triple chocolate gingerbread bundt cake, pfeffernusse cookies, Gingerbread men and trees complete with royal icing, and lots of marshmallows – roasted pineapple, espresso, toasted coconut, and eggnog (made with fabulous Farm Stores eggnog). I planned to make French macarons, but with the humidity, the egg whites wouldn't whip. They were going to be cute too... Oh well. We had more than enough though, which I'm more than thankful for.

Today I will be making black eyed peas with hamhocks and extra ham along with some golden cornbread drizzled with honey to usher in the new year. Hopefully 2021 will be a better year for many.

[JuliettaRossi]

So I mentioned I fell during my last post. It has gotten to the point where standing for more than a couple minutes is excruciating and walking is worse and can only been done for a few minutes before my body is screaming. I ended up at the ortho doc and after a few x-rays was deemed to have no fractures, but a number of bulging discs and the doctor seemed to want to talk more about my right hip since I had been there a few years previous due to having hip pain, which he now stated "oh yeah, you already had arthritis going on back then." However...back then he never mentioned anything about arthritis. I have bad legs. Period. Just bad. As a child I wore corrective braces on my legs. I show no real trace of any birth issues now and didn't after probably age 3 or 4, but I still "feel" the problems if that makes any sense. My hips pop out of place, especially my right hip, my ankles turn and buckle at the any given point and my knees give and kill when I kneel down. When I stand, my left leg is straight, toes point forward, while my right foot points at about a 15-20 degree angle. If you weren't trained to look at how someone stands or holds themselves, you probably wouldn't notice. Ballet foot positions came easy because I'm able to turn my ankles more than the 180 degree plane, but I had bad hips... so dancing was out. Couldn't run because my ankles would twist and down I'd go. I have always envied people being able to run. It looks so "freeing" and it was something sporting that could be done alone and as an only child that was something I looked for.

I know I'm getting arthritis in my fingers. I feel it when I work on crafting things - especially crocheting which I've been doing a lot of. As of Dec 22, we have a new family member. I was taught one stich years ago by a friend and that one stitch has enabled me to make a number of blankets. I made the new baby two blankets and finally, after many years, learned a new stitch and made a crocheted dress for her out of a pretty purple yarn. I also broke out the sewing machine and made a dozen burp cloths for her - well, for mom and dad. I taught myself how to do needle felting and made a mobile for the baby as well based off one mom picked out based on the woodland theme of the nursery.

I've been taking my fiancee's medicine for a while to help with the arthritis in my fingers and he takes a muscle relaxer I sometimes take for my back, but nothing has been really helping my back. The doctor prescribed a new muscle relaxer which knocked me out, so I can only take it at night, so I'm without relief during the day still. While at my cousin's house he gave us gummies - you know the kind - the good kind. We have been discussing getting our medical marijuana card for a little while and my fiancee finally started the process on Friday. On Saturday I had my first (part of a) gummy. Wow. Well, it was more than I needed. But I feel SOOOOO much better. Every so often the pain signal from my back reminds me - "you should be in pain," "you shouldn't be able to be doing what you're doing right now" and I can't help but be thankful for it. To be able to wash dishes without needing to stop and sit or bend over to relieve the pressure in my back is amazing after dealing with this. I slept well too.

Now...seriously. Munchies are a thing. When I was younger, dumber and had a lot less responsibility in life and smoking pot was a regular for me, I never got the munchies. I never understood it. I got quiet and somewhat sleepy. It was relaxing and I could turn my head off. With the gummies, we made a pact not to cook or bake while using them. I had already baked - 2 loaves of zucchini bread (which we left half of each loaf over at my cousin's house - one with chocolate chips, and one without) and a batch of lemon blueberry bundt cakes (which left most of over at my cousins house as well). My fiancee ended up eating all of his (non-chocolate chip) half loaf. I ended up eating two of the mini bundt cakes.

Today I feel better. I don't have this ever-present pain. I should be able to get outside and actually work in the garden. I bought some stackable towers from the dollar store for planting herbs in. My goal is to get them all planted today. If I'm still feeling good after that, I plan on getting all the vines down from out front and cleaning up the plant beds. I have a lot of clean up to do out there since not being able to get outside really since Thanksgiving.

My cousin has also bought a food truck - a brand new one. He will be selling homemade small-batch artisan ice cream, some with alcohol content. he will also be doing milk shakes and fresh-squeezed lemonade, iced coffees and teas as well. I will be adding to his truck offerings, which is why my back pain has been especially troubling. If I'm unable to be on my feet, I'm unable to spend much time baking. I've been working on recipes and still have more to do. Here are some of the things I've been working on.

Lemon Blueberry Baby Bundt Cakes, Chocolate Chip Cookies (once I adjust the portion, the cookies should be around 8 oz, or half a pound. Yes, half-pound cookies...), Fresh Florida Strawberries & White Chocolate Chip Cookies. I will also be making French macarons, marshmallows and a variety of brownies, blondies, bundt cakes, etc for the truck. They already did one of their pictures with one of my vanilla bean marshmallows toasted on top of the ice cream. With more baking will come more pictures.... More goodies to come!

[RedPhoenix]

As someone who has bad legs myself, you have my sympathies. :(

And a half pound cookie! O.o

[JuliettaRossi]

Since the last posting, I've not done much. My back has just been too bad. The netting and dead vines are down from the front walkway. I did clean up the side  yard a bit as well. Nothing got planted. I'm hoping to get some of that done today. Some of my plants have survived. I still have a bit of swiss chard growing. In fact, one of the plants bolted – a flower stalk shooting up from the center of the plant with beautiful yellow flowers with a light almost honey scent to them. I think the eggplant liked the cold weather snap we had. It's flowering like crazy and I'm hoping I'll get at least one eggplant out of it as the weather here turns HOT again already. The rosemary is coming back, as is the African blue basil. I have a bloom on one of the pepper plants.

I readied the planters I got from the dollar store last week and planted the mint plant that we got from the grocery that was near dying. It's now got new healthy leaves starting to grow. I honestly didn't think it would survive. I also planted seeds for a few kinds of basil, as well as thyme, cilantro, parsley, sage. I was able to get a flat of spineless okra planted as well before the mosquitoes were eating me alive and ran me back inside. It's not so much the heat right now as it is the mosquitoes. They are absolutely killer right now. It is warmer than normal here for this time of year - which I'm hoping doesn't foretell what the rest of the year will be like because if this is the trend, I might as well just limit what I'm going to plant right now if it's going to be anything like last year.

On a sadder note, we lost one of our squirrels - the one we have had the longest - almost 5 years. His name was RePete (my grandpa had a squirrel and his name was Pete) and he was the squirrel that started us rehabbing. He literally dropped into our lives in July 2016 at around 11:30 at night. I heard screaming coming from the back yard. The house we were living in had NO lights in the back. I opened one of the sliding glass doors and the sound stopped. I closed the door and walked away and heard it again, so I went outside with my phone flashlight shining and followed the sound to a tiny baby squirrel covered in red ants biting it in the planter bed. I grabbed him immediately, brought him in and pulled all the red ants off him and cleaned him up, put some ointment on the bites and we started looking up what to do next. The next morning we found the nest on our deck. There were no trees in our backyard, so something - possibly an owl, dropped the nest and the baby squirrel that was inside it. I ended up bringing him into work with me - which thankfully my bosses were okay with since I needed to feed him every 2 hours (The next year I brought in 11 baby squirrels during a particularly bad hurricane season, which they were also okay with - at that point I had help with people at work taking shifts during lunch to feed them and they slept most of the time anyway lol.)

We woke up one morning and he couldn't move his back legs and was very lethargic. We didn't know what happened to him - still don't. He was running around just fine the night before and we had given him paper to shred which was one of his favorite things to do. We found a local vet that also treats squirrels and took him in. With the pandemic, they were not allowing people inside, so a nurse came out to pick up our baby and his carrier. After a very long day they called to let us know that he had fractured his spine and his quality of life was nil. He couldn't urinate, so he would end up with infections and pain if we let him live like this. They allowed us to come back and inside to a room to say goodbye to him. They had already dosed him with pain medication, but he was different with the drugs in him. He was upset and stressed. We said our goodbyes and he was put to sleep.

Now, we had lost squirrels during rehab previously. They are delicate creatures prone to head trauma and respiratory problems and it comes with the territory. I cried with each one we lost. It's heartbreaking to care for a creature and even though you try to do everything you can for them, they don't make it. Your entire roll is to just get them healthy enough, old enough to be on their own (since every one of the squirrels we rehabbed were from babies), and release them back to the wild. Each one we lost was hard. I had even expressed probably a week previous that I couldn't take on another animal – I couldn't take the chance of losing another one. I didn't want to go though that again if I could help it, taking rehabbing off the table for a while if not indefinitely. I couldn't stop crying the night we put him to sleep. I couldn't sleep, couldn't get out of my head enough to get some rest. It's hard even writing about this. They are such sweet creatures – amazing, funny, each one with their own unique personality.

We still have two squirrels. One will not be released. He's too gentle and we are pretty sure he has some neurological issues. He doesn't really jump, doesn't bite, doesn't use his nails (he actually angles his paws upward so he won't hurt you with his nails), he doesn't move fast either (which would make him an easy target for other larger animals like cats and dogs in the neighborhood). We have a female though, that we are transitioning to release. She's fast and smart and she will do well outside. We should be able to release her in a couple weeks or so. She is the little squirrel in the October 28 posting – the one that the neighbor notified us was outside, orphaned, the mother killed.

Now on to other happier things. I've been playing with cookie recipes again. I found one I liked, tweeked it a bit and made some super soft cut out cookies and techniques with icing them. I can't stand hard cut out cookies  it just reminds me of eating sugary drywall. I can't tell you how much I HATE making cookies as well. They are time and labor intensive. I however, spent hours playing with these after perusing Pinterest for a while.  From piping to brushing to dipping the cookies, I played with a number of techniques. I don't think I did bad for a beginner with this. I have a cousin who's wife is an absolute artist with cookies. They are simply amazing and I don't know how she does it but if I can keep practicing, and perhaps become even a small fraction of what she is with cookies, I'll be more than happy.

My mom came up for a weekend and we went out to a Peach Blossom Festival. I didn't know we had peach orchards here in Florida, but apparently there is one...at least one lol. They opened up the orchard for people to take portraits and such on one side and on the other they had citrus trees and a pavilion where they had people set up with crafting and food booths. I had never seen peach blossoms and they are gorgeous. I got some yummy fried donuts coated in cinnamon sugar as well as a container of dill goat cheese from Slow Turtle Farm. The kids are part of 4-H and raise their own goats, show them at 4-H competitions, and they make all kinds of cheeses from the milk. The kids are there from start to finish – including out with the booth, offering up samples of the cheeses their goats have helped to make, hawking their goods to people walking by.

We went from the Peach Blossom Festival down to see my cousin since it was opening day for his food truck and I had cookies, marshmallows and brownies to deliver. He's done well and has already been accepted to a food truck group downtown. He has really put his heart, soul and all his money into this and we are all so proud of him. We met him and his girlfriend at the truck last weekend at a new location that hadn't really worked out. Once we got there they were already packed up and ready to leave – a bit down that they had spent hours there and made very little money due to the location. We offered up a nearby park and headed out. In half an hour they made a few hundred dollars at least and I got my cookies & cream fix. We will be meeting them on Tuesday at the food truck gathering downtown to get another dose of ice cream. He was contacted by a local restaurant that wants to pair with him for ice cream so I have pralines to make for delivery on Tuesday to him. It's a pairing with one of their porter beers and they are looking for something unique. I'm sure he will offer up something wonderful to them and I'm happy to help!

March should bring more planting, a trip to the Florida Strawberry Festival and perhaps a trip to the beach. And of course...more ice cream.... Hopefully I'll have more bakery treats to experiment with as well.

[JuliettaRossi]

I always feel like I haven't done much between writings. It's the weekend again. Doors are wide open, it's beautifully cool outside which here pairs with gray and overcast skies blocking out whatever sun may have a chance to shine. I love days like this here just as much as I love the bright blue, not a wisp of cloud in the sky kind of days. Cool days are few and far between here in Florida.

If my back holds up at all, I'll be outside planting more seeds. I've started going to the chiropractor. I had my first session on Tuesday. By that night I was in so much pain I couldn't sleep more than an hour at a time, passing out from simply being exhausted and helped by muscle relaxers that didn't seem to be touching the pain anymore. I haven't been able to do much of anything after the chiro session. I canceled my second appointment  and I'll go back again next Tuesday for a medical massage which another chiropractor session on Thursday. I don't start PT until half-way through April due to availability and the hours I need to work.

I did feel well enough to get outside and do some planting. I seeded the herb containers, planted lima beans, black beans, pinto beans, dragon tongue beans, two kinds of peas, sunflowers, and the peach pits I'd been saving the past couple of months to plant. Something has dug up a couple of the beans, which I'll replant again... Seedlings are already popping through the surface. Sage and basil are starting to come up. There are Spineless and Baby Bubba okra varieties coming up – squirrel food at out house.

I cleaned up a lot of the planting prep area – emptied old pots of the soil, tilled it, prepped the seedling containers, made some sophisticated plant identification devices – you'll see them in the pictures. I have actually played with writing utensils though – popsicle sticks aren't the best writing surfaces – they absorb some inks, some smear, some bleed like crazy, others wash away immediately in the rain. I'm now using Sharpie fine paint pens, letting them dry and painting over them with clear nail polish. It gets frustrating when you buy a million different tomato or pepper seed varieties and then they are growing months later and you can't read what's on the damn popsicle stick any more....

We went out to the Strawberry Festival in Plant City like I had hoped. It had been so long since I had been to something like this I didn't even care about the cost to get in and see the place. With my back, there was no way I could go on any of the rides, and quite honestly I wouldn't have even survived waiting in the long lines. I did enjoy walking around the midway area and have a new found respect for my mother having taken me as a child to the Youth Faire in Dade County. I told her this after we got back and she laughed. I didn't remember the lines. I remembered the rides! I didn't remember waiting. The midway at that festival was huge and atop asphalt. The Strawberry Festival is on faire ground – soft soil strewn with hay to help soak up spilled drinks. I have fond memories of the stupid games – tossing ping pong balls into small goldfish balls – every year coming home with a new “pet” fit for our tiny apartment that would die within a few days. I now of course, feel horrible for those small fish – how scared they must have been having obnoxious children toss a white ball bigger than they were into their temporary home, then hauled around , jostled in the car and dumped into a bowl and (hopefully) fed flaked food until they stopped swimming and floated belly-up, only to be flushed.

The Strawberry Festival was VERY different from what I remember. It was almost completely buy-sell booths inside of buildings – demonstrations of innovative pots and pans, handbags, clothing, jewelry, tchotches no one seriously needs. We did buy some honey from a local beekeeper and spent some time looking at an artist's work on metals with all kinds of non-traditional paints. There were food booths selling strawberry shortcake, fudge, tarts, shakes, skewered and dipped in chocolate interspersed between these booths but we didn't try any of them – the lines were extremely long. There were a TON of food booths outside which of course was par for the course, and a handful of livestock and plant showings inside the stadium corridors. I recall as a child there were demonstrative exhibitions – I was part of 4-H at one school in south Florida, so I didn't have an animal to show, but we did speeches about the animals we studied in class. I was always amazed at the livestock showings as a city kid. For kids like me it was a connection to your food and products you used. Most kids raised in urban areas don't get to see the beginnings. The first time I made a connection between pumpkin pie and a fucking PUMPKIN was at my aunt's house as she cut up an actual pumpkin and roasted it and MADE a pumpkin pie. Before that pumpkin pie just showed up at Thanksgiving. It came from the store. You may laugh, but quite honestly, city kids have a disconnect with their food and a lot don't have fresh vegetables and fruits because they are food deserts. These festivals were always a chance to show those kids what they had never seen or experienced before.

We bought a flat of strawberries when we were walking back to the car. I wanted a strawberry onion, but the farmers outside of the festival selling them were only taking cash and by the time we got out of the festival we had no more cash. What is a strawberry onion you might ask? Never heard of one? They are amazing large onions that are grown next to the strawberries. They have a different flavor – something a bit sweeter but not like a Vidalia. So, we had strawberry French toast, strawberry syrup, and strawberry pie!

We went out to see my cousin at his truck a few times over the past month. He's doing quite well with his new business. After one of the ice cream stops we went into Sprouts market and bought a variety of oranges and a bag of blood oranges. I've juiced the blood oranges and I'm going to make a sorbet with that. I also juiced a bag of lemons to make lemonade with.

For Pi Day I made 2 pies. I had never made either before – a French Silk Pie and a Banoffee Pie. I didn't use a normal flasky crust for the French Silk, but a chocolate graham crust which I liked a lot better. I grated my own chocolate and made the graham cracker shell for the Banoffee Pie and whipped up heavy cream for the whipped cream topping on both. I also didn't have a can of dulce de leche (I know right?!) so I boiled a can of condensed milk. At first it looked like it would work, but after a day in the fridge, it was liquidy – it seemed to de-caramalize for some reason.  It was still rich and delicious and fabulous over ice cream! I don't think I'd make the Banoffee Pie again. Its simply too rich.

[JuliettaRossi]

I've started the gardening for the year. I spent a bit of money at Lowes & Home Depot – we bought a peach tree!!! I'm technically from the south, so I'm excited about this. We also bought a blackberry plant and a raspberry plant. I got some more soil since I always seem to be running out, along with more seeds. My mother contributed to my delinquency this month as well – she bought us a red maple, a pussy willow and a magnolia tree. I've included a picture of a small portion of my new seeds.

I've been planting a LOT of things. So far I'm up to 80 different plants from seed that I've started. This doesn't mean all 80 will take of course, and I'm hoping this summer won't be as bad as last and most of them will make it. I had a set back with the local birds as well. They effectively set me back an entire week by digging with their beaks and eating ALL the seeds I planted after coming home from Lowes. I have a few kinds of cucumbers, a bunch of kinds of beans, carrots, a few kinds of corn, a bunch of peppers, tomatoes, watermelon, spaghetti squash, zucchini, peppers, pumpkins, and a variety of flowers, including a variety of sunflowers. And yes, I use all kinds of things for planting - including plastic cups. It's not because I don't have an over abundance of pots, because I do, thanks to a nursery getting rid of all their season's pots last year, but because with the clear cups I can see root development. I usually only used the clear cups for corn and sunflowers - plants that get large quickly and have quick-growing roots. This way I know when to plant them into the garden beds.

I don't know what I'll do if everything sprouts/grows. I will find places for everything until I can't – and then I'll give away or sell any extras to fund my derangement.

The dragon tongue beans have taken off better than I expected and they have already come out of the starter container and I've transplanted them to small pots. They didn't do well last year, but if they will cooperate this year I'll plant as many as possible. I did replant another 6 seeds once I got the first 6 transplanted. The okra is coming up as well. The cypress vine has all sprouted and the morning glories are starting to peek through the dirt.

I ended up gifting one of the dragon tongue bean plants to a woman I met online who gifted me some of her tiny Everglades tomatoes(bottlecap for size) – a local variety that are adorable. I've already smooshed one and hopefully I will also have my own Everglades tomatoes this year.

We are working on two new raised beds and a butterfly/bee/fairy garden – which is what the flowers are going to be for. These are all in the beginning stages with one of the raised beds done, but not painted – I should be doing that today. It is already filled with my new strawberry roots and I may plant sweet white onions in the same bed as well. I haven't decided what will be planted in the other raised bed yet. I'm thinking maybe beans, and I have some very cute petite carrots I'm hoping will grow and this might be a perfect spot for them. Maybe some lettuce as well, but that's pretty temperamental here in the Florida heat.

I am working on what I will be baking for a friend's wedding next weekend. It's no where near her first time around, but hopefully this one is the last one – we like him a lot. They are kinda like the Brady Bunch – he has 3 kids, she has 3 kids and they found a huge house to buy just as everything was happening for them, so things sort of just fell into place. I'm planning on making their wedding cake big enough for just them (strawberry cake with homemade strawberry jam and strawberry buttercream and fresh strawberries)  which they have no clue about. They are just expecting to have cupcakes – which I'll be making as well – green velvet with cream cheese frosting and vanilla cupcakes (at her request) with green and white frosting. I'm also planning on soft sugar cookies in the shape of hearts and dipped in lemon flavored icing that will be marbled in green and white and French macarons in green with a strawberry jam and buttercream filling, and off-white with a green spray of color with homemade peach jam and buttercream filling. So...I'm going to be busy...as this is all while working my regular 9-5.

All of this will depend on my back & hip and how I'm feeling. I have stopped going to the chiropractor. I just didn't feel anything but pain after going. Now, the medical massage was different. I went back to him this Thursday. He did wonders for me a couple weeks ago. I was able to walk around for hours without pain. It kinda wore off as the week went on, but I felt the difference. He wasn't available this past week so I found another massage therapist that takes my HSA card and went to him. He had a completely different way of doing things. The first massage therapist was all hand-on. I was in so much pain walking in and I didn't even care about the sounds I was making – knowing he was actually helping me. Anyone walking by the door might have heard something and thought there was something a bit more naughty going on inside. He was frigging amazing. I was seriously in the start of play headspace when leaving. The second massage therapist was hands-on, but not the entire time. He also used silicone cups – which didn't hurt as bad as glass cups, stretching and an electric massager. He did this thing with his hands though that was fucking amazing – he made them feel like waves on my lower back. That is the best way I can even explain it. Like a woman doing the hula and that thing they do with fingers, but applied to your lower back and with amazing pressure. It was near orgasmic. I didn't leave going into headspace, but instead a bit lightheaded, I think it was because he actually worked on my neck and shoulders while the first masseuse did not and loosened things up a bit. The first masseuse had this new age music interspersed with a guy talking, which was bothersome, while the second masseuse talked the entire time he worked on me, which was also a bit bothersome, but also, strangely...not.

It's odd for me to have a stranger touch me while I'm near to undressed. It feels like it's been ages since I've been to the dungeon, but even then, I was only playing with my partner/Dom and in rare instance in tandem with other Doms/their subs, so to just undress and have someone work on me – while also being a very non-touchy person – is just “not me.” I'm an adherent of do not touch what isn't yours. Consent is beautiful and I've enjoyed playing with others when everyone was familiar and friends. Not knowing the person I'm about to spend half an hour with being pretty intimate – talking about medical issues/history as well as all kinds of things about your life, plus having them massage me goes against everything in me.

And some random gardening pictures...Baby Bubba Orka, Raspberry, Green Pepper, Jalapeno, Eggplant flower, and the start of Skyscraper Sunflowers.

[Flower]

I always look forward to your updates. Hoping you have an amazing planting season. ^_^

[JuliettaRossi]

Thank you so much Flower!!! It's always nice to hear people are reading my blog and enjoying it :)

[JuliettaRossi]

It's been a couple of weeks. I'm running out of room and I keep running out of gardening soil....Happy May Day and Blessed Beltane!

I'm still starting more and more plants even though I don't know where I will put everything. I've put off planting the tomatoes to the end now and this will likely bite me in the ass later as the Florida heat ramps up. I spent the day outside yesterday planting more seeds, transplanting seedlings into larger containers, watching Hulu and listening to music, and eating a peanut butter sandwich while drinking a cold Strawberry Cider Boys. I've been cleaning up the area little by little. I swept the area out, consolidated pots (I have bags of pots), cleaned off the prep table and as I would make room on the main table by moving an entire tray down to the bench I was working on to transplant seedlings, I'd use a large paint brush to clean the table of any dirt, leaves, etc.

The raised bed for the strawberries and onions was completed. They are all growing well. If I knew strawberries were this easy I would have been growing those all along – at least I'll eat strawberries where as the bulk of what I get to grow I just won't. I'm not a fan of vegetables.... Strange, right? There's a handful of veggies I like – usually the ones that people either love or hate – mushrooms, asparagus, cauliflower (but not broccoli – yuck!), some bell peppers but they have to be very lightly cooked – still have crunch to them for me to enjoy – same with the cauliflower or carrots. I won't eat carrots if they've been cooked, but cauliflower mash mixed with cheese and cream cheese and seasonings....I love. It's then unhealthy. Corn, potatoes and tomatoes are good too. I've been unsuccessful growing cauliflower and I think I might try asparagus crowns next year. I started asparagus from seed a couple years ago, but doing it that way can take years to actually get to harvest anything.

The raised bed for the beans was also completed and I've transplanted all the bean plants into it. I have been unsuccessful with lima beans this year – which were the only ones that actually grew last year. I've not given up though. I will likely plant more lima beans as well as some pinto beans this weekend. Right now I have Dragon Tongue Beans, Black Beans, Cowpeas (blackeyed peas), Purple Hull Cowpeas, and I've grown a handful of “small red bean” plants grown from grocery store beans. We use them a lot in red beans & rice instead of kidney beans (yuck!). I've got a few of those to plant again this weekend as well.

The trellis for part of the front walkway is done and I'll be transplanting the cucumbers there. We are creating two more trellis panels for the morning glory and cypress vine for the walkway portion closer to the front door. The cotton twining from last year just fell apart and tore after baking in the sun and heat here, so these are all wood. Another trellis panel is placed on one side of the front porch and this will support the morning glory vine I think. There is already a gardenia “bush” there, so perhaps I will plant more white flowers in that spot. I say “bush” because it's honestly a sad sad gardenia. It seems to struggle in this spot. I don't know why – perhaps too much sun. It gets close to dying every year, but survives and flowers again. I will be planting more there that will hopefully give it a little shade and maybe that might help.

The flower beds in front of the fence were refurbished – we added stone and it looks completely different. I'll be adding more soil and then transplanting the sunflowers and corn there. The homeowner is supposed to be replacing the fences by May 15 per the HOA, but we haven't heard anything and we had already started building a “faux fence”... which we really like. The old fence is still there, behind it. We will be working on the back side of the fence soon. I have a feeling the HOA will balk at our new fence though. It doesn't “go with” the community. I like the raw wood look – it reminds me of Craftsman style fences.

The backyard in the actual back of the house has been completely unused the 2 years we've been here. We will hopefully be fixing that by cutting back some of the trees and underbrush, clearing out the massive amount of leaves, getting rid of the squash bugs since they only harm my plants and putting up a fence there as well as more raised beds for pumpkin, watermelon, cantaloupe and spaghetti squash. They are all plants that need lots of room to grow – for the vines to creep along. Hopefully getting the backyard under control will also get the mosquitoes culled a little. They have been eating me alive when I'm outside. I usually only have an hour or two outside after work if I'm lucky and my back feels up to it.  I've found the smallest bit of special brownies helps quiet the pain long enough for me to stay outside. It's just tolerating the mosquitoes at that point....We have citronella lamps (4) plus citronella tiki torches (3) plus mosquito spray and a fan blowing directly on me and I'm still getting bitten. I have  an Off personal fan thingie my crazy father sent me (as if we didn't have them in stores here). I keep forgetting about it but I'll be using it today.

The wedding I baked for went well. I got everything done including the wedding cake. I spent a week prepping and baking and at the end of it I could barely move. I made soft sugar cookies, French macarons, cupcakes and the cake. I was literally still piping icing while everyone was mingling in the other room. This was by far the most fun I've had at a wedding. Low key, relaxed and the evening ended with a Nerf gun fight through the house.... As an only child it was kind of amazing and terrifying at the same time watching and hearing the chaos of sooooo many children – and “adult” men running through the house with Nerf guns. Some of the men are ex-military but all are SCA members and the children are learning from daddy.... Some of it was a little disturbing honestly. No one else seemed fazed by it...just me. This was like a regular Thursday to some of them it seemed.

I made my first beer bread using some horrible vanilla craft beer. I mean, people who like beer would probably have liked it, but I just reaffirmed I still hate beer, but I can bake wonderful bread with it. I also made banana bread. I have some really ripe bananas I should be making banana bread with again later today.

We also attended a funeral/memorial last weekend. We got to see family we hadn't seen in what seems like ages mostly due to distance instead of Covid. We put to rest a woman who we have mixed feelings about. She was my partner's step-grandmother and she was 91 years old. She was blind for the most part due to how fucking stubborn she was. She put off telling anyone she was having eye problems until she could no longer see. This was a woman who sat in front of a TV for 12+ hours a day watching Fox news and sports (she lived for sports). She was crotchety and mean and at the end had dementia and alzheimers and had been in the hospital more than out due to a life spent smoking and ruining her lungs. We lived with her for a VERY long 6 months when we couldn't find a place here because of the rental market being crazy. She didn't turn on the AC – in Florida – in the summer. We weren't allowed to cook in the house outside of maybe 4-5 times because it was SUCH an inconvenience to her that someone was in her kitchen. The sink had to be dried after use – Yes – dried. We had to use a paper towel she would fold every morning at the corner of the sink and wipe down any water inside the sink so it wouldn't leave spots. At the end of our 6 month stint she was accusing us of all kinds of things – including letting squirrels run around her house.

We told family members how bad it was getting and they treated us like the bad guys – believing her because why would she lie? Then she went to live with her children – being passed off like a bad penny – staying until they simply couldn't take it any longer and were at their witt's end and called the next kid to come get her and her stuff and get her out of their house. Don't get me wrong. When she was nice and when she had her mind about her and when she was surrounded by her grand and great-grand kids she was happy. Ish... She's never been “happy” in all the years I've known her. I know from being medical field-adjacent that dementia and alzheimer's are cruel, harsh afflictions. They don't only affect one person. It's hard watching a loved-one slip into that twilight and mistake a daughter, a son, for a complete stranger...or the opposite – recognizing nurses in the hospital as their own children, stories concocted of hallucinations, lashing out because they are scared and confused. It's something I wouldn't wish on anyone. We always joked that she held on out of sheer spite...

Her funeral was her pastor son espousing how he longs for God to take him – how happy he would be to die to be with his lord and his mommy and daddy again. I will confess – I don't understand a religion where you WANT to die soo badly to be with your mystical invisible sky daddy. That you lift your arms and talk to the clouds telling them that you would be happy if Jesus took you right here and now. That you are tired of everything – especially sin in the world...and in want to be in “his” house. In front of your wife, your children and grandchildren. Hijacking a funeral to talk about sin and beg to die is a bit crazy to me. And that they would all be content with this – words of affirmation and agreement spoken in the small group. I don't get a faith that's so...so much. It's a lot. It's cultish and crazy to me.

There is a quote from a movie I need to interject here. It's from Dan Brown's Angels & Demons -

Camerlengo: Do you believe in God, Sir?
Robert Langdon: Father, I simply believe that religion...
Camerlengo: I did not ask you if you believe what man says about God. I asked if you believe in God.
Robert Langdon: I'm an academic. My mind tells me I will never understand God.
Camerlengo: And your heart?
Robert Langdon: Tell me I am not meant to. Faith is a gift I have yet to receive.

That is as close to how I feel. I was raised as a Lutheran. I challenged my Sunday School teachers as a small child. None of it made any sense to me even then. As a teen I found Paganism more and more attractive. Teenagers long to feel control. Paganism has a way of helping you “feel control” over your surroundings. Not completely, but even a modicum of a sense of control is better than “Whatever God wills.” In college I tried attending Unitarian Universalist churches. They were as close to a compromise between Paganism and Christian I could find, but it still felt strange – too much like being trapped in a building. As an adult I find I side still with Paganism, but with the nature aspect of it alone. If anything I'm a kitchen witch and I aspire to be a garden witch. I've always felt an affinity for being among nature. I feel for animals and plants more than I do some humans. I am happiest baking something - feeding people with not just sustenance, but an indulgent treat and helping something to grow, watching a seedling break the ground, stretching toward the sun. I feel at peace at the ocean or walking in the woods. I do not feel these things in a church. I never have. In those places, with those rigid rituals and lectures I just felt trapped and repressed. (Please don't read this as a cry for help, a plea for someone to contact me to convert me or proselytize in sale of their one true way. I'm not looking. I'm not in need of something different. I'm happy where I am with faith.)

Back onto topic....I think the small bite of brownie is kicking in finally along with the medicine I took. I should be able to get outside and keep planting stuff. I should be planting the morning glories and cucumbers out front today.

[RedPhoenix]

Your garden is so lovely! I love that you post all the little critters that come say hi too. Look at that turtle! :)

[JuliettaRossi]

Since I last wrote, we traveled to south Florida to see my mom for Mother's Day. Her next door neighbors grow plants like crazy. They have plants wrapped around the side of the building, growing out into the walkway, etc. I mean it is just a little townhouse, but they have been able to cram a ton of plants into the outdoor areas. They have sunflowers growing on the side of the house that are near as high as the pitched roof. I hope mine get somewhere near that big! They also have a great banana tree in the back with a huge flower and bananas growing.

We did some landscaping projects for my mom – totally changed the look of the front entrance area. I brought some of the plants I've been growing down to her and planted them in front of her gate, so not she will have morning glories and sunflowers growing there. I also brought her a couple tomato plants since I have a ton of them. It's likely the only thing I'm growing that she will eat.

I made her a strawberry cake for Mother's Day – same as the wedding cake I made, but a bundt cake instead. It came out very well

The bean plants I'm glowing are doing well. I already “harvested” a handful of dragon tongue beans. They haven't been eaten yet. I should try that today – see if I'm even going to like them. The coolapeno is growing well. This one I didn't plant from seed but now that we have peppers growing I'll be able to harvest the seeds. This is apparently a variety of jalapeno that I might actually be able to eat since it isn't spicy. Everything has been growing well, but I have something that has been snipping the heads off just a handful of the plants.... The tops of seedlings suddenly go missing. This is happening to my cucumbers, squash, watermelon and even a couple of the pepper seedlings. The tomatoes aren't being touched. I don't know if it will continue to grow after having the top lopped off, but I'm hoping. The third picture is before....the fourth is after whatever it is that it eating/chopping off the seedling tops completed it's mission.

I did get some of the cucumbers transplanted over to where the trellis is along the front walk way, but some didn't survive the transplant and heat. I have more cucumbers growing about ready to transplant now. The other trellis hasn't been made and we sold the one I was painting a few weeks ago, so I'm still in need of something for the vines to climb. Hopefully the trellis will be made this week. Half my cypress vines got burnt to a crisp sitting out waiting to be transplanted, so I'll be starting more of those. There are a few morning glories that sprouted up where I had them last year. I've just let them do their thing and grow as they wish, considering I'll have a trellis there eventually.

A couple of the pumpkin plants are blooming already. They are packed with little buds. Three have opened so far, but on different days of course....so no pollination. It's waaaaay too early for them to start making pumpkins I think. The strawberries and onions are doing well. Amazing what 2 weeks of growth looks like – especially for the onions. The one little strawberry I had growing didn't get much bigger than it was in the last picture, turned red and was done for. In my reading I've found that first year plants don't produce much at all and it's encouraged to “pinch” the flowers to just promote plant growth instead of energy being spent on fruit. I buried some of the runners instead of clipping them. I'm going to let those grow as they want.

I finally gave up on the homeowner doing anything about the fencing. I was putting off planting the corn and sunflowers until a decision was made, but they are getting to the point where they need to be in the ground or they run a higher chance of dying. A few were packed with roots when I planted them, but they are in the ground now. I have sunflowers in one bed and corn in the other. I also have two sunflowers that are further along – taller in growth and those I planted in a separate bed near the struggling gardenia and the trellis where I will be planting the moonflowers.

There was a small community event in southeast Orlando yesterday that we went to on the promise of a butterfly garden. They actually had a scaled-down version of the one that Epcot does which I've been really missing this year, especially after it came up in my Facebook memories a week or so back. Every year during the Food & Wine Festival they have a butterfly encounter and it's quite large. They often give out the squeezable pouches of applesauce to help you attract and feed the butterflies. The one we went to yesterday they provided cups of “nectar” and qtips....I felt stupid holding a nectar'ed up qtip to a butterfly, so I just kinds dowsed my hands and drew lines on my arms with the nectar, in hopes of easily getting the little guys onto me. I had some luck with a couple. I ended up leaving with a cocoon of an Orange Julia. I'm a little fond of them after one “hatched” at Epcot a few years ago and came straight of the hatching box to me and didn't leave. I ended up spending at least an hour with her on my hand inside the encounter. I'm hoping this one hatches and I get to see her emerge. Julia's aren't “as pretty” as some of the others – they are orange. The first picture below is a Julia. I think they are beautiful. They seemed surprised when they had cocoons for monarchs and swallowtails that I would pick out a Julia.

I just got the cocoon out to look at and take a picture of and I don't think I was provided the “right” one... I think this is actually a Fritillary I think, which is fine as well. No upset here. I'm happy with any butterflies really. I just her hung inside the “bug house” they gave me using a glue dot. The bug house – which is just a plastic jar that has a lit with small holes in it, came with foam stickers which are kinda cute. I might use them...

I got to see my half-sister who I haven't seen in well over 20 years....we were just little kids when I met her the one and only time out in California along with my half-brother. DNA is amazing. We look alike, laughed at the same time and sounded alike. I noticed a couple of food preferences that we have in common, then others we don't that she certainly must have gotten from her mother. What Italian doesn't eat garlic? Not me....her however.... and bacon?! Bacon?!! How does anyone NOT like bacon?  All three of us seem to love the outdoors and traveling. She's traveling on her own from Colorado to see locations that are important in our family history – old homes, cemeteries, etc. Then she made her way down along the east coast and inward to see me. She left yesterday morning headed for Key West. She had never been in the southeast before and was amazed at the warm water. I gave her a bunch of recommendations, but you can only see so much when traveling with a quickly approaching deadline to be home again.

We have not just DNA but Ancestry in common. She's getting to see some of the places our family lived in during her travels while I work on the family tree end of it. I'm currently editing old photos I received from my uncle before a family reunion in August. I've been getting everything onto the computer, editing out the “noise” - random dots of color or lack of color in the photos, scratches, discoloration. I've been posting some of them on the reunion site and I'm getting responses. They are seeing images they had, in some cases, never seen – pictures of their great-great, great-grand and grand parents, parents, siblings, sometimes themselves and I'm able to put names to faces and add them to Ancestry prior to the reunion.

More random pictures - morning glories, coolapeno, purple basil, pumpkin flowers, okra

[JuliettaRossi]

So I've been doing gardening whenever I can. It's getting hot here. Ok, full disclosure, it's already fuckin hot here. Like sit in one spot, in the shade and just pour sweat kind of hot. Humid, nasty heat. If you have never been to Florida, this is the reality of summer here. Just add a deluge of rain you can set your watch by every afternoon. I've been trying to get the gardening done after work  in the short amount of time between clocking out of work and it's too dark and mosquito-y to do anything else. We've been under drought conditions and the lawn is really showing it. The grass in everyone's yards is brown and crunchy - except the people across from us who have a lawn service come out like every other day....it's crazy. I have to wonder how much they spend in lawn upkeep.

We did get rain the past two days. It's not been much, but it's been violent. Rain at an angle like in a hurricane, overflowing off the houses, flooding the place in a matter of minutes, and battering the plants. I had just transplanted a bunch of tomatoes. The rain almost demolished them all. I spent yesterday afternoon before the next round of rain replanting the okra and tomatoes because all the roots were exposed and they were quickly on their way to dying.

When I left you last time I had a butterfly in a chrysalis that I honestly didn't think was going to hatch. The night before she hatched I noticed the chrysalis was shaking and twitching. These are good signs. The butterfly inside was going to be emerging soon. The next afternoon she dropped from the chrysalis along with a bit of red liquid - yuck but amazing....they go from ugly caterpillar to goo to beautiful butterflies! Of course there is some goo....

I let her wings dry for a while, keeping her inside the container for a short time before letting her go in the backyard. She was beautiful but I wish she had stuck around a little longer. Now I need more chrysalis' so I can hatch more butterflies...

I finally got the morning glories, cypress vine and moonflowers planted. I need another trellis, but one is better than none. It's just been too hot to be out there building anything. The rest of the cucumbers also got planted and seem to be doing very well. I think the fact that the pop-up canopy has been up, providing shade while they get acclimated to their new location has truly helped. They aren't dying in this heat, but instead blossoming. Hopefully they will reach the bottom of the trellis soon to be able to climb upward.

The discounted “almost dead” plant I acquired from Home Depot is doing well and awarded me with its first bloom yesterday. We had the same type of plant at the last house we lived in and it was too large and stayed behind. It had pink blooms. This one has yellow, which was a little surprise.

I had a couple little visitors this week. Mostly lizards, one of which I really tried to get a photo of, but he wasn't having it. He had this bright red dewlap and he was posing on the top of the fence in the sun. By the time I got my phone and was about to get the photo he was wary of me and wasn't showing off anymore. There was a cute fat little bumblebee in the butterfly and bee garden and a very unwanted army worm up with the strawberries and onions.

I planted potatoes about 2 weeks ago I think. These are “before” - a few days after planting and “after” a few days ago, and today.

The sunflowers and corn are doing ok. Two of the larger sunflowers are about to bloom. The corn is growing, but I don't remember it taking...”so long”....last year. Did I mention I'm an impatient gardener?

The beans are doing okay. I'm still battling aphids on some of them, but I have beans growing. I just cut two more dragon tongue beans off the plants yesterday to give to the squirrels. I have pods on my small red bean plants and starters on all the others and some pretty white flowers on the lima beans and purple ones on the royal burgundy bean plants. The herbs are flowering – this is the purple basil and the sweet basil.

I found a really good recipe for soft peanut butter cookies. So good I've already made 4 batches of them. The last two disappeared last night, and I picked up more peanut butter to make more yesterday afternoon... They are easy and quick and I'm sharing!

1 ½ cup brown sugar, 2 eggs, 4 Tbsp butter (melted and cooled), 2 Tbsp honey, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 cup peanut butter, ½ tsp salt and 1 tsp baking soda – mix all of it together until uniform. Add 1 ½ cup flour. Mix until completely incorporated. These are soft cookies- they will NOT hold fork marks. Simply make balls of dough and put onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and flatten out slightly. They will spread. I generally only do 6 to a large sheet pan. Bake @ 350 for 6 minutes, rotate the pan and bake another 5-6 minutes depending on how “done” you want them. These will stay soft. I don't know how long....they don't last more than a day or two here! Place any “left over” cookies in an airtight container.

[JuliettaRossi]

So it's been two weeks. Plants are growing. Plants are also dying. We got some rain, but it is fucking HOT here. Like nasty, humid, sweating as soon as you walk out the door...HOT. It's not the take your breath away upon stepping outside hot yet...that is coming. It seems to sometimes get worse when there is a storm off one coast. I'll take the heat instead of the storm though....

As I said, some of the plants are growing. The rain we had for a few days really helped. It's amazing what a violent, harsh rainstorm can do for some plants. The corn that wasn't growing shot up a bit after the storms. So did the sunflowers. The rain was mentioned in my last entry. We have had a little more this past week – less violent this time thankfully. Rain here is unlike rain elsewhere (or at least different from anywhere else I've been...outside of maybe Georgia during the worst of summer). In other places, rain brings the promise of a sort of cool-down. Here, rain brings the promise of oppressive, disgusting heat. Heat with the worst humidity. Your clothing sticks to you, your hair frizzes, your skin feels damp and just bleh. Steam rises from the asphalt with each drop of rain.

Parking in Florida is a game of numbers – of distance and heat. How long will you be inside the store? How hot will the inside of the oven, I mean car, get while I'm inside? Do I dare leave the car in the open sun or will I survive the walk from car door to store entrance from where I can find shade to park in? Will it rain while I'm inside (I'm gonna leave the umbrella in the car either way because I'm a Floridian....)? I've been playing the numbers game outside in my own yard - how long can I stand it? Even with a fan blowing directly on me, the mosquitoes will still eat me alive. Despite the amount of mosquito spray, I will still get bitten. We bought a Thermocell. Despite the thermocell, the fan and the spray, I still came back inside last night with a bunch of brand new red-raised bumps. I have been spending less and less time outside because of this. Yesterday was a total of a little more than an hour before I just couldn't stand it any longer.

At the same time, I have “fewer” plants. I say fewer, but it's still an insane amount of plants. Most gardeners plant and “thin out” seedlings. I don't believe in thinning out seedlings. Thinning out is essentially deciding which ones will likely not survive, so you get rid of them early on and focus your energy on the ones that you think might survive and thrive. I go on the focus that ALL my plants will survive. I do this with the knowledge of past years where essentially almost NOTHING has survived. I lose at least a plant a day. By the time the weekend rolls around I'm getting rid of a number of dead seedlings/plants. Florida is hard on plants. There is a reason Florida is green....rain. But Florida lacks other color when it comes to foliage. Yes, you might see some hibiscus, gardenia, jasmine, birds of paradise – tropical plants. I exaggerate, but not much. It gets so hot here that pollen goes inert, so there is no fruiting of plants. They just can't survive the heat.

Because of this, we are working on moving stuff to the back of the house. The back of the house is completely shaded. It's still hot. It's infested with mosquitoes because of the shade. We've fogged, put down granules, etc. The mosquitoes in Florida are a different breed. Hearty, suck up DEET like beer, laugh at the use of citronella and fly through fogger like they are driving to work on an early fall morning. They have been super aggressive since the start of the pandemic as well. With fewer people outside, they have less food

Several of the sunflowers have opened. The corn is getting tassels – however the stalks are very short for being at this stage I think. They haven't grown tall, but most seem to be pretty sturdy. Reading more about this I need to fertilize the corn again. The heavy heat and lack of rain has not been helpful. I'll get out there with some fertilizer today before watering. I'll do the same with the sunflowers.

The tomatoes are doing okay. The ones I transplanted are doing very well. I spent the time outside yesterday transplanting more tomatoes that will hopefully get stronger as well. I'm hoping to transplant more today.

The moonflowers are doing well. They have reached the lower part of the trellis. I have a few more moonflowers to transplant today. The cypress vine are getting established and the morning glories are blooming and reaching for the trellis. There is still only one trellis. It's just been too hot. The cucumbers thrived under the pop-up canopy we had up in the front yard while building the trellises. The pop-up has been moved to the back of the house so we don't receive another letter from the HOA....

Now for the not growing (aka dying...). I mentioned to my partner that I had been battling aphids on the bean plants.... I had been treating with spray alcohol, sprays of water and organic abatement sprays. I went outside last Saturday and all my bean plants were in the process of dying. There was a bottle of Sevin spray next to the bean planter that was practically empty. He denies spraying the beans. There are no aphids. Nothing there is edible at this point and just about everything died over the next few days. I spent every morning pulling dead/dying leaves off the stalks. I cut off any bean pods growing because after being sprayed with poison.... that just isn't good for anyone.

I restarted all the beans. They are at the point today where I need to transplant them into the planter but the rain has hindered that. I got the dragon tongue beans and pink cowpeas transplanted before it started coming down. Here's some more random pictures of other gardening stuff - a harlequin flower beetle found in the back yard, a green pepper growing, and a pea flower.

We also headed out to the beach last weekend. We went east on a one lane in, one lane out road and stopped along the way at a nature are/boat launch. We had “weather” rolling in and I was able to get some pretty dramatic shots. We watched some airboaters pull in along the shore, watched some people fishing, and promised ourselves we would come back to the fish camp to eat one day. We continued out to the coast and I was able to get a quintessential Florida shot – black skied behind us and bright blue in front with puffy white clouds. We stopped by an artist's house – no the place was not open to the public – this was his house and studio, so we just stopped and got some photos and kept going. The place just reminded me so much of and “old Florida” roadside shop. The weather was catching up to a wildfire ahead. By the time we made it to the beach, it was looking pretty amazing outside. People were flocking away from the beach due to the lightning strikes in the distance. Then there was us – arriving to go out onto the beach.

My back wasn't doing too well that day, so we weren't able to get very far. I'm pretty sure we saw one of the guys from Zombie House Flipping – Keith, at the beach. I didn't want to be “that person.” I didn't realize who he was at first – just that he was familiar. I kept looking over at him. He caught me looking a couple of times and started trying to get out of there a little quicker. I couldn't place him until I mentioned to my partner that he looked familiar and he replied with “yeah, he looks like the guy from the zombie house show.”

My uncle just moved up here. He sold his place in south Florida and will be staying with my cousin up here until he gets settled in his own place. I made him one of his favorite desserts – pineapple upside down cake, but in bundt cake version. I dropped them off yesterday for Father's Day, but missed seeing him.

[JuliettaRossi]

So I've been away a while. I went on vacation last August and while I was away my computer died. I mean I might as well have been carrying around a bag of bricks the entire time. It wasn't great timing - part of the trip was a family reunion and I had tons of new photos no one else had seen. Stuff I spent hours uploading, editing, etc to show at the reunion. I also needed questions answered - pictures of people I knew nothing about - didn't know who they were. There's virtually no one left from the era of most of the photos. The one person who could likely answer questions, she's now 88 and starting to have dementia. This was possibly my last opportunity to get answers. The trip was wonderful though, despite my computer being a really heavy addition to my backpack. We rented a place up in the mountains - a ski resort during the winter and during the summer virtually empty, especially during these Covid times. The place is surrounded by huge pine, ginko and witch hazel trees. Each place has a crop of beautiful day lilies out front as well.

My family settled a small portion of southwest PA and relatives still live in the family farmhouse. We hold the reunion at a place called The Blue Hole - a swimming spot in the creek that flows by the farmland across the road from where the farmhouse sits. This is an area that is virtually all corn and soybean crops - just fields and fields of it. The first time I came up here for a reunion when I was a little kid and it was the first time I saw corn growing. I never thought about how corn grew before seeing the waving fields of it - miles and miles of corn. It was one of the things that changed how I thought about food as a city kid. This year the corn was all mowed down in the field where the reunion was being held. It was strange walking among the crushed shafts of corn, some trunks of the thick plants still upright - a tripping hazard for the likes of people like me...

I absolutely adore the old towns that my family helped to settle. They are old and outdated and lost in time in many ways, sad in some ways - empty buildings lost to time and people moving out to the big cities, the history that happened in them only alive in the memories of those growing older. To listen to my uncle talk about the places where he grew up as a child, point out places that are shuttered, the buildings crumbling is somewhat sad. It's also a telling sign of how close we are to losing our history - those who remember it dying or forgetting or having it wiped from their memories due to disease and age. On the flip-side these dead and dying towns are also a testament to not evolving, not moving forward and growing.

My family is strange too... I know everyone thinks their family is strange in some ways. My family is Pennsylvanian strange. If you've been there or have family from the area you might know the brand of strange I'm talking about. Quiet, stalwart (read stubborn as fuck), backward. It seems to be a trait of the descendants of Quakers, hardwired in our DNA. People travel to the reunion just to sit in their own family groups - with the people they arrived with/know and never mingle with other family. Some of these people live just miles away, or a town over from one another yet they don't know one another and really have no interest in finding out about each other. It's strange to me. Why have a reunion if you aren't going to talk about who you are and the people you descend from? This year a few of the older generation broke this weird family trait and walked around and talked to everyone. They introduced themselves and we figured out the linkage, talked about relatives and told stories about loved ones no longer here. One woman, her son was escorting her around. She was years into Alzheimer's but she was having a somewhat good day - when my mother told her how we were related she smiled this huge smile because she knew my grandmother - they were best friends and it was like she was instantly there with her and younger. She touched my mom's cheek and said how similar she looked to my grandmother. I do too. It seemed to transport her right back to being a younger woman. Hours later as their family was getting ready to leave she came by our table again and asked who were were - that we looked familiar. She didn't remember talking to us - had already forgotten the stories she shared with us about my grandmother. She had us crying even as her son came by again to collect her - my mother explained again who we were and that she had been friends with my grandmother and once again that smile was back again. It's hard watching family members age and get sick, knowing that it's more than possible you will never see them again, especially with a pandemic that hits harder against the elderly and those with compromised immune systems.

The area around The Blue Hole had some beautiful flowers and plants. Jewelweed (the sap is a natural antidote to stinging nettles which often grow beside it), Cardinal flower, Joepye weed, loosestrife, lobelia, phlox, horseweed and sedge. People went swimming. We are never prepared to and quite honestly the water is freezing. The boys were terrorizing some of the girl with crawfish. They were delighted when me - a girl - wanted to see the crawfish and take a picture of it before they returned it to the creek.

After the reunion we went further into the next town where there is a family church - The Old Jersey Church where a good amount my of ancestors are buried. We walked along through the graves and I got so many pictures all the document Ancestry with. The first church was built there in 1788. This is now the 3rd incarnation of the church and was built in 1877.

We visited with a couple family members who still live in the area. Years ago when I came here the first time their house was the first place where this city kid got the opportunity to get up close to the corn growing in the fields behind their home. I believe that kids in urban jungles really should get to know where their food comes from. Their next door neighbor has a vegetable garden that I envy like crazy. Honestly most people in this area have their own vegetable and flower gardens that are just amazing. The climate here seems to be ideal for growing just about everything.

During our trip we went all around SW Pennsylvania and into Maryland. I wanted to see some of the Amish, which we did. We stopped at this amazing furniture and homegoods store called Whispering Pines that had a little cafe and ice cream store inside. They had a garden growing outside and there was an Amish family farm next door complete with goats, chickens and rabbits. There was a real Amish buggy set among the flowers as well so you could get a chance to look inside one. The flowers are simply amazing up there - things I could only dream about growing. I absolutely love poppies. The paper-like watercolored petals like something out of a painting. I'm partial to the grey ones. Grey flowers simply amaze me. There were also sunflowers, cucamelons, peppers, eggplant and a very dark purple, almost black tomato variety growing as well.

We stopped by High Country Creamery and had some fresh fried cheese curds. We bought some Amish honey butter, a coffee coated & infused cheese and maple sugar while there. The next stop was I believe a Mennonite bakery called Eli & Annie's Bakery in Grantsville, MD. Online reviews raved about their Amish donuts, but they were sold out when we got there. Instead we bought fresh baked bread to go with the butter as well as a bunch of handpies that were phenomenal! Peach, raspberry, blackberry, and apple, all made in a wood-burning oven with a close-to-Krispy-Kreme coating on them. The husband has a woodworking shop just yards away and he waved to us as we left with all our goodies. We also stopped at a market that specialized in local produce and Amish products (if you can find Troyer popcorn I highly recommend it - especially the purple kernal) and had a huge variety of candy.

Next stop was Casselman River Bridge State Park - in the path of the National Road, just a short drive away from the bakery. While everyone walked up on the stone bridge - in the footsteps of history, I walked down into the glade area and along the  river. I found a huge patch of nightshade and jewelweed growing, burdock with it's growth of spiked balls, and teasel - more spiky growth that reminds me of thistle and part of the honeysuckle family. It's used in tincture form to treat lyme disease among other things.

We stopped by a couple of nurseries while we were there as well - just amazed at all the plants. One was Bakers Home & Garden Center in Somerset, the other I don't recall the name of, but it's the place with the barn and silo in the pictures below.

We also got some history in while there. We went to Fort Necessity and walked around, listened to a bit of why the fort was important from a man in period appropriate clothing, then watched a short film inside the building. Last time we came up for the reunion we spent time at Shanksville and Quecreek where a mining accident happened. I voted for no "sad" history lessons this trip. We also ended up at the Ohiopyle falls and the dam again. It's a favorite place especially for us low-landers who never get to see falls and rapids. We also went by some of the old covered bridges in the area while exploring some of the areas our ancestors lived in.

The trip was a good one. Much better than the last trip. The last reunion my uncle came home extremely sick and nearly died of a respiratory infection and sepsis  so we were extra cautious this trip - masks at all times despite the dirty looks from the people in the area. It was strange coming from an area absolutely exploding with Covid cases (where we all stayed home as much as possible and avoided going out as much as possible before the trip especially) to a place where they acted like there was no pandemic and no one cared - except if you were wearing a mask. They then knew you weren't from round there....We even went to breakfast at the Eat'n Park which was a favorite of my uncle's. The place was packed and no one was wearing a mask and they were serving from a buffet. Something we hadn't seen in Florida for well over a year, despite all the bluff and posturing here by some including our idiot governor.

As backward and behind-the-times as my family stomping grounds are, I really do love the area up there, even if I don't much care for the people. It's beautiful area and anything and everything seems to grow there.

[JuliettaRossi]

So, I did take a hiatus from gardening toward the end of last year. Things just got waaaay too complicated at work, plus the holidays and colder weather. It's starting to warm up here and  should be like summer here this weekend. I'll be getting back to planting some new stuff soon. I'm getting a late start since we are already into March due to work and personal stuff going on.  I'm not going to plant as many things as I did last year. That was just...too much.  I'm going to concentrate on things I might actually eat...plus some things for the squirrels.

The "harvest" was more than a little more than silly. I mean...yeah. The things that grew the best - eggplants and okra are two things I don't eat. Luckily the squirrels did. I got a few different tomatoes, a handful of beans, some onions. I had a couple of watermelons that actually grew to about a the size of a grapefruit - one split open after two days of steady rainfall. Neither of them were any good. The heat was just too intense here last summer for really anything to grow. The carrots and corn were absolutely laughable.

I think this year I'll be trying corn again, onions, okra, tomatoes, cucumbers and watermelons. I'll plant some more moonflowers, morning glories and sunflower. I'm hoping to add some more flowers. I might try some more beans. I received 3 different seed catalogs. I spent more than an hour going through them, folding down corners of pages, circling what I wanted...I don't have the money to spend right now...maybe once the tax check hits I can buy some but that will come after some other expenses.

The flowers did okay this year. The cypress vine took over the trellis and kind of choked out the morning glories. I will likely cut back on those this year. I'm looking at buying seeds for sky vine and balloon flower. I might nix the cypress vine altogether and add these instead.

I had a little bit of fun photographing the various mushrooms that grew in the yard this year as well. I even had a small patch of magic mushrooms - psilocybin cubensis (pic 1), but no, I did not partake. The yellow caps are Leucocoprinus birnbaumii, there were some boletes (pics 3, 4, and 5) - they stain blue when bruised or cut, and the innocuous looking death cap mushroom (pic 6) along with a few others. It's amazing how small and adorable something can look - how harmless it can look, but it's downright deadly. I'm part of a mushroom group on Facebook. It's always amazing to me the amount of people who are willing to take an identification from some random person - basing whether or not something is edible or not on the social media credentials of people they don't know. Even more amazing are those who eat the mushrooms without knowing what the hell they're eating. But, Darwinism...so....

I have a few various photos - one of one of our squirrels enjoying a sunflower, a lizard that found a home on a moonflower leaf for a few days, a butterfly and a picture to show you a beneficial insect - their eggs actually. The last photo you'll notice some very fine white lines with little white dots at the end. These are lacewing eggs. Lacewings are some of the beneficial insects in the gardens, like ladybugs, butterflies and bees.

We have a ton of nurseries here. There's one I really like that's not far from us. They specialize in Florida plants and plants that grow well here - lots of tropicals, fruiting trees. The place is overgrown in a lot of areas and is huge. They have a store on site that they sell fresh chicken eggs and seeds they gather from their own plants. I walked in one day and they were shelling field peas for packaging into seed packets. I've walked the grounds and collected a couple seed pods from the wild areas where the plastic plant pots have split open and the ground is starting to reclaim the soil and the plant itself. It's no longer sellable for the most part. A lot of these are palms, larger plants, some grasses that grow like weeds. There are so many neat plants here that I want. (Below are Tibouchina, Celestial Star Gardenia, Crinum asiaticum, Bird of Paradise, Bleeding Heart vine, pink trumpet vine, Mandevilla/jasmine, one of my favorite tropicals - Monstera, and Rotheca myricodes which is an African flowering plant)

My thoughts on an ideal garden fluctuate from a well groomed ornamental garden with beautiful walkways to the total opposite - a wild and overgrown garden with surprises around every twist and turn. I've always been enchanted and drawn toward those places where the vines grow tall and unhindered, stretching toward the skies, the Spanish moss hangs in thick clumps and the trees form a canopy that throws shadows and shade. There was a place like this in south Florida I went to with an ex of mine - we climbed and explored and took pictures. The kudzu was taking over this particular defunct nursery near the edge of the Everglades. There's another place in central Florida that I enjoy - Mead Gardens. We did a "Weed Walk" there one Saturday. This is where a guide walks your through part of a park, pointing out edible weeds. It was interesting. We ended up coming back again with lunch another weekend, eating and then exploring.  Maybe we can get back down there this year and explore again.

[JuliettaRossi]

Over the past few weeks I've had family in town and we were able to take some day drives around "Old Florida." Old Florida is not what's pictured in the ads for tourism. It's not Disney, Universal, Sea World, or any of the big attractions. It's not I4, filled with traffic, or the next new restaurant, store ,etc. Old Florida is being eaten up by these things. It's old Spanish moss covered trees, slow and sleepy towns with twisty roads, roadside citrus stands, that BBQ you smell and instead of a restaurant, it's an older couple with a smoker in an empty lot. It's orange groves and gators sunning themselves in a mossy, lily-pad filled lake surrounded by old homes, some retro-fitted with AC. These places are getting harder and harder to find anymore.

The thing is, these places are all around Florida. They just aren't the places that attract out-of-towners with flashy ads. You have to seek out these places, get the inside scoop from locals and just drive... As a native Floridian, I crave Old Florida. I feel like an old soul in many ways and this is one of them. While I enjoy the House of Mouse, I find so much joy and feel down-to-earth when I'm in these places that seem like you've found a special hidden gem. If you were to scroll back through this blog I think you might see some of that in the pictures I've posted of these very places.

I know the price of gas right now, some of you might be asking - "You just got out and DROVE with no place in mind, no place to go to, etc?" Yep. Sometimes you just need to get out. Get away.
We took a drive out to the coast - New Smyrna being the furthest area, which would be a 45 minute drive one-way, but the drive should take you hours round-trip. Take the drive down that funny-named road. Discover some neat looking homes. Find a deserted beach or a small patch of shops and restaurants. Wave to the locals riding their bikes. Discover new places that you will want to return to time and again - places that make you never want to go back to those crowded tourist-filled locals.

Now....that's not to say that some busy places aren't the absolute best. This generally applies to restaurants - those watering holes and gourmet sit-downs that have lasted the test of time - favorites of locals and tourists. Crowds aren't always a bad thing - sometimes it's part of the experience. I find myself in these years of Covid, seeking out the less-crowded though - to see how they have handled the changes and adapted. Restaurants are some of the canvases of adaptation. They generally know how to roll with the unexpected party of 20, being out of the most popular thing on the menu, people calling out/no-showing and being shot-staffed, weather issues impacting their days and nights, etc. I've been to some of the best OLD restaurants which are always filled with people. They're filled because they're GOOD. They pass the test of time and pandemic.

While in New Smyrna we stopped and had lunch at Norwoods Treehouse. This place is one of a handful of older restaurants I adore here. Don't sit inside unless the weather is just TOO much. The day we were it was beautiful and cool out. We sat upstairs in the bar area, at the tree overlooking the roads below. While the road below isn't great because it is busy, the feel of being in the trees - and in fact having a tree as virtually part of your table is the very point - watching the birds and smelling the salt air of the nearby water as you eat. We drove all over New Smyrna, all the way to the Coast Guard Station and Smyrna Dunes Park at the top of the islands. We drove down residential streets, waved to the locals and had a dog come bounding up to the car when we slowed and said hello to him as well. We found a beach access that we will return to again as there are no cars there and the beach was virtually empty in this area which was closer to the VERY empty looking timeshare condos.

On the way home we went down South Riverside drive which has beautiful homes facing the intercoastal. We took that road until it ended and moved onto US1 which still has old roadside motels, small businesses and such. We found an alternative road to cut back toward the house and we drove off through some of the smaller roads branching off from it, found an old cemetery, some chickens, some cows and a beautiful moss-draped canopy that traversed through a conservation area and at some point paralleled the bike trail that cuts across much of the counties here. There were bald eagles, hawks of all kinds pine scrub and palms and cypress.

We took another drive out to Mount Dora. While I LOVE this town, it's become very packed with tourists. We went on a Monday early afternoon and the town was PACKED with people. This is a tourist trap for the older generations. I'd say 8 out of every 10 people you see here will be at least 65. They bus them in from surrounding area, retirement homes, etc and I'm sure there are likely bus tours from out of state to Mount Dora. The Villages - a retirement TOWN where people drive around on suped-up, decorated golf carts, and where the STD rate is off the chart as these mostly conservative, right-leaning have crazy parties and the bath scrunchies attached to their mode of transport gives a clue as to what they are into (White = beginner, Teal = bisexual, Purple = voyeur, and Pink, Blue, Yellow and Black notating your levels of willingness to swap), is not far from Mount Dora so day trips on the community buses are frequent.

We had lunch and moved on, around the lake and to Tavares and up to Eustis, decided on right vs left near Paisely and kept it moving, down old roads with huge plots of land backing up to the Ocala National Forest. We ended up on the long hard-packed, white sand Maggie Jones Rd that cuts through the forest area. We stopped at a small "bridge" over Tracy Canal that links Lake Norris and Lake Tracy where butterflies were swirling and flying.

The next day we went out to the coast again - this time to Merritt Island by way of 46, which itself is an Old Florida drive when you get out of Sanford. We cut downward from Mims and stopped at Dixie Crossroads for lunch. They have been in business for 40 years and have expanded the building repeatedly to adapt to growing numbers of diners. There are fish and turtles in the water outside and they provide free food inside for you to toss out to them. Inside it's kinda cheesy with their shrimp mascot, but you're there for the food - the corn fritters topped with small peaks of powdered sugar, and the seafood!

We went on to our destination - Black Point Wildlife Drive on Merritt Island. If you go, it's a $10 cash donation/fee to enter. It's an honor-system entrance and be sure to pick up the small brochure - it will explain what is going on in each of the 12 areas tagged. You will see lots of birds here. There are gators - mostly in a small area as noted in the brochure. We saw some outside this area, but only a few. We also saw a small racoon who ducked out of sight quickly. There is an abundance of foliage here - from the tiniest of flowers to swamp hibiscus, large palms, oaks and pines as well as many mangrove areas.

At the area where these is a small observation tower, bathrooms and a viewing area over the mangroves, there is a long gated area jutting out. You are allowed to walk this area, but cannot access it by car. We got out and walked quite a distance here. It really does give you a little insight as to what settlers to Florida found when they came here a few hundred years ago. The mosquitoes were not numerous while we were out, but those that were out....were bloodthirsty. Don't kick the large mounds of dirt - these are red ant nests. Look for curled grasses notating the entrances and exits of small animals moving off the trail.

Look for pink birds called Roseate Spoonbills. There are black birds called Anhinga - you will see them mostly posing, perched with their wings outstretched. They dive into the water for fish, then dry their wings. These are two of my favorite birds here. There are tons of coots here - little duck-like birds with red beaks as well as black and white coots. They make a squeaking noise that's kinda cute. There are also snowy egrets, white ibis, and wood storks. You'll see photographers on the trail with huge cameras taking pictures of the birds, the gators, and the amazing landscape.

On the way home we stopped at some of the boat launches and parks along the way. We traveled down Hatbill Rd which advertised Loughman Lakeside Restaurant. This was another hardpack white sand road lined on both sides with palms and scrub grasses. We went out to the restaurant, but it was closed. The area is beautiful. We came back out to the main road and continued left for a while but turned around before getting to the end of where the road terminates in the middle of the St. Johns Wildlife area.

I've sort of tasked myself with finding these kinds of places to explore - off the beaten path, down the dirt roads, small towns tucked away, amazing little family-owned restaurants, parks and springs and natural areas.  Everyone knows about the big attractions. No one needs another ad for Disney or (insert shudder here) Fun Spot...

[JuliettaRossi]

So it's been a few months. Quite honestly it feels like nothing has happened since my last post. In reality my mother has visited a couple times, my cousin, his wife and their baby came in from France for a 2 week visit and it was the first time we all got to see the baby because of Covid. I've gardened and baked. I just don't feel like I've accomplished anything because I've done virtually nothing but work.

I planted another huge amount of plants. Tomatoes and peppers and pumpkins mostly, along with sunflowers, watermelon, cucumber, luffa, onions, a few types of beans, morning glories, moonflower and cypress vine. Everything looked wonderful the first month and even part of the next month - green, growing well, huge pumpkin plants and my first female flowers. Last year all I got were male flowers on my pumpkins, so of course nothing got pollinated. This year, I had female flowers all opening at the same time - I counted six female pumpkin flowers one morning....and NO male flowers....so once again, nothing was pollinated. The flowers only stay open for a couple hours in the morning, so if you miss that window the flower and seemingly the piece coming from the vine, dies off. When this happens it increases the likelihood of insect activity - the stem of the pumpkin/squash vines are literally tubes. If the tube is left open by cutting away a dying piece or by outside insect activity it's like leaving a welcome mat for grubs and insects that attack the inside of the plants - especially leaf miners. If you've ever seen a green leaf with a squiggly white line seemingly drawn by a drunk beetle - that's leaf miner damage.

So, everything was growing well until we had a good storm and I had damage to the canopy where I work under, tearing it apart in strips . This year I had kept all the plants under the canopy and they were thriving in the shade. The damaged canopy now allows sun to beat down onto the plants. I worked outside on the weekends after that for maybe two more weekends. After that, Florida became a bit too Florida... If you've been watching any news and seen the weather, you know there's a heat wave cooking parts of the US...it's here constantly. It doesn't let up and it's not even officially summer for another few days. We've been in the upper 90s outside with heavy humidity and heat indexes  in the 105-108 range most days.

I need to do a lot more work outside. Between family visiting and weekends where I'm just floored by migraines, I just haven't. It's as if my brain can only handle the working from the time I wake up and roll out of the bed and into the living room until the time I close my eyes at night - working off the clock because I'm so overwhelmed with the amount of work I have, for Mon-Fri and the weekend is practically a loss and I need a rest by way of a debilitating migraine.

I went out long enough yesterday to pluck 3 tiny Everglades tomatoes and a handful of bean pods from the dead or dying bean plants, check the destruction of my strawberries and check on the sunflowers. I need to get out there and do some transplanting but even today was a wash out - literally between the migraine first thing this morning and then the absolute deluge once I woke up again. There are a bunch of plants that need bigger pots. I saw tomato plants that were apparently thriving on the lack of attention...growing tall with thick stalks and pepper plants that have roots trying to walk the plant away from the pot. Amazing what a few weeks of neglect and disregard will do....They'll probably die as soon as I transplant them.

We believe that one of the squirrels we released is coming back to visit. She comes by and isn't afraid of us - would probably come right in the house if I allowed her to. I feed her almonds just about every day. She's been very cute.

My sunflowers have been doing well. I really didn't think they would grow when I started. I lost a good portion of them to the birds eating the seeds right out of the pots. I have a few beautiful blooms out there right now and with the torrential afternoon rains we've been getting, they are skyrocketing over the past week or two. The timing between the first and second photo below is 41 days (plants put into the ground on May 9). The first flower is actually the one planted in the center, then the one on the left, then one on the right.

On the alternate side, the pumpkin plants are all dying, so are most of the cucumber plants, My strawberry plants are fried to a crisp. I'm working on on sun shade idea in my head involving essential a screen cover raised up a few inches - high enough for the strawberries to thrive and be pollinated by the bees, but otherwise covered from the top to protect from the sun. I don't know what will survive out there any longer. Almost all the bean plants have yellowed and fried. I think I'm going to either replant the beans or move the pumpkins to that planter and see if they do better there - though I doubt they will.

I do have two pineapples producing with fruit on them. I'm biding my time and I'll be moving them within the fence line soon to keep poachers from getting any ideas...I lost my only grapefruit the day before I was going to pick it to someone who thought they could come up into our yard to take it. The pictures below are the timeline of growth on them over the past few months.

(Pics below April 2, 2022, April 22, 2022, May 1, 2022, June 10, 2022, June 19, 2022)

In truth, the heat has killed gardening for me this year I think. I just can't handle it and our AC going out really cemented that. Sitting inside it was 93 degrees and I was struggling to work. I can't even fathom being that kid who simply couldn't wait to get outside and play during the summer. My elementary schools had window units (because I went to some pretty bad/F-rated schools in south Florida) and those sometimes didn't work and I don't remember it being bad. Maybe because we had windows we would open? Right now we have an abundance of wasps and mud daubers outside - some of which have gotten in... Chaos ensued with each time they have, so there's no leaving anything open and the house is built with only one window in the front and it's literally behind the TV, so...useless. The sliding doors leading outside face where the sun beats down on during most of the day, so if I opened that it would have been even warmer. We had the fans going plus utility fans from outside - in the house to try to keep the animals and myself cool.

The AC went out at the same time I was baking stuff for my father. This will be the first father's day I've done anything for him as we've been estranged for many years and before that we lived on opposite sides of the US and never really saw one another. The only time I saw him was when it was lobster season and he was here to go diving, he might have stopped in for a couple of hours on his way to the Keys, or the races were happening and he would stop by, maybe bring me something from California like an LA coroner's beach towel, which I think I still have - it has a "chalk" outline of a body on it.

Because the AC went out, my first batch of cookies died in the humidity. I couldn't bring myself to turn on the oven in 93 degree heat to work on the second batch, so the box to California was delayed and now won't make it to him until possibly Tuesday. I've coordinated with his wife (I guess my step mother? lol I never really thought about it like that because he's never been "Dad" before.) to get the package to him since its being delivered to my horrific grandmother. She's likely to destroy it or dump it in the trash if she sees it's from me, so my aunt who lives with her is also in on the surprise shipment.  In all, I made coconut marshmallows, honey cookies with honey royal icing drizzle, vanilla latte cookies with a really yummy vanilla sugar icing and lemon bars. I'm hoping they make it and are still edible.

And yeah, I'm the cliché - the girl with daddy issues who got involved with kink and older men...There's a lot more to unpack there, but that's something for another time...

While my cousin was in town from France I also did more baking - more coconut marshmallows as they seem to be the ones everyone likes, a very lemon bundt cake (which I didn't get a picture of before it was devoured), and pineapple upside down cake and tried an idea out  for a peach upside down cake as a dry run for my mom's birthday at the end of this month. It came out good - not as visually pretty as the pineapple one, but also wasn't...peachy enough, so I'm going to include pureed peaches as part of the liquid portion for the cake to up the peach factor and I might include some peach schnapps or peach flavored liquor to help flavor it the next time I make it.

I made peanut butter bread after watching a video online where a guy was trying out depression-era recipes. It came out ok, but a bit dense and I used unsalted and unsweetened peanut butter - only realizing my mistake after I put it in the oven. I didn't make up for the items the peanut butter was missing so it was on the bland side. I dunno if I'll ever make it again, but if I do use peanut butter in the future - and I use the natural stuff I will certainly know I need to add sugar and salt...

We played with premade pizza dough a lot over the past couple months - making all kinds of things including pizza - breadsticks, naan, flatbread, and....cinnamon rolls. We also made a version of them but instead of cinnamon we made guava and cream cheese frosting rolls, which came out really well.

I've missed baking. I think I'll do some more in the coming weeks. The price of ingredients is stupid right now though... I'll likely be making more of the honey cookies and the vanilla latte cookies with a few tweaks. Oh, and the peach upside down cake again.

We also made some more paddles for the local dungeon last month. They came out pretty well.

[JuliettaRossi]

So literally outside today...looking at the pineapples and told myself..."I need to move these to the backyard really soon"

A couple hours later...all 3 plants were stolen - not just the pineapples but the heavy ass potted plants - all 3 were taken along with the huge trellis we had on the side of the house.

There were contractors working on the house next door. They were there while I was outside commenting to my partner that they needed to be moved before someone stole the pineapples off of them. He left to go run an errand and when he got back later, everything was gone...

I'm sad. Years of growing those pineapples and all the work he put into making the trellis for me...

[Oniya]

You know, I'd be tempted to track down the contractor and 'ask if they saw anything suspicious', since obviously the thief would have required a good deal of time and equipment to cart off the heavy items. 

[JuliettaRossi]

So the contractors came back today. They admitted they were the ones who took the items from our property and stated that they threw them out. The house next door was sold to Offerpad so we involved them immediately, especially after one of the workers for nasty with us.

Offerpad fired the company immediately, had them leave the property and barred them from ever working for them again.  Now we are just worried about retaliation by the workers or company. I have a feeling we will wake up to smashed car windows and/or slashed tires.

Offerpad has offered to pay us damages, but I just want my pineapples back...the trellis, while it shouldn't have to be,  can be rebuilt. We need to figure out what to ask for in payment for the items now.

[JuliettaRossi]

So....after the pineapples were taken, I kinda just...I dunno. It's been too fucking hot outside. Nothing is really growing and the pollen is inert in this kind of temperature. There has been no gardening going on. In fact we moved the canopy I was working under, further back into the yard since the top was torn up by a storm. We have put up sail shades and they have been nice for sitting under in the evenings after work while working on paddles. I was making myself leave the computer for at least a couple hours each evening to take advantage of the fading daylight and earn some side money.

Also, I did have a really nice mammoth sunflower growing. Something gnawed the sunflower head off. That in combo with the pineapples being taken was just virtually the end of my being outside this summer. I did get 2 cucumbers off the vines up front and a roma tomato off one of my many tomato plants. The Autumn Beauty sunflower bloomed like crazy. It's bloomed so much that the heads no longer created seeds...I've cut a number of them off and there was only one with seeds. The plant spends so much energy making flowers it can't do anything else...

My mother did come up for her birthday. I made another batch of my vanilla latte cookies which are sooooovery good and the peach upside down cake.
I was also craving Coconut Drops. I haven't had them in many years. I tried them the first time at an open air market in the Bahamas where I also first had conch salad (yum!). If you've been to the Bahamas or Jamaica you might have tried these. They are wonderful! They are super simple - chunked fresh coconut, grated fresh ginger, brown sugar and corn syrup. It's essentially a Caribbean praline. Some people include some ground pepper into it, I don't. I find the ginger is enough of a bite.

We were given a bunch of blueberries and lemons s couple of months ago. The result was lemon blueberry bundt cake. So very good! I will certainly be making this one again!

Tom Kha Gai - Thai chicken and mushroom soup, is my comfort food. It's what I crave when I'm not feeling well. I've started making batches of it lately. Coconut milk, fresh lemongrass, fresh grated ginger and cloves of garlic, all stirred up with some chicken thighs and sliced mushrooms.

I tried my hand at making pickles. OMG... I love garlic dill pickles. I always have. I grew up eating pickled sausages and I like pickled eggs. So the pickles...I made 4 smal jars in the first batch. I gave a jar to the neighbors and they returned the empty jar 2 days later. I gave them another one and set out to make more. Yesterday I made 5 large jars plus another smaller jar.

I've also been making jars of bruchetta mix - tomato, red onion and garlic with red wine vinegar, rice vinegar and olive oil. I add balsamic vinegar when serving. I made another two jars yesterday in addition to the 6 jars of pickles. I also made a fresh pineapple salsa (since I bought a pineapple for planting the top again. I mixed pineapple, tomatoes, red onion, orange bell pepper and cilantro - perfect for thin salty tortilla chips.

I worked on vegetables and fruits all day yesterday. I chopped 2.5 bulbs of garlic. I chopped so much garlic the oils ate away at the skin on my fingers - essentially a chemical burn. I couldn't get the oils off my fingers no matter how many times I washed my hands.

This morning I made blackberry Danish. I cheated with it - using a roll of crescent dough, which is less expensive than a roll of puff pastry. I'm sure it would have been better with the puff pastry, but the cost on some things has just gotten crazy.

We took a day trip out to a wildlife area about an hour away. I'd been watching the social media of a friend who was going there virtually every weekend. It's free to get in and you can certainly spend the day there. We left right before dusk. We were actually surprised at the number of gators because it is sooo very hot. They come out more when it's cooler out - sunning themselves on the roads because the water is too cold, especially during the winter months. Lots of birds, a bunny, and tons of insects - especially dragonflies.

We have a new kitten. Pretty sure she's a Maine Coon mixed with a calico or torty. She's soooo soft and fluffy and loves to play. She has so much energy - running through the house and playing all day. The other animals have adjusted to her for the most part - aside from a few swats by her huge ass baseball mitt paws. She's gonna be a huge cat.

We've been going back to the local dungeon. It's changed a lot - a whole new set of people. Virtually no one we knew before Covid. It feel strange to be back in the room, among people I don't know anymore, but it felt good to be able to play again as well. They needed a good restock on paddles as well, which we were happy to oblige.

So Hurricane Ian...I'm sure you've seen the videos and photos on social media and the news. They aren't just showing you the worst of it. Florida - especially the west coast, looks like that right now in a very widespread area. Central FL is flooded - still a week after the storm and the waters continue to rise here. The east coast wasn't spared. The beaches are completely washed away - the waters coming up to breaker walls or areas that were gently sloping dunes or beach barrier areas look like the edges of sinkholes. Piers are washed away - some that included restaurants. St. Augustine/the NE corner of FL flooded as well. Southern FL did not escape - they had tornadoes and high winds. Private planes were flipped like they weighed nothing. Roofs were ripped apart. The only place that seems to have escaped was where the storm was originally forecasted to hit - the panhandle.

SW FL, by far is the most changed area of the state. I grew up going to the beaches of Sanibel & Captiva. I have jars of seashells - memories of vacations with my mother, walking the soft sands of the beaches at the water's edge, dolphins in the water and baby sting rays flapping by; the Sanibel Stoop and the Stingray Shuffle; sunsets and the Green Flash. The islands of the west coast are magical. I know a lot of media has been devoted to these two islands when there is also Pine Island/Matlacha/St.James City, Ft. Myers, Cape Coral, Port Charlotte, Venice, Naples, Marco Island. I'm not ignorant - I know why the focus is on Sanibel & Captiva. They are they where the homes of millionaires are. They are the snowbird homes of rich northerners. We talk about tourism here like Disney is the only draw. Come Thanksgiving time, the west coast is overrun by northerners fleeing  the snow. They stay up until around Easter and head home again. We could only afford a one or two night stay there in one of the small hotels at any time, and a week at a time when I stayed with family friends who rented homes. Glorious hot summer days, Cuba Libres, soft sand under foot and seashells in a beach pail. It's all I want in life...
Snowbirds bring in a TON of money to the area. The surrounding areas of Lee county are mostly republican, made up of elderly retirees and rich folk. Jobs are scarce and will be even more now. Rebuilding will take years if not decades. The road to Pine Island has been restored thankfully - the people there are not as wealthy as those of Santiva, so it was imperitive to get that one washout area repaired as soon as possible.

Prior to the storm I never would have shared the hidden gem of Sanibel, selfish to keep it a closely hidden place. The names of Sanibel and Captiva have been the talk of the media this past week however. You are seeing the after pictures and videos and if you've never been there you simply don't understand. These islands were true old Florida. There were no chain stores or restaurants (outside of a 7-11 franchise location). There were small mom & pop restaurants and shops and motels. They had names like Shalimar and Blue Dolphin - both of which were wiped clean off the map, Baileys and Jerrys - the two grocery stores on the island - the latter of which was famous for their exotic birds, all of which died during the storm, Joeys Custard and Island Cow and Doc Fords (owned by one of my favorite authors). A month ago we thought the worst thing was the fire at the Island Cow - how wrong we were.

Even if your favorite place survived, it likely had feet of water inside. Many owners are coming back - relieved to find even a shell of a building while inside it looks like a tornado happened and the floors are slick with a dark layer of muck. This applies to homes as well as shops and restaurants. The newer buildings and those built into the mangroves seem to have survived, while those with beautiful beach-front access bore the brunt of the damage. The barrier islands are a unique place and Sanibel and Captiva have been working to restore mangrove and buffer areas and those areas were some of the ones that survived the best.

There is one way on and off by way of the causeway - I'm sure you've seen the pictures of the bridge washed away in 5 places at this point. This happened at points in the 3-mile bridge where the bridge actually touched or rested on land - what little of it there was. That land was washed away, eroded by the rushing storm surge and with it, the asphalt and concrete of the causeway. Traffic jams are common during high-season on Periwinkle but give way after a short distance as people peel off onto limited side streets, shops and eateries. There are bike paths and beach accesses with long boardwalks where you can sometimes hear alligators croaking a warning to not come any closer, especially at breeding season. There is Ding Darling wildlife center where roseatte spoonbills gather, Blind Pass where the juncture of the two islands create a swirl of harsh waves and flurry of shells, the Bubble Room and their delicious Orange Crunch cake and quirky decor and Mucky Duck, Mad Hatter and Lazy Flamingo among many others for good food. Gramma Dot's for breakfast - they have a boat in their entrance area now - their location was on a marina area that saw quite a bit of damage. I never would have talked up this place I love before, but now they will need outsiders more than ever. They will need your help to recover but also will need the tourism dollars. Once the islands are on the path of recovery and open to tourism, please come. Leave your troubles and worries behind as you pass over on that Happy Highway to the islands. Slow down, take a walk, look for the little brown bunnies that everyone is hoping survived the storm, try to find that elusive Junonia shell (and get your picture in the local Islander newspaper for doing so). Come get some fudge at Bailey's and maybe a postcard or two to send a little bit of the island to loved ones. Bring the sunscreen and some bug spray (the mosquitoes and noseeums are horrific at times, especially closer to sunset/dusk), your bathing suit and some comfy flip-flops.

The destruction you are seeing on Ft. Myers beach - is because they have no buffer - no mangroves, no conservation aspect. It's a small spit of land that hugs the coast built high with hotels and condos. There was nothing to help stop the waves and lessen the winds except those buildings, the pier, the restaurants that were a party destination. The damage there is extraordinary. It looks like a war zone covered in fine white sand.

We got lucky where we are - we only lost power for a few days and we are technically on "high ground" if there is such a thing here. Once the storm passed it got cool out so we were able to sleep with the sliding glass doors and windows open. The same thing happened here after Hurricane Wilma 17 years ago. There is extensive flooding here though - homes and businesses underwater.

If you planned a vacation here in the coming weeks and months, your travel plans might be impacted. I hope they aren't. If they are, please be gentle with the people of this area. They are trying to acclimate to their new normal and the long road of recovery ahead. Some might have been displaced to other areas and have lost everything. We all need the tourism dollars here - more now than ever and we need people to come back once we have come back from this.