I was planning on an indoor dinner celebration before the extreme heat arrived. I went outside early this morning to give water to areas in my garden. Already it was hot! I am so glad that I am not cooking outdoors today or tomorrow. All food will be prepared inside. I already have cooked a big pot of hearty seafood stew using a variety of vegetables with jumbo shrimp and catfish. I will be making a big fresh salad with lots of red including: radishes, red cabbage, red pepper, and tomatoes. Of course their will be green such as red leaf lettuce, cucumbers, and avocado on the side. My favorite salad dressing will be made using a Good Seasons Italian packet. I am getting ready to make for the first time Anthony Bourdain’s Rouille to spread on toasted organic sourdough bread.
The table is partially set. I put out the big pot with the seafood stew in it for this picture. More preparations will be done today.
We are a small family of three. It will be a small party. 🙂
I included a flower spotlight for today- Rudbeckia hirta -- Lion's Cub.
Closest flower to fireworks that I have blooming right now.
I hope anyone that might read this has a fantastic Independence Weekend!
I mentioned recently that I have been working on cleaning and reorganizing some areas of my home. Our linen closet has to be my next project! It is crammed full and not that organized. I saw these brand new tea towels that I purchased years ago, and decided to take them out and use them. They are kitchen towels, though I don’t think they go well in my kitchen, so I decided to use them in my bathroom. This morning when I looked at them, my attention was drawn to the sea urchin on the bottom left side of this picture. My nudge was the word ‘discover’. It got me to thinking about the sea urchins I inherited from my mother-in-law many years ago.
Next, with the word discover foremost in my brain, I went and found the ones I inherited. Look below to see them.
I decided to take a picture of them. I had always wondered why they had stoppers in them on one end. While taking their picture I discovered the name Ben Rickert. I looked up his name and the words sea urchin. I was surprised to learn that they have stoppers on one end because they are intended to be potpourri diffusers. They are made from real sea urchin shells found in the English channel and crafted in England.
While researching sea urchins the memory of me tasting one came into my mind, though they did not look like the sea urchins in these picture. The one I remember tasting was purple and spiky. In my early twenties I was vacationing with my sister and her boyfriend. He was part French and he owned a yacht. We were staying with his mother in Cannes, France, and we were out for the day exploring off the coast of France, which is known as the French Riviera. I can’t remember exactly where we were anchored, however, swimming was possible and someone on his boat dove under water and brought up some purple spiky sea urchins. They were split in half and an orange substance was inside and we tasted it raw. I thought it was horrible.
I wanted to try and find a picture of the type I tasted. There are between 950- 1,000 different species of sea urchins according to people who keep track of these things. I was able to find a website with information about the sea urchins off the coast of France and in the area where we explored. https://news.cnrs.fr/slideshows/sea-urchin-under-threat — (Warning: this link worked for me when I read it, however, it does not work now. It will take you to the website, it states page not found, however, if you type sea urchins into their search box, you will find the article. It clearly shows the purple spiky species I remember.)
Then, I decided to research edible sea urchins. They claim that only 18 species are edible. For more information about this look below. https://pangeashellfish.com/blog/about-sea-urchins-facts-and-guide — (Warning: this does not work either. If you scroll down to the bottom you will see a link for their blog. Then search their blog site for sea urchins, and you will find the information I read.) I learned that the edible part of the sea urchin is their gonads, also known as uni.
Well, I did end up discovering and learning a few new things today!
Mission accomplished.
None of the links posted here work. Perhaps, I missed something in typing them or linking them. The information is still out on the web if you are interested in finding them. My apologies.
My indoor anthurium has 3 normal blooms and this unusual development. A Calathea rattlesnake leaf is in the top right corner
I will post a few outdoor flowers. The echinacea flower keeps coming back in the same spot year after year. It is one of my oldest perennials. The Crocosmia Lucifer is my second oldest flower in today’s spotlight. It has an abundance of flowers this summer, and last is a new gaura flower named Siskiyou Pink. It has long wand like flowers.
Before this weekend I had not used my Big Green Egg outdoor cooker in 2026. I have been too busy cleaning and organizing inside and outside, trying to make this summer as enjoyable as possible.
The duo of Father’s Day and Summer Solstice occurring on the same day seemed like the perfect time to start my outdoor cooking adventures.
At Food Lion the other day I was looking for some type of beef to cook. I was amazed to see Beef Ribs! The meat department worker was right there putting out meat, and I exclaimed to him, “I can’t believe you have beef ribs. I have never been able to find them before now. I remember my parents preferring to cook beef ribs instead of pork ribs.” The meat department worker responded, “we occasionally get 1 or 2 boxes of them. I put out 6 packages this morning and now we are down to 2. Sometimes one person will see them and buy all of them. Next time you shop here, if you don’t see any, ask the butcher to look in back.”
I decided to also pick up 3 yuca roots (also known as cassava or manioc.) My mother used to make it frequently since her husband was from Paraguay. She would boil it. I have never made it until this weekend. Peeling it and cutting it up is a chore. Then I just covered it with water and boiled it, and drained it. It turned out just like my mother’s. I chose yuca over potatoes or bread because the glycemic index for it is very low, and as a matter of fact, all this food has a fairly low glycemic index. My husband was diagnosed with adult onset diabetes several years ago. He has been very good about eating the right food ever since then. He thought the beef ribs were a little too fatty. I loved them! They were slow cooked at low heat, so the meat was very tender. I used a dry rub for seasoning.
Today is Juneteenth and my official start to summer break.
My garden is showing off many colors this year. The featured picture shows a few.
I have many white Asiatic lilies and an abundance of Going Bananas daylilies blooming. The dark Asiatic lily is only one plant with several blooms.
I have several other flowers blooming now. Some are new additions and others have been with me for many years.
I am patiently watching some Sweet Purple asparagus beginning their first season of growth. I was so busy that I planted the crowns at the tail end of what is acceptable. I will not be able to harvest any until their 3rd season. (They are a perennial vegetable.) It is a learning experience for me. Across from them in another raised bed I am growing 3 types of beans: cranberry, lima, and goldilocks yellow. They are doing well.
I will end with showing you a cranesbill hardy geranium I planted in a big planter.
The picture is not the best, however since I already posted a picture of a beautiful annual geranium, I thought it would be nice to show a perennial geranium.
Here is another throwback. This one is from 2017. I have seen many catbirds so far this spring. They are very bold. I almost think I could train one to land on my hand
I was reminded that these were my thoughts on this day 7 years ago. It was a simple poem about the Praying Mantis which I used to see all the time in my garden back then. I have not seen one yet this season. The season is still young with summer around the corner.
Whenever it has been possible I have been working at garden improvement. I have been mostly focused on pruning and working on growing a few vegetables. The gorgeous Regal Geranium pictured above was an impulse buy. It is proving its worth these days. I have it potted on our deck and I can see it from my kitchen window.
We have a long weekend coming up after tomorrow. I plan to spend more time getting the garden in order. Hopefully, the weather cooperates, though we do need the rain, and I was so happy to hear the steady rain last night. We even had some lightning last night which was a blessing because it fixes nitrogen and will help the beans I planted the other day.
“Lightning drives atmospheric nitrogen fixation by using its immense heat and energy to split tightly-bonded atmospheric nitrogen molecules. These separated atoms instantly bond with oxygen to form nitrogen oxides. Rain then washes these compounds into the soil as nitrates, acting as a natural, plant-ready fertilizer. “
I don’t have much more to say today. However, I was inspired to post a picture of the beautiful geranium on our deck.
I decided to show the second picture I took. I don’t like it as well as the top picture, however, it gives you a better perspective of this annual.
I let my image generator create this lovely picture. The redbud tree looks very much like this one. It captured its color very well. The blue jay in the birdbath is a nice added touch. My mother was a proud Jayhawk (KU alumni), so it seems appropriate.
This has been a surprising spring with new discoveries and new visitors. Sometimes all it take is some loving attention to bring back former beauty. It is as if the plants and flowers sense my anticipation and want to live up to it.
As I have been going round and round trying to bring order to chaos, it occurred to me today that perhaps nature’s chaos can sometimes be better than my sense of order. The other day I noticed the redbud tree that started as a small seedling. It was given to me by a neighbor many years ago. I had complimented him on his lovely redbud tree and mentioned to him that it had been my mother’s favorite tree.
I had planted the little redbud seedling just beyond the birdbath in a corner of our garden. I watched it closely for a couple years as it struggled to thrive. I eventually stopped watching it as my own life needed attention.
When I saw it the other day I was surprised to see that it had grown up and now is about chest high. I missed seeing any blooms, and now it is showing all its lovely heart shaped leaves which are unmistakable. I was dismayed to see that my husband had piled yard debris right next to it, so I started clearing it away today. Last night he agreed to remove all the debris and take it away, and I am helping by making sure it is far away from the redbud. It is part of his mother’s day gift to me, and I made this request to honor the memory of my mother.
I hope all that might read this have a pleasant mother’s day, especially if all you have is fond memories.
I thought it would be fun to experiment with the image generator again. The palm patterns on my clothes are more varied than these examples,and some are more suble than others.Though,I really do like this new image generator.
Saturday morning before others were awake I started to reorganize my closet. It started with me trying to locate a new top that I have rarely worn. I could not find it, so I kept looking deeper and deeper into the closet, and in the process brought forth my spring and summer clothes, and pushed to the back the winter and fall clothes. One advantage or disadvantage to getting older is that I have had more time to accumulate clothes. I do periodically go through and do some purging, but not as frequently as I should. Unfortunately, my closet has not gotten any bigger.
The whole process took more time than I thought it would especially since I had interruptions with helping my family when they woke up, and now I am feeling unproductive since I have not gotten outside.
One interesting thing that I noticed is that in recent years I have acquired more clothes that have a variation of palm leaf patterns. As a matter of fact, my favorite garden pants, which I frequently wear at home, are made of a soft cotton with palm leaf patterns all over them. The colors are cream, celery, and sage.
Subconsciously, I must really like the palm leaf. It has good symbolism across many cultures and religions. And also, palm leaves were used in antiquity for writing manuscripts.
Hopefully, tomorrow I will be productive outside in the garden. The rest of today I will devote to doing laundry, and of course taking care of my family.
movingforwardslowly 