Sunday morning with my monarch :)

Just emerged monarch butterfly...they will climb onto your hand and you can enjoy them until their wings are dry, which is about an hour. So that's how I spent my Sunday morning so far. Bill just brought home a 5 gallon bucket of ripe pears...guess I know what I'm doing with the rest of my day!

Another busy Saturday!

Been to the farmer's market, the meat market, Hogston Mills, and finally back home...so hot and humid, pretty miserable out there. I did get to see one of the monarch butterflies on it's first flight today. I had been watching the chrysalis for several days, this morning it was clear and I knew I would miss it's emergence, but it was still hanging by the empty chrysalis when we drove up and when I got out of the car it flew away into the trees..such a beautiful sight. Hope you all have a great day!

August lunch with the class of '67

I had a nice lunch with the class of '67. Always such a great time! We are off to a Friday night auction in a bit. It's been a stormy afternoon, but it cooled it down a bit. Hope you all have had a good Friday...

He was so blue...who knew?

Here are just a couple of pix from camping Sunday...Bill has the eyes of a hawk, :) ..and spotted this brilliant blue dragonfly, very tiny, but the blue was very bright in the morning sun. I am always interested in the other critters that inhabit our planet, as you all know, especially insects...how perfectly beautiful! The full length probably was only an inch and a half at the most..also, it looked like someone buried their. precious pet out there by Forbes lake, Maggie must have loved running out there in the woods. I thought this was very sweet with the little paw prints on there.  Oh, and Bill roasting marshmallows.

August camping at Forbes State Park

The last few days have been very cool, and dry. We went camping at Forbes Sunday evening, and what a beautiful night it was! We made some new friends who camped down the road from us, and were fascinated by our little motorhome. Then BIll's mom and brother, Steve came to visit for a couple of hours, a pleasant surprise! The food tasted awesome, and I invented a new dessert: Toasted marshmallows on top of a chocolate chip cookie..I could only eat one though, so much sugar! I hope you all have a good day! The heat is returning tomorrow here in Illinois...but Fall is on it's way...my favorite time of year!

A few late summer butterflies in my garden..

More butterflies on the way!

I planted some fennel in my garden, so that I would have a place for the black and yellow swallowtail butterflies to lay their eggs, I have watched all summer, and finally tonight I found 10 tiny caterpillars on my fennel plant. There have already been a number of swallow tails in my flowers, so now I am excited to see that there will be more..Yes, it doesn't take much to excite me...I live a simple life.

A foggy morning in Kinmundy town..

A foggy morning.....but the horses don't seem to mind..We have had lots of rain here the last few days...the rain gauge shows 6-1/4"..

Pizza and movie day for me...

Bill is gone for the evening, so I made myself a Greek Pizza, on naan flatbread and it was AWESOME! I watched a great movie, ME BEFORE YOU, with Amelia Clarke (Game of Thrones),,a great story, but ladies...better keep the kleenex handy. I hope you have all had a good day...

A rainy sunday, and I have extra sweet potatoes...what to do...

Tried a couple of new recipes with sweet potatoes today.   Sweet Potato salad and Sweet potato curry

Sweet Potato Curry

Sweet potato Salad

I also made some pickled beets.  The sweet potato curry calls for garam masala, which is just a mixture of spices.  I made my own from a Google recipe.  I also used kale instead of  chard, because that's what I had...even Bill liked the curry...so that's it for today!  Happy cooking!

 Here's a link to a recipe for garam masala that I used.  garam masala .

A fish-eye view of this evening's sunset, after a rainy, clammy day!

August Red Hat ladies ....lunch at Joe's Pizza

Had lunch with my Red Hat ladies today! Such a nice visit, even though it was a smaller than normal group. We went to Joe's Pizza...look at all of the food and take home boxes on the table, not to mention Janet eating that Spumoni ice cream....I had a cannoli, but it looked kind of pitiful after i saw Janet's spumoni...lol...nice to see all of you ladies...until next month.....

Delicious spumoni ice cream at Joe's pizza...I may have to go there for for dessert sometime!

Trying some new recipes....

  I

kind of over did the veggies tonight, but boy were they good! There is actually some chicken underneath the cucumber, tomatoes, mint and feta cheese!

Just some butterfly photos from my garden

Avocado toast

So I have been reading online that avocado toast is all the rage these days. I love me some avocados and beside I received my Tuscan blend olive oil from Olivopolis today, so I had to try it...OMG, seriously super good, added tomatoes and basil from the garden, and some onion on homemade pumpernickel toast...also, this is so good for you...! I would like to add that I have never ever tasted olive oil like this, very fresh and actually tasted like olives, but very light.....So now that I have made you all hungry (or go ewww)...here are some pictures too...I hope you all have had a good day!

Finally starting to see some monarch caterpillars, I was about to give up on them!   Also saw this little lady bug hiding in the milkweed flowers.

We went camping yesterday. The weather was absolutely perfect. We drank our morning coffee on a log by the lake, so beautiful! Then as we were leaving the park, we saw a white crow! At first we thought it had to be a dove, but no, it was very close and was hanging out with a bunch of black crows...I like to think it was some kind of good omen, or a little hello from my mom, letting me know she is doing fine...I hope you all have had a good Monday. This photo is my favorite photo from last night. Perfect way to enjoy the outdoors. Bill laughed at my lights, because they are pink flamingos and palm trees, but after a while he decided they were pretty cool and there he sits....basking in the glow of the flamingos.

Just a little selfie...

A few more camping pix

Fruit and vegetable report....

We've been out in the garden all morning! Wew, it's hot and humid out there. Bill is pruning the blackberries, since they all died and we didn't have a one! Only the second time we didn't have berries in 23 years! They bloomed, and were loaded with the small berries, they needed water so bad, but of course, we had no rain for 3 solid weeks and it was extremely hot......Bill even watered them, but they are so massive, it just wasn't enough. So no blackberry jelly, jam or juice for us this year... :( and as an added bonus, the deer ate the rest of the peaches right off of the trees in one night, oh, and no apples either...same problem, no rain..I swear it's like living under Stephen King's Dome here... the regular vegetable garden did well....go figure..

STRANGE LIGHTS OVER ST.LOUIS GATEWAY ARCH [Aug. 2, 2016]

No blackberries or apples this year.. :(

We've been out in the garden all morning! Wew, it's hot and humid out there. Bill is pruning the blackberries, since they all died and we didn't have a one! Only the second time we didn't have berries in 23 years! They bloomed, and were loaded with the small berries, they needed water so bad, but of course, we had no rain for 3 solid weeks and it was extremely hot......Bill even watered them, but they are so massive, it just wasn't enough. So no blackberry jelly, jam or juice for us this year... :( and as an added bonus, the deer ate the rest of the peaches right off of the trees in one night, oh, and no apples either...same problem, no rain..I swear it's like living under Stephen King's Dome here... the regular vegetable garden did well....go figure..

Yum....great supper tonight!

We are sitting around here like a couple of fat cats tonight, after a meal of marinated, grilled deer tenderloin medallions, corn on the cob, sliced garden tomatoes homemade bread, chocolate cake and fresh peaches....I'll have to walk an extra couple of miles tomorrow now..I hope you all had a great day.

Early morning sunrise..

Such a beautiful sunrise this morning, the sky was pink and then yellow!