From the backyard: Fruit and some nuts

 

The Agapanthus - around town are blooming. I have white ones that haven't bloomed yet. Just the little bulbs are showing. Supposed to get real hot, the next week - up to 111. Things will start popping then! 

We have almonds - they look really big from this photo

And the figs are coming in. 

I don't believe we will get any grapes this year - we had an insect infestation last summer and my husband drastically cut them down. They are slow to vine out this year. Usually, by this time we have little baby grapes. 

Backyard flowers 2021

 

The very first of my sunflowers. I didn't even have to plant this one. A good bunch of them came up on their own. 

This is a dusty miller that has gone to seed/flower. Beautiful. 

Grows wild in my yard because I don't cut them back too often. 

I want to see their beautiful flowers. 

Orange Iris, comes up every year. 

This is a Pomegranate blossom. I don't know how I did this but the photo looks almost fake. I assure you it was the angle on the sun. Beautiful peach color. Soon they will turn into fruit. 

My nasturtiums are not doing well this year. 

The hot pink oleanders 

These are actually red oleanders. 

My sisters favorite flower - Gerbera Daisies

Even the fish are waiting for their water lily to bloom. 

We've had one bloom already. 

A dusty miller without flower. I love to place them around the garden for a different color. They are beautiful year-round. 

My spent lavender - I didn't get out there soon enough to harvest them. 

They'll bloom at least once more. 

My Oleanders

 

June is the best month for oleander blooms. 

They love the heat. They are native to the Mediterranean and California is perfect for oleanders since we have a Mediterranean climate. They practically grow wild here. I have a neighbor who has oleanders that are 20 ft + all in white blossoms. 

I wasn't aware that they grow in other parts of the country as well - they are drought resistant and are very hardy. People even pot them and grow them inside, provided you have no children or pets because they are toxic. 

They can be messy - they do some shedding of their seed pods and it's like brownish fur. 

With our 109 heat this past week, they are flourishing. 

REFI - UPDATE

We close on Monday the 14th. We got out a little extra money to add to our savings to buy a new vehicle so that hopefully we will not have to finance it. We really need a vehicle that is reliable. We'll keep the old van, for hauling and camping. 

13 years in our home today

Last week we decided it was time to refi our house. My son had been bugging me about it and I knew it was time. So we applied - got in all the documents needed and Monday the appraiser comes. We locked in a low percentage rate of 2.5%. We are saving approximately $350 a month. Now we are in a better position to make double payments. Already the interest rate for Re-fi's has jumped up to 2.78%. 

We'll be here till we die. 

My sister and I inherited the place from my mom after she passed.  It was paid off. My sister wanted to sell but I liked it so we bought my sister out. I've never regretted it. 

We've done a lot to make it ours.  We've installed wood floors -

done our share of painting. 

I painted the cabinets and redid the kitchen to be retro. All new appliances. Now we have wood countertops. 

New carpet in the living area and 1 bedroom. 

Installed a new HVAC, new roof, and new windows in the whole house. We had a garden window installed in the kitchen for the cat. 

New washer and dryer. 

Last summer, we extended the patio and made a small garden area for my sunflowers.

Planted a lot of trees and plants

Each spring my California poppies bloom in a big vibrant way. 

A beautiful red flower that comes back every year. 

Spring Iris

One can never have too many sunflowers

Last summer's morning glories. 

My dad planted this cedar tree when they first moved here. 

It's now the vocal point of our front yard. 

And to think we are not done. 

We do have the costly stuff out of the way and if we didn't do anything else, it would be okay and I would still love my cozy little home. 

The senior brown bag and box

Last week we signed up for the senior brown bag and box here in our city. We were picking it up for our 80 yr old friend who doesn't drive and was told we qualified as well.  We're seniors and my husband is a retired veteran. Wow. So they gave us a box and a brown bag and it had a lot of food. We were shocked. 

Now I know where my other friend got all the potatoes and yogurt - she gave to us. Now she'll have to find someone else. 

We received: 

tomatoes and tomato sauce

canned pears

black beans

green beans

1 gallon of 2% milk

1/2 gallon of chocolate milk

4 pork chops

1 lb of ground beef

1 chicken

2 cans of tuna fish

red potatoes

onions

carrots

oranges

apples

strawberries

pears

yogurt

sour cream

oreo cookies

2 boxes of Cheerios (my husband's favorite)

pepper jack cheese slices

elbow macaroni

spaghetti noodles

rice

We plan to stockpile some of the food - and what we don't use, or need or like - we will pass it on to the Loaves and Fishes food bank for the homeless. 

Yesterday I made a sour cream potato salad with the red potatoes (skin on) We'll eat that tonight with our Costco Hot dogs - the only ones I will eat. 

All of this will really help us out. 

Blooming

 

Dogwood Trees are blooming - Ahhhhh Chooooooooooo

Our first water lily bloom for 2021

Front Yard flowers

 

My mini roses are in full bloom. 

My aloe vera plant is starting to bloom...

I love these purple flowers - they are perennials and come up every spring. 

I do nothing to them and they are drought tolerant. 

Nastruisums 

And these little flowers are wild - they are a ground cover that I won't pull up because they are so pretty. 

From this...to this!

From this

To this

It is done. 

The husband did a very good job for an old man. 

It took him 3 1/2 days - he finished today at noon. 

The Burden of free food

1 down, 3 to go

Last night's chicken dinner was delicious however I don't think I will marinate the chicken in yogurt again - it was messy. It did seem as if the chicken was moist and tender. Marinating in good old-fashioned buttermilk is not as messy. 

Here is the recipe for the Yogurt coffee cake.   It was good but needs some tweaking. I plan to try some other "yogurt cake" recipes. 

I now have 3 tubs of yogurt left. I've tried to give a tub away - no one likes plain yogurt. They are good till June 6. 

The Potatoes.

I hate to waste food. I don't have a basement or a root cellar and our 100+ degree summers are just around the corner. I've already made scalloped potatoes with our salmon the other night - Potato soup and last night we had mashed potatoes. I like potatoes but not this much. 

I found where you can cook the potatoes and then freeze them. I do like potato salad and since it is salad time of year, I'm going to make a huge bunch of it. My sons love their Mom's potato salad. 

People nowadays don't use potatoes like my mom did. They tend to buy packaged potatoes. I've always made my mashed potatoes from scratch. 

Next time I won't be so quick to accept the burden of the free food. 

Potatoes and Yogurt. Yogurt and Potatoes.

 

This is not a cooking blog, but every now and then I will post something about food. Saturday I came into 4-32 oz containers of non-fat plain yogurt that is good till June. They also gave us, 2 10lb sacks of Idaho potatoes. I had just bought a 5 lb sack so I gave Char the 5 lb sack and we are left with 20lbs of potatoes. I made a potato soup and tomorrow I will make a potato salad. Tonight we're having fried chicken, (that I will marinate in yogurt) mashed potatoes, and homemade pan gravy. 

I also made a yogurt cake up above. It has a really unique taste - I like it. Not too sweet. You load up half the batter and then top it with walnut, brown sugar and cinnamon crumble - add the final layer and top with the remaining crumble. 

You can't freeze yogurt - it changes the texture. So I have till June. It's plain yogurt - while I don't care for fruit ladened yogurt due to its just too sweet for me, I did get some frozen strawberries. That was good  - and also we can add some honey to it. 

I have a feeling I may be sick of potatoes and yogurt in the not-so-distant future...

The not so pretty home projects or maintenance.

Those things have to be in a timely matter or can get out of hand. We don't want to be like some old people, that just haven't kept up their home maintenance and then have to sell due to a family death and get practically nothing for their house. I have a good friend whose husband was a packrat - and he didn't like spending money on the house. He died in March of 2019 and Margie is still trying to get her home, clean and everything fixed. Plus she just turned 80. Bless her heart. 

The husband mowed both the front and back yards - We need either to sod or reseed our lawns. Probably won't happen this year. We had 2 garden boxes in the middle of the yard - and had planned to put rocks around it - and have a smaller lawn area. Then we decided we didn't like that and pulled out the boxes and now have 2 dirt plots in the middle of the lawn - they look like freshly dug graves. Boo!

The husband will be replacing a 3 section part of our fence on the side yard that we share with a neighbor. Our neighbor refuses to pitch in and told my husband that it was "his problem." He doesn't care how it looks on his side so what do you do? 

We have a dog that could get out and he's patched it but it's time to replace the fence. It's not worth fighting and arguing over.  Other than being downright cheap, they are good neighbors. The husband wants to put up a chain-link fence. I asked him if this was his version of "Love thy Neighbor." I know he wants to do that for spite. He later came back and said he wouldn't. 

We went in with our neighbors on a fence a few years back. That section my husband has to replace is because the neighbor insisted it wasn't that bad - funny, the next winter, is when it came down. The patched section of the fence, we had to do, because their 2 dogs like to chew the bottom of the wood fence. I do wish my husband had taken more care in mending the fence. I think he was mad and just threw some boards up there. It bugs me. 

Of course never any offer by them to help fix where their dogs destroyed the new fence. Aww, neighbors - you gotta love them. 

After the fence, he also wants to add an extension to his work shed so he can build things, have more room, and have an open area with a roof so he can work in the hot summer and keep his tools protected. Last year, he broke his toe which grounded him in a big boot he had to wear for several months. It was a bad break for him and our "projects." We have a lot of catch-ups we need to do this year. 

This is a "have to" this year. The paint is peeling on the hot, south side of the covered patio - the wood needs to be replaced and repainted. 

Provided he doesn't break anything this year, these should be fairly easy to knock out. 

I have my own projects I need to do -  I'm the painter of the family.