Summer is Finally Here

We had rain for sooooo long here in N.CA, we kept waiting for spring, but it just went right on by us and we went straight to summer.  I’m trying to acclimate my plants to the heat and haven’t even acclimated myself.  I sure miss Spring, but I’ll take what we can get. lol

My succulents are multiplying faster than I can plant them. lol  No, I’ve done a lot of propagating and have had fun doing it.  I’ve discovered that the 2 in pots are great for tiny plants, as they grow, (which seems to be quickly) they need one much bigger.   I know you’re supposed to allow them X amount of room and too much room is not good for them.   With the change in the weather tho and getting them under lights indoors so late, I have a lot of potting to get done.  Not complaining, I still love it. lol

These are much larger than they were, but definitely need to be repotted.   Succuclents need a well draining soil, so I researched a lot and got several different recipes.    I tried a couple and I think I’ve finally hit on the right mix, at least I hope so, if not I’ll try again. lol

New carpeting will be put in on Thursday.  They came last Friday and it turned out the carpet was not useable so it had to be reordered.  In the meantime, we took everything out of the living room, dinning room and hallway, then moved it all to the patio.  The patio is all out in the yard and yikes!  It’s 100 degrees out there so everything is covered  with sheets so they have a little protection.    we’ll get thru this by the week end, provided there will be no more issues with the carpet. lol

Have a great week everyone.

Sooooo Addictive!!

I had no idea succulents could be so addictive, lol. They are tho.  Once you start collecting them , it’s so hard to choose.  I did find one trick to make them less expensive, planted arrangements at Walmart. Lol. I decided 7 plants for $20 was pretty good-vs- 7 plants at $3.95 each.  So I bought a bowl arrangement thinking there was 7-8 plants in it. What a surprise when I ended up with anywhere from 20-25 plants. ( or more) each plant I thought was one plant had at least 2 or more plants to be separated because it had grown into several.  ( or were planted that way to make a lush bowl) So what I did was take a picture of the bowl with my iPhone so I could pull it up to be sure I don’t buy the same arrangement a second time. I could go on and on, but I’ll stop here, and write more later.  I’ll tell you where I found some great buys and good blogs to check out.

Oh yeah, I live in CA and as you probably know, we’ve had tons of rain, BUT the Sun has been out for two days now! Have a great week end everyone ☺️

 

 

Rain, Rain, Rain & Football Brownies

Good morning, we’ve had rain, rain, rain! I believe we’re out of the drought now, but we remain in the same water usage until spring. I don’t know how the water planning works, but it seems you should be able to use any amount of water, not wastefully, you need right now. The lakes are all over full, the rivers are extremely dangerous with water flow and some of the dams are having difficulty letting the water out.

Not having to worry about watering lawns or outdoor plants in the winter now is water saving and nice. 😀 The rain right now is quite high; I believe it was up 8000 feet, which means the snow melt is awfully early and causes flooding. We’ll have a break from the rain this weekend, then more next week, so we’ll see how it goes. Feast or Famine in CA. 😄

Anyway,we have Super Bowl Sunday at my sister-in-law’s every year and usually try to take a dip or other food with us. Lois always goes all out and has a wonderful spread, but I feel we need to take something to contribute. Sooooo, I decided to make some football brownies. 😊 The brownies came out delicious and the ganache as well. However, my cake decorating these days seems to have a lot of ‘buts’ in the story telling.

When it came to putting the laces and football markings on top, that was another story; 😁 they looked pretty sad. The lines were quite squiggly and gave a new meaning to the word uneven, but Bert came in the kitchen wanting to try his hand at it. Now, his baking starts and ends with pre-baked pizza! ☺️

I can’t tell you which brownies he did and which ones I did.. When finished, all we could do is laugh. Lol. When I suggested swirling the white frosting to make it look deliberate, Bert insisted we leave them. He then nicknamed them “deflated footballs”, which would make the strings look good. Lol

Truly, this was not for Tom Brady, quarterback for the New England Patriots, who was playing that day. For those not football fans, last year there was quite a scandal about the footballs being deflated, which gave the quarterback a better grip, giving the Falcons an edge. Tom Brady, their quarterback, was found to be involved. The Falcons won, as they did this year. It just happened that my brownies were perfect “deflated footballs”. So Bert took some by our daughter’s house and headed to the Super Bowl Sunday party. The brownies were enjoyed anyway. 😆

The bad part is that I became ill all of a sudden and couldn’t go to the gathering to enjoy the day. They all had a great time, though, and I watched the game at home. Anyway, the “Football Brownies” were a big hit, 😀so all turned out well.

Have a great week!

Rain & Strawberries

Just an update on the drought here in CA, and it’s good news. I heard on the news ( briefly, I missed the report),the drought is almost over. Not sure exactly what that means, “almost”, but I’ll take it as a positive. We’ve had a good bit of rain this month and have more coming in by Friday. Just two days of it, but every little bit helps.

On another note, I have some strawberry 🍓 plants growing in the house. I won’t set them out for a while yet. BUT I actually have a blossom on one plant, a teeny tiny blossom. Lol

Isn’t it cute? Lolol

Rain -Rain-Rain

Whoohoo, we had rain last week and it looks like a few more days of rain this week. Still concerned about flooding, the levies holding and the tree’s falling because of shallow root systems. The roots worked their way toward the surface for water and now with the ground saturated the winds are taking several out each storm. Fortunately no one has been injured, but property damage and tree’s landing on cars is costly. Better the car than the house though.

Our neighbors have large tree’s, but we don’t worry about them so much. We do have a very tall Palm tree in our front yard, but I don’t know anything about their root system. Might be something to look into today.

My granddaughter is due home from the Netherlands Friday and I’m anxious to see her. She’s been over there for a month and I think has learned a lot about what we take for granted. She’s had a great time, so I’m sure she has some good experiences to share:)

Hope everyone has a great day!