Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts

Jun 16, 2013

Finally...

The ground finally dried up enough for us to plant our garden yesterday! Better late than never! I love gardening. There is nothing like the feeling of warm, freshly tilled dirt between your bare toes. Or the taste of vine ripened tomatoes still hot from the summer sun. No question about it. End of discussion. Period.
 
 Our Garden...
 Squash and Zucchini
 Sweet Bell Peppers
 Okra (my favorite!)
 Eggplant... If anyone has any tips about growing/harvesting eggplant, please let me know!  : )
 Jalapeno Peppers
Tomatoes!
And Blueberries!!!
 Here is Smokie playing in the dirt.



Fly with Christ!
Rachel : )

Mar 20, 2013

Welcome Spring!

For those of you who didn't know...

Today is the first day of SPRING! 
With sunshine, cooler temperatures, and possibly snow in the forecast (not the typical southern weather right now, but we really might have snow and cold rain by the end of the week! ugh...), I have come today to bring you some of my latest spring pictures.










Fly with Christ!
Rachel : )

Feb 26, 2013

Spring?

Is spring here already??? Many of the plants and trees around our house already have blooms on them. They normally don't bloom in 40 degree weather.









Fly with Christ!
Rachel : )

Nov 20, 2012

I am such a Homeschooler...

http://park.org/Pavilions/FoodAndMarkets/Herbs/qr_425.jpg
Not the plant near our house
Everyone needs a break from schoolwork. Right? Well last week I did.

Eleanor and I went to pick some pokeberries from the plant growing near our house.(I do have to say that picking pokeberries is not normal for us, nor is what we did with them. But it's just plain fun!) We crushed and strained our berries, added salt and vinegar, and we got homemade ink! 

You may be asking yourself what this has to do with homeschoolers. You see homeschoolers (or at least some of the ones that I know) tend to do really neat projects for fun! (usually history related) Oh yeah! We are that cool! : ) Last week, for instance, we made berry ink. Other days we have made fresh butter, costumes, and sugar cube pyramids. Homeschoolers are also cool because they have cool supplies just hanging around the house.(Am I the only one who keeps quill pens and little jars?)

Here is the recipe for homemade berry ink: (This recipe can be doubled or cut in half. Because it is made with fresh berries it will go bad so don't forget to use it up!)
1 cup berries(any kind will do. Play around with different berries for different colors)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vinegar

Crush and strain the berries. Stir in the salt and vinegar until dissolved. That's all! It also works best to write on a heavy paper so the ink won't bleed. (Again, am I the only one who just happened to have calligraphy paper from a calligraphy set?)

Sorry, no pictures for this one. You will just have to imagine Eleanor and I crushing and straining pokeberries and then writing our names with the purple ink. ; )


Fly with Christ!
Rachel : )

Sep 6, 2012

Vacation Pics!...The Beach

Of course there is also St. Augustine Beach. The beach is always fun, need I say more?













Fly with Christ!
Rachel : )

Aug 1, 2012

Blueberries

Some of my favorite fruit in the world (besides apples) are blueberries. You can do so much with them. Here are some pictures of our blueberries from this year. I just love watching them go from blooms to green and finally blue. God amazes me every year with the transformation of a garden.









God bless!
Rachel : )
P.S. We just got back from vacation on Sunday. We had so much fun! I will try to post my pictures soon!

Jul 11, 2012

Garden Pics!

Here are some pictures of our garden.

El's Carrots
Jet Star Tomatoes
Roma Tomatoes
My poor little eggplant plants look worse than the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. But we have eggplant!
Eggplant
Eggplant
Bell Pepper
We have picked over 17 gallons of green beans this year! God is so good! : ) We have recently had some rain here. I'm hoping that it will be enough to keep the plants alive.
Green beans
Bean plants
Squash and Zucchini
Blueberries

Pear
Let me tell you a little story about this plant. A few months ago, when we started to see life in the garden, we noticed these plants popping up in our compost pile. We had no idea what they were until we saw little pumpkins! We figured they were from last Halloween.





Smokie

Smokie in action.
Our lima beans are also coming in! We picked about four gallons so far. They taste SO good!
Lima Bean blooms
Lima Bean blooms
Lima Beans





God bless!
Rachel : )