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Saturday, June 27, 2009

NEW PERENNIAL BED

OK, here it is; and no laughing. This is my new perennial bed. It's been a vision for only a few days. I ordered three bareroot subzero hibiscus and they are mere twigs; but they're in there! In the middle I planted three giant bulbs called Casablanca lilies. I saw them on a TV show and had to have them! They are currently growing about half an inch a day. Incredible.

In between I stuck groupings of my own seedinglings of purple lupines and the beautiful annual poppy that looks like a red carnation. I'll never forget when I bought my first one for $5.00. I told the lady that this price must be an error. That much money for one annual? She assured me that even though it was an annual, if you shake the seeds on the ground, they will multiply and come up every year. She was correct! I have them all over the place and have shared with many people. They tend to come up in a clump, so before they get too large, I dig them up and separate them. They barely notice it. They like full sun. I'll post pictures of this beautiful flower when they're in bloom.

That wonderful man I'm married to surprised me with the two Stela D'oro lillies that are in bloom now. I had a clump of these at my home in NY for many years until they accidentally got rototilled :( They do very well in northern gardens :)

Stay tuned for more pics as this garden slowly bursts into color! Can't wait!
(Please ignore the swimming noodles in the background. Tacky Tacky Tika!!)

Bye for now.
Tika :)

Saturday, June 20, 2009

EVERYONE LOVES A GOOD SHOWER

A wet Keeshond is not necessarily a pretty thing.

CREAM OF ASPARAGUS SOUP


We grilled asparagus on the grill tonight. Simply brushed it with olive oil and sprinkled it with McCormick's Salad Supreme. It was sooooo good.
I just made this soup recipe up on the fly, but here's what I did. I cut off the woody ends of the asparagus and discarded them. I cut about 2" off the next section of each stalk (saving the best part to go on the grill). I probably ended up with about 1 or 1/2 cups to make soup with.
I put about 1/4 cup of onion in the food processor, chopped it up and browned it in 2 T of butter. I added approx 3 T of flour and stirred it into the butter, cooking it for a few minutes. I chunked up the asparagus in the processor and added that to the onion, then added 1 can of chicken broth and 1 chicken bouillon, a dash of pepper and a splash of white wine. I covered the pan and let it simmer until the asparagus was tender.
Lastly, I poured in approximately 1/2 cup or so of half and half. The soup looked a bit on the thin side, so I mixed a bit more half and half with another T of flour and poured it in. I cooked it for another 5 min on low heat and served.
Very yummy!!!

Friday, June 12, 2009

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog Florry, Tracy, Dave, Bob and Debra!!! Have fun and enjoy the posts!


Tika :)

Thursday, June 11, 2009

YOU WON'T BELIEVE THIS ONE!

After an uneventful day, I was winding down and working on edits. My dogs Joey and Tyler began to whine and pace, so I assumed they needed to go out. Due to their barking, I let them out separately at night because one dog makes less noise than two dogs. I let Tyler out first. He went potty and ran around the house, barking like a maniac. Of course he ignored my calls. I went out the kitchen door and walked up the path and spotted him dancing around on his hind legs. I didn't think much of it and walked to the beginning of the driveway. He reluctantly returned to me. I let Joey out the back door. He went potty and came in. End of story....so I thought.

Fifteen minutes later, both dogs began barking like crazy! I heard the same noise they did and ran to the kitchen door. I flipped the light on and there stood a beautiful 300 lb black bear. I'm not sure why, but I felt it was a female -- not a huge bear, but big enough. She stood on the deck intently pawing at the recycling bin. She was after the bag of garbage that Bob had put out there earlier. She stepped away from the porch and fool that I am, I opened the door and banged on the side of the house hollering "Get out of here! Go on, get!" The bear did as I expected and rambled toward the neighbor's fence. Joey ran out the door. Luckily he's sometimes a bit daft. The bear had gone right, Joey ran to the left. By this time, Bob is up and looking for the bear too. We got Joey inside, shut the door and locked it.

OK, so we're all safely inside, Bob went back to bed and I just couldn't stand it. I wanted to see the bear again. The back of our house has an atrium door (all glass). You step out onto a large balcony with four steps that lead to the ground. I went outside and walked to the edge of the balcony, my safe observation point. I looked by the neighbor's fence and couldn't see the bear. I heard a snort and looked down - OMG she was standing at the bottom of our steps! Since she was a matter of a few feet away, she looked a whole lot bigger.

In retrospect, I think I made some kind of a noise. I'm not a screamer, so that wasn't it. I whirled around and ran to the door. In my haste to avoid becomming bear fodder, I tripped at the door and fell into the house. I scrambled the rest of the way inside, reached up and locked the door. Yes, I was still on the floor. Bob got up again to see what the heck I was doing this time! I told him what I had done and he wanted to see the bear too. He opened the door and she was gone. He went back to the kitchen door and opened it. No bear. He went back to bed.

Ten minutes later there was a noise at the kitchen door. The dogs went wild. So did Bob, as he was trying to sleep. There were cans and bottles all over the ground. Bob said "Oh my! The garbage bag is gone! She took the whole bag!" Folks, I gotta tell you, a 300 lb bear dragged an overstuffed bag of garbage up the stone filled path and half way up a rocky driveway without it breaking! The commercial on TV where the little boy drags a Glad ForceFlex bag through the house was nothing, compared to this. Bob went out the atrium door to look and there was no bear. We looked on the side yards, no bear. He went out the kitchen door and I was right behind him with a butcher knife just in case he got attacked. She was gone. How rude. Eat and run.

Bob got up at five, after a terrible night's sleep. Now that it was light out, we could see the bag over halfway way up the driveway. She dragged it seventy five feet. Gotta go now. Gonna write to Glad. Maybe they'll pay me a million dollars for my story. hehe

Tika :)

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

SUMMER IS HERE!

I think! Our weather has been so fickle, I'm afraid that summer may just disappear again. Bob and I have been very busy in the yard. I again filled the holes in the ground that that bad boy Joey dug. I put sod on them this time, so maybe it will fool the little bugger and he'll dig somewhere else (like the neighbor's yard).

Bob trimmed lower limbs from the pesky trees that shaded my gardens and limited my view across the lake. Now it looks great! The flower beds and veggie garden are coming along. All I have left to plant is cukes and watermelon. I ordered a lot of flowers online because I need to redo the perennials. I can't wait until they get here!

We've enjoyed some wonderful evenings on the balcony, bbqing, having dinner and talking about our future. Bob will be retiring soon and we're hoping to finally build our new house across the lake. We bought a nice level lot there about four years ago.

For those of you who are wondering, yes.....I'm still editing book 3 (Window to Her Soul). Sorry for the wait, but I'm too picky.

Bye for now :)
Tika

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

YOU TUBE LINK

Thank you to Florentina, who has made a new video for me and posted it in You Tube. She worked for almost two weeks and it is tremendous! If you would like to view it, please go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q61BmIuQW7I
Don't forget to rate it by clicking on a star and feel free to leave comments :)

See you :)
Tika

Monday, June 1, 2009

FLOWER BEDS

The tiller isn't here yet, imagine that. However, Bob and I worked on another flower bed and got it all ready to plant. I planted some alyssum, snapdragons and celosi. Even though my poor bleeding heart baby got mowed down I found a new bonus today! I found 2 baby cyclamens in the grass next to the end garden. I made Bob dig them up and I transplanted them right away so they didn't have a run-in with the mower. I hope they survive ok :) I love my cyclamens.
Bye for now.
Tika :)