The weather is great today, making it is a good day to get busy in the garden.
I got to bury the legs of the Garden Trellis that my husband build a few years back. This trellis will support the young vine (Common Jasmine), as well as provide proper training and maintenance.
This simple/primitive garden trellis was built using old pieces of some baseboard we removed from the house when we were doing the upgrades, a medium size screw to hold the top together as well as some twines.
Garden Trellis for Common Jasmine.
Materials/Tools Needed:
Old baseboard pieces
Jute Twine
Wood Screws, Power Drill, Drill Bits
Stain (for the Wood) or Paint/Spray Paint
Step by step:
Get your baseboard and cut them into three pieces of your desire height
Hold the three pieces and screw them together at the top
Paint/Stain the finish product (you could paint/stain the pieces of wood before or after screwing them)
Let dry
Wrap the twine around the tripod, keeping it nice and tight and it’s ready to be used.
Are you done decorating for Halloween? Here at my Home, we enjoy looking and admiring other people’s decorations. We will drive around just to see what’s happening on the other side, but we are just so unmotivated to decorate our own yard. It’s in part due to the fact that we are not into scary stuff. We always display Matilda, the good witch greeter to welcome friends and guests (as you can see her sitting pretty in the front yard).
Matilda (good witch), Porch Greeter.
We also swap out the solar lights in the front yard to blend in with the season. I recently bought a few Mosaic Solar Light Garden Stakes and as you can see, the colors are perfect for the season. At dusk when they turn on and light shines through the orange mosaic glass, the luminosity is not only enchanting, but sensational as well.
Mosaic Solar Light Garden Stakes.
We love our Fall Flag which almost looks 3D with the Scarecrow sporting straw hair. The flag is part of a set and the best thing about it is that it’s weather-resistant and compliments everything else in the yard.
Fall Garden Flag.
We have a black Tinsel Cat, which is a favorite of my kids, especially my daughter. We swapped her original eyes to pink googly eyes and gave her a pink bow as well.
Black Tinsel Cat.
All the products above were purchased from Collections Etc. The site carries a huge variety of items and I am fond of their unique selection of Solar Powered Lights.
Do you go all out decorating your Home and Yard for Halloween?
Halloween is just around the corner and this year my kids are looking forward to it with excitement. They love their costumes which they will be sporting for Howl Fest on Friday at my Son’s school. In the interim, we are still figuring out what to do for Halloween; especially treats we can make at home.
Be it food, drawings, movies or costumes, my kids have no interest in anything scary. I am sharing with you a few edible ideas that are kid-friendly, spooky and fun. When it comes to Halloween and food, creativity is endless. You can imagine and make something fun or you can find ideas on Pinterest.
I have loved Madeleines for as long as I can remember. They are one of my favorite comfort treats followed by Chocolate and I enjoy having them with a cup of coffee. Last night finally, after weeks of promises to my family, I got to use the Madeleines mold set I bought a couple of years ago from Bed Bath & Beyond. The air is still filled with the smell of freshly baked Madeleines, taking me back to my childhood. Another favorite food smell of mine are Crepes, Croissants, Empanadas as they remind me of my Mother.
Buttered & Floured Pan.Madeleines in Pan.Madeleines in Pan, out of the oven.
My Madeleines are a little ‘dorées’, just the way I like them. They were very soft inside as I let the butter melt substantially before adding it to the rest of the ingredients and blending it all together.
Preheat oven to 375°F. Generously butter and flour pan for large Madeleines (about 3 x 1 1/4 inches).
Using electric mixer, beat eggs and 2/3 cup sugar in large bowl just to blend. Beat in vanilla, lemon peel and salt. Add flour; beat just until blended. Gradually add cooled melted butter in a steady stream, beating just until blended. Spoon 1 tablespoon batter into each indentation in the pan. Bake until puffed and brown, about 16 minutes.
Cool 5 minutes. Gently remove from pan. Repeat process, buttering and flouring pan before each batch.
Click here to learn how to soften butter in the microwave oven and here for other methods to soften butter.
We had a fun weekend rich in discoveries, especially for my kids.
On Friday, while visiting Linda Marie’s Enchanted Treasures in Oro Grande, my son spotted a Paper Wasp.
According to Wikipedia, paper wasps are 0.7 to 1.0 inch (1.8 to 2.5 cm)-long wasps that gather fibers from dead wood and plant stems, which they mix with saliva, and use to construct water-resistant nests made of gray or brown papery material. Paper wasps are also sometimes called umbrella wasps, due to the distinctive design of their nests. Unlike yellowjackets and hornets, which can be very aggressive, polistine paper wasps will generally only attack if they themselves or their nest are threatened. Paper wasps feed on nectar, and other insects, including caterpillars, flies, and beetle larvae. Because they are a known pollinator and their diet of known garden pests, paper wasps are often considered to be beneficial by gardeners.
However, beneficial wasps can quickly become a nuisance to urban society. They pack a powerful, painful sting that can cause severe allergic reaction and even death in some human victims.
Paper Wasp.
On Saturday, while spending time in the backyard, my little explorer of a Son found what seems to be a Beetle with a stinger or retractable ovipositor (an organ located at the end of the abdomen used by female insects to lay eggs. It could also be used as a piercing, stinging organ in many parasitic species such as Wasps).
It looks similar to the Darkling Beetle, however, it was our first time seeing one with an ovipositor. I will inquire about this insect on WhatsThatBug.com. In the mean time, any information about this insect will be greatly appreciated.
Beetle with Ovipositor.
On Sunday morning, I spotted a Red-shafted Northern Flicker woodpecker on one of our next door neighbor’s tallest Pine Trees. They have red feather shafts and red on the underside of their tail feathers (as you can see on the picture below). The male and female differ in that only the male has red whisker marks. Unlike other woodpeckers, Northern Flickers prefer to hunt for insects on the ground. They eat nuts, ants, seeds, berries, beetle larvae as well as other insect larva. Click here or here to learn more about this bird.
Red-shafted Northern Flicker.
Thanks to the awesome weather, I did some gardening and got my hands dirty. I transplanted the last four Pendula Yucca sprouts to the new designed area in the backyard and my Mint into a large planter. My husband build a primitive wood planter for the “Peach Blossom” hybrid Oleander (the only I kept from last months giveaway). I removed spent fronds from my Palm Tree.
Primitive Wood Planter.
To top it all off, we spend our night looking at the stars under a gorgeous full moon.
By JM Perez
