Bill and Penny enjoy a morning cup of coffee, while Peachy tries to sneak into the picture. Wishing you a lovely day …
This week’s photography challenge: companionable.
Monthly Archives: June 2013
Beautiful for a Day
Hemerocallis – beautiful for a day – is the botanical name for daylilies, so called because each bloom typically lasts for one day. Much of my garden is looking a bit bedraggled from the storm that passed through here last night, but not the daylilies. Since every morning brings all new blooms, they are having their day in the spotlight. This daylily is called Anzac.
Wishing you a lovely weekend …
Easter Lilies in June
Last year someone gave a potted Easter Lily to a friend of mine. After it was done blooming, my friend didn’t want it anymore. So she gave the lily to me and I planted it in my garden. I wasn’t sure whether it would come back this year because it didn’t look very vigorous when I received it; but it did come back and it just started blooming. Its fragrance is equal to its beauty. I wish that I could include some of its scent in this post to share with you. Have a lovely day!
Happy Echinacea
It is a hot but glorious day here in Manhattan, Kansas and the purple coneflowers are just soaking up the sun. With the Linden tree out front gone, the echinacea which it had partially shaded are looking better than ever. Don’t they just seem to be loving summer? Now if only there were some butterflies out there …
Plum & Blueberry Crumbles
I bought some amazing plums at Eastside Market over the weekend and so decided to make Plum & Blueberry Crumbles for breakfast yesterday. Yum!
Plum & Blueberry Crumbles
makes 4 servings
3 T. + 2 t. unsalted butter, divided
2 lg. ripe black plums, halved and pitted
1/2 c. blueberries
1/4 c. quick cooking rolled oats
1/4 c. all-purpose flour or gluten-free all-purpose flour
3 T. coarsely chopped hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts or pecans
2 1/2 T. light brown sugar
3/4 t. Vietnamese cinnamon
1/4 t. ground aniseed
1/4 t. ground allspice
1/4 t. ground ginger
1/8 t. ground cardamom
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Using 1 T. of the butter, grease 4 four-inch glass tartlet pans.
2. Cut each plum half into 6 slices. Arrange slices in bottom of pans. Sprinkle blueberries over plums.
3. In a small food processor, pulse together remaining ingredients until crumbly and sticking together. Sprinkle crumb mixture over fruit.
4. Place tartlet pans on baking tray. Bake for 25 minutes or until bubbly. Serve warm.
Enjoy!
A Fine Morning for Quilting
Since my guests were all having late breakfasts this morning, I decide to do some photography in the garden while I had a chance. When I was out there, I noticed one of our guests sitting on the porch and working on a very handsome quilt. I decided to switch gears and photograph her instead. Abby was enjoying the morning light for working on her project while waiting for her husband to get up for breakfast. A friend had given Abby some sunflower fabric that she had purchased on a vacation and Abby was using it in a sunflower-themed quilt. So much painstaking work!
Thank you to Abby from Kansas for graciously allowing me to photograph her while she sewed and to use the photos on my blog!
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Daily Prompt: Island of Misfit Posts
For today’s prompt, participants are invited to post a story or image that doesn’t fit with the usual theme of their blogs. For mine, I am sharing one of my digital abstracts. Â I call this “The Rush.”
Weekly Photo Challenge: The World Through Your Eyes
This is a picture that I took this morning in between serving breakfasts. The theme for this photo challenge – the world through your eyes – calls for the photographer to use lines and light, etc. to make clear what she had in mind in taking the photo. If you look at this lily and feel like it is right in front of you, then I have succeeded in showing it through my eyes.
By the way, if you read my Wild Daylily Gin & Tonics post, you will want to note that this is an Asiatic lily, not a daylily. Asiatic lilies are not edible!
Travel Theme: Ripples
This is an artistic interpretation of a photo that I took in Florida a few years ago of catfish feeding at the surface of the water. Thanks to Where’s My Backpack for the “ripple” prompt!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Wild Daylily Gin & Tonics
After working in the garden much of the day yesterday, I made Wild Daylily Gin & Tonics to celebrate the first day of summer. Â Here’s to summer!
Wild Daylily Gin & Tonics
The blooms in these summery cocktails are edible and are meant to be eaten. They taste like cucumbers and are easiest to eat starting from the stem end.
Gin
Tonic Water
Lemon Slices
Hemerocallis fulva Blooms (See note below.)
(1) Pick fresh Hemerocallis fulva blooms. Remove and discard the pollen covered tips from the stamens. Gently wash blooms in cold water.Â
(2) For each G&T, fill a tall tumbler about 3/4 full of ice. Add lemon slices. Fill about 1/3 of the way with gin then top off with tonic. Gently stir. Place a daylily in the top. Enjoy!Â
Note: Do not eat true lilies or use them as garnishes. True lilies – plants in the lillium family (e.g. Easter Lilies, Asiatic Lilies, Oriental Lilies, etc.) – are poisonous. Daylilies are not true lilies. Ones of the wild variety are edible, though occasionally someone is allergic to them. Hemerocallis fulva – wild daylilies – are the only daylilies recommended for eating because, given the many different hybridized cultivars out there, it is possible that some one or another could make a person sick. Wild daylilies, the tall orange ones that are often seen growing wild along the side of country roads, are edible. I grow them in my garden and use the blooms to garnish beverages and salads. I haven’t tried eating the tubers, but I have read in several places that sauteed wild daylily tubers are quite tasty.
There are a number of articles available on cooking with daylilies. Here are a few links:
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A Taste of Morning 