Blossoms, Birds, and a Pie Review

I finally tried my SU Blendabilities and put some of my try-outs to good use on some needed cards this past week.  The above card is an anniversary card for my cousin and her husband.  She loves pink and to keep it from being too feminine I used that triangle background paper in green.

A close friend of my cousin just underwent hip replacement surgery for both hips.  I have been fortunate enough to have met her on a couple of occasions and wanted to wish her well in her recovery.  That big Blackberry Bliss flower above was for her.

Below is another bloom in Calypso Coral shades for our very good friends who are also celebrating their anniversary this week.

I added two little wooden birds (thanks Sabrina) to the burlap trim.  

Here is a sampling of the blooms that I colored.  I tried coloring them both ways, light to dark and dark to light and I don't really see any difference.

Oh, except on this last one that highlights a new technique called Etching.  You use a fine-tip marker to add mucho lines to the petals on the inner surface as well as the tip of the petal leaving a white space in between to look like light reflected and thus giving the petals some dimension.  You could do this in any color on any color paper, but I chose to try black and white first.

Last weekend HWNSNBP wanted to go for a walk in one of the local parks.  Luckily I had brought along the camera just in case I saw anything picture worthy and I was very glad that I did.

Along the road of the park entrance I had been looking at the field of wildflowers/weeds when my eye caught this guy below.  I asked HWNSNBP to turn around and come back down the road so I could capture him with the camera.  

In the picture below we were right alongside him but up the road embankment.  He looked a little cautious and was starting to move away at this point.

On our short walk through the park (it was very hot and I'm still rebuilding my strength) we saw these plants growing in a ditch along the pathway.  They are called Jewelweed or Spotted Touch-me-not and the indians used this plant to combat the effects of poison ivy.  

The next picture is a little blurry, but inside the flower you can see the red spots.  HWNSNBP wanted to know how I knew these things as I was pointing out other "flowering weeds" in the ditch and I reminded him that I had a field guide that I used many, many years ago to identify some of the flowering plants that were growing in the area around our neighborhood.  Some of them, like the Jewelweed, have disappeared having either been consumed by the deer or cut down by homeowners. 

 I find this sad in a way, because some of those flowers, like chicory and tickseed sunflowers (wild coreopsis) were so pretty even though they are considered weeds.  

  

A few of you asked to let you know how my buttermilk pie turned out.  Well, it tasted pretty good, however, I made quite the mess trying to put it in the oven myself (I'm not supposed to be bending yet).  I will confess that I did not make the crust from scratch.  HWNSNBP picked up a package of frozen pie crusts for me and after I let it thaw, I pinched up the edges, but apparently not enough.  There was more batter than would fit in the pie shell and wanting to use as much as I could I filled the pie crust to the brim.  Needless to say, from the counter to the oven it started to escape and run over the edges and continued to do so in the oven making a big mess.  At that point I turned off the oven and had him pull it out and we waited til the oven cooled off a bit so he could clean up the mess on the bottom that had already started to burn.  I removed some of the filling and put some aluminum foil on the cookie sheet to catch anything that might escape after that, but none did.  I think I would definitely use a bigger pie shell the next time.  Oh, and because there was lemon juice and grated lemon in the batter, it tasted mostly like a lemon custard pie on the verge of coconut.  I think I will add some coconut next time and cut back on the lemon a little.  

And while I'm at it, this is a picture of the peach butter on some toasted English muffins and cream cheese.  It's a little more syrupy than I would like but it tastes delicious!

And finally, we got to see some of the "white birds" this weekend.  Boy was yesterday hot.  The hottest day of the summer so far and humid way past the point of comfort.  

If you could have heard the noise that went along with this picture and the way that they seem to be partially lined up you might have thought that this was a chorus line and the cormorants were getting ready for practice much quicker than the egrets.

Wouldn't it be great to see them do a pinwheel?

I hope you had a lovely weekend.  We are going to have some cooler, less humid days this week that I am looking forward to.  I do my "laps" in the early morning and early evening when it's not as hot around a portion of our backyard that used to be half a basketball court.  You should hear the bluejays yell at me when I get too close to the suet feeder.  I just tell them to come back when I'm done!