Naturally Yours

I'M B-A-A-A-C-K!

2012-01-05T07:42:00.000-08:00

A lot has been going on during the past year here at chez Reed, and I just couldn't get to blogging....but, now that a new year is here, I'm going to try to blog again as often as possible. Today we woke up to a light dusting of snow....our first this winter here in southern New Jersey. As I sit here at my desk looking out my window, I can see lots of birds at the hanging platform feeder....blue jays, house finches, even a male downy woodpecker with his beautiful red spot on the back of his head.

The sky during clear winter nights is so beautiful. I love seeing bright Venus toward the west, and still-bright Jupiter shining in the eastern sky. There have been good international space station sightings this week, and even though when looking at it from earth all one sees is just a bright light moving quickly across the sky, it is thrilling to know that currently there are 6 humans inside the station as we watch, maybe looking down at us!

Back again soon......

Mood "indigo"!

2010-06-01T19:53:00.000-07:00

Tonight ,walking the dogs, I saw an indigo bunting for the first time this year. He was sitting up on the electric wires which run along the edge of the woods and lead to the irrigation pump for the peach orchards. This is where we have seen an indigo bunting, year after year, sitting on the wire singing for a mate. I'll have to look for him at the thistle feeder in our front garden where I would be able to see him in full sunlight and really get to appreciate his beautiful blue feathers.

And, guess what! We have purple martins for the first time! We have had a martin house in the field for years, with no success. My sister-in-law, who lives next door, claimed last week that she was seeing martins. She said the males arrived a couple of weeks ago, with the females following last week. I couldn't believe it, but sure enough.....our local martin expert Alan Jackson was riding by the other day, and stopped to let us know that yes, indeed, we have martins. We lowered the martin house and he showed me just which nests were martin nests and which were house sparrow nests, which we removed. I'm looking forward to learning first-hand about martins. I want to lower the house in a day or two to look for any eggs which might have been laid. Then we will hope to find out when the eggs hatch so we can inform Alan when to come to band the birds. But first, tonight I need to order a snake baffle to place around the pole to keep any local black snakes from eating martin babies. I'll keep you informed!

Crazy Weather!

2010-05-19T14:31:00.000-07:00

Hasn't the weather been crazy?! It was quite a storm last Friday night. I stood out in our field and watched the lightning off in the distance as the storm was coming our way. It was pretty impressive....lots of cloud to cloud lightning that continued on for a long time after the storm had passed. We got some rain, but not much wind. Our trash can didn't even blow over. Who knew that just a mile away toward town, they were having a tremendous storm which took down many, many trees and caused our electricity to be off for about 25 hours....and we were lucky.....in toward town they were out for 2 1/2 days!

The other day as I was making my morning coffee I glanced out the kitchen window, and there in our backyard were 4 (!) tom turkeys "strutting their stuff", showing their tail feathers for just one lucky lady turkey. I'm enjoying having the hummindbirds around again. There are at least two coming to my feeders regularly.

I knew there was a good reason why I love flowers so much. I was reading an article in the Rutgers magazine that researchers have offered convincing evidence that flowers may be potent mood elevators. People who were given the gift of flowers for what they thought was a reward for participating in a study on mood were feeling happier days later than people who had been given either a decorative candle or a fruit basket. Happiness was measured by a special type of heartfelt smile that neither the candle nor the fruit basket elicited. One researcher called flowers "the pets of the plant world" in that, like a pet, flowers help reduce stress by making us feel good. Works for me!

Spring Progress, Space News

2010-05-07T13:25:00.000-07:00

I picked my last lilacs on Wednesday. I'm so sorry to see them go, as I love the wonderful aroma of lilacs. However, to take their place, my roses have started to bloom, and I picked a fragrant bouquet yesterday. Any day now I'll have peonies too. It's been so warm that my pansies are getting "leggy" already, and soon I'll have to pull them out and replace them with summer annuals.

I had my eye on a nice patch of buttercups along the road, but when I stopped today to pick some for pressing, the roadside had been mowed! Fortunately, the mower missed the short buttercups, so I found plenty to press. Buttercups are perhaps the nicest and easiest flower to press. They keep well after pressing, maintain their bright color, and are just the right size to add to a pressed flower picture. I always try to press plenty of buttercups every spring.

Perhaps you've seen the bright light that almost looks like an incoming airplane in the western sky in early evening. It's Venus, and is visible between about 30 to 90 minutes after sunset. You can't miss it! Also, there are lots of good sighting possibilities of the International Space Station coming up in the next week. If you haven't already checked, you can go to www.heavens-above.com, plug in your own zip code, and find out when the space station will be visible in your "neck of the woods". The next shuttle mission to the space station is scheduled for May 14....maybe we'll be able to spot both the shuttle and the space station this time as the shuttle races to catch up with the "station"!

There's some "Old Farmer's Advice" circulating on the internet. Most of what I receive isn't worth repeating, but this one has some great thoughts. Here's my favorite of the bunch:

"Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God."

I think that says it all!

Hummers and Azaleas

2010-04-30T12:55:00.000-07:00

Our first hummingbird showed up at the feeder this morning, just a few minutes before I returned from doing errands.....so my husband was the first in our family to see a hummer this year! I haven't seen one yet, but I will be keeping a sharp eye on the feeder for sure.

As far as other creatures....our fat little groundhog is making good use of the back yard looking for tender clover to feed on. And today my husband went to get something out of our storage shed, and found a big black snake curled up in there. My husband said that he quietly closed the door and didn't disturb the snake, figuring that if he got in, he could get himself out of there too!

It's time once again to visit Pratt's azalea gardens outside of Woodstown, NJ. As you might remember, Mr. Pratt welcomes visitors, free of charge, during the last week of April and the first two weeks of May from 1 - 5 pm daily. At the light at Richman's on Route 40, heading west, turn left and then take the first left, go a short distance, and you'll see the sign for Pratt's Gardens on your left. Go down the drive to the open field, where you can park. I think we'd better hurry over there, as the azaleas are in full bloom everywhere I go. The azaleas in the Bridgeton City Park are in bloom, and it won't be long before the rhododendrons are in bloom everywhere too. Mine are just beginning to open. We wait so long for the spring blooms, and all too soon they are gone!

And the Winners Are.....!

2010-04-26T21:22:00.000-07:00

Friends Nancy and Bob win the "prize" for seeing the first hummingbird of the year on Saturday, April 24! They live about a mile from me, so I know it won't be long before I see one around my neck of the woods. I have gotten out the feeder, cooked up some nectar, hung it right outside the kitchen window, and I hope to see a hummer soon! When that window is open, I can hear the little chirp, chirp, chirps of the hummers and the buzz of the wings when they feed.

The long-awaited spring blooms have come and gone so quickly this year. I still, though, have some late flowering daffodils in bloom....cute, little ones. The yellow magnolia is done, as is the "Jane" magnolia....supposed to bloom late, but already done this year. The redbud is still in full bloom. Herb says the redbud is his favorite spring tree. My lilacs have been blooming for more than a week and will soon be done. If there is any fragrance more lovely than the scent of lilacs, I don't know what it is! I stop to smell them each time I pass by them....I have to store up the memory of that wonderful scent! If someone came up with a perfume that smelled exactly like a lilac, I'd wear it all the time!

Today, being cold and rainy, seemed like a good day to make a pot of vegetable soup. I get a mixture of beans, peas, and barley, soak for 2 hours, cook the mixture 'til the beans are cooked, then add V-8....it makes a wonderful soup base. Throw in lots of dried dill, as many vegetables as you can find....fresh or frozen....let simmer and serve with some kind of hearty bread that "fights back". No wimpy bread for me. I get rye bread from an online store that imports partially baked sour rye bread from Germany, and it's perfect with vegetable soup....especially still warm from the finish baking.

I've been filling in for a member (she's traveling in Europe!) of a handbell choir at Elmer Methodist Church. There will be a handbell concert at 4 o'clock on Sunday, May 2 at Vineland High School. Three church choirs are combining for the concert. It should be very impressive. Playing the handbells is great fun and quite challenging....maybe you'd like to come out to hear the concert. All those handbells should make for a really happy sound!

O, O, Sweet Canada, Canada, Canada

2010-04-15T21:09:00.000-07:00

A white-throated sparrow singing right outside my bedroom window woke me at dawn this morning. What a nice way to wake up, even if it was a bit early! He sang and sang....I think maybe he was saying goodbye. It won't be long before the white throats are all gone from our area....to be replaced by hummers! I checked my notes from last year, and the first hummingbird of the season was spotted in our area on April 20, 2009, so it's time to get out our feeders. Please let me know when you see your first hummer this year.

I found the following article in a newspaper a while ago. I thought it was worth sharing...

In his book Walking Your Blues Away, Thom Hartmann notes that walking provides a break from the routine because the outside environment is always changing. "Looking at the same walls, the same furniture, the same place and people often anchors us to a particular state of mind," Hartmann says. "When we go out for a walk, that state is broken, and new states of mind and emotion provoked by new sounds, sights, smells, and sensations offer access to new ways of knowing and understanding ourselves and our problems or opportunities".

I couldn't have said it better myself!

A Crowd of Daffodils...and More!

2010-04-05T18:11:00.000-07:00

For the last several years, I have planted more and more daffodils, and this is the best year yet! My early bloomers are fading now, but the middle bloomers are all opened and are stunning. I have many different kinds...I think I counted 12 or more. I just love all the different colors together in one vase. To paraphrase Joan Rivers, one can never be too rich, too thin, or have too many different kinds of daffodils.

My Easter cactus plant has been threatening to bloom any day, and somehow its first bloom actually opened Easter morning! Now, how did it know it was Easter?!

Yesterday afternoon the first yellow magnolia bloom opened, and by the time we returned from dinner at my daughter-in-law's house, many blooms had opened. Today the weeping cherry turned pink. The cherries along the drive are in bloom, as is the pear tree. My bluebells are peeking through, and soon they will take the place of the fading first-blooming daffodils. Isn't this time of year wonderful?!

I woke up early this morning to watch the launch of the space shuttle. It is fascinating to watch the astronauts crawling through the shuttle hatch and then being strapped into their seats. They then lie there on their backs for several hours until launch time. Within 90 seconds of launch the shuttle is going 1000 miles per hour....and in only about 8 and 1/2 minutes they are in orbit. It's amazing! I learned by listening to the NASA TV channel today that launch times are decided by when the earth rotates the Kennedy Space Center into the same plane of the space station's orbit, so that the shuttle can be launched into an orbit that will allow it to catch up to the space station. After this one, there are only 3 more shuttle flights to the space station, then the shuttle fleet is being retired. In the future, astronauts will be "cosmonauts" - launched to the space station in a Russian space capsule. A couple of days ago, 3 were sent up to the station - 2 Russian men and one American woman. The Russian capsule is very tiny and the 3 space travelers are really packed into it. The bravery of all these people is astonishing....but the view of the earth from space must surely make it all worth while!

It's A Beautiful Saturday!

2010-03-27T12:38:00.000-07:00

It's a beautiful Saturday - cool and sunny. This weather will help my blooming daffodils to last a while. Our friend Marion has given me permission to print her poem about daffodils...many have told me that they miss hearing Marion read her poems on the radio. By the way, I have made it easier for you to post comments. I am new at this, but I have changed some settings, and think I have the problem ironed out.

DAFFODILS

My Lord - what a morning! For as far as I could see,
A row of awesome trumpets slowly turned toward me.
A cheerful yellow, like the sun, sweetly bowing - every one!
Behind the trumpets were lacy frills, I'm speaking now of DAFFODILS!

Why - there was yellow everywhere, upon the ground that once was bare!
It seemed they blew a tune to me, a song of spring, and joy, and glee!
They sprang up from the wintry ground, now there were dozens to be found.

It seems so long since I recall, when they were planted in the fall.
To go this long without a trace, then God produced them by His Grace!
They put a dance into my stride, to take some DAFFODILS inside.
Just put them in a lovely vase, to fill and light a gloomy space.
In passing by, to take a whiff once more would give my soul a lift!
On tabletop or windowsill, I love the golden DAFFODIL!

Thank you, Marion, and as you always say "God Bless"!

A Multitude of Daffodils

2010-03-22T20:02:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the warm weather and the rain, my gardens are full of daffodils. I picked my first bunch yesterday. The fact that spring is really here is slowly sinking into my brain. We saw a star magnolia tree in bloom on Saturday, my pansies show more color each day, the forsythia is nearly in full bloom along the driveway, and even the viburnum buds are filling out. I feel we can slowly give a sigh of relief...we've survived another winter!

I'm trying to eat healthy foods more often, and I enjoy recipes that make healthy foods taste good. Tonight I made broccoli salad - my mother's recipe. It's really tasty. I used a couple of stalks of broccoli, chopped, a not-too-big onion, chopped finely, and a good handful of golden raisins, mixed together in a bowl. You can add crumbled, cooked bacon if you wish. The dressing is 1 cup of mayonnaise (I used the "light" type), 1/4 c. sugar, and 2 t. vinegar. I use a bit more vinegar as I like a bit of a tang, and Mom always used cider vinegar, so I do too. It's a great side dish and a nice change from steamed broccoli. Even though it's not Jersey Fresh broccoli, it's been really sweet and delicious. Next time you steam broccoli, don't over cook it, and try dipping your broccoli into a mixture of mayonnaise and soy sauce just before popping it into your mouth. If you've got it, add a dash of dark toasted sesame oil - really yummy. Trust me on this!

Do YOU have a broccoli recipe to share?

2010-03-19T21:07:00.001-07:00

Later on Friday

Herb and I set our timer to remind us to look for the space station going overhead this evening. The sky was beautifully clear....we could see contrails of jets as they moved across the dark sky, the crescent moon was so bright, and we watched as the space station moved quickly overhead. It was one of the brightest sightings of the station we've seen yet....just a beautiful evening!

Let's Continue!

2010-03-19T12:09:00.000-07:00

Friday, March 19, 2010

Hello everyone, and welcome to this new version of Naturally Yours. I hope we can continue to communicate with each other through this new format. I'll continue to share with you what interests me, what I see in "my neck of the woods", my thoughts, etc., and I hope you will do the same.

My daffodils are beginning to open as I sit here writing....at long last! I heard a red-bellied woodpecker drumming on our big wild cherry tree yesterday morning, the swamp cabbage is up, my pansies are blooming away, and I even had the air conditioning on in my car yesterday. Spring is finally springing!

Tonight and tomorrow night look like promising times to look for the International Space Station to pass overhead. From about 7:48 - 7:53 tonight (Friday) it will be passing from the Northwest to the East Southeast, and tomorrow (Saturday) it will pass from the West Northwest to the South Southeast at about 8:13 - 8:17. If the skies are as clear as they have been, both should be good, clear sightings.

It you stop by this site for a visit, please leave a comment so that I know that you are able to view this blog. I'll "talk" to you again soon, so bye-bye for now!.....Sue