Odds and Ends on a Hot Friday

Another week.  The time seems to fly by.  We have had a productive week at Crest Avenue, but we are ready to take some downtime over the weekend.  Baxter was particularly happy that is was Friday this morning.

He was acting like a crazy boy this morning and running and digging.

Later when I took the trash to the curb for pick up, I noticed how beautiful the begonias were in the individual pots on the front porch.

These filled in very nicely as I expected they would.  A wider shot includes the maidenhair fern.

This is really a beautiful arrangement on the front porch.  And it's just little clay pots filled with pink and white begonias around a larger clay pot with fern and a few begonias planted around the fern.  A beautiful look and for very little cost.  I got the begonias at the garden center at Walmart and the little clay pots I found in the shed.  The fern was there all winter.

We had a graduation in the family this year.  My cousin, once removed, Miss Bailey Saunders Good graduated from my alma mater, Orange County High School (Go Hornets!!!!).  We all love her and wish her all the best at James Madison University beginning in the fall.  I found the perfect card for her.

Now to get a little something in here to show the graduate how proud I am of her and get this in the mail.  We all love you Bailey.

So there is an olio of things that are going on this Friday at Crest Avenue.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend.  I want to talk about the greenhouse installation next week.  Let's see how that goes.

Odds and Ends on a Hot Friday

Another week.  The time seems to fly by.  We have had a productive week at Crest Avenue, but we are ready to take some downtime over the weekend.  Baxter was particularly happy that is was Friday this morning.

He was acting like a crazy boy this morning and running and digging.

Later when I took the trash to the curb for pick up, I noticed how beautiful the begonias were in the individual pots on the front porch.

These filled in very nicely as I expected they would.  A wider shot includes the maidenhair fern.

This is really a beautiful arrangement on the front porch.  And it's just little clay pots filled with pink and white begonias around a larger clay pot with fern and a few begonias planted around the fern.  A beautiful look and for very little cost.  I got the begonias at the garden center at Walmart and the little clay pots I found in the shed.  The fern was there all winter.

We had a graduation in the family this year.  My cousin, once removed, Miss Bailey Saunders Good graduated from my alma mater, Orange County High School (Go Hornets!!!!).  We all love her and wish her all the best at James Madison University beginning in the fall.  I found the perfect card for her.

Now to get a little something in here to show the graduate how proud I am of her and get this in the mail.  We all love you Bailey.

So there is an olio of things that are going on this Friday at Crest Avenue.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend.  I want to talk about the greenhouse installation next week.  Let's see how that goes.

An Early Morning at Crest Avenue

Baxter and I were up early this morning.  Well, actually, Baxter was up early which, consequently meant that I was up early.  He wanted breakfast and he wanted it now.  "Get up daddy!  Get up daddy!  GET UP DADDY!  I'm hungry!"  So I put him down on the floor and he took off like a bullet.  He looked like the Roadrunner from the cartoons.  He had breakfast on his plate and then it was time to go outside.  I grabbed the camera and got a few shots while it was still nice and cool.

Here is Elephant Ear number one.

And Elephant Ear number two.  Remember these are the Black Elephant Ears that I planted early in the spring.  Their growth over the past couple weeks has been amazing.  They look very healthy and happy in this semi-shaded spot next to one of the Sweet Gum trees.  They prefer a shaded area.  I also planted twenty Caladium in this area at the same time I planted the Elephant Ears and I have seen nothing.  I don't know what is going on.  It may be that we won't see them until next year.

A little further back in the yard, I found a nest in one of the crepe myrtle trees.  We talked about the crepe myrtles yesterday, so I went back this morning to see if there were any blooms that I could share with you.  There were not, but I found this nest.  I wonder what kind of bird has made their home here.  We'll have to watch closely and see if we can find out.

Over at the tomato garden, I was pleasantly surprised to find very healthy vines loaded with fruit.  I looks like we will have a good harvest this year.

This is my second tomato for this season.  It was a little sad looking.  The first one was beautifully shaped.  I pulled this and had it for breakfast.  When the skin splits on a tomato while still on the vine, it does not effect the flavor.  It is caused by inconsistent watering, which cannot always be avoided.  Tomato plants should be watered every 2 or 3 days in the summer.  They should be watered at ground level.  If you have waited a couple days and then a big summer storm comes through and drops a lot of rain, the inside of the tomato grows at a faster rate than the skin and that is what causes them to split.  So, all we can do is do our best and keep the watering as consistent as possible.  If you end up with some tomato that split, so be it.  It's not the end of the world.  Just bring them in, wash them off and slice them and enjoy.

An Early Morning at Crest Avenue

Baxter and I were up early this morning.  Well, actually, Baxter was up early which, consequently meant that I was up early.  He wanted breakfast and he wanted it now.  "Get up daddy!  Get up daddy!  GET UP DADDY!  I'm hungry!"  So I put him down on the floor and he took off like a bullet.  He looked like the Roadrunner from the cartoons.  He had breakfast on his plate and then it was time to go outside.  I grabbed the camera and got a few shots while it was still nice and cool.

Here is Elephant Ear number one.

And Elephant Ear number two.  Remember these are the Black Elephant Ears that I planted early in the spring.  Their growth over the past couple weeks has been amazing.  They look very healthy and happy in this semi-shaded spot next to one of the Sweet Gum trees.  They prefer a shaded area.  I also planted twenty Caladium in this area at the same time I planted the Elephant Ears and I have seen nothing.  I don't know what is going on.  It may be that we won't see them until next year.

A little further back in the yard, I found a nest in one of the crepe myrtle trees.  We talked about the crepe myrtles yesterday, so I went back this morning to see if there were any blooms that I could share with you.  There were not, but I found this nest.  I wonder what kind of bird has made their home here.  We'll have to watch closely and see if we can find out.

Over at the tomato garden, I was pleasantly surprised to find very healthy vines loaded with fruit.  I looks like we will have a good harvest this year.

This is my second tomato for this season.  It was a little sad looking.  The first one was beautifully shaped.  I pulled this and had it for breakfast.  When the skin splits on a tomato while still on the vine, it does not effect the flavor.  It is caused by inconsistent watering, which cannot always be avoided.  Tomato plants should be watered every 2 or 3 days in the summer.  They should be watered at ground level.  If you have waited a couple days and then a big summer storm comes through and drops a lot of rain, the inside of the tomato grows at a faster rate than the skin and that is what causes them to split.  So, all we can do is do our best and keep the watering as consistent as possible.  If you end up with some tomato that split, so be it.  It's not the end of the world.  Just bring them in, wash them off and slice them and enjoy.

Dill and Shrimp Salad

I told you yesterday that we would discuss the making of this most delicious salad.  I made it over the weekend and served it two ways; wrapped in Butter Lettuce (Boston Bibb) and atop chopped Hearts of Romaine.  Either way was delicious.  Of course, served on a warm croissant with a little butter wouldn't be too bad.  But I am laying off the bread for awhile.  So, here goes with the assembly of Dill and Shrimp Salad.



We start with 3 pounds of uncooked, large shrimp that have been defrosted, unless you bought them fresh, which would be nice.  These are rinsed and placed in a dutch oven with 2 quarts of boiling water, salt to taste and the juice of one half of a lemon.  Boil them 3 - 5 minutes, then drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking.  Leaving them to cook longer than 5 minutes makes them rubbery.




I gave a rough chop to the celery.  I like it a little large in this recipe.  I remove a good deal from the bottom of each celery stalk because I do not like that white, flared part at the end where it attaches to the stalk, so I actually used 3 stalks of celery.  I will leave the recipe stating 2 stalks because that may be enough for you.  It will not really matter.  The salad will be delicious with either 2 or 3 stalks of celery.  And the green onions, of course.




I coarsely chopped three green onions, leaving in some of the green.  I do not go to the very end, but I like incorporating some of the dark green in any salad because it adds a pungent flavor to whatever you are making.  It's a little more bitter than the white part of the onion and I like that.




One tablespoon of finely chopped fresh dill.  This is one of the most important ingredients, hence the name Dill and Shrimp Salad.  Use fresh dill.  No dried dill in this dish.  And remove the dill from the stem.  It takes a little longer but it is worth the effort.  I would suggest using a generous tablespoon.




I added the onion to the celery and then added the maonnaise.




Then the lemon and lime juice and the white pepper and the dill.




And this is what the dressing looked like for the shrimp.




A lovely bowl of freshly cooked shrimp.



And a view from above of that same bowl.  Before adding the dressing I sliced each shrimp in half, bisecting body from tail.  I used large shrimp for this dish.  I find that cutting each shrimp in half when using large shrimp makes for a more enjoyable eating experience.  If you used medium shrimp, most likely it would not be necessary to cut them.  And small shrimp certainly would not need to be cut.  I would not use small shrimp for this dish.



  

I added the dressing to the shrimp and mixed it all together.





Another view of my creation.




And finally, the salad was assembled.




This is a little trick that I use when making these kinds of salads.  I place it in a large Ziploc bag and place that bag in the refrigerator.  It spreads the salad out so that all of it marinates evenly.  After about an hour, I turn the bag over and let the salad marinate on the other side.  You can leave this in the refrigerator and turn it periodically until time for your party.  This is a better way to marinate the salad rather than leaving it in a bowl where only the shrimp in the very bottom will get the advantage of marinating.  You would constantly be stirring and stirring an stirring and in the end the salad would still not be fully marinated.




And finally, the shrimp over romaine lettuce.

 This is so incredible that I am making it again tonight.  It is perfect for lunch - or dinner.  I would definitely serve this to company.  Before I wrote this post I added this to the Food and Recipe page.  So if you are interested in giving it a try, you can get your ingredient list there.

While I was on the Food and Recipe page, I removed the Crab and Cheese Souffle recipe.  I did not care for that.  First of all, it did not rise properly, I believe, because of the added crab.  Secondly, because it did not rise properly, it was very heavy and must too rich for my taste.  I think we need to just stick to good old cheese souffle with gruyere.  Those are divine and so easy to make.

Dill and Shrimp Salad

I told you yesterday that we would discuss the making of this most delicious salad.  I made it over the weekend and served it two ways; wrapped in Butter Lettuce (Boston Bibb) and atop chopped Hearts of Romaine.  Either way was delicious.  Of course, served on a warm croissant with a little butter wouldn't be too bad.  But I am laying off the bread for awhile.  So, here goes with the assembly of Dill and Shrimp Salad.



We start with 3 pounds of uncooked, large shrimp that have been defrosted, unless you bought them fresh, which would be nice.  These are rinsed and placed in a dutch oven with 2 quarts of boiling water, salt to taste and the juice of one half of a lemon.  Boil them 3 - 5 minutes, then drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking.  Leaving them to cook longer than 5 minutes makes them rubbery.




I gave a rough chop to the celery.  I like it a little large in this recipe.  I remove a good deal from the bottom of each celery stalk because I do not like that white, flared part at the end where it attaches to the stalk, so I actually used 3 stalks of celery.  I will leave the recipe stating 2 stalks because that may be enough for you.  It will not really matter.  The salad will be delicious with either 2 or 3 stalks of celery.  And the green onions, of course.




I coarsely chopped three green onions, leaving in some of the green.  I do not go to the very end, but I like incorporating some of the dark green in any salad because it adds a pungent flavor to whatever you are making.  It's a little more bitter than the white part of the onion and I like that.




One tablespoon of finely chopped fresh dill.  This is one of the most important ingredients, hence the name Dill and Shrimp Salad.  Use fresh dill.  No dried dill in this dish.  And remove the dill from the stem.  It takes a little longer but it is worth the effort.  I would suggest using a generous tablespoon.




I added the onion to the celery and then added the maonnaise.




Then the lemon and lime juice and the white pepper and the dill.




And this is what the dressing looked like for the shrimp.




A lovely bowl of freshly cooked shrimp.



And a view from above of that same bowl.  Before adding the dressing I sliced each shrimp in half, bisecting body from tail.  I used large shrimp for this dish.  I find that cutting each shrimp in half when using large shrimp makes for a more enjoyable eating experience.  If you used medium shrimp, most likely it would not be necessary to cut them.  And small shrimp certainly would not need to be cut.  I would not use small shrimp for this dish.



  

I added the dressing to the shrimp and mixed it all together.





Another view of my creation.




And finally, the salad was assembled.




This is a little trick that I use when making these kinds of salads.  I place it in a large Ziploc bag and place that bag in the refrigerator.  It spreads the salad out so that all of it marinates evenly.  After about an hour, I turn the bag over and let the salad marinate on the other side.  You can leave this in the refrigerator and turn it periodically until time for your party.  This is a better way to marinate the salad rather than leaving it in a bowl where only the shrimp in the very bottom will get the advantage of marinating.  You would constantly be stirring and stirring an stirring and in the end the salad would still not be fully marinated.




And finally, the shrimp over romaine lettuce.

 This is so incredible that I am making it again tonight.  It is perfect for lunch - or dinner.  I would definitely serve this to company.  Before I wrote this post I added this to the Food and Recipe page.  So if you are interested in giving it a try, you can get your ingredient list there.

While I was on the Food and Recipe page, I removed the Crab and Cheese Souffle recipe.  I did not care for that.  First of all, it did not rise properly, I believe, because of the added crab.  Secondly, because it did not rise properly, it was very heavy and must too rich for my taste.  I think we need to just stick to good old cheese souffle with gruyere.  Those are divine and so easy to make.

I Love Crepe Myrtles (Lagerstroemia)

Lagerstroemia

 

"Commonly known as crape myrtle or crepe myrtle, is a genus of around 50 species of deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs native to the Indian Subcontinent, southeast Asia, northern Australia and parts of Oceania, cultivated in warmer climates around the world. It is a member of the Lythraceae, which is also known as the loosestrife family. The genus is named after the Swedish merchant Magnus von Lagerström, who supplied Carolus Linnaeus with plants he collected. These flowering trees are beautifully colored and are often planted both privately and commercially. Popular varieties used in modern landscaping include the bright red Dynamite Crape Myrtle, the deep pink Pink Velour Crape and the purple Twilight Crape Myrtle, which also has a bark that changes colors. These trees come in many different hues, as outlined on the Crape Myrtle Comparison Char."

I could not have said it better myself.  So there you have it.  I have four of these wonderful trees in the back yard at Crest Avenue.  They generally bloom in August, however I am seeing some that are starting to show flowers now.  I pruned all the lower branches off my trees early in the spring this year.  This gave them a much more uniform look and got rid of some dead branches.  The derecho and microburst last year did a little damage to one of them, but I was able to correct that.  As I was walking to the train platform this morning, I was impressed with these two trees at the Cheverly Metro Station.

The groundspeople keep this area so clean.  I love how the trunks of these trees have formed.  This is exactly what I am attempting to achieve in my yard.  I removed all the lower branches.  This forces the energy up to the top canopy which as you can see here is just lush and beautiful.  These trees have tiny flowers just starting to peek out.  I planted my crepe myrtles in the fall of 2004, so they are not as mature as these.  But they have flourished these past 13 years and are starting to take on good shape.  I will share pictures with you when they are in full bloom.

I Love Crepe Myrtles (Lagerstroemia)

Lagerstroemia

 

"Commonly known as crape myrtle or crepe myrtle, is a genus of around 50 species of deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs native to the Indian Subcontinent, southeast Asia, northern Australia and parts of Oceania, cultivated in warmer climates around the world. It is a member of the Lythraceae, which is also known as the loosestrife family. The genus is named after the Swedish merchant Magnus von Lagerström, who supplied Carolus Linnaeus with plants he collected. These flowering trees are beautifully colored and are often planted both privately and commercially. Popular varieties used in modern landscaping include the bright red Dynamite Crape Myrtle, the deep pink Pink Velour Crape and the purple Twilight Crape Myrtle, which also has a bark that changes colors. These trees come in many different hues, as outlined on the Crape Myrtle Comparison Char."

I could not have said it better myself.  So there you have it.  I have four of these wonderful trees in the back yard at Crest Avenue.  They generally bloom in August, however I am seeing some that are starting to show flowers now.  I pruned all the lower branches off my trees early in the spring this year.  This gave them a much more uniform look and got rid of some dead branches.  The derecho and microburst last year did a little damage to one of them, but I was able to correct that.  As I was walking to the train platform this morning, I was impressed with these two trees at the Cheverly Metro Station.

The groundspeople keep this area so clean.  I love how the trunks of these trees have formed.  This is exactly what I am attempting to achieve in my yard.  I removed all the lower branches.  This forces the energy up to the top canopy which as you can see here is just lush and beautiful.  These trees have tiny flowers just starting to peek out.  I planted my crepe myrtles in the fall of 2004, so they are not as mature as these.  But they have flourished these past 13 years and are starting to take on good shape.  I will share pictures with you when they are in full bloom.