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Archive for Renee Spindle

A Rose is a Rose is a Rose

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Renee Spindle

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. ~ William Shakespeare

This rose is in my little rose garden next to our back patio. The kids gave me this rose-bush for a Mother’s Day present a few years ago. It has the loveliest colors, and I thought it would be nice to start off your Tuesday with some loveliness.

I have been trying my hand at photography once again. It’s been a long time since I’ve taken pictures like this just for fun. I was shooting with Travel Man’s Canon G12. Lots of fun to be learning again!

Do you have any hobbies you’ve gotten away from? what’s keeping you from getting back to them?

4 comments Posted in Around the House, Blogging, Gardening, Travel Man

We Made Garden Markers

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Renee Spindle

The gardening season is in full swing and I have a few projects that I’ve been meaning to share with all of you. We are already harvesting our zucchini, and had our first grilled zucchini last week. Oh yum. And by the way how is it possibly the 6th of August already? Didn’t we just celebrate the 4th of July?

I had been wanting to make plant markers for the garden so it would be easy for Evan to know what all of the plants are, and just because I thought it would be cute. Plus I had seen a lot of ideas for the markers on Martha Stewart‘s crafting page, so I was inspired. And as a bonus to the budget, I wanted to spend as little money as possible on this project.

There were these dilapidated stakes from a short border fence we had taken apart at one time or another. Great these will be my new garden markers. Next I went into the garage and perused my leftover paint shelf. There was this great green color just calling my name. I call it my lime sherbet paint.

So off Evan and I went to paint the sticks. This was of course during one of our “Camp Grandma” days. Evan loves to paint so I knew he would be a good helper for this project. We painted one side of the sticks, let them dry, turned them over and then painted the second side. This took up most of our morning, and then we went for a swim. I left the sticks to dry overnight, so we could put the lettering on for the plant names.

The next week at Camp Grandma we painted the plant names on the sticks. I bought some paint pens (the only thing I had to buy!), as I knew this would make it easier for Evan to help me. I was really glad I got them because he had a lot of fun being creative with his lettering.

These are my favorites of everything we painted. I love how Evan got the patriotic theme going. And he did make one marker that says, “Evan is cool”.

Here’s the rest of the finished markers, and how they look in the garden.

This was a great, inexpensive project. It was fun collecting all of the supplies from “stuff” on the shelves around the garage and in the garden shed. Evan and I had a lot of fun together, and the markers look so great in the garden. A great summertime project. Of course Evan had more fun making mud pies. More on that adventure later. Happy Monday everyone!

No comments Posted in Around the House, Crafts, DIY Projects, Family, Gardening

Maps Are Changing on Our Devices: Google Earth 3D is a Start

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Renee Spindle

No comments Posted in Family

Peach Crisp – A yummy summer treat.

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Renee Spindle

Last week while Travel Man was home I made a Peach Crisp with fresh peaches of course. This is a nice treat for my Travel Guy, as he really misses the home cooked meals when he is on the road. I saw the recipe on my Facebook news, and it was a post from recipe.com. This was a really delicious dessert. A yummy summertime treat. And just a little bit different because the crumbliness has graham crackers in it, and not so much oatmeal. That made the crunchy crustiness extra yummy.

The Ingredients:

1/4 c. sugar
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
7 cups 1/2 inch fresh or frozen peach slices (8 peaches – about 3½ lbs.)
2 Tbsp. honey
2/3 c. coarsely crushed graham crackers (5 squares)
2/3 c. packed brown sugar
1/3 c. all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. oatmeal
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/3 c. butter

The Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2) For the filling; in a bowl stir together sugar, the 2 Tbsp. flour, and 1 tsp. cinnamon. Add peaches and toss to coat. If you are using fresh peaches peel and slice the peaches first, and then coat with this mixture.

3) Spread the peaches in a 2-quart rectangular baking dish. Drizzle honey over peaches and set aside.

4) For the topping; in a bowl stir together crushed graham crackers, brown sugar, 1/3 c. flour, oatmeal, and 1/4 tsp. cinnamon.

5) Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

6) Sprinkle topping evenly over the peach mixture.

7) Bake, uncovered, for 40 to 45 minutes or until topping is golden brown.

8) Serve warm with you favorite vanilla ice cream on top. Makes 8 servings.

Now go to the store or your favorite farmer’s market, get your peaches, and get your crisp on. A nice summertime treat. Enjoy!

No comments Posted in Around the House, Family, Food, Recipes

The Tomatoes are Growing

Posted on July 25, 2012 by Renee Spindle

Hello neighbors. Yes I’m still here and no I haven’t gone anywhere. You see Travel Man got home from his second international trip last Saturday, and we’ve been spending some much-needed time together. He’s only been home 8 days in the last 30, and now he’s home all of this week (anxiously keeping my fingers crossed). We’ve been having some great meals together, and working in the garden together. Always a lot to do in the garden.

This year I planted 5 tomatoes plants. The varieties I purchased from Lowe’s and Home Depot were; Roma, Better Boy, Big Boy, and Celebrity. A pretty ambitious effort for me, because at the end of last summer I had proclaimed I would only plant two tomato plants this year. I’m crazy like that, sometimes I just like to go for the gusto! So I had intended to share these pictures with all of you about a month ago, and somehow they got lost in the “Camp Grandma” menagerie of pictures.

This little contraption is what I am using to water the tomatoes this summer. Of course in Southern California we have some extreme heat in the summer. Travel Man found these for me at one of his favorite hardware stores, and I was readily willing to try them. The spike holds a two liter soda bottle. It has little holes down each side of the spike to allow the water to flow through to the roots. With the heat we are having right now I am filling the bottles up twice a day. In the morning and again in the early evening. So far so good as the tomatoes are thriving.

This picture of the Roma tomato plant is from a month ago.

And this is the same plant today. I finally added the cages and staking to all of the tomato plants last weekend. Now it’s just keeping up with the watering and weeding, and waiting for the arrival of the first tomato!! I cannot wait to have my first BLT with a garden tomato!

We (meaning Travel Man and I) are having an ongoing discussion about the best way to let the tomatoes grow. My mindset has always been to just put the cages up and let them go to town. Travel Man’s theory is we should keep them pruned inside of the cages to get a better crop of tomatoes. I am trying it Travel Man’s way this summer, so I can see how the plants to in the raised bed they are growing in. And I have to give his idea a chance too. I like to try to see things from all sides, and not be the “fathead”. So that being said it brings me to my question for all of you who garden or have gardened in the past. “To prune the tomatoes, or not prune the tomatoes?” That is my question to all of you. Looking forward to hearing some great gardening opinions. Happy Wednesday to everyone!