Magical Pink Eyed Purple Hull Peas, and other fun stuff!!!

Today my DIL's parents took my grandkids to a zoo, and Donovan came to my house with what they had purchased for him!!! It was a paper mache elephant to make, starting with a balloon...and the final product was to be a pinata!

They had included two balloons, and both of them popped on us! My sweet grandson is sort of scared of popping ballons, so we made a command decision to use something else for the body. How about a big old clear plastic juice jug!

It is turning out really cutely. We have to finish it up tomorrow. It comes with colorful tissue paper to also paste on, but I think I will allow him to paint it with acrylics and I can speed up the process with a hair dryer! Speed is very important to a 5 year old!!!

Donovan just loved doing the paper mache. I told him he came to the right person for any more of this in the future! Who knows what we might come up with! I am always looking for a partner in crime when it comes to projects!!! He stayed up until 10pm working on this, and fell asleep instantly after his head hit the pillow!!!

Next to show you is my 2nd re-do on the version of drawing my EDM mug! This time using pastels...this was a quickie pic to do, but I just love what a soft thing you can come out with using the pastels...blending is a lot of fun!

Below are the first three tomatoes discovered on my Bush Tomato plants today!!! They had formed way down low on the plant, so I did not see them until they had gotten to this size already! The largest one is about 1.5 inches in diameter! Very exciting!!!



This sweet butterfly was flitting all around me today while I was out in the garden, and I thought of a hiaku as it flew around on the breeze.

Little Monarch on the breeze
Gliding in the air
Live free, and do what you please!


Now for the magical part of my so called Black Eyed Peas! I had forgotten that I had planted the pink eyed purple hull variety of southern pea, that is in the family of all different sorts of peas similar to the BE'd pea, but they all have different actual pea colors and with different colored "eyes".

My bean pods started turning purple and I thought there was something wrong with them, until I realized the variety I had planted! LOLOL!

They are turning a very dark purple. I am waiting a while to let the peas inside get bigger. The pods look like they are ready to be picked, but I want to let them grow a little longer. I sure hope I will have enough to make more than a handful!

I had given my friend 23 plants when they were seedlings, and now, it looks like we will both get a handful off...although my plants are still flowering...I wonder how much longer they will go. Hopefully all summer! Isn't tit so cool that with the colored pea pod, how easy it is see what needs to be picked??? I love this. Actually...I am contemplating planting more from seed. I understand that a lot of gardeners wait until after July 1 to plant to minimize pests. It would be fun to see if that really helps! I had to re-treat them today with a wash with the soap/oil/water solution, and then rinsed again with the hose so they would not burn in the sun. The soap in that solution is keeping the plants a real healthy dark green color! This is fun!!!

Have a nice Sunday everyone!

A new garden friend, tomatoes, and more!

The guy above was a Mother's Day gift from my son and his wife! This little garden gnome is playing the accordion! I have a well made child's accordion that I try to learn on, but I am too uncoordinated to learn a darn thing. It kind of functions as a harmonica does, making one note as you pull in and another as you pull out! Very confusing for my brain, it seems! My grandson likes to play around with it. Anyhow, when they saw this gnome, I suppose they felt I would love it, and guess what? I LOVE HIM SOOOO MUCH!!! I really love his color too...sort of a green patina...so perfect for a garden, eh? Gnomes are universal happiness makers too, which is the major reason to love one! A big thankyou to my kids for finding him for me!!!

Now, this morning (Tuesday AM), I drilled holes about 1 inch from the bottom (along the sides) of these 5 gallon ORANGE pots (don't ya just love them already)??? Most of you know my fav color is orange, he he he!!!

I filled them with Miracle Gro and cow poop and compost. Buried each plant up to it's leaves, added tomatos cages, and have them in a sunny, yet shaded spot. I am hoping to move all the pots each day from the shade to the sun from 8am to 10am, then return them to the shade again. This is one big south Florida experiment!!! I hope it works! It is so blasted hot and with intense sun...we have to take precautions and hope for the best! I want my darn bush tomotoes, gosh darn it all to heck!

Below are just some close-ups I took of my lovely Kalenchoe! I am so in love with this fascinating plant! No matter what, you can always find a gorgoeus picture of some part of it! Nothing compares to this wonderous plant...must be straight from God, for sure, at least in my book!


Today I am thankful for ALL of my family, my friends, and for my health! Thankyou God!

A cute dog, and some new tomatoes!

The other day, on one of my better feeling sick days, I pulled out my stamp collection, and added a new stamp I recieved from Lolo. It is her own artwork on a real stamp, and I just love that! Such a cute dog with a big heart! I added him to the bottom of my beloved chihuahua page! Isn't it cute? Thanks Lolo for giving me one of yours!

My collection is of USED world stamps, so everyone who has ever sent me a stamp, they go into my collection! I appreciate it so much. I have recieved some neat ones from Malaysia...thanks to Yoon See... (not shown in this post)...I am trying to re-organize my stuff...I have so many that need to be placed in the book (thousands, sadly)...

I did take a few pics of some of my mushroom stamps...they are so neat. Below are from Burkina Faso:

Some from Russia:

And a few from Mongolia:


And of course the one for my state!!!

I do have some dirty little secrets regarding my stamp collecting. One is really aweful, if you talk to anyone in the stamp world. Do I dare tell you? OK, I will because I don't care what anyone says. Well, unless anyone tells me I am going to prison for doing this!!! LOL.

1. I don't use traditional methods for placing the stamps in the stamp book...I glue them in using a glue stick! They can always be steamed off the paper, and I figure this is MY collection anyway...you see, I had a World collection growing up, and I gave it away in my early 20's. I hated those little hanger things to put the stamps in with...they are loose and discolor and just a pain to deal with. Nowadays, they have plastic sheets you can stick the stamps down in...acid free, etc., but the different sizes call for different sheets, and quite frankly, I am wayyyyy to cheap for that!!! So...I love my method, and short of prison, I won't give it up...so hate me if you must!

2. I love it if I find a stamp that matches up to the black and white pre-stamped areas of my book. You find one, and paste it over top to fill in your collection. Well, dirty secret # 2 is that if I have more stamps for that country and NOT the ones in the black and white areas, I cover over them with the ones I have! I figure if I ever get those ones underneath, I can put them on another page...who cares???

3. My last dirty little secret is that if I recieve any stamps on letters or donations from friends or family...that is absolutely WONDERFUL, and I am so grateful...because I do like collecting the older stamps too...they are all unique and amazing to me....but...lately in the past few years or so, I have gone to collecting TOPICAL stamps, which are beautiful stamps depicting animals, plants, people, etc. So, I have collections of dogs, cats, mushrooms, and some flowers, birds, Harry Potter, cloudscapes, artworks, etc. I started to figure out with this collecting business, that I should go ahead and get what I LIKE!!! They are so beautiful to look at...so I am concentrating on these.

So now the world knows my stamp collecting dirty secrets. Try to go easy on me...I'm not ready for prison yet!!! Now on to my new plants...

Mom and I were walking through Walmart and found these little wise-ancient looking tomatos plants...called Bush Tomatoes. They make large fruit on compact plants...perfect for growing on a patio or balcony it says! I did a Google search, and it says they can grow from 2 ft-4 ft, and even though a tomato cage isn't necessary to support the plant, you may need one to support the weight of the fruits! Sounds so impressive!

I brought them home, watered them with Miracle Gro houseplant liquid food, sat the little flat up on two paintbrushes for aereation below, and put them in my kitchen window until I decide what to do with them. My problems are I know they need sun, but probably can't take the full summer sun here (it is too late), and if I put them in my screenroom, I fear I will forget to water them, and my front porch doesn't get sun so much anyway...I wish I could grow them inside in a sunny window, but my grandkids would not allow that. Does anyone have any good ideas? I did think about adding them to my existing garden, and putting up shade cloth to only allow sun for the morning hours only...that is probably the best bet...but I would be interested in any ideas anyone might have. I really want these cuties to make it...I am so curious about the fruit!!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Friday and weekend!!!
xoxo- Julie