Snippets & Snatches....sunny...much cooler..70's

                             Snippets & Snatches

 

It was a good year for your transplants

It was a bad year for gardens

It was a good year for squirrels

It was a bad year for your fruit

 

The first year we lived here our neighbor who had also moved here from afar told us, "no two summers or no two winters are  ever alike here". His words are so true. This year, which could have been a great growing year with all the spring rain and not too much excessive heat turned out to be a very low yielding year BECAUSE of the continual rain. Surely the rain didn't produce the bumper crop of squirrels,  BUT everyone is complaining that they robbed all the fruit trees. Yesterday I spotted this one pear left on a young tree so I took a picture and then picked it quickly. Usually we pick large amounts from our at least 40 year old tree. But all summer I've been tripping over the half eaten pears the squirrels have been throwing to the ground, and now there are none left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well at least the Rose of Sharon's I transplanted in May and only watered once have done well!!!!

 

Snippets & Snatches...Sunny...80's

                                       Ozark Mountain Rocks

 

These mountain rocks are very old

I know this for sure

Because long ago this I was told

"Rocks are needed to hold mountains together

Through tornadoes & earthquakes

And all kinds of weather"

 

The Ozarks....cloudy...80's

The Ozarks are home to many interesting people, flora and fauna as I've mentioned before....... here's a snippet from our archives about the  indigenous  Black Walnut.

Over half the nations black walnuts used in cooking come from the Missouri Ozarks.
Stronger tasting than the English walnut, if you've ever tasted a black walnut chances are you remember it.
 We here in the Ozarks are mostly snowed in this week. A good time to stay in and bake. This not quite cake, not quite brownie, not quite cookie recipe, is probably best described as a 'snack cake' and is good as a light dessert or for a mid-morning coffee break.
                                                                    
                                                             Ozark Treats
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup coffee
1 egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 rounded Tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup black walnuts

Cream together butter and sugar, add coffee and stir till mixed. beat in egg. add dry ingredients and beat till smooth, fold in raisins and nuts (if you don't have black walnuts, English walnuts or pecans can be used)
Pour into a greased 9x9 inch pan and bake at 350* for 30 minutes.
enjoy with coffee or tea on a cold day.

This is my adaptation of a recipe that  originally came from this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Take-Hills-A-Chronicle-Ozarks/dp/1432610759
A pretty good read if your interested in the life and stories from the Ozarks. Check out your local library to see if they have it.

Some interesting facts, stories and pictures about Black walnuts:

http://www.nemahaweb.com/blackwalnuts/trees.htm

http://thelibrary.org/lochist/periodicals/bittersweet/fa79h.htm

Snippets and Snatches..partly cloudy..90's

Country Roads..... (continued from yesterday)

 

Years ago I saw Ladybird Johnson interviewed on T.V. She was talking about her efforts to beautify highways with wildflower plantings. In that interview she mentioned a term  the 'wildflower experts' used. The "D.Y.C., ". Those letters stood for the " Damn Yellow Conglomerate"!!!!

I think her point was that, there are just too many yellow flowers to name individually and that the yellow flowers survive when often others don't. She must have know what she was talking about, because that certainly is true of my country road. From spring to fall my road is abloom with yellow flowers, even though the graders continually disturb the roadsides........

Many times just one species, and other times several will be blooming at once.

Of course the Jonquil's start it all off early in the year, followed by  Golden Pea, Honeysuckle, Butter and Eggs (my favorite, similar to Snapdragons) Common Mullein, Missouri Primrose, Buttercup, Black-eyed Susans, Several varieties of wild sunflowers, Coreopsis and a tall sticky spear type plant with large yellow blooms that I don't know the name of. I only made the mistake of trying to pick it once! Right now it's Goldenrod  bitterweed, and Bur Marigold, as you can see in these pictures!

Recently I saw a lady on P.B.S. who lives near Dallas. She was a friend of Ladybirds and is trying to keep her mission going. She's now over a 100 years old. Decades ago she and her family donated a large acreage near Dallas to always be kept as a Prairie Wildflower domain. She said she and Ladybird saw the "environmental necessity of native plants."  I wonder if any of our readers have ever visited there?? If so I'd love it if you'd leave a comment below about it!



 

Country Roads......sunny...90's storms possible

I wonder how many still live down a dirt road?? If you do I'd love for you to leave a comments below and tell us about it!
The Conundrum of Country Roads

 

"It takes rocks to hold mountains together" a transplanted man from the plains' states once told me, soon after I moved here. I've thought of his phrase often over the years. Today's Snippet is prompted by yesterday's activities of raking and rearranging many of those rocks to improve our driveway. Our country road is also a gravel road with many issues to deal with. When we first moved here, we had so many flat tires until we learned truck tires must be 8 ply rated as 10, to stand up to the gravel which really was small ROCKS dug from the creek bed. These tires don't provide a comfortable highway ride but at least you keep moving. I often hear on T. V. how long the average commute in America is, and I'm aghast. But living out in the country involves quite a commute too. Our four mile commute takes 20 minutes on a good day, when the road is in good shape, and you don't have to pull over too many times for others. Yup, we're one lane out here. When you forget something or need something from town, you often do without.  I had a flash back recently of my first country road. We did not own a vehicle until I was 8 years old. When I was about 6, my Aunt, Uncle and Cousins picked me up and took me to their house way out in the country, at least it seemed way out to me as a city dweller. Anyway to get to their home in Beverly Farms, Ma. we went down a country road. I was fascinated!!! The headlights shining down the road, woods on both sides, and then a rabbit appeared and watched us. I've always credited ( or blamed, depending on the day!) my love of the country on that incident. After that I was transplanted to Ca. and you guessed it, very little country there.
Now, on reflection, after  living MANY years in the country, ------  I confront the age old situation of TRADE-OFFS. I remember the phrase "Pave Paradise" and decide our country roads,  unpaved, can continue to take us home.  At least on my commute I enjoy the beauty you see in this picture, mostly by myself, without traffic to contend with, as I watch for deer to leap in front of me (that happens often) or a flock of turkeys to take flight as I duck inside my truck. Yes "It takes rocks to hold mountains together" and I'm sure that is part of the reason our area isn't OVER developed!!!!!!