This and That – July 2022

…taking a break from the family visit this past May during which we celebrated our youngest grandson’s graduation.  We’ll pick up on that road trip in a week or so, after a major ‘local holiday’ and a family visit to our home here in ‘paradise’, aka East Tennessee.

So here we go…with food, flowers and critters.

This is a slightly modified breakfast version of one of our favorite easy prep dinners, although it is decidedly not the heathiest thing we could eat.  I still had some Fritos and leftover no bean chili.  Heat up the chili in a frying pan, pour it over the chili flavored Fritos…and add a couple of nice over-easy fried eggs, plus Tabasco.  I had a great breakfast!  Laurie was happy with her favorite, toast and peanut butter.

Another day and another breakfast!  In this case, I had a couple slices of deli style corned beef in the meat keeper so I shredded them up, heated them with butter in the frying pan…and then combined the corned beef with scrambled eggs and shredded sharp cheddar cheese.  Add 2 slices of buttered toast and I was ready to face the day!

The first one of these beautiful pink flowers in our yard was consumed by some sort of critter only 1 day after it bloomed.  Thankfully, additional ‘rain lilies’ have now shown us just how pretty and delicate they are… No one has eaten these, yet. 

There are about 200 recognized species in this genus of plants and other common names include fairy lily, zephyr lily and magic lily.  These perennial bulbs tolerate many ecological climates ranging from periodically wet soil to desert conditions.  Parts of this plant are used for traditional medicines in the treatment of head ache, cough, cold, boils and more.

These bee balm flowers have always been popular with our local honeybees and butterflies.  Bee Balm belong to the genus Monardo and other common names for these plants include bergamot, horsemint and Oswego tea.

The crushed leaves of all species of Monardo give off a spicy, fragrant oil.  It was traditionally used by Native Americans as a seasoning for wild game, especially birds, as well as for a number of medicinal applications, including flatulence.  Bee balm is a natural source of the antiseptic compound thymol, the primary ingredient in some modern commercial mouthwash formulas.

We went on a walk through the neighborhood the other day and I had to take a photo of these big mimosa trees on the corner just a lot or two down from our house.  It’s that time of the year and these trees are in bloom everywhere around here.  They certainly add a bit of mid-summer color!

On the downside, mimosas have become an invasive species in the United States, although it is still planted on the west coast.  Nevertheless, these trees have spread from coast to coast, from Connecticut to Florida, west to Missouri and Illinois and south to Texas. 

Other names for the mimosa tree include the Persian silk tree or pink silk tree.  It is native to southwestern and eastern Asia.  Its leaves close slowly during the night and in periods of rain.  It’s modern Persian name is ‘shabkhosb’ which means ‘night sleeper’ and in China it is called ‘hehuan’, which means ‘shut happy’ and it symbolizes a happy couple in bed.

Part of Laurie’s Scottish family recently celebrated a birthday.  Della just had her 13^th birthday!  She’s flanked by her sister Maura and her brother Moir.  Her parents are Hazel and Scott.  Scott is Laurie’s cousin.  Great looking family!  Facebook has been great at helping the family stay in touch...

Back to food… With my current medications I can’t eat much in the way of green vegetables.  Who knew that I’d really miss my broccoli, spinach, green beans and mixed salad greens?!  Since head lettuce has little value going for it and it has little effect on my meds, I do make up a little side salad with some of my meals just to satisfy my need for fresh tasting veggies.  In this case my iceberg lettuce was accompanied by a few slices of yellow squash, bits of carrot and grape tomatoes.  I topped it with Olive Garden’s Italian Salad Dressing and a little pepper. 

The salad was the ‘starter’ dish.  The entrée consisted of slices of roasted pork tenderloin wrapped in smoked bacon and seasoned accompanied by cheesy baked scalloped potatoes.  The potatoes were pre-packaged by Reser’s Fine Foods, aka Main Street Bistro.  Laurie simply adds extra sharp cheddar cheese on top along with some seasonings to give it a bit more pop.

I’d previously published a photo of one of our pig shaped squirrels working on an ear of corn on the squirrel feeder mounted back in the tree line behind our house.  Here is one more photo of one of our fat little tree rats.  

The idea of the squirrel feeder was to draw them away from our bird feeder.  It didn’t work!  That is despite the fact that they can’t really get any food from our feeder because its spring loaded and closes when they jump up on it.  The problem is that they tend to jam up the mechanism and regular adjustments are needed…

The truly positive impact that has revealed itself via that squirrel corn feeder is that those little buggers are sloppy eaters and they leave corn all over the ground at the base of the tree.  That mess draws in the deer who just love that corn!  She looks appreciative don’t you think?  Of course, she is probably the one who eats some of our flowers too, but then again, it’s OK with us…

We do have ‘excitement’ around here once in a while.  With all of the new homes being built in our village, the contractors and service folks coming and going, traffic has really picked up…and so have vehicle accidents.  This nasty accident happened less than a mile from our house at TN Hwy 444 and the road that provides access to our neighborhood and various shopping and service venues.

We were on the way to the grocery store when we first spotted the crash and had to loop around it to get to the store.  This picture was taken as we headed home from with our groceries.  The accident, which involved a US Post Office delivery van among others, was still being cleaned up.  With all of the village volunteers who serve with our fire department and emergency responders, scenes like this always draw a crowd!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave