Yet Another Food Posting…

Let’s face it… With the pandemic, even though we’re just eating 2 meals a day, food and its consumption is a notable event every day.  Not so much for Laurie but definitely for me!

We actually went to a local coffee shop the other day.  Our old 2005 Avalon had a tire with a nail in it so we took it to Matlock Tire Service and Tire Repair in Lenoir City Tennessee.  Apparently everyone else in town had issues as well.  We were told that there would be quite a delay before they’d get to my car…so Laurie and I headed out for coffee and a snack. She'd followed me in her car to the tire place.

Ugly Mug in Lenoir City is one of 3 in operation across Tennessee.  Other stores are in Nashville and Memphis.  All of Ugly Mug’s coffee blends include between 10% and 100% Fair Trade coffee beans.  Roasting is done in Memphis.  Nothing goes to waste…by products from the grinding process are used as mulch or fertilizer and the burlap bags are used for moisture retention and weed control in gardens.  They even have a contract with some immigrants from Burundi who make purses from the sacks, selling them on line or in-store.

We hadn’t had breakfast so I was happy to see that our local Ugly Mug served pastries, breakfast sandwiches and lunch items as well!  Laurie had a slice of Lemon Pound Cake and I had a breakfast sandwich…Texas toast with egg, bacon and cheese.  She loved her pound cake but my sandwich was pretty average.  The coffee was excellent!  

(FYI, the tables were well spaced with an outdoor option available and the staff all wore masks...a must for us these days.  No masks on the staff in any restaurant and we don't patronize it!)

Ugly Mug in Lenoir City Tennessee is located at 108 ‘B’ Street, right off of Broadway/US 11/Lee Highway.  Phone: 865-816-6355.  They are on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/UglyMugLenoirCity/.

Another day at home and another test of a prepared frozen food item.  In this case, on impulse I bought a box of Sea Pak frozen Budweiser Beer Battered Shrimp with tangy citrus sauce for dipping.   

Sea Pak offers at least 24 different products although most (about 21) do involve different styles of shrimp preparation.  Other offerings include battered calamari, beer battered cod and breaded clam strips…

There were plenty of shrimp in the box…16 in all.  There were enough of them that this ‘appetizer’ ended up being most of our dinner one evening.  The problem was that it was all about the batter…and although the shrimp were decent sized, they were lost in the breading.  I would try the cod the next time though…

FYI…I ended up using the tangy citrus sauce as jam with peanut butter on toast.  Waste not, want not!

To view the range of products available from Sea Pak, you can just go to https://seapak.com/.

Remember that Vienna Beef Italian Style (Spicy) Sliced Beef and Gravy that I’d received as a birthday gift?  Well, there was 2 lbs. of sliced beef and there was no way we could have eaten it all in one sitting.  So one morning I heated up the remainder of this goodness…and piled it on top of a nice bun.  Given the spicy Italian seasoning, I decided that over-easy eggs wouldn’t be the best idea.  I didn’t have the nerve to give it a try.  It was still a great breakfast though!

Yes…sometimes we do eat relatively healthy.  This was my plate just showing off my nice portion of salmon one evening.  It came from a box containing 6 pre-seasoned and frozen salmon filets.  Thaw overnight and then follow the instructions.  I didn’t get the brand name but it was a Costco purchase.

Squash is heathy isn’t it?  This bowl of goodness originated with a large butternut squash that Laurie baked…with pepper, butter and brown sugar!  When it was done in the oven, she scooped it out and added a tad more butter and brown sugar.  Still healthy?  It was damned good!

Now this was Laurie’s dinner plate complete with her salmon filet, lemon and a nice serving of that tasty squash.  The problem is that there was a lot of squash and it didn’t sound too good as a leftover… So, with relatively little assistance from Laurie, I ‘had’ to finish off the rest of that big bowl of squash!

Some time ago Laurie had prepared Chicken Florentine.  Like many other prepared meals, we added our own extras, enhancing the final product.  In this case, Laurie started with a bag of Bertolli frozen Chicken Florentine…then added a container of fresh spinach, extra chicken (from leftovers), red pepper flakes, black pepper and a bit more Alfredo sauce…and voila…dinner!

It makes too much food for us to consume at one sitting so once again, I ‘had to’ deal with leftovers.  For breakfast one morning I heated up the remaining  Chicken Florentine in a frying pan with a bit of butter and parmesan.

Then of course, I fried up a couple of easy-over eggs and topped the whole thing with Tabasco!  It was a great breakfast…the yolks working very nicely with the Alfredo sauce, chicken and spinach.  It was a good start to my day!

That’s it for now.  Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit in these challenging times!

Stay Safe and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Home Bound – A Variety of Meals

I’m down to 2 posts a week during the ongoing world-wide pandemic and I’m likely to reduce these efforts to only once a week.  No travel and exploration, in tandem with very limited social interaction or dining out, and my available subject matter is extremely minimal… Time will tell.

Food is the one constant but it’s a matter of time before even this topic will just be a rehash of previous posts.  Nevertheless, here’s one more food related post…

We sometimes grow tired of our own cooking and order take-out for a bit of variety.  In this case, we had been running errands in Lenoir City Tennessee and we decided to pick up dinner from Firehouse Subs. 

Laurie loves their “Italian” with Genoa salami, pepperoni, Virginia honey ham, melted provolone, Italian dressing and seasonings.  She had hers almost “fully involved”, with mayonnaise, onion, lettuce, tomato and a kosher dill pickle.  She had them leave off the deli mustard.  

As usual, I was impatient and immediately started eating my sandwich before taking any photos… In any case, here’s a picture showing half of my “New York Steamer” with accompanying potato chips.  This Firehouse creation includes corned beef brisket and pastrami, with melted provolone, deli mustard, mayonnaise and Italian dressing.

Our sandwiches were still warm when we returned home and the best part is that no cooking was required and after dinner clean-up was minimal!

When Father’s Day and birthdays come along and you are hard to buy presents for, what are friends and family to do?  I literally don’t have a gift ‘want list’, partially because at my age and stage in life I pretty much have everything I can afford that I want or need and I just buy what I want when I think of something.  

So…knowing that I love to eat and that I’m a carnivore, boxes of meat and related items are gift solutions that are often sent for my enjoyment.  Omaha Steaks in different variety packs as well as a number of Lou Malnati’s Tastes of Chicago products periodically fill our freezer. 

In this case, it was a new item from Lou Malnati that was sent to me by my son David II and his family… This is a Vienna Beef Italian Style Sliced Beef and Gravy combo complete with giardiniera peppers.  It contained 2 lbs. of the beef, 2 lbs. of the gravy and 6 oz. of the hot peppers. 

After thawing the ingredients, the sliced beef was immersed in the seasoned gravy, (really a spicy sauce), and it was heated until everything had a chance to meld.  This was a big pot of food!

Here’s a photo of about half of the hot and spicy giardiniera peppers.  I love some heat but I have to admit that these peppers were even too hot for me!

On to the finished product!  We’d purchased some bulky buns so it was just a matter of slicing them and then piling on the wet and spicy Italian sliced beef.  The result was excellence…almost as good as the real thing as served up in a scattering of traditional restaurants in Chicago!

Laurie tried a little of the giardiniera on her sandwich but it was too hot and she had to remove it.  I put some sliced jalapenos on mine… In either case, we were happy campers!  For my second sandwich, I dipped the top of my roll in the spicy ‘gravy’ and that kicked it up yet another notch.

In any case, we’ve now added the Italian Beef to the Lou Malnati’s ‘favorites’ list…along with the Vienna All Beef Hot Dog Kit.

Keeping it simple… Another recent dinner started with a big box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese…the three cheese version.  To that we added a small can of Green Giant baby peas and 2 – 3 all beef hot dogs from one of our Omaha Steak gift packages.  You might note the red specks on the mac n cheese… We’ve discovered that we like sprinkling Hot Hungarian Paprika on our mac n cheese as a flavor enhancer!

This photo is a bit blurry...sorry…but on one recent night I cooked breakfast for dinner.  This was Laurie’s plate with buttered toast, hash brown potatoes, sausage patties and two easy over eggs.

The hash brown potatoes were purchased at our local Ingles Grocery Store in Lenoir City Tennessee.  The dehydrated shredded potatoes came in a small milk style carton.  I rehydrated them with hot water in the carton, drained off the excess water, and then I fried the hash browns in butter.  The sausage was purchased at Benton’s Bacon and Hams retail location in Madisonville Tennessee.  It was a very tasty dinner!

One item I almost always purchase when we visit Costco is Kirkland brand sliced meat.  I usually have a pack in the freezer.  Their turkey and beef are my favorites.  I use it for sandwiches or I just eat a slice or two without the carbs to assuage a hunger pang. 

However, this time we’d had so many leftovers in the house that I hadn’t been able to finish the sliced beef I had opened.  Its time was running out so I had to do something with it and soon… So I started out by frying/crisping up the remaining beef with a pad of butter.  I also found a few small pieces of roasted potato that I sliced up and added to the mix.

What the heck!  I know that my blogger buddy Larry, aka Big Dude at http://bigdudesramblings.blogspot.com/, knew what was coming next.  Of course!  I just had to top that beautiful roast beef and those potatoes with a couple of over-easy eggs…it’s what I do!  It was an excellent breakfast!  Waste not, want not…

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Stay Safe and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

When We Could Travel – A Look Back (V)

 …once again I’m continuing to take a look back at our extensive 2006 road trip adventure throughout parts of the southwestern USA. 

Note: Thanks to Google's 'improvements' to Blogger and my minimal computer skills, I had some issues putting this post together.  You will note that the size of the lettering doesn't match the rest of it and in some spots, neither does the shade of the background for the print or the print itself.  Such is life!

We certainly miss our road trips!  This September we were planning a visit Laurie’s family in St. Louis, and then explore the back roads into south central Colorado, southeastern Utah, and then circling back through northern Colorado to visit our family in Omaha Nebraska.  

Well, no such luck!  Instead I’ll have to make do with memories, but start planning for our 2021 road trip adventures.

Following our stop at Canyon du Chelly and the Four Corners area, we started exploring parts of northern New Mexico and far southern Colorado.  Both the weather and the scenery were spectacular!

This photo is a view of the San Juan River Valley…along NM Hwy. 511 in northwestern New Mexico.  The San Juan River is a major tributary of the Colorado River and it is the primary drainage for the Four Corners region.  The river originates as snowmelt in the San Juan Mountains in Northern New Mexico and southeastern Utah.  It flows 383 miles through desert terrain to join the Colorado River at Glen Canyon.  The river is the only significant source of fresh water for many miles.

As we cruised along the road through this high desert area, we passed this group of Llamas who were just chilling while watching the traffic go by.

Through the 1960’s, most llamas in the USA were found in zoos.  But in the 1970s, interest in llamas as livestock began to grow.  By 2002, there were about 145,000 llamas in the USA.  However, with little market for llama fiber or meat in the US, and the value of guard llamas limited, the primary value in these camelids was in breeding more animals…a classic sign of an agricultural speculative bubble…which indeed burst!  Today there are less than 40,000 llamas in the USA.

As we drove east, generally following the San Juan River, we stumbled on another surprise…a large lake in the high desert of New Mexico.

Navajo Lake is a man-made lake or reservoir in the northwestern part of the state.  It is part of the Colorado River Storage Project.  The earth and rock filled dam was completed in 1962.  It is 3,800 long and 400 feet high.  The lake contains bass, crappie, northern pike, channel catfish and trout.  It covers 15,600 acres and its over 25 miles long.  The dam is situated over 6,000 feet above sea level.

From here we headed north to Durango Colorado.  I must have misfiled the photos from Durango but I found the map I used for the trip so I know that it was our next stop…

In any case, from Durango we drove along US Hwy 160 east…

Just south of the town of Pagosa Springs Colorado on US Hwy 84, we stopped to take this photo of a bull elk grazing along the road.  He was a resident of The Rocky Mountain Wildlife Park.  This accredited USDA private zoo is located in the San Juan Mountains.

The Rocky Mountain Wildlife Park is still in business.  All of its animals are non-releasable.  Many were rescues from the wild, ‘pet-owners’ or from closed/over-crowded zoos or facilities.  All needed a new home and none of them can be rehabilitated due to their being acclimated to humans.  Animals include black bears, grizzly bears, mountain lions, elk, mule deer, bobcats and wolves.  To learn more about this zoo just go to https://www.pagosawildlifepark.com/.

I’m unsure which river is the subject of this relaxing photo.  Based on our route along US Hwy 160, (and the location of the next photo in this series), it is probably the upper reaches of the San Juan River in south central Colorado. 

This beautiful view is from about halfway up toward Wolf Creek Pass looking south at the winding West Fork of the San Juan River meandering toward its eventual merge with the Colorado River.  I wonder who owns this spectacular piece of America…

The valley is part of Mineral County Colorado.  The county encompasses a total of 876 square miles and it has a population of only about 770 people, or .88 people per square mile.  The county seat is Creede with about 290 residents, leaving 480 folks to populate the rest of the county.

I do know where we were when Laurie took this photo of mule deer…note the second deer at the upper right.  This was on the Continental Divide at Wolf Creek Pass on US Hwy 160.  Elevation – 10,550 feet!  The peaks of the San Juan Mountains all around the pass top 12,000 to over 13,000 feet.  Annual snowfall at the pass (November – April) averages about 436 inches! 

From Wolf Creek Pass we followed US Hwy 160 east to Alamosa Colorado where we turned back south toward New Mexico.

In Antonito Colorado I was happy to see a number of locomotives, with old #484 almost ready to roll south toward Chama New Mexico.  The Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad is jointly owned by the states of Colorado and New Mexico.  The railroad is a National Historic Landmark.  Locomotive #484 was built in 1925 by the Baldwin Locomotive works in Philadelphia Pennsylvania for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad.  She celebrates her 95^th year in 2020!

The Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad is known for its extensive collection of rolling stock which can be viewed in the rail yards at either end of the rail line.  The railroad has 5 coal fired, steam operated, narrow-gauge locomotives.  Most surviving steam locomotives in the USA were built for standard gauge operations.

Off #484 went with a full load of happy travelers!  The Cumbres and Toltec Railroad follows a 64 mile route between Chama New Mexico and Antonito Colorado.  It crosses the border between the two states no less than 11 times as the train chugs its way up and over the 10,015 feet high Cumbres Pass.

This railroad was originally built in 1880 as part of the Rio Grande Railroad’s narrow gauge San Juan Extension.  It served the silver mining district of the San Juan Mountains.  With the Repeal of the Sherman Act and the negative impact on the silver mining industry the railroad declined, with its last major upgrades taking place in the late 1920s.  A post WWII natural gas boom brought a bit of temporary prosperity to the line but operations dwindled to a trickle in the 1960s.  In 1969, the rail line ceased operations, thus ending the last use of steam locomotives general freight service in the USA.

In 1970, the states of Colorado and New Mexico bought the remaining trackage and rolling stock and in 1971, the Cumbres and Toltec began its scenic tours.  The line is open for business this year.  To learn more, just go to https://cumbrestoltec.com/.

These striking red bluffs near Ghost Ranch New Mexico were photographed from along US Hwy. 84 in Northern New Mexico. 

FYI…Ghost Ranch is a 21,000 acre retreat and education center located close to the village of Abiquiú in Rio Arriba County.  It was one of the homes and studios of artist Georgia O’Keeffe.  The ranch is also known for its concentration of fossils from the days when dinosaurs roamed the area.

Abiquiú means ‘wild choke cherry place’ in Tewa (Pueblo people) language.  This town was one of the homes of Georgia O’Keeffe from 1929 until 1984.  Although she had a place at Ghost Ranch, her Home and Studio is in this little town.  The Tewa language is now only spoken by less than 1,600 Pueblo people.  

This final photo is of the Rio Chama River along US Hwy 84 as we neared Santa Fe New Mexico.  The Rio Chama is a major tributary of the Rio Grande River…which flows from Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico. 

The Rio Chama itself is about 130 miles long and it’s known for its trout fishing.  In 1988, a 24.6 mile stretch of the river known as Chama Canyon was designated as a National Wild and Scenic River.  The walls of Chama Canyon rise up to 1,500 feet above the river!  The Chama Valley is home to dense stands of ponderosa pine, douglas fir, pinyon, juniper, mountain-mahogany, gambel oak and serviceberry…and it harbors a plethora of wildlife including black bears, elk, mule deer, bobcats and cougars as well as a wide variety of waterfowl and other birds.

That’s all for now… My next post from this trip will include Santa Fe and Taos New Mexico.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Stay Safe and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Keeping it Simple!

Covid-19… Some folks are into creating fancy dishes they’d never made before, others have gone bonkers over baking.  In our case, while we show a bit of creativity food-wise from time to time and we have baked on occasion, our approach to dining in this self-quarantine environment is generally very simple…

The rule is “Keep it simple!” Factors to consider: First - Laurie is happiest if she doesn’t have to cook too often and even happier if little or no clean-up is required.  Second - If I can grill it, it qualifies as a simple meal.  Third – Frozen or prepared meals are a plus, especially if we’ve previously tried them and they pass the taste/satisfaction tests.  Take-out is included in the prepared meal category.  Finally, “waste not, want not!” 

Not to say that we don’t try ‘new’ food items… It’s been years since we made a quiche for dinner.  But…waste not…want not!  We had a couple of pie crusts in the freezer and Laurie had a craving for quiche.

So she put the ingredients together…eggs, leftover bacon, cheese, spinach and herbs, filled the pie crust and popped the quiche in the oven.  This was the piece that she served herself.  We both agreed that it was very good!

This isn’t meant to be a political statement…one way or the other.  I was just going through the cupboard looking for something to have for breakfast and I came across this unopened box (actually now a collectible) of Aunt Jemima Complete Buttermilk Pancake and Waffle Mix.

Laurie doesn’t care for pancakes, it’s a texture thing for her.  We had a big can of Carbon’s Malted Waffle and Pancake Mix from World Market on hand that Laurie does like…so if the Aunt Jemima mix was ever going to be used, it would have to be used by yours truly.

The result was that nice little pile of pancakes…well buttered and dripping with Kirkland’s pure maple syrup.  Comfort food!  As for the pancake mix, the ‘best if used by’ date was a bit past due...12/6/17.   Hey, it still tasted fine to me!  Waste not!

We both love a good chicken pot pie.  The big pot pies from Costco are just too huge unless we wanted to have the same meal 3 – 4 nights in a row!  However, Fresh Market sells a pretty nice little chicken pot pie, so the last time we visited the store we picked up 2 of them. 

We froze one and baked this one… We like our chicken pot pies moist and we’ve never found a commercial version that was moist enough for us.  In this case, absent any chicken gravy in the pantry, some effort was required.  Laurie opened a small can of Cream of Chicken Soup, added a little half and half and spices and served it up at the dinner table with a gravy ladle.

We did take a photo of her serving of the pot pie but it was totally blurred.  In any case, we just ladled on enough of our ‘gravy/soup’ mix to match our tastes…and of course I splattered Tabasco over my serving.  Another comfort food dinner!

I can’t forget the big hunk of zucchini bread that accompanied our chicken pot pie!  Our neighbor Sherry does bake…and she dropped this tasty accompaniment off at our door in time for dinner.

Time for Take-Out Food!  Off to Thai Bistro in Loudon Tennessee, our nearby source for Thai and Chinese cuisine.  When we dine at or via Thai Bistro, we tend to overdo the appetizers.  I’m sure that the restaurant doesn’t mind as it drives up the total bill!

In reality, Laurie would prefer to make her entire meal from a variety of appetizers.  On this occasion, she did just that.  This was her order of Crab Rangoon…something that always makes her happy.

In total we ordered 5 appetizers.  This photo shows Laurie’s Fresh Rolls, rice paper wrapped around lettuce, carrots, cilantro and basil.  They’re served with homemade ginger sauce, chopped peanuts and fresh ginger.  Laurie loves these too!

We failed to take photos of 2 appetizers.  The first one was Thai Bistro’s take on Fried Calamari.  It is an interesting and tasty interpretation of a classic offering.  The tender calamari and accompanying assorted vegetables are fried in a ‘tempura-like’ batter and the dish is served with a sweet and sour sauce.

I like Thai Bistro’s Spring Rolls!  Deep fried rice paper is stuffed with bean thread mixed with cabbage, celery and Thai herbs, then it’s served with their homemade sweet and sour sauce. 

We also decided to order, and didn’t photograph, Thai Bistro’s Chicken Wings.  They were deep fried and served with the spicy sweet chili sauce.  Laurie liked them (she only had one) better than I did.  I thought that they were just OK.

Laurie was full…and clean up for this meal consisted of just a couple plates and a bit of silverware.  An almost ideal dinner during Covid-19!

However, I wasn’t done yet.  I’d ordered the Bangkok Chicken as my entrée.  This generous serving of stir fried breaded chicken with Thai Bistro’s sweet and sour sauce was served with broccoli and then topped with sesame seeds and cashew nuts. (Steamed white rice accompanied my meal) Even I had leftovers!

The leftover rice, chicken, sesame seeds and cashew nuts (plus some spicy Thai sauce I keep around) made a nice breakfast two days later.  Sorry Big Dude…I didn’t put an egg on this one!

Thai Bistro is located at 222 Lakeside Plaza in Loudon Tennessee.  Phone: 865-657-6440.  Website: https://www.thaibistrotellico.net/.

I thought it appropriate to end this post with a dessert… Best yet, it’s a dessert that we didn’t have to make or even purchase.  Once again, our ‘baking neighbor’ Sherry, delivered a couple slices of this attractive looking berry pie to our door and dinner was made even simpler.  Thanks Sherry!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit! 

Stay Safe and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Nature around Us…

These days, with the Covid-19 pandemic a constant threat, in-person socializing is rare but there is one constant.  Mother Nature continues to do what she has always done, albeit sometimes with the help of others.

Since we aren’t exploring the countryside or dining in one restaurant after another, nature and the greenery around us has become my primary focus.  Well…sort of…food is still number one, but how many sandwiches or eggs on top of something can I write about?

After a recent 'safe' dining excursion with friends Linda and Norm, we stopped at their home for a little dessert and a tour of Norm’s garden and plantings!  As you can see, their home backs up to one of our local golf courses providing a pleasant view… It’s also fitting as Norm loves golf!

Norm’s vegetable garden occupies a large section of their yard…with raised beds full of a variety of fresh produce.  Norm sent us home with a huge zucchini (which I grilled) and a number of jalapenos.  Based on all the young beans on the vines, his green bean crop is going to be outstanding.    He was still harvesting tomatoes too as well as some blackberries.

The pink hibiscus shrubs were doing their ‘thing’ too.  They could brighten up anyone’s back yard!

The hibiscus genus/family is very large.  It includes several hundred species that thrive in warm temperate, subtropical and tropical regions world-wide.  They are sometimes also called rose mallow or rose of Sharon.  Interestingly, the genus includes for annual and perennial plants as well as woody shrubs and small trees.

This is a cluster of the eye-catching star shaped flowers displayed by Laurie’s latest acquisition for her plant room, a hoya carnosa plant.  The photo is a little blurry…

Hoya is a genus of 200 – 300 tropical plants in the dogbane family.  Most are native to a large number of South Asian countries as well as Australia and various Pacific islands.  In temperate zones, hoya plants are an indoor resident.  These evergreen perennial creepers need a fair amount of bright light to bloom although they can survive (no blooms) with minimal lighting.  Studies have shown that these plants are excellent in the removal of indoor pollutants.

Given the risks of Covid-19, safe visitors (or any visitors) are few and far between.  Nature and, in this instance, a lone turkey are the exception.  It was fairly dry here for most of July, and these big birds like to visit yards that feature a sprinkler system for more productive pecking.

Kids!  Time to strike out on their own.  Laurie caught this photo of an immature female house finch at one of our watering sites, still screaming at mom, begging for food rather than looking for something to eat herself.  Mom ignored her…

Laurie’s cone flowers are very popular!  Here we have an Eastern Black Swallowtail stopping by for an extensive feast… I think that I’ve properly identified this visitor but I’m no butterfly expert.

Swallowtail butterflies are large and colorful.  There are more than 550 species around the world.  The majority of them are tropical but members of this family inhabit every continent except Antarctica.  North America is home to at least 40 different species of swallowtails.  Note the forked appearance of this butterfly’s hindwings…hence the common name “swallowtail”.  However, just to confuse things, not all swallowtails have swallowtails...

The cone flowers also drew in every variety of bee, large and small, that lives in our neighborhood!  I didn’t even try to identify our bee visitors but Laurie says it's a honey bee.  We did see honey bees, bumble bees and carpenter bees feeding on these flowers.

Our final visitors for this post were these 2 does who stopped by one early evening, grazing through the green space at the back of our house…and then stopping by one of our big boulders for a drink.  This particular boulder sits under our big oak tree and it has a natural depression in it that holds water.  In warm weather, if Mother Nature doesn’t replenish the little pool, Laurie does.  The birds, squirrels and the deer do appreciate her efforts!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Stay Safe and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave