Herbs

This is the basil I planted drying out in the sun. It bolted so I also have a lot of seeds!!!I haven't "processed" it yet... so funny, processing is pulling the dried leaves off the plant, and putting the leaves in a jar, simplicity...
I clipped the Stevia a few weeks ago and dried it and it came out surprisingly well. It was quite intense with sweetness when fresh, but so much more when dry! I am very happy about that! I decided to chop it dry and use it as a tea additive infusion with a few other herbs I grew... peppermint, a bit of lemon balm, and some red raspberry leaves that I pinched from the woods behind our house. It's a great way to squelch my sweet tooth, and also brew it with some chamomile flowers and it's a perfect late night tea! Peppermint, chamomile and stevia... yum
this is the jar of my herbal tea mixture... there is quite a bit in there, probably about 4 cups, and only a half of a teaspoon is really enough for a cup of tea.

weird stuff I keep

I have a variety of odd collections. I have the normal stamps and coins that I collect, and Mike has comic books and action figures to go along with those comic books. And then I have some stashes... I will not even go into those, I'm seriously weeding my fabric stash, as it's too much stuff to maintain. But here are some of my more "off the wall" collections:

Sharks teeth, mostly collected on the shores of the Gulf Of Mexico in Florida, either in Venice Florida, or Englewood Florida. The two large ones on the bottom right are only partial teeth, sure wish I had found a whole tooth! They also come from different kinds of sharks, and that is usually determined by the shape and color of the tooth. Some are new, some are old (fossils) but all are COOL

Shells, but only ones I find, and only these spiral type shells, any other are not interesting....
Rocks or shells with holes in them. there is a parasitic bug that will drill a hole into a shell of a mollusk and eat the mollusk. Sometimes the creature thinks a rock is a shell, since they both are hard, and the bugs aren't really smart enough to distinguish between rock hard and shell hard, so they drill away into the rocks, hoping for something to eat, and many times drill right through. There are two I like more than the others, one is a small rock with a partial hole, and looks a little like a bowl, the other looks like PAC man.
Other rocks that are smooth in shape, textured, or pretty color.
My box of other rocks... these are long and textured, bumpy, and actually make a nice sound when knocked against each other, and I would think make a nice wind chime...

So that's it... other than the many different cigar boxes, and a few skulls I have found... I only have three and don't really consider that a collection. Maybe if I find a few more skulls then I'll show a pic of my skull collection. So far I only have a dog, armadillo and mouse skull. So there it is.. you now know I have boxes of rocks, and bowls of sharks teeth, and skulls hanging around in my home.

clean slate

I pulled up the watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumbers, and beans from the front yard, and weeded like mad. I pulled out the basil and the eggplant and marigold from one of the planters and put in starters for Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Brussel sprouts, which I will move when they are sprouted and big enough. The Pumpkin in the back yard is SAD SAD SAD... I just don't think I do well with squash, I couldn't get any of it to grow or produce. But I'm

happy have done all the work that was needed, and now have a new clean slate to start again. If anyone sees the cat in the first picture you will get a prize....

I like to catch things

Here is a pic of a legless lizard that I found in the front yard. I had to catch it and show it to the boys. It's clearly NOT a snake, but a lizard. I fear it died soon afterwards, it had been tangled by a cat and had some puncture wounds. But it was neat to finally see one and catch one.

Rain Rain Rain

It rained quite a bit last week... rain was good for the lawn in the back yard good for the plants in the front yard, and good for the watermelon growing like crazy

but not so good for my laundry, doesn't it look sad sagging on the line? It was dry by the next evening, believe it or not! Yep I left it out till then!