Dragon's Orchid Garden

 This is a recipe that I’ve used for at least 20 years. A coworker brought these cookies in for a staff holiday party at the library. I loved them so much, I asked her for the recipe. She found the recipe in a magazine such as Ladies Home Journal or Good Housekeeping. Every Christmas, I make these and  mail them to far away family. You can find the recipe here . They are scrumptious with a cup of tea or coffee. Enjoy and happy New Year!

 I am set in my ways, but since retiring, I am becoming more open to trying new things. Today, I decided to try a different way to make pie crust. I used a recipe from a cookbook I’ve had for years - Baking with Jim Dodge . The recipe for Flaky Pie Dough was a little more work than the dough I usually make. It turned out beautiful and was so much easier to work with and roll out that I will make it my go to crust.  Recently, I read an inspiring article in the Tampa Bay Times.  Pie, once despised, became her pandemic salvation : Brittany Volk of St. Petersburg found solace in meticulous baking of pie, pie and more pie. This blueberry pie isn’t as pretty as Brittany’s, but the sentiment is heartfelt ❤️.

Several weeks ago, I purchased 3 smallish pumpkins from a display at Bearss Groves that had a sign - “sugar pumpkins” - intending to make pumpkin purée from scratch. They were easy to carve open and roasted quite nicely, yielding about 7 pounds of purée. I froze some, made pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie. Great! I hadn’t done this for many decades, since I lived in New England and tried it. The purée I made then was pretty awful - not the taste, but the texture, which was stringy. I’m older and I hope, wiser. Yesterday, I went back to purchase a few more since they were on sale after Halloween. They’d moved them, I thought, so I asked and was pointed to the baking pumpkins. I bought 4 for 10 dollars. At home, I prepared to roast 2 of the 4. First step is cutting out the stem and splitting them in half. I thought, hmmm, these are kind of hard, as I tried to stab my paring knife into the top of the gourd. It was so hard, I tried the other pumpkin. It was the same as were the other 2.

The Star of Zanzibar water lily is doing so well that we've had to thin it.  Wayne removed a few pads as they were covering the whole pond.  We can see Moby again.  Littler Orenji is in the lower left and Ghost is hiding, as usual.

As is our habit, my husband and I were sitting on the back porch watching birds at the feeders earlier this evening.  He said, "what kind of bird is that?", causing me to look up from my ipad and squint at the faraway feeder.  "IT'S A ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK !", I fairly yelled.  "You're making that up", responded the spouse.  Into the house for the camera...an older Panasonic Lumix...I tried to take a picture of the rare bird sighting.  Here is the result: Okay, so I didn't hold the camera perfectly steady, and the 10x optical zoom didn't work magic by capturing a perfect image of this beautiful male specimen.  These birds are not seen in central Florida often, in fact, rarely south of Georgia.  They love oil sunflower, like cardinals, their kin.  They have several lovely songs .  Here is a picture that someone else took... Do I need a bigger, badder camera or RTFM for the one I've had for years?  At least, I know I have to h

In 2009, we built a small koi pond.  Last year we made it bigger.  It's about 300 gallons and is home to our one koi, Moby.  We have a good filter system, but lacked a clarifier.  Thanks to my brother, Paul, who sent an Amazon gift certificate for Christmas, we were able to buy a TotalPond UV Clarifier for the pond.  Wayne installed it a week ago. What a difference!  Here's what the pond looked like before: (except without the carrots, and not as yummy). The filter was easy to install and will fit 1/2, 3/4, or 1 inch filter hose.  We chose to install it outside the pond just in back of the waterfall.  It can also be submerged.  It will be hidden by plants behind the pond.  It has an indicator light that glows blue to let you know it's working. In just one day the pond was a lot clearer, you could just see Moby. Today, just 5 days after installation, the water is almost completely clear. Moby can now see us and tries to hide when we get near.  You'd think a