fit to split

The days are still warm enough for cheerful visitors...

But this might be the most anticipated visitor of all!

After a 6-week dry spell, we have had two short rains.  Not nearly enough, but every little bit helps.  There's no rain in the forecast for the next 10 days, but I'm hoping that these little episodes are enough to put the garden to bed (and not the grave!) over the next couple of weeks.  So far, it's still going strong.

Flowers are still blooming, and I'm still getting my cat escort on my daily trips to the garden.

Things are looking good, but there are definite casualties.  The hot weather has turned our soil to dust over compacted clay, so when we had strong wind last week, some of my beloved taller flowers were downed.  I lost several of my Benary's wine zinnias (5" - 6" flower heads!), and also my beloved 'Mission Giant' marigolds, which look so much like yellow dahlias.  Whole stalks split on the top-heavy plants.

At least I'm going to have big marigold bouquets for a while.

The good news is that I've read that pollinated flowers WILL produce seed.  These marigolds were covered in pollinators, so the large, open flowers are going to be saved and dried.  I'll take a couple of their seeds and attempt to germinate them in a plastic baggie, wrapped in a wet paper towel.  If they germinate, then I can assume that the whole lot is viable.  Hooray!

I'm collecting seeds from my nasturtiums, with their lily pad leaves...

...and it seems that FINALLY, our goldfinches are migrating.  This means that I'll be able to salvage seeds from the rest of my zinnias and cosmos, which is a big relief.

I've noticed, with our heavy dews, that we've got little pockets of webs all over the yard.

These are made by tiny grass spiders, and the drops of dew caught on the webs make them visible.

It's hard to believe that soon, all of the little spiders and their webs, both large and small...

...will be gone for the season!  Although I'm still seeing spiders, butterflies, and bees, I don't think they'll be around for more than another week or so.  Our temperature dipped to 35 degrees last night.  The slow slide into winter is in full swing now!  You can already see it in our house, as our cats are perfect temperature barometers.  Cats lingering in sunbeams...

...or curled up in quilts?  Oh, yeah - I don't have to be a Game of Thrones fan to know that winter is coming.  

But I'll prolong fall as long as possible, with touches of leaves and fall color wherever I can put them.

Have a great week!

these boxelders have mustered a cluster!

The recent rains have really perked things up in the yard.  My nasturtiums have finally filled in around the base of my bird bath, a feat I was unable to accomplish all summer long despite frequent desperate soakings with the hose.

They're even climbing up the fence.  I think I'm in love!

As I've mentioned before, the rain settles beautifully on nasturtium leaves.

 

My all-time favorite for raindrop beauty is, of course, the columbine.

I think the leaves looked like they're edged with diamonds.  The tiny droplets of water outline each and every leaf.

Of course, I found more little creatures hiding and waiting out the rain, like this carpenter bee... 

...and this grasshopper.

 

But the rains passed, the sun came out, and Todd was finally able to work on some roof issues during a (much too brief!) visit home.

The squirrels, fat and round as can be, came out in force.

The weather was so nice - sunny, but crisp, too nice to be inside - so I decided to take Borga to the park.

I love to see the trees as they're starting to turn.

Most trees are just tipped with color...

 

...but some, like this maple, has completely transformed.

 

What a beauty!

I'm going to get to have two falls this year...the Indiana one, and then the one in South Carolina, which runs a bit later than ours here.  Yay!

 

We saw other signs of fall.  Acorns are dropping...

 

...mushrooms are popping up as a result of the recent rains...

 

...and there are squirrels, squirrels, and more squirrels!

 

 Here's another interesting sign of fall:  a cluster of boxelder bugs.

Boxelder bugs are mainly seen in spring and fall, clustered and warming themselves in a sunny spot.  These boxelders must have been living in a nearby tree, but as the weather cools, they will start looking for a warm place to overwinter...including inside houses.

They're a bit of a nuisance in that respect.  However, they don't bite and don't seem to cause any real damage.  It's interesting to see their unusual behavior! 

Hope you're seeing signs of fall all around, too.  Have a great week!

Ore-oh, yeah!

The recent rains have cooled things off a bit, and I've been more active in the yard.  I've really enjoyed watching the little creatures there...something I haven't done for a while because of the heat.  

Moths are especially prolific in late summer.

There are endless varieties of moths - much too many for me to be able to identify by sight (yet!).  So far I either identify them as "bushy-headed" or "needle-nosed".  This one, of course, is of the bushy-headed variety.  I love the feathery antennae.

It's easy to see them clinging to screen doors and windows, but I can usually find their natural hiding places.  Moths love to hide behind blades of grass...

...or under large leaves, like this "needle-nose".

Of course, we've got the omnipresent carpenter bees, which nap on the Russian Sage at night...

Grasshoppers get bigger, browner, and more sluggish as the season moves on.  They've lost their jaunty hops and seem to have a staring, harassed look.  It's definitely grasshopper mating season.

I've found a few insect nests, too, like this strange marble-sized mud nest built in the branches of our pine tree.  

 

I wonder who lives there?

 

The rains have brought my nasturtiums back from the brink.  I love their bright, saturated colors.

Nasturtiums are edible.  What a beautiful salad they'd make!

I cut back my stocks earlier this year and they've finally rebloomed.

Stocks have an amazing scent.  I planted them along our back walkway so their delicious smell wafts up as you brush past them.   Ahhhhh!

They're annuals, but I believe they re-seed nicely.

My snapdragons have gone strong all summer long...

And believe it or not, one of my lilac bushes is blooming again!

I made the mistake of planting morning glories years ago, and spent the subsequent years ripping up transplants all over the yard.  This year I decided to pot one of them up.  It was an interesting experiment.  I got the same blue flower as the parent plant...

...but the blooms are much smaller.  Also, instead of the large spade-shaped leaves, this plant has jagged, fuzzy leaves of a completely different shape.  

I think I created a monster!  It allows me an opportunity to use one of my favorite words:  transmogrify.

trans·mog·ri·fy [trans-mog-ruh-fahy, tranz-] 

verb (used with object), trans·mog·ri·fied, trans·mog·ri·fy·ing.

to change in appearance or form, especially strangely or grotesquely; transform.

I think it fits!  This is the parent plant's sinister cousin.

Anyway, I can't break my flower-buying habit, but since we're moving soon, I stick to bouquets.

I can't wait to plant rose bushes at our new house!

A friend of mine was recently talking about her love of Newman's Own Oreo-style cookies, and I remembered a recipe tucked away in my collection.  After she left, I pulled it out and preheated the oven.  Could homemade Oreos taste as good as store-bought?

In my opinion - they taste even better.

Homemade Oreo Cookies

makes 16 - 24 cookies

Annie's Eats

Directions

For the cookies:
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
1 1/4 cup sugar
10 tbsp. (1¼ sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 large egg

For the filling:
4 tbsp. (¼ cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup vegetable shortening
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375˚ F and grease your cookie sheets.  In a large bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar.  Add the butter and mix briefly to incorporate.  Next, beat in your egg and mix until the dough forms a mass.  

Take a small ball of dough and roll it into a ball.  Flatten it slightly and place on cookie sheet.  

Bake for 5 - 7 minutes.  Remove from cookie sheet and cool on wire racks.   What a beautiful cookie!

While they're cooling, make your filling by combining your butter and shortening and beating until smooth.  Add your powdered sugar and beat 2 - 3 minutes, then blend in the vanilla.  **My filling seemed too thick to pipe at this point, so I thinned it out with some milk.  It was still quite thick!

 For cookie assembly:  pair up your cookies by size.  Fill a pastry bag with cookie filling and pipe frosting onto one cookie half.

Put cookies together and press so that filling is evenly distributed.

This recipe makes some gorgeous stacks of cookies! 

They taste like Oreos, but are softer in the middle.  They are amazing and I'm sure I'll never buy store-bought Oreos again.  They didn't take any time to whip up, either!  Truthfully, you can cut the sugar down quite a bit in this recipe and still have a great-tasting cookie.  I feel great about adding this to my roster of kitchen DIY recipes, and I love having the excuse to say:  Ore-oh, yeah!  :)  

Hope you give them a try.  Have a great week!