Saturday, March 12, 2011

A Joshua Bloom and Backyard Herbs

We are praying for the safety of the people of Japan. God is indeed with them. The Japanese are very well organized. It is encouraging to see their various agencies working so well together. Hopefully there will not be severe problems with the nuclear power plants.

We have one Joshua Tree blooming as of yesterday. It is nice having that sweet smell in the yard again. No blooms on the other trees.










 
To my surprise I found arugula growing all over my yard. That`s over an acre! A neighbor / herbalist enlightened me. My dogs were eating it and another friend picked some in her yard, ate it fresh (made a salad) and cooked some up for her supper not knowing what it was. Just that it is tasty. Growing enmeshed with the arugula is mullein (sp). I use mullein for ear aches and pet ear problems. I`ll post a picture tomorrow of the mullein. The picture below is the arugula leaves.


I`m having lunch with a friend today, a rare treat. We are bartering. I`m giving her red glass beads and she is giving me area rugs. Nice trade because I need a few rugs.

I have to add that we have two refrigerators. One about six years old, the other 33 years old. A few years back the newer Frigidaire stopped working, so a friend gave us their old fridge to keep us going till the old (new) one was fixed. Not having a ton of money we have been using the the oldie for about four years. A year ago I plugged in the old/new one and it worked. Ta Da! We were using that as the extra fridge on the porch. Anyway the oldie wouldn`t cool yesterday, we took everything out. Moved it, thoroughly cleaned under it, found a bit of dog hair and dust on the coils. Today it is running beautifully again. I am amazed that this old fridge is still going strong. It`s a GE. They don`t make them like this anymore. Most people here have two fridges and a freezer because shopping is so far away. I love those old beauties!

Stay safe everyone wherever you are in the world.
Cathy

4 comments:

  1. wow, I think we may have some of the herb here too...not sure....and you are so right about appliances....the new ones are made poorly overseas....we have had really good performance with our old Maytag washer and dryer..they are over 15 years old...so when we moved here 6 years ago, we bought all Maytag kitchen appliances including a large French door fridge...they are terrible...the oven door exploded and had to be replaced, the dishwasher isn't doing well, and the fridge has cheap plastic parts that have snapped for no reason...the repair man said that they are making all appliances now with the idea they will be replaced within 5 years...made in China, of course.....

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  2. I agree Dani! Most new appliances now are awful. They don`t last. Even some Kenmore items I bought aren`t as good as the old ones.

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  3. Arugula! How great! You can make pesto from arugula and it does not taste too differently than using basil; just add a bit of lemon juice to your olive oil.

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 I start this post with a picture of a lion that daily crosses through my son`s property. Beautiful ! This is near Prescott.