Our Birds

We have been feeding the birds for many years, but due to our planned travels this year, we didn’t want them to become feeder dependent then quit feeding them.  As it turned out, the travel plans got cancelled so we decided to begin feeding them again.  I’ve always been in awe of the variety of birds visiting Betsy’s feeders (Joyful Reflections), so I ask her to send me some shots of her feeding area then we had a couple of conversations about the details.

Before getting into the songbirds, I’d like to tell you about our Hummers – I believe Bev has four feeders for them and one is on the bedroom deck and visible from the living room.  This is the window we look through with the feeder on the left side of the middle window and it’s fun to watch them fly right up to the window if they arrive in spring to no feeder or if it runs out of food, as it did last week.

During a recent visit from Betsy and George, they gave me some instruction on how they set their cameras for various shots and I shot these from inside the bedroom using my long lens, a tripod, and the Av camera setting (5.6) which provide a 1/320 shutter speed.  They definitely turned out better than my normal shots.

Now for the songbirds feeding station, which we’ve located in the new landscaping next to the patio and visible from the kitchen window.  The area contains one of the hummer feeders, a birdbath and four hanging feeders – two with sunflower seeds, one with thistle, one with meal worms, and two suet feeders.

After this shot, I moved the meal worm and thistle feeders to various places around the yard as I need to slowly lure the bluebirds and gold finches around to where the new feeders are located.

Thanks Betsy and George for the camera and feeding advice.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

8/25/14 event date

Tuna Salad & Stuffed Mushrooms

It had been a lazy rainy day, we had the kitchen all cleaned up, and I was thinking nuked leftover grilled chicken for supper with maybe a Knorr’s Pasta side for a one pot and one plate meal.  Bev, however, had other plans – sometimes she can’t help herself when the food prep gene takes over.

First she decided she wanted a repeat of the stuffed mushrooms we’d had a few days ago (you may remember the leftovers went into the recent breakfast scramble) and I readily agreed with this choice.  This is the recipe and a couple of shots that turned out this time – the liquid in the pan is because we forgot that the shrooms were supposed to be cooked some prior to stuffing, step 3.


Ingredients:

4 large portobello mushroom caps, stems and gills removed

1 tablespoon reduced-fat Italian salad dressing

1 egg

1 clove garlic, minced

salt and ground black pepper to taste

1 (10 ounce) bag fresh spinach, chopped

1/4 cup chopped pepperoni

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

3 tablespoons seasoned bread crumbs, divided

Directions:

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2.Brush both sides of each portobello mushroom cap with Italian dressing. Arrange mushroom on a baking sheet, gill sides up.

3.Bake mushrooms in the preheated oven until tender, about 12 minutes. Drain any juice that has formed in the mushrooms.

4.Beat egg, garlic, salt, and black pepper together in a large bowl.

5.Stir spinach, pepperoni, Parmesan cheese, 3 tablespoons mozzarella cheese, and 3 tablespoons bread crumbs into the eggs until evenly mixed.

6.Divide spinach mixture over mushroom caps; sprinkle mushrooms with remaining 1 tablespoon mozzarella cheese and 1 tablespoon bread crumbs. Return mushrooms to the oven.

7.Continue baking until topping is golden brown and cheese is melted, about 10 minutes more.

She next considered turning the leftover chicken into chicken salad but then said she’d been craving tuna salad and so it was.  This is her recipe for tuna salad:

2 12oz cans of tuna packed in water, flaked

3 hard boiled eggs, diced

SOME finely diced celery

SOME finely diced onion

SOME mustard, to taste

SOME mayo, to taste

A little hot sauce, to taste

S&P to taste

Mix everything together, sample and adjust to taste.

As I’ve always said, Bev is the chef in this family and I’m the recipe follower - the tuna salad was delicious, especially when served atop a fresh, from our garden tomato.

This was a fine summertime meal and the little kitchen mess was well worth it – so now I’ll be cleaning it up for the second time today.

On a different note, do you know what happens when the corner your blueberry bush bird netting is out in the grass and you catch it in your mower.

You borrow a set of ramps from your neighbor and rest them on the bed of a pick-up, you drive the mower up on them, and then spend about 30 minutes cutting out the netting and branches that came with it, to get this two foot wad.

The silver linings - it was only wrapped around one of the three blades, the netting was easy to cut and therefore much easier than removing a ski rope wrapped around a jet ski drive shaft - yep, that is the voice of experience speaking.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

7/18/14 event date

Fixing A Steep Bank

We have a small area beside the house that is steep and shady making it hard to grow grass and mow, so we decided to do something else.  Since Bev is always looking for new places to put plants (she can’t control herself at a plant sale), we decided to terrace it using the common wall stones in use today.  I forgot to get a shot before we began, but this is what it looked like early on.

I hired some guys to build the walls and back fill in early spring, then we haired a neighbor kid to do the planting and spread the mulch to get it to this point and I’m confident many more plants will follow.

This is a shot from the top and we still have the section below the wall to plant and mulch.

The area is now ready for the blogger party.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

6/3/14 event date