Welcome to Florida Farm Girl's World

Ever have one of those days when you wonder if you should just chuck the whole project and sit in a corner? That's how my morning started. I needed to use the starter for Amish Friendship bread and had enough for 3 batches. Well, only had 5 eggs. Had to borrow from the neighbor, thank goodness they had some. Then I discovered that I had only 1 cup of applesauce. Needed 1/2 cup to substitute in each batch for some of the oil. Oh well. And THEN I saw that although I had bread flour and whole wheat flour, not a dusting of all purpose flour in the house!! ((Big sigh)). So bread flour it was. And THEN I had only 2 packages of pudding mix. So.....combined them and then divided that by three. Then to decide what kinds to make and that's how I wound up with cinnamon (2 standard loaves), coconut/pineapple (3 smaller loaves) and the almond cherry (4 mini loaves plus two flower pot muffins). I've made the first two before but today is the first attempt at the almond cherry. This bread tastes much better a day or so after baking, so the final judgment will wait until at least tomorrow. That certainly doesn't mean we'll have the willpower to leave it alone until then, though!!

Took me all morning long to make this stuff. Seemed like I washed a ton of dishes. I sure hope Hubby doesn't think this is going to get to be a habit!!

The resident birds are very busy in the backyard. There's a pair of downy woodpeckers diligently foraging in an oak tree. A brown thrasher has to be the cleanest bird in the neighborhood. He's been in and out of the birdbath repeatedly. We haven't seen any migrants in a while and, in fact, didn't have too many this year. I think the weather was such that they didn't stop here near the shore but continued their flights more inland. Other years we've had beautiful buntings, grosbeaks and other songbirds that are not native.

My poor yard is in such sad shape!!! It has been neglected something terrible for the last three or four years. I've gotten so lazy about tending to it and it shows! I've lately begun a few things to help but it still needs lots of work. Hubby and I usually do all the gardening but due to some health issues, he's not available to do a lot of it right now. We're hoping that by the winter he'll be back to where he can help out with the labor part. I've always had to do the designing, deciding and planting. A number of years ago I sent him out into the yard to dig out a bush of some kind (don't remember exactly what it was now) but I never went out there to show him what I was talking about. Some time later I was in the yard and became aware of a noticeable absence. So I came inside him and asked nicely, "What happened to my snowball bush that was in the flowerbed? " Now, he had no idea what a snowball bush looked like, particularly when it probably would have looked like a pile of sticks at the time. So I took him out and showed him where it was supposed to be. He says "Oh, wasn't that one you wanted dug up?" This is the one he dug up. Who knows how big it would be by now.

Guess what. I still don't have a replacement snowball bush! Now he won't touch anything without me specifically pointing it out to him. Believe me, there's good and bad points to that attitude!!

The countdown is underway before the start our summer travels. Lists are being made and items checked off. There is such a flurry of activity in the last few days and then the day arrives and you leave the neighborhood. It's a wonderful feeling. Takes a lot of effort to get there, but worth every bit of it!!