Category Archives: General Gardening

The Spring garden is entering another stage. The early Spring bloomers are done but a few are hanging on!

There are still a few azaleas blooming.

The coral Honeysuckles are blooming, too! They are native and are not aggressive like the Japanese Honeysuckle. This variety is Major Wheeler. It was discovered in the wild in North Carolina but blooms throughout the Summer.

Several German Irises are blooming.

Snowball viburnum is one of my favorite shrubs. My grandmother had a very large snowball bush on the North side of her house in Beaufort, North Carolina.

The oxeye daisies are beautiful along the 100 foot wildflower curb garden and are the first of the wildflowers to bloom.

And new bronze-colored fronds are unfurling from the Autumn Ferns.

And Gus has a new chew rope. Let’s see how long it takes him to unravel it!

The last rope lasted a few days!

atb3

This Sunday morning it’s quiet but, of course, I am up at dawn with Gus. I don’t care if it is Sunday morning! I am going to crank up the mixer!

I had seen a Giada De Laurentiis recipe that looked interesting.

Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze

Ingredients
Cookies:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 (15-ounce) container whole milk ricotta cheese
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 lemon, zested
Glaze:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 lemon, zested
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Cookies:

In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In the large bowl combine the butter and the sugar. Using an electric mixer beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating until incorporated. Add the ricotta cheese, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Beat to combine. Stir in the dry ingredients.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Spoon the dough (about 2 tablespoons for each cookie) onto the baking sheets. Bake for 15 minutes, until slightly golden at the edges. Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 20 minutes.

Glaze:

Combine the powdered sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a small bowl and stir until smooth. Spoon about 1/2-teaspoon onto each cookie and use the back of the spoon to gently spread. Let the glaze harden for about 2 hours.

I originally spooned the glaze onto the cookies as you see in the first picture but I found dipping them into the glaze created better results.

Much better.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/chefs/giada-de-laurentiis.html

Art3

The oxeye daisies along the road are beginning to bloom. They, along with other seed sown flowers, form a one-hundred foot border along the street. I might also plant a few patches of petunias or some other heavy flowering plant here and there along the street, too!

Yesterday, I stopped at several parks on my way to work in Research Triangle Park.

The first was Fletcher Park in Raleigh. This was the former home to The Methodist Orphanage before the advent of State run programs.

Several of the old buildings are used as offices by the park and recreation department.

Borden Building

Garris Building

Ferns around the Garris Building

My last stop before arriving for work was Lake Crabtree Park. It’s a large lake and it was very quiet. A pair of Canadian geese were foraging around the picnic table where I was sitting. The fish in the lake were very active along the shore, too. I assume they were spawning?

The temps have been reaching near 80f by late afternoon. Summer is near!