Homemade dog biscuts

A couple weeks ago on Saturday the temperature was 6.1 degrees. Burrrrrrr!! But that doesn't keep Bonnie from wanting to go outside for her walk through the woods and along the creek.
Here I am all dressed up to take her. Needless to say it was a quick walk. She wasn't happy with that!
I try to appease her with some homemade treats. We had received a pre-made mix as a Christmas gift. Here is their website http://www.cloudstar.com//Default.asp? All I had to do was mix a couple tablespoons of oil with the mix. Roll out on a floured surface and cut with the dog bone cookie cutter. Then I baked them until they were hard. I think I used too much flour when I rolled them out. To make them look better I brushed them with egg whites.
Here is the finished produce. Butch and Bonnie gave them 2 paws up!

The Butchart Garden

One of the more informational garden club meeting was this last Tuesday. We saw a video of the Butchart Garden near Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada. Robert Butchart was a manufacture of Portland Cement and used the limestone where this garden is located now. After he had used up the limestone his wife went about reclaiming the quarry. As the website says she took the topsoil form the near by farmland to create her garden. Seems like she traded one bad for another. But don't let me discourage you, take a look at the website. It is very beautiful. The garden club member that visted the garden said 1 day wasn't enough time to tour the whole garden. Might want to check it out if you find yourself near there.

http://www.butchartgardens.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1


I couldn't have a post without a picture. You will have to settle with one from my garden. Enjoy!

Morning walk with Bonnie!

You might recognize the basketball from my previous post. I was able to make it across the stream and get it today. I was thinking it would have a home in our garage. How do you recycle a basketball? Well Bonnie had the right ideal! I guess she will have a new toy until she chews it up!

The wooded path.
The moon this morning.
We had an inch of snow yesterday morning! I spotted these 2 spots where there was no snow and thought that was odd. Can anyone guess what made these spots in the snow? I first thought aliens! LOL! Then it dawned on me that was where the deer were laying when it snowed or where they slept last night and melted the snow.

Trashed

How many times have we heard that a picture says a thousand words? Here are pictures from the creek behind our house. I will let the pictures speak for themselves!

Fall Color

I know it is well past fall but I didn't get as much posting done last year as I would have liked.
This is my Lace Leafed Sumac. I have had it planted in a pot on the deck for 5 or 6 years. It has done very well for me and gives me some great color in the fall. I use it on the desk to give us some privacy from the neighbors.



Here are a few pictures of the fall colors. These were taken behind our house. Most of the trees are oak, ash and couple of elms. I don't think we could have found a better lot to built our house on.

The house is all decked out, just waiting for you....

I thought this would be a good time to share some pictures of our holiday decorations. We have been collecting decorations for a number of years. This year we had a holiday party the Saturday before Thanksgiving. That is why I have the whole house decked out in the Christmas bling.

I have not figured out how to take pictures of the lighted tree. The tree looks so good with the lights and the sparkle of the glass oriments. But when you take the picture it never looks as good. I am sure if I had a better camera and more experience I could take better pictures.

Poinsettia

Last spring I wrote about this little guy. Should I keep it or compost it. Well I decided that if it survived the winter I would repost it and keep it for the summer. Once summer is over then I will decide. Along comes September, way too soon, and I had to make the decision. Well it was looking pretty good. Good color and bushy. I put it in the storage area with a grow light to control the amount of light it got and about 6 weeks later I started to see the color. You can see the after pictures what was once a small plant with a couple blooms now has a dozen or more blooms. I know that the color leaves are not blooms but you all know what I mean.