Wildflower Lighted Centerpiece

We were sitting on the porch last night talking 

and listening to music when my granddaughter,

Taylor, walks up with a collection of wild flowers

that she fashioned into a bouquet.

She used a rubber band to secure it,

placed it into a ball jar with water

and tied a bow with twine.

I had her shine a light on it to get some photos.

In the first picture she placed it on a lighted

phone so it would shine up from the bottom.

 

Here is what it looks like this morning.

It's really pretty and full of texture.

Donvier- Ice Cream on Demand

Ice cream on demand.

My mom gave us her Donvier ice cream maker that

she no longer uses.  We downloaded the instructions

along with several recipes on line, purchased some

heavy cream and had our first attempt last night.

We selected the no cook recipe which requires

 eggs, sugar, cream, vanilla and milk.

No electricity is needed but you have to freeze the 

inner container for at least 7 hours. We kept our in the deep freeze.

Don't touch the frozen inner container with wet hands.

Mix the eggs and sugar and add the remaining ingredients.

You give it a few quick turns at first and then turn every few 

minutes for about 15-20 minutes.  

We found it was a bit milky at first so we let it sit longer.

The sides were frozen pretty hard, the middle similar to

fresh churned homemade but a little runnier.

It was still good to me, I don't like thick ice cream,

in fact I favor soft serve so homemade ice cream is the

best on the first day for me.

I froze the remaining ice cream for later.

I would recommend the PINT recipe, we had too much

with the full recipe.  Maybe we had too much in the container

which is why it took longer.  

All in all it was easy and quick plus does not need electric

other than to freeze the inner container.

Breakfast Visitor

Our morning ritual includes feeding the porch cats,

one scoop each, a scoop for the birds and one for 

little raccoon that waits under the porch for the breakfast call.

I'll default to "she" since I haven't been able to determine

if it's female or male.  She peeks out from under

the porch or comes up on the first step or two.

She gets her scoop and is content to sit on the steps

and eat while the cats get their fill on the porch.

(unless the cats take too long!)

I'll sit on a chair and have a brief conversations,

a bit one sided but she does look up and listen.

We generally discuss how beautiful she is or

what a nice day it is turning out to be.

If the cats don't eat everything (or if she eats faster)

she'll come up on the deck and scavenge for the remaining 

pieces.  While she goes back to sleep shortly thereafter, 

she'll be back at dusk to see what I have left her in the yard.

It might be older eggs, leftover scraps from dinner and anything

the cats have not eaten.

She's really quite calm and there is never a growl or 

any aggressive behavior to us or the cats.  If another 

raccoon comes up I make sure to leave but I will stay

(as you have seen before) if little skunk arrives, I just

stay on the "right" side of the skunk!

Cookie Cutters

While we were in Arkansas, Mom gave me some cookie cutters that were passed down in the family. The oldest are handmade from around the late 1890s to 1900s and belonged to Mary Smith (Grandmother Templeman) 

The middle shape is a Pillsbury Comicooky item from a comic strip. This shape looks like Lillums from 1937 from the cartoon Harold Teen.  You got the cookie cutter and cut outs to decorate your cookie after baking.

Photo credit 

I found this photo under Hake's.com

There are a few others as well.

I have some other old cutters stored in a tin.

The chicken looks to be very old.  I love the handles on the 

stars, moon and either a biscuit or sugar cookie cutter.

Christmas themed

and a fish.  Taylor and I will have to make cookies

this year!  I've seen some really cute frosting methods on 

Facebook lately. 

Hot Springs, Arkansas Trip

We were Arkansas bound last Thursday.

We packed up our granddaughter, Taylor, and 

stuffed the Jeep with everything we would need

for a couple of days visiting Mom at her house

on the lake.  

We always make a stop at the Arkansas Welcome Center

just north of Corning, AR.  It's a very clean and pleasant

 place with lots of travel information, displays and

sweet women to offer you coffee, maps and whatever

freebies that they happen to have.  For awhile people 

would donate magazines for the taking.  Take one and

drop one off next time!  

While I ran some errands with Mom, my husband

took Taylor up the mountain (right in the middle

of town).  There is a lookout tower that we have

visited before but this trip they just stopped at

the overlooks which provide great views of the area.

The town is called Hot Springs for a reason.

There was a time when my parents collected their

drinking water right from the springs that run

under the town, some are hot, some are cold

and each has it's own special properties so you can

select which spring you want to drink.

This is right on Bathhouse Row in the center of town.

The spring here is really hot.  I am still recovering

from some leg injuries so I chose to not climb the 

steps but Tom and Taylor were game!  

This structure winds all the way to the top of the mountain

behind the bath houses.They didn't go all the way 

up but made sure Taylor posed for her portrait along the way.

Some of the bath houses have been restored as spas, 

a museum and this one, the Superior Bath House, 

is now a brewery and distillery plus a restaurant.

Mom and Tom are enjoying a micro brew while 

Taylor opted for a root beer.

We walked up and down bathhouse row.

The other side of the street is full of shops

selling pretty decorations, clothing and wonderful

treats.  You can't forget the tourist shops

and Duck tours plus the wax museum.

What a fun place to walk around!

Back at the house Taylor pilots the party barge.

The lake is about 26 miles long and very deep.

We can stand in the water by the sea wall but a few 

feet out and it drops off so you can jump off the dock

and swim around.  I'm a chicken so I stay closer to the wall.

Taylor would have stayed in the water the entire

time if we would have let her!  Here, Pops takes 

his turn keeping her company.

This is a view from one side of Mom's deck looking out 

towards an island.

Mom has a couple of crepe myrtles that were in full bloom.

The hummingbirds were fighting each other for drinks

in addition to being chased by wasps that also claimed the feeder.

Here bees, a wasp and a bird face off to see who gets the nectar.

If you ever get down to Hot Springs you have to stop

in at Mr Whiskers.  I don't like fish much but I can't wait

to go here.  They have the best butterflied shrimp,

homemade hush puppies and sauces plus cole slaw

and fries.  If you order other sides make sure to try

the pickled green tomatoes because they are fantastic.

My mom and Tom love the fried okra too.

This is a photo of Tom's fried oysters.

Almost everything was perfect when we returned.

My brother and sister in law were taking care of the house

but a pesky late night visitor kept digging up my potted plants.

I thought it was an armadillo since my husband heard one

but now I am leaning towards a raccoon.  They have never

bothered them before but the cats' large water dish

was full of dirt yesterday- from washing their hands!

And now someone is eating my green tomatoes and not just

one bite and moving on.  They eat the entire thing!

Someday I'll get a trail cam and find out what sort of 

wild parties are going on late night on the porch!