Great Give Away

Hey boys and girls, Deborah Mele over at Italian Food Forever has a great giveaway. Just leave a comment to win!

Watermelon Bellini

Fathers Day Watermelon Mojotos

Sybil

Our new plant. Like the movie where Sybil had multiple personalities.
This Sybil is multiple plants.

Bob the Bobcat

Our normal Sunday morning, after my bike ride with the Flatlanders, is to sit on the lanai, read the newspaper and drink coffee.

We look out upon our island complete with arbor, bird feeder and bird bath. We enjoy the birds. Yes, like the plants, they all have names...Carlo Cardinali, Blu Bluejay, Woody Woodpecker and so on... They come to eat, drink, and be merry in our little island. We provide the bath free of charge.

Now I have just spent a lot of time the past two weeks adding new plants, trimming the bouganvilla and distributing mulch. Yesterday I added colius and crotons. It was all finished with a good watering and filling the birdbath with fresh water for the birds.

Now this morning we looked out while getting coffee to see our birdbath over turned. This is not the first time this is happened. Now keep in mind, this is a heavy concrete birdbath. I've seen many birds on the rim with out the slightest movement. Even Rocky the Squire (yes, we name the animals as well) jumps up to the rim to get a drink with out the birdbath moving.

So the questions is who, or better what, is dumping the bird bath?

Bob! The three legged Bobcat is the leading contender. Yes, we have seen a 3-legged bobcat walking by looking in our lanai door. He starred at JB as to say "What are you looking at woman!"

Our neighbor, several houses, up has a family of bobcats behind his house. He snapped a few pics here is the family at play.

So maybe Bob needed a drink?

Happy Hour

Tessie Tomato

The Before

I've been doing a bit of gardening as of late. The county in their infinite wisdom decided to take 15 ft of our property away to add to the barren wasteland behind our house. You see our county feels green grass is not native to Florida. So my beautiful island complete with arbor and weeping hibiscus tree looks awful. So, in an attempt to make my yard...unless the county takes it away, a little prettier, JB and I have been working on the yard

So we have planted new plants, placed a brick border around the island and added mulch. In one of the many trips to the local Big Box Home Supply Stores I came across a tomato plant. Now keep in mind I grew up in New Jersey, South Jersey to be exact. The Garden State, home of Campbell's Tomato Soup and fresh Jersey tomatoes. As a boy growing up, we always had fresh tomatoes in the summer growing in our garden. Every dinner included tomatoes in some form ... sliced, fried, baked, stewed, sauced.....even raw eaten with plenty of salt like you would an apple. So needless to say, the tomato plant was coming home with me.

Now I can't plant anything outside since I will not eat anything that has been watered with "reclaimed" water, you know water that comes from the streets were dogs poop and pee, from yards that have been treated with pesticides and run off from who knows what people use to powerwash driveways, roofs and homes. So the large clay pot at the end of the pool became home for the tomato plant.

So, JB loves to name our plants. We have Olivia Orchid, Patty Pedestal (she resides on a pedestal near the front door), Gabriella Gardenia, Betty Bougainvillaea and so on. So the wonderful tomato plant is Tessie Tomato!

Every day I water Tessie, just after I take my poolside shower after my morning run, bike, or swim. In Florida things including me, needs a lot of water. As I water her I check her growth and grown she has from that little plant I brought home. Every day I check her tomatoes, now 9 in all in various sizes but all green. Every day I plan menus that uses tomatoes. But most of all every day I look forward to the day I can eat one of "Tessie Tomatoes" tomatoes with plenty of salt with the juices dripping from my chin! Until then I'll just have to rely on my local farmer, Mr. Gonzales, to provide my daily tomato fix.

Monkfish over Dry Fettucine - lunch

Pizza

This last nights pizza before I baked it!