Pineapple Weed Vs. Black Medic

 May and June are the best time of year to gather Pineapple Weed buds. Pineapple Weed has petal-less flowers that make really calming tea, in fact Pineapple Weed is closely related to Camomile. Pineapple Weed loves poor quality soil like driveways and empty lots. I love the smell of the buds. I like to squeeze a bud between my fingers and sniff the fruity aroma. It smells kinda like....... pineapple!

 Another yellow bud that is about the same size that grows in the same places is Black Medic aka Yellow Trefoil.

Can you see the difference? Above is Black Medic. Below is Pineapple Weed.

And here they are growing side by side:

Black Medic is a legume and has clover type leaves.

Pineapple Weed has feathery leaves.

The buds of Pineapple Weed mature into seeds. The seeds fall off of the flower head leaving cone shaped spires.

And hopefully they fall on some poor quality soil and grow a bunch more Pineapple Weed next year!

Nanking Cherry | Wild Edible

 

I have learned a new wild edible. This is the Nanking Cherry. They are succulent tart little cherries grown on a shrub.

Do you remember this flower that bloomed in March that I saw during my morning walks but didn't know what kind of flowers is was?

Now on my morning walks I see these cherries. I was able to look up the shrub now that it has leaves and berries and make a sure identification.

Nanking Cherries are a drought resistant shrub. I need to get a bunch of these planted in my yard. I think they would make a great hedge. The cherries are tart, delicious, and prolific. All along each branch there are cherries up and down. They would make good pies and jam I think. The trouble would be getting the pits out. They have a miniature cherry pit in each fruit. 

 For further reading check out this page:

https://www.foragecolorado.com/post/nanking-cherry-prunus-tomentosa-foraging-identification

Nutmeg Documentary

 

I really enjoyed this documentary about nutmeg. I learned many things about the tree and fruit but also about the history of European trade and conquest in the Spice Islands.

The second time that watched this documentary my children joined me and I considered it part of homeschooling (even though we watched it on the weekend.) I even drew these coloring pages and made copies for my children to color.

Nutmeg is native to the Banda Islands, which was a closely guarded secret by spice traders for many many years. When the European companies and governments finally figured out where nutmeg was coming from each power tried securing a monopoly on nutmeg. In the end England ceded their Banda Island to Holland as a trade for what Holland called New Amsterdam in America. New Amsterdam's name was changed and today we know it as Manhattan Island of New York!

If you would like to print my coloring pages you should be able to use the links below to access my scanned drawings and print them.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11gy7ypraOyYkr99KzdZ7S6RfD9orzyu0/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11WghLsYNdG-ul3Si-kqs--vmNHripS5P/view?usp=drivesdk

My son had this idea for a funny cartoon depicting the British leaving the Banda Islands to the Dutch saying, "Enjoy your monopoly on nutmeg!" all the while having hundreds of nutmeg seedlings to take and grow elsewhere.

I thought it was such a good idea so I drew it like this:

Huffman Pineapple Upsidedown Cake

 

This is my mom's pineapple upsidedown cake recipe. I am still not able to make pineapple upsidedown cake as well as my mother. Her cakes are the best. The caramel crust on her pineapple upsidedown cakes are so crisp and praline-like. She has made this cake probably a hundred times. When she melts the butter and sugar in the skillet she knows by experience how long to cook the mixture. She doesn't time it. She doesn't measure the temperature. So she can't tell me exactly how to replicate what she does. One of these days I am going to practice pineapple upsidedown cakes until I get it perfect like she does. Now I will have the recipe to do it right.

Melissa Huffman's Perfect Pineapple Upsidedown Cake 

1 stick of butter

1 3/4 cup of brown sugar

1 can pineapple rings 

1 jar of maraschino cherries

1 box plus 1/2 cup more from a second box of yellow butter recipe cake mix

3 eggs

1/3 cup oil

1 1/4 cup pineapple juice

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Mix the cake mix with eggs and add oil and pineapple juice 

Melt butter in iron skillet and add brown sugar and spread evenly and turn off. Put pineapple rings and cherries in place. Pour cake batter over. 

Bake for 45 minutes or until tests clean. Turn out onto platter immediately.

In case you don't have box cake mix, I used the following and the cake part of the pineapple upsidedown cake was good.

Yellow Cake from Scratch 

2 cups all-purpose flour

3 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups white sugar

½ cup oil + 2 TBS. butter

3 eggs

1 1/4 cup pineapple juice (or how ever much pineapple juice you have plus enough sour cream to make 1 1/4 cups)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cards I Have Made Recently

 Here are some card designs that I have made recently. You can use them for inspiration for your own homemade cards or art. I get most of my ideas from Pinterest. I usually alter the design slightly to suit my taste.

Do you enjoy making and receiving homemade cards? I feel that there is something special about a hand drawn card even if it is not fancy. I find that just drawing with confidence and intentionality gives my art the look that I am going for. Also, a quick practice sketch goes a long way to helping my finished drawing turn out the way I desire.

Life Was Simpler Then | Book Review

This is my seventh book for this year. My sister got this book from one of those little box libraries that are placed in playgrounds and other public areas. You are supposed to leave a book and take a book. I'm sure you have seen them around. She read it and thought I would enjoy it, too. 

Life Was Simpler Then (copyright 1963, 186 pages) is a nice telling of Loula Grace Erdman's childhood. She grew up before tv, wide spread automobile use, and even radio. My favorite chapters were chapter 2 which was about the telephone operator and how integral she was to the community and chapter 10 which was about school and the literary society in which they prepared recitations. Chapter 10 in particular was very inspiring for my homeschool  mindset. It renewed my desire to have my children memorize the Gettysburg Address, the preamble of the U.S. Constitution, the poem about Paul Revere's Ride and things like that. It made me think of my Grandma who had learned the Gettysburg Address by rote memory in her school days. I can remember her saying it to me. The chapter about the telephone operator was very vivid to me because we had recently listened to the audiobook Horse of a Different Color by Ralph Moody in which the telephone lady plays a vital role. All the things that Loula Erdman describes are demonstrated in a big way in Ralph Moody's story. Hearing these stories in close proximity to one another really benefited my understanding.

I enjoy reading about how things were done in the past and the stories that make another person's life so relatable. Many things have changed over the years but people have stayed much the same. The basic desires we all have to be useful and fulfilled. The way sibling relationships fit together and people grow into new roles as we age. The human condition in all time periods has recognizable similarities. Reading first hand accounts of people's childhoods like this brings the past to life. 

This book reminded me a lot of Old Squire's Farm by C.A. Stephens. Old Squire's Farm is much longer, though. If you like these kinds of stories, I recommend you check out these books.

I'd love to hear what you have been reading lately. Please let me know in the comments!

Book Review| Escape!

 

This is an unexpected book choice for me. I am not much interested in learning about the life of Harry Houdini per se. 

 I have enjoyed Sid Fleischman's books for children. I have read or listened to Humbug Mountain, By the Great Horned Spoon, The Whipping Boy, and Bandit's Moon. Sid Fleischman's story telling is always clever with an element of surprise.

  I expected this book to be historical fiction like so many of his other books, but, no, this is a real biography.

 Harry Houdini was a master illusionist, escape artist and first rate showman. His own stories about himself are highly embellished. For example; he claimed is place of birth was Appleton, Wisconsin. But according to records he was actually born in Budapest, Hungary to a poor Jewish family. His real name was Erich Weisz. The Weisz family immigrated to Wisconsin, USA when Erich/Harry was very young.

 At the age of 16 young Erich left home to make his way in the world. He joined side shows and learned tricks of the trade. 

  Sid Fleischman does not buy into the explanation that Harry Houdini used real witch craft to pull off his seemingly impossible stunts. While some of his tricks are still a mystery and the solutions are debated among magicians to this day, most of his fame had to do with his stage presence and showmanship. As with common magic, it was all slight of hand and illusion. Not to mention the exaggeration and embellishment that went into the retelling of these feats. Was he using witchcraft? Not according to this author. Did he have interest in witchcraft? Yes, there came a time in his life that he wanted necromancy to be real.

  When Harry Houdini's mother died he sought out all the successful mediums to try and contact his dead mother. Being a master illusionist Harry saw through all their tricks. None of the mediums he found could actually communicate with the dead. This made him disappointed, but he never totally ruled it out as a possibility. (According to the Bible this is a wicked thing to even seek out. I believe that some people at some times have been in contact with evil spirits to accomplish this type of work, but most are shams.) After his investigation of seances he added a whole act to his show exposing how the so called mediums pulled off their seemingly supernatural stunts. This act made him a lot of enemies among the so-called occultists.

  As an aspiring magician himself the young Sid Fleischman was acquainted with Harry Houdini's widow, Madame Houdini, as she was called. She married Harry in 1874 when she was 20 years old, before he was famous and helped in his acts until his death in 1926. She lived the life of a traveling performer. She didn't have much time in a house with her own kitchen doing things that most married women do. It was nice to hear how they stuck together through the years. All too often I hear about a person becoming famous and/or wealthy and trading in their old spouse for a pretty young new spouse. 

  At over 50 years of age Harry Houdini claimed his impressive physical fitness was due to never using tobacco products or drinking alcohol. He made this claim during a lecture he gave to some college students. A few days later Harry Houdini died in a hospital on October 31, 1926 from complications of appendicitis. 

 He had symptoms of appendicitis and his doctor urged him to go in for surgery. Harry refused to go to the hospital until he had performed his show for that evening. He did his last show while suffering a raging fever of 104°F. By the time he finally made it to the hospital operating room his appendicitis had turned gangrenous. In a world before antibiotics there was little hope of survival. He died with his wife, Bess and his brother, Dash, by his side.

April Stitches

 

I cut out the pieces for the pinafore.

I stitched the bodice pieces and facing together along the neck/front opening and the arm holes.

Then I turned it right side out.

Then I put the pinafore project on hold and moved onto a gauze baby carrier.

My sister in law was so kind to pick up the gauze material for me then she offered to stitch the hems and give me the whole as a baby gift. I am so grateful! 

She wasn't sure how a baby wrap was made so I helped by cutting the fabric into the right shape and I folded and  basted most of the hems just to make the stitching go a little easier. At least I hope it helped.

The color of the material is a mossy olive green. My phone camera refuses to pick this color up correctly. Just so you can imagine it correctly, it is not this puky bland color instead it is an inviting mossy olive green.

To come up with a way to mark the center of the wrap I had to put my thinking cap on. I don't have any ribbon with me at home. (Plenty in storage but no way to fetch it.) I rummaged through my project basket. I had a mouse eaten fleece sweater in there that I am saving in case I need to use the salvaged fleece. I spotted the tag on the sweater and decided it would be the perfect thing. I ripped it off and tacked it at the center of my wrap. It looks great and the colors are much closer it person.

I had to do some more patching of my compression hose. Not a fun project but very practical. 

I rigged up a make shift curtain for our bathroom doorway out of a table cloth and some leftover pink fabric. Again the colors look so awful through my phone camera. It person the table cloth is the faintest of pink with a pretty brocade flower design. I had to gather the table cloth and stitch it to the pink fabric. The pink fabric was something I had to add to make the curtain long enough.

I found the table cloth and matching set of napkins at a garage sale last spring. I haven't had a good opportunity to use it until now. I am glad that I found a use for it and that I can see it on display everyday. I know it has some staining but I still think it is pretty.

Nature This Week

 

Can you smell the lovely Lilac perfume through your screen? 

A baby bunny burrow. They were so new!

A rat snake. Everyone wanted a turn holding it.

We found some morels! My first time mushroom hunting since being married. 

These oak flowers, catkins, were so pretty in the afternoon sun. Much like earrings dangling, all eye catching in the sunlight.

April showers..............

Bring May flowers. ☺️

Book Review| Viking Expansion Westwards by Magnus Magnusson

 

This is the fifth book I have finished this year. It is only 149 pages but it took me a while to finish. I have been working on it since February.

 I learned a lot. The world back in 700-1100AD was all foreign to me. It all seemed very distant and unreal. This book helped the time period come to life. A lot was going on. Before reading this book I had the impression that Lief the Lucky was more fable than history. Now I know that there are a lot of credible records and evidence for his voyages. I learned some new geography, too. I had never heard of the Faroe Islands, for instance. I also learned some neat things about the Norse style of art during the time period. I was also surprised at how wide Christianity (loosely defined) had spread. In very isolated remote places little chapels and missionaries had been established and having influence.

I was inspired by something that Lydia said on her blog, Home Living, to make a schedule for myself to work on finishing this book. She mentioned how we should try to keep learning things and we can come with a curriculum or plan to work towards educational goals. I agree. We should have an additude of life long learning.

Book Review| Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates

 

This is the fourth book I finished this year. I found it to be very interesting. This book focuses on a time in early American history when Thomas Jefferson was president (1801-1809). 

  

Pirates from the Barbary nations had been capturing American merchant ships as well as other nations merchant vessels. The Barbary nations required hefty tribute payments for "protection." Jefferson wanted to put a stop to this with military force. He had to wait 2 years for congress to approve the war. I found that surprising. This was back when presidents actually had to wait for congress to approve warfare. 

  One of the justifications for this act of war was that the Basha of Tripoli, Yusef, had unjustly taken the throne from his brother, Hamet, and America needed to set things right. I found that surprising, too. I did not know that we have always been the world police. We were not successful at reinstating Hamet. We likely could have kept our promises to Hamet and put him back on the throne, but once we had won enough military victories to put Yusuf in a mood to negotiate we left off the pursuit to replace Yusef with Hamet. America managed to reunite Hamet with his wife and children and gave them $200 dollars a month while they lived in exile until Hamet died in 1811. The main motive for America really was to stop the piracy.

  This book was very interesting to me. It details the relevant pieces of information. The authors don't go so deep into the events of the time period that the story gets bogged down. They keep things moving and skip over chunks of time in which the pirate situation stagnates. They did include some riveting battle scenes and enough about the key players that you understand who they were and what they were like. I enjoyed Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates. If you like to learn about American history I recommend this book.