A Groundhog Up an Ash Tree?

I had no idea that groundhogs could climb trees; actually for a second there I thought this chubby guy was a koala bear, then I remembered there aren't wild koalas in Ohio!

The poor thing was terrified because our brute of a dog, Sofie, had it on a run for its life. This groundhog has lived under our storage shed for a couple of years now. We see it eating from our garden periodically, usually minding its own business. I guess it made the mistake and wondered into Sofie's territory today! I grabbed Sofie and dragged her inside to give the groundhog peace and hope it would leave the tree on its own. After about an hour frozen in the same position, it finally awkwardly made it to the ground and bolted to its home under our shed.

Sofie is a great family dog. But be forewarned mammals of the smaller variety (chipmunks, raccoons, skunks, bunnies, moles and cats), she'll get you if she can. You'd be lucky to live through it.

Bummer that the Little Ladies missed out in the excitement; they are at the aquarium today with my dad.

Nature's Style of Playground Equipment

We had a horrible wind storm back in September which caused a few trees and branches to come tumbling down in our yard. We haven't exactly cleaned these trees and branches up yet because they make GREAT natural play equipment for the Little Ladies! One of our beloved apple trees came down; however, it still has an important purpose, the ladies climb all over it!





We also get a good look of the root system this way. And, believe it or not, it is still growing apples!



A huge limb from one of our white pines came down as well. It makes another cool place to climb and hide. It's hard to see in the photos, but the ladies can get far back into the branches. It's like a little pine cave; it makes a great (and soft) place to hide or play.

Now, I know my grandaddy is probably horrified with this post. His yard is IMMACULATE! I also know that he knows how much the girls love to climb and can see the reasoning we have for keeping a few limbs (and a whole tree) on the ground. :)

Slugs!

This lovely creature is a Leopard Slug (gastropod mollusc). A super slimy hermaphrodite, which has such sticky slime it can cause your fingers to stick together. The Little Ladies don't seem to mind the slime at all. I have to admit, I didn't hold the slug....someone had to take the pictures and I couldn't have slime on my camera now could I?! ;)

This not so shy slug is longer than Fauna's hand! They can grow in length to 8 inches.

You cannot find them where we live because they are city dwellers; our place is too country for them. My sister toted them over from her workplace to visit the Little Ladies. As you can see, the ladies loved them!

Diagram from Wikipedia

If you look closely, you can see the pneumostome, the hole which the slug breathes; it's right there by the tip of Fauna's pinky.

We love watching the four tentacles. It has 2 for sensing light (the upper ones) and 2 for smelling and feeling. If a slug should lose a tentacle, it will grow back.

Fauna has been fascinated with slugs all spring. She even has an "under the mat habitat" which she keeps perfectly damp for her little slug friends to live under. It's a welcome mat put in our garden under a tree, she waters the mat daily and has quite a colony of slugs, worms and other little critters under there. The moist mat works better than bricks or stones because it stays wet longer.

This pretty little amber slug is the type we usually find in our yard. It is quite a bit smaller than the Leopard, so you can imagine the amazement the ladies felt when they saw the Leopard Slugs.

Mister and Lady Lous would LOVE to have a scumptious Leopard Slug for dinner, but the girls aren't willing to share the slugs!

***Comment from blogger friend Chris, Wife Soup,

".....you can apparently keep them away from basil and your other veggies by using strips of copper around the edges of pots and raised beds. They make a 2" wide copper tape just for this purpose. Perhaps this is a method to keep slug lovers happy and the garden intact." Thanks for the suggestion Chris. Fauna is very against killing the "pests" of the garden and she gets upset if I post ways of killing......The Japanese Beetle post made her furious!

Admiring Nature on a Warm Summer Evening

Bumblebee on Echinacea

Zebra Caterpillar Munching Cabbage (Prefers Mint)

Red-Banded Leafhopper Soaking Up the Sun on a Sunflower Leaf

Carpenter Bee on Lavender

Little Blondie Admiring Queen Anne's Lace

Little Brunette Admiring Baby Birds

Isn't this how summer should be?

Make a Lavender Wand

Lavender has been used for centuries for fragrance, to freshen linens and to keep the moths away. Elizabethan ladies used to gather lavender and transform it into these delightful wands or bottles to put in their linen cupboards. The ribbon traps the lavender blossoms and keeps them snuggly inside the wand so they don't scatter all over the clothing.

Book- The Pleasure of Herbs by Phyllis Shaudys

To make the wands you need:
9-15 (must be an odd number) straight stems of fresh lavender about 12 inches long (as long as you can cut them)
About 2-4 yards of 1/4" wide ribbon
Rubber band or string

Steps:

1. Strip the leaves off the stems and tie string or a rubber band at the base of the buds in the bundle.

2. Hold the lavender in your left hand with the buds facing down; gently bend the stems down one by one all the way around to encase the buds.

This is how your lavender should look after pulling the stems down.

3. Starting at the bent end, take the ribbon, tuck it under a stem and secure it with your left thumb; begin to weave over and under the stems 1 or 2 at a time. Pull the ribbon tightly as you go along.

4. Continue to weave until the buds are tightly encased inside the ribbon. I continued to weave past the buds; it's really up to you when you want to stop weaving after the buds are completely encased.

5. Wrap the ribbon tightly around the bottom to make a pretty finish. Tie a knot at the end to secure.

The Little Ladies use the lavender wands as fairy wands and....

SWORDS! Violence by lavender; even little girls have thier rowdy moments! (Sounds like a A China Bayles Mystery)!

Besides fairy wands and swords, you can put them in your closet, in your dresser, or you could place one in a gift box for someone that you are giving clothing to. Enjoy!

Homemade Popsicles

We have been obsessed with homemade popsicles this summer. We are experimenting with every herb/juice combination possible. We don't have any of those fancy popsicle molds so we made do with what we had- good ol' ice cube trays, parchment paper and craft sticks. The set up is pretty self-explanatory.

Here are some of our favorite flavors:

Strawberry Lemonade Lavender: strawberry lemonade and a sprinkle of lavender buds per pop then freeze.

Orange mint: orange juice with 1 peppermint leaf per pop. These have a lovely refreshing taste (my favorite).

Super Healthy Smoothy: equal parts soy milk and orange juice, 1 T nutritional yeast, 2 T flax seeds, 2 T wheat bran, 2 C soy yogurt (plain), 1 bag mixed frozen berries, and a banana. Blend together then put in pop trays and freeze. These pops are the Little Ladies' favorite!

Watermelon Raspberry: 2 C watermelon, 1/2 C raspberries, 1 C orange juice; blend, then freeze.

Sparkling Lavender: 2 cups sparkling water and 1/3 cup lavender (or other flavored) syrup. Mix, stir until syrup dissolves in the water and freeze.

Lavender Lemonade Elderflower: 2 cups water, 1/4 cup lavender syrup (or honey), juice of 3 small lemons, elderflowers. Mix, stir until syrup dissolves and freeze, sprinkle elderflowers on top of each pop before freezing.

Peanut Butter, Banana and Honey: 2 C soy milk, 1 C peanut butter, 1/3 C honey and 1 banana; blend, then freeze.

Rootbeer Float: 1 bottle of rootbeer and 1 C vanilla soy ice cream; blend, then freeze.

Coffee Pops: For the mommies like myself that need a refreshing cool boost; Fauna actually suggested this pop idea! My favorite is Bali Blue Moon coffee and soy milk, mix, then freeze. YUM!!!! Visit MUS, from the Netherlands; she made some beautiful flowery pops. Enjoy!!!!

Music from Nature (Ohio Corner View)

I told the Little Ladies to design some instruments from nature. I did allow them to use rubber bands, the rest was to be something from nature. They tried all types of sticks, some were too brittle, some were too fat, some were too straight; eventually they found some that were just right; here are the two best designs they came up with:



Fauna's looked like a harp and it had a great range of pitch.




Araina's was out of a Y-shaped branch, it had a decent range of pitch. She loved designing instruments and is planning on making more tomorrow!

We also tried to make music with a blade of grass. Fauna almost got it right.

Not sure what Rainy was thinking here, but she tried.

Here is the correct way to make music from a blade of grass from eHow:

1. Search for a strong, wide, thick blade of grass. It must be at least as long as your forefinger and not have any tears or holes in it. Pluck the piece of grass carefully from the ground as close to the root as you can.
2. Hold up your left hand in a loose fist with your thumb pointing upward. Your thumbnail must be turned toward you.
3. Put your right hand up next to your left hand with the blade of grass flat along the right side of the thumb.
4. Bring your hands together and hold the grass between your thumbs. There should be a gap between the first and second joints of your thumbs where the grass is not touching either the right or left thumb.
5. Maneuver the grass so that it is stretched tightly in the gap between your thumbs and put this area to your mouth so the gap is against your lips.
6. Pucker your lips as if you were going to blow out a candle and blow hard into this gap. You will be able to hear the loud sound the grass makes if you do it correctly.
7. Make different pitches by flexing your thumbs to make music. The tighter the grass is stretched, the higher the pitch it makes.

*Visit Fauna's blog, Three Black Inkspots, she also did a corner view this week. :)

Lavender Chocolate Cake

A blogger friend, Such Lovely Freckles, mentioned a delicious lavender chocolate candybar on a post a while back. I thought the combination of lavender and chocolate sounded heavenly! I was talking to Rainy about her birthday cake; she always picks unusual cakes for me to bake (I am not much of a cake maker at all, Rainy LOVES to challenge me). I mentioned the chocolate lavender to her, did a recipe search and found this recipe for Lavender Chocolate Cake at Bake Space. Rainy loved the idea!

What you need:
3/4 cup milk (I used soy)
2 tbsp. dried lavender
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
6 egg whites
3 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup cocoa
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

To make the lavender milk:

Bring milk and lavender to a boil in a small saucepan. Turn off the heat, cover and let steep until you are ready to use. Strain and discard the lavender before adding the milk to the cake.

To make the cake:

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees
-Cream butter and sugar, then add lavender milk, baking powder, salt, egg whites, and vanilla extract.
-Blend in cocoa and flour.
-Pour into 2 greased 9-inch cake pans. Bake 30-35 minutes.
-Let cool.

Cake Assembly:
Level each cake by carving off the extra on top. Top one layer with fudge icing, then assemble one layer on top of another; ice in more fudge and decorate.

*2 T lavender buds was the perfect amount of lavender in this cake. With each bite you could taste a hint of lavender without it tasting like you were eating a "cleaning product" (as my sister's co-worker would say). It went very well with the vanilla soy ice cream! Enjoy!