Summer Yum

The last few years my garden lacked a good yield. Partly due to my lack of attention in the garden (sore back which leads to inability to weed, water, and tend the garden) and weird weather. I can't say the weather has changed much this year but my back is behaving better. For about a month I have been getting various types of squashes. They are yummy.

















Finally, the tomatoes are turning red. Both of these in the picture should be ready eating (I mean picking) within a day or two. Last week I started eating my little golden cherry sized tomatoes- yum, they never make it inside.






















The garden is very green and lush. My tomato plants are tall, maybe 4' tall. The one thing that is different this summer is I have been fertilizing the plants once a month. Ohhhh, they like getting fed. Now if the weather would turn a tiny bit warmer, the tomatoes will turn from green to yummy red.















My front yard is exploding with color. Anyone need some English lavender? I will harvest some soon. I love color in my yard.

The huge bummer in my garden this year was the NO fruit production from the apricot and plum trees. Both received a very good trimming in February. Maybe the trees needed a rest this year. I still have in my freezer fruit from last year. Time to jam and pie!














I so love daisy's. They remind me of God's unfailing and tender hearted love He has for me. Unlike what the world says about daisies, "he loves me, he loves me not. . . ." With God choosing me as His own, dying on the cross for me, it is, "He loves me, He will always love me. . . ."- and that will go on for eternity!

Pop of Color

Happy Spring! My yard is filled with incredible displays of God's painting pallet. Boy I needed a pop of color today. I am home ill today because my strep throat has either lingered or has decided to re-visit my throat.




You seriously can't go wrong with planting bulbs in the fall that are going to brighten your yard in the spring. Costco sells bulbs in bulk, 100 in a bag. I bought a tool a few years ago that I attach to my cordless drill and it bores my bulb holes just like that.

The sad thing, that in about 2 weeks the bulb color will be gone and the stems will be drying up for their appearance next year. But I will enjoy it now while I can.

Jammin'

Soon as a cool and free day comes around, I'll be making jam, jelly, and syrup. My freezer is packed full of prepared strawberries, apricots and plums. Not all the frozen fruit will be used for jam and such but will kept frozen to make a crisp or pie. YUMMY! In this picture you can not even see the 3 gallon bags full of strawberries, they are behind the apriocots.

Unto Us A Child Is Born! 2009 Christmas Letter

O HOLY NIGHT!

O Holy Night! Composed by Adolphe Adam 1847

O holy night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of Our dear Saviour's birth.
Long lay the world In sin and error pining,
'Til He appear'd And the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope The weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks A new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! O, hear the angels' voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born;
O night divine, O night, O night Divine.

Led by the light of Faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts By His cradle we stand.
So led by light of A star sweetly gleaming,
Here come the wise men From Orient land.
The King of Kings Lay thus in lowly manger;
In all our trials Born to be our friend.
He knows our need, To our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before Him lowly bend!
Behold your King, Before Him lowly bend!

Truly He taught us To love one another;
His law is love And His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break For the slave is our brother;
And in His name All oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy In grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us Praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! O praise His Name forever,
His power and glory Evermore proclaim.
His power and glory Evermore proclaim.

O Holy Night is one of my favorite Christmas Carols, the words so precisely explain why Christ was born. Listen here to Josh Groban singing O Holy Night!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas to you and your family! Christ the Savior is born! The Isaiah 9:6 verse in the picture above foretells the true meaning of Christmas and why Christ came to earth. God came in human flesh, born as babe because He would one day die and rise from the dead to restore the relationship between man and God. God paid the penalty of our guiltiness. Because of what Christ has done, we can go to Him and repent of our guiltiness of sin and put our hope and trust in Him alone. My hope and prayer is that the true meaning of Christmas will come true to your heart. If you would like to know more specifically about a personal relationship with Christ you can click here .

BLOG CHRISTMAS LETTER

Thank you for stopping in and reading my Christmas letter on the world wide web. This year I am trying a virtual Christmas letter. Some of you received an email directing you to this blog post, some simply read my blog and other's received a post card because I don't have an email address for you. If I don't yet have your email address you can leave a comment at the end of this post and include in your comment your email address or you can email me at firstnameunderscoremylastname@yahoo.com (I try to keep my last name and email address hidden from this blog, but if you know me, you will know these details so it's shelly_. . .). If you would prefer not to have your email address posted in the comment, I can just not publish your comment.

My goal is to save a little money on postage, conserve on paper and to display better pictures than what my printer prints on paper. Doing a letter this way might also help me to get out my letter every year instead of every other year. Sorry, I just get so busy before Christmas that getting out my Christmas cards each year is just so hard.

My blog exists to share with my dear family and friends who are located across the globe some of the happenings of my life and how God is working in my life. Sometimes, I am able to post on a somewhat regular basis and other times my busy life takes over and there are no posts. If you want to check out past posts on my blog, you can click on the title of my blog Shells on the Seashore or go to http://www.shellsonline.blogspot.com/.

THE BRIEF LOW-DOWN ON ME

In the grand scheme of life, nothing significant has changed with me. I'm another year older and hopefully a little wiser. Two birthdays ago, I gracefully slipped into my 40's, oh my, I still can't believe it. Time just flies on by. This year is my 16th year of teaching, 11 years at my present school. What a joy and delight to teach our youth about physical activity and being outdoors breathing fresh air and watching the clouds roll on by.

Gardening, farmer's markets and home preserving all seem to go together for me. God has given me a palate for fresh and wholesome food. I absolutely love making meals out of my "goodies" and when a meal turns out really yummy, it's called "yumahah!" (if you say it is almost, "It's yummy huh?" and is said like the motorcycle). To give my excess fruit and vegetables away to my family, friends and neighbors allows the yum to be spread around. Here is a sampling of some of the yummies from my little garden. I am convinced that anyone can grow a garden with a simple plot of land or even pots and planter boxes.

Here is my current winter garden: broccoli, celery, kale, Swiss chard, various kinds of lettuce, flava beans, onions and carrots. Thus far I've been eating from my kale, Swiss chard and lettuce.

The summer of '08 I had a prolific crop of apricots and plums. A dear friend taught me how to fresh preserve and can my first jams . Since then I have learned to fresh preserve many other foods. The beneficial aspect of canning your own food is you know exactly what you are getting and precisely what is in each jar. There is a wonderful freshness to something that has been preserved. When you work with a friend while canning, you can have a delightful time of fellowship and get a smooth running assembly line going. If anyone would like to come over to learn how to fresh preserve, give me a call and I would love to teach you.

Fresh canned peaches in a light syrup.

Homemade "smooth" applesauce with no sugar added. Yummy!

The house has seen a couple of significant home improvements over the last year and half. The front yard was landscaped minus the grass. The Bay Area, the entire state of California too, has been in drought conditions for the last few years, so I have held off on putting in the grass. Last summer my pool went through a major project of re-surfacing the plaster. The pool looks outstanding now and my whole backyard is improved because of the project. If you want to see the process you can look back in past blog posts and see the entire day to day improvements.

MY FAMILY

Many of you may not know, since I did not get out a letter last year, we have had a wonderful blessing added to our family, Joseph Charles. One of my greatest joys in life is being an Auntie to my sweet niece Trinity (4 years) and my sweet nephew Joey (1 1/2 years). I fondly call them "Love" or Trin Trin and Joe Joe. I so love them and cherish any opportunity to spend time with them. Whenever we are together, Auntie is everything.

A huge praise to the Lord, each of my family members are doing well at the present time. I am so thankful to God for each of them, they are so very special to me and I love them dearly. There is a deep bond between all of us. Here are a few photos of my dear family.

My Mom and Dad last weekend for my birthday.

The entire clan for our annual Christmas family picture.


HOLIDAY EXERCISE ADVICE

The holidays bring on a huge amount of busyness and extra calories. If you are going to enjoy some of the yummy food around you, make sure you get out and get some exercise. Exercise in a way that raises your heart rate significantly for at least, at the bare minimum, 10 minutes. Even better would be to set aside 30-60 of exercise at least 5 days a week. Your exercise does not need to be anything big or grand, just a walk around your neighborhood will do.

The tip I am sharing with my students this year involves working the core of your body (studies are starting to show that along with regular cardiovascular workouts we need to work our core muscles- abs, lower back, gluts, quads and hams to get the best benefits of exercise that will have the most observable longterm results. The tip I shared with my students is to use idol time in front of the t.v. or in between X-Box games to do a round of curl ups, crunches, push ups, planks, lunges or stretches. The commercials last for 2 minutes at the hour or half hour times and is the perfect amount of time to get a set of core exercises in.

For example during my hour CSI show, at 9:00 when the show starts I can do 30 curl ups (takes about 1 minute to do 30) and a set of as many as I can do of crunches in one minute. At 9:30 I can do 3 sets of 10 modified push ups (on my knees, keeping my back perfectly flat, takes about 1 minute) and immediately transfer to 3 sets of 20 seconds each of planks. When the show is over and I am waiting to hear the brief news prior to the 10:00 news, I can do a set of lunges, 10 on each side and repeat 3 times. My basic core workout for the day is done and it only took 6 minutes of my time while I was already not doing much of anything.

HOLIDAY RECIPE

During the holidays there are always parties to go to and often times you need to bring some fun festive food. I found a great recipe from the 2009 December Sunset Magazine that has been a big hit both times I have brought it to a party. It is called Roasted Pears with Almonds, Cranberries and White Chocolate Drizzle by McCormick & Co., Inc. Here is the recipe taken from the McCormick web site. Enjoy!

Roasted Pears with Almonds, Cranberries and White Chocolate Drizzle

Ingredients
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons McCormick® Gourmet Collection Cinnamon, Saigon
1 teaspoon McCormick® Gourmet Collection Nutmeg, Ground
1/4 teaspoon McCormick® Gourmet Collection Cloves, Ground
4 firm ripe pears, such as Bosc or Anjou, halved and cored
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
1/3 cup heavy cream
4 ounces white baking chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted
1/2 cup dried cranberries, coarsely chopped
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in small bowl. Place pear halves, cut-side up, in 13x9-inch baking dish sprayed with no stick cooking spray. Drizzle with melted butter. Sprinkle with brown sugar mixture.
2. Bake 30 minutes or until pears are tender, spooning brown sugar mixture over pears halfway through baking. Cool slightly.
3. Bring cream just to boil in small saucepan on medium heat. Remove from heat. Add white chocolate; stir until chocolate is melted and sauce is smooth.
4. To serve, place a pear half on each of 8 dessert plates. Stir brown sugar mixture in baking dish. Spoon over pear halves. Sprinkle with almonds and cranberries. Drizzle generously with white chocolate sauce. Serve immediately.
Tips
Test Kitchen Tip: Stir 1/4 teaspoon McCormick® Gourmet Collection Saigon Cinnamon into the white chocolate sauce.This recipe was created by Cat Cora, Bon Appétit Executive Chef, for the McCormick® Gourmet Collection.

Glory to God in the Highest!

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!


With much love and care,

Shelly

Like A Spring Rain

"So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; And He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth." Hosea 6:3

Whenever it rains in the springtime I am reminded of a song that we sang at the Grace on Campus Bible Study called Hosea 6:3. Today a good spring rain is watering the earth around the Bay Area. I love this little song because it is such a nugget of truth. He is more faithful than a spring rain that waters the earth. This verse starts with a prompting for us to know, to press on to know the LORD. . . and here comes the promise, He will

come to us like a rain, a spring rain

that waters the earth.

My roses have opened up and I am seeing their incredible beauty for the first time. These rose bushes were planted late last summer (they waited patiently for 6 months to be put in the ground) and now they are showing off who they are. The first rose I think is a Nancy Reagan and the second rose is a Tahitian Sunset.

The last photo is of a plant called Ruby Slippers. Before I re-landscaped my front yard I probably had a dozen Ruby Slippers. They were incredible bloomers for about 2 months and then the plant died out and looked horrible. I took them out despite my mom being totally against it As you can see, despite being

removed, one plant was a fighter and grew

back quite well.

The rain today was a complete blessing for me. There was some tension that rose up at work over the past week in my department between a few people and we had a serious sewer issue arise (literally) in the locker rooms. With those two issues and the possibility of rain, as the department chair I made the decision that all the PE classes would go to the theater and watch a couple of movies that we had not finished and give teachers an opportunity to work extra on the grades we are submitting this week and to allow a little respite from the bad behavior of the students. I think today was a breath of fresh air for all of my department. "Like a spring rain, watering the earth".

Spring/ Summer Garden

Before I could plant my summer garden, I had to pick some of the yummies. Sadly, I had to take out the sugar snap peas to make room for the rest of the garden. It pained me so to do this because there was still a good yield. In fact the pile you see here filled a gallon zip lock bag 3/4 of the way full. The carrot is just a baby but wanted to show you where they are at and I was able to get 3 gallon bags of lettuce.

For the last 3 years, evil has taken root in my vegetable garden. There he is, tucked right next to my fence and next to my carrots, Mr. Poison Oak. Each year I have carefully removed him, dug him out from the roots, carefully removed him with double rubber gloves (that I quickly take off from the inside out) and he still comes back. The evil thing about him is that he has given me a nasty rash the last two years. I might be free and clear this year because it has been 5 days since he was once again asked "to leave AND NEVER COME BACK, thank you".

My herb garden is doing wonderful right now. If you live anywhere in the area, you are welcome to come over and take some fresh herbs for yourself and your cooking. The herbs that are doing great are: rosemary, sage, thyme, peppermint, cilantro, oregano, chives, parsley, and tarragon. The herbs not doing so well: basil (for some reason it has never done well in my garden), and dill. Now if my tomatoes were ready to go for canning, I would be able to make and can my own salsa, tomato soup, and tomato sauce but the tomatoes are no where near to being ready for such a honor. They have at the least 50 days up to 75 days. The planters boxes for the herbs are on the West side of my house.

Some of you might wonder about where I grow my garden. Here is where I grow most of my vegi's. My yard is lower than my neighbors so my garden is the walk down step, about 2 1/2 feet. The plot is about 30' x 5' and runs North South and is on the East side of my house. Every time I plant I rototiller the ground, put in a compost mix, NCSP organic compound and a box of Dr. Earth Fertilizer (is high in chicken manure) and roto 2 more times. This year I am going to put my tomatoes in big, and they have to be big to work properly, containers. I wanted more room in my garden for other things and not just tomatoes. I will explain what I planted this year starting from the bottom. Starting at the bottom I first have what I planted in the winter: there is the red onions, yellow sweet onions, white onions and green onions, then you will see my carrots and 5 different varieties of lettuce. If you look closely you will see that all of my onions just got hair cuts and had their greens cut off. There is no purpose in keeping them long, they will cause the onion to come out of the ground. You might also see small flowers surrounding the entire garden. These are Marigolds and they help keep out the bad bugs. Now onto what I planted on Friday: two tomatoes, 5 bush bean plants and 5 different types of squash. My 5 remaining tomatoes are sitting on the edge of the wall waiting to get put into large pots.

The Thief

My tulips exploded with color just a few days ago. As I was out and about this afternoon, a squirrel was running down my fence from one of my tulip areas. He had one of my (well not mine but the Lord's) beautiful deep red tulip buds in his mouth. He stopped almost right in front of me on the fence and started chomping away on the beautifully opened bud. I had to scold that bad squirrel and told him that he can not steal my tulips, the oranges yes, but not the tulips.

I thought this African Daisy was neat with it's crinkly petals.

This Week in the Garden

On Saturday, during a lull in the rain, I was able to pick some yummies from my garden. Here is about a head of romaine lettuce and several bunches of broccoli. I tell you, there is nothing like picking and eating the same day.

Today's Pick

I just had to show you another picture of what was picked today. Really hope that you are not getting sick of my garden. God has been abundantly good and He has allowed my garden to produce goodies.

This year is proving to be one of the best yet since I have been in the house (can't believe it has already been 6 full years). But this year's crop has brought some lessons too. My young fruit trees are loaded and I am not the most experienced fruit tree "farmer". I did not thin out the crop when it was just forming and now many large branches have broken and I will need to cut them off when the fruit is done. My trees will take awhile to regain the girth and strength that they were prior to this year.

This summer I have started to buy my fruit and veggies from a local farmer's market. The produce is so fresh and I love supporting local grown farms. I am thinking about starting my own little market with my yummies. J/K!

Tonight Janet and I are going to visit and have dinner with a widow from our church. We are bringing dinner and I am bringing some of the love from my garden.

Yard and Garden

I love working in the yard and tending the garden

that the Lord has allowed me to have. Honestly, I

have some of my best worship times with the Lord when I am out working in the yard. And I love to give away to others what God has blessed me with. Here are some pictures of the latest happenings.

These are the yummies that I pulled from the garden on Saturday. The basket is about 15"x12".







With organic gardening you can get bugs and fruit and veggies that are not perfect. Here are two prime examples of my"special education" garden. Both are Siamese twins. The picture to the left are two summer squash joined at the stem and the picture just below are two carrots sharing one head. I think that the kitchen knife will have a successful separation of the twins. A full tasting dinner will result. Even in my garden the "disabled" veggies and fruit are very dear to my heart.






















Not sure if these pictures are going to post correctly because I can't get them to move where I want them to go.

Here is what I worked on Thursday in the front yard. I roto-tilled and conditioned part of my side yard and in front of my windows. The side yard I planted 3 more Landana's. They have great summer and fall color. I finally was able to plant the Camellia's that I have had for about 3 1/2 months. All 5 are of differing varies. They will add some color in the mid winter months.

Some of you know that I am in the process of re-landscaping my front yard. Some of the work I can do myself and other parts I can not. So, I have been waiting (and my plants too) for the gardener to help me out. He has been way laid because of a remodel at his house. When I was finally able to get the Camellia's in I said to them, "welcome home babies".

Is that strange that I talk to my plants?

What's Up Doc?

Usually when I am out in the back yard, I will see how my garden is doing and pull out a carrott, rinse it in the hose and then eat it. This is what I pulled out today. I set it on top of a standard brick so you could see how wide this guy is. I am eating it as I type. Super sweet and tasty, not tuff at all.

Other Photos

Here is a picture of my lilac bush a few weeks ago when it was in full bloom. The bush was gorgeous and had such a wonderful aroma.

The inspiration for the lilac bush was from Mrs. F and her beautiful lilac bushes in her backyard.

The only thing that I don't like about the lilac flowering season is that it is very short lived.








Here is the sun worshipper in the house. Rosie absolutely loves when I open the slider in the master bedroom. She loves the sun and the fresh air.














This beauty was taken in my mom's backyard while I was there for the birthday party for the girls.

I am learning to take pictures of things that see that might turn out nice.

Therese, a friend from church, who is a wonderful photographer, said recently, "If you take a bunch of pictures, a few might turn out good".

30 Seconds

This afternoon I put out new hummingbird food and I sat down on a patio and started counting. The two feeders have been bone dry for at least one week now. Within counting to 30 seconds a hummingbird was feasting off of the sweet water. It amazes me, it was like he was taking watch somewhere off in a tree just waiting for me to fill the feeder.

Here is the very simple recipe that I use to make nectar for the humming birds. Remember 4 to 1.

4 Cups water

1 Cup sugar

Stir sugar and water over medium high heat until water boils for 2 minutes. Let cool and fill into cleaned humming bird feeders.

Note: no red food coloring is needed, in fact, experts say that the dye is harmful to the birds.

Picture taken from Google images.

Recent Photos

Wanted to share with you some recent pictures. I can't lay this out correctly, or I should say the way that I want to have them look. So, I'll just explain them here.

Top Left- my apricot tree has now got thousands of little baby apricots. If you remember a while back I had a picture of the blossoms. My prayer is that I will be able to harvest them (can them, jelly them, pie them, eat them, dry them. . .) at the right time. Baby nephew is due on June 20th.

Top Right- a close up of a African daisy.

Middle Left- this picture was taken about 5 weeks ago. I took a day off work to hang out with my grandma after her kidney surgery. It was such a beautiful day, I had to stop at a local reservoir to take in some of the beauty.

Middle/Bottom Right-last week during spring break I went down to visit my sweet niece Trinity (and Jen and Joe too!). Went with them to Trin's little gym class. She is such a love.

Bottom Left-some of the beautiful tulips in my yard. They have all almost now dried up. My lilac bush is now in bloom.

Now looking at the post the pictures are just fine. But I am tired so I don't feel like going back and correcting what I wrote. You can figure the pictures out. Sorry to those that have feed, you just got this post two times. LOVE YOU ALL