Today's Flowers

You are probably getting tired of seeing my pictures from my holiday but oh well, here are a few more!!
You don't see some of these where I live unless you go to the nursery and purchase it there. These are prairie cactus, maybe a weird flower for Today's Flowers, but they do have flowers at one point or so I am told!! I don't know what these pods are but probably seed pods for some cactus type.

Coneflower I think!!

A different view of the Coneflower.

And a different type of cactus. These were hard to see in the grass, and I imagine it would hurt to step on these if you took a shortcut through the grass. My sister kept telling me no shortcuts!!

For more of Today's Flowers, please visit http://flowersfromtoday.blogspot.com/

Straight out of the Camera Sunday

This is my first attempt at Straight out of the camera Sunday. I saw this post on Carletta's blog so thought I would give it a shot. I have a lot of photos on my computer that have yet to go to photoshop so it was not hard to find the ones here!!

This knarly old tree was on one of the walking paths at Echodale Park in Medicine Hat, Alberta. It looks like its had some hard times, and places where it is bent but not broken. I think it might have some stories to tell, if it could.

These berries are Chokecherries. They are extremely bitter to try and eat raw like this. Even cooking and adding a lot of sugar produces a sour mash to make jams out of.

The trees here were literally loaded with the berries. And us without anything to carry home a bunch of them!!

Has anyone ever tried Chockcherry Jam???

Thank you for letting me participate!! I am off to visit some of your blogs now!

For more pictures Straight out of the Camera please go to visit http://www.murrieta365.com/

Happy Birthday Tracey

Meet my niece Tracey, who is 22 years old today. I can't believe she is this old already. What does that make me?? I sweated it out in the delivery room while my sister went through the process of bringing her into the world. She was the first baby I had ever seen born and that included my own two kids who I slept through each of their deliveries.
I was one of the first people ever to hold this bundle of joy, all pink and squishy and a wee bit slippery.
Well, she is one precious girl, grown up into a warm, kind and loving woman and I am very proud of her.
So Happy Birthday Tracey, hope you have a wonderful day with your mister, and many more happy wonderful years.
Your Aunty loves you lots.

Skywatch Friday

While on my recent holiday to Alberta to visit family, my sister insisted that at any time a storm could come rushing through, that if you did not like the weather at the present moment to wait for ten minutes for a change!! The skies did get stormy, but never completely what I was hoping to see. I wanted huge thunderclouds, big forks of lightning and sheets of rain to name a few. You don't get to see that out where I live and I was wanting to see a bit of it at her place.

This sky is a bit stormy and this was the only rainbow I got to see. If you really look close you can see the double rainbow, really you can!!

This is over the house directly behind my sister's place.

For more pictures of the World's skies please go to visit http://skyley.blogspot.com/

A couple more pictures from my holiday in Medicine Hat, Alberta for you for Macro Monday.

We went out to Echodale Park to walk one afternoon and in the middle of a bunch of brown grass was this one lonely sunflower. I kneeled down and took a few pictures of the flower and as well some of the grasses around it and then stood up and looked down.

This is what I saw when I looked down!! I was standing on a red ant hill and they were all over my feet. So after much jumping around and stamping my feet I left the ants behind. Thank goodness I did not get bitten.

Just goes to show you that you have to watch where you are going!!

I thought both would make for good pictures for Macro Monday and a story to tell.

For more pictures of Macro Monday shots, please visit http://lisaschaos.com/

Today's Flowers

Some more pictures for you from my recent holiday!!
Alberta is more known for its desert like surroundings, its rolling hills dotted with silver sage and fields of wheat, canola and rye and lots of cattle, horses and if you look closely coyotes and antelope. You have to find the flowers mostly in peoples gardens. I am not sure what some of these are but I think the yellow flowers above are actually a weed.

Don't know what this is either but I like its double colours.

A few snapdragons peeking in!

A pink Hollyhock with a bee collecting pollen.

Some more Hollyhocks for you.

These flowers were all located at Echodale Park outside of Medicine Hat, Alberta.

For more of Today's Flowers, please visit http://flowersfromtoday.blogspot.com/

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches.

On my holiday visiting my sister and family, it is safe to say that we ate a lot of food, good food!! We cooked so much food at each meal you would think we were feeding an army instead of just the few of us.
One of our meals was a brunch we had on one of the first days of my holiday. Brunch because usually this is something you would eat for lunch and we had consumed a couple of pots of coffee by that time for breakfast.

These Grilled Cheese Sandwiches are not ordinary. You could say they have a bit of yummy attitude. We liked them so much we went out that day and got more ingredients to make them again the next day.

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches.

1 loaf very fresh Sourdough bread, cut in thick slices
Butter
1 Wheel of Camembert Cheese, sliced thickly
Lots of Fresh Basil Leaves.
Chunks of Good Quality Milk Chocolate

Layer Camembert Cheese over one slice of Sourdough bread, Layer Basil Leaves all over the Cheese Layer and then spread lots of Chocolate Chunks all over the Basil. Top with another slice of Sourdough bread. Butter generously the outside of each of the Sourdough bread slices and grill slowly on a Grill Pan until the sandwich is nicely browned and the Cheese and the Chocolate Chips are all melted and gooey!!
Slice and enjoy.

This tastes like heaven. You can taste the yeastiness and freshness of the bread, the creaminess and richness of the cheese and a hint of the spiciness of the Fresh Basil and the sweetness of the Chocolate all melted and melded together.
An ordinary grilled cheese sandwich will never seem the same again!!