Texas style photography and words
Here are some of our crepe myrtles.
We only have one purple one and one red one we have numerous of the pink fushia ones and one white one.
I really do not know how many we have but I think it is around 10 -12 of them. Some are big as a tree because they are much older.
I love crepe myrtle time.
I saw this and I cracked up because I can just see our daughter’s chickens doing this very thing.
I knew there was another batch of babies in the birdhouse because I could hear them crying all the time. Look at those wide opened mouths.
These poor parent birds are constantly feeding at least 2 baby birds. It is a cycle that starts at daylight until dusk. They fly back and forth all day long I have no idea when they have time to eat.
I do not know if this is same parents as before or if another set that moved in after they were gone. All sparrows look the same so it would be hard to tell.
Roses have this softness about them they are so delicate and pretty but the petals are very fragile.
I love knockout roses mainly because they are much easier to grow and they require less attention than standard roses.
My favorite time to photograph flowers is in the early morning light when they still have dew on the petals.
Yesterday I bought the Power Pressure Cooker XL it is electric. I never wanted a stove top pressure cooker they always scared me.
The cost varies on this but starts around $90.00 – $130.00. Kohls had it on sale for $89.99 and I had 15% off scratch off so it ended up being $76.49
My first thing to try out was the Pesto Chicken.
Pesto Chicken
8 – skinless boneless chicken tenderloins
1 – can of diced tomatoes
1- cup of chicken broth cup of water
1- cup of water
1 – can of tomato paste
1/2 – package of frozen sliced bell peppers
1 – heaping tablespoon of Italian seasoning
1 – teaspoon of garlic powder
Salt and Pepper
3 – cloves of fresh Garlic
1 – package of fettuccini noodles
Make sure you stir it up good.
I set it on the Stew cycle once it builds pressure which takes 10- 15 minutes then the countdown of 10 – minutes cooking time begins. Once it is done cooking it goes onto the warm cycle so if your busy outside doing something it keeps your food warm.
The smell is amazing and it tastes really good.
I think I might get pretty spoiled to this whole pressure cooking thing.
Do you know how to pick out a good watermelon?
First of all, thump the melon you want to get sort of a hollow sound from the thump.
Secondly look for one that has a creamy beige underside this means it was on the ground long enough to ripen. You do not want it to be white it must be cream colored.
If the watermelons still on the vine look for a curling of where the vine is attached.
We do not plant our watermelons we have a dirt pile we toss them on upside down this keeps the birds from eating the seeds and allows the melon to rot and create mulch for the fallen seeds. I only buy Texas watermelons at the store because they seem to be the best to grow in our area.
This is our first year to have watermelons during the right season most of the time we have them in December.
Our biggest watermelon so far weighed a whopping 32.6 pounds it is the one in the pictures below. This watermelon had just been picked so it was not washed off yet it still had some dirt on it.
As you can see when it was cut the color was a bright red and it was sweet.
This was watermelon number 2 and Sunday we picked number 3. So far number 1 and 3 have been the sweetest and they came off the same side of the dirt pile but we are not sure it if was the same vine or not. Watermelon vines grow like crazy and can spread as much as 10 feet or more from the actual start of the plant.
We cut them up and put them in ziplock bags in the refrigerator they stay good for 5 or 6 days and they get ice cold which is my favorite way to eat watermelon.
Sometimes you just happen to be in the right place at the right time. You have to wonder is this by chance or was it just meant to be.
What are the chances that a feather would land on a flower and stay there?
The wind was blowing but it never blew it away it stayed on top of the canna lily bloom.
I believe this feather is from the underneath back part of one of the black bellied whistling ducks that have been out at the feeders every day.
I photographed it and then I picked it up and brought it in the house.
Sometimes when you’re taking pictures of one thing you notice another.
This fence has seen its better days but I do not see it getting replaced anytime soon because there is not any livestock on the other side. They use this pasture to grow bahia grass then it gets bailed into round bails.
This is a morning glory bush that we planted years ago by the fence and it softens the look of the falling down fence.
Barbed wire fences, a rotted fence post, and purple flowers seem like a weird combination but they make a good picture.
Our daughter and her husband drove 7 hours to pick up 2 more registered Nigerian dairy goats
One grown one already had babies and still has milk she will be bred again in August. Our daughter can practice milking on this goat 1 x a day because she still has milk. The other one was just bred and should have her babies in December. I said, babies, because most goats have multiples.
While they were there they went ahead and bought a buck and they were given a wether to keep the buck company. They say wethers make really good pets.
Now they have a total of 7 goats. I think that will be all the goats for now because some will be having babies and others will be bred when they are old enough.
I hope to get some pictures of them next week to share.
Sonya Lira Photography 