Monday, March 21, 2011

What We Did Today~

 Dear Friends,

Thank you for your sweet comments and thoughts~ What a blessing to have so many kindred spirits! We love to read your blogs and see all that we have in common in BlogLand. :)

It has been incredibly warm here these past two days; almost eighty degrees! We have been outside planting more greens and getting a spot ready to be tilled for bigger vegetables in a few days.

We discovered about ten more pounds of oyster mushrooms in the woods, which we made into more delicious oyster/potato/curry/chowder, yum! One reason we wanted to move to Missouri was the abundance of mushrooms that we had heard about. So far, we have not been disappointed! We are looking forward to finding our first morels in April, since we've never tried them before.

~We never eat mushrooms until we have positively identified them, including taking a spore print overnight~
 We also found a clump of Western Garter Snakes in the woods, which we carried home in our apron (Don't try this if you don't like snakes!) to play with before releasing. I want all of my children to know that snakes are our friends, even if some of them can be dangerous. Think of all the grasshoppers and rodents we would have, if not for our scaly friends!

We never play with snakes until we've positively identified them, but without the spore prints~ ;)


Can you guess what these little plants are?
 

 We are learning the meaning of "brambles and briars" here in Missouri!

 We feel very blessed to have a little wild spot in such an urban area.

We have been mending a few quilts and are planning on making some light summer blankets for everyone, since even last night quilts were a bit on the warm side! :)

Mr. Graham surprised us with a few magazines from the store, including Birds and Blooms, Victoria Magazine's Gardening Issue, and Mother Earth News, so you know we will be in reading heaven for a good while (And he brought home Perrier (happy sigh. . . :), good lad!).

May you have a wonderful day, dear friends. We shall be thinking of you all!

Love,

Marqueta

17 comments:

  1. What a wonderful day!
    My guess for the plants are Violets! and a Strawberry leaf in the corner (both edible);-)
    Mmmmmmmmmm wonderful mushrooms! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Yummmmm!

    I love snakes in the garden.(my Grandies love to find wildlife in the nature of our land and let them go again too)
    God's wonderful creations ;-)
    Sending you love hugs and blessings, Linnie

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  2. I agree with Linnie...those look like the violets that are growing wild in my garden :-)

    How wonderful to have such a glorious day of exploring!

    con mucho carino,

    M.

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  3. Happy Spring to you, dearest little family!
    I, too, was guessing violets! I wonder if they will be *violet* or yellow like our wild violets.
    Amazing that you are finding mushrooms in the early spring! I always though one hunted them in the fall (here in the PNW). I would love to hunt them even though I don't care to eat them. Gentleman Farmer loves mushrooms! I need to go with someone who does it and knows what they are doing ~ I don't!
    Oh, I love snakes! I am so happy to find them in my garden! I am not happy when my cats bring them to me injured or dead! Bad Kitties! They do frighten me a little when they try to bite me as I am carrying them off to safety away from the cats sight, however! And it is really nasty to try to get the smell off if they piddle on your skin!!! :~O
    It sounds like you will be quite busy with your quilt mending and magazine reading. But what fun!
    Enjoy!

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  4. I enjoyed taking a lovely walk with you today, Marqueta!
    But I'm afraid I don't like snakes :-(
    The Copperheads we found in our yard are not my idea of garden friends lol!
    I think the little plants are violets too. We have some with similar leaves in our garden.
    Your photos are so delightful.
    It's always a pleasure to come over and read your beautiful posts :-)
    blessings in Christ..Trish

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  5. How delightful! The mushrooms would be so much fun to harvest. We have lots and lots but I have not a clue as to what they are.

    Our weather is lovely as well all the windows are open and outdoors are calling us as well.

    Have a wonderful day.

    Love Erika

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  6. 80 degrees! I never realized how much warmer Missouri was than Michigan. I'm not sure about the leaves but I did spot the strawberry leaf in the bottom corner also. When you see trilliums, you will know that it is time to pick morels. We used to pick them by the grocery bag full. Be cautious not to eat the false morels!

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  7. Such warm weather! Beautiful little part of nature you have. Blessings :-)

    Yes my little ones love to go in Linnies little oasis.

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  8. Dear Mama,

    I always like your posts.(:p)
    I love the warm air~ the cooked mushrooms kind of look like artichoke hearts! The snakes were fun to take pictures of-- but I didn't want to hold them!

    I love you alot!

    ~.:Audrey:.~

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  9. Marqueta, you have my utmost admiration! If you can have snakes like that close by your tops in my book because as much as I know they are helpful, they just creep me out....LOL! What a lovely walk you all had, my goodness we just got more snow:-)

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  10. Found your blog while purusing Next Blog. Not fond of snakes but I LOVE your blog. It's so victioian and pretty. The photos and content are good too but I'm a sucker for pretty.

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  11. Dear Marqueta,
    I love the rambles you have with the children.
    However we have poisoness snakes here too. Copperheads and Tiger Snakes. We have some very close scares with these and some children, even a hopital trip so no snakes are not cool on our property.
    We love violets thought and have had the wild variey in some of our other homes.
    Enjoy your Spring weather and yoru adventures
    Blessings
    Gae

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  12. Oh Gracious! You're better than I am - no thanks on the snakes - I agree- they're good for taking care of potential pests - but, quietly, out of sight thank you. Is that a violet - looks like the ones we have growing wildly in our garden - such a blessing to be able to live where you can pick these marvelous mushrooms! Well done,
    Kathy

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  13. I wish I knew how to plant things. I love poking around the prairie and woods and looking for whatever I might see.

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  14. Hi marketa, i was looking diferents blogs, and i found yours.
    i like the way that you write, very kind. I just started to write in my blog, maybe you can check it. I write in spanish cause is my lenguage but today y post something beutiful in english. maybe you can read it , enjoy your day. Spring is a most beutiful season

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  15. I think garter snakes are cute. But I could never pick one up! I've always wanted to pick wild mushrooms but am afraid of poisoning myself. I just found your blog and it's been lovely.

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  16. Marqueta--

    I don't mind snakes, but I do carry a .22 pistol while I work in the warm months, in case one of the nasty ones decides to appear, especially as I am pickin' berries. I gotta admit, though, I prefer snakes to bears and mountain lions!

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