Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Mary realizes she has hours of garden work ahead of her!
I took one of Mary’s latest watercolors, which looked more like an explosion of color than a masterpiece, and used it as the background for the Daily Diary. She was practicing her “spring flowers,” and honestly, it was like a floral interpretation of a toddler’s birthday party—chaotic but full of heart! She was practicing on “spring flowers” and did well!
It’s pretty impressive for someone who has never painted before!
Now, Mary had a grand plan for the day, but first, she needed to cleanse herself. So off to the shower she went. Meanwhile, I figured I could channel my inner handyman and attempted to master the ten-foot stepladder. I sanded and wire-brushed the facia board like it was an art project, then bravely painted a five-foot length. Just as I launched into another segment, Mary’s voice floated in: “Get down!” But I was feeling so accomplished, until Jonathan, our grandson, called in. Suddenly, it wasn’t just Mary asking nicely. “Get the hell off that ladder, NOW!!” rang through the phone. Great, now I had to come down like a kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
Mary asked me to get down, but I was doing fine. Then I heard a voice say, “Get the hell off that ladder, NOW!! ” It was Jonathan, our grandson, who just happened to call, and Mary leaked what I was doing. Needless to say, I got down. (It was time, as I was on the second rung of the ladder and feeling a little nervous.)
Hey, I tried!!
While Mary tended to the flower garden like a botanical wizard, I took on the other side. Last year’s mulch was so sun-bleached it looked like it was going for the grunge look. I dashed to the He Shed and grabbed red bark mulch I bought last week at an unbelievable price—four bags for five bucks! You’d think I was auditioning for a gardening competition. Now, the gardens look so flawless that they could probably host the next floral beauty pageant.
You can’t tell the difference between the dirt and the remaining mulch!
Home Depot had the red bark on sale—four bags for $5—so I got several bags. Now, all the gardens look black and well with their red bark mulch in place.
The flowers and fruit trees are going well in the corner.
Mary disappeared while I was fixing the extension cords on the gazebo, and when she returned, she had a calendar full of loquats; this means that loquat crumble is in the future.
Armed with a paring knife and my trusty barstool, I went to war with eight cups of loquats. It took one hour, but I was a seed-extracting machine. I was on a mission! Finally, after wrestling with those stubborn little fruits, we were ready to put them into the crumble. Mary worked her magic with dark cane sugar and other “secret” ingredients, and soon that pan was headed for the oven. The smell that wafted through the house could probably lure a neighborhood dog in a heartbeat! This has been a “Quat Weekend.” Kumquats yesterday and Loquats today!
They are equally tricky to prepare and labor intensive but well worth the effort.
The loquats generally have two seeds, so I cut them in half and squeezed one half until the seeds popped out. Then, I removed the sheath that covered the seeds, and they were ready to go!
Eight cups of these little puppies are needed for the loquat crumble.
Into the pan for a 20-minute cooking session so the juices begin to flow from the meat.
When this is ready, Mary will have made the crumble with dark cane sugar, some flour, and other “secret” ingredients. We pour the loquats into a backing pan and pour the crumble on top of that. Then, into the oven at 350 for about 25 minutes until the sugar bubbles!
After an hour of standing at the sink and removing the seeds and seeds covers from the loquats, we had eight cups of loquats ready to go.
The little video, one minute and eleven seconds, will explain why these fruits are good!
Of course, we had assistance all day. Working in the yard and not worrying about being trampled by wild elephants is so lovely. Scot, aka The Elephant Dog, is always there with one itty bitty eye opened and ears tuned for the sound of elephant feet. Once he hears an elephant, he roars, herding us into a safe location before chasing the elephants away. Today, the elephants were somewhere else, so Scout for the rest!
Scout did get up to welcome Dianne, who visited us at 4:00 pm.
Dianne dropped by to visit the garden, collect her baking pan, and get some of the homepage loquat and kumquat goodies.
Mary tried another of my recipes from Facebook. We air-fried three chicken breasts in a mixture of spices. Using the air fryer, we were done in 20 minutes. It was pretty good, and Mary’s salad was outstanding.
We took some chicken and dessert to Jeff and visited with him for a while before returning home. For some unknown reason, I popped out and headed for bed at 8:45 p.m.!
