This and That: A Blog

 I was given a butternut squash, which I turned into a "pumpkin" pie.  Did you know canned pumpkin isn't really pumpkin?   The USDA allows canned pumpkin to include any strain of squash from the Cucurbita genus that resembles pumpkin in flavor, color, and texture.  "Pumpkin" is actually just a cultural and culinary label, not botanical.   Mickey is the only dog I've had that didn't like pumpkin, others would eat raw pieces.  He also dislikes carrots.  It's not pretty, but pies don't need to be!  Yes, it's a homemade crust.  If it's one thing I've learned over the many years of crust making it's this, always use Crisco, never a store brand. The last Salad Bush cucumber became snail or slug food. They come and eat a little more each night.  Honeybees enjoy the prostrate rosemary... while a Common Checkered skipper prefers the black-eyed Susans. Borage is having another generation before the frost, which comes in October.  No...

Another batch of random garden and other stuff photos.   Common Checkered Skipper Skippers are classified as butterflies yet share some features with moths.  Not a bee, this is a Common Hoverfly. Not native to North America, but now they live everywhere but Antarctica. This one is on garlic chive flowers. Wild Grapes ( Vitis californica ) will be turning color soon.  They are too seedy to do much with, and I've yet to see any backyard wildlife eat any.   A Red Tomato on a Green Chair  My son did a couple of hours worth of weed-eating this weekend.  This is a partial done area of the Toss Garden. Under that mess of wild grapes is the strawberry bed.  The rest of the mess is made up of end-of-summer knautia, several kinds of mint, black-eyed Susans... lot of things that will be back.   Speaking of black-eyed Susans... this little one survived the weed-eating!  A single  perfect  New Dawn climbing rose blossom.  I t...