A lovely nature walk

I decided to go on an impromptu nature walk today with my family. I made a promise to myself that I would get out more often in nature.

My sister had been wanting to see me before she starts classes again so I thought this might be a good opportunity to invite her, her boyfriend, and my brother along.

The trees provided some nice shade from the heat of the sun on a 99 degree day.  We found a spot near the river that had a nice breeze. I harvested some mugwort flower heads to save seeds from near the river.
Funny enough my brother said the exact same thing that one of my best female friends did when I last took her on a wildcrafting adventure “Mugwort? That sounds like something out of Harry Potter” The comment always makes me giggle.

One of the wild plum trees were full of ripe fruits that I picked for freezing. I didn’t pick as many as I could have due to my chest freezer being out. I hope to remedy that in the near future.

I also passed a tree with a wasp nest that was the size of a large grapefruit.

On our walk I also gathered plantain seed heads. the flowered tops of the gumweed plant, and some ripe bittersweet nightshade berries (poisonous plant) for seed saving.

I love bittersweet nightshade. It is a beautiful, magickal plant. It sprang up in my last container garden randomly and I was sad to see it go. I am trying my hand at saving seeds from it much like I do my tomato plants. Nightshades are related to tomatoes. I could not find any other information on how to save seeds from them so I took that as being the most logical way to do it. I am always doing some kind of new plant experiment. This is just one on the long list.
**I do not recommend anyone try anything with any plant in the nightshade family, unless they know what they are doing, and wear gloves.

When I got home I decided to harvest some lambs quarters seed heads, some mint flower heads, and 5 strawberries. Four of the five strawberries ended up in the freezer for later smoothie making, the other ended up in my mouth *yum!* Nothing beats garden fresh fruits.

I have another nature adventure planned in the coming week from the sounds of it. This year I am taking note of what is in season each month so I can better prepare for the next year.
I have a good idea of what is in season, though knowing which locations are harvestable is another story. It can change year to year, or location to location depending on climate conditions, along with a long list of other variables I need to take note of.

Believe it or not I actually like this practice as well. It helps me better understand the plants. I can see what growing conditions they prefer if I ever plan to have them in my own garden. I notice new plants. I can see what the plants look at in various stages of growth, which helps for proper identification at any point of the growing stage.

I find so many new plants just by studying the ones I already know and what grows around them.

Now that everything is set out to dry, and the garden is watered, I think it is time for a cup of jasmine green tea and maybe a movie.

Update on renovation

I mentioned in an earlier post about the awesome door handle I got a steal of a deal on. Well I finally got photos of it after the hubby installed it. So much better than the crappy round door handle that stuck a bit,



Today we got the final coat of the tea bag color on the walls. We only have two areas that we need to fix and it will be done with that wall color.

Eventually I want to put either some metal art or plaster filigree up in the little triangle area that is its own level in the kitchen.

The tea bag color is in the kitchen, though sadly the photo makes it look more sandy than the light creamy green it actually is. Hopefully I will get better photos of the color.


Before I think I mentioned that the cabinets have been through some things. I have had to repaint a handful of them a few times. First time I painted the base, I had them outside.

They were on the two tarps but closer to the house… We of course forgot about the sprinklers. Thankfully mostly dry, we moved them onto the porch. I sanded areas that needed to be re-sprayed.

Next goof up was spraying several sets of cabinets and drawers on the tarp in the laundry room. Great space to do it in, but the tarp, while it was a good tarp, ended up with layers of paint and stuck to the cabinets, leaving weird textured chunks of paint on some of the cabinets. Thankfully the ones above, which are just primed, did not end up with any issues. The doors and such did in some areas though. The ones that did have issues got re-sprayed with the final coat after sanding.


So this time I decided to lay down different tarps in the back bedroom (future crafting room) and living room. I needed ample space to get the base coat on as many as possible. I am currently behind schedule by a little bit but thankfully not as far behind as I would have been if not for the spray gun.

I like this photo because it shows the creamy white with hints of yellow that the gilded endive paint has. While I am still nervous about the end result, I am excited to see it as well. This is the first time I have painted cabinets. I am crazy doing this all at once before testing it on one or some other wooden piece of cabinetry. I have not always been known to test something before jumping into it though. 98% of the time it works out great, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

I managed to get 15 + pieces sprayed with the gilded endive. Still have all the drawers and a few other shelves/doors to paint. The lower section is not on a deadline like the upper section is. Those have to get put back up shortly, and I am trying very quickly to get them finished so they can be put back up on the wall.

I am excited to get to the actual glazing. I feel this is where my artist skills will come in handy. My family is loving the progress with everything so far. Walls are coming along nicely. Cabinets will become a French country dream.

Happy that today was a semi short day. Basically only needed to paint the kitchen and one other wall, then get as many cabinets sprayed as I could with the surface area I had available. I wish I could spray them all in one go but I just can’t due to needing to rotate them out for space reasons. They will all get painted. I just wish the color coat dried as fast as the primer does haha.  My brother brought his friend and having three people there to tackle the projects of the day made it go by much faster. I think we were only there about 4 or so hours? So not too shabby compared to the 9+ hour days we have been spending there as of late.
I actually get to relax and eat my mint chocolate chip ice cream ^_^

My Tea Collection

So it seems I have quite a love for tea...

I have found I have many varieties in my ever growing collection of tea...
So much so that I really should have my own cupboard for my boxes and bags of tea.

Since I am always posting up here or there that I am drinking it, 

I figured I would type out a list of all the teas I have so you have an idea of what it is I like to drink.

I find my favorite brand of tea is Numi brand tea. I also drink teas from the stash brand often.
There are a few others that aren't worth naming aside from the loose tea I buy from the local co-op.
I drink some teas with sugar, some without, some with honey.

Honeybush
Which is one of my favorites, I like to drink it with sugar added, brings out the honey flavor

Jasmine green tea
Another favorite, use sugar in this as well

Chamomile
I usually drink this without any sugar but occasionally I will add some in

Chamomile Nights
I love it because it has Lotus flower in it ^_^

Mint Medley
Is the mint tea I have on hand right now aside from my dried fresh mint from my garden.
I prefer mint to peppermint but I do like this tea.
I drink it without sugar.

Green Tea
I drink with sugar

Ooolong Tea
Which I drink with sugar

White Rose Tea
I do not drink this one as often so I do not currently have a preference on how I like it

Forever Fruits Tea
One of the few teas I like with fruit in it.
Its a fruity minty tea.
I drink it with sugar

Papaya Mint Tea
It does not taste like the fruit since it is made from the leaves.
I drink this without sugar.

Orange Pekoe Black Tea
With sugar

Magosteen Superfruit Tea
Which I am not a big fan of but I have it

Red Roobios Tea
With sugar

Jasmine Myrtle Tea
With sugar

Peppermint Tea
which I drink without sugar
I am not a hue fan of peppermint as opposed to mint

Moroccan Mint Tea
which I have yet to try but have it in my cupboard

Chamomile Lemon Ginseng Tea
With honey

Bergamot Assam Black Tea
Have but yet to try

Chinese Breakfast Blend Tea
With sugar

Other various green teas... there are a bunch..

Morning Rise Breakfast Blend Tea
With sugar

Gypsy Cold Care Tea
With honey, not my favorite tea

Echinacea Elder Tea
I highly recommend.
I drink it with honey

Echinacea Complete Care Tea
I do not like this one...
I am not a fan of any sort of black licorice tastes.

Acai Berry Tea
I dont drink it often but when I do its with sugar

Blueberry Tea
In my cupboard but not really for my drinking.
I am not a fan of it but others in my house are.

I honestly probably have more than 30 different teas. That is not counting any that I may hand blend from herbs I have on hand. Some herbs I love to use are red rose, and lavender.
I do not like teas with orange, spices, licorice, most fruits, vanilla,
and a few other things I can't think of off hand.

But yes, that is my tea collection currently.
As I said before it is ever expanding.

I have also made my own Lavender Mint herbal sugars to use with the teas.
The sugar tastes especially good in the orange pekoe and the mint teas.
Sadly I am pretty close to out of the sugar now and since my plants are gone for the winter I will not be able to make any more until they start blooming again and I have fresh plant material.

I would like to mention that another alternative to sugar that I use in my tea is Agave Nectar.
It is light, delicious, and works very well in tea.
I am not a fan of stevia or any artificial sweetener.
I have found agave nectar fits the bill for a natural sugar/honey substitute.
You can find agave nectar in most stores, co-ops, and health food stores that carry food products.
I suggest anyone looking for an alternative to give it a try.
They have both light and dark nectar bottles.