Golden Cottage Days

                                      

Greetings Gail-Friends!  Yes, I've been busy again, but my heart is full of JOY!  No time to do posts because I've been working on  Jem's second book.  It is done!  Finished!  Published!  It's been a long haul to get to this point.  His book, Shenanigans, is about his adventures (and mis-adventures) as a US Navy sailor back in the 1960's.  It is so funny, y'all.   You can read a sample at the link below.  

It's available in paperback and as an e-book.   Here's the link:  https://a.co/d/8IaGWRy

We hope you'll buy it, read it, and if you like it, do a review on Amazon.  

Now, I'm working on finishing up my book about Proverbs.  Hopefully, it will be finished by mid-September. 

So other than this, we've been enjoying the garden.  The heat has been terrible, but we were able to have a small harvest of the Everglades tomatoes.  They are about the size of the tip of my pinky finger and sweet as sugar.  They re-seed themselves and (supposedly) come back every year:

 Here are some of our beautiful flowers:

 

I think the zinnias are about finished.  May have one more bouquet.  They have brought me so much JOY!

I've also enjoyed sitting on our back porch (with a fan blowing on me, of course!).  I'm hoping the buntings will be coming back this month, but you never know.  But, we had a tit-mouse couple come by and the cardinals are regulars, along with the woodpeckers and blue jays.  The birds and butterflies are such a joy during my morning quiet time. 

 

 

Today, I sat out there with Tonnie Woo.  He loves the porch.  Stays out there all day long.  I don't know how he stands the heat, but he loves it.  He sleeps in my office at night, though. 

 

We celebrated Jem's birthday this month.  He'seventy-nine and said he never thought he'd live to be so old.  Well, he did and I'm so glad.  We spent the week celebrating and one place we returned to was the Pig n Whistle, a British pub in Cocoa Beach.  Jem had the fish and chips and I had a Reuben.  It was so huge I took half of it home.  We saw this sweet little Mini Cooper there and had to take a picture. We sure do miss our Minnie (that was her name) and talked about maybe getting another one. 

 

 

I liked the bunting and the portrait display of  King Charles.  We're so sad to hear the news this week that he is leaving the throne due to late-stage cancer.  His son, William, will take over soon.

 

There was an homage to the late Queen Elizabeth.  I've always admired her.  She was a real lady, and I think she was faithful to her duties as queen in spite of the hard things she went through.  

Another day, we took a slow ride down the river and visited a very nice restaurant in Titusville.  It's called Shiloh's and it's directly across the river from the space center.  Jem had the salmon and I had the fish and chips.  We even ordered a key-lime cheesecake to share, but took most of it home.  

All of this kind of rich eating is rare for us of late because we are dedicated to eating healthy.  I've lost fourteen pounds and he's lost thirty-six, which makes me so upset.  Why do men lose weight so much faster?  Any way, I am faithfully eating healthy every day and night.  Veggies are my friends.  Speaking of veg, I thought this was so funny.  I opened a new bag of baby carrots and found this super-sized baby:

 We had a picture made at the restaurant and I can really tell we've slimmed down.  Praise the Lord!

 Maybe next month, I'll share how I've lost weight.  

Oh, I forgot to tell you about our new car.  A 2025 Honda CRV.  It's just like our 2016 model, except for the updates:  

It has alarms galore:  when you get too close to the side of the road, slows you down when you get to close to the car in front of you, tells you if there's a car in your blind spot, heated seats and steering wheel, you can turn on the AC and cool it off before you get in - and my favorite - the wonderful backup camera. It has so many bells and whistles, it took us a month just to figure it all out. What a blessing.)

So, life at Golden Cottage is golden . . . and easy . . . and we treasure every day together.  I love our prayer and Bible time together in the mornings.  Toonie does, too.  He's a very scholarly cat.

We've been doing Shabbat at home on Friday nights and I love that.  On Saturday morning, we tune in to the online service from Shalom Macon.  

 I hope all is well in your world.  God bless you and keep you, and may His face shine upon you.

Bye for now. 💗 

Golden Cottage Happenings

 

Greetings Y'all - I hope your week has been good.  It's been a Haleluyah week here at Golden Cottage.  A long-awaited prayer has been answered, and we are praising God.  We even went out to eat at a very expensive restaurant to celebrate.  My sense of frugality was hurt, but I pushed through!!  It was well worth every penny!!

We celebrated all week, and went galavanting down to the beach where we visited an English pub.  We love all things British, and were thrilled with the fish and chips we had for lunch.  They even serve it with mashy peas.  I didn't care for that, but Jem loved it.  He ate them when he visited Malta during his Navy days.  I like the doorway and wanted my picture made with the faux phone booth.  Nope...Dr. Who wasn't in there.  We'll visit again because on Sundays they have Premeir League soccer playing in the mornings.  So, we'll go back for a "full English breakfast".  Can't wait!

 Hi-Yah!  (as they say in England)

We've been working in the garden, planting lettuce and other veggies.  Here's a photo of my lettuce.  They'll be ready for harvest in a few days.

 

 The "reds" are showing off in the front garden:

  Amaryllis, caladium, poinsettias, busy lizzies (aka impatiens)

 

I found this little orange smiling up at me from my fruit bowl yesterday and it made me smile.  Can you see it?  She's happy! 

Rocket launches are commonplace here, but last week I got a great pic from our front yard.

 

Lately, I have ventured into the world of AI --  been creating images using AI websites like Grok.  Here are some that I've that I made: (plus the one at the top of this post)

 

 And this is my favorite:

 

I mentioned last month that I'd post some pics from our Purim celebration at our new synagogue, so here are a few.  

One of the ladies helped design and write this beautiful magillah.  It is gorgeous.

 

 

The whole magillah was read out loud by different people, and the main characters play-acted their parts.  Jem played Haman and I played Esther.  I didn't get any pics of us, sadly. 

 Some people dressed up, and my pic for the best costume was Mordecai.

 

 Here are a few others:

 This family was, by far, the funniest! Fred, Pebbles, and Bam-Bam. Check out Fred's feet!  Do you remember the Flintstones??

 

 

And, of course, we had lots of fun, food, and fellowship. (Too much food, as always.)

 

In the week ahead, I'll be throwing out the leaven in my house and from my heart -- getting ready for Passover.  Jem and I are looking forward to our first seder at our new synagogue. This will be the first time in almost twenty years that we haven't been in charge and that feels GOOD!  We're enjoying retirement!!

 

I won't be posting next week, so Chag Pesach to you all.  See you week after next with news from Golden Cottage. And I'll be sharing about our Passover observance.

 

Blessings and Shalom!

Golden Cottage Garden & a Recipe

Greetings, Gail-Friends!

Mr. Green Jeans and I have been working in the garden.  The weather here has been glorious! With highs in the mid seventies, we are making hay while the sun shines, as they say, to get things growing before the oppressive heat sets in.  Spring only lasts about a month in sunny central Florida

So, Golden Cottage Garden is coming along nicely.  We even have a new bunch of bananas on two of our trees.  This is unusual because we just had one in this past summer, so the trees are bearing twice in a year now.  I think it's because we've been fertilizing them with banana peelings.  Works good!  AND, we have two new trees that have come up.  These are called pups! 

 

Did you know that Dollar Tree sells vegetable and flower seeds ?  And they are only 3 packages for $1.25?

We planted lettuce, peas, green beans, squash and cucumbers.  AND we finally found some Everglades tomatoes (on Etsy) and they are doing well.  I had searched high and low locally  to find those plants/seeds with no success.  This tomato is a variety that thrives in hot weather and it also reseeds itself.  We're excited!   They are small, like cherry tomatoes, and are great in salads.  Believe me, we'll be savings those seeds, too, because one package of twenty-five seeds was $4.00.

Last post, I mentioned doing a post about our Purim celebration, but that will have to be later.  I'm pressed for time today, and I want to make it over to my friend, Sarah's, Homemaking Party (see below).  I will tell you that we were part of play at the synagogue.  Jem was Haman and I was Esther!  It was fun.  Pics in next post.

Passover is almost here, and I'm preparing -- getting rid of the leaven in my house, gathering matzah and other food for that week, and pulling out my recipes that are free of leaven.  This is one of my favs.

Lime Cheesecake (sugar-free)

CRUST:

1 c. almond meal
1/2 c pecans, chopped fine
1 T. Stevia in the raw
4 T. butter, melted
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp salt

FILLING:

8 oz. cream cheese (at room temperature)
1 package of sugar free instant pudding
1/2 c. lime juice (these were fresh off our own tree, hand-squeezed on my mama's antique juicer)
1 cup skim milk

TO PREPARE:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Mix together the crust ingredients and then press into a lightly greased pie pan. (I used a square glass one).  Bake the crust until the edges are slightly browned (about 10-15 minutes). Place the dish on a rack to cool.

FILLING:

Mix all of the filling ingredients  with an electric mixer until well blended. (Use a deep bowl, or you'll make a big mess like I did).  Pour the filling over the cooled crust.  Refrigerate 3 to 4 hours.  

Enjoy! 

My husband and I loved it, and I hope you will, too.  Let me know if you try it.

*** I'm sharing this at the Classical Homemaking Party  I hope you'll stop over and meet some new friends.

31 Days of Garden Tours - Day 30

Today, I'm touring my absolute favorite garden on this side of the world -- The Golden Cottage Garden.  My husband, aka as Mr. Green Jeans, has made a beautiful paradise in our yard.  I'd like to show you some of the delights he's created for me to enjoy.


This is our pond.  He made this for me because I love to be by the water.  It's my favorite part of the garden.


 

 This is what I see as I sit on my back porch for my morning prayer time with the L-rd.  There's a small waterfall that makes wonderful music to accompany the singing birds that visit.

 

This is a close up view of the shrimp plants.  They are very hardy and have flowers all year long.

The Elephant Ears are hardy, too.  Some have grown up to eight feet tall,  and did you know they have flowers?  Lots of flowers.  Aren't they beauties?

And here is Mr. Green Jeans, standing underneath a tall elephant ear.  

 


We have several different varieties of Lantana.  The butterflies love them.

 

And the Confederate Jasmine, too.  It has a heavenly perfume, unlike the Lantana, which stinks.

 The Morning Glories are my favorites.

 We've tried vegetable gardening over the years, both in ground, and containers.  Sadly, it hasn't gone well because gardening in Florida is tough. The heat, the bugs, and the sandy soil are challenging.   If we had to live on what we grow, I think we'd starve.  Even Mr. Tomato is sad about it.

We've had better success with this system, which my husband built.  It puts the plants at waist level, and makes it easier to maintain.  Plus, the bugs and critters don't bother the plants as much.  Lettuce and spinach have done well.

Here are some more lovelies in the back yard.

 Peace plants grow really well in our yard, and bear lots of blooms.

I love feeding the birds in our garden.  

Especially in the winter, when the painted buntings visit.

In the Fall, the Golden Rain trees start to turn yellow, and then tiny yellow flowers form.  After a week or two, the blossoms appear, and then they fall.  The carpet of blossoms is as close as we get to Fall leaves. 

I think the leaves and blossom are so pretty.  The leaves don't come off until the temperatures get really cold, usually January through March. Here in Florida, cold is around forty degrees.

 

I hope you enjoyed the tour of The Golden Cottage.  Tomorrow, I'll show you my favorite garden in Israel.

Blessings,

I'm linking up to the 31 Day Blog Event.

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