This is what happens when *someone* leaves the ficus on the deck a day too long, in fall!

Last October, the nights turned frosty, I became unusually busy, and the ficus became one of those "to-dos" that never got done. I had pulled the ficus up close to the house, hoping that would shelter it from the frost. And it looked like I got it into the house just in the nick of time.

To my dismay, about a week later, all of the green leaves began to fall off the branches. The bare tree sat in the kitchen, near the window, all winter and spring, with me hoping some leaves would sprout. No leaves ever sprouted. I pulled the tree back onto the deck, with the idea to removed it from the pot and begin again, with something else.

Mid-July, to my surprise, leaves began springing up from the base of the plant. I hadn't been watering it, or doing anything to care for it, so this was truly a surprise. My new plan was to get out the saw and cut the bare trunk and bare branches off, and begin again with this newly sprouting ficus.

Again, distracted with life, this never happened. Then last week, I was at Jo Ann's Fabric and Crafts, and what would I see there, bare-branch trees, covered in mini lights, selling for $29.99!! Well, I have the bare-branch tree, and I have strands of mini lights. I got one strand of mini lights wrapped around the trunk and some branches, and will work another strand on later this week, if I feel it needs it. I'm waiting till dark to check the lights.


So, here's a free fall/Halloween decoration for my house, all thanks to my neglect! Don't you just love it when something like this happens!

First day of fall, and . . . a tiny giveaway

So, you all know my giveaways are teeny-tiny, and few and far between. My apologies, but it is what it is.

I have a lot of shopping venues that I know many of you are not fortunate to have. I understand that. And it must be frustrating, at times, to read of a good deal I get n something, especially foods from the wholesaler (Cash & Carry). Well . . .

With the change of seasons, I'm already thinking and cooking with more of the sweet spices, like cinnamon, cloves, allspice, cardamom, nutmeg and ginger. Some spices are especially nice to have in whole form, for their appearance as well as flavor.

Whole cinnamon sticks were on sale last week at Cash & Carry. So, I bought an extra canister to send to one of you.

The postal limitation is to the continental U.S. (48 states). My coin purse isn't all that full, at the present, and postage goes sky-high when sending items outside of the 48 states.  I'm sorry about that.

So, if you're in the lower 48 (or you have an address I can send this to in the lower 48), and would like a canister of whole cinnamon sticks, just leave a comment, below.

I want to get this out to one of you quickly, so we'll end the entries at midnight PDT, Sept. 28.


In addition, if you'd like about a half-cup of whole cloves, I'll gladly add those to the package. Just so you know, these whole cloves would come out of my own canister (bought and opened a couple of months ago), not commercially sealed in a package, but poured out into a ziploc freezer bag. I can be a bit of a germ-a-phobe, so I understand if you would not want cloves from someone else's package. But I have plenty, more than I'll use in a year or two. If you didn't want to cook with them, they could also be used to make a pomander, or added to simmering spices.

So, that's about it for today. My daughters are on a 1-week break in between work and classes, so we're heading out for a girls-day.