Strawberry Picking - Yummy!

On Friday, Karen, Logan, Kayleigh, Rosie and Bob went strawberry picking. This was a great field to pick in. The strawberries were beautiful, easy to pick and very tasty. Logan and Rosie are deciding which berries to pick. The red ones taste a whole lot better!

Logan has the opportunity to try an "on the spot" taste test. He approves and decides that putting strawberries in the bucket is a waste of time. Going directly from plant to mouth cuts out the middleman and is great fun. He did pick off the green leaves which were carefully added to the bucket before eating the berry.

"I can eat this whole row of strawberries? Wow - that's great!"


Here's Rosie showing off the results of our labor. We picked these two buckets full in about 15 minutes. Not bad for amateurs. (She was actually showing off the strawberry "fingerprints" on her jeans.)

We took our strawberries home and washed them. Some were used to make strawberry bread (great stuff!) and a frozen strawberry dessert (yummy!). Some were left out to eat, but most were frozen to be used another day.

Kayleigh Shayne Flachman

On April 14, 2009, Kayleigh Shayne Flachman was born in Dickinson, TX, to Shane and Karen Flachman and big brother, Logan. On 02-May, Rosie flew down to Dickinson to help out while Karen continued to recover from deliver (C-section) and Kayleigh adjusted to being born. Rosie had a great time helping with Kayleigh and playing with Logan. They got to do a lot while she was there (she left on 17-MAY); material for several future blogs. Here are some Kayleigh shots for all her "fans" out there.

Kayleigh has lots of curly hair. Bob only wishes he had some of her hair. Kayleigh's hair is beginning to turn lighter. If you look closely, the roots are getting lighter. Time for a dye job.

Here she is all dressed up and ready for church. Yes, nukies work wonders!

We have a few more posts coming with the adventures of big brother, Logan, and other happenings in and around Dickinson.

Spring time in HSV

It's Spring time in Hot Springs Village and with all the rain we've received, everything is green - even some things that aren't supposed to be green! In the backyard we have a Kousa Dogwood tree. The regular dogwoods have already bloomed, but the Kousa blooms later. It's interesting that the small blossoms come on green at first, then turn white. This is the first year our dogwood has bloomed; of course we've only had it for 2 years.Rosie also had a good time planting flowers in pots to place in the backyard. We can see the beautiful colors out the back windows while we're eating. Since Rosie's not here - she's playing Gram in Dickinson, TX - the plants will go nameless.
We also have some pansies in the back of the house that have gone crazy. It seems like the more Rosie picks them, the more they grow. We even had armadillos (we think) dig up some of the plants, and we still have a bunch. The colors are really neat.We planted some "double knock-out" roses in the front. They have really done well this Spring in spite of being "trimmed" by the local deer population. Maybe those deer know what they're doing.
Here are a couple of shots of the front from a distance.
We've also planted a small garden in the backyard. You can tell by the size of the tomato cages that we have high expectations for our plants. Rosie also planted two hills of squash. They are out of the ground and beginning to grow. I hope the local deer don't like squash. Finally, here's a picture of helper dog, Sam. He's had his "Summer cut" for a couple of weeks now. He really likes having less hair as the weather gets warmer. We had 3-4" of rain over the weekend and it's raining now. It's supposed to rain basically all week. At least it's great for the local plant life!