Sad, But True

Could it be that the squirrels in Florida are more wily than those in England? More athletic? Perhaps more desperate for food? Within minutes of my last posting, I went into the kitchen. Remember I said I was going to eat some Cinnamon Cheerios? Very tasty, by the way. Anyway. as I walked past the front door, who should I see but Mr. Squirrel hanging onto the Nuttery for dear life. The nerve!

So, what I was thinking is that maybe he's just dumping all the food onto the walkway and then eating to his heart's content. Boy, was I wrong. Here he is this morning having breakfast.

Albeit upside down. Earlier Matt suggested I send the Nuttery photos proving what a great design they've come up with and how, despite their best efforts, my Florida squirrel family was coming up empty handed. So, I did. I've yet to hear back from them, and maybe that's all for the better. I'd hate for them to know the truth. By morning's end, the feeder was empty. Mrs. Cardinal was left to eat the droppings.

In other yard news, I mentioned a few weeks ago that I'd planted a ton of pansies, as in maybe thirty? They've gotten large enough to show their true colors. I've got myself a little misfit.

I mowed the lawn today after finally cleaning house. Nancy would be proud. Although no q-tips or toothbrushes were engaged today, 409 was definitely in the house. It's been warm. In fact, it's been so warm that there are mosquitos around, one of whom had the nerve to bite me in the middle of the night on my face, thus waking me up. I turned on the bedside fan, hoping it would blow the pesky bug away. Eventually I went back to sleep, but not before I covered my head with the sheets! I wore shorts today. Where is winter?

The title of today's post is "Sad, But True. There's the squirrel issue, and then there's something that's really got me bummed. I had to give in and take my beautiful blue shiny loafers back to Nordstrom. Try as I might, I could not break them in. It was either my feet, or the shoes. Thus, it seemed a bit disingenuous to leave the header when the shoes are no longer with me. I asked the guy at Nordstrom for one last look before I let them go. The return policy is so amazing at Nordstrom. When I mentioned that the receipt was in the box, he said I've got a sticker right here on the end; never even looked in the box until I asked for my parting glance.

Even worse, the general contractor on two of Bruce's jobs is declaring bankruptcy. It's a big fat mess, leaving Bruce scrambling to finish the jobs which both were near completion. What with traveling five days this week and now this? It's times like these when you say to yourself--at least he has a job. A very, very hard one though.

While walking Baxter the other morning I thought you might enjoy seeing a dragon fruit as it grows in a neighbors yard. What, never heard of a dragon fruit? It's crazy looking and some I've found online are even crazier than this one.

So, that's the fruit. I believe I've shown you the flower before but it's so darn beautiful that it's worth a second look.

This flower opens during the night, closing about an hour after sunrise. It's hard to imagine that this is a cactus flower isn't it?  Amazing that there are no bees in this photo because believe you me, it's a bee magnet! Some flowers are. Some not so much. Another bee magnet is the bottle brush tree. Oh my! You take your life in your hands trying to photograph that blossom!

Last night I made some Brocoli Risotto. I also put my new phone to use in the process. Looking at my depleted stock of food in the refrigerator and freezer, I spied some frozen chopped brocoli. Hmmm....
So, I thought of making risotto for myself and wondered if anyone else had thought of such a dish. Why, of course they had! I spoke to Siri and she suggested we search the web. Instead of running back and forth to my office, I merely opened the NY Times recipe and went from there. I then used the phone to photograph my efforts. Scaling down the recipe somewhat, the only change I made, aside from the frozen brocoli, was to add some lemon zest. Brocoli without lemon is a no-no in this house.

Not very well, but you get the drift. Seriously, this was my best attempt at making risotto. The parsley is from my garden. The tomatoes are not. It was so creamy and delicious! In fact, as soon as I'm done here, I'm having leftovers.

All that mowing and cleaning made me hungry for lunch. Except I had no chips. I considered running up to Publix, then thought better of it, making do with the crushed bits at the bottom of the Lays bag. Then I went to WalMart. Can you believe this bread?

Who names a bread BIMBO? Actually, I think it is Spanish, so maybe there's a good reason for calling bread Bimbo that escapes me. Sort of like the new Arctic Monkeys album Matt put on my iTunes. He explained to me that Suck it and See means something entirely different in England. As in a box of sweets. Makes sense once you know the culture. That said, Angela is constantly complaining about Americans love of sugar. I think she's entirely mistaken on this one. She'll leave out huge quantities of sugar when baking with predictable results. Seems to me that the English are no slackers when it comes to loving sweet stuff. Generalizations. Which means nothing right?