Sunday Sketches - Orange Sunrise

Wow, it's the end of May.

Welcome to Alexandra's Sunday Sketches! I did an orange sunrise in watercolour pencil and crayon on good quality blue cardstock (6" x 6"). Creative Tuesdays is having an 'orange' theme currently and that is why I am thinking 'orange'.  I created another orange piece to show on Tuesday.

Neighbourhood Peony

The weather has been wonderful, I have been going on a lot of walks and admiring the neighbourhood flowers.

I just read this book called 'Where There's an Inheritance', stories from inside the world of two wills lawyers.  I borrowed it from the library and wondered why it was in the Adult Humour section.  It does have some funny stories along with some serious ones.  A funny one was when this 75 year old man married a beautiful 31 year old.  His friends asked him how he got the beautiful young woman to marry him.  He said he lied about his age.  When questioned further as to whether he might have said he was 65 instead of 75, he admitted that he told her he was 95.

This book makes me realize that possessions should not be put ahead of health and family relations.  We cannot take material goods with us.  These lawyers Barry Fish and Les Kotzer have written 4 books based on their actual experiences/cases.  At first I thought I would read all 4, but now I think I need to take a break.  Some of the cases are hard to stomach, with tough life lessons.  The book ends with this quote from an unknown source "After all, life is really simple; we ourselves create the circumstances that complicate it".

Paint Party Friday - Cute Socks

Welcome to Paint Party Friday! One of my sisters broke her ankle badly on New Year's Day and is now recovering nicely. She visited from Florida recently and showed me the neat scar remaining from her surgery. I loved her cute toe socks too!  She is also wearing a zensah ankle sleeve (rolled back), depicted in orange.  It is a compressor support she wears to bring the swelling down over time.

I am using orange in preparation for the current Creative Tuesdays 'orange' theme.

Here is the complete sketch in my art journal (8 1/2" x 11") in watercolour pencil and crayon:

Mosquito Repellant

A girlfriend told me about this all natural mosquito repellant called Mozi-Q that is a homeopathic remedy. Daughter L goes up north a lot where there are lots of mosquitoes in the summer. She uses too much OFF repellant and we thought she could try this. Except she found this article saying it doesn't work. I got it at nutrition house along with some points cards that we can use there for future purposes. I also got her some citronella oil. They said you can add a few drops to a spray bottle of water and use to deter mosquitoes. Well, L will try them all but she has a feeling that OFF is the only thing that really works.

How do you avoid mosquito bites?

Sourwood Maybe

The Leaf

A Sprig

The Bark

I have been meaning to use this free Leafsnap app that identifies trees (in North America?) by taking a photo of the leaf on a white background. Here's my leaf.  The closest I can come at this point is that it might be a sourwood tree. The bark sure looks like it. This tree started growing at the side of the house some years ago and I have always wondered what it might be. At any rate it is a fun app, I might try it some more over the summer on different trees!  Once you snap the photo it displays a list of possible trees in order, with your photo at the top of the list and the list with leaf samples next to each item.

Coconut Quick Bread

I was browsing through my tumblr feed and happened upon this Food52 Coconut quickbread recipe. I decided to try it with wonderful results! Maybe you will like it too. It does call for lemon zest. Apparently there are at least 3 ways to zest a lemon or lime. I just used a vegetable peeler but daughter L informed me that I can also use a grate, the preferred method when baking. In any case we all loved it.

Do you still use recipe books? I have a lot of them, but lately it seems easier to find recipes online.

Roasted Garlic Mushrooms with Breading

I came across this recipe , I think it was Pinterest.  I simplified it as follows and it turned out to be quick, easy and delicious.  It would be great with steaks on the barbecue.  It is new for me to add  breadcrumbs to my roasted vegetables, I think I will try it with other vegetables for a change.  Maybe I will use panko breadcrumbs next time for a more gourmet touch! 


Ingredients

•  2 x 227g packs of whole white mushrooms
• 3 tbsp olive oil 
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped 
• a sprig of thyme leaves
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 c breadcrumbs
• juice of half a lemon
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

 pre heat oven 350F
arrange mushrooms on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper
mix in all other ingredients
bake 15 mins