Q & A part 2

Q: Where the heck do you find all your weight watchers recipes?

A: The women who attend Weight watcher's meetings are great at sharing, and will print out recipes, make 30 copies, and bring to share. Also, the meetings have cookbooks that you can look through and purchase. I have also found some WW cookbooks at yard sales. I sometimes just make a regular recipe WW friendly by replacing the eggs with egg beaters, replacing the oil with applesauce, and using Splenda instead of sugar. But probably the biggest source of WW recipes I have ever found is here.

Q: Have you ever found an alligator in or near your yard?

A: I live in a small subdivision near a major river. The houses in the back of my subdivision (about 8 houses away) have their backyard overlooking the river. My house is in the front of the subdivision. I am sure my neighbors have seen alligators in their yards, but I have not had any. I have rabbits, bats, raccoons, possums, armadillos, deer and squirrels coming to visit but never an alligator. I have seen ones when I go fishing with my husband, but they never move- just watch you from afar.

Q: What's the next project in your house?

A: Straightening out the back yard. Its kind of been a neglected area. This is what my back yard looks like now:




Bamboo will be planted after the underbrush is removed. It grows really quickly and will make a privacy "fence" in no time. Then magnolia trees, and azalea bushes. What was an abandoned flower bed will hopefully become a rose garden. I am pretty sure it is only a hope because the planting season for roses is almost over and the bed hasn't been started. I may have to wait until next year. The problem is I have a long tree line in the back yard. Its going to take a while.

After the yard makeover, it is the small bathroom in the kitchen. Right now it is almost empty. It will get a sink, new toilet, wainscotings and wallpaper.

After the bathroom, the closet downstairs underneath the staircase will get a wood floor (left overs from upstairs bedrooms) and built in shelves.

Heavy sigh. I am tired just thinking of all this. There is no shortage of projects.

Q: How do you know so much about plants and such?

A: My Grandma was always in the garden, planting and tending to her plants and flowers. She was a serious gardener. At one point, she was growing African Violets in the living room with a black light. I was mesmerized by their dark green velvet leaves and deep purple flowers. I couldn't keep my hands off of them, which is probably one reason she eventually gave them up. Poor little things didn't stand much of a chance with me around. She lived in the same spot since the early 1920s, and had plenty of land. There was a lot of plants she tended, as well as wild ones, blackberries, honeysuckle, two different kinds of wild roses, pink clover... I was well into my adult years before I realized that Camilla's grew on bushes and not trees. Our Camilla bush was so mature, it was literally a tree.

I also had an Aunt who lived "in the big city" (New Orleans) and I would spend my summers with her. She was a member of the garden club, which impressed me to no end. She was not nearly as a successful gardener as my Grandma, but her yard won garden of the month more than once. That is one of my very few unrealized goals ... to have a garden of the month garden. I am not nearly there yet.

As my aunt got older, she let Lantana and Ferns take over the front yard, because they did not need any care. She died last year, and before her house was sold, I went and dug up some Lantana bushes and planted them in front of my dining room window.





My husband also has an Aunt who lives in very rural Mississippi, whose front yard literally makes strangers stop and admire it. Each time we visit, she walks me around her yard, pointing out what each flower is. Every walk ends with her getting a shovel and bucket and me getting some plants to bring home. Here is one of the last things I got from her house, a yellow angel trumpet. I also have a pink one.


It also helps that one of my best friends is married to the Chancellor of the Agriculture college.