Katiebird's Garden & Wildcraft

My little blog that could has hit over a 1000 views today!  Thanks everybody, it makes it so much more fun to know that people are actually looking at it and reading :)  There will be some more exciting things to talk about this summer, here's a short sneak peek list: Bedroom makeover Office makeover Gardens galore The story of a farm stand AND some other exciting things to come in the future :)

I had promised my hubby some baked treats recently and I had a desperate craving for chocolate cake so I had to make some cupcakes.  But not just any cupcakes...Chocolate with a surprise of Cheesecake Filling, topped with Caramelized Walnuts.  How to create these lovelies: Make it easy on yourself and buy a box of chocolate cake mix.  Mix it up.  Cheesecake filling: 1 pkg of light cream cheese 1 egg 1/3 c. sugar 1 tsp. vanilla or almond extract (or both!) Keep cool, so it stays firm.  Fill paper-lined muffin cups 1/2 full with the chocolate cake.  Add 1-2 tsp of the cream cheese mix, or more if you want more.  It cooks up cake-like, so don't worry.  Cover the cream cheese with chocolate cake mix until the cups are 3/4 full.  Bake as directed on the box, mine took around 18 mins I think.  Before, During or After, make the walnuts. Caramelized Walnuts: (I made this up as I went, so just trust your candy thermometer!)...

After all the crazy rain yesterday and all of last night, I walk out this morning on my way to work during a moment of no rain and walk towards the patio garden to see if anything popped up with the warm rain.  Well, what popped out was that little sh*# of a rabbit, whom I call Bun-Bun.  I was hoping the human-scented and noisy cement patio would keep him in the back yard but to no avail.  More ugly fencing to come to the patio now and some blood meal.   Another curious thing, I planted a whole packet of Lima Beans and only one has shown itself after about 3 weeks.  I thought Burpee was better than that.  That's what I'll be re-planting this weekend.  Of course I threw away the receipt.

Yesterday after work (BG was 145 with a little insulin on-board, but nothing to worry about) I sauntered over to Micheal's to grab some foam boards for my pelmet boxes I'm making for the kitchen windows.  What's a pelmet box, you ask?  Check out this tutorial at Little Green Notebook .  Cheap and awesome decoration!   So, after leaving Micheal's, Lowe's is right next door, so I went over there to check on some brackets for hanging said pelmets and after having a helpful worker make a couple suggestions that just weren't working at all in my head, I thanked him and he left on his merry way.  I was still pondering the brackets and noticed it was really hot in there, like they didn't have the AC on all day.  So I'm fanning my face with my papers and I just start sweating all over.  My back was sweating, my face had beads of sweat rolling down.  And only after noticing that noone else was hot or sweating and that I couldn't pay attention to what th...

As promised the other day...I finally have some pictures of my herb spiral and my patio garden.   New Herb Spiral So far I have two basils, rosemary, an interesting fuzzy oregano, cilantro (coriander,) and lemon thyme.  I will be adding a Greek oregano and possibly a nice plain chive to fill the bottom space.  I haven't quite thought of what to fill the surrounding area with yet.  I am leaning towards some bright flowers since there's so much green! Patio Garden  The above is my patio garden, which this year is mostly vegetables.  I will be filling in all the empty space with annual flowers though, as I can't NOT have color!!!  Who loves that ugly fence as much as me?   The far corner is the catnip grove as I call it, it has 6-8 bushes that will grow about 3-4 ft. each.  The stuff is very potent, according to my cat, Stickee.  Our mild winter had a couple little volunteer bushes that grew near the steps and my cat escap...

Check out my blog post at the Farm Bell Recipes forum at the Chickens in the Road site today! My herb spiral is in and looks amazing!  Photos to follow, tonight.  Thank you to my hubby for helping me build and re-build it many times :)   The gardens are flourishing with this week of close-to 80 degree weather and so is that pesky toddler-age rabbit that has now discovered my garden!  So far the carnage:  one cucumber plant (totally gone, not a bit left) and a large marigold plant chopped in half!  Didn't even bother eating it!  Little sh*!  I think I'll be installing some fencing tonight...though I hate how it looks!  See you later with pictures.

My post about Micro Greens is being featured on the Chickens in the Road Blog and Website  in the Farm Bell Recipe section!  If you haven't come across this blog/website/forum yet, it is a must read.  Susan McMinn (yes, she used to write romance novels too!) posts hilarious stories and pictures from her farm and funny little animal-inhabitants.  There is also a recipe forum and lots of other reader advice areas.  My little story is going to be featured on May 16th, so go, my 7 followers and check it out next week!