buttersweet's photostream

buttersweet's photostream on Flickr.

Perfectly pinkalicious perennial peonies

PAEONIA ssp. "PEONY" or "Paeonies"

There are around 40 species of peony. They can be perennials or woody perennials. They existed in China since 1000 BC.

May means the peonies will be blooming. Tree peonies bloom earlier in my area.

Peonies are used in herbal medicine, and have been the subject of many artists in the past.

I love watching the buds coming out on the tree peony. They grow quickly, and burst out overnight to glorious blooms. We have two tree peonies, but now i see how easy they are to grow, I plan on adding more. The only problem I have had is that the deer came out one night and chomped off every bloom!



















Peonies have a long history of being used in herbal preparations. Parts used include root, and root bark (from the tree peony). Some physicians have been experimenting using peony root for childhood eczema.

Character: sour, bitter, cold. Actions: anti-bacterial (both

what ARE you thinking?

I don't even know where to start on this one. When I was in grade school, we spent a significant amount of time hiding under our desks, waiting for the A-bomb. We were taught to be afraid of the russians, and communism, taught to be afraid of anyone that wasn't like us (whatever that means).

Things went on, and things changed. We always have something to worry about though. Someone is always stirring the pot, taking sides, making people take sides - divide and conquer, you know the story.

I may have grown up in the smallest town ever, in a state that is considered to be full of hillbillies - but I also got introduced to a different world. Moving back and forth from my home to the Washington DC area changed my small town view. I read the Washington Post every day, and considered myself able to understand politics and the people who play that game. I was horrified by Watergate, and afterwards - I was old enough to vote. I don't have to tell you - if you know me - that I'm a tree-hugging liberal - not radical, but definitely will never change over to the other side. no way, never.

So anyway, I have this Flickr account. I have 1800+ contacts. The above picture shows you the friends I have all over the world. Almost every country is represented. So, it's really hard for me to swallow this Arizona immigration thing.

A good percentage of my contacts are from Mexico, Central America and South America. Brasil, Chile, Argentina - are my favorite friends on Flickr. One thing I've learned from them is how charming, beautiful, sweet, kind, and more than generous they are.

I can't support this legislation in Arizona. I can't believe that the people who do support it can be thinking straight. I wonder why they are afraid? I'd like to ask them.

I don't want to live in an America that makes us show our papers. It's just one inch short of fascism. No thank you.

Yum Yum.... Eat Em Up

EASTER DESSERTS I HAVE EATEN

Cranberry Cheesecake
Double D Killer Chocolate Cake
Bobby Flay's Coconut Cake
Good Luck Made Up Coconut/Lime/Cherry Pie

Rachel's Contribution - Bobby Flay's Coconut Cake.

The best coconut cake I've ever eaten.

I like to cook. I hate to cook. Depends on what kind of mood I've got for the day. I've had to cook since I was 12, so yeah, I'm sick of it.

I got myself one of those fancy mixers that will knead dough because I was too lazy to knead it by hand. The first week I had it, I made oatmeal bread. Then I went on a craze of scones - yeah, like I need all that butter. Scones are only good the first day, and maybe the second. I like to put chopped dried cherries in them. that's killer.... so good. Then I tried out brioche - very good, but only on the first day.

Around holidays, I do cook. I'm a maniac in the kitchen. These days though, I have to be careful, as I often mess up the recipe, forgetting to add this or that. So it happens with the above pie. It started out as a coconut pudding with lime and using Coco Lopez. It came out perfect - until I tasted it. What did I forget? Did I write the recipe incorrectly? I'm too lazy to go back upstairs and google the recipe again, so I just think - ok, add some sugar, because it obviously it was not sweet. I added some sugar, but not too much thinking it might screw up the custard.

While I am waiting for the custard to cool, I think I might take some cream cheese and mix it with sugar and then fold it into the custard. It was awesome and tasted perfect. Topped with cherries ....... I could not wait to have a slice.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any, but I licked the top of the parchment paper that covered it.

You Never Can Tell

In 1983, we moved to Chestnut Street. I was anxious to get settled, because I was pregnant. My mom and step-father came to West Virginia to help us pick out a house. Silly me, I seem to like old houses. We looked around, and the only house we liked in our price range was an old house built in 1923. I liked the red oak trim on the inside of the house. It had been re-modeled, but not in the best way.

Still, as I had been living in the Washington DC metro area for years in a progressively long line of crappy apartments, I was happy to be back home in West Virginia, and in a house again. I was all starry-eyed at "fixing it up". oh yeah, the old fixer-upper syndrome.

So one day in 1985, we get news the river is flooding. We live on the river that flows North - Tygart's Valley River, and I mean it's right out back of my house. I decide to take the kids and go to Aunt Peg's - had to go to work the next day, and the kids in school, and if the creek went up, I wouldn't be able to get out. Left my sister in the house - didn't move a damn thing.

About 2 am in the morning, here comes my sister, saying that the whole basement filled up with water, and then the first floor started flooding, and she had to be rescued in a boat. The biggest flood ever came that night. We had no idea. The house was trapped between the river and the creek that was more like a river.

So it went up 4 1/2 feet on the first floor, sat in flood water for four days, and we couldn't go home. The first day we were able to get there, we went in the front door and we both started crying, as there wasn't a thing that wasn't ruined. All my antique furniture, which had been my grandmothers, all our books, electronics, the whole kitchen turned topsy turvy, a 300 pound table my father made - it was all ruined.

I won't go into what we had to do, but we got it cleaned up, the government offered us a small loan at 4% interest so we could fix it up. Don't get me started on FEMA or the silly way they run their program, will ya? No wonder people bad mouth the goverment.

Over the next few years, we went through more floods, had the sense to move furniture upstairs, but still lost carpet, flooring, kitchen, blah blah. I got damn sick and tired of it. Finally, Aunt Peg went to a nursing home, and we got the job of house sitting for our cousin. We moved, and rented out the house to a bunch of no-good tenants, who mistreated the house, grew pot in the attic and left their mess, blah blah. Finally, my daughter and her boyfriend moved up there.

Now, over the years, my sister has been bugging me about moving back up there. I hate that house. I hate the crap I've had to go through to clean it, maintain it, put up with trashy nasty neighbors, people that drive their cars so fast, they are going to kill a child one day, and have killed a long line of cats - just because they hate cats - on our road. The mere thought of moving there has sent me into a deep depression, and a frenzied attack on the refrigerator.

I knew the day would be coming soon where I would have to go back. My cousin (don't get me started) was retiring and coming back to her house, and wanted us to live with her. I knew, I knew.... it wasn't going to work out. I like Pink Floyd, she's a preacher. Get my drift?

So here I am - a year later - living with her and she is making my life a living hell. Her dogs are the dogs from Hades - you can't imagine how annoying they are. You have no idea what it's like to live with two monstrous canines who bark 24/7, jump on everyone, get into trash, leave trash all over the yard, use the carport for a potty, use the house for a potty, eat the cat poop out of the box (only in the winter do we have a box in the basement). It's more than I can stand. She sits passive-aggressively in her chair and smiles at their behavior..... Cesar - where are U?

So, you can see, I have to go home. When my mother died, she left us her condo in Fort Myers, Florida. We got a very very reduced price on it, but it's enough to go back up to the house and start remodeling AGAIN. I bought 80 sheets of dry wall people. I'm on a mission to get the hell out of here. The kitchen is done. The living room and dining room are almost ready for carpet, new windows are replacing some of the worst, and Sally is making curtains. so it's looking like yeah, yeah, maybe I can move there. Maybe.

One thing that has been worrying me for 20 years or so is the roof. We've had a long line of incredibly stupid people working on it. It's a 12 pitch roof, which is a roofer's nightmare. No one will touch it, and I don't blame them. Clifford Poe was a friend of my brother (who passed away). He is a roofer, and came down to help us, just because of Jeffrey. Today, he finished his work and called. He says to my sister - did you know that whole roof is made out of chestnut? That it's probably never gonna go bad, they just don't make them like that anymore. The house is built on cut rock, and is never going to go off the foundation.

So - I guess we made a good choice after all. It has good bones. That's the most important thing.

Today, I found out a friend whom I had not spoken to for several years (stupid stupid) was found in bed dead.

She was 51. I'm kicking my own a** for not keeping in touch. We didn't have a fight, we just stopped talking. I don't want to say why, because it's not meant for public consumption.

I was sitting here thinking of times we spent together. She and I worked together. She had a friend in the town I live in, and sometimes I would ride home from work with her.

She adored children, but didn't have any. She spent most of her love on her nephew. She liked my kids, and teased them when she saw them. She told corny jokes. She loved animals, and had a beautiful but spoiled black cocker spaniel.

Anyway, I'm sorry she's not going to be here, and I'm sorry for her family, who lost their son a few years ago too.

Bless you Erin.