Poisonous Plants

angel's trumpet

oleaner


azelea

jassemine

Did you know there are approximately 150 poisonous plants. Among them, there are about 50 which are considered the MOST POISONOUS. I am in the midst of landscaping my whole yard and want to make sure that none of my plants can do any harm. I was shocked to learn that some of my favorites were, such as azalea, jassemine, lilies,....all which are so common in our area. I had alot of these in my yard at my prior house. My vet has also told me that Sago Palm is extrememly deadly for dogs.

Below is a list of the MOST POISONOUS plants in North America. If you are curious about wild edibles, then I suggest that you familiarize yourself with the ones that are most prevalent in your area. Enter the names of the plants into an Internet based search engine to see what they look like.

Aconitum, Autumn crocus, Angel’s trumpet, Azalea, Bittersweet nightshade, Bleeding heart, Black locust, Black nightshade, Buttercup, Caladium, Caster Oil plant, Daffodil, Daphne, Darnel, Datura, Deadly nightshade, Deathcamas, Delphinium, Dogbane, Doll’s eyes, Dumbcane, European Holly, False Hellebore, Foxglove, Hemlock, Henbane, Horse chestnut, Ivy, Jequirity, Jerusalem cherry, Jimson weed, Laburnum, Larkspur, Lilies, Manchineel, Mayapple, Monkshood, Moonseed, Oleander, Poison-ivy, Poison-oak, Pokeweed, Privet, Southwest coral bean, Star of Bethlehem, Water hemlock, White snakeroot, Yellow flag, Yellow jessmine, Yew.

Mr. Golfer

This is the fountain I bought

This is the corner where it will go

This is the problem

Eddie loves his silly golfer. I can't seem to find the right (hidden away) spot for it. He won't let me trash it. Mr. Golfer doesn't know it yet, but he is going to find another green to play on.

sophie sunday

Only 14 months old and she already is drawing! What a genius. She's almost ready for my kindergarten class. Looks like Sophie will be a righty, but she needs a bit more practice on holding the crayon....I'd say it's pretty good for her first art project.

My travelers

Uganda, Africa

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Uganda, Africa

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Don't my travelers look great. When you have hours and hours to read a great blog, you must read some of their entries. Their photos are right out of National Geographic. The blog entries are so descriptive, I can clearly imagine all 5 senses: what they see, smell, taste, touch, and hear. Now I'm no nature lady, but when i read this blog, it makes me want to go and experience in a way that i never have before. It warms my heart to know that eric and heather have been so fortunate to have this experience. Very few people have the nerve to do this, give up everything including all their luxuries, quit their jobs, live on the bare necessities in 3rd world countries, and have such a love for life and living, taking this journey together. I'm so proud of them. www.getjealous.com/grosman

Is this great or what!

Take a look at the way this window was installed on the side of this building. I just love it. Too bad you can't see it from the street. I was actually at this pottery yard and looked up. I was in perfect view of this wacky window. Pretty darn brave of the builder....I give him 2 thumbs up for creativity.

happy passover

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Last saturday evening, passover started. I had a small seder at our house, just 12 of us. It was so strange for us to have only one of our 4 sons (with his family) at the table. At the seder, we read the Haggadah, which tells the story of the Exodus of the jews out of Eygpt. The Torah commands us to teach our children about Passover. The Talmud suggests four different ways children might react. So in the haggadah, there is a section where 4 different kinds of children ask a question: the wise child might ask..., the wicked child might ask...., the simple child might ask..., and the child who doesn't know enought to ask a question.....Usually all four of my kids joke around about who gets to read which part. Philip was the only one at the seder this year....he got to be the Wise Child.

Pins and needles

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Eleven days ago I hurt my back. My nerve is being squeezed everytime i sit or bend. So back to acupuncture for me. I love going, for those who have never tried it, I highly reccomend it. No, it doesn't hurt, it actually takes all the pain away. Last monday was my first day and by the time i went back on friday, my back was considerably better. Notice where the needles are....in my right arm. (I hurt my left side and the pain is all down the left leg) Now, I've read that they can do acupuncture for wrinkles....he said he'd do some next week when my back starts to feel better. I'll keep you posted on my "facelift"
'

human calendar

Isn't this a cute idea! I can't wait to use this format for my kids in kindergarten. I'll have each of them hold a number or a day of the week and then we'll put the calendar together.

Ducks out of water

Buddy's on the prowl...he sniffs some little critters in the area....

Then, I look out my kitchen window and see a group of DUCKS sitting in my pecan tree.

I look a little closer and they are a type of duck I've never seen around here before.

I don't usually see DUCKS in my trees,

The smart ones are just sitting on the bank, enjoying the view....until....

Buddy sniffs them out and scares them away.

Taste or Tacky

While driving around a Houston neighborhood, looking for landscaping ideas, we came across the unusual. Obviously, this neighborhood has no Home Owner's Association to keep their residents from putting anything in their yards. That is a huge metal praying mantis in the front yard! I'm not sure which is worse...the mantis or the painted garage with the whales on it. It's art to someone, but I think i'll stick to my trimmed hedges.

sophie sunday

Ok, i've decided to dedicate my sundays to sophie, my granddaughter. I've always heard that being a granparent is even better then being a parent. How can that be, I thought. Well, I can tell you first hand.....it is. Not because you can love them, spoil them, and send then back when they are rotten. I believe it's because our own children grow up, leave the house and become grownups. As an empty nester, we miss having someone to care for, to nurture, to teach, and so much more. We love being needed, and being a grandparent brings all of that back to you. As you can see in the picture, Sophie is now at that age where she very much knows me and wants me to hold her. This is one of the moments that i've been waiting for as she has grown this year...waiting for her to put her hands out because she wants to go to me. I love being a grandma. It's the second best job in the world, next to being a mom.

In the news...

I didn't make the front page of the Jewish Herald-Voice, but look who did! Yep, that's Juggles (eddie) on the left.

Name 5 cars

It's always good to keep your camera in your car...you never know when you'll want to snap that picture. So was the case when I was driving to school one day last week. There it was, this strange looking, futuristic car. Actually, it's been around for a while, I just had never seen a car like this before. Who drives cars like these? I can remember, as I'm sure most of you do to, when I was younger (much younger...my single days of day dreams) when my friends and I would play these stupid games: name 5 cars, name 5 destinations, name 5 kinds of houses....and so on. Then we would say some silly rhyme which would eliminate the items, one by one. The last one in each category would tell our future. So which cars did we name, the obvious: Porsche, Mercedes, Lamborghini, corvette, rolls Royce, maybe a limo. Ha, little did we know. No one ever writes: a suburban to hold all the kids for carpool or a minivan to separate the kids! Young and stupid. That's the beauty of getting older, now I can get that Mercedes!

happy birthday israel

This past Sunday Eddie and I, along with 13 other jewish clowns, participated in our first parade! The parade was for Israel's 60th b-day. There were 1800 people in the parade, mostly synagogue students and teachers, from Houston and the surrounding suburbs. In addition to the students, there were floats from boy scouts, and other organizations. Lastly, the Art Cars from the Houston Art Car Parade, which were so unique. I stood at the starting line and entertained as the groups walked by. At the end, I hopped on one of the floats. I wish i had a picture of it...the float was a zebra theme, so i blended in nicely. Happy Birthday Israel.

Yummy yummy yummy

I made this fantastic vegan fat free cake last night. The credit for the recipe goes to Fat Free Vegan. This is a winner for my recipe collection!

Chocolate-Orange Cake

1 1/2 cups unbleached flour

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I used white whole wheat)

1 1/2 cups sugar2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 cup soy yogurt (i used raspberry flavor)

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 1/2 cups water

1/2 cup fresh orange juice

2 tablespoons grated orange peel

Chocolate Icing:

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon cocoa

2 teaspoons orange juice

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 1/8 tsp. if double strength)

--plus extra orange juice as needed

Orange Icing:

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon orange juice

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 1/8 tsp. if double strength)

--plus extra orange juice as needed

Spray a Bundt cake pan with non-stick spray and dust it lightly with unsweetened cocoa. Preheat oven to 350F.Combine the flours, sugar, baking soda, salt, cocoa, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Add the yogurt, vanilla, balsamic vinegar, water, and orange juice. Beat by hand or with a mixer on low speed just until well-combined, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in the grated orange peel, and pour into the prepared pan.Bake for about 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then invert it onto a serving platter and cool completely.When the cake is cool, make the icings. For each icing, mix the ingredients in separate small bowls. One half teaspoon at a time, stir in enough extra orange juice to make a drizzling consistency. Drizzle the chocolate icing over the cake, wait a few minutes for it to set, and then drizzle the orange icing.Makes 16 servings.

With icing, as shown: 198 Calories (kcal); 1g Total Fat; (3% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 47g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 294mg Sodium; 3g Fiber.Cake without icing: 167 Calories (kcal); 1g Total Fat; (3% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 39g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 294mg Sodium; 2g Fiber.

Eric and Heather's meditation retreat

From Eric and Heather:

We made it! Heather and I just came out of our 11 day meditation course. It was a wonderfully liberating experience. Meditating 10 hours a day for a beginner was very difficult, but we were determined to finish and did. I kept a secret diary (we weren't suppose to write, but it was the only think that kept me from pulling out what little hair I have) so you will have to read about the details in the blog (which will probably be posted next year some time). The course opened our eyes to many truths and many new avenues to explore in our mind, in our bodies, in our life. It was soooo relaxing, something we both really needed at the time. We feel totally different after coming out of the retreat.

Heather had a nice birthday, as this was the first day that we were permitted to speak. On day 10 the noble silence was over. We sat and talked for hours. there were soooo many things to discuss....what we were thinking....going through...ideas...revelations....the woman in the front row who had a chronic groggily belching problem...the 50 other people that proudly kept forcing out their farts...the thunderstorm that nearly frightened heather all the way to my room one night (VERY against the rules)...the invigorating energy after each session....it was endless. Not speaking to anyone for 10 days was so surprisingly a delight. trying not to make eye contact with heather was very harder. men and women had completely separate entrances to the meditation hall, had separate dinning rooms, and the sleeping areas were on completely opposite sides of the campus.

Going from a calm, zen-like atmosphere to a crazy city of 2.5 million people crisscrossing their way around the crowed honking streets was such a shock. We actually ended up finding a great place to volunteer for the next week or so. It is a organization that brings in street children and gives them education, food, and sleeping accommodations. The main thing about the org is that they teach the kids jewelry making skills. they sell their very nicely crafted rings, necklaces, bracelets, bags, cell phone purses, etc and 95 percent of all the income goes back to the kids. That's an impressive number, especially since it's not based on profits, which is what most other orgs do. their website is http://www.i-indiaonline.com/prog_ladli.htm

okay, I have loads of emails to reply to. enjoy the pics. sorry, non of heather b/c we weren't allowed to take pics during the retreat. I snuck these in on the last day when it was permitted.

-eric and heather

Congratulations Josh

Josh is my youngest son. He's 21, a third year engineering student. Today he hit a milestone. Ever since he started at the university, he has wanted to work at Raytheon. Proudly bragging, i must admit, he has a 4.0. No wonder Raytheon wined and dined him for 2 days. So Josh has officially joined the working world, he was offered an internship starting this summer. In addition to the internship, they want him to continue working and if he decides to take the school year off, he can return once school is over. Never heard of Raytheon? Just take a look at the website: http://www.raytheon.com/ It's mighty impressive, just like JOSH. Congratulations Josh!

RAYTHEON:

Aspiring to be the most admired defense and aerospace systems supplier through world-class people and technology. Raytheon is a technology leader specializing in defense, homeland security, and other government markets throughout the world.

With a history of innovation spanning more than 80 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration, and other capabilities in the areas of sensing; effects; command, control, communications and intelligence systems, as well as a broad range of mission support services.