Bountiful Gardens and Bountiful Children’s Activities!
Why There Are No Stupid Questions On Southern Plate…
Back in my high school days (sometime in between the discovery of fire and the internet), a new teacher came to our school, Mrs. Taylor. Kids didn’t like Miss Taylor from the very start. She was new and her class was hard. You had to actually learn what she taught in order to be able to pass (that wasn’t he case in some classes). You had to study, you had to do homework, you had to know the material. She was thorough and she had intent. She was a teacher.
But Mrs. Taylor honestly changed my life (and perhaps yours, too!). It wasn’t that biology was that groundbreaking of a subject for me and it wasn’t that I even remember all that much of what she taught unless it was reinforced in college. It was that one day during class when a question occurred to me and I actually got up the courage to ask her.
It was a silly question really, I will freely admit that, but it was something I was honestly curious about and did not know the answer to. I sat patiently in my desk, waiting on the class to clear out some before I started gathering my books. Rising, I dilly dallied a bit more until I was walking in the wake of the last straggler. Mrs. Taylor was wiping off the chalk board and I said “Mrs. Taylor, I have a stupid question.” Her immediate response was “There is no such thing as a stupid question, Christy”.
She went on to listen to me ask my question and acknowledged how she could understand my confusion on the matter (no , I won’t tell you my question! Even now I worry about what someone would think of me!) and then explained in detail what the answer was, even going so far as to dirty up her clean chalkboard again to demonstrate.
I left that room feeling like I had the upper hand over everyone in that class. Chances are I know something they don’t to this very day.
So that’s my philosophy here on Southern Plate. Personally, the thing I hate more than anything in this world is for someone to make me feel stupid and the thing I try to do more than anything is to not make anyone else feel that way. No one is born a good cook. Despite what some people might lead you to believe it is not some elusive talent that some have and others do not. It is a skill, easily acquired and easily mastered to whatever level you choose to take it to.
All you need is the right recipe, answers to any questions you may have, and a little bit of confidence.
I hope to give you all of that here.
Gratefully,
Christy Jordan
Now join me as I post a bounty of information from Bountiful.
Bug experiments, Stained glass projects, and How my garden grows!
~cue music~
The Great Bug Experiment!
My kids, especially Miss Katy, loves bugs! We have had a lot of fun with this “bug experiment” by setting up a little oasis for them in our yard and then going back and seeing who has moved in.
We’ve actually done three bug experiments so far and keep going back to water them and restock them for more buggy discoveries. After twenty four hours, you’ll find all sorts of little critters. Ours has attracted the mother load of roly polies, ladybugs, and snails so far!
Stained Glass Art Project
Gardens At Bountiful
My gardens are doing really well, despite the FLOOD of rain Alabama has seen the past two months.
I have been watching out my window for Noah to show up and my squirrels to start lining up two by two!
This is my tomato garden, with a flurry of carrots around the outside.
I took these photos a few days ago and already there are many more tomatoes appearing.
I haven’t pulled any tomatoes yet but next week my Southern Plate friend, Terri, is coming to visit me here at Bountiful and I hope to fry this one up for her!
My cantaloupes are really spanning out! Check out this photo and then…
This is three days later!
One of my kiddie pool gardens ended up not being in the sun as I thought it would be and that garden has pretty much petered out. I’ve since moved it and am about to replant it but haven’t decided what I’m going to put in there just yet.
I dearly wanted bell peppers and since that was the garden that fell victim to my lack of judgement, I purchased a little bell pepper plant for three dollars and planted it in a bucket so I could move it around and make sure it got enough sun! I planted my buckets the same way I did the gardens. Drilled some holes in the bottom (small holes, just for a little drainage), layer of mulch, and then filled with dirt that had some fertilizer in it, then topped with topsoil.
This plant has more than doubled in size in a very short time and is really taking off!
I decided to do an herb garden. You’ll hear a lot more about that in an upcoming video that is being produced right now!
I planted the herbs I use on a regular basis. Parsley, Basil, and Cilantro.
There is also a little straggler bell pepper plant in there that is not going to make it from the shaded garden.
My herb garden is my first endeavor at organic gardening. 🙂 I used organic garden soil and pine needles from Bountiful as the mulch in the bottom. As a squirrel deterrent, I use cayanne pepper. Unless you got spicy squirrels, that should do the trick.
Those little sprouts in my herb garden are edible greens I’ve planted.
The package said it would take ten days for them to sprout up but…
This is them after only three!
And I’m still enjoying my hydrangeas very much! Especially if I put them in this milk glass pitcher on my sideboard.
Well, thats all from Bountiful today.
I hope you’re getting ready for a great weekend and Happy Father’s day to all of you Dads!
You have no idea the difference you make in your kid’s lives!
Gratefully,
Christy 🙂
Around here, “Normal” is just a setting on the dryer.
My uncle was the one who told me there were no stupid questions, he told me that I was smart to ask the question even if I thought I knew the answer it wss alwsys good to make sure my thoughts wrre the right ones.
I love to see you on Facebook. The Recipes are wonderful. The way you write and tell stories of your family is so heart warming. I’d love to be you next door neighbor. We would have so much fun because we have likes in common.
I was a school teacher for over 20 years and taught First Grade. We did your stained glass art project every year. The children loved it!!!
I have 6 grandchildren from 2 to 22. The little ones will enjoy making the art project when they come to visit their Grandmommy this summer.
I live iin Alabama too on Lake Martin and am enjoying the water this year.
Keep sending good recipes and art projects. Put on your apron and show us some more southern down home cooking.
Thank you so much Jerri!!! I would love to have you as my neighbor as well, we could have so much fun cooking and crafting!!
I just want to let you know, My cusun LOVED my idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!•••
I do not no a website with steps.I got it from my teacher, remember i’m only 7. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m only 7, But like a few weeks ago we did the Stained Glass Art Project in school BUT we did not use the paper all we did was..: take wax paper and glue tishu paper on it and we had any shape paper and we took wax paper the 2nd time we had to write a pome about anything i choose computer and glue the 2 wax paper together and look on 1 side colers and your pome the 2nd side had just tishu paper it look wonderful on a windo or something!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
plz reply and tell me if u like the idea , plzzzzzz
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Joey you are a VERY smart kid, I love that idea!!
We have done the stained glass craft at Christmas time with the grandbabies. We have “ornament day at nana’s” every Christmas which involves lots of pizza and taco soup,cookies, eating more candy canes than we make reindeer out of, and lots of washable glue. The oldest granddaughters are 13, and I sincerely hope they never get too old and cool for ornament day. I am not able to keep a garden anymore, and sure enjoy your pictures. They remind me of staking up tomatoes in my aunt’s garden at her farm in Bolivar. TN. when I was a young ‘un.
I made the stained glass art with my niece this week, it was alot of fun, I think I may have enjoyed the finished product more than she did. Thanks for the great idea.