Monk Parakeet eating acorns in parking lot around White Rock Lake
For years there has been a colony of these birds living around the lake. I’m not sure how they got started, but they have grown in numbers since I first saw them. You can hear the entire flock long before you ever see them. There is never any doubt as to when they are in the area.
For more information on Monk Parakeets please follow this link to Cornell Lab of Ornithology. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Monk_Parakeet. There is also an app for your phone called Merlin Bird ID. It is very helpful because you can take a picture of a bird and ask for an ID. It is supported by Cornell also.
Dallas has a world class arboretum. Visitors come from all over the world to see the lovely flowers and exhibits. We visited today to see an exhibit that is being shown there. It is by Gary Lee Price and is titled “Celebrate the Children.” In various parts of the arboretum the statues are tucked away. The first set of statues is right at the entrance of the gardens.
In the garden area where fresh fruits and vegetables are grown near the Tasteful Place building are two statues, a boy and girl holding a basket of produce. In this area, you can taste samples of food. The recipes are on the website. They also have cooking demos. Across from the building is a covered area with fans, where you can sit and cool off on hot summer days while looking out on a water fountain.
As you walk back to the main garden area, there is an area full of beds of different flowers. In this area, there is a statue of a small boy with a watering can.
Further down on the left side in front of the Degolya house are statues of children jumping on pogo sticks. The Degolya house is the house where the original owners of the property used to live. At Christmas, an exhibit of thousands of Nativity scenes or Nutcrackers is set up in the house.
Back in an open area where children can play another set of statues sits. It is of children playing ring a round the rosie. As you walk down the path across from the walkway to the frog fountains and the restaurant, another statue resides. It shows children jumping out from a globe. A little further down the path to the right is a statue of a baseball player. Then along the main walkway there is a wonderful statue of two young children carrying a basket of flowers.
There are five other sets of statues of children in the main garden. There may be others in the Children’s Garden, but we did not visit that area. My favorite two are the following.
I have many other pictures of the arboretum. They are on my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/GrannyShotIt. If you would like to see them, please go to that site.
Most of the cosmos that we grow are orange, but one year we got this pack of seeds and they were very prolific. We thought that they would come back the next year on their own, but they didn’t. The only ones that did were the orange ones.
For some reason, we see Robins all around us, but even with a feeder and water in the backyard, we only get an occasional visitor. We would love to have more of these beauties.
There is a neighborhood in East Dallas that has a farm backed up to it. The farm has peacocks that can be seen roaming around the neighborhood. Some of the residents feed the birds so that they keep coming back.
This is one of my favorite recipes when I’m not trying to watch how many carbs I am eating. The first thing that I do is to cut up all the vegetables that I will use in the recipe. Then I cut the sausage into round bite-sized pieces. Most Cajun’s use andouille sausage, but here in Texas I use Kountry Boy’s Sausage, beef and pork. I cook it for a few minutes even though it is precooked just to get a little of the grease out of it. While that is cooling, I cut up the chicken into bite-sized pieces. I use boneless, skinless chicken thighs so that it doesn’t take as long to prepare the recipe. Next I measure my rice, broth, and seasonings. Now I’m ready to go. Actually you could probably do all of the above the night before and have things ready to make the next day.
Then in a very deep large pot I use about 2 tablespoons of olive oil to saute the veggies. Once they are starting to soften I add the sausage and chicken and cook them until the chicken is cooked all the way through. Then I add my rice, seasonings, and broth and stir the whole mixture. At this point I reduce the heat from medium high to a little above medium low. Cover the pot and cook for about 30 minutes until the rice absorbs all of the broth. I stir about every 5-10 minutes so that the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
Ingredients:
2 T olive oil
2 ribs of celery
1 onion
1 red, 1 yellow and 1 green bell pepper
1 small jalapeno pepper, seeds and spines removed
4 cloves of garlic
boneless, skinless chicken thighs, about 2.5 pounds
sausage links, about 7
4c. chicken broth
Cajun seasoning, I use Tony Cachere’s (mild) about 1T.
1 bay leaf, remove when finished cooking
1 t. crushed thyme
1/8 t cayenne pepper
The best thing about this recipe is that you can play with it and make it your own. For most recipes, I’m measuring every single ingredient and being extremely precise. For this recipe, it really depends on who I’ m cooking it for. If it’s the grandkids, not so spicy. If it’s just adults, I add more heat. We don’t really like extremely spicy foods, so it should not be overly seasoned, for my family. But if you like the heat, go ahead and add more spice. Just remember to keep stirring as you cook so that it doesn’t stick. This recipe serves 8-10.
Granny Shot It 