You who seek God, inquiring for and requiring Him ( as your first need ), let your hearts revive and live!

~Psalm 69:32 AMP

I am really hopeful that everyone had a pleasant, peaceful & safe Halloween  . . . ours went exceptionally well  . . . no fussing, no fuming, no fighting . . . perfect  ! Oct. 31st I showed you a pix of the pumpkins my neighbor was so kind to give us . . . honestly I am really grateful  to her for even thou we wanted to we were not planning on getting any this year due to lack of funds   ( everyone knows that song 'n' dance ) so her small favor meant LARGE to me! The girls  were tickled  with delight, which means all that much more too me  ! I don't think she realized just how much her little gesture meant, thou I am sure my million thank you's as hugging a pumpkin probably made her a wee bit uncomfortable  . . .

Anyhoot  . . . so what's up with the pumpkins  you ask? So glad you did, so very glad  . . .

 

which left us with a good portion of 

 . . . near 3 cups or so!

Right away I knew  I wanted to save some for growing next season, but that is whoooooollllleeee lotta seeds for one small garden  . . . we shared some with Lola, but being the dwarf hamster  that she is . . . she does have an appetite but not that HUGE of one . . . so we thought . . . hhhmmmm  should we try roasting them? hhhhhmmmm  have heard of people doing this but have never done that before  . . . yep, let's give it a whirl! Seeing we never did this before I did a quick search  for recipes & found quite a few but we opted for this one: roasted pumpkin seeds

It actually came out quite alright  !

But I believe when it comes to "accenting with a dash of flavoring" I have an extremely heavy hand  . . . think I put a bit too much salt & sugar on it, but it kinda sorta gave it a kettle corn taste  . . . was our first time eatting them, kinda threw me for a curb on the eatting the shell but I also knew there was no way I was going to be able to shell these lil seeds  . . . even my youngest  ate one & did a "mmmmm" ( thou she ate only one )

Have you ever roasted pumpkin seeds? Did you make them insane with flavoring? Did you like them or chuck them?

 Pumpkin Seeds

 

 

The leaves  are really changing now, reckon they are just about at their peak point . . . as raking up a slew of them between rain  spurts the other day I got to thinking . . . pretty  . . . some I recognized but most I didn't . . . so it got me thinking about Tree ID'ing . . . which got me searching  to find these sites:

 Identification of trees of the United States
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


SCIENCE PROJECT: LEAF IDENTIFICATION PROJECT


I've got my leaf, let's get started!

My favorite search  was via Wikipedia . . . we had a blast looking over the trees! My all time favorite tree  is the Sassafras  . . . when I was young I remember my Daddy  showing me the three style of leaves then would dig up a piece of root, scrap it with his knife so I could smell it . . . it was insant love & appreciation! How crazy cool  was this! Another favorite tree  of mine is the Mulberry  . . . two areas we lived at I came across the Mulberry in the woods & I would wait & wait till the fruit was ripe, but being it was out in the woods I have to say I was lucky to get a dozen berries! American persimmon ! Another tree  I remember my Daddy  introducing me to & such a fruit indeed! Willow trees  have also always been a favorite of mine . . . were we resided before here a neighbor had a Cherry Willow, well at least that is what we called it, beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful! It was so gorgeous  . . . a large tree  with this long limb/vines that droopped down making a sweet lil hidey hole beneth it . . . everytime we passed by it in my minds eyes I could picture a wooden swing under there & the girls  having picnics! Looking  over the trees  on Wikipedia I found one called Maclura pomifera ( Osage-orange  ) & I was thrilled  ! See some time back at the beach we had come across the "fruit" & for the life of us we had no clue to what it was . . . now we do! Awesome!

Our Autumn Joy is doing exceptionally well & had me thinking any last minute bees  may appreciate it . . . speaking of bees  . . . a bit back in the Sunday comics  they have a kid section called Mini-Pages  & they did a piece titled - Mysterious Disappearances: Vanishing Animals . . . & in it it had "The case of the vanishing honeybees" were they mention that in the U.S. in 2006 honeybees started to abandon their hives & disappearing!!!! and each year they have been more disappearances! Experts say more then one-third of all honeybees have disappeared in the U.S.! This is unbelievable & scary  ! I really do not think many of us realize just how important bees are to us! If you do a quick Google search  on "vanishing honeybees" you will be able to read quite a number of articles on this . . . I found one I wanted to share:

Top 25 things vanishing from America: #4 -- Honey Bees (Click the Read The Entire Series at the bottom to read more)

 Thank You, God, for giving me such wonderful gifts and seeing all the potential in me. I praise You for helping me experience Your abundant life. Amen

~ May you ALWAYS be Blessed & may you ALWAYS Bless others ~

Every Halloween we get 6 pumpkins. 1 for each of us kids, then a spare for pumpkin stew (I got to make that this year. It's a hollowed out pumpkin, cooked with stew inside. YUMMY!) Then we always spread the seeds over a cookies sheet, sprinkle salt ALL OVER them, and bake them for oh..I don't know. Until they are nice and brown. Then they cool and we eat them. SOO YUMMY! I eat handfuls at a time!

I still have my pumpkin to carve...hmm..wonder what I'll do this year

I've never eaten pumpkin seeds. I know alot of folks who really enjoy them. I always wondered what they taste like. Perhaps some day, I'll get a pumpkin and give them a try. ;)

I've enjoyed your memories and thoughts & info on the trees & leaves. Sweet memories.

The disappearing Bees have always bugged me. (No pun intended) It's frightening to think of the quick demise that we'll suffer if we don't have bees to pollinate our crops and the plants of the world. I'm praying the bees will be fruitful again. Thanks for the link I'm going to go surf it now.

Wishing you a warm and wonderful day!