T Stands for Tuesday

 Hi Everyone, Happy T 

   We are in for many days in a row of mid to high 90's F here at the lake for the next two weeks or more.  We have been enjoying lovely cooler weather with a little rain thrown in so this will be a shock to the plants for sure-and me too haha  I am not all that thrilled with weather this hot and for many days in a row.

 We did enjoy our Wisconsin friends Rob and Rich for a few days last week. Good eats, they caught lots of fish to take home with them, and nice for us to have visitors for awhile. (more in a previous post)

 I have a handful of slow mail friends that I really enjoy writing to, and look forward to receiving mail as well-it's always a surprise to see a letter in my mail box and makes me happy. This past week I received art along with their letters.

 From Iris in Germany a lovely drawing and Henry

I love these stamps

and from one of my Debra slow mail friends (I have three Deb, Debra, Debbie friends) I received another beautiful painting and she sent me a 40th wedding anniversary card too. Thank you so much to the both of you-hugs

For my drink share this week I bought a new tea. It is one of Oliver Pluff & Co's cold brew teas made with lemongrass, dried lemon and orange peels, and rose hips. Since I bought a lemongrass plant thought I could dry some of the leaves and then buy the rest of the ingredients. It was cheaper at this point to buy the tea and it also came with a large tea strainer.

I wanted to just make a quart but I didn't have a container wide enough for the tea ball-then I remembered I had this lovely small vintage crystal pitcher that I received as a wedding gift from my cousin Ray all those years ago-perfect.

   I needed to empty the tin to find the tea ball

 This was a nice refreshing tea, next time I will let it brew a bit longer-I needed the frig space at the time. I do really like this tea company they have mostly historical tea blends and I love the packaging too

   Lake photos

We enjoyed watching this man and his dog fishing one early morning

Heavy fog early Saturday Morning

About an hour later as the sun came up and allot of the fog lifted

The lake was crazy busy most of Saturday-there is a boat parade going on trying to break a Guinness world record, and other activities Sunday morning revealed they fell short again but didn't say how much-afterward there was also a dog jumping event more here

I started drying bee balm for teas I have lots of flowers now so harvested more over the weekend

  I also tried out this wine one evening,  The wine was on sale from the local small grocery store nearby I always enjoy a glass of merlot once in awhile

  

Happy T and new week

Bee Balm-How to use it

My two lavender flower bee balm plants are really producing allot of flowers. I know if I cut the flower heads I will continue to get fresh flowers.

Sooooo, this morning I snipped a good handful--took off the petals to dry, and also a few leaves too-I  need to pick more leaves to dry. My third plant is very small still but surprise it has flowered-a lovely deep burgundy color-very pretty.

Bee balm makes a nice tea, minty, also has health benefits too. I have not worked with bee balm before so did some research online.

This post is really nice and gives different ideas of how to use it in your kitchen-use as an oregano substitute, spice blends, tea, in water, and in baked goods.

From one of my favorite herbalist-a recipe for an intensive hand butter here

sorry google is not letting me bring over any photos for these links

another link   12 Ways to use bee balm

Do you infuse water with herb, fruits or veggies?  I am going to try that this summer  This link is for infused water with watermelon, mint, bee balm

So if you are growing bee balm here a few ways to use it, and it comes in different flower colors too and the butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds love it too

Butterfly on Bee Balm

   Over the last few days I have seen a hummingbird and at least one butterfly on the bee balm plants-makes me happy

My husband loves snapdragons but I never do well with them. These few are doing pretty good so far