The Cereus peruvianus cactus bloomed last night. The picture was taken late after a short rain shower. The bloom only lasts one night. If I was really on the ball, I would have brought the cactus inside and set the camera to interval timed shots during the night to record the bloom opening and then closing.

Creeping Sedum Flower

Yellow flower on Creeping Sedum plant growing in Louisville, Kentucky.

Red Day Lily

The red day lillies are in bloom in Louisville, Kentucky.

Blooming Flowers at Falls of the Ohio State Park

Blooming purple and yellow flowers at the Falls of the Ohio State Park in Clarksville, Indiana.

Flowers at Falls of the Ohio State Park

Blooming red and orange-yellow flowers at the Falls of the Ohio State Park in Clarksville, Indiana.

Peaches

Small peaches are falling off my trees so I hope the seeds will be viable.

Fresh Cherry Pie

This cherry pie was created with fresh picked cherries from a tree in Clark County, Indiana. My lesson from this was pitting cherries by hand is somewhat time consuming but if you have a notebook computer with streaming movies it makes the job much nicer.

The recipe used is take 4 cups of washed pitted cherries and mix with 1/4 cup Splenda, 1/3 cup flour, and 1 tsp of cinnamon. Use two pie dough circles (I bought two at Wal-Mart for maybe $2.25) and follow the direction on the package for preparing them. Since I had 5 cups of cherries I used a deeper pie pan and placed the first dough circle in it. I then filled the pan with the cherry mixture. Next margarine slices were placed on top of the cherry mixture and the pie was covered with the other dough circle. The excess dough was trimmed off the perimeter of the pan and added back to the other crust. If I was giving this pie away or taking to a public function, the crust would have been arranged neater and a fork used to make a pressed pattern in it.

Four slits were cut into the top dough layer to make a flower pattern. About a spoonful of sugar and some dashes of cinnamon were mixed together in a glass. This mixture was sprinkled on top of the pie. Margarine was gently spread around the circumference of the crust. Aluminum foil is then used to make 4 cm wide strips to cover the outer crust to keep it from baking too fast compared with the center of the pie.

Bake the pie at 425 F (218 C) for approximately 30 minutes or until golden brown. 

Let cool and then shall we say... enjoy the fruits of your labor.