Rainy Days, Mudslides and My Neighbor's New Rain Gutters

Tuesday Rains and Wednesday Cleanup:

My neighbors recently installed new rain gutters and downspouts.

Closeup of erosion

Our facet on top of the bank after the mudslide

Completely buried my soaker hose

Broke one of my jades and buried the Iris rhizomes

This is the top of one of the areas where the water went.  The plants to the left and right of this are covered with mud at the base;  I will need to dig these up after it dries out and replant.  There is still about 6 inches of mud at the top edge of the adobe wall but I can't get to it until I remove these plants.

This shows some of the mud, but most of it is under the plants on the left. Calendula seedlings were on the top of the bank!

East side of our garage where our trash bins are kept.  Trash is picked up on Tuesday morning so only one was in this area.  It's difficult to see the depth of the mud here, but one entire row of adobe bricks were covered. This is also after the rain from our garage roof washed mud down the drains and out into the driveway.  Our jeep had several inches of mud under it also, from mud coming down from another area.

I barely was able to move this a few feet.  This ground has a lot of DG mixed in. I had almost two wheelbarrow's full.

After mud removal.  Before I rinsed the concrete.  No stains though! Notice the jade plant hanging over the edge. It was standing before the mudslide and is about 4 feet tall.

Had I not gone out to bring the trash cans back to this location I can only imagine how much more mud we would have had.  I went up to the top of this bank when it was still raining and dug a small trench about 40 feet long to route the water to the road.

This is a rental unit, but I notified the owner and he has already installed drain pipes so this shouldn't happen again.  Normally this area is covered with high weeds, but he has been doing a lot of new landscaping and repairs to the property for the new tenants.  I wonder who put the rain gutters in for him?  Obviously not someone who thought about where the water would end up!  All is good now though and I had a good workout.





Calendula Flower Cake, Pot Marigolds and Easter Ideas

Today I decided to make this pretty Calendula Flower Cake. The recipe is from Cooking with Herbs by Emelie Tolley and Chris Mead copyright 1989.

I have an abundance of Calendula flowers blooming right now (you may know these as Pot Marigolds) mostly orange flowers with a few yellow coming in too.

Such a pretty cake for Easter Dessert...

The wind began to blow, petals flying everywhere...

I added Lemon Zest to the batter, this is not in the original recipe but I have lots of lemons right now.  The cake turned out nice. You frost it with a Boiled White Icing; I know this as 7-Minute Icing.  Make sure your cake is completely cooled before you begin  frosting.  Press finely grated coconut into the frosting before it sets, and then top with the Calendula petals.

 Make sure you only use organic, pesticide free flowers.

Rinse well and pull the petals from the flower heads

Then drain well before placing on cake.  Do this ahead of time so they are sure to be dry.

I used raw sugar and a reduced fat coconut, but real butter and whole milk.  Beautiful farm fresh aqua colored eggs are from a good friend

Original Recipe, on page 17 of  Cooking with Herbs by Emelie Tolley and Chris Mead
If you find you are pressed for time, you could use a purchased cake mix and frosting and then add your own flower petals.

I think it would also be nice to use an Angel Food Cake and decorate it with whipped cream, the coconut and the flowers.  Or maybe make cupcakes and place the flower petals on each. 

"The Earth Laughs in Flowers"

-Ralph Waldo Emerson