Nando’s Wheels A Backyard Redux And A No Recipe Crumble

Pets on wheels from Red Flyer Facebook site

I follow a blog Lessons From A Paralyzed Dog, Sharon who authors the blog is one of the sweetest most caring individuals I know, she cared for her sweet Sophie for many years and she is an inspiration.

Nando as many of you know who follow this blog is very old and has many health issues. The most recent is a degenerative disc disorder that has left his hind legs almost paralyzed. He can barely stand at times and falls continuously when he is trying to do his favorite thing in the world, eat. Recently Sharon posted on her blog information about a program that loans wheelchairs to handicapped pets. How brilliant is this idea, wheelchairs are very very expensive and for many it’s something that is unattainable. Harlan from Red Flyer, The Handicapped Pets Community initiated this great program to help pet parents obtain one of these wheelchairs at no cost, you only must return it when done.

I sent the wonderful people at Red Flyer Nando’s dimensions now I just wait for Nando’s wheelchair. It will make such a difference for him when he eats. He can no longer stand for more than a few seconds at a time while eating and because of this he has become discouraged and doesn’t eat as much. He is losing weight which is not good. I will post some photo’s when Nando gets his wheels. If any of you know of someone not using their pet wheelchair ask if they will donate to pets in need,  contact Harlan on Facebook use the link I provided in the previous paragraph.

Before- weeds, way too many shrubbery

My Garden

I think I have mentioned before that I am not a gardener, don’t have a green thumb and systematically destroy almost every plant that I put in the good earth with exception of my roses which for some reason have defied the odds and are gorgeous and healthy and of course the many varieties of weeds that I can’t kill no matter how hard I try. It was pretty early for my weeds to grow so huge but they did so I put a message out on a neighborhood message board Next Door Clinton Hill asking if anyone knew someone who would clean up my backyard.  The good people at Root and Stalk answered my request, Jessica is the plant whisperer and she and her team came over to assess my mess. She was very kind and didn’t say what she probably thought about my lack of gardening prowess but she gave me some solutions that I really liked. Several of the excess shrubs were re-homed, she and her team also repositioned much of what I had planted to better spots in the garden. It really does pay to have an expert (if you are not one) do it right. We still have some finishing touches, some additional annuals and perennials to plant but already it is a huge improvement and I love having a backyard I can use. Now I will get a new grill and some additional seating and I’m set.

Problem #1- Weeds out of control huge overgrown ugly weeds. Jessica has planted ground cover, thinned out some of my overgrown shrubbery, dug some up and is giving them a new home somewhere else, I seriously over did it with shrubs. She planted some gorgeous pots of flowers, made a raised bed with my herbs and climbing hydrangea, planted perennials and annuals and my garden looks just beautiful. I had a problem with weeds in between my blue stone patio so they planted creeping thyme.

Problem #2- mosquitoes Well  I have a major mosquito problem, hundreds and thousands maybe millions of them and I refuse to use mosquito spray it’s poisonous  so I just didn’t use my  backyard starting the end of June until around Thanksgiving. Thats not acceptable. Jessica said to put fans in the back yard which I will do but there is already a huge improvement after she got rid of my weeds and multitude of shrubs. 

Almost finished planting

Pretty pots with flowers

More flowers in pots

raised bed with herbs and climbing hydrangea

Mixed Fruit Crumble

I had some nectarines that I got at Food52 from Frog Hollow Farms, they are a once a year indulgence for me and boy are they delicious (I get 3 lb nectarines and 3 lbs peaches, seriously they are amazing). I ate what I could and the rest were getting too soft so I decided to make a crumble. I also had some frozen raspberries and blackberries that I got from the green market so I put them all together in a buttered 8×8 square pan. The crumble is simple, oats, spelt flour, pastry flour (ratio’s are equal parts oat and spelt and a smaller amount of pastry flour) butter approximately 2 oz (4 tbs), pinch of salt and about 1/4 cup brown sugar to taste. Mix it all up it should be crumbly but not dry, it should clump together. Butter your baking dish add the fruit and sprinkle with some sugar.  Cover the fruit with the crumble mixture, drizzle with a little honey and bake at 375 until browned and bubbly. Serve with heavy cream or ice cream. Delicious. NOTE: You don’t have to use spelt flour you can use any combination you like, sometimes I use barley and oats sometimes regular AP flour and oats, You can customize to your taste.