Non-Consumer Photo Essay — Sorbet, Scavenged Lightbulbs & Hydrangeas!
by Katy on July 18, 2025 · 27 comments
My neighbor brought over a pair of homemade watermelon sorbets for my husband and I to enjoy. Perfect little treat for a summer evening.
I finally bought enough bread at the Franz bakery outlet store to complete a punch card, which took at least a year and a half to complete. “Slow and steady” and all that.
I gifted a pair of scavenged LED lightbulbs to a friend, after she mentioned that she need to go buy some. The above light fixture sat out on a neighbor’s curb for days before I finally helped myself to the bulbs, which is why I’m rich with excess illumination.
My curb picked furniture, flowerpots and scavenged plants is thriving at the moment, but the real star of the show are my hydrangeas:
My father rooted them from scratch in his greenhouse and kindly planted them in 1998, when my hands were full with a two year old and newborn baby.
Just like this aphorism — “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is now.” Or in my case . . . twenty-seven years ago!
Katy Wolk-Stanley
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{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
Beautiful hydrangeas!
Thank you, they make me so happy!
Those hydrangeas are beautiful. Do you cut them down at the end of the year?
I do a deep prune in February or so, which seems to work well.
The watermelon sorbet looks yummy and the hydrangeas are gorgeous! Thank you for all M of your postings — this blog is so great!
Those hydrangeas are uber-gorgeous! How many blooms do you have? Looks like dozens upon dozens!
Today I have some tiny frugal things:
1. Took a sack of unneeded books to Goodwill. I always ask for the 20% coupon when I donate something. Today, the attendant gave me two coupons.
2. Dropped off a couple of ugly old fluorescent light fixtures at Habitat ReStore. They’re the great big kind that require tubes instead of bulbs and look like they belong in a warehouse. They certainly don’t belong in my kitchen. Or in my garage. Where they’ve sat for years gathering dust after I got some nice new fixtures in the kitchen. Decluttering is frugal!
3. Grocery shopped at Aldi. Didn’t have to pay a quarter, as I found a stray cart that was not hooked up to the other carts. (For those of you who don’t have Aldi’s in your area, they chain up all the shopping carts together and each cart has a little lockbox on it. You put in a quarter and it will unlock the chain so you can take a cart. Then, when done, you reverse the procedure to put up your cart and get your coin refunded.) After I loaded the car and took back the buggy, I got not one but 2 quarters returned bc someone didn’t chain their cart to the others. And it just happened to be the one I chained mine to.
4. Also found some unused paper bags that I didn’t have to buy. (Frugal fail: forgot to bring my canvas bags!)
5. Didn’t use my influence to pressure/persuade CBS to drop Stephen Colbert’s Late Night show next year and to pressure/persuade Congress to kill PBS and NPR. (Note to self: get a shortwave radio so I can listen to BBC if the Orange Ogre does away with more news stations and/or silences the internet.)
Good idea in your #5 about the shortwave radio. Radio Free USA, anyone?
1) Last night, DH asked if we had any ice cream. I told him no, but there was a box of instant chocolate pudding in the cabinet and he could make it. Crisis averted.
2) Peach crisp – gone; strawberries (that were thawed) – gone; grapes – headed to the dehydrator; cucumbers – pickled; next up – banana bread. (Bananas ripened faster than we ate them.)
3) Filled water jugs at my BIL’s on the way out to hit a couple of Amish produce stands. They had some perenials that were BOGO. We got 2 plants for about $2.50. Also bought 1 pint of blueberries, 6 ears of corn, 2 small onions that I need for next week, 2 apple dumplings (tomorrow’s breakfast) and 1 whoopie pie (hey, I had to treat myself and it was only $1 whereas most of the other Amish stands sell them for about twice as much). Total for everything was less than $20, which is cheap compared to other stands and supermarkets in the area. The lady said the Roma tomatoes (for spaghetti sauce) are late this year and won’t be ready until the 2nd-3rd week of August. I’ll be able to get 1/2 bushel for $20. Now that I have an idea of whrn they will be ready, I can plan my schedule accordingly.
4) 4 loads of laundry out on the clothesline, including towels and bedding. We’ve had a LOT of rain, including some serious flash flooding, but nowhere near as bad as Texas. Have to take advantage of dry, sunny days when I can.
5) 2 onions and a couple of celery sticks on their way to veggie heaven being chopped and frozen for use in soup.
Although I’m not a fan of hydrangeas in general, even I have to admit that yours are stunning, Katy. Congratulations to you and your father (and belated birthday wishes to your father).
I’ve been spending the last couple of days playing the Little Free Libraries in my neighborhood. I stopped at one yesterday and scored two hardbacks, both in mint condition, that made me gasp: Walter Isaacson’s bio of Leonardo da Vinci and Ann Patchett’s novel Tom Lake. JASNA BFF will get the Isaacson for her birthday (she likes his bios and she likes art), and I’m keeping the Patchett.
To reciprocate, I stopped at that LFL and several others this morning with a full bag of donations. (A cold front went through last night, and the temperature is now low enough that I feel I can live instead of merely exist.) In addition to offloading the donations, I picked up three more books, including two Elizabeth Strout novels: Olive Kittredge and Oh William! Strout has been on my “need to try” list for some time, and this is the way to do it.
Love, love, LOVE Elizabeth Strout! She’s one of my absolute favorite authors. I hope you enjoy her as much as I do ❤️
Oooh, adding her to my list “to read”!
The hydrangeas are beautiful, and what beautiful memories are associated with them!
I don’t have any stunning pictures. Sadly we’ve moved too many times to have any deep-rooted-in-place memories.
I’ve stocked up on ebooks from the library for summer reading.
Caught up on all the household/garden chores I can manage.
Enjoying all the garden produce.
Enjoying a single sunflower, picked for 50 cents at the community college farm.
Swept my back patio. I let it go too long and am astonished how much difference it makes.
Gorgeous hydrangeas and delightful sitting space in your backyard! Also, I love watermelon anything. It is rainy here and has cooled off bc of the weather on the nearby coast.
There is something so deeply satisfying about the numerals on your kitchen clock. This is why I love THINGS. Joy from someone else’s kitchen clock numerals. So 1940s with an art deco nod but on their way to midcentury modern. And the case is totally Streamline.
Which reminds me I should put my Hull clock collection on eBay. I like them but now no room and I still own way too much stuff.
I have a white hydrangea that is about the size of the earth (kind forgot to prune it) with billions of flowers. I’ve been cutting fresh for each Airbnb guest and telling them to take them home in they like. My purple hydrangea is also doing well, just not as gigantic and bounteous as the white. What I like about hydrangeas is that they dry so easily. Back in the day when I was making floral arrangements for Mom’s church’s Christmas fair, I’d often spray paint them gold or silver or my favorite, copper.
At my previous house, there were enormous blue hydrangeas that turned into a turquoise green. I have a weird thing for green flowers.
Lying on the beach with Son. Reading my book, and Son quoting passages of Thomas Aquinas out loud. Me telling him to pipe down, I hate philosophy. Golden frugal family fun.
I remember when you posted about the deck that your husband built from a repurposed tree house. It looks very nice with the lovely flowers & curb picked lawn furniture. A backyard to enjoy (when it cools off).
I also have some curb picked lawn chairs & some saplings and bushes that will be planted soon. My BFF gave me the plantings. I don’t have a deck, but I have a flower bed in progress made with scavenged railroad ties. It is satisfying to create a nice yard with discarded or donated items.
I did read online about possible chemicals in RR ties. Hubby put black cloth on the flowerbed 1st. We won’t be growing any veggies in a bed lined with RR ties. The EPA says that is not a good idea!
My grandmother had a yard full of white hydrangeas; we knew them as snowballs. Your colored snowballs are fabulous.
I have planted hydrangeas several times and while they don’t die, they also don’t grow or produce flowers. No idea what I’m doing wrong.
1.Dh went out of town for a lacrosse tournament last weekend. He carpooled with another referee and shared a hotel room. He also forgot his belt so they stopped at a Goodwill and he bought one there. Now he has an extra belt that he can just keep with his lacrosse gear.
2. I canned relish last weekend and the recipe called for 8 cucumbers. I used 5 to get the needed amount of diced cukes. I gifted a cucumber to each of my boys and cut up the last one to add to the leftover brine from farmers market pickles. They are pricey but it is a local guy that owns the pickle business and he was in my son’s wedding. We like to support him at the market when he is there. I’m happy I saved the jar from being dumped and remade pickles
3. Got lunch for free at work Thursday. Also, enjoyed treats each day as we had 3 birthdays this week during summer school
4. Our tile backsplash is messed up from the previous owners adding a microwave that hung too low and we replaced with a vent over the stove. There are 2 rows with holes and 1 row that is drywall. We have lived like this for over 15 years unfortunately. BUT we found the exact tile needed to fix it at $0.13 per piece. We will do it ourselves and finally have it fixed.
5. Had leftovers for dinner. Put together a caprese salad for lunch with tomatoes and mozzarella balls that needed to be used. I picked basil from the garden
Jennifer,
I have tried several times to grow hydrangea, too, without success…except mine die. Same, I dont know what I’m doing wrong.
They need some shade.
Also, lots of water. The hint is in the name!
1. I picked a bouquet of hydrangeas the other day. They are in my living room. They make me smile every time I see them. I very rarely buy flowers but I cut them from my yard all the time. My sunflowers just started opening.
2. Stop & Shop had a free container of ice cream starting today. I stopped on my way home from work. I wanted to make sure I got chocolate. I see ice cream cones in my future. I got grapes for $1.99 a pound, 4 bananas and 2 packs of Italian sausage for $2.99 each.
3. I got a check for $22.50 for doing surveys. That will go to our vacation fund.
4. I am reading Attainable Sustainable Pantry from the library. I go almost every week and get books and magazines for the lady I take care of to read.
5. I made muffins with bananas Hubby brought home from work. He also brought home a bagel and 2 muffins.
6. I refilled coffee pods. Old grounds went into the compost pile. I picked several more quarts of raspberries. My kids took a quart each. I made a double batch of raspberry lemonade. I froze some for later too. We are getting lots of figs, lettuce, string beans, parsley and basil every other day. Water from washing vegetables goes to my potted plants outside.
7. My daughter picked her first apple from the trees we gave her 2 years ago. She owns her own business and has been very busy so she never got to plant a garden this year. She has 2 apple trees, 2 blueberry bushes and a fig tree. I am hoping to expand her orchard a little every year. That way if she doesn’t get to plant a garden she will still have fruits coming in.
Marybeth, thanks for introducing me to Attainable Sustainable. My library has two of her books and I just put both of them on hold.
I hope you enjoy it.
They are SO beautiful! Love the blue/purple color.
Katy your backyard and hydrangeas are so beautiful.