Plants You Might Have in a Garden

1. Flowers. Because flower gardens are pretty, and quite often smell nice. Some are even edible!
2. Strawberries. People love strawberries, so why not grow your own?
3. Potatoes. How big will they be when they're ready to harvest? You'll have to dig them up to find out!
4. Mint. Fresh mint is great for desserts and drinks, plus it smells nice.
5. Tomatoes. They are a useful fruit that is used like a vegetable, and can come in various sizes!
6. Eggplant. For when you need an alternate version of chicken parmesan, eggplant is the vegetable to choose.
7. Rhubarb. Alien celery can be surprisingly tasty, just remember not to eat the leaves, as they're toxic.
8. Lettuce. Because you need a base vegetable to add the others to.
9. Rosemary. Useful for both dinner and dessert!
10. Weeds. They come, you take them out, and they come right back.

Bad Time

When time goes bad, it tends to favor three approaches.
First, the bad time. A bad time is inconvenient, but often manageable. A bad time could be a leaking dishwasher, missing homework, or a sick child on the day you and all your friends were going to get together.
A step above a bad time is when you're suffering from bad times. Bad times is when all the potential causes of a bad time get together to hit you all at once. Missing keys when you're already late for work, the whole family down with food poisoning on the day the hall bathroom decides to become a waterpark. A broken heel causing a twisted ankle while the wind rips your umbrella out of your hands so that the rain drenches you. You know how bad times look.
The third approach is rare, but always catastrophic. For it is when time goes bad. It becomes rotton, and portions of reality ooze away beneath the strain. Monstrous creatures breK theough the weakened barriers, and people fall out of time entirely. The lucky fools find themselves in the past or flung into the future. The unlucky fools are frozen in between seconds, trapped forever in a state of neither existing nor creasing to exist.
But the third approach rarely ecer occurs, and fixes itself in what could either be called no time at all, or after all this time. Eyewitnesses are split on which exactly is correct.

When to Make Ice Cream

1. On a hot summer day.
2. During a winter storm.
3. When you have ingredients that need to be used.
4. When there is space in your freezer.
5. If you are going to have a few friends over.
6. When you are happy.
7. In the morning, when the kitchen is nice and cool.
8. When you have the house to yourself.
9. During a calm week.
10. Why not get started now? You can at least decide on a flavor.

Curling Roses

"Notice the way the central petals curl inward after its prey has been lured within by the sweet scent." The tour guide said, motioning toward a large pink spotted flower, which had all its petals tucked in so that the grooves at the edges of each petal were interlocked. The flower shook every so often, as whatever was trapped within fought to get free.
"That same sweet smell will soon fill the inner flower, causing the prey's muscles to relax until they can no longer support the prey's efforts to escape. Once the flower senses a decrease of movement in the prey, it will release digestive enzymes and begin consumption of its meal."
The flower wasn't shaking anymore. As the tour guide led the group on to another part of the complex, I glanced back at the field of drooping flowers. The inside of the petals blended perfectly with the field, and the center looked like a pink rose bush. You couldn't really notice the petals the curled underneath and along the ground, and I guessed that they must have developed a texture that mimics the ground these plants grow in.
You really wouldn't notice that trap until it was sprung, especially in  the dark.
"Come along, dear! You don't want to be left alone in a field of curling roses." The second tour guide, who'd always stayed at the back of our group, called to me.
As I hurried after them, I couldn't help but think that the flowers did smell nice.

Uses for Mint

1. Ice cream.
2. Lemonade.
3. Simple syrup.
4. Chocolates.
5. Mints.
6. Garnish on a dessert.
7. Frosting.
8. Cheesecake.
9. Cupcake filling.
10. Jelly.

Bread

The dough was somewhat sticky, and soft. It wanted to cling to your hand as you maneuvered it into the proper shape, but you gently pulled it free.
The dough, now shaped, was set to rise in a warm humid proofing box. There, it was left alone to grow, rising and expanding to full the space alloted to it.
When it reached its peak, the dough was removed from the proofer and placed into the hot oven.
You set the timer, and left the dough to its fate.
The oven's heat brought one last burst of growth to the dough, which grew a little more before the heat turned the soft dough into a firmer structure of baked bread.
When the timer beeped, you carefully took the baked bread out of the oven and out of its pan, setting it upon a rack to cool.
After it had cooled, you'd happily cut slices off and enjoy a sandwich. But for now, all you enjoyed was the comfroting scent of fresh baked bread.

Summer Activities

1. Go camping. Experience the wilderness and adventure that awaits you outside!
2. Summer cleaning. Because what better time is there to go through your stuff and get it all sorted back where they belong?
3. Fishing. A fun, relaxing way to spend your day, and you'll even get a future meal if all goes well!
4. A roadtrip. Just get out on the road and drive. See places you've never seen, and visit with friends and family you haven't seen in a while.
5. Yardwork. There is always something to do out in the yard.
6. Reading! You've veen waitng forever to scratch a few dozen books off your to-read lost, after all.
7. Eat lots of cool treats. Because summer and hot, and you need to stay chill.
8. Make a new friend. Lots of people get time off during the summer, so what better time is there to build a friendship?
9. Enjoy the weather. Hot and sunny one day, cool and wet on another, and on some days you get both sun and rain!
10. Build a birdhouse. Just make sure it's thr kind the birds in your area like.

Pets

Sometimes, the puppy follows you home, and you gain a new friend.
Sometimes, you wake up to a stray cat at your door meowing to come in.
Sometimes, your kid wins a goldfish at the fair.
Pets have a way of finding you when you least expect them, and then they wiggle their way into your heart.
Whether the pet is fluffy, scaly, or even slimy, they make your life seem a little brighter each day.
For the love of a pet is a wondrous thing, and well worth the early frustrations of housebreaking.

Uses for Maple Syrup

1. To cover pancakes with.
2. As part of a frosting.
3. In ice cream.
4. A dip for fruit.
5. As the saucy stuff in a nut tart.
6. To sweeten the mouth after a dose of medicine.
7. To help you lure your Canadian friend to breakfast.
8. As an extra flavor swirled into brownies.
9. To try and trick your brain into thinking that leftover ham is actually bacon.
10. As part of an upside-down cake.

Story Mines

Down deep beneath the earth lies treasures untold. Glittering gems awaiting their moment to catch the light.
How do we get to them? By digging.
You take the tools of your trade and shovel out layer after layer of rough paragraphs, pick through tough sentances, and even find yourself momentarily lost in the cave-in of research.
But as you delve deeper into the mines, you'll find those treasures.
Lovable characters.
Terribly terrific twists.
Dreaded cliffhangers.
Prehistoric puns.
Yes, so many treasures await you within the story mines. All you need to do is dig.