Life's Little Challenges

Yesterday a new home owner came to the Perennial Yard looking for "colorful flowers".  I have learned from experience to stop, back up and ask about "the sun situation" before talking plants.

The new house faces east.  Hostas already in place.  Partial shade.  (which is another term for morning sun only)  We walked around and I waxed poetic about the lovely leaf colors of partial shade plants.  The new home owner wasn't happy.  She wanted flowers.  I mentioned that some of my favorite (now) parts of my garden were not the easiest for me to plant.  I had to "make do".  And now those areas are very nice and make me quite happy.  The shade didn't go away.  I just adjusted to it.

She is coming back with pictures on Sunday (oh, what did we do without those phones) after taking a walk in her new subdivision.  Looking at what her neighbors have in their east facing front gardens.

I was only discussing perennials but when we add in shrubs and trees we can get some nice color.  Hydrangeas as an example.  Crab apple trees.

Today I am working in the house as the mosquitos have made a feast of my left arm and ankle.  G is placing the three remaining "yard sale" shrubs we have to settle into the ground.  We stand them where we think they might go and then walk around looking at them.  Better now rather than later.

I watered all the orchids.  Transplanted the one G bought for himself.  It needed soil.  Picked dead flowers off the pansies.  Planted squash and cucumber seeds in pots to start for the garden.  Cleaned out the fridge.  Changed the calendar to June.  Changed the sheets on the bed.  Did a load of darks in the washer, which reminds me, need to move that into the dryer.

Just had to go look at the plant placement.

And on another topic.  Just found it amusing to see the old fashioned vinegar chocolate cake that I made quite often in my pre-teen years (back in the late 50's), being headlined as a VEGAN chocolate cake now.  My parents would roll in their graves to think they had eaten something "vegan". With vanilla ice cream.  And if I was feeling adventurous (and we had marshmallows) with my special hot fudge sauce.  And we were all thin in those days.  Go figure. I think we had the vinegar cake so often because my little brother was allergic to eggs. Of course he was also allergic to wheat, chocolate and dairy but my mom gave him cake anyway.  And he was her favorite.  Imagine my life.

What Is Real?

I found this quote on the GOOP blog and it is oddly comforting while actually disturbing.  I sometimes think things aren't really REAL.  But thought I was just being "crazy".

THE ILLUSION OF LIFE 
Quantum physics long ago determined that physical matter doesn’t really exist, that everything is just energy in different states of vibration. Nobel Prize winning physicist Werner Heisenberg once stated, "Atoms or elementary particles themselves are not real; they form a world of potentialities or possibilities, rather than one of things or facts." This energy vibrates at an infinite number of subtle frequencies that cause it to appear as all the different creations we see in our world. There has been a great deal of research in recent years as to whether the universe we live in is actually a holographic experience, and it seems that this is very close to the truth. 

But what if this IS all a hologram?

If that's true then I should be able to "think" myself thin, grow better vegetables and always imagine the house clean and tidy.  Using those vibrating atoms.

What do you think?

Today was very busy at work.  I had to leave for 40 minutes to get my hair cut, rearrange the perennials, plant two containers for a customer who kept changing her mind (put the plants in, take the plants out) and the rest of the time I was out in the perennial yard which was nice-- the sun was shining.

A customer shared her knee surgery experiences--and I am about 80% wondering if I don't have the same thing (which requires surgery)  I don't know how to spell the name but the surgery is for torn tissue on the side of my knee.  It starts with a "mis".   Her left leg is swollen, she can't lift her leg (heel to butt) the same way I can't and she and I shared a good laugh about trying to put on and take off socks.  It isn't easy.  She is waiting for the swelling to go down before she can have an MRI and has this special tape around her knee to encourage the fluid back into the knee and not her leg. She had the right knee done last year.

G says I have to call the doctor for an appointment.  Now.

Update:  I have an appointment on Monday.  It's "meniscus" that the customer had.  Her's was torn. She fell and landed on her knee.  I never fell or had any injury so mine may just be bursitis of the knee.

Hey! Who Took Summer Away?

Yesterday was a pretty okay day.  Some clouds.  Not really warm.  But good enough to invite people over and grill a bunch of vegetables (summer squashes, red peppers, corn on the cob, onions), two hamburgers (all I had) and a package of hot dogs.  We ate everything.

I especially liked the burnt to a crisp hot dogs with mustard.  I tucked two into each bun.  Ate 6.

Then, we had rhubarb custard pie.  Would have been extra nice with vanilla ice cream but I have no space in the freezer for anything.

This morning I woke up to COLD RAIN.  And it was like that ALL DAY.  I don't think we got above 55 degrees.  And the greenhouse doors are open.  So the wet, cold, damp just filled the place.  I got home and just stood in the shower with the hottest water to get warm.

G is installing blinds on all the new windows.  Because we are optimists.  We actually think the sun will shine.  And it will be necessary to shield ourselves from the glare.

After my shower my muscles were all warmed up so I vacuumed the wood floors.  Riley is in the midst of his annual hair loss and his doggie fuzz is all over everything.  As is dust, grit and dirt that G and I track into the house from the yard, dog walks in the woods, the garden etc.

Then I sat down to check blogs.  A few people have posted something new today but most have not. So I decided to read reviews of some of the shows that I watch.  Comments on the final episodes. Explanations of plot points (I really do not pick up on all the points that are being pointed out).

We have found things on Netflix to watch.  Damages.  And on television we are watching the new 24.  We are WAY BEHIND (episode 2 last night and I think we may have already watched #3 by accident thinking it was #1).  I am hoping there will be a new season of Longmire & Covert Affairs this summer.  My TiVo list is very long, but nothing is actually being broadcast.  Wasn't Sleepy Hollow supposed to come back for a short 4 or 6 episodes???  PBS Mystery has quite an interesting line up "coming soon".

Did two gigantic planters today, 4 tall ones and two window boxes.  I was "awash" in mud and dirt all day and swept the floor more times than I can count.  And I appreciated the large hot coffee our college girls got for me at 2 pm.  Those girls.  I just love them.

My Favorite Zinnias

Each season I venture into the neighborhood Lowe's in search of these zinnias.  I saved seed from the ones I bought three or four years ago and grew, exactly, three last summer.  But they were wonderful. This year I went into Lowe's hoping to find a replacement Butterfly Bush.  Ours had lead us to believe it had died.  (which isn't exactly true)  While looking for the Butterfly Bush I noticed many many carts of "new stuff" waiting to be unpacked.  Way up on the tippy top, were the zinnias.  So I bought two 12 packs.  With a little handle for easier carrying.

I bumped into two greenhouse customers (my work) as I was walking in.  One said "oops!"   Hey, we don't have everything even I want to buy.

I also have 6 new seedlings which I managed to germinate and grow under lights from that saved seed.  A bounty of zinnias to plant in my yard.

Today was very busy at work.  The holidays.  Friday I filled five huge containers with every color of flower I could find.  And the customers left me a thank you note.  They loved the boxes.  Not much custom work to do today, but I did squeak one in at 4 pm.  A customer brought in her window boxes (4 very large ones), still full of dirt, and I filled them with pink, purple, blue and magenta.  They looked amazing.

Tuesday I have three big orders to work on.  Two huge pots for one client.  Four interesting containers for another and two window boxes for a Pilates instructor who has come back three years in a row now for her deck boxes.  Each showed me an example on their phone.  I wrote down the "color story" and noted a few of the important plants.

So Tuesday is going to be a super special day for me.  Can't wait.

I have a list of chores for the holiday tomorrow.  Everyone else at work is working but I have the day off.  So I can "work" at home.  A rhubarb pie is planned and perhaps dinner off the grill.  I think it'll be a nice day.  G will be running across the street to hose down the "repair grass" he installed for the neighbor.  I think my friend Patty is stopping by for a visit.  I should think of something to make her to eat.  A busy Monday.

This Weekend Marks The (Real) Beginning Of Garden Season

G has been doing most of the "heavy" lifting around here, in the garden.  I did manage to get the beds properly put to bed in October.  Which made getting the garden started much easier than in the past.

The garlic looks promising.  Bigger, greener and more robust.  The red and yellow onions still look thin.  My turnip seeds have sprouted (on the toilet paper) as have French breakfast radishes and what looks to my eyes---like carrots.   The kale seeds are doing well--third and fourth leaves on tiny plants.

The herb garden is doing well.  Thyme is greening up.  Two thin shoots of tarragon.  Sage is struggling.  Lemon grass is dead.  Borage is seeding itself in many places.  Fennel has true leaves. Looks like my calendula seeds have sprouted.  The mint has escaped the herb bed and is marching up the path.  Smells minty when I step on it.  I may have some dill.  Still too tiny to tell for sure.  Way too many chives.  With purple flower buds. No nasturtiums.

Fava beans and peas (snap and sugar) are up.  Time to plant the pole beans.  I brought home soil so I can break up the 12 packs of pepper seedlings and repot.  Yellow for my daughter and green and jalapeño for me.  Cabbages and B. sprouts are still alive but not growing.  Much.

The nights here are cold still.  The days are overcast with breaks for sunshine.  I am still wearing my lightest weight thermals under my work tees.  7am and 6pm are brisk and chill me to the bone.

The knee.  I wore the brace to work today and took my full 30 minute break with my leg up, resting on a chair seat.  I'm doing everything on my list of things to do for my knee.  Elevation, grapefruit, compression, lots of water.   Less pain.  Less swelling.  Still having trouble sleeping.

We tried the Amerikans--- season two, episode one.  Netflix no longer has season one and Amazon wants $1.99 per episode.  I thought there was way too much nudity, sex, violence and tackiness--but I understand it's the 70's.  Everything was ugly in the 70's.  So, not for us.  I sorted through the Netflix catalog and couldn't find anything I was interested in.

That's it for today.  G grilled dinner today.  Corn (Bobby Flay), grilled summer squash and portabella mushrooms.  I think dessert will be rhubarb crisp bars.  Haircut tomorrow.

Memorial Day Project

On Sunday, I helped a number of elderly customers select plants for grave side remembrances for family members.  Each was visibly upset when thinking of what happens when they pass.  Who will take care of placing flowers (usually simple geraniums).  Will their loved ones (moms, aunts, fathers, children) go without flowers?  No flowers to acknowledge that someone remembers and misses the family members.

I think the internet could help with this.

But I don't have the  understanding of the internet or Facebook or Twitter to get anything working.  Do any of you, Readers, know how to go about getting an "exchange" going?

There must be people living in different states, not able to visit the graves on Memorial Day.  This could be a website where someone living in Maine takes care of "A's" family in Maine and "A" takes care of someone else's family in Ohio etc.  A round robin of sorts.

What do you think?

Cool Bathroom Idea

Taking a table and reusing it for the bathroom--well, that's what the carpenter and I have been talking about.  Using what's here.  Making it work.  Sanding and painting.  Making the two sink area this narrow makes more room for the new shower (which looks like what this homeowner has to the right).  I like the three light fixtures.  And that tiny shelf for tiny flowers.

I was going to call out sick today.  Now, that would have happened like "snap" at the retail job of last winter.  But, the greenhouse?  Nope.  I'm invested in my co-workers and customers.  So, I told G I would be home by 11 am.  Ha!!!  I wobbled back home at 3:30.  I hadn't packed a lunch and I was hungry.  Which is why I came home home 2 hours early.

I went in because I had said yes to an elderly lady who loves having me help her do up her porch planters.  Thinking of her showing up and finding me absent--well, I just couldn't do it.

Now you know something important about me.  But, you may have already guessed that I was that kind of person, huh?

I planted my sedum, heathers, and the new bleeding heart when I got home along with some blue petunias and orange New Guineas.  Now I am off to the shower.  And then the leg is going up on the sofa to rest.  By 3 pm the leg felt heavy and was "pinging" a bit with a bit of pain.

I must show James that bathroom.  And start looking for an old oak table.

Guess What? It Rained!!

Yes, we had cooler temps and more rain last night and today.  But here it is 5 pm and, while wet outside--it isn't raining.  G and Riley got a walk in during a "lull" and I rested my leg (it seemed like the thing to do) and watched the PBS cooking line up.  Martha made onion soup and crackers on her two shows.  Two things I actually love.  She made Cheezits.

I cooked today.  Made Smitten Kitchen's Rhubarb Strawberry Bars.  I had everything all week but just never enough time.  So, this morning, with that first cup of coffee, I cut up rhubarb into cubes, then the strawberries and mixed up the oats with flour and brown sugar.  I also melted one and a half sticks of butter.  I don't make these recipes (ever before) just because I am very miserly with butter.  One and a half sticks (for most of my cooking life) is just too much butter.  Too expensive.

I am not miserly with any other ingredients.  Just butter.  I have no history to refer back to--to give me an indicator of why.  Perhaps, in another lifetime, butter, rubber bands and socks were in short supply?

The Bars are delightful.  A bit crumbly but since I intend to eat them with my lunchtime yogurt--crumbly is okay.

Second.  I made a big potful of spaghetti sauce.  G has had to manage this week with only what he could make himself or order as takeout.  G is very excited to be having a good home cooked meal tonight.  And there will be leftovers.  I am happy to have removed a few items from the over crowded freezer and pantry.  No shopping involved.

Third.  I hope to put together a big "frittata" or "quiche" with (some) of the dozen eggs in the fridge.  I stopped eating my normal bacon and two fried eggs for breakfast (salt causes swelling) and have neglected the eggs.  I think a nice wedge of eggs baked with vegetables will be good to eat with a salad.  I think I liked quiche at one time.  I know I liked the German bacon and onion tart a great deal.  But that might not be the one to start with.  Perhaps Lorraine?

Fourth.  The knee continues to hurt (the knee brace is helping) and my calf muscle is swollen and hard as a rock at the end of a long work day.  By bedtime, it's back to normal.  I think the calf muscle is "D" in the pathway this particular injury is taking.  Next up will be my ankle.  I can feel it coming but I have an excellent brace for ankle troubles.  "A" was the hip.  As long as everything is moving south and not north.  Wednesday was the worst day so far.   Each day since has been better.

Fifth.  My garden chores have been neglected.  I have pepper plants to repot.  I have petunias to plant. I want to seed a few trays of parsley, dill and four o'clocks.  My tomato seedlings have managed to make real tomato leaves but they are so far behind but G has made me hoops so I can always cover them in October to get a later harvest.

Six.  I'm glad I rested today.  On my last day off I helped G spread mulch on one of his jobs.  I felt okay but then I felt terrible on Wednesday.  I need to take better care of myself.  Rest more.  Enjoy just sitting and doing nothing with my leg elevated.  So, I am going to return to my chair and rest some more while G makes pasta and gets dinner ready.

I Am Loving Bead Board

This little cottage has bead board on the walls in each and every room.  To draw things together. do you think bead board would be able to "draw together" the parts of my life????

My knee continues to be a problem.  Fine in the morning and swollen and aching by lunch.  Today, well, it is too soon to say, but I seem to have reached the tipping point.  Not worse.  Up until today, each day was worse than the one before.  Could have been the big orange pill I took.  Spacey.

I stopped to purchase a knee brace.  I don't think it's large enough to fit around my knee.  But, I might not need it if I have, indeed, passed the worst of it.  Ankle is still swollen.  Retaining water.  And that is some of the problem.  The pain pills come with side effects.  Like kidney issues.  Like liver issues. So, I try to do without pain meds as best I can.  Which probably is just making things worse.

Today--the orange pill.  Tomorrow????  Who knows.

Today was full of surprises from an unexpected source.  I guess this is to be expected.  When one child gets things back together, parents should expect the other child to have things fall apart (so to speak).  G and I can just stand back, listen and be there to help if needed.

It would have been wonderful if my parents had been like that.

On the ride home, I asked G where and when we had done laundry in our first home ( a little vintage house trailer in a field of grass).  He didn't remember.  Couldn't think where there had even been a laundromat in our college town.   I have absolutely NO memory of doing laundry in the first year of marriage.  G asked if that meant we never did laundry.  ??????

Summer? Almost.

I carried the storage boxes of size 14 and 16 clothing up to the attic "sewing room".  It was called that--the "sewing room" by the former owner who had a corner of the large attic drywalled into a room.  We use it for storage.  All my silk flowers are now co-mingling with my smaller sized clothing.  I think my son's vast collection of vintage (1980's) Lego sets is up there as well.  Think of the $$$'s I could get on E-bay.

I brought down a box of linen shirts from my own "vintage" FAT days.  Guess what.  Too Large.  Well, that was a good moral booster.  The white shirts are now in the washer and will soon be cut up and made into delightful little linen pillow cases for my travel sized down pillow.

I now have lots of new space in the bedroom where the stacked boxes made a night time visit to the loo--a real obstacle course.

I am dressed in my summer "uniform" and it feels good after such a long, long Winter.  I have on my cropped knit pants (that were once black), white v-neck tee (that is now shapeless) and a faded blue work shirt I bought in Ohio at K-mart when I used to visit my dad.  I have a nice half dozen but always seem to be wearing the same one.

Which means I actually only need one shirt.  Because it never wears out.  And always fits, no matter what I weight.  It's like a magical shirt.  Oh, and it always washes up good as new no matter how filthy I get it.  How often can we say that?

Yesterday was Mother's Day at work.  Ugh!  It was good most of the time--but getting all the "gifts" sorted and delivered wore me out.  And it was hot.  And things needed watering.  And my knee was stiff.  By the time I got home, my ankles were swollen.

I have managed (by drinking gallons of water) to work most of the swelling out of my ankles and legs.  The knee is feeling less stiff each day (better on my days off) but I know a few pounds of weight loss would help even more than rest and water intake.  But wishing hasn't made it so.

G is back from his lawn mowing job and now I am going to help him spread mulch.  Because that's the kind of nice person I am.

Happy Saturday To All Of You

It's raining.  And it's colder than yesterday.  But my turnip seedlings are coming up in the garden and G said a few of the peas have sprouted.  A good soaking rain--well, that's the best thing for my garden so I am going to be happy with the rain.

I have a status report of the LCL (aka Bird Seed Bread) from the last post.  Yes, it does fill you up.  If I have two slices (mine break into chunks) for breakfast with cheese (6:30) I am not hungry at all at work.  Until 3 pm at least.  No, it isn't easy to slice.  No, it doesn't taste fantastic toasted, but it is better warm.  And the reported "good poops"---not really.  As one of the major ingredients is Psyllium husks (metamucil) I was thinking the bread would be a "serious" problem.  Will I bake a second loaf? Yes.  Just to see if I can actually get the thing to bake properly.  Will I add sweetener?  No.  Will I add as many sunflower seeds?  No.  Will I sub pumpkin seeds? Yes.  Will I sub walnuts for some of the nuts? Yes.  The hazelnuts are okay but hard to slice through.  I may also sub some ground flaxseed for the whole flaxseeds.

This afternoon I am making Red Lentil Dal for the first time.  The recipe is a community pick from Food52.  I am making it because I had all the ingredients right here in the house even though I don't have a clue to what "dal" is.

I have owed the jar of red lentils for quite a long time.  I don't even know why I bought them.  And I just had to run to check the pot--- those babies have grown in size.  I think I should have put them into something larger as the lentils have soaked up the 7 cups of water already.  I have to cook it long enough to soften the carrot and potato I added to the recipe (from the comments on Food 52).

The spices are mostly Indian.  So, to my simple mind, it will be a lentil soup with Indian spices.  I still have to add the coconut milk and the "popped" mustard seeds.

What I like about Food 52 is the comments from people who have actually made the recipes.  And they are honest.  Liking or disliking.  Adding or subtracting.  This helps because some of us are still in our jammies when we start cooking.

The rain stopped pouring down for "just long enough" for Riley to get his walk.  When G gets home, he will be so cold, but Riley will be a very happy dog.

I worked on pasting dry leaves to the little wooden bird house I got at JoAnn's.  I was thinking a leaf collaged birdhouse would be a cute centerpiece to a "fairy garden" at work.  You know.  All leaf covered, mossy with a little stone path.  So far, I pasted more leaves on my fingers, the scissors and the table than have actually stuck to the bird house.  Which is why I stopped to make Red Lentil Dal and write this post.  I still have tiny pine cones to glue to the roof.  And little twigs.

The boys are back from their walk.  I must go help towel the dog off.

Turns out there were more people and dogs out on the paths than ever.  So Riley got to run and play with dogs and come home soaked to the bone--with a big dog smile on his face.  A very good thing.

I Made The Life Changing Loaf

From My New Roots blog.  It seems like everyone has made it and it turned out perfect.  Mine didn't. It's still wet inside and crumbles instead of slices.  So the "makes fantastic toast" isn't happening here.
The crumbles are very filling.   No need for lunch.  I eat the crumbled chunks with cheese.

The "bread" is more of a compressed granola with 1.5 cups of oats.  You can't really see the oats in the pictures and the recipe doesn't have nearly as many nuts and seeds as it looks like the "bread" has in the pictures.  Next time I will not add any sweetener.  I will add pumpkin seeds to the flax seeds, sunflower seeds and I think walnuts rather than hazelnuts or almonds.  You can pretty much "mix and match" by subbing something else in the same proportions.  Even cooked quinoa or some kind of flaked grain for the oatmeal.  But, until the "next" time I have to find a way to eat the 90% of a loaf I have in the fridge.

The weather finally turned.  It was warm enough in the greenhouse for me to take off the thermal undershirt.  But, now, at home, I wish I still had it on.

I am tired.  My knee is bothering me.  I have a laundry load of darks to get started.  I think a shower and a little lay down until G gets home from working across the street will do the trick.

The warm up--means I need to sort through the pants box for something lighter that I can fit into.  The thought of that is seriously depressing.  I have been wearing two pair of pants for over three months--because they feel comfortable and "non-binding".  Sigh.  Now, I have to try on all the pants in the box to find something.   Or just wear these pants I have been wearing for one more day.

There were customers today in shorts, bare legs and flip flops.  And customers in winter down coats with scarves wrapped around their necks.  People from Town and people who live by the Water.

Simply -- Simple

Yes.  This is the bath I want.  Bead board.  White. Windows.  A few rolled towels.  Window open. Flowers.  A shower with glass doors.  Have I showed you this picture before?  I guess I picked this picture because after a cold day at work--my hot shower was a real "highpoint".

I've had a week.  Tired.  My knee is still stiff.  Doesn't hurt.  Sort of achy.

Today--the 4th of May we had a hail storm.  Dark skies.  Stormy.  Cold, cold wind.  Then the sky opened and the plants outside (at work) took a beating.  Yes, small rocks of ice.  In May.  Will the Winter of 2013 ever end?

Customers are coming in with worries over their shrubs (winter damages) and we are telling them to "wait and see" if the plants can pull through in the next few weeks.  I am thankful the ones in my yard are doing pretty good.  Even have flower buds.

Best part of the day?  When I discovered a flat of red onion seedlings.  Oh, the joy.  If we have ever had them before -- or I never noticed them when we did have them.  I got the very last one today, so it was a close one--of not knowing we had any.  Growing onions is such a pleasure.  And another employee is sharing her 40 pound bag of Azomite with me.  Good for onions and garlic.  Now, I have a bed full of garlic (hard neck), yellow (Candy) onions and red onions.  G also started a few scallions.  And I have several huge chive plants.  I should be cutting the chives and dehydrating them.  I should.  Will I?

Well, I have to eat something.  Then I have all sorts of PBS shows to watch.  Then I get to go to bed and SLEEP.  Nothing exciting to report--other then the red onions.  LOL.

Time Is Speeding Up, Just When I Want It Slow

 You get this picture because, well, because I am not tech savvy enough to get rid of it.  I think the floor here is awfully busy.  I can't imagine why I had it in the picture files.

Now this one I remember tucking into the files.  I am reminded of visits to my friend M's lovely house in Sonoma.  The tile roof. The stone terraces, steps and pots full of gorgeous lemon trees.  M even had a lovely fountain with water making that lovely sound in the background as we sat, talked and looked out over the grapes and olive trees to the distant views of Oakland.  With not a building between us and that far away city.

That house, terrace, and water fountain are all gone.  Purchased and bulldozed.  And another house built in it's place. By other people. The sins of money.  I hope they are at least enjoying the view.

Today.  I am enjoying a day off.  My knee aches.  A general "looseness" of the tendons.  I have to be mindful when setting my foot to the ground.  Other than that, I am in good spirits.  My seedlings are pulling themselves out of the dirt in their little pots (on a heating mat covered by a space blanket of reflective shiny silver) and the tomato and pepper seedlings (purchased) are under lights growing by the minute.  I intend to go out to the garden and plant my toilet paper seed tapes.  Carrot, beet, turnip etc. today.  It's still cool (cold) out there and rain is coming.

Will warm Spring ever come to Maine?

I spend my days at work identifying lawn weeds and bugs (so early for bugs), giving hope to owners of winter damaged shrubs and trees, and repotting houseplants ravaged by the long, cold, dark winter.
We Mainers, will have the Winter of 2013 as a marker for years to come.  Too long.  Too cold. Too dark.  And it is working it's way into May.  The petunias are in the greenhouse and the Mother's Day fuchsias are bursting with blossoms.  The coming week will be very busy as family from away remember their mothers in Maine.

I have "housework" to do when it's too cold for me outside today.  Pot roast to set in the oven later.  New pots for my old orchids (still putting out flower spikes to my delight).  G has done the floors and I have caught up with the laundry, so I can do some little things I have put off for too long.

Like carrying the two boxes of "too small" pants and tops up into the attic storage room.  I will NOT bring down the box of "too large" tops.  I will NOT.  Six weeks into the "diet" and I weigh 3 pounds more than when I began.  I am heartsick over this.  I am at a loss as to what I am doing wrong, or what I have to change.  The situation brings me to tears.  I don't want this to be my "reality".

Enough of that.  The sun is shining right now.  The dirt out in the garden is calling me.

Today

Today is all I can control right now.

Today I noticed that G didn't cover the pansy container and now we have no pansies.  The deer came in the night, pranced up onto the deck and ate all my pretty purple, blue and yellow pansies.

Today the phone woke me up.  My daughter has been vomiting all night and requested applesauce and bananas from the grocery.  I was up and dressed and out of the house before even having a sip of morning coffee.  I drove past her house on the way home to mine.  Had to turn around.  Go back.

Today the grocery had really fresh, red rhubarb so I bought a bag full and used two of my last three breakfast eggs to make a Rhubarb Custard Pie.  I even made butter pie crust.  The pie is in the oven. It's for G though I am ambivalent about giving him pie when he cost me my pansies.

Today I am going out in the COLD & WINDY & WET day (where is Spring?) and planting my Brussels Sprout seedlings and my cabbage seedlings.  I will get G to cover the bed they are going in with woven seed barrier.  To keep the wind off them.  I did plant all my onion seedlings yesterday.  And the calendula, dill and borage seeds in the herb bed along with the Fava bean seeds and all the peas in another bed.  Yesterday was a good day, as I also started seeds for 8 different tomato varieties, two kinds of zinnias, red onions, eggplant and four o'clocks.

Today I have on tons of sweaters and I am freezing.

Today I have soaked nasturtium seeds to plant.  The flowers make a very pretty addition to a salad.  They taste peppery.  I usually get only one plant out of an entire package of seeds.  Sad.

Today I weighed myself and I had gained 3 pounds.  In 3 days.  I don't think it's mathematically  possible that I consumed 10,500 extra calories in the past three days.  Just saying.....

When Life Is NOT As It Should Be

I am tired.  My knees feel stiff.  It's cold.  It's raining.  I want to be out in the garden planting things. And, I will have to go out there in the rain as I have presoaked my sweet peas, Fava beans and some other sort of podded pea--Arrow, I think.  Once soaked, they must be planted.

I worked straight thru from Tuesday to Saturday.  Even teaching two classes yesterday.  Now I have the luxury of two days off in a row.  Days for the garden.  And I want to start my tomato seeds.  Just two seeds from each variety.  Not the dozens of yesteryear.  I brought home four little seedlings of Early Girl Bush Tomatoes.  These start producing early and taste wonderful.  I don't know why I am not satisfied with just them?  But I am a tomato plant glutton.  "The Crazy Tomato Plant Lady" who tried giving tomato plants to everyone who passed me by at work last season.  And I STILL had too many in the garden.

I also brought home a nice flat of onion seedlings--Candy.  I grew them the year before last and loved them.  I would like a few red onions as well.  We'll see.  I am only buying seedling flats with my "tips" from work.  Yes!!  I got two tips already this year.  And I found two pennies on the ground face side up.  Good luck.

I also have not had time to eat my lunch at work--I have eaten it at home, instead of dinner.  On the days I didn't have time for lunch, I have been at the potting bench straight thru my shift.  Making mixed containers for Secretary/Ad Min Day.  And, Mother's Day is fast approaching.  Swoosh!!!

G's been happy enough with the Easter Dinner leftovers and the chicken soup.  He fills in with sandwiches.  I noticed our grocery finally has chuck roast on sale so I am seeing a nice pot roast in our future (this week).  With mashed potatoes, green peas and cole slaw.  I also wanted to make onion soup but just haven't had the time or energy for making it.  All that onion slicing and then the long time to slowly caramelize the onions.  This is something I should have made during the unemployment part of winter.

Am I just getting old?  Is my body just letting me know it is beginning to dislike all the cement floor standing and walking all day, five days a week?  Have my work shoes lost their "bounce"?  Have I lost my "bounce"---the ability to do this work day after day.  Do I just weigh too much right now.  Gravity.

When I am this tired and stiff, I begin to question the path I have decided to travel.  Why am I still working full time?  Why am I considering another go at the seasonal retail job?  Why don't I have time to cook, plant seeds or read the newspaper?  Why do I always seem to be running off to work and leaving G and Riley here at home?  Do they mind?

I am also wondering when I will find the time (and more importantly) remember how to change the reading sidebar to the right on this blog.  Only three of the blogs still interest me and the writers of three others have (I guess) decided to stop writing.  I have new blogs that I should put in to the rotation when I remove the others.  It's really getting to be more work than I want--finding something to read each day.

And I want to try "baking" this new "Life Changing Loaf" which is mainly seeds and nuts.  I have, by chance, managed to buy all the ingredients.  I just need to mix it up and let it sit for hours (I guess) and then bake it.  I'll let you know how it goes.  But right now, I am looking for rainwear that is warm, and going out to the garden.  A nice rubber suit would be just the thing today.

This Is What I Would Like To See Outside

I think I can identify most of the plants (I am a professional--LOL) but I would have liked a plant list. I like the way all the dirt is covered up.  Intensive Planting.  I think that's what they (real professionals) call it.  Grasses, Phlox, Salvia and a Doublefile Viburnum in the background.  I have one of those.

I'll start my plant shopping list.  Multiples always inflate the plant bill.

We ( G&I) are having Easter on Monday.  I have the sweet potatoes baking and the sugary juices are making smoke.  I have mixed up the green bean casserole (using mayo and sour cream instead of the canned soup). And baked ham. A good one that hasn't been pumped full of water.  I also made a small pot of lentil soup which will get a portion of ham bits added to it for my lunches this week.

My lunches have failed me this past week.  I have gotten hungry.  And when hungry I tend to eat things I shouldn't, wouldn't or couldn't.  At times, it's my breakfast that fails me and I am tempted to eat my lunch at 10 am.  I haven't eaten anything I shouldn't--just because there isn't anything to eat at work.  So, soup.  And a big green salad full of crunchy vegetables.  I have organic carrots and an organic beet.  Eating a raw beet is new for me.  We'll see if I like it.

G has purchased a riding lawn mower (the neighbor asked him if we were moving***).  Second hand.  This mower was owned by a "little old lady" and it is very, very clean--still looks like new tread on the wheels.  G has already made an attachment so he can pull his heavy duty wagon around instead of pushing a wheelbarrow full of things raked out of the garden or branches trimmed off shrubs and trees. Our lot is uneven so actually using the riding mower to cut grass isn't going to happen.  He'll still have to cut the grass with the walk behind.

Today he is trying to McGyver the push sweeper so he can pull it along with the mower and sweep the sand and salt off the driveway.  He's made a few test runs but from my vantage point in the house, it looks like the sweeper isn't making contact with the road.  I'd put something heavy in the collection basket.  *** my rule was-- desire for a riding mower means we move to a smaller property.

My suggestions are not always welcome (my rules aren't either it seems).  So Riley and I are staying silent and in the house.  Riley because the lawn has just been sprayed by the lawn guy.

I think it's going to rain today.  I hope to get into the garden to plant peas, my B sprout seedlings, some carrot and bean "tapes" and my little cabbage seedlings.  Get things going when they are supposed to be gotten going.  I also want to plant my pansies.  G got me a whole flat of mixed pansies and I am very behind on getting them into containers.  Partly because the deer come at night and eat them.  So far, I am keeping them in the house for the night.

I have a book I am trying to finish reading.  I have a class to prepare for Saturday.  I was outside and gave G my two cents worth.  Turns out I learned a few things from my father--the best McGyver-er I ever knew.  My dad wouldn't buy a replacement part for his German car--so, he turned on the windshield washer with a door bell (installed on the dash).  Crazy but true.

Hey, thanks for stopping by.

Porch Chairs

G has finally gotten the webbing he ordered off of E-bay.  We have two old aluminum chairs we drag out on the back porch (stoop) when the sun is warm enough.  Even in Winter.  The two chairs had a few shredded strips and we (mostly me) worried about falling thru whilst sitting.  And, if alone, walking around with a chair firmly attached to my rear end.  No rescue handy.

We have two rockers.  One is the very inexpensive rocker G brought home in the early months of having our first baby.  And that old wood rocker has been well and truly used in the following 44 years.  We added a new dark green one a few years ago.  I can imagine the two of them, the ceiling fan and the big overgrown geranium on our front porch.  If only there weren't so many mosquitos.

On the back deck, in regular rotation for over 3o years (purchased from Ikea in Germany in 1983), are the high backed white wire chairs that I find very comfortable, even without cushions, and G finds too hard and painful to sit on, even with cushions.  The chairs have a "springiness" when you sit in them.  Bouncy.  And they have this curve to fit the small of one's back.

None of the stores or catalogs have chair pads that fit these chairs.  All too big, too long, too short, too thin, too thick.

I have always wanted to have a folding chair in the car.  So, when the mood or the weather suits my fancy, I could pull out the chair, unfold it and sit right down.  Enjoying the weather or the sights.  I have been dragging a folding chair out of the greenhouse (the ones for classes) and eating my lunch in a spot of sunshine, if available.  But the wind has been fierce.  And cold.

I am worried that Spring will never come.  That it will be cold all the way into July.  I remember having the furnace on one Fourth of July here in Maine.  It may have been in 1991.  Our first July in Maine.  And I was wanting to sell the house the business and everything and get as far away from Maine as possible.  So very cold.

I think the next summer was so hot--like in the 104's.  I didn't care for that either.

Today I have bills to pay, aprons to sew, soup to make (G is freezing) and tomato seeds to plant.  Just in case things get warm enough to plant things in the garden.  But right now, another cup of coffee and some breakfast and I'll fold the white stuff in the dryer.

Found It.

I have been looking for this image in all my journals.  I am going to make this for the Arts Are Elementary Fund Raiser this year.  I was thinking of doing one part of it using the newspaper collage that I make in my Doodles.  But I couldn't find the picture and I think this pear shape is pretty awesome.

Now I need to go to the framing shop and ask to buy two pieces of smooth faced matt board--10 inches by 10 inches to use for the work.  One to sell and one to keep.  Or even get more pieces and make Doodles on them that I can frame.

Today--another sunny but very cold and blustery day.  I left work early thinking I had a haircut appointment and a doctor's appointment.  Haircut is next week.  I found this out when I showed up (awkward). And the doctor's appointment was also next week---different day (questioning my sanity).  But they had a cancellation so it worked out.  Just took FOREVER!!!  G and Riley were out in the car--getting annoyed.  We then annoyed the dog even more by stopping in the health food store for green mung bean noodles and then a great grocery for an Easter ham and some sandwich meats.  We also stopped to eat a very, very late lunch.  French onion soup.  Yum.

Now we are home.  And we have missed the news, again.  Last night we got caught up on Masterpiece--Selfridge's.  We are still missing Fringe.  Tried MI-5 and it's too dated and British. I tried a French version of the Returned.  Pretty creepy and it was amazing how quickly I stopped noticing the captions but understood the dialogue.  There were many moments when I actually thought they were speaking English or I understood French all of a sudden.

The American version that is airing now on television is so bland.  No wonder no one is watching.  Why on earth did they make it so uninteresting?  People,who are dead, reappearing should be pretty weird.  And the French twins.  One in her early teens and the other grown up--how weird is that???? To see yourself as you were or will be.  One woman is talking to the real (returned) boyfriend of her youth--- she thinks he's a ghost.  I've watched two episodes but have to be "alert" in order to watch any others--so no evening viewing.

We do still have House of Cards to enjoy.

Spring And Then Not Spring

This cute sign was sent to me from Germany.  Via an old friend.  Thank you!!!  I wish my greenhouse had a sign outside.  I think it would help bring in customers.

This morning we have Sunshine And SNOW.  Yes, SNOW.  All the grass is covered in white

Yesterday, in the howling wind and mud---- we started bringing the the perennials out into the yard.  Setting up the tables.  Not everything is here so spaces have to be set aside for the missing trays.  My orders, from inside the annual house------ five spaces then this and then two spaces and this.  I push the heavy cart out into the muck and recite five then two over and over.  Meanwhile, in the annual house the wind is filling the plastic shell and then sucking the air out.  So, big WHACKS as the shell heaves and contracts.  So noisy.  And rather startling.  Everything is mixed up.  So we are playing hide and seek, looking for the plants starting with A, then B and now C and D.  I believe we got to D yesterday before the rain came pelting down and the afternoon shift moved indoors.

Today I think the cold crops will arrive.  Broccoli, B. Sprouts, lettuces and cabbages.  Things that don't mind a bit of a spring chill.   My garden beds are pretty much ready.  I was amazingly good at getting them prepped last October.  Flat, clean and well amended with soils and coffee grounds from Starbucks.  Ready to plant.

Some of the seeds that G planted are coming up.  He has spring onions, fennel and something else coming up.  Now we need to paste carrot seeds and beet seeds on toilet paper (homemade seed tapes) and get those out into the garden beds.  Helps with spacing so not too much thinning needs to be done.

I discovered that eating some good carbs every other day has moved the needle on the scale--to a lower number.  Which is making my inner self a bit less angry and sad (and it also helps my mood to have good bread and some pasta).  My body is certainly a science experiment that needs some serious study and reflection.  And now that I am in the "heavy lifting" segment of my greenhouse work--long days of lifting and carrying-- that aspect of weight loss will be in place as well.

I like it when I fall asleep on the couch--by 9 pm.  That's how I know that I have done some serious work.  Some call it exercise.  And the hot shower after work is such a "good thing".  So happy!