This Green Has Become My Favorite In The Garden

First I bought it in a low growing shrub.  Then the heather which is this green in summer and bright orange red in autumn.  Now I have the flower heads of overwintered kale producing this color and it's good to eat.

The color palette of this garden is quite soothing to my eye.  I also add a bit of soft pink to the green to set it off.  I can imagine stepping from stone to stone, to reach the chairs.  I wonder what is in front of the chairs?  What do you see from those seats?

We have carpenters here today.  Finish work on the half circle arch above the French doors and the "boxing" and installing of the ceiling fan above the dining room table.   Twelve feet over our heads. G has already called the carpenter three times from Lowe's.

Yesterday, at work, was hot and terribly boring.  No customers.  Standing.  My back was so tight when I got home I had just enough energy for a shower and then I tumbled into bed.  About an hour flat on the bed and I revived enough to eat dinner and watch Mystery.  I don't know how many of these days I still have in this old (and getting older) body.  Doing nothing is so much harder than doing too much.  A body in motion.......

I have my peonies to clip.  The flowers just don't last long enough.  I have two rescued orchids to repot and re-energize.  I have plants to plant in my daughter's garden, but first I need to water them.
And I have my 10 by 10 to work on and a second one to think about.  Time is racing by.

A blog I read suggests I write three things each day.  What I value about myself that day, what I am grateful for, and what I am glad I spent my time doing today.  Today will be easy.  Yesterday I would have struggled to find things to value, be happy about and be grateful for.  But, perhaps I needed to be mindful.  Perhaps the day would have been better if I was thinking about these three things?  Looking for them in my day at work.  Perhaps that is the value in recording the three.  Paying attention.

What do you think?

Some Place Cool

The summer heat and moisture has arrived.  I walked out to the front porch to water my purslane hanging basket and the moist heat hit me like a heavy wool blanket.  Ugh.  The inside of the house is cool so I am staying in.

I had two overly ripe bananas so I made a loaf of "incredible" banana bread for G with chocolate chips and walnuts.   G purchased blueberries for me ( 2 pints for $4) but I don't really like them and have bags of them from the garden in the freezer (I feed them to Riley).  So, I have the bowl of dry and the measuring cup of wet standing ready when the loaf of bread is out of the oven.  They just went in.  I used the whole pint of berries not the 1 cup in the recipe.

I guess I will use the second pint for my yogurt and fruit lunches or more muffins?  I just finished the sliced peaches with raspberries (from freezer) and had blackberries (from freezer) last week.  I have a pineapple in the fridge and a bowl full of red grapefruit waiting.  More than enough fruit.  I also have five nice cucumbers to slice up for my favorite meal--cucumbers, dill and sour cream.  I have weeks and weeks to wait for my tomatoes.  The only thing my garden has produced so far is a handful of radishes.

I have some hand sewing to do on my 10 by 10 for the Art Auction.  I am planning to enter the work in the advertising contest they do.  I have the work pinned to the wall across from my chair at the table.  So, at every meal I contemplate what the work needs.  G suggests I make a companion or "mirror" piece as my second entry.  He feels that if someone wants one--they will want both.

I had to make the work more "realistic" and less abstract.  The buyers dictate what the artists make. The most popular items are seascapes, boats and houses with water views.  This is Maine.

Work has de-volved into "personality" issues.  This happens in close quarters with little to do.  It's July.  July is when I think I should take up smoking.  If I had regular "smoke" breaks up by the dumpsters, I could get away from the "issues".  I could just go up there and not smoke.  I am limiting my involvement in these issues to listening and nodding.  The nodding could get me into trouble but I have to do something to signal that I am listening.  Even when I am not.  Nursery has sod to water and that's a nice place to be alone for long periods of time, soaking the sod with water.  I have impatiens to clean of dead petals. Six tables of them at the exact wrong height (too low) so my back gets tight.

That's my story.  I changed the bed sheets, have the baked goods well under way, need to wash dishes and clean the counters, check the garden and put the tomato fence I found in the dumpster up against the fava beans (so they stop tipping over) and then work on my "art".  I also have pants to hem and some sewing of a more domestic kind to do---little pillow cases for my personal pillow.  The muffins are done.  Looking good.  Very juicy.

Thanks For Visiting, Come On In!

I'd have to have a closet removed to get this 'look" in my house but I like it.  I wouldn't like the coats hanging there.  G and I don't have coats that look nice.

Five Things:

1.  On Monday I looked at the house next to the work parking lot and said "I want my Thermos back" because it's been missing since I set it on the ground two weeks ago while loading my car.  We checked the dumpster.  G searched the car.  I searched the car.  I supposed the neighbors saw it on the ground and came and got it.

 I wanted it for yesterday at the Book Sale Set Up.   This morning, I was looking for my raincoat in the car, pushed up the back seat (which had been moved down to load boxes) and "what to my wondering eyes did appear?"  My thermos.

That is really a surprise.  More like a shock.

2.  The Book Sale Set Up yesterday was sort of like Homecoming for me.  People I worked with back "in the day" (18 years ago) are long gone but people from 10 years ago showed up and helped.  G came to help and he hasn't in many years.  The team I recruited to head up the sale organization arrived just in time to bid farewell to the guy they recruited to take over for them.

No one has volunteered to take the job for next year.  And movers had to be hired (and paid) to move the boxes of books.  Times change.  Perhaps the Boomers won't be much like their parents--The Greatest Generation--who still come to help--in their 80's.

3.  I walked for two whole hours with my friend on Tuesday.  After work.  My knee feels better and my leg hasn't been as swollen.  Not perfect.  Just not as bad as usual.

4.  My friend P and I went to the "retail store" on Monday evening.  She was shopping for her parent's 70th anniversary.   I was looking for linen shirts and linen pants.  I was greeted by almost every employee who I had worked alongside last winter, and some I didn't remember.  With smiles and happy comments, asking if I was returning.

It would have meant more to me if they had actually done that when I was employed.

5.  Tonight we are going out for French onion soup.  It's 60 degrees.  The heavy rain last night trashed my peonies.  The deer have eaten every single pretty plant in my garden beds.   The hosta are gone.  The tops of all the roses are gone.  The pretty blue flowers (whose names are not coming to mind) are gone.  I need some comfort.

French Onion Soup should make it all better.

Window Boxes Are The Best Decoration

It's like "eye candy" when done just right.  Shows off the house, the windows etc.  I try my best to send customers off with a great window box.  Or boxes.  I ask about the color of the house, sun or shade, watering etc.  All the facts!  I need to ask about shutters.  I love the pale blue green of these.  Like sea glass.

My hours at work have been cut again.  Down to 6 hours a day.  Which is okay.  Business is slow and it's hot.  Nice to be able to just leave.  On the way home I got myself a strawberry ice cream cone.

And on the road to my street, the strawberry pickers had set up shop for the first day, I think.  I didn't have any cash (I had spent it on the ice cream) so I had to get home, find money and get back in the car, with Riley, and by the time I got there, they were out of berries and rolling up the flag.  I reserved 2 quarts ($5 each) for tomorrow at 2:30.

I am CRAZY for fruit right now.  Bananas at work.  Cherries while watching television.  Red grapefruit with my yogurt for lunch (when I have lunch).  A pineapple to cut into chunks, also good with yogurt for lunch.  The watermelons (small seedless ones) were $6.99.   I skipped it because of the strawberry ladies.  I love strawberries.  Especially the Maine ones when they are deep, deep red.

Sunday wasn't a very pleasant day at work because of a nasty co-worker.  Today was better (she wasn't at work).  I need to get to bed an hour earlier and sleep more, even though I wake up long before I need to.  I'm not tired, exactly, but I think I need more sleep.

Book Sale set up on Wednesday, all day.  I hope they have watermelon chunks on the snack table.
We have 2556 large cardboard boxes of books to unpack and set up on tables.  Over 70,000 books. And it's my job to get all the volunteers trained and keep them working until everything is out of the boxes and lined up, facing the right way so customers can read the spines.  Then we sweep the floors and take the flattened boxes to be recycled.  Yes.  All in one day.  7:30 to 4pm.  It's amazing.

Tonight it's hot Italian sausages, fried potatoes and onions with a side of sour cream, dill and cucumbers.  Yesterday I had the last bowl of elbow pasta, heavy cream and melted sliced American singles.  It was so good, I was sad that it was all gone.  

I'm hitting the shower.  Doing a load of darks and then starting dinner.  Bye.

The Peonies Are Blooming

And these, are roses!!!   What a dummy I am.  But I have little time right now to go find the peonies, which are the same pink.

It's a beautiful Friday.  Not cold.  Like last week.  Not raining in buckets.  Like last week.

Riley and I walked about this morning, checking out the garden beds.  Some hosta has been eaten by the deer.  A new plant is in flower.  In all probability it's a weed but the blue/purple flowers are interesting.  The vetch is flowering (why such a pretty blue on a weed?) and I am pulling it up.  I may go snap a picture in the late afternoon.  Not now when the sun is too bright.

Did I just say that?  The sun is "too bright"?

Now to pack my lunch and dress for work.  We are suddenly busy at work.  Bugs, diseases and fertilizer will fill my day.  How will you spend yours?

Riley's View Of The Back Stoop

G built these square wooden planters years ago and last summer added the wood "bandaids" to hold the boxes together.  We leave the soil in over the winter which is not a "Good Thing".

I have two small pieces of a lovely pink dahlia in each box (in the center) and surrounded that with a selection of orphaned petunias and some of the Loew's zinnias.  The slugs or snails are working on eating the zinnias.  I also notice, now, a few yellow dahlias.  We sell them as annuals but they have a tuber so, technically, could be lifted and saved from year to year.

The terra-cotta (plastic) pots hold over wintered geraniums.  Still haven't made any flower buds so I will be surprised to see what color they are.  Over to the mid left you can see my three year old rosemary plant and, if the photo was better, my two year old Bay Laurels.

G re-covered the deck with a man made 'wood" decking.  Very, very hot.  No bare feet on the deck. I often worry about Riley's paws as he waits by the door to be let in.  I might have to add a throw rug. The white wire chairs are vintage IKEA.  1983 in Germany.  I still have the original chair pads as well.  In fact, I have all the IKEA stuff we bought.  And it's all being used.  I remember my brother visiting and he and G sitting and working on all the screws and little fasteners that came in the flat boxes. Cabinets with many drawers.  Still in use in my sewing room.

I am dressed for a very hot and humid day at work.  Very baggy, old lady shorts and a lightweight white linen shirt.  Yesterday "would" have been my first training day at the retail job.  Until 11 pm.  I am so thankful that I called and said I had changed my mind about working.  Today would have been another work day until 11pm.  And then the ride home.  Not in bed until midnight.

I used the hip and knee problems as a reason and it was a good call as both are acting up and causing me to hobble around like a need a cane.  The left hip, mostly.

I have a question.  If a person is telling a lie, which way do they look? Up to the left or right?  I have a co-worker who, I think, is not so much lying, but not exactly telling the truth.  And she looks up to the right when doing any talking.  Or is it just a defense mechanism?

Time to pack my bag and start off to work.  I have an order of 200 succulents arriving and I have to do what is necessary to keep customers from taking them before the owner arrives.

Views Of My Garden this Morning

This is the "heather garden" I began last Spring.  The heather turns yellow green in summer and then red orange in the fall.  At the back is the purple smokebush.  I have some day lilies there to the right.  I have mixed in sedum (green and yellow Angelina) and pink creeping phlox to give the bed some color "pop".  It isn't much and there is little maintenance but the results are so much more than the effort involved.  I love this little bed.

Here is another plant that has been moved several times.  I think it has finally found it's "spot".  Bergenia.  Pig Squeak.  It got it's piggy name because when the leaves are rubbed they give off a sound very much like the sound pigs make.   Bergenia puts up a flower spike in spring of the nicest deep pink flowers.  Quite a nice thing to happen here at the corner "of nothing happens in Spring". This is the area in from to the front porch.  The tall plant to the left is a pussy willow and behind that is a pair of Maidenhair ferns.   A nice shady area.

Here is the shed.  Looking quite British and neat at this moment in time.  Riley actually tried to get into every picture this morning.   We have bearded iris (given to us by someone who decided she didn't like them), Jacob's Ladder (variegated), to far left is a Japanese white lilac tree and to the very far right is a Beach Plum in it's second year with us.   It just finished showing off a million or so tiny white flowers.  I planted magenta SunPatients in the window boxes along with orange flowers.  So far, nothing.  We'll see what happens.

Here is the Herb Bed in the vegetable garden.  To the left you can see the escaping spearmint.  Feverfew is the white daisy.  Borage is the plant with the fat leaves.  Lavender in the large pot at the left back next to a David Austin Rose.   I have dill, calendula and caraway to the right.  Lots of thyme creeping about in front of the lavender pot.

Hard to take good photos in the morning sunshine.  Better to do it in the late afternoon.   The shed came out best as it is in the shade in the morning.

My knee hurts today because I knelt in the garden Saturday planting the last of the seedlings.  It looks like it will be very hot today so I am happy to be having a day off.  We seemed to have sold every thing worth having yesterday at work---so today the trucks will be bringing in replacements.  I hope I get a full order of the herbs I need.  Everyone wanted rosemary.

This happens every year.  They want rosemary around Father's Day and we have NONE.  Then, later, we have tons of it and well, the customers bought it elsewhere.

PBS had a very disturbing new mystery on last night.   The Escape Artist.  I loved the "look" of upscale London and the insides of expensive homes but the meanness of the murders?  I find it hard to comprehend the sickness of people who do these things, even though I read mysteries with gruesome murder in the plots.  It's harder to "see" the murders on the screen I think.

We had lovely baked potatoes, grilled steaks and roasted asparagus for Father's Day dinner yesterday. Our daughter purchased the food and dropped it off Saturday night as her gift for her dad.  Our son called and had a nice long conversation with G while he was walking Riley.

Riley found something VERY disgusting to roll in and there after got three complete baths (under protest) until he didn't smell like anything.  There is the great divide between dogs and G and I.  Dogs like smelling really, really bad.

My Town At Dusk

Maine Street.  The old paper mill is at the back by the river.  Twilight.  My little Town has  a small (20K) population and an enormous property tax burden.  We also have a popular Music Theater in the summer (that crowds the locals out of the restaurants in Town).  This month we have a Buddy Holly tribute.  I have read the reviews and I guess the "older" crowds rock the house with each performance.  Maine has the oldest population in the 50 states.  Baby Boomers.

My day off.  I have a nice piece of pork in the oven turning into "southern pulled pork" with a cider vinegar base(Martha Stewart).  I also have rhubarb bars baking along side.  I added more oats and, well, more of everything to Smitten Kitchen's recipe (which left much to be desired).   I have now tried two recipes from her site and will not be trying any more.  They are okay.  Not great.  The fried zucchini thing went down the disposal after I picked out all the zucchini and washed off the pasta.  Ugh!  Pretty pictures and dismal food.

I turned a few things lingering in the fridge into baked cheese manicotti last night after work.  It was so cold and wet at work--and customers wanted me to "take" them out to look at things.  In the pouring rain.  Not a drizzle.  A downpour.

So, a nice warm meal was what I wanted.  I mixed whole milk ricotta with egg and parmesan cheese then rolled it up in sheets of fresh pasta, covered everything with a large can of Trader Joe's marinara (very good stuff) and then the remainder of the whole milk mozzarella I got for G's pizza.  Could have used more mozzarella in the filling but there were no complaints when the dish came out of the oven.  We both had seconds and I'm sure we will fight over the leftovers.  Then we settled into the couch to watch Damages.  We were at the end of season two.  And now we are at the beginning of season three.

I have seedlings (that I started under lights a week or two ago) of cucumbers (pickling and burpless), yellow summer squash and zucchini to plant today.  I also have three eggplant and one yellow plum tomato.  One more tomato.  I chose the yellow plum to add another color to my tomato dishes.  Red, orange and now yellow.

G ALWAYS says we have too many tomatoes.  Now, I never have any extra tomatoes to give away.  We (I) eat them all.  So how could there be "too many"?  I used the not so nice looking ones to make jars of delicious tomato jam last summer.  G loved it.  And any overage gets roasted in the oven and packed in freezer bags for winter pasta dishes.  Well, now I am thinking two yellow plum tomatoes. I hear they are absolutely huge plants.  Covered in tons of little plum shaped yellow tomatoes.

G is out giving the hydrangeas a heavy "blast" of Bloom Booster. Phosphate. They should suck it right in after all the rain yesterday.  And the garden is getting more Miracle Grow.  I have to replant beets.  The first crop failed to thrive due to a lack of fertilizer at the right moment.  The seeds in the compost pile continue to germinate.  I have bok choy, arugula and now a mass of Sweet Annie.  Borage seedlings are popping up all over as well.  My blackberry bushes are covered in pretty white flowers.  Looks like a snow storm.  I guess they appreciated the 80 pounds of cow manure we fed them.  Sounds like a blackberry pie is in our future.  Yum.

I am wondering how my three pots of potatoes are doing.  Have to check on them.  They like massive amounts of fertilizer as well.  But never cow manure.  The spearmint is doing well in the herb bed and in the path next to the herb bed.  It escaped.  The thyme is everywhere.  I have a good crop of dill and caraway (for seed) and my tiny, tiny basil plants are starting to make some new leaves.  The Fava bean plants haven't made any beautiful white flowers yet (which is the reason I planted them).  They look like hibiscus when blooming.

It was supposed to be sunny today.  But it's overcast.  I had best use this perfect time to get my seedlings planted.  With fertilizer.  So, farewell.

Where Do You Sit To Unwind?

Wouldn't it be great to sit here?  On the beach.

We had chairs like this once.  Very difficult to get in and out of them.  And I had to sand and repaint each summer.  Finally, they were so "wiggly" we tossed them on the October brush pile fire.  Wowza did they light up things.  I think it was the paint.  Combustible.

I am not interested in buying any more of these.  But I still think they LOOK so great.

I ordered books from the library and G will be picking up Unwanted by Kristina Ohlsson for me. I think it was recommended by a Reader (wink) and I have you to thank for many hours of good reading.

I finally asked another Master Gardener for advice on my "failure to thrive" vegetable garden.  Things are alive.  But not growing.  Seems like all the stuff I added to the garden in October, was mostly for good soil texture and structure.  But not for soil nutrition.

Gardening isn't actually easy.

So today the garden got a big serving of fertilizer.  I can only hope it isn't too late.

Outdoor Shower

My friends in Florida have one, but right out in the open for all to see. They use it to wash off beach sand so it's not tracked into the house.  A good outdoor shower needs walls and a door.  And plenty of hot water.

I remember when the kids were very young and we were very poor, we went camping with a tent. We usually stayed at campsites with toilets and showers.  I would take the kids into the shower with me and scrub them down (and out of their bathing suits) and then push them out to G who would towel them off and dress them in pajamas.  Then he would take them off to the tent and I would have a proper shower and unlimited hot water.  Washing away sand, dirt and whatever else the kids had rubbed all over me.

Then I dressed and went to the tent and G took his shower.  By then the kids were sound asleep.

I never slept well on those trips.  I'm not a good tent sleeper and usually chose to sleep in the car. People are either "good campers" or they aren't.

The joke in our family is that I consider "camping" to be a hotel without room service.

But an outdoor shower?  When we have just finished digging in the garden?  Okay!!!

Summer Time Rooms

My actual bed is black but it's a four poster from Ethan Allen.  I have always like the "cannonball" style beds and this fat one in black looks good to me. I think the current Ethan Allen catalog has one just like this.  My side dresser is old Maine Camp, pine I think.  The black bedside lamp is hung from the wall as a sconce.  The chair is piled high with my basket of socks.  I do have a huge fluffy down comforter on my bed and this reminds me to add the white linen dust cover to the box spring.  I think I need a green print pillow to make it all "pop".  But then the pillow will spend most of it's time on the floor.

I am trying not to scratch all the mosquito bits I have on my ankles right this minute.  I was standing out on the porch with a June referendum campaigner discussing the annual rise in taxes due to the school district.  I am not a fan of the school teacher's union or the school superintendent.

G is cutting the grass across the street and then ours.  The weather has been perfect for growing grass.

It's also been perfect for mosquitos.

I managed a visit to Goodwill and got a nice grey tank top, a grassy green (roomy) quarter zip sweatshirt (which will be very useful for any chilly restaurants this summer with my capri black pants) and a pair of linen mixed fabric capri pants.  Large enough to allow breezes to cool me off at work.  Linen is really the best fabric on 80 to 110 degree days in the greenhouse.

Needless to say....... my tan is already dark enough, thank you very much.

I am trying to think of work I should be doing right now--but, actually, I just want to sit here in the cool house and veg out.  Work is so hot.  And, while Saturday was super busy, Sunday was not and we were just bored and hot and wanting to go home from 2 to 5 pm.  I stayed busy for some of that time by watering the entire perennial yard.  So now you know why my tan is getting so dark.

I think ice cream is on my menu for dinner tonight.  And I think, if I go out to the store, hotdogs.
I already had toast for lunch.  It's 80 and sunny.

An Ode To Summer Finally Arriving

I saw this on the Style Files this week and WANT one.  All loose and breezy on steamy, buggy days.
Yesterday I was asked if I was dressed for casual Friday.  At work.  Which is actually quite hilarious. Since we dress like bums.  Old pants. Old company tees (because our employer only gives fresh tees to new hires).  And we are all, basically, dirty within 10 minutes of arriving at work.

Yesterday, I had on a very new pair of (20 Cent) pants (lightweight cotton), rolled to capri level and a lemon lime linen shirt.  It was going to be sunny and 70 degrees.  Which translates, in the greenhouse, as close to 90.  I wanted loose and breezy.  Not hot and dark green (the tee shirt).

You are wondering about the ultra sound.  Well.  Nothing wrong with my leg or knee (according to the nurse who left the message).  Still swells up. Knee still hurts.  Fluid was noticed around the knee.  I will admit that the swelling and pain are greatly reduced.  Not gone.  But I think my doctor is gone.  On vacation.  So no news from him until he returns so I am taking Aleve every night so the knee pain doesn't ruin a night's sleep.  Not worrying about blood pressure since it was 118/66 at the doctor's visit.

When I wore the rolled up pants, my ankles were noticed because of the short pants and the fact I wore no socks.  And they were both swollen due to torn tissue from years of sprained ankles.  I was a VERY clumsy person.  Last week one leg was nearly double the size of the other so I wore pants to cover the ankles and dark socks.

I got a number of mosquito bites yesterday while hanging out in the Perennial Yard trying to catch the thief who has been stealing plants for the past two seasons.  Yesterday was her first, noticed, visit and we were determined to stop her.  I was blocking the stairway to the employee parking lot where her husband was parked (in the getaway car).  And I was going to ask to see her sales receipt if she tried carrying plants past me.  She tried her best to out "wait" me but I had a radio so I could deflect any customers needing help.  In the end, my employer called her out and told her to take her stealing business elsewhere and then called the police.  We have an order on her now and she isn't allowed on the property.

That was about the most excitement we have had so far this year.  Me dressed in Friday Casual and the Perennial Thief.

Today is "planting the vegetable garden" day.  The knee is "good enough" to use my kneeler and get down close to the garden beds.  I have tomatoes and peppers to plant and a few herbs.  The zukes and cukes are still growing under lights.  Wish me a pain free day.

Who Do I Want To Be?

My doctor's appointment is later today.  Yesterday was pain free.  Up and down the stairs to the office and everything.  As usual.  I make a doctor's appointment and then my symptoms take off.  There is still swelling (not as much) so we'll discuss that.  Because I don't think it's a "good thing".

G sprayed the back yard last night, so we have a week of mosquito free living outdoors.  I am always very, very sad when the "good weather" arrives and I have to stay in the house and only look at it.  Mosquito bites, on me, swell, turn very red and itch like crazy.  Make me miserable.  And I don't think being covered in large pink blotches of calamine is all that attractive.

I have a few things I want to accomplish this month.  So I need to make a list and check it every day to see if I can stay on track.  One item----- making ART!!! is something that will be number one on the list.  Getting all the "summer" veg into the garden will be #2.  The summer squashes, peppers and tomatoes.  Hard to believe it's time for that when the spring peas, lava beans and kale are still infants.

Tales From The Compost Pile.  Story #1.  Many years ago I purchased a box of bok choy and planted it in the garden.  I was busy and didn't notice, until too late, that the BC had started bolting (going to seed).  And since this was a "new" vegetable for me, I didn't know (then) that the little flowering stems are very delicious (indeed) lightly sautéed or even raw in a salad, so they were pulled and tossed into the compost.  I was tempted, this year, to buy another box.  I had been clipping and eating the little flower stalks off the boxes at work.  Lo and behold------ there in the compost pile (after all those years) is a little crop of bok choy.  Free.  And it's a wonder.  As there were three or four years of compostables tossed onto top of the pile.  On top of the little BC plants.  Some of the "volunteer" plants are already sending up little flower stalks.  This must be a variety that bolts very quickly.  Anyway, I am planning to add them to my salads for the next few days or even a week or two.

Tales From The Compost Pile. Story #2.  When I pulled the big overwintered kale plants out of the garden to make room from the new plants and seeds, I forgot that the old kale plants make great flower heads also.  A real "treat".  So I pulled them out of that same compost bin and replanted the roots.  The replanted kale is sending out new leaves and delicious little flower heads.  More stuff to add to the daily salad I take with me to work.

My lunches are either Greek yogurt, Bran Buds and Fruit (this week red grapefruit from Texas).  The fruit is whatever is on sale at the grocery or what I pull out of the freezer as I still have berries from last summer.  My other lunch is a large tub of salad greens, carrot sticks, edamame beans, feta, Greek olives, spinach, bok choy flowers, cabbage, raw beets and even HB eggs.  The dressing is usually good olive oil, S/P and Balsamic vinegar.  Occasionally I sub in Ranch dressing (usually with the Feta).  I like red onion in my salads, but not at work.  I am looking forward to adding beet greens and radishes from the garden to my salads this month.  The arugula didn't come back (too much soil turning) and I miss the "bite" of that green in the mix.

Today I am digging up the lamb's ears and putting it somewhere else.  I think I might sprinkle seeds for arugula there when I get it all out.  Lamb's ears are a real pain.  They start out cute and well behaved and then take over.   Sort of like children.

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.