Veggie Dreams and Garden Plans

This year I'm sticking to the list. No extras, no impulse buys. No growing things we don't eat. Too much wasted money, time and energy. Let's see how resolved I am when I'm in the greenhouse, shall we?


The Veg:
-Heirloom tomatoes only this year, varieties to be determined by plant availability
-Sweet Millions cherry tomatoes, a fav
-Chocolate Cherry tomatoes, if I can find a plant
-Cucumbers, only 2 plants, can only eat so many cukes
-Zucchini, 4 plants this year, that's more than last year, but I plan to slice and freeze for sauteing
-Yellow summer squash, 2 plants, completely new this year, will give color to my saute mix
-Beans, beans, beans, a variety of greens and yellow, couldn't get enough beans last year and they can always be frozen
-Swiss Chard, because it is so pretty, and with a vow to actually learn to cook it and eat it this year
-Artichokes, an experiment, because we have been buying many jars of artichoke hearts lately
-Bell peppers, a garden necessity, 6 plants because I didn't get a great yield last year
-Peas, who doesn't love peas?
-Spinach, because fresh from the garden is the only way to eat it


The Herbs:
-Parsley
-Rosemary, lots for drying, needed in rosemary bread and my best pork roast
-Basil, many varieties
-Thyme
-Oregano
-Summer Savory
-Mint

And some flowers mixed for pretty:
-Sunflowers
-Cosmos
-White Salvia
-Blanketflower
-Melampodium
-Petunias
-Pansies
-Marigolds
-Calendula
-Nasturtium

I'm too tired to try to start a bunch of stuff from seed this year, and mostly I only want a couple of this and a couple of that, so I'm going to buy plants from our favourite nursery, Noggle's Sweet Meadow Greenhouse in Mechanicsburg.

See? I've got all my plans posted on the fridge, including my master list and shopping list.I've grouped them into families.

The Heirloom Tomato family.The Cucumber family.
The Zucchini family.The Cherry tomato family.

And that should fill my "flower" beds around the house with useful plants for the summer!

Pink Lemonade Cake

I made another layer cake last week. I was watching The New Adventures of Old Christine, a re-run, where new Christine had dumped Richard at the altar, and when Matthew and Barb go to check on her, she feeds them huge pieces of wedding cake and a bottle of champagne each. The cake looked really good. A four layer white cake. Suddenly that was all I could think about. Mmm, a nice white cake. Gotta have it now, don't have time to bake one, let it cool then frost it. Jump in the car and go buy a sheet cake at Giant. Wow. They have really gone up in price! $10.99 for 1/8 sheet cake! They are crazy. After much hemming and hawing, I bought a box mix and decided to make my own icing.

After baking the cakes, I mixed up some plain butter cream frosting, but decided I didn't want just plain icing with white cake. Maybe lemon? I love lemon icing. Then I decided to tint it, but I didn't have any yellow food coloring. So I used pink. One drop. It turned a lovely pale shade. I really hate strong color icing, it gets all over your tongue, gross. But lemon-flavored pink icing?
And that is how pink lemonade cake was born.

Unfortunately, my goal of instant gratification failed. They layers were too warm to frost before bedtime. I asked Lewis to do it when he got home. Didn't he do a great job? Far better than my last attempt. I think he may be the official cake froster from now on.And it was darned tasty, too. Oliver was disappointed because he didn't get to try any of the cake.

Joy and Optimism

I took Oliver to mom's house this weekend to play in their backyard. They are out in the country a bit more and since he is being so timid about the big snow, we decided to let him run off leash. John had several paths plowed and shoveled, so there were good places for him to run. He did briefly venture into the deeper stuff, but it was pretty tough going, so he turned around and headed back to us. We kept the loop leash on him just in case he decided to run off, but we didn't need it. He was a very good boy. I think he really enjoyed having three people outside just to play with him. We let him explore a bit, then we threw squeaky toys for him to fetch. He had a blast.

Joy:

When he finally plunked down in the snow, we called it a day. I took Oliver to the basement where the woodstove was pumping out the heat. Mmm, I really miss that. We cleaned the ice balls from between Oli's pads and I tried to pull off as many ice clumps from his hair as I could. He was slightly less than cooperative, trying to chew at them himself. Luckily he melted fairly quickly in the 80-something temperature.

One day last week it dawned on me that while I had taken all the other Christmas ornaments down and packed them away, I had missed the red, green and sliver jingle bell wreath. It pretty much screams Christmas, there is no way I could get away with it much longer.

So I dug around in the basement for something a bit more seasonally appropriate. I came up with wreath parts. None of the flowers I had could be successfully attached to the wreath I had, so I popped into the craft store one night, plunked down $6 and came home with a chain of flower garland. So much for seasonally appropriate. I think it is still a bit early for the dogwood blossoms, but that was the earliest spring flower they had. I was really drawn to the daisies, but that would be a bit much for February.

Optimism:

I still think it needs something, though. Maybe a bow? I know they sell that green velvet ribbon I used to make the loop in wider sizes. I'll have to check next time I am out. I also saw some cute little birds and while I'm not normally into that sort of thing, they were pretty sweet, all feathery. Yup. I think I want a little feather bird, like these sweet little chickadees.

The Great Dig Out of 2010

Our view from the porch this afternoon. Not much but snow as far as the eye can see.Snow level with or higher than the porch. Fire hydrant almost obscured.Once there was a narrow path here. Gone in three minutes by the work of a bobcat clearing snow for Lewis' parking spot.Well, best to just dig in.Even Oliver is a bit overwhelmed. Thankfully our neighbor with the snow blower took pity on me again. He came over and did my sidewalk before he started on his! Now if I can just muster the energy to make a batch of cookies to thank them...I'm a bit worried about my young tree. The snow is now as high as the bottom branches. Maybe in the next day or so I will try to dig a moat around the trunk. It is going to be a job moving that much snow.Finally, a view from the street. Not sure I'm getting that car out anytime soon. I've tried to keep it clear, but today's snow was just too much. I'll try again tomorrow.

Oliver says he's cold and can we go back inside yet?

Snow Doggie

Mother Nature must be mad at us. She neglected us the last two winters, they were fairly mild and we got off easy. Now she is making up for it. It started late Friday afternoon and continued until early Saturday afternoon. I'm guessing we got about 30".

I cleared everything as soon as I got home from work Friday evening, around 7:00 p. There were only about 2" at that point, so it went quickly. I cleared the full width and length of the sidewalk and our parking spaces.

I went out again before bed, around 10:00p and cleared it all again. It took me nearly an hour that time, with about 8" having fallen in the past three hours. I cleaned off my car and cleared a moat around it. I figured that was that much less I would have to deal with Saturday. Good thinking... in theory, anyway.

This is what I saw when I put Oli out at 7:00a:
Oh my. Well. My game plan for Saturday was to shovel and watch dvds. I borrowed Stargate Atlantis (season 4) and Mad Men (season 2) from the library. I figured I could be snowed in all weekend.

So I got the shovel and got started. I cleared only a shovel-width this time, that is all that is required, and about all I had strength to do. I'd say we had about 2', give or take, by that time. I cleared a ring around the fire hydrant and a path out to the street. Lewis had worked a double shift and I knew he wouldn't feel like shoveling before he could even park, so I cleared a space for his car. I couldn't budge any of the snow where he usually parks, right behind my car, because the plow had shoved a bunch of snow there. I'm telling you, I was exhausted by the time I was done. It took me almost two hours.

As for Oliver, the snow was so high when he went for his first "out" before breakfast, that he did something I never, ever saw him do before. He lifted his leg on a dead porch plant! I told him he was a naughty dog, but really, what could he do?He was a bit perplexed until I started clearing the snow, then he was back to his usual barky dog self. Biting at the snow, snuffling around, "digging" the snow off the shovel for me. He had a good time. He's never seen snow this high and he was being very timid about it. By late afternoon, I realized I would have to clear some paths in the yard for him to do his business. Luckily the snow was still light and fluffy.

The snow walls were so high that I was even able to let him off his rope, something I would never normally do, and we ran around in the circles I made. He had a blast chasing me and trying to catch the snowballs I threw for him.

Oli Gras!

Oliver went to the groomer last week. He had a grand time. He got trimmed a little shorter than usual, but that's not too surprising, since he was described as having been "very wiggly" when Lewis picked him up. They usually put a cute bandanna on him when he leaves, but this time he came home wearing blue Mardi Gras beads! And while that is very creative, I'm not quite sure a chain of plastic beads on a golden retriever is such a great idea. So, Lewis took these pictures to send to me at work, then wisely removed the beads.

As I understand it, Oliver slept most of the afternoon and well into the evening that day. You know, baths really tire doggies out.

More on Christmas Decorating

Speaking of Christmas decorations, I have to tell you, I saw the most stunning tree at Target this year. It was an all white tree, and they had it decorated with these beautiful aqua ornaments. Just one color, various shades. I wanted to take it home with me that day. I checked out the other stores' trees while Christmas shopping, and found the best price at Sears. But even on sale for $90 was just too much right now. Plus, Lewis hated the idea. Mind you, he had not seen the white tree, so I think he was having trouble picturing it.

It looked something like this one from Apartment Therapy:

That was more than a month ago and I am still thinking about it. I still love, love, love it, but am having second thoughts. I can't quite picture this beautiful, crisp, bright tree in my bungalow, with its earthy tones. So I started looking around. Did you know that artificial trees come in nearly any color you can dream up? And I could have fun with almost any of them, but I really can't picture decorating an orange tree for Christmas. But, hey, you never know, maybe if you have the right space...


Meanwhile, I'm kind of liking the idea of the champagne gold tree. I don't know, though, maybe that's too plain, it might get lost in the living room, with the butter yellow walls. I think I want something dramatic that will stand out. But then I always pictured the living room tree having a slightly rustic, woodland theme. You know, with pine cones and silvery ornaments. I even have a string of wooden cranberries. And this little guy I found on flickr. I saw him at Target this Christmas season, too.The trouble is that I like too many styles. It is a good thing I'm lazy or I could be one of those people with a tree in every room!

Christmas Pictures

I just realized today that I never posted any pictures of our Christmas decor. I didn't go all out this year. I keep meaning to, just can't find the time. So we only put up the silver tree again. In fact, I need to take it down tonight because Sheri is coming to clean tomorrow, and since Christmas was like four weeks ago, it is past time to take the tree and gift wrapping supplies back to the basement.

Here is our simple mod tree, sporting new red "berry" style lights. I think a string of 100 may be a bit much for the little tree.

All the gifts seemed to coordinate nicely this year, too. Not planned, but nice. They also lend to the mod feel, I think.And finally, what's a Christmas without a golden retriever in a sea of shredded wrapping paper?It's all fun and games until someone gets a bow stuck to the roof of their mouth!

Change Of Course

Okay. So, remember all that lovely progress we were making in the back bedroom? Yeah. Well. We've kind of stalled. There are a couple of factors:

1. I am lazy.

2. We couldn't buy the mattress because we are very broke and recognised that we shouldn't go further into debt at this time.

3. Kelly wasn't going to stay with me over the holiday (but in the end she did stay a few days).

4. I've been having misgivings about the color of the bedding I ordered from JCPenney since it arrived. I like it, but I don't love it. The color just isn't right. So I'm going to send back the bedding.

5. I still really like the curtains, and they are really cool, but the colors are also lighter, a perfect match to the too-light bedding. They do come in other colors, so there is hope yet.

6. And then the latest L.L.Bean Home catalog arrived in yesterday's mail...

These are the beautiful sand dollar sheets they've had for years, but weren't available just two months ago when I was online shopping. Maybe they only have them for the spring and summer months?

Then I saw these starfish sheets, and I think I like them even better!

The downside is that they are very blue-blue. Like cobalt glass. And I've really had my heart set on more of a teal blue or a sea-glass blue. Speaking of sea glass...

What's the matter with me? I've never had so much trouble decorating before. Bedrooms are possibly the easiest rooms to decorate, too. Why am I being so wishy-washy?

Maybe I can use the sea glass wreath as color inspiration, using all those hues of blues and greens. Hmm... I know that I can build a whole room around one object. I really love the sheets. Maybe, when I'm truly ready, I'll order them and go from there. Pick the paint next and actually paint the room. Spray the handles on both dressers to match each other. Then buy the mattress. Then pick out a solid comforter and blankets. Gee, it sounds like we won't be revisiting this for a while, but that really sounds like the best course of action.

Humidifiers

Even though we keep the temperature down, the heat still manages to make the house pretty dry. To combat that, we use a combination of devices.

First, these beauties. My trusty humidifiers. I couldn't get through the winter without them. If I get too dry, my sinuses dry out, then my allergies flare up. It's just bad all 'round.We just got this little guy over the weekend, the Vicks V3500N. I think it is just an updated version of the two we already have. It is put together exactly the same way, it just has a slight style change. So far, so good. It seems to put out more water than the older ones, but is slightly noisier.

Don't let the lime scale fool you, this old school method does help. Well, it contributes. I need to get out to the Salvation Army store or Goodwill to find a couple more enamel pans to put around the house. These can do their work when we are not home, and if they dry out, no worries.

The same can be said of this little guy. It is another old-fashioned, evaporative-style model. I ordered it several years ago from Killian Hardware in Philadelphia.

I bought one, figuring that if it worked out well I could give it to my dad, who is a tinsmith, to make more. Unfortunately, I'm not so in love with it that I want more. It only fits in one of the eight radiators in the house, and I inadvertently over filled it one time. As it turns out, you cannot fill it anywhere near the top of the reservoir. See that lime scale line? That's the absolute maximum.

I know there are other options out there, prettier decorative ceramic things that hang on the front, but they are far more costly. So for now, I will have to make do with these.