Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Beets, Egyptian Onions, Nature of the Beast, Rains
Another morning, and here I sit. Reading and trying to catch up on bloggers I have missed the past week or so, and the clock is racing through the hours like in a cartoon. This always seems to happen…lol. Just the nature of the beast, I guess.
The rain appears to have stopped. HALLELUJAH !!!!!!!! As much as we needed some rain, we didn’t particularly need a monsoon. The creeks are all over the banks and the yard is pooling with excess water. The overages have spilled into the well, mucking up the water supply. It’s not unusable, it’s just murky. We don’t drink it anyhow. Thank goodness for raised beds. The garden is drinking like a sailor on shore leave and loving every minute of it. A friend called and said hers were washing out. It is early in the year, but most people have their garden seeds in and are sprouting. This could be a fiasco…having to replant your garden after already having done all that work is frustrating, to say the least.
Here’s a picture of the onions I got in yesterday. I googled them to find that they are called Egyptian Onions, or Walking onions. Pretty cool, huh??
This is a birds eye view. I tried to post the other picture I took, to give you an idea of the height and all, but it won’t load for some reason. They are about 3 ft tall.
Here is another picture from the gardens:
This is the string trellis in the snow peas. It is an easy low cost way to trellis lightweight veggies like peas that will climb on anything they come in contact with. Behind the peas, you can see the prolific beds of mustard and kale. I weeded the beets and peppers there the other day, and everything is doing well. I’ll plant another batch of beets in the late summer. I love beets. There’s a guy around these parts who has massive tattoos on his body. I was chatting him up the other day, and noticed the tattoo on his neck. I said “Is that a beet?” And he says (with a straight face): “Yes. I’m a beet neck.” aarrrrggghhhhh… Everybody’s a comedian…plus, this one’s a chef. (Of course, I adore him.) lol
I have some little chores planned for today and tonight I’ll take a carload of women to an 8 o’clock meeting. I’m gonna tackle my big walk-in closet off our master bathroom/bedroom and try to straighten it up and sort through the clothes. Time to lose some of the excess.
Spring cleaning, and all that. Tomorrow I have a couple of sponsees coming over to help me get started with some paint touch-ups and window cleaning. Many hands make light work. The payoff is I will make them a fabulous lunch and we will all work together and talk about living a good sober life. All the while, they get to be out of the city, here on my little piece of heaven. It’s WIN/WIN.
Here I go. And here comes the sun.
Perfect timing.
Namaste.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: BBQ's, Gardens, Memorial Day, Tornadoes, Watermelon, Winter Onions
Whoa, Nellie….
The Memorial weekend is finally done. This holiday, remembering the fallen soldiers, is always marked with the joy of living….the blessings of family and friends and life in this country where we get to live a daily freedom filled existence that many places only dream about. We barbeque and camp and fish and swim (when it’s warm enough, which it certainly was this year!) and we eat, eat, eat. And we drag ourselves back home and into our working lives and talk about what a great time we had, on the opening days of the summer season.
We had a really lovely time this year. We didn’t spend any time with family, and only spent one day with friends. We hosted a bbq at our little country place on Saturday, and had about 20 folks in attendance, with assorted and sundry children running around having a ball. We kept it very simple, with hamburgers and hotdogs, watermelon, potato salad and cole slaw. Lots of cold drinks, since it was in the mid 80’s and gloriously sunny.
We got a lot of garden work finished up this weekend, trellises up for both the pole beans and the long necked gourds, popcorn planted, and icicle radishes interspersed among the corn and squash. The corn and okra are both up and about 3 inches tall. The tomatoes are looking good. I put up a string trellis for the snow peas, and they are climbing like crazy. We are eating tons of mustard and kale, as are the chickens. I weeded the beets yesterday between pouring rainstorms. We also fertilized yesterday with fish emulsion fertilizer.
The pumpkins are in the ground and thriving. I bought a beautiful onion plant called winter onion last Friday. It almost looks like a leek, but is a little smaller. The old Indian guy that sold it to me said to plant it where it was going to stay, and don’t cut it for the first year. It grows really tall, about 3 ft high. At the ends of the long green blades, it starts to curlique and grows little onion sets at the tips. These drop off and seed themselves and you will have onions for the rest of your life [he said]. He said the whole plant is edible, and that they used to use the green parts in onion gravies and all kinds of things. lol– I was VERY excited…
We have been having thunderstorms and tornado warnings the past 2 days. We got over 5 inches of rain yesterday. The last time we checked (about 6PM) everything was intact in the gardens. I haven’t been out there yet today, but I need to get out and check on the chickens as well.
We went to the movies on Sunday at a little theater that opened in Gillespie called the Canna. It’s a little art deco place and shows one movie (weekends only). The admission price is $5.oo and includes popcorn and a drink. When you walk into the viewing area, there are several leather sofas and coffeetables in the back, as well as the regular theater seats on the sides and down the middle., We saw the new X-men movie-Wolverine Origins–or whatever it’s called. It was great fun. On the way out there was a young lady thanking us for coming and holding a tray of mints for us to take one. It was absolutely charming.
Life is good today. I need to get on with some chores….I am home today. Husband is working the rest of this week 8 hour days. He usually works 4 -10’s, but was off yesterday. It’s an overcast peaceful day here, and I plan to make the most of it. I started a new book yesterday that I picked up at the Goodwill called The Enemy of God, by Robert Daley. Today will be mostly my day of rest, as soon as I pick up a little and make sure all critters are fed.
BTW, all the animals were wonderful with all the people here. Little Baby Caylee had the hardest time, as she was acting afraid of the children and kept barking at everyone. lol It was her first party, so all in all it went okay. My little Aladog will have to learn how to act with people around…. we all know how that goes….lol
Namaste.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Mississippi River Bluffs, Organic Potlucks, spring
Been busy as a one legged man in an ass-kickin’ contest! …Sheesh!
And I even took a bunch of pictures to prove it, lest any of you think I’m just shirking my duties on these blogs…(like anyone actually cares. arrgghhh)
Digging and planting and cleaning up and trying to get things ready for the big to-do coming up in June. 24 days, to be exact. AI yi yi…I have a lot to do!! lol
Yesterday was a good day…I kept the car and did a little shopping on my way home. Then I came home and cleaned up the work area outside. It did look like this:
But now it looks like this:
I took lots of pictures of the yards too and a bit of the gardens. There are things that are up our there, but most of it’s newly planted and will be a couple of weeks to see anything major. I pretty happy with the way things are shaping up out there. I planted several pots of herbs and I have a big green half tub that I’m going to plant with something…basil maybe. If I plant enough basil I could make and freeze pesto. Hey….that’s a good idea….
Last night we had a potluck for the end of our class…everyone brought the most delicious stuff! And it was all [mostly] organic and vegetarian. We had an orzo salad with bell peppers and Kalamata olives and sun dried tomatoes in it. We had a Moroccan eggplant and lentil dish. We had a big Greek salad, we had whole grain tortilla chips and a rice , black bean and corn salsa. We had veggies and dip. I made an off the cuff , last minute thingy of sorts. I’ll put the recipe on Dragon Woman’s Kitchen later today…they were really beautiful and everyone raved about them. A mixture of stuff spooned into litttle phyllo cups, involving sweet potato and asparagus (steamed and then chilled) red onion, mung bean sprouts, lime juice , lemon curry, horseradish, cream cheese and sour cream…well, you get the idea. We had a strawbery rhubarb and an apple pie, made with whole wheat and barley flour crusts. We had a rhubarb crisp. We had Apple Harvest cheescake bars. (I want that recipe for sure!!) Green and peppermint teas. It was wonderful. We had it in the rustic lodge up on the bluffs, overlooking the Mississippi River.
Today I have company coming, some more of that freeing step work stuff. I need to get the house vacuumed and straightened up a little. The weather has been coolish, but glorious, and this whole week is supposed to be dry and sunny. Today’s high is supposed to hit 79 degrees, so we’ll probabl;y be outside most of the timne she’s here. She’s a smoker too, so she spends a lot of time out on the back deck puffing away anyhow. lol
I’m having people over for a small bbq on Saturday coming up too, so I need to get some more stuff done. It’s a good opportunity for me to be motivated to do some more stuff for the big weekend, and not wait until the last minute. Maybe….lol
Alright, I’m outta here.
Namaste.
It’s a busy day on the horizon…and here I am up at 6 AM. As I was going to bed last night, I remembered that I had to make a flyer for the womens meeting speaker and potluck…so I can have them down at the District meeting for people to take back to their groups. So, I set my internal alarm to make sure I woke up early enough to get that done this morning. Up I was at 6, and fixed a cup of coffee. As I was sipping it, I hear a weird noise, like a BIG diesel truck and I step outside in my jammies and over in the neighbors driveway is a big white industrial vehicle with a cherry picker on it, pulling up partway in their driveway. I hear him hit a tree limb and it snaps. He gets out of the truck and is fooling around out there, when I see him pull a chainsaw out of the truck and start trying to start it. The neighbor comes walking out, and I stand there, horrified, thinking every scene from every chainsaw horror movie I’ve never seen. LOL She talks to him for a minute and then goes back inside.
For crying out loud!!! Who comes to use a chainsaw at 6 o’clock in the morning on a SUNDAY ????? Even out here, where we pretty much live free of any city ordinances. I cannot believe it.
Anyway…This morning at 10 is our regular Sunday morning meeting. When it’s over we’ll go have a nice lunch and then head down for the District 18 meeting at 2. Probably have a little walk there somewhere in between. I’m filling in for the secretary today-hope I can keep up !
It cooled off considerably the past couple of days. It’s only 46 right now at almost 8 AM. Never got warm warm yesterday and won’t today either…high’s around 60. Strange stuff. Yesterday I stopped at a community yard sale near here and bought one of those little coffee makers that makes 2 travel mugs of coffee at a time. Thought it would be a good size for me to use, since I never drink more than that, and like my coffee so much better fresh brewed than warmed up. I can never seem to make the right amount when I use the big pot. Anyway, it was 5 bucks. I just finished cleaning it with a vinegar and water solution and then a last rinse with plain water. It seems to work just fine.
Just had a big glass of yesterdays wonderful juice. Pineapple, carrot, apple, celery and cucumber. It was especially tasty after being refrigerated for about 24 hours… I put the extra into mason jars and screw a tight lid on them. My friend who is a raw foodie and juice nut says she juices a whole weeks worth at a time and does that. I can see how convenient that would be, but…what a job!! Since I don’t work, I can make it every other day or so easily enough. Then again, if I made more at one time, maybe I would drink even more. hmmmm…a dilemma. lol
I sure have high class problems today.
Okay. Time to get on with this day, away from this computer for awhile.
Namaste.
It was a stormy night again last night…high winds and hammering rains and thunder and lightning for about 3 hours. Luckily we had no damage to the trees or gardens. We had worked in the yard and gardens mnost of the afternoon and then had a quick trip to the Village Drive-In for a grilled chicken sandwich with onion rings for me and 2 pulled pork bbq sandwiches and a large order of corn fritters for himself. Brought it home and watched a movie and then headed for bed.
Todays plan is for a trip to a couple of nursery/greenhouses that we haven’t been to before, and then see what the weather looks like. If it’s rainy and crappy–we’ll go see a movie. If it’s nice…then we go back to work in the gardens. Either way, we win. lol
This is a picture of my Montmorency Cherry tree. It’s a semi-dwarf, and is 4 years old. It is absolutely loaded with tiny green cherries right now. We bought some tree netting to keep the birds off it-they LOVE those sour cherries. This picture is from last year…it’s bigger now and has more fruit than last year. I love those sour cherries for pies. Our peach trees don’t look like many of the flowers made it through that last frost, and I don’t think we’re gonna have half the harvest that we did last year. The pear tree is still showing no flowers and no fruit. I need to read up on these trees and see how long it usually takes. The apple tree, which, btw, is a grafted tree that grows 5 different kinds of apples on one tree–is loaded with fruit too. There are so many apples on it we’re going to have to take some of them off or they will break the branches once they get heavy. This is just the nature of the business. Some years the harvest is abundant and some years it’s not.
I’ll tell you one thing though- those Ruby Crescent fingerling potatoes are growing like gangbusters! We are going to have plenty of potatoes.
Sounds like hubby is about ready to get going, so I’d best get off here and get ready to go too. I’m grateful for a day filled with possibility…
Namaste.
Filed under: Uncategorized
***Flash Friday 55***
Stretching his legs and straightening this unwieldy six foot frame inherited from his grandfather, the priest sat up and tried to clear the fog from his head. He didn’t know where he was, or what to do next.
There was a sudden chill in the air. He slumped over again, for good.
(Thought this might be fun!! Ok, G-Man….lol)
A wild night last night of tornadoes and crazy weather. Had a sponsee here for supper and then she spent the night. We were sitting out on the front porch in the rocking chairs saying what a beautiful night it was after all the rain earlier in the day. Suddenly you could feel the weather shift, and the wind started picking up. Within minutes, the trees were blowing sideways and the big tulip poplar in the front yard was nearly touching the ground. We watched amazed, and she said “Are you getting scared?” I said., no…but this is a hellacious wind! It blew like that for 15 minutes or more. It stopped as suddenly as it started, and the skies opened up and it poured.
Found out today that there was a tornado that tore up the town of Gillespie, about 12 miles from us. Took roofs off houses, uprooted trees and flung them across the road…lots of damage apparently. Yikes! Feeling especially blessed that we were spared once again…
Got out in the garden today and we planted the 2 kinds of squash seedlings from the flats I started. It was incredible out there, sitting in the warm sunshine, digging in the beautiful composted dirt. Listening to the birds and just being part of the cycle of the natural world. She had a wonderful time and I got some help. Win/Win.
Have the womens meeting later this evening. That’s always good. I am picking up a new sponsee and taking her there for her first time. Life is good indeed.
Made juice again this morning. 3 big glasses made of pineapple, carrot, apple and cucumber. It was great, and my houseguest was blown away. Last night for supper I made teriyaki salmon filets. I chilled them well, and crumbled them atop a beautiful salad made of greens and butter lettuce from my garden. Julienned carrots, red onion, yellow and red bell peppers, fresh tomato and cucumber made for a healthy and very tasty salad. I had also made a bowl of cut up fresh fruits which topped it all off nicely.
I’m trying to eat more raw foods and juice, and am sure feeling the difference!
A good day all ’round.
Namaste.
Woke up after a long long nights sleep …around 7:30 last evening I suddenly ran out of gas and felt terrible and cold and threw on my long flannel nightgown and headed for bed. By the time himself was back from class, I was groggily in that half sleep/ half waking state. He couldn’t believe I was already in bed, of course.
When this happens, which is almost NEVER, closing down the house falls on him. The normal routine is this: he says, time for bed. I say, yes. He goes. I clear up the supper dishes. He takes a shower. I make the rounds, filling water and food dishes for cats and dogs. He brushes his teeth. I pick up dog toys that are always scattered all over the living room, as well as his shoes and sometimes his socks, and any other items of clothing he leaves wherever he took them off. He combs his hair. I check the water and food in the bird cage, cover the bird for the night, and feed the fish. He climbs into bed with his book. I get out the stuff and make his lunch for tomorrow morning. He reads. I clean up from that. He starts making noises in there. I turn off the light to the aquarium and scoop the cat litter boxes. He makes more noise. I let the dogs out one final time to do their business before bed. He turns off the light. On a good day, the dogs come right back, but not usually. He calls out, I thought you were coming to bed?? I say, in a minute, the dogs won’t come in! He says, That was an hour ago you said you were coming!! I look around the cleaned up kitchen and living room for an axe handle to beat him to death with…. I hear him snoring. I come in and get on the computer…
But last night I was ill (physically or mentally, I know not). So here’s this mornings scenario: He has to get up and make his own lunch (for a change). I wake up, because I never sleep for 8 hours in a row! I hear him banging around and closing cabinet doors and looking looking looking for things that have been in the exact same place for the entire 4 years we have lived here. I force myself to stay in bed. I hear him yelling because one dog or another is DYING to get outside, since he didn’t let them out last night. He comes in and cheerfully says goodbye, sleepyhead, hope you feel better! And off he goes to work.
I get out of bed and walk into the scene of WWIII…added to all the stuff that didn’t get done last nbight, is the mess of this 49 year old adolescent trying to make his own lunch and breakfast. Cabinet doors are hanging open, the peanut butter is sitting on the cabinet. The bread box is open with stuff hanging out of it. There are 4 plastic containers sitting on the cabinet, from him trying to decide which one he needed, I guess. The sink is piled with dirty dishes, the cat boxes are overflowing, the food and water bowls are all empty.And this, gentle readers, is why it takes me over an hour to go to bed at night. Because there’s nothing worse than waking up to the mess of daily living.
Sigh….
But here I sit at the computer with my coffee. I have a lovely carrot/apple/cucumber and cauliflower juice awaiting me in the fridge. And as soon a I drink it, I’ll get started on straightening up. I have a sponsee coming today at 11:30. We’re working on her 4th step. The good news is that she’s bringing her massage table! WooHoo–the rewards of being a sponsor! LOL
BTW–used the new juicer yesterday morning. OMG!!!!!!!!!!!! It is like driving a Jaguar after having a beat up 1961 Volkswagon! I made 3 times the amount of juice in the time it took to make 1 glass before. The pulp hopper only had to be emptied when I was finished. I am in juicing heaven!
Okay. It rained all night and the earth is cleansed…like my house needs. It’s beautiful out there….droplets of pristine rain glistening everywhere, and that clean smell of the earth after a good drink. I have things to do…laundry and vacuuming and clearing up the kitchen. And tonight I will attend to my duties as mistress of this castle, because it makes my life easier in the long run. And I will feel useful and needed and appreciated.
All’s well in the world at Honeysuckle Hill…
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Jack Russell Terrorists, Juicers, sweet coen
A long busy day….me running on about an hour and a half of sleep. I should have tried to take a nap, I guess, but I juiced my breakfast and it gave me a burst of energy that carried me through the day.
Had a wonderful couple of hours with my girlfriend. Bought her a nice soy Lavendar and Vanilla candle for her birthday. IWe talke nonstop for about 2 hours. lol
I bought a new juicer at Target today…it was a good deal and is a powerful juicer. The one I’ve been using is a small cheapie that came free with something I bought once. It worked okay for a while, but lately has been not grinding food well, and it’s so small you have to empty the hopper at least twice to get a good sized glass of juice. This new one has a huge feed chute that you can put a whole apple in !! It also has a quart sized juice holder, compared to the other one which may have held a pint. While I was out, I picked up some groceries, including natural peanut butter from the health food store. Nothing but peanuts and salt in it. I always buy 2-3 of the large jars whenever they have it on sale…it’s regularly 7.99/jar and the sale price is 4.99 I got 3 jars. Plus a box of Nature Burger, which is a meat substitute made of whole grains and stuff…you mix it with an equal part of boiling water and it thickens when it cools and you make it into patties. It’s really quite good. So we had NB for supper, with swiss cheese, red onions, lettuce, tomatoes and pickles. And corn of the cob. Yummm…
I’m having a very frustrating evening trying to get these damned dogs in the house. That Jack Russell Terrorist has her one track mind on something out there and will not do anything I say. I’ve been calling and calling her, threatening her, all to no avail. I can feel my blood pressure going up. She doesn’t just bark…she has the nastiest high pitched YAP that I have ever heard. If I was one of my neighbors, I’d shoot her dead. It’s after midnight, and she’s out there raising hell. I cannot believe that Mr Kelley is sleeping through this!!!!!!!!
And of course, her partner in crime is out there with her. Lucy doesn’t bark like a mad dog, like Molly does, but she won’t come either. It’s more than maddening… I’m going to make them sleep outside tonight. I’ll show them whose boss….lol
A very moderate temps day, around 69. Sunny and nice though, so it was good. Himself started the plot for the sweet corn this evening. We really love corn fresh from the garden, cooked on the grill, husks and all. If you’ve never tried it like that–you haven’t lived.
Okay. Enough for now.
Namaste.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Happy Mothers Day, all you mothers! Hope yours was as great as mine turned out to be.
My son and daughter-in-law took me out for breakfast, and we had a great start with veggie omelets, French Toast, eggs galore, sausages, bacon, ham, hashbrowns and biscuits and gravy. Not to worry–I only ate the veggie omelet with wheat toast! lol Afterwards was a surprise trip through the hills of Calhoun County…we drove and went sightseeing and walking through the Copperhead Hollow Nature Preserve. We took the Brussels Ferry back across the Mighty Mississippi and then came back down the Great River Road through the little touristy burg of Grafton, where we window shopped and strolled through a couple of galleries and antique stores. Then it was home again…a lovely day with the best son a mother could ask for. A son who loves me , although God knows I didn’t deserve to get this back in sobriety. I am grateful and awed every day at God’s grace in all this. He was already 18 when I finally got sober, and I had already pretty much ruined his life with my drinking.
Himself and I worked in the garden and planted a few more things along the rock wall late this afternoon. We put in red onions and some cantaloupes and watermelons, some Old German Tomatoes, 2 bell peppers and a sweet banana pepper. This week I will transplant the hubbard and butternut squash that I started in flats. Along the rock wall, I planted some purslane and some ice plants. I caught my garden journal up too, mostly. I still have some notes I need to make in it. I like keeping a garden journal, it’s really helpful to look back at last year and see where I planted what and how well it did. I draw sloppy diagrams of the garden beds and note when and where I put stuff. And try to remember to keep notes of the last frost of the season as well. I have used this particular book since 2003…it’s coming apart. Guess the 2010 gardens will be getting a newer book ! I also have some tomatoe cages that won’t make it this year…am trying to decide how and what I can recycle them into…plant stakes maybe….or something.
I am up early tomorrow to take himself to work, so i can go meet a girlfriend for coffee tomorrow at 2. Today was her birthday and we didn’t get to see each other because of Mothers Day. SO–tomorrow we’ll meet at Sacred Grounds and catch up and enjoy the college town coffee house. (((Andrew))) That’s where we had lunch last year right before you left for the Great North.
Feeling deeply grateful for a comforting, productive and satisfying day.
Namaste.
