Happy Mother's "Day

Happy Mother's Day to the mothers who may read this blog.

I could grow to love the smell of honeysuckle in the morning. It is a sweet scent to meet when stepping outside. This morning the creek behind the house is high enough to be almost audible over the ac and traffic. It is Sunday morning, so the traffic is light, though the cars that are using Gorman are noisier than normal. Or they sound noisier due to the smaller number of them.

I doped the cat this morning before feeding her. She looked up at me after as if I were Attila the Hun coming to rape and kill all her children. I hope our new home is easier on her allergies.

I am enjoying the Texas gardening book. It seems Denton is in the same hardiness zone as Raleigh. Sadly, the bump from 8b does not quite reach our new home. Though I suppose, as we are that close to the change over, it might be possible to see some plants from the southern zone survive. I was looking at the Denton master gardener site a day or two ago and noticed that the chance for final frost (90%) is April 6. First frost (50%) is November 16. On a cold year we will only have a 7.5 month growing season. I am looking forward to growing a few veggies and some annuals as soon as I get there. It will be too hot for planting many things, but there are a few I should be able to hang here and there, and stick a few containers round our patio for color and accent. I hope to build a cheap frame and do a little herb/veggie garden in the fall as well. Neat thing is that a fair number of veggies grow well in the fall (August to November). According to the book, some root crops can even be grown over winter. And yes, for those of you living in zones 2, 3, and 4, I will engage in excessive boasting and gloating as I plant pansies in November. Some day, when I live in a place more settled, I will plant some camellia bushes. I love their flowers, and I love that they bloom for a large part of the winter.

Even though I am not wanting to pack and move all that much, I am getting excited about doing some growing when I arrive. I will need to take some time to figure out the light patterns around the house, but I hope to be able to run down to the nursery and get started mid-June.

Yesterday was NCSU's formal graduation ceremony. I did not bother attending. The reading was my graduation, after that it felt like the whole show was over. From the schoool site, I should be able to slip down to the registrars office and pick up my diploma May 20-22. If I don't do it then, they will send it too me, which might cause some problems as I will be gone shortly after that. There might be enough time if they mailed it the 23, but it would be a close thing. So, I will try to go collect it the 20th, which is the following Wednesday.

Packing is going along nicely. I am puttering away at things, and getting most of the rarely used items in boxes. I will do the major tear down of my computer on the 25th, and make sure that the boxes we are going to ship to Denton by UPS are gone that day as well. If we ship Monday, our stuff should be there by Thursday, and not have to sit outside for more than the one night. We might even be able to have it delivered Friday instead of Thursday.

Exciting times huh?