From Garden

NOTE: The eggplant still needs to be planted. tbp = to be planted

From Garden

It is a beautiful spring day (58 F right now). We took a dissertation break this morning and ended up at Calloway's. As anyone will tell you, walking away from a greenhouse without anything is impossible, we left with some veggies, some herbs, and a cyclomen (not pictured). I have labeled my garden plots and hopefully will be able to show some growth over the next few months. It is fun to get dirty hands in February. :)

A huge confluence of events occurs today!
1. It's garbage day!
2.It's my birthday!!

I am going to spend my birthday doing some gardening. There are still a few small things I need to take care of in the back yard (we ignore the front for the moment) including cutting back the purple fountain grass. In the boxes, I need to finish setting one up (laths and poles), and I will be doing some planting today as well.

It is the season to plant leafy and root crops, so today I will plant lettuce, spinach, brocoli (not sure if this one will work, it may get to hot to quick for it), radishes, carrots, beets, swish chard, and dill. Tis the season to experiment, so it will be interesting to see what grows and what doesn't. It is a little early still, but I feel it is necessary to do some gardening on my birthday simply because I have never done so before.

As for a celebration, I will likely go to a local Indian restaurant (Kokila) for supper. Later I will have a cherry and almond cookie with some vanilla flavored coconut ice-cream. Much as I like the soy ice-cream, I can't eat it anymore. The cookies are great, I made them last night and was forced to test their quality. All of the cookies I have tried from Isa's vegan cookies cookbook have been amazing. If you are looking for a cool cookie cookbook, you can't go wrong with that one.

Oh, I will likely make a bit more salsa today as well. I made a batch last night, and accidently made it too hot to consume comfortably. So, I figure if I make another batch without heat, then mix the two, I should have a consumable condiment. I am making my own salsa as I am not pleased with the kinds I have found at the local stores.

It has been a long, gray winter. I am tired of the cold, the snow, the wet, the dingy gray, the garbage, the cold, the gray. I really need some warmer weather, some sunshine, some bright green, and some flowers. Texas has too many seasons for me (I would gladly lose winter).

Happy birthday too me!

This has been a quiet week. The weather finally improved, at least for a few days. I have moved some house plants outside, but will have to drag them back in Monday night. More s$#$w is forecast for that night, though the forecast for the rest of the month shows steady improvement. March is nearly here, so the temperatures really do need to start warming up so I can get some green into my life.

OH! I stepped outside to check on the onion sets I planted last month, and there is signs of onion growth. Small green shoots are poking through the soil! They took far longer than one might have expected due to the cold weather, but they are growing. On the down side, the tomato seeds I planted way back when have not grown. I am trying to restart them once more, this time keeping them a little cooler (I think the previous set up was too hot) and a little less wet. The technical term is damping off I do believe, and I am convinced that is what happened to mine. Hopefully I will get this thing figured out eventually. I have not tried to grow tomatoes inside since grade 1 or so. Though that is not really that long ago.

Back to virtual ref work for me.

I may haul Carol off to a great veggie grocer tomorrow morning depending on the weather. We miss the farmer's market in Raleigh. Best place ever.

additional photos of the 2010 blizzard

feb 12 2010

According to the weather office we received approximately 10 inches of the cold wet white stuff.

Enough winter already!!

I woke up aching this morning. Seems like the cold weather common up north is no longer something I handle well.

Icky, unprocessed, images of a winter in Texas:

texas snow

Ten years quit today!!

I shall ignore the winter all around and celebrate my success!

Finally! Friday arrives and we are one day closer to sunshine and warmth. It has been a gray, wet week, though the sun did shine briefly Tuesday, the rain returned and has not left since.

Next week is a big week for me. On the 10th, I will have ten years of no smoking. Quitting was the best life choice I have ever made.

On a side note, I have not had a diet-Coke since Jan. 1.

Excitement!! Two of the heirloom tomato seeds I started last month have sprouted. In a few days I will have to move them to a bigger container. Not sure how I will keep a certain cat from playing in the dirt...

The current of cold that came through has ameliorated, slightly. We appear to have hit a February flatline with no rise in temperatures in the foreseeable future.

I have been quietly busy the last few weeks as school kicks in full-time once more. My courses are going ok so far, though I have only completed two weeks of work. What has happened since I last posted:

A flock of robins flew in Friday exciting the cats. Baby Charlie, who is getting huge, made lots of meeping sounds as he tried to decide which bird had the greatest potential to satisfy his hunger. At one point there must have been 50 robins working the back lawn. I suspect they are flocking up getting ready to move north.

I have attended two cataloging classes. My teacher is so very young. :) The class should be interesting, but I am not sure that is where my interests lie.

Because of the weather, I have been locked inside a great deal. I have not done anything outside in the garden patch at all. It is like Christmas eve as a kid every day, but no Christmas day has arrived yet.

The days are getting longer. Cats are content, mostly. Charlie had to get a needle as he was showing signs of tape worms, but he appears better now. Carol is crazy busy, so same old with her.

January was one short month. Can we slow the train for the next few months?