White flowers

I've never been a fan of white flowers. I'm not enough of a designer when it comes to choosing plants to appreciate them for their accent value, and it seems to me that if one is going through the trouble of planting flowers, color is an obvious reward for doing so.

So I don't knowingly buy white flowers.

Earlier in the spring, I started some Zinnias from seed and was looking forward to the pinks and purples of this particular variety (whose name escapes me at the moment). They have large, almost Dahlia-like flowers and I really liked them last year. The package clearly shows them coming in three colors: white, pink and purple.

When they were big enough, I tucked four in the alley garden and four in the raised bed out front. As an aside, I have been very pleased with converting that from veggies to flowers (thank you farmers and grocery stores from whom I can buy food).

Here's what I got:

Funny, they've grown a lot since I took these. But you get the point. Two white ones above, two white ones below...

And here you can see two more white, plus the two pink ones that were in the mix.

A friend gave me a few Calendula seeds a couple of years ago and they've gone bananas in this bed. I've pulled a bunch of them, but not enough. I wanted to have a few amongst the other things I put in there. I bought three Dahlias and planted a couple of specialty sunflowers that aren't blooming yet in this photo. 

They are all nice, and the bees love them. It feels good to plant stuff for the bees. 

We've gotten a lot of rain this summer. And not a lot of the scorching heat that can happen in July in August. Good for us, as it hasn't been enough to cause flooding and it keeps the threat of wildfires down. 

In other news, I've been in contact with new friend M, he of the blind date a few days ago, and we're going to get together this weekend for dinner or something. I've finally matured to the point where I realize that it's too soon to tell anything. Too soon to project about what might happen, so I might as well just enjoy the ride.

Garden resolutions 2014: more flowers

I didn't do much with my vegetable garden last year besides planting and watering it, mostly on account of getting the kitchen remodeled and not having a stove for parts of August and September. I kind of let things go. For example, I threw several very large zucchini directly into the compost pile, which was wasteful.

I know some people consider gardening to be only vegetable gardening, but I get a lot of pleasure from growing flowers. I also like to support the local food movement, and dislike having to eat something from the garden because it's going to go to waste if I don't.

I'm fortunate to not have to rely on my garden for food, and thankful that I have these beds so if I did need to grow more of my own food, I potentially could.

So this year, I'll have the usual one zucchini, a couple of roma tomatoes, a grape tomato, snap peas, lettuce and spinach, carrots. Some of that stuff will even be in little rows. And that's it. I'll need to tame my raspberries, and deal with the fact that only half (maybe fewer) of the canes are bearing fruit. Somehow, some of the ones that originally went in there are sterile. I've cut them in the fall, I've let them go overwinter, no difference. They'll leaf out fine, but no fruit. Anyone have suggestions for getting those out? I'd be OK with getting everything out and starting over, too. It's only a 4 x 4 bed in the corner of the yard.

Then, I'm going to use the newest bed that I put in a couple of years ago to plant Dahlias, and maybe a rose bush. I've always liked them and why the heck not? Writing this reminds me that I need to have a plumber come out and fix or install a new faucet outside, as the one that is there now leaks unless I really wrench it down.

I don't think it's too early to think about gardening. It feels good to begin.

"Pear" and some thoughts on weather forecasting

We have a winner in the basement paint decision making. It is Pear, by Behr. Here's a picture pulled off the web (source below) with a rockin' blue ceiling that I'm not going to do this round, but really like.

I intentionally picked something kind of bright because the basement only has a couple of small windows. It's funny how different the paint chip looked at Home Depot vs. in my car driving to work (stopped at a light, of course), vs. when I was in bed with the compact fluorescent bulb lamp illuminating things vs at work. 

Compared to the color of this on my screen, the paint chip has a bit more yellow than the picture. I figure it will match nicely with browns, as well as blues, and yellow as well. I'm going to finish my coffee, have some breakfast and get to it.

We are supposed to have a doozy of a winter storm today, and so far, it's been a bit of a disappointment, although it is snowing steadily at the moment. We had temps in the high 50's this week, so surfaces are pretty warm to begin with, and the temperature is in the low 30's now. Even if it just rains, we in CO are so grateful for moisture, as it has been a very dry winter. 

It's time to think about starting seeds, and I'm on the fence about what to start. The chances of me being able to grow lettuce starts comparable to those I can find at the local nursery are slim. And it helps that they satisfy, in that I buy a red leaf, a green leaf and a spinach and like my salads just fine with those. I have a packet of seeds that is a variety of spring mix things. Maybe I'll give that a go. I can always buy the starts if if doesn't work out.

One thing I am most certainly going to start is several varieties of zinnias. They've consistently done well in my hot, south-facing alley garden, so I'm going to take advantage of that. There are so many kinds, too. For the rest of the growing slots in my little bit of seed starting space (one heat mat and one 2' grow light) I'll have to ponder and see what appeals to me.

I have had the great good fortune to cross paths with a super-gardener. She's in the gamer group I joined about a year ago, and growing food is her thing. I am so inspired by her, and look forward to talking garden stuff as this season progresses. She's also come to most of the trivia nights that I've been organizing, so she is a friend as well. Win-win!!

And speaking of trivia, it has been a lot of fun to get some friends together and participate. The music is too loud sometimes, and we probably don't drink as much as the bar would like us too (I say that facetiously) but I have really enjoyed it. This past week, there were people from three different parts of my life there, and that was really cool. 

Image from here.

I, the insured

OK, so the picture has nothing to do with this post, but it's sure a pretty color. This is one of the few that I grew from seed that flowered and did pretty well. It's still hard to believe that a little seed can produce something with such vibrant color. Most of the garden plants got whacked with the cold temps lately. Carrots and parsnips are still in the ground and I'll harvest those probably in a week or so. Despite (or maybe because of) my neglect besides watering them, I got three big round happy pumpkins from the alley garden this year. We'll carve two and I'm looking for a home for the third. Yes, I'll take pictures. :-)

I got a call a few weeks ago from my insurance agent saying she'd like to review my policy with me in person one of these days and that she had an opening for today. I agreed, although I thought it would be an attempt for them to charge me more for something somehow. I dislike it when I'm that cynical.

But since I sold the van this week (godspeed Graycie, on your way to the great state of Maine where you shall live), I needed to get the insurance for that canceled anyway. It was a very pleasant experience and we ended up adjusting a couple of things and I feel like I've got good coverage. I got a rider to my homeowner's policy for a few dollars a year that covers me in case the jewelry I make is stolen from a craft show or out of my car. It was cheap enough that I thought that'd be a good idea.

I got the amount of coverage reduced on my trusty Honda, as having them insure it for its replacement cost is kind of silly on a 17 year old vehicle. If it's totaled, I'll go ahead and get a different car. And I have been thinking about it. Since it's just me, Mr W and the dog, and I don't do much driving in the mountains, I've got the flexibility to get a small, fuel efficient car. But not too small. I need four doors.

So the current contenders include the Prius C, which I've had my eye on for a few years now and am happy is finally available. It's not cheap, though, they are about $21K. Gulp. Also in contention is the Fort Fiesta. Not as good of gas mileage, (but great for a non-hybrid) but several thousand dollars cheaper. Could an objective person tell me that that several thousand dollars will buy me more reliability? If so, I'd go with the Prius.  I also like the Honda Fit, and have liked that for a while, too. It also doesn't get as good of gas mileage as the Prius (nothing will that isn't a hybrid, of course). The Honda is at least (if not a little more) reliable as a Prius, and the price is probably close. I'd consider a used regular-sized Prius, too. Mull, mull, mull.

My banjo instructor is hosting a jam tonight, and I'm excited to attend. I haven't been going to the Tuesday night jam because I haven't been practicing as much as I should. But I'm making an effort to practice more and it's time to go back, if for no other reason that it's is in itself practice. Ooohh, circular. 

OK, off to it. Hope you all have a good weekend.

Zap

We had our first killing frost a few days ago, and these lovely Zinnias are no more. I had great luck with Zinnias this year. They liked it in the hot dry spots in my garden and I will (as I think I've mentioned before) plant more of them next year. These were starts from the plant nursery from sometime in June when starts were already 50% off, so it was a good deal. The sun was already low enough in the sky so that at mid-day, these were in partial shadow. 

In other news, Mr W and I came home yesterday to a Sally poop accident. Luckily it wasn't the kind where it is deposited far and wide around the house, but it was right on the wood floor in the living room. Now, my wood floor is old and worn - people tell me that the "look" is very in right now. I was very concerned, as I worked with a toothpick and then a piece of wire to extract poop from between the boards, that it was going to smell permanently. 

I sound like an advertisement, but I had a bottle of Nature's Miracle on hand and poured that between the boards and over the area and let it dry. It doesn't smell this morning, and I'll get down there and sniff the boards sometime today when I work up the courage to do so. I'm relieved, but Sal is still off, digestive-wise. I just let her out this morning and she's no better. I'll have to decide whether to stop in sometime today - probably should, and let her out. Do myself a favor.

And in other other news, it looks like I'll pick up the check for selling Graycie the campervan today. All's well that ends well and she goes to a good home. 

A bit of travel

I tell you, I am still getting used to sending my kid to school an hour earlier in the mornings. As we've gone to an every-other-week schedule, this is only my second go of it. I refuse to give up my 30 minutes of coffee-blogging-check websites time, so I'm getting up 15 minutes early and then have to just keep moving to get out the door by 7:10. But he has not been late yet, so we're good.

We are also getting used to how he spends his time after school. There's a lot of time between the end of school and bedtime, and it's a process determining how he should spend his time. I know, I know, when we grew up, no one had to schedule our time. But that darn computer would occupy all his time if I let it. Still *sigh*.

Anyway, we'll have a computer-free couple of days, as we're going to the church's retreat this weekend up in the mountains. I'm looking forward to hikes, knitting, playing board games and there are rumors that someone's going to be calling contra dances. We're sharing a room with Mr W's friend and his mom, so he is thrilled.

Should be fun.

I'll leave you with this picture of my ONE yellow pear tomato plant this year. As you can see, it had a great year - of vegetative growth. Yes, there are a couple of tomatoes even. But mostly leaves and stems. You can see the hose for scales (and the weeds, does that help?). I won't plant this kind of tomato again. I loved and actually used the grape tomatoes I've planted for the two previous years, so will go with those in the future.

Four cuke-a-lopes, one cantaloupe

Yes, I am aware that cucumbers and cantaloupe are both members of the same plant family. Yes, I realize that planting them close together means that a pollinator might go from one to the other. 

But, geez, I had no idea I could get cuke-a-lopes. Or Canta-bers, I suppose. At least I've gotten a couple of the regular round kind. Stay tuned for what these look and taste like when cut open. I'll let you know.

I did make jam yesterday and it tastes great!! I was limited by the amount of low-sugar pectin I had on hand, but still got plenty of little jars to give away. Yippee!

More flower pictures

I bought a packet of burgundy sunflower seeds and one of them, after a slow start, has grown into a behemoth of a plant. Beautiful flowers, but the thing is probably 8' x 8'. The bees love it, and the flowers are a very pleasant dark red color.

Here's a view from the side of the plant. You can see the one flower that's facing the camera in the upper right 1/4 of the picture. It has more blooms now, and seems like it might tip over, but I think it'll be OK. Maybe next year I'll stake them out so they stay a little straighter. 

If you're interested in winning the bracelet of your choice from my Etsy site, here's a link to the blog post at my other blog that has the details. You can enter up until 9 pm Mountain Time Wednesday.

Post vacation post - 3

I know! There's been a lot rolling around in my little head lately. I think I'll have one more after this and that'll be all the self-disclosure I'll inflict on my valued readers for a while. I've got some garden pictures that I want to share. I'm going to get one now, go off on a little tangent and circle round to my revelatory musings.

Aren't those nice? Volunteer 4 o'clocks that did some kind of genetic two-step because I had one yellow and a couple of pink ones last year. Isn't that cool? I don't know at all how the expression of the color works in this plant, but these are wonderful. I will never ever go without  4 o'clocks in the garden again. They are big, prolific flowerers and do really well in the spot I've got them in. That's a big part of gardening with perennials, isn't it? Finding the spot where they will thrive. 

I started eating the first cantaloupe from the garden and it is FAB. I thought I may have waited too long, but it's really good. I will always plant cantaloupes, too. As an aside, I'm going to buy some peaches tomorrow and make ginger peach cinnamon jam. Yum. I'll take pictures.

OK, back to the stuff the title of the post is about. So another thought that has occurred to me as a result of the vacation mind shift is that I have become kind of cynical. Protected and cynical. Not a good combo. I'll doubt that things work the way someone says they do, and have been a little pessimistic lately. I realized this actually the Sunday after vacation, when I was playing a game with the gamers group from church. There is a couple that I don't really know, but I've seen them as part of the group a few times. 

The woman, M, was so genuine, and earnest, and open. I really saw it as this kind of reverse mirror of what I am not really like at the moment, but would like to move towards. I don't need to be her, and I don't think it's my personality to be as enthusiastic as she (but it fits her really well). So I'm going to work on it (again). I see it now as sort of a pattern, and that's a good thing, because then it can be worked on. Smile, nod, breathe, chat, laugh, repeat. 

Heaven help me...

I have started a new blog just for my crafty stuff. I'm going to drone on about my experiences as a mom, lab worker, and gardener here. Might also use it for sharing sciencey stuff.

But here's the address: http://physariadesigns.blogspot.com

Things are good around here. I'm getting stuff out of the garden to eat, and that's been fun. Two cantaloupes are almost ready. Every day I go out and see if they will "slip" from the vine. The outsides look done, so I might have to sacrifice one and see what it's like on the inside. The only other time I had a melon go to completion, it was too ripe by the time it slipped, and it was sweet but mushy.

My banjo teacher has been working with me so I can play stuff in different keys. It feels weird and strange and is hard for me to hear it such that I can easily play the next chord of familiar (read: children's) songs. It's a process, though, and still fun.

Garden update 7-7-12

I'd like to let the rest of the country know that I hope that you get the same rains we had yesterday. Soaking, persistent, but not scary rains that we really needed. I was looking in the paper for the rainfall totals, but their tracking ends at 8 pm, so it wasn't accurate. We must have gotten an inch of rain, which for around here is a pretty big deal. It has cooled off, too so I'm a happy camper. On to the garden pictures!

 

Here's all the vegetables and fruits. The soaker hose irrigation is working pretty good. The apple tree is leaning a bit, and I might have to give it some support. I'll have to ask my friend from the dog park who knows about such things.

 

This is the new bed. Strawberries, parsnips (yeah, we'll see how those turn out - not sure I've ever eaten one, but am willing to give it a go), cukes in the cage (bought late, and a little behind), and a couple of Marigolds from seed in front. I had planned to put potatoes in this bed, and found the garden stores sold out, so I bought some Yukon Golds from Whole Foods and waited for them to sprout, and they never did. The irony is that I am notorious for opening my pantry closet and finding spuds with four inch long purple roots coming out of them. Not these ones. Next year I'll be better prepared.

 

I've got my first zucchini flower this morning! This bed is a little sparse, but I've got herbs in front of the zucchini, and some freeloader broccoli (all leaves, no flowers) there as well. My one yellow pear tomato is also in this bed, which you can see on the right in the first picture. I recently gave it more irrigation hose, so I think it will be happier. It was kind of limping along.

 

The Nicotiana I bought last year as starts reseeded itself (a lot!). There are 8 other plants in there, Viola and Gazania, but you wouldn't know it. Next year I'll just let the Nicotiana have the whole pot and save a couple of bucks. I like how they look. Raspberries are behind them. Lots of leaves this year, a few berries. It's pretty crowded back there. One of these days I need to get in with some long gloves and see if there are berries that I can't see from the outside. 

 

Rogue lettuce in this one, and onions. I also have a couple of planted-late green bean plants that will hopefully go up the trellis. Carrots in here as well. I planted a lot of cantaloupe because we love it and what the heck. It seems to be having a good year. 

I'm letting it spill over and go wherever it wants, in hopes that we'll get a few good ones. Might as well get some benefit from the heat, right? 

One more picture:

I'll do a post about this soon, but I find myself seeing some parallels between doing online dating (where I was occupied with seeing how many people looked at my profile) and trying to sell my jewelry online. *sigh* I still enjoy the process, as long as I don't expect too much out of it.

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A little catch up

Happy weekend! It's supposed to be near 100 for the next two days. I'm volunteering at our local brewfest this weekend. It'll be fun, I need to drink lots of water. So, what's been happening here? 

Well, at work, I got work done on a project and it's ready to hand off to my boss, who was this week collecting ticks in Missouri. The magnitude of my gratefulness for not being asked to go on this trip is huge indeed. Ick ick ick. So, that's good. I worked from home yesterday afternoon on a little proposal that helps explain the connection between the sort of research we do and public health. It's not always a straight line, and it helps to try to make it clear for the people who at the top who make decisions. 

I've been working a lot on Etsy shop stuff. Well, it seems like I've been spending a lot of time lately trying to promote my stuff on Pinterest, Facebook and Tumblr. The overlap is definitely there, but it seems each has its own different audience. But setting that stuff up and keeping it current takes time. I do enjoy it, though, so it's not like I feel like I'm wasting time. Those earrings are the last of five pairs I posted recently. I used mainspring barrels from old watches, plus the little glass cabochons and my clay tiles. If you've got an opinion, what do you think of the price? Reasonable?

I'm also doing a giveaway on the FB page. Check out Wednesday's post for details. 

It's been so very dry here. I know it's not like that everywhere, for sure. I've been dutifully watering my garden and sometimes my grass. I'm trying not to let my lawn die this year. I've gotten a so-so harvest from the lettuce and spinach - it got too hot too fast after I planted them. But the rest of it is coming along. I planted a bunch of cantaloupe, and with the hot summer, I'm hoping we get a few good ones. It seems like it's around the beginning of school by the time they are ripe, but the plants have flower and I'm hopeful. The dog's been helping herself to the raspberries, which I think is quite funny, and I'll just need to try to get out there before her.

I can tell you this because it's done and there's no jinxing it now. I had gone out on a few dates with someone I met online. I know, I know, why the online stuff again. In short, because I feel like there's no one out there (so I don't spend much time on the site), but yet I'm an optimist, so it feels like leaving a business card in a jar. Anyway, we went out for lunch a couple of times and went hiking once. Each time, it was this thing about how busy he was, and whether he'd be able to make the agreed-upon time. We moved things around several times, and the last straw was when we had agreed to go out, potentially, on a Saturday night before he was leaving for a conference. We had set up the potential outing at least a week in advance, so it seemed to me he could find a couple of hours to do go out. He emailed at 6 pm, not to apologize, but to say he couldn't make it, he had too many things to do yet.

The reason I mention this is because there was a time when I would have put up with this bs. There was a time when I would have thought this pretty normal and would have been understanding. In fact at the beginning, when we had to reschedule or he couldn't make it, I thought, "well, he's got a lot going on, so I'll be flexible." And you know what? We all seem to manage to make time for the things we think are important. We do. We are all busy, too. So I emailed him and said that he seemed like he was always too busy, and that there was no hard feelings, I just didn't want to conduct things that way. 

And I never heard from him again. I guess he's too busy to reply. 

But things are good. I was telling a dear friend who came up from Denver and took me out to dinner last night (and has been married forever) that yes, I still sometimes can't believe that I have been single now for 6.5 years after the divorce. But I have come to realize, especially after hearing about how one half of a couple can make bad choices and make things difficult for both parties, that it's nice to come home to a friendly dog and just check my email and go to bed. 

Trying to beat the heat

It's supposed to be hot today, so I'm finishing my coffee and getting ready to do some yard work here at almost 7 am on a Saturday. I'm almost always up by this hour, so it's not that big of a deal. I have been BUSY, hence the lack of posts. Many of the other "just folks" blogs I follow are in the same groove right now.

I attended a volunteer meeting for the Ignite Fort Collins organizers last week and I'm going to be doing a little more social media stuff for them. I really want to learn how to get the word out for stuff without being a nuisance to people, and thought I could also use it for my jewelry stuff at some point. It's a good group of people and I really like how everyone is a big fan of living here.

I spent last night mixing clay for buttons. I'm still figuring out the best way to replicate colors. I bought a kitchen scale and it supposedly goes down to the nearest gram, but it's dicey at that low of a weight. Maybe there's a sweet spot on the surface of it that I have yet to find. I thought I had the ratios just right and made a big batch (for the equipment I have) and it's too pink, so I need to adjust. It's not hard to do, a little this, mix mix mix, a little more that, mix mix mix. There's no subtracting, though, so it has to be a gradual process. I'm happy with the results so far and want to end the weekend with the first batch to send off.

It was Mr W's first week of camp this week. He's at the top of the heap age-wise, and they laid the hammer down early on the discipline stuff. Here's how that can go wrong (with verification from the counselor). The group is playing a trivia game with two teams. Mr W gets a wrong answer. Camper A calls him an idiot, Mr W vigorously disagrees. Camper A gets into Mr W's personal space. Mr W gives Camper A a shove (the degree of which is unclear - not enough to knock him down, enough for the counselors to notice). Since Mr W made physical contact with another camper, it's an "automatic three strikes", which results in the parents being told about the incident. The other kid got two strikes (and perhaps knows how to work the system...).

Um, really? The expectations are that my kid is supposed to walk away when someone gets close to him and is verbally abusive. Since Mr W's actions were all defensive and not offensive, I told him not to worry about it. He didn't know if he'd get in trouble or not. I don't know if I would have handled it differently if I were in his shoes. The counselor later said that they're having trouble already with this kid.

Otherwise, he's having a good time there.

Lastly, here are my Delphiniums before they got blown around by the wind the other day. They are almost six feet tall. Very impressive. 

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Raised Beds 5-27-12

I thought I'd post a few raised bed pictures today. I'm not quite done planting, but what's there is doing well. Above shows what I refer to as the 'third' raised bed, although with the raspberries in the corner, it's really the fourth. I extended the soaker hose from the bed on the right, and consequently that bed doesn't get quite as much water as it used to. I think it's enough, though.

This bed has strawberries and... parsnips! Yes, parsnips. The garden store I was at had them, so I got them on a whim. I looked for seed potatoes at the garden store and they were out, so I bought some organic Yukon Gold spuds and am waiting for them to sprout so I can harden them off and plant them in the front part of this bed.

Here's my problem-child raised bed. Too much water at the end of the soaker hose last year combined with faulty corner reinforcement efforts on the part of the gardener (*ahem*) and the corner split over the winder. I've pounded several lengths of 3' rebar and it'll hold for another year or two. Note to self: next time, reinforce corners at the outset. I've still got the corner braces in the garage, unopened. This bed has my one tomato plant (several friends are planting many, many plants and I plan to be there to say, "Sure, I'll take a few extra, no problem"),  a few broccoli from seed that I'm not sure will do well because it's kind of late to be planting broccoli, and some herbs. 

The neighbor's volunteer mint is along the fence line on the right. I'll beat it back a few times over the summer, but don't really mind that it's there.

This one has onions on the left, a couple of cantaloupe plants, my lettuce and spinach, and carrots. I also planted some Calendula and Marigold seeds. Because I felt like it (ah, the benefits of being the only gardener in the house...). Getting to be time to harvest some of that spinach, it would seem.

My pot of flowers. Not much to see here yet. This one has some volunteer Nicotiana from last year, Gazania, and Viola. Raspberries in the back.

Obligatory dog picture. The Tail says, "I'm watching out for potential interlopers. Or cats. Or something. Maybe squirrels." She really needs a haircut, but her appointment isn't until June 7th. She's pretty wooly at the moment. 

This weekend brings graduation parties and a picnic with the single parent group tomorrow. The weather's been windy but nice. 

Hi blog, howareya?

It's funny to me how writing on this blog has become part of my routine such that not doing it for a few days feels weird. So here I am, although I don't have much in the way of big stuff going on. I'm making a bracelet for my banjo instructor to give as a wedding gift. She wanted to personalize it, so I lined up various bits for her to choose from and took this picture:

It's been my experience so far to have several people say they'd like to do this, but they don't tell me what they want, so the process stalls. I thought maybe I'd work up several of these in different color schemes and make those available for custom orders. 

I made the picture huge on my preview - does it bleed over the margins when you view it? 

After my face-reddening experience at work the other day, I've been taking Excel spreadsheet data and doing this and then that, and cut and paste, and I'm a little weary of all the screen time, but should be done with it today. I've been in the lab some, too and that makes me happy.

I think I've got my irrigation all set to accommodate the fourth raised bed. This strikes me as SO me, but I have the water timer installed (which takes some doing because all of the fittings want to leak, as does the faucet itself) and haven't programmed it yet. I saw that stuff was looking a little limp yesterday and turned it on manually, which you don't have to tell me sort of defeats the purpose of having a timer. Must go to the garage and read the instructions... 

I'm looking forward to getting more stuff planted this weekend, although it's supposed to rain some. I really do like to hit my three favorite plant stores in town and see what they've got. It's kid-candy store level for sure.

That's about it. Nothing major to complain about, nothing hurts, dog and child are healthy, I still have a job, and life is good. 

It's Raining!

Ha! Normally that would not be news around here at this time of the year (or would it ever be news in many parts of the country in Spring) but it has been so very dry this year that the good soaking rain that started last night is most welcome.

It started when we were at the dog park. It's funny how the dogs really don't care when it's a light but steady rain. Mr W offered to run with the dog around the block, but I realized I like to see the dog park folks, so we went to the dog park. On days when I have my spinning class though, time-wise it's easier to just walk her around the neighborhood.

It was a good weekend. I think I've got my irrigation figured out for the fourth raised bed. It still looks like this (minus the goofy dog):

and I extended the system of soaker hoses over from the bed on the far right to the bed in the front of the photo. I fiddled with the the various parts of it, and moved a shutoff valve from one end of the sections of soaker hose to the other and I think it's as good as it's going to get. The third bed gets a little less water, so I'll have to pay attention and plant stuff close to the hose. 

And with all this rain, I think it'll be good to get out in the next couple of days and plant the stuff that will grow from seed this year. 

Mr W came with me to the plant store, and wanted to pick out colors of annuals. He chose dark purple, yellow, blue, and some of those screaming pink spiked Celosias that I have never bought because they seem kind of gaudy. Awesome. 

I had forgotten that this particular nursery sells almost all of its perennials in gallon pots only. I complained here on the blog about this before, and well, it still annoys me. Annoys me because they expect people to pay $10 for one plant?! Please. I deliberately chose annuals from this shop that were 4 packs (forget six packs anymore, it seems). I'll buy my Penstemmons elsewhere. I'm thankful that there are several good garden stores in town.

Wha? Monday?

Man, the weekend went fast. Between yard work and bracelet stuff, there wasn't much down time. Do I need down time? The thought crossed my mind that it might not be good to be too busy on the weekends. On the other hand, I feel better when I feel like I've gotten stuff accomplished.

Anyway, a dog park friend was nice enough to share some of the compost he bought, and I turned in a couple of wheelbarrow-fuls into my two bookcase raised beds. I think maybe one more year after this and they might need to be replaced. I should have (and will do this in the future) reinforced the book cases with straps or screws or something at the beginning. I did put some screws into the corners last year, but missed on one corner of one bed, and it gave out during the winter, so one long side of one box is loose. I've put 3' pieces of rebar in along that side, so it will hold, but I think its days are numbered.

In other news, I made both lemon squares (yum! More lemon next time) and pumpkin bread, so we're set for lunch and snack stuff for the week. I played games with the gamer group from church yesterday, and it was fun. We got a late start, and I felt like I needed to leave about 2/3 of the way through so I could take Sally to the dog park, so I was a little antsy. It took probably 45 minutes to explain the rules of the game, and then we played for a couple of hours. Next time, I'll just plan for it to take three hours, which is fine, and won't worry about the dog. With it staying light later (and getting light earlier - wow), it shouldn't be a problem. Nevertheless, I've really enjoyed playing board games with these folks.

I had lunch with good friend D, who has a son graduating from high school. I've got two more friends with high school grads, so it looks like it's going to be a busy graduation party few weeks. That's good. It's such a huge accomplishment, both for kids and parents, it should be celebrated bigly (yes, that's bigly).

Folding laundry

Hmm, have I used this title for a post before? It's a recurring theme in my life. There is no shortage of clean clothing for myself or my child, but it often sits in baskets in the basement. The truth is, I don't like to fold laundry. I guess more accurately, the thought of spending my time folding laundry makes me slightly depressed, as though I must have so many other things to do besides this mundane task.

The folding itself is not a big deal, once I make the time and just do it. The dog schooches up to the head of the bed and I fold on it. Easy peasy to put my stuff away, and the kid's stuff goes in the empty basket, where it is delivered to his room and sits for a week is promptly put away by him.

Lately, I have been basket-raiding for clothing for about a week. I can tell it's getting bad because my dirty clothes hamper is full and I've got clothes piling on top. To what do I owe this semi-slovenly behavior?

Well, I've been out having fun.

I had a friend in for most of the weekend, and Monday is Spin class and late dinner and homework for Mr W. Yesterday I went to the dog park and the music jam, which was a lot of fun and I recognized a few of the songs even. Mr W was with his dad so I stayed for a couple of hours. Lots of fun. Then tonight, there's a social wine-education thing I signed up for, and good friend D is going, so I'm going to take Sal to doggie day care, skip Spin and do this.

Whew!

No complaints, really. I mean that's been my goal with this social stuff. To have enough options that I can go and do it if I want, and I can stay home and chill if I want, too. So the laundry waits patiently. It'll all get done.

Finally, here's a picture of my tulips last week. They turned out lovely and since the weather's been a little cooler, they've held on for what feels like a long time. It fascinates me that the Anemone, in the upper left corner, blooms in the late summer, yet feels compelled to be one of the first things up in the spring. It gets pretty tall - about 5 feet - and I'll need to stake it better this year to show it off well. Such a treat when everything else is on its way out.

I'm OK

An appointment yesterday to get one last screening concluded a couple of months of checks, rechecks, biopsies, discomfort and waiting. All done, and I am OK on all fronts. I seem to have scheduled most of my annual checks and screenings to happen in the spring, so it's all lumped together.

A couple of thoughts I have about this are the following. First, I am very thankful that I have health insurance that allows me to get the care and not break the bank. If you're new to reading this blog, my sister and my mom both died young of cancer, and I'd like to beat that trend. You can search "Sister Kris" or "Cancer" in the labels to read about that. I'm trying to eat right, exercise and not hold onto too much stress so that I feel like I'm doing what I can to lower my risk. After that, it's fate and I do rest a little better knowing I've done what I can do.

The other thought is that this is how it's going to be. I'm not a hypochondriac, but when I get a twinge, I often think, "Is that something?" And then it's gone and I forget about it. When I go in for the various screenings appropriate for a mid-40's year old woman, I think to myself, "What if they find something? What will I do?" And so I worry some. I realized that, given my family history, every screen will present some kind of hurdle to cross, some kind of test to pass in order to continue. I have gotten a lot better at realizing that not knowing means that I just don't know. As in, I don't know whether it merits worrying or not, so by golly I'm going to whoop it up while I'm waiting. And if I don't whoop it up, then I'll get on with the business of living.

After yesterday's recheck that ended with, "Come back in a year", I walked out to my car, and thought, "I'm OK. I am OK". It was a big relief, although the bar wasn't set very high. It is as thought I've been granted permission to continue and I want to make the most of that.

In other news, it's raining! This actually is news around here. March was so very dry. It's kind of novel, and it's that warm spring rain that smells good and will green things up even more than they were before.

Lastly, here's my tulips yesterday. They weren't all white (that's good) and I really like the pink one in the upper right corner.

Hey! Is that the Easter bunny?

Sometimes, when Sally's excitedly barking at another dog being walked and I go out there, say, to take a picture of my third raised bed, she tears around the yard a bit. Or maybe that's the Easter bunny, it's hard to tell.

Mr W helped me shovel the soil out of the truck and later commented that he felt pleased (or the 11 year old equivalent) to have helped build it. The design is an experiment. I had the landscape timbers from a year or two ago, and have just stacked them in three courses. I then had 3' pieces of rebar that we pounded in to hold the timbers in place. Using the longer pieces of rebar helps make an easy dog fence, we'll see how good that holds when there's strawberries in there. Sally may not be able to contain herself. 

I still have to cut the soaker hose and attach the fittings so the irrigation goes from the bed on the right to the new bed. Probably today, but still not a huge hurry here on April 8th. 

Happy Easter, all.