Sour Milk

Way back in the mists of time, when I was pregnant, someone told me about a Chinese superstition. Supposedly if you kill a cricket your cow will give sour milk for a year. At the time we had a lot of crickets getting into our building. So in the interests of making sure that my baby's food supply didn't go sour for a year I would go catch the crickets with a cup and a piece of paper and let them go outside. I did it that whole summer and I am pleased to say that it must have worked because my milk supply has always been bountious. I picked up this guy at a garden place because he reminded me of that time. Yesterday morning at work a cricket came into our office again and I had to smile. :) So I figured that I would go take a picture and write about it again before I forgot again.

A Break

Just for Rosemary, here's another picture of Joseph's Coat. :) Not that you need anymore selling of course.

Today my in-laws are here for a visit. So for the next few days I get a bit of a breather. It seems that from the moment that I come home I have a shadow that follows me everywhere and I can't seem to get anything accomplished. So tonight when I got home, we went to eat at Macaroni Grill for dinner. We had a very good time and got in and out before it got too busy. There was still some light when we got home, so I slipped outside to sneak in a little gardening. The pond pump needed to be cleaned out so I broke out the elbow gloves and got busy. Every time I have to clean out the pump, I always wonder why I put fish in the pond again. Goldfish anyway, they're messy and these hide under the water and I hardly ever see them. I'd have done about as good to put some minnows in there I think. ;) After cleaning the pump I went checking around to see what else was happening.

My Betty Corning clematis has a lot of blooms on it.

The Hen and Chicks are looking kind of lanky, I might have to move them.

And the Veteran's Honor rose is covered in buds.

After I got done outside, I came inside and took a long relaxing shower. There wasn't a little girl crying outside the bathroom door wanting to get in. She has been reveling in her new audience. From what I hear she was a little shy and stand-offish until they brought out the presents and now she has new best friends. :) So here's to getting in a little Me Time in the next couple of days, it's been a while!

Scalping Neptune

This isn't Neptune, before I start, it's the Callirhoe that I bought from High Country Gardens last year and planted in my scree garden. It didn't do well in its first spot so I moved it, then couldn't remember if that was where I moved it and that it was actually a weed that I was doting over. But I shouldn't have questioned myself, it was indeed the Callirhoe and it has rewarded me. On to the title. I have been a bad rose custodian of late. Mostly because I was pregnant, then I had a newborn, and now I have a toddler. I've meant to prune them, meant to treat their diseases etc, but it just hasn't happened. My Neptune rose has been drastically leaning to one side since last year. I tried to shape it some as I cut flowers and meant to give it a good pruning later, but alas it didn't happen. So today Neptune got scalped and cut back pretty good. It was leaning into the camellia bush beside it and I didn't want to put it off anymore.

I also got the front beds cleaned up some, got the primroses pulled up (like they'll ever be gone!), and some of the dead stuff trimmed back that I was supposed to have already done. Otherwise, I was busy with the little one. This weekend has been especially rough, because I am on medication that I had to stop breastfeeding her while I was taking and believe me, she isn't taking it well. It's been a looooooong weekend, and not in a good way. Here are some more pictures of the happenings around our place. The following roses are blooming:

Joseph's Coat

Angel Face

Gingersnap

And finally, my ice plant finally got blooms on it this year:

Second Chances

Thanks to my dear friend Onetruth, my garden is no longer without the protection of a gnome. After reading about our crisis she lept into action and look who showed up on my doorstep. Thanks so much! I'm sure that the Gnomeslayer will have mercy on this one. ;)

Bennett's Nursery Trip

This morning the Gnomeslayer and I went on a trip to Bennett's while DH went to get a haircut. It was a beautiful day to be outside and the flowers were blooming. I noticed some of the detail on the sidewalks that I hadn't noticed before, shown in the above picture. The azaleas were blooming.

As were the hellebores.


This is a Brazilian Glory bush.


The whole morning was kind of ruined because someone was burning something closeby. The smell of smoke was hanging around and it was making me queasy. I didn't want to keep the peanut out in it so we did a quick look around and then headed out. I did pick up a couple of creepy crawly plants to put out in the scree garden, so I have to get them put out later today.

The Gnomeslayer

My poor garden gnome fell victim to my 15 month old daughter today. I was cleaning out the pond pump and she was running around while hubby was watching her. Neither of us thought it was breakable, I thought it was made out of plastic. She grabbed him to give him a hug and dropped him. Unfortunately his bird-bearing arm was left behind on the cold uncaring gravel. Now I guess I'll have to be on the lookout for another one. :)

RIP

Buzzy Buzzy

Friday ended up being a very scary day. We had strong thunderstorms roll through, and tornadoes touched down 30 miles away. We ended up spending a good part of the afternoon glued to the TV and weather radio. Thankfully the worst that we got was some quarter sized hail and strong rain/winds. Our prayers are with those that didn't get off so easy. The weather was beautiful after the storm rolled through so I took Quickbeam out to see how the plants had fared. We found the bee above happily working in the bright sunlight.

In lighter news, we had a luncheon at work on Thursday. I was undecided on what to bring for a while, and then I remembered that my friend had found a recipe for a Pig Pickin' Cake for me after hearing me lament about not having one. For those of you unfamiliar, in eastern North Carolina pork barbecues are called Pig Pickin's. I sampled one of these cakes at a work luncheon and really liked it. I asked the gent that brought it for the recipe, but being a crusty old smart a$$e @$#@#$ he only replied that it was "made from hooves & snouts" in a really wise guy tone. Unfortunately for the old windbag, the internet exists so I have my recipe after all. :)

Pig Pickin' Cake

1 (18.25 oz) package yellow cake mix
2 (11 oz) cans mandarin oranges, drained
1 (3.4 oz) package instant vanilla pudding mix
1 (15 oz) can crushed pineapple
1 (16 oz) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
Shredded, sweetened coconut to taste

Prepare the cake according to package directions, adding the drained oranges in before you blend up the cake batter. Bake according to package instructions, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.

To make the frosting, combine the crushed pineapple, whipped topping and pudding mix. Spread over the top of the cake. Sprinkle liberally with coconut. Chill in the refrigerator overnight.

So Far So Good

So far my plants seem to have made it through the cold snap, I even found a little strawberry on one of my strawberry plants.

The butterscotch jessamine is really opening up now.

The tulips are blooming.

Lady Banks still has her finery on.

And the salvia is blooming too. :) Hope that's the last cold snap!

Busy Day

Yesterday was the first really sunny day that we have had free to work outside. We had severe thunderstorms/tornado warnings on Thursday and it was pretty touch and go for a while. So we set out to Lowe's first thing Saturday morning and picked up a new pump for the pond. We started out with weeding out the scree garden. As you can see above, the horsetails have started going nuts. It put out runners under the the landscape fabric and they are popping up everywhere. So I spent a lot of time trying to root up as much of them as I could. Then I pulled out the old pump and put in the new one. Quickbeam kept us jumping, keeping her out of places that she shouldn't be. Then Q mowed the front and back yards. After that I decluttered the junk that had ended up on the back porch over the winter. So by the time we were done, we were DONE. We lounged around for the rest of the evening and today. I had wanted to get my rosebush transferred into the front flower bed but alas it wasn't meant to be. Hope everyone else got to do some gardening too. :)

Faith in a Tuber

I came across another happy surprise while I was checking outside for garden happenings. Last year I posted about my lotus that I planted. It didn't ever do a whole lot and petered out around July or August. The one I planted in NC did the same thing so I wasn't too too worried. And my faith was rewarded when I saw the first lotus leaf start unfurling in the lotus tub today. This lotus is a Chawan Basu lotus, and I can't wait to see what it does this year. :)