Succulent Feeder

When I found out that my Dad was going to come for a visit I asked him to make a project for me. I had seen it in a gardening magazine, and it's a bird feeder that has a living roof that is covered with succulents. When I saw it I knew that I had to have one, and here is the one that he made for me. I got it planted with some plants and it's sitting under the back yard until the threat of rain passes. I'm going to try to keep it on the dry side until the plants get established and grow more roots that will hold the soil in place. Isn't she a beaut?

There isn't a lot of gardening news this week. We have the beds in place that we had planned for this year so now everything just needs to get settled. We might do one more under the bird feeder, because it looks kind of bare. I have some blackberry, blueberry and a couple of flowers that are still waiting for homes so they may go there. Here are some pictures of what's blooming today. The Butterscotch Jasmine pictured above was planted at the end of last year after the Peppermint Clematis looked like it keeled over. This seems to be doing very well and enjoying its new home.

The Angel Face rose is the first one out of the gate this year. Being moved a few weeks ago doesn't seem to have set it back much. Hopefully they will all get settled in and be happy.

The Pink Chintz thyme that is planted in the scree garden (the gravel around the paver stepping stones) seems to be right at home. Some of the scree transplants aren't too happy right now and I'm hoping that they'll recover. We'll see. :)

It's Like Peas & Carrots

Today I finally got around to trying to make a new dish. Quickbeam got baptized on the same day as another little girl in our church. This girl's family is from Tanzania, and after the ceremony they had a potluck featuring foods from their homeland. One of the dishes featured peas & carrots and had a haunting fruity taste. I spent the meal trying to figure out what was in it. This is my attempt at making it.

Tanzanian Peas & Carrots
2 Tbs. butter
2 carrots, peeled and chopped into small thin pieces
½ onion, finely diced
2 c. chicken broth
½ c. dried apricots, very finely diced
2 tsp. cumin
½ tsp. ground coriander
½ tsp turmeric
Salt & pepper to taste
2 c. frozen sweet peas

Melt the butter in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Add the carrot and onion and sauté until they begin to soften. Add the stock, apricots and spices and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for about five minutes. Add the peas and continue to simmer for approximately 10 minutes or until peas are very done and the carrots are soft.

Froggy Bottoms

Before we left from North Carolina my best friend Mel gave me some stepping stones for our garden. She is very well aware of my frog obsession, and the stepping stones are pictured above. One of the best things about them is that they feature some..bottoms on the frogs. I didn't want to put them out just anywhere, it was important to me to wait until we had our backyard fenced in and a good place to put them. I know that there probably aren't people lurking around ready to steal stepping stones, but I'm clingy with my possessions. ;) So after we got our garden area finally finished I wanted to set them out, so here they are, finally at home. :) Thanks Mel!

Gardening

We were able to get out this weekend and work on finishing up our gardening efforts for the spring. It might seem that it's a bit early to be finishing up since it's only mid-April, but today's 80 degree weather is an indicator of what we'll be getting soon. We want to get the heavy lifting and work done now while it's still pleasant outside. Through the summer I'm sure I'll still be picking up plants here and there, but no major landscaping efforts.

We started out the day by going to Across the Pond and getting some fish for the little pond that we're putting in. We picked out two Sarassa Comets and two Calico Fantails. I picked up a couple more plants at the nursery by our house - some purple Sweet Alyssum and two more varities of thyme. One of the thyme is a light variegated one and the other is Elfin Thyme which has tiny little leaves. I also got the bigger plants that I got for around the pond put in. We have an Umbrella Palm, Dwarf Papyrus and some Horsetail Rushes. So the pond is basically finished for now, we just have to let it grow in.

Mawavi spent his time working on cleaning up the beds in front of the house. I had planted a lot of perennials there last year, but they just didn't look right. A lot of them tend to look a bit weedy, and it makes it look like we haven't been taking care of our yard. So we moved most of the perennials into the back yard flower beds and put down some new mulch in the front yard. Coincidentally while I was planting the perennials in the back flower bed I almost stepped on our backyard visitor pictured at the top and almost gave myself a heart attack. He didn't seem to be too concerned about me though. We also got a new trellis and moved my Betty Corning clematis back to grow on it. It had started totally dwarfing the little trellis that it was on and growing all in the rose bush. So now it has plenty of room to grow in. So overall the front of the house is looking much better now.

So that takes care of our major gardening efforts this spring. Now we get to have fun with the challenge of keeping them all alive this summer. :)

May Night

I was walking out the front door a few days ago and noticed a flower blooming, which is pictured above. I hate to say it but I had no idea what it was. I went in a frenzy of buying at the end of last summer and got the things planted out. I kept the plant tags out in the garage so I would be able to find them later. So I faced digging through the pile of plant tags to try and figure out what it was. Fortunately for me, when I was in Lowe's this afternoon I saw some of them. They are May Night salvia, and are really beautiful. Mystery solved. :)

We did some work on the back yard garden today, made a visit to the pond store and got the rest of what we needed to set it up. I got the water lily and iris potted and put in the water. Tomorrow I will add some salt to the water and get the quality settled down. We're supposed to have a couple of nights this week that dip down in the 30's, so I want to wait until it settles a bit before I put the fish in. As soon as we finish with the planting I'll get some new pictures up.

Flashback

Before I start on my flashback, here is my Mt. Ash a.k.a. Quickbeam tree. We planted them last week and the buds on it are already starting to open up. I can't wait until it gets leafed out. :)

One of my favorite shows to watch on TV is ‘Til Debt Do Us Part. For those who may be unfamiliar with it, it is a TV show that comes on here on ALN channel on cable. It features Gail Vaz-Oxlade the host who visits and helps a family a month and helps them to tackle their debt problems. I am constantly amazed by the situations that people get themselves in to. Mostly amazed I guess because Maw and I started out our marriage in that sort of problem, had a wake-up call and are mostly back on course.

I will freely admit that most of the problem in the financial arena came from me. I had no concept of saving or budgeting when I got out on my own and freely embraced credit. We had almost reached the breaking point in our relationship and our finances when we got our reality check. It took us a good part of ten years to get debt free, and aside from my student loans and a bit of credit we ran up during our move we’ve maintained it. Watching the show reminds me of where we don’t want to go back to, and is a reminder of how far we have come.

Tauren Chili

Today we invited the Gunny and his wife over to our house to celebrate Mawavi's birthday that was Thursday. We got up early this morning and went to the grocery store to go shopping and get the things that we needed. Maw and I love to eat and we love to cook so whenever we have these two over we always tend to go overboard cooking. I had a recipe that I wanted to try from the Food Network and Downhome with the Neely's. It is for Frozen Lemonade Pie and it turned out just amazing. I also found some ground buffalo meat at the grocery store and wanted to try it out in chili. I'm happy to report that it was really good, very lean meat and this was organic so no chemicals. I made coleslaw, mashed potatoes and black eyed peas at Maw's request because they are his favorites. He rolled some lumpia and grilled some pork on the BBQ.

After we ate the boys went in the back yard and christened the new fire pit with its first official fire. Apparently cardboard boxes, newspapers and the leaf blower were involved but I didn't want to ask. I stayed in the house to take care of our very attention needy baby girl. I'm hoping that it dries out some tomorrow, because I still have some irises that need to get planted tomorrow. The rowan trees are also starting to open up, and my jasmine vine has flowers on it now. So I'm ready to get outside and see some things, hopefully we'll get some sunshine!

Here's the chili that I made. It's pretty warm even though I cut the hot ingredients by half from the original. Tailor to your own taste. :)

Lythrum's Tauren Chili Verde (adapted from James Villas Stews, Bogs & Burgoos)

1 Tbs. olive oil
1 lb. ground buffalo meat
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tomato, diced
2 Tbs. ground dried hot peppers
1 fresh jalapeno, finely chopped
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. dried oregano, crumbled
1 Tbs. chili powder
3 c. stock
2 medium sized potatoes, peeled and chopped in small pieces

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the buffalo meat, onions and garlic and brown. You shouldn't need to drain it because the buffalo is very lean. Season the meat with salt and pepper as you cook it. Add the remaining ingredients into the pan and cook over low heat for 1/2 to 1 hour.

New Garden Update

Here's the latest update for the backyard garden. We got the gravel spread and some creepy crawly plants tucked into various corners around the pathway. This weekend we're hoping to get the fountain running on the pond and get the plants put in. The fish at Across the Pond are still in quarantine for a while so we're going to have to wait a bit for that. But that's okay because the pond probably needs to settle for a week or two before we add them.

We got the rest of the rose bushes planted out - so that brings up my total count to 8 now. We have Angel Face (lavender), Lady Bank's (pale yellow thornless climber) and Joseph's Coat (multi-colored climber that I've lusted after for years) in the back yard. In the front yard we now have Veteran's Honor (Thanks Mel!! Dark red), Welcome Home (yellow with gold centers), Gingersnap (coppery colored for Quickbeam), Neptune (lavender) and Elle (pink with yellowish centers). I got a strawberry pot that I planted some succulents in, and have a container to plant my strawberries (Tennessee Beauty) in.

So that takes care of most of our gardening for the spring. We have two clumps of decorative grass that got displaced for the roses that I need to find a home for in the back yard. I got in the box of irises that I ordered earlier this year that I need to get put out. I originally planned to put them along the dry streambed that we are going to do in the back, but we aren't going to get to that until next year. So I think I'll just plant them in the new flower beds above and divide them next year. After that I think I'm done for a while, I'll let things grow in and stop spending for a bit. :)

Lotus, Take II

Despite it's unassuming appearance, the picture above is my second attempt at lotus growing. If you recall, the very first post that I made on this blog included a picture of the lotus in my garden in North Carolina. Getting it to bloom was my biggest gardening achievement. So in my new back yard I wanted to grow another one. So I ordered a Chawan Basu bowl lotus this spring and have had it rooting out in the bathtub. The roots finally grew on it and now I've transplanted it into a container outside to grow in. I'm really hoping that it will make it. I bought this one from Bonnie's Plants, and it came in with three growing tips on it so it's a really good one. Time will tell. :)

Stage II

We've been working today on the garden and making pretty good progress. We had rain on and off throughout the day so we had to work around it. We got more done after the picture above was taken but it was too dark to take a picture. Not only did we work on this, but we got Mawavi a birthday present. I know that some of you will question my sanity, bu I agreed to get him a fire pit.


Hopefully the fire will stay inside the pit. :) I got the plants planted in with the pavers so we'll see how they do. They are going to get a trial by fire literally. They are going to be getting a lot of sunshine with no protection. So we'll see who makes it and who doesn't.

Progress

We have been making some progress in the back yard garden the last couple of days. We stopped by Lowe's on the way home last night and picked up more topsoil, gravel and paver stepping stones. We had gotten the beds placed over the weekend, and last night we laid down the landscape fabric, got the blocks placed around the pond, and got the pavers roughly positioned. We have to stop back by Lowe's and pick up another roll of landscape fabric, several more paver blocks and probably a couple more bags of topsoil. I planted out some tulip bulbs that have been laying around the house since last fall. I got them to put out but was late in my pregnancy by then and it just didn't happen. We'll see how much we can get done around the rain this weekend.

Hallelujiah!

This round of classes has been the hardest by far since I've started them. I had to start up again three weeks after a c-section. Having to do classwork, recover my health and take care of a new baby just was really difficult. There have been several points where I was just ready to throw in the towel and quit altogether. I think the only thing that has stopped me is the fact that I only have one more set of classes and I'll have my associate's degree. I'm going to take the summer off so I can get some mental energy back.

Today we got to work on the back garden area. I had to hold Quickbeam the whole time while Mawavi did the planting. She absolutely refused to settle, and had to be carried around so that she could see things. It's a change for me to have to be the one watching the gardening and not doing it. So we got the beds along the fence set up and plants moved. We need some more bags of topsoil to finish them off, and we need to get the pond installed. I still have a couple more items that I'm going to need to get to finish it off, but I'll be working on that through the course of the summer. Can't have all of the fun in one week. :) I'll get up some new pictures when it's done.

Interview with a Rabbi

I am taking a Religions of the World class and for our final project I had to talk to someone from a religion besides our own. I decided to visit one of the synagogues in town here for my paper. I went and spoke with the Rabbi and had a very interesting time. The congregation of Temple B’nai Sholom was established in 1876, and the temple was built in 1899. The temple is located in historic downtown Huntsville. It has a very distinct architectural style, and lovely stained glass windows. I enjoyed my visit there and learned a lot about Judaism. Finding out more about my neighbors makes me feel more like a permanent resident here than a visitor.

Bleh

The location above is what is going to be my new garden spot in the back yard. It's our project that we are going to work on this weekend. I have several new plants to put out that I have to keep alive until then. We are looking forward to a relaxing weekend, since we didn't really have one this weekend. Quickbeam scratched her eyeball on Sunday so we took her to the Urgent Care clinic nearby. This was late-ish on Sunday afternoon. The doctor did a consultation with an on-call eye doctor who scheduled her in for an appointment the next morning. He prescribed for her to have some eye ointment (not eye drops). So we took the prescription to the pharmacy in the clinic, and they didn't have it. So then we took it to Publix, and they didn't have it. So the pharmacist there called all over and finally found one in the downtown area that did have it. We took her in to the doctor on Monday morning and the scratch had mostly healed up.

Then last night I got very sick. I was pretty much passed out hard and almost non-responsive, which really worried Mawavi. He finally got me woken up and I had to go be sick. My throat was very sore and I felt just terrible. So I was home again this morning and slept for most of the day. I am behind on my college assignments and have to get them turned in tonight. I'm going to be glad when this round is over. I've been kind of behind from the beginning, trying to recover from childbirth and take care of a kid at the same time, then starting back to work. Just one more round left and I'll have my degree finished. Then I'm taking a break over the summer and going to start for my Bachelor's in the fall. I can't wait for a little R&R.

Lady Bank's Rose

We ended up making it to Bennett’s after all yesterday. We went as soon as it stopped raining, and it was the perfect time to go. It wasn’t too humid, there weren’t any bugs out, and there also weren’t a lot of people out. I carried Quickbeam around in the Baby Bjorn and she enjoyed the walk too. She loves being outside, especially when there is a breeze blowing on her hair. I had a mission in that I was looking for succulents. I found plans for a bird house that has a roof that you plant succulents in. I talked to my dad and he’s going to build me the birdhouse, and I’m going to give him some succulents for his. So I needed to pick up some and then divide them out. I found several different kinds, some hen and chicks and a couple of different kinds of sedum. I also have some creeping thyme and a different kind of sedum that I’m going to use. So I got enough succulents for a good basic start, and I can add in a few others as the season progresses. I can’t wait to get up another bird feeder.

Mawavi and I also drew up plans for our rose garden that we want to start in the back yard. We’re going to have a small pond, and several roses. I also have my butterscotch jasmine that is on a trellis, and some plants in the front yard that I’d rather have in the back. This garden is also going to feature a rain garden at the end of the downspout, and this is where the new bird feeder is going to be. The rose that we got to be the crowning glory of this garden is Lady Banks and is the picture above. It is a climbing plant with no thorns on it. The flowers glow in the sunset and will look spectacular when it gets established. I can’t wait to see the garden when it is done.

Rain

Alabama has been in a drought status since las year, so I should be grateful for the rain. But how can I be when it made me miss out on a trip to Bennet's Nursery?We woke up this morning to pouring rain, thunder and lightening and hail in some places. The wind was gusting up to 40 mph. Alas, so much for planting things today. I did wait for a lull in the storm and ran outside to take some pictures.

In other news I have finally been able to attract the elusive garden gnome into my back yard. I've tried to carefully cultivate the proper habitat, but was unsuccessful. Imagine my surprise when I found this sturdy specimen under my rosebush.

Normally I am not much of one for garden ornamentation, but I've always liked the campiness of garden gnomes. My ultimate quest is to find one reading a book. Maybe if I left a few small tomes laying around in the back yard....

Alabama Snowstorm

Okay, it wasn't actually what most people would consider a snow storm, but in these parts it is. I woke up this morning to snow on the ground. I had to run outside in my PJs to get some pictures before it melted. I got up early this morning with Quickbeam so that D. could get some sleep, because I'm nice like that. So we snuggled on the couch under a quilt and drank hot chocolate. Okay, I drank hot chocolate and she got breastmilk, but we were both happy. :) I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday morning.

And so it begins...

Here you see the re-establishment of my water gardening fetish. We've been here for about a year and a half now, and I haven't done anything about a pond. We barely got here and then I got pregnant and had the baby, and now is the first time I've been able to entertain the notion. I decided that I am going to keep the pond very low key this time, because I don't have the time or the money to do much else right now. So I decided to start with plants that I'll be able to divide later and grow my supply. My first wave is a lotus and a water iris. The lotus is Chawan Basu (dwarf, pink and cream color), and the iris is Iris Fulva (copper/red color). They came in today and are floating in my bathtub for a while, until the lotus sprouts roots and I get something to put them both in. The lotus isn't going in the pond, it will be in a seperate container.

My goal for the pond itself right now is rather modest. I plan on getting around a 40 gallon liner, having a dwarf water lily, an iris, one or two other plants and maybe two goldfish. I want to have some kind of water feature to give the running water sound, but it can't be too active because the moving water will disturb some of the plants. The lotus are a bit different, because they are grown in seperate containers, but I have to be reasonable about them too because they take a lot of watering in the summertime. So anyway, that's the latest gardening news, we'll see how green my thumb still is. :)

Update 2/10/08

It's been a pretty busy week for us. After the In-Laws left on Saturday we spent the rest of the weekend relaxing and getting ready for me to go back to work. I started back on Monday morning and it was really hard to get up at 5 am. I did okay at work that day, but left around noon because I really felt lost. I worked full days for the rest of the week until I took off 2 hours early on Friday. Maw brought Quickbeam down Tuesday through Thursday at lunch time so that I could feed her and snorgle her and get my fix so I could work for the rest of the day. This week though I'll have to stand on my own. Gas is too expensive to have trips made every day, and our goal is for him to come down once a week (probably on Fridays) and have lunch.

Saturday evening we went to a gathering of people from our church with young families. It feels very odd now to be in the parent club, after being a childless couple for so long. I've never minded kids in theory, but don't like to be around a lot of them at once. The visit went okay, of course they were all doting on Quickbeam. I did get some insight on parenting though, when one of the ladies started tearing up when she held her. She said she hadn't held a baby since her last child who is now 7 years old. I know that time is going to fly by and we have to enjoy her while we can. Before you know it she'll be graduating from high school, moving out and starting her own family. I'm really going to have to watch myself that I don't suffocate her, because I can see that I'm going to be very clingy. :)

This afternoon I made some chicken soup that I saw on the Food Network. It was from Tyler's Ultimate and turned out very good. I added in some swiss chard so that we could get a little extra greenery in our diet. I packaged the leftovers up in individual serving sizes and am putting them in the freezer. Previously, whenever we would make soup or something made to serve more people, we would end up eating on it for days and be completely sick of it by the end. I figure that if we eat it for one meal, freeze it, and then have it throughout the month then it'll give a good variety. I can check out the freezer and pick out what I want to eat for lunch the next day, and leave it in the refrigerator overnight. Then I can microwave it at lunchtime and have a good hot meal. I had been eating out almost every day for lunch while I was pregnant and Maw and I were both working. Then we'd be too tired to cook when we got home so we'd eat again. Now that we are eyeing our budget more closely bringing my lunches is a major objective of mine, with eating out once a week. So we'll see how it goes. :)

Changes

This is my last weekend on maternity leave, I start work again on Monday. I went in for a meeting yesterday, to try to get back in the swing and wean me off of my Quickbeam addiction. All of the visiting family are gone now, and so now I'm going to take advantage of the relative quiet to finish the main project that I set for myself to get done with all of my time at home. When we moved down here from North Carolina, we went through a major purge of our stuff. I mean major, like leaving half of our stuff behind. Over the last few weeks I have gone through my closet to get rid of the old clothes that I don't wear anymore, so there is some more stuff gone. The last two rat holes that we have left are in our guest room closet and our computer room closet. I was watching Clean Sweep this morning while I was feeding Quickbeam, and I got motivated to go ahead and conquer the clutter at last. That way I can start my working life back and Maw can start his stay-at-home-dad routine without having to be burdened with it.

So, my first project this morning was the spare room closet, since it has less stuff in it. I pulled everything out of the closet and put it in a pile. I sorted out the pile into sub-piles. Throw Away, Donate, Quilting Supplies, Knitting Supplies, Paperwork to Shred and Paperwork to File. I had to have a heart-to-heart talk with myself on a couple of topics:

• Quilting - With a new baby, working full time and taking college classes too, I don't have a lot of spare time. I am going to focus on quilting as my main craft of choice. I plan on starting attending guild meetings this month to get reinvigorated. I did a major purge of fabric that I am going to set aside into a bag and donate to the guild. I also took several UFO (Unfinished Objects) that I have had for years that I have had guilt over not finishing and threw them away. When I'm ready to start quilting again I want to start on something new and fresh, not something half-finished that I no longer care about. This is progress here. :)
• Knitting Supplies - Even though I enjoy knitting, it isn't high enough on my priority list to keep hoarding yarn and magazines for a craft that I am not going to be doing anytime soon. Verdict: All of the knitting items are going in a bag and I will see if there are any knitters at the guild that would be interested in it.
• Work Stuff - There are a few large binders of reference material for training courses that I had taken in my previous job. My idea was to take them to work and leave them there in my office, rather than leave them at home. But then in thinking about it, I'm not going to use them any more there than I would here, so I threw them away.
• Idea Book - One of the other things that I have been carting around with me forever are clippings from magazines with ideas for gardens and house ideas. I sorted through this stack harshly and am left with my very favorite ideas. I plan on compiling these into a binder so that I can keep them more organized. I'm going to prune out my stack of gardening magazines so that I can clear up some space in my bookshelf. Then I'm going to take the idea book and design a plan for our yard so I can take things from just being an idea on paper and actually do something with them.

The focus of this year is to stop hoarding up things and actually put them to use. Stop just talking about doing things and actually do them. Live life instead of putting things off. And for goodness sake, stop keeping piles of things in the house. ;)

Gardening News

It seems like a while since the last gardening post, but there is finally news to report. I purchased a compost bin from the Gardener's Supply Company and it finally came in a few days ago. Maw's parents are visiting this week, and his dad put the bin together. I'm pretty excited to have it, because I've been wanting to compost for a long time now. We go through lots of vegetables while we are cooking, and I hate to waste them by throwing them away. I looked around for ways to make your own, but they didn't look very good, so I decided to buy something that was made to do the job. We've broken it in with the leavings from the last few days of cooking.

In other news, Quickbeam is sick with her first cold. She has been congested and coughing, but she doesn't seem to be feeling really bad. She has still been smiley and interactive, she just gets frustrated at times when it's harder for her to breath. She's been getting lots of attention lately with visiting family. I had to learn how to share her, because after being just the two of us with her I am not used to having to give her up. I guess it's good that it happened when it did, because I'm starting back to work next week and have to get used to being seperated from her. Needless to say I'm not looking forward to it.

Work In Progress

So I have been working on my New Year's Challenge for the last week. I have done better in some ways than others. :) I have tried three recipes from my recipe pile, and they were successful. I finished reading one of my books, Acacia by David Anthony Durham. This book was a Christmas present from one of my best friends. I enjoyed it more than I have any fantasy book for a long time. It was pretty dark, but the story was interesting.

Now I'm working my way through Touching Earth by Janet Lembke. It is a series of essays on vegetable gardening, which is really appropriate this time of year. The seed catalogs are pouring in and I'm plotting out what I want to grow this year. I'm going to make a modest start at vegetable gardening this year, a small raised bed with tomatoes and a few other vegetables. I just have to resist the urge to try to start too big. :) I start making large, ambitious lists when I go through the seed catalogs, I'll have to use some self restraint. The flower catalogs are also pouring in, and I have to use even more restraint with them. I am going to get a rose this year and plant it for the baby, who shall henceforth be called Quickbeam, after another name for the tree she is named after. :) This is the rose that I'm favoring at the moment.

I went to the doctor today for my postpartum checkup, and was given a clean bill of health. So now I can start working to get myself back to normal. I need to start exercising and making sure that I eat healthy so that I can take advantage of the calorie burning increase from breastfeeding. I am actually below my pre-pregnancy weight, so I want to keep going with that momentum. I've also been getting tired really easy, so I need to exercise and get back into some stamina. I have to start mentally preparing myself to get back to work, because I'll be starting back in a couple of weeks.

We went by this afternoon and met the pastor at the church we are planning on going to. It was a pretty interesting discussion. He has been the pastor here for almost 40 years and had some interesting stories to tell. His first calling was to Mississippi in the 1960's, during the Civil Rights era, and he was the pastor of a black church. It must have definately been culture shock to say the least. We've been meaning to start going again, but with long work hours, kidney stones and finally being freaking huge and pregnant, we kept putting it off. So now we're going to get started again, and get Quickbeam baptized. Life is getting a little more normal. :)

It Was a Cold and Snowy Night...

After being holed up in the house for so long, I had planned on going shopping today. Just something to get out of the house for a while. Unfortunately I heard on the TV this morning that winter weather was expected tonight, so I wanted to make sure that we had something really warm and hearty to eat for supper. I broke out my Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland cookbook by Beth Dooley and Lucia Watson and found a recipe for Wisconsin Cheddar Cheese and Vegetable Soup. I also had a recipe for Apple Pomegranate Cider from my recipe file to try out. Here is the recipe for the soup, which I made some changes to. So I bundled up the munchkin and we went out for a grocery shopping trip. I carried her around in the Baby Bjorn carrier and she got lots of attention from old ladies. :)

Wisconsin Cheddar Cheese and Vegetable Soup

2 Tbs. canola oil
3 leeks, white parts only, sliced and rinsed
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 c. cauliflower florets
2 large russet potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
1/2 lb. sliced low-fat kielbasa or other smoked sausage
2 c. stock
2 c. milk
Salt and Pepper to taste
8 oz. 1/3 less fat cream cheese
2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1 Tbs. Dijon mustard
1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
Hot sauce to taste

Heat the oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add all of the ingredients ending with the sausage, and saute over medium heat until vegetables begin to soften. Add the stock, milk and salt and pepper. Simmer until vegetables are soft. Remove pot from heat. Cut the cream cheese into smaller pieces, add to pot and stir until melted. Add cheese and stir until it is melted. Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Return the soup to low heat until warmed through.

The apple cider was really good, and hit the spot. This is from the Cooking Light November 2007 issue.

Apple and Pomegranate Cider
6 whole cloves
2 (3-inch) cinnamon sticks
1 (3-inch) strip lemon rind
1 (3-inch) strip orange rind
8 c. unfiltered apple cider
1 c. pomegranate juice
3/4 c. fresh orange juice
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. fresh lemon juice

I threw all of the ingredients into a crock pot and turned it on high heat for a while. That way it stayed warm through the night without having to keep the stove on.

The Challenge

To document the extent of my recipe pile, I made a list of recipes from my file. This shows the extent of my problem. http://goblingastronomy.blogspot.com/2008/01/pipeline-list.html I also made a list to show progress as I work my way through it. http://goblingastronomy.blogspot.com/2008/01/tested-list.html Maybe I'll actually make it through. :)

Resolution

Last year was pretty eventful, with the most important being our new baby. She's amazing and I can't get enough of looking at her and being fascinated by her. Over the last year we've gotten settled into our new home and my new job. Life has been very good, and for that we're grateful. Over the next year, my main goal is to get even more at home, explore more of our new hometown, and to be the best mama that I can be to my little girl. In order to gain more appreciation for the things that we have, I'm going on a buying moratorium.

Over the past few years I’ve gotten very bad about buying books and not reading them. I have a shelf full of cookbooks in my kitchen that I have never really even looked through, much less cooked out of. I have books on my shelf that I bought but never read. I have countless recipes from magazines that I have torn out and set aside, but never done anything with. It’s like I’m obsessive/compulsive about wanting to buy these things, but when I get them the itch is scratched and I never do anything with them. So I decided that this year, I’m going to reform my ways. My resolution this year is that I won’t buy any new books or cookbooks until I have actually read those that I have now. I’m going to caveat this, in that the one subject that I will buy books on is childcare/rearing. I even plan on restraining from getting books from the library until I have gone through those that I have already. We’ll see how far I can get with this.

The other part to my resolution is to try to buy only essential items, and only buy things to replace those that get worn out. Again, we'll see how far I can get with this. The main thing that I foresee buying is clothes and other necessities for our baby. We'll see how creative I can get. :)

Apple Cranberry Hermits

There's something about the holiday season that makes me feel in the mood, nay, compelled to bake cookies. In this case I've had a couple of accidents while baking lately that made me feel like maybe I was cursed (or too absent-minded from being 9 months pregnant) to bake. They had a baby shower for me at work, and I had decided that I would bake some cookies and take them in to the people who contributed gifts. So my first effort was making Maple Oatmeal Cookies, during which I broke my bottle of vanilla and was unable to bake enough for all. So a week or so later I decided that I would make some Cranberry Orange Sugar Cookies, and things were going along swimmingly until I noticed that the clean spoon I had taken out of the dishwasher had some food residue on the concave part of it. So I'd just about decided that the rest of the people just weren't going to get their cookies.

Tonight I got bitten by the bug again, and had an apple that was getting in a bad way. So I went online and looked up apple cookie recipes. I found a recipe for Apple Hermits on allrecipes.com and decided I'd give them a try. I made a couple of changes to the recipe, notably substituting craisins for raisins, reducing the amount of cloves, omitting the nuts and shredding the apple instead of chopping it. I also added a teaspoon of vanilla, because really, who likes cookies with no vanilla in them? These turned out really tasty, and had an almost butterscotch flavor to them. The recipe called for them to be glazed but I'm happy with them without it.

Apple Hermits

2 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. softened butter
1 1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 c. shredded apple
1 c. dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (175 C). Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. In a medium bowl,, sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter until light and fluffy. Mix in sugar and egg. Stir in flour mixture, and mix thoroughly. Fold in apples and cranberries.

Drop by rounded teaspoons onto prepared cookie sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake for 12-14 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Apple-Hermits/Detail.aspx

Janet Lembke

I personally think that one of the most important innovations on the internet was when online bookstores started acting as marketplaces for used book stores, i.e. Amazon Marketplace. It seems that almost no book is too obscure to be able to find online now. It used to be so frustrating to find an author whose work you just loved, and then be unable to read their previous works because they are out of print.

Janet Lembke is one of my very favorite authors. I first came across her work in the book "Shake Them 'Simmons Down" about ten years ago. She is from the same area of Eastern North Carolina where we used to live, so I identify with her work. The book was a collection of her essays about trees, and I loved it. So the other day when I was on Amazon, I happened to look her up, and saw many of her works available through the marketplace. So now I have some new reading material. The first is "Touching Earth", which is a collection of essays on kitchen/vegetable gardening. The second is "Despicable Species: On Cowbirds, Kudzu, Hornworms, and Other Scourges", which (as you can tell from the title) is a collection of essays on undesirable species.

Over the years I have gotten much fonder of reading essay collections. I don't seem to have the attention span necessary to read a whole book at a time, unless it's something that really catches my attention. Essays are usually the perfect length to fill in the time that I have available to read now, and I don't have to worry about trying to figure out what I read last time.

Bookstore Lovin'

We stopped and ate after work today, and then headed over to one of our favorite bookstores to hang out for a while. He read some manga and I read some gardening books and we just enjoyed sitting for a while. We're not going to have a whole lot of quiet downtime soon, so I figured it was a good thing to enjoy it while it lasted. It was quiet until the two teenage boys showed up hanging around the Dungeons & Dragons books and going on and on about their gaming. It kind of ruined the mood. ;) So we left and got some coffee and headed home. I think it's about time to snuggle up in front of the fire with a book and relax. :)

Cooking with Mojo

I haven't been up for cooking the last couple of months, so we've been eating out quite a bit. Every now and then I will get an inspiration to make something. For the last week or so, I've been getting really tired, most likely since I have a space alien in my stomach that is sucking the energy out of me. I also get out of breath easy, and have almost no room in my stomach for food because there is a space alien growing in my stomach that is taking up a whole lot of room now. So I tend to lay on the couch and nap a lot. I was doing just that this morning, and watching the Food Network in between snoozes. One of the times I briefly surfaced Guy's Big Bite was on, and he was making Cuban Pork Chops with Mojo and Sofrito Mashed Potatoes. Now I'm a girl that loves the Latin flavors and I also think mashed potatoes go just super with anything tomato-ey. So when we went to the grocery today I got what I needed to make them. You can see the results above, and it was REALLY good. Very flavorful and didn't take a long time to make. The sauce for the pork chops was a bit acidic when I tried it so I cut in a tablespoon or two of brown sugar to round it out. Definately something I'd make again. :)

The recipes can be found here:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_gi/episode/0,2857,FOOD_26717_49895,00.html

Update

Fall finally hit the Tennessee Valley, and it's been beautiful. We've finally gotten quite a bit of rain lately, and the trees have changed color. The weather has been chilly a few times, but mostly still gets to the 50's and 60's during the day. We spent our Thanksgiving at home, and I made dinner. We got our Christmas tree up, and a wreath on the door, so we're ahead of where we usually are. :) I've also started packing up the hospital bag and trying to get everything ready. They had a baby shower for me at work where I got a ton of stuff. I am still trying to get it all processed, because we don't really have a dresser or clothes storage area for her yet.

I've been getting pretty tired lately, and most of the time all I want to do is sleep when I get home from work. Somebody's feet reach my ribcage now, and I spend a lot of time trying to explain to her what personal space and sharing is all about. She lets me know pretty quick when she is feeling crowded. Other than that things are going well, 4 weeks until the due date and I'm ready. Now she just needs to cooperate and be out by her due date!

Four Point Oh No!

So I've been doing good and keeping a 4.0 grade average in my college classes. I used to be super competetive and was intent on keeping it. And then life happens. :) Working a full time job, going to class and having a baby coming kind of took the wind out of my sails. Right now I'm at the point where I just want to finish my degree, and a C is great in the class because then I don't have to pay back any money. ;) I mean, a 4.0 is great and all, but it won't really make a difference. The thing that put the nail in my 4.0 coffin was my Algebra II class that I'm taking this semester. I wandered through Algebra I and still somehow managed to get an A. This time it isn't working so smooth, and I'm hoping that I will achieve my C goal. :) It's a bit of a letdown seeing the lower average, but I can deal with it. I guess I had to descend down and be with the mere mortals at some point in time.

Tucked In

Yesterday I finally accomplished something that's been lingering around for about 2 months. Back in August, we went to the nursery and got some plants for me for my birthday. That weekend I ended up passing kidney stones, so they didn't get planted. Then D's grandmother in the Philippines died and he went home for the funeral. While I was unsupervised a few more plants ended up at the house. Then my sister came and visited shortly thereafter, and would you believe that even more plants made it home. Then there was a clearance sale at Lowe's and I ended up with yet more plants. I make it sound like I had 50 plants, but it was really more like 10. Regardless, I had to go out and water them and move them around every few days, which got really old.

Yesterday was a beautiful fall day, and I resolved that if I got nothing else done I would get those plants in the ground. So late yesterday afternoon I set forth and got almost all of them put out. There are still one or two left, but they are more manageable than 10. I also evicted several other plants that had grown unruly and the whole place looks a little neater. Definately was happy to get that done.

Tonight when I got home from work I decided to make some soup. D is sick with a sinus infection again, and I felt like having some comfort food. So I decided to make the Irish Colcannon soup from this month's cooking light. I saw right away that the recipe needed to be modified some. For me the ideal potato soup has a light, creamy broth and is not congealed or floury. So since I had some reduced fat sour cream and some half-and-half in the refrigerator I used that. And since I had some ham that needed to be used, I put in some of that too. I was very pleased with the results, and I think I'm going to go have another bowl. ;)

Irish Colcannon Soup
Adapted from Cooking Light

1 Tbs. butter
2 ½ c. small potatoes, cut into quarters
1 medium onion, diced
1 c. ham, diced
Salt & pepper to taste
4 c. broth
8 c. thinly sliced savoy cabbage
1 c. reduced fat sour cream
¼-1/2 c. half-and-half

In a stock pot, heat the butter over medium heat. Add the onion, ham and potatoes and stir to combine. Cover and saute for about 5 minutes. Add the broth and cabbage, season to taste with the salt and pepper. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 10-15 minutes, or until potatoes and cabbage are tender. Remove from heat and add sour cream and half-and-half. Correct seasoning if necessary.

The Mum that Ate Alabama

Okay, so that's a bit of an exaggeration. Just slightly though. ;) I seem to have odd luck with mums. Last fall I picked up a couple of plants, all shaped like perfect little domes, and planted them out. This spring, one didn't show up at all, one stuck up a few leaves, and one started growing pretty fast. By July-August, it had eaten half of the flower bed. Now it's a huge behemoth mutant that I think has eaten some smaller neighborhood pets and possibly slow moving elderly people. Too bad you can't ever predict what they're going to do. :)

The weather has been beautiful, clear blue skies, bright sun and a chill in the air. Fall is always my favorite time of year, and this one has been beautiful. The trees haven't started changing color yet, but I can't wait to see it. We need to get a firepit for the back yard, so that we can have a fire out on chilly nights. I think it'll be a great weekend for making a pot of chili and snuggling up on the couch to read.

Childbirf Classes

From the time that I found out I was pregnant I have dreaded the childbirth class. I know that you can pick up some good information from them, but I'm not a touchy-feely-huggy sort, and don't usually bond that well with women. After being in the military for 10 years and working almost exclusively with males, I just don't have that much in common with women and don't like their moodiness. However, I know that you're much better off during childbirth if you actually have a clue what's going on, plus you can find out about the facility you're going to deliver at and get some info. Knowing already that I want whatever pain relief that they can give me, up to and including knocking me out, I didn't want anyone lecturing me on natural childbirth and judging me. So I signed us up for one, much to the dismay of D. Last night was the first class and I have to say that it wasn't too painful.

The instructor is an Australian lady which is cool because she could read the back of a cereal box and I'd think it sounded neat. She's pretty laid back and funny, which is the way to get me to listen to things. The other couples in the class are a similar age as D and I are, and they all have due dates within a day or two of mine. Three of the other four husbands are from Illinois, which made D fit right in since that's where he's from. We watched some videos on the stages of childbirth, ate snacks, watched some videos on diet and nutrition, ate snacks, and then did some relaxation techniques where my massage slave had to rub my lower back while I lay there and focused on relaxing. We went to eat out before we went to class, so it was a pretty nice evening out.

I also had my doctor’s appointment this morning where I had my blood glucose test done. I don’t have gestational diabetes and I am not anemic, so that’s two less things to worry about. I go in two weeks for my next visit, and I’m going to have a 4D ultrasound done. I can’t wait to see the baby and what she looks like. :)

It's a Sickness

I took an unsupervised visit to the nursery today, which is always a dangerous thing. Actually it got more dangerous because Bennett's didn't open until 11:30 or noon so I stopped by Lowe's to pass some time. I always like going by myself better, because then I can putter around and look at everything and don't get hurried. While it may be more enjoyable, it definately does more damage to the pocketbook.

Lowe's had several racks of plants on 75% clearance, so I had to go nose around there. I ended up with a Winged Euonymous bush with a couple of leaves left on it, a Penstemon 'Silverton' that wasn't too badly off, two Bronze Ajuga plants that looked very healthy and a mystery bush that had pretty purple flowers just right for attracting bees. I always have the desire to try to rehabilitate these walking wounded plants and see if I can bring them back. Let's not mention all of the otherwise healthy plants that I've killed off this year. In addition to the sick plants I also brought home a May Night salvia, an Arizona Sun Gallardia and a verbena plant. And then I went to the next nursery. :)

My main goal in going out this afternoon was to get some tulip bulbs. Or at least that was what I said I was going out for. My real objective was to get a mountain laurel bush for the back yard. When we lived in Virginia the mountain laurels were so beautiful and I've always wanted one. By the time I was finished at Lowe's I was already hot and sweaty and ready to go home, but I went ahead and pressed on. Instead of my usual rambling around and looking at everything, I homed in on my objective which took a few minutes to find because they'd moved since the last time I was there. I spent a few minutes agonizing over whether to get the light pink ones, pink ones with some white on the flower, or the one I ultimately got, Minuet, which had red rims with white centers. Carrying my prize, I went on to the front office to pick out my tulip bulbs and to pay. I got several different kinds of tulips, in red and yellow which are the colors that Maw asked for.

So now the plants are at home and in my garage, waiting patiently for me to get them put out. I'm giving it an hour or two more to cool off and then I'm going out to plant my new babies. I think this is the last purchase of the year, because I'm about planted out. So now it'll be time to get everything prepped for winter and start making big plans for next year.

Whodathunkit

I've had elephant ears at various points in my life, with varying degrees of success. They have neat foliage, but that was the extent of interesting features in the plant for me. This spring I found some elephant ears with black stems, which add further architectural interest. As the summer progressed, I noticed that there were yellowish leaves on the plant, and was thinking that it might not be doing so good. So I went over to take a look at them, and imagine my surprise when I figured out that they were flowers. Not pretty fragrant flowers, but flowers nontheless. In fact they reminded me somewhat of birds of paradise. So this has been the first surprise of the growing season for me.

Everything else is doing pretty good. I'm going to have to relocate some of the other plants that have gotten too big for their neighbors, but that's to the good since I still have some bare spots on the front of the house. I think we're going to do one last trip to the nursery tomorrow and get some tulip bulbs, get everything set out and transplanted and then call it a growing season.

Bamalama Red Beans

Since D. is out of the country I'm flying solo right now. I haven't been eating that well lately, for various reasons and am trying to get back on track with healthier eating. So tonight when I got home from work I was thinking about having some black beans and rice. Since I got kidney stones most likely from a calcium supplement, I am trying to get more calcium naturally. I was out of black beans so I made it with kidney beans (how appropriate)! It was time to clean out the refrigerator crisper and so I threw most of what I had into the pot. Since I made salsa a few days ago, I decided a more Caribbean themed dish would be good. Here's what I came up with:

Bamalama Red Beans

1 Tbs. olive oil
1 small onion, minced
1 stalk celery, minced
1 (14.5 oz) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 (14.5 oz) can tomatoes with jalapenos (or you could use Rotel)
1 c. water
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. smoked spanish paprika
Salt & pepper to taste
1/2 c. thinly sliced green onions
About 1 Tbs. or so of minced fresh cilantro
Juice of 1 lemon
Brown Sugar to taste (depends on the acidity level)

Heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions and celery, saute until onion begins to brown. Add beans through salt and pepper and stir well to combine. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Simmer around 10-15 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine.

This turned out pretty spicy, but really flavorful. Instead of mixing it with the usual rice I made some quinoa to go with it.

Ave Maria

We had some guests in visiting this weekend and had a really great time. It was the first weekend I've felt like doing much in a while. We went to see the Ave Maria Grotto at the St. Bernard's Abbey which is something I've been wanting to do for a long time. It was an absolutely amazing place, I could have spent a lot more time there than what we did, but it was starting to get pretty hot outside. The grotto is a collection of miniature buildings that were made by one of the brothers at the monastery. There are 155 of them total and he made them from found objects. The buildings are located in a scenic wooded park that is very relaxing to walk through. It'll definately be a new stop for visitors who come to see us.

We went to see the Space & Rocket center and enjoyed that also. I'm not that into crowded places, but they did have some very interesting things to see. They had the OCC's Liberty Bike on tour there and set up which was something to see. They have a pretty good assortment of different spacecraft there, and also artifacts from the space program. We rushed the outside tour part, because it was starting to storm and we didn't really want to be standing out beside a giant rocket when it got struck by lightening. Our guests went home on Sunday and we spent the rest of the day relaxing. D.'s grandmother died last Wednesday and he is going home for the funeral so we went out shopping on Monday for clothes for him to wear. It was a pretty eventful weekend so it's nice to be back to work so that I can rest. :)

New Toy

Over the weekend I looked out in the backyard and noticed that there was a hummingbird flying around the regular bird feeder. So today I stopped and picked up a hummingbird feeder on the way home from work. I've been meaning to get one for a while and hadn't gotten around to it. I took the shephard's hook out into the back and tried to put it into the ground and couldn't because it is hard as a rock. I even tried soaking it with a hose and wasn't able to get it to go all the way in. It's standing, but not too firm right now, I'll have to push it in more when we get a good rain in. So now we'll see if I get any takers. :)

It's hotter than a....

I've been running through a list of colorful Southern sayings to try and describe how hot it is, but nothing pays justice. It was 105 F here today and I can say I'm really glad that I work indoors. I could only be persuaded to go outside to get lunch and to go home. It's been a rough week, I came down with either a kidney stone or a bladder infection that felt like one. After they figured out that the antibiotic they had prescribed to me was one that the bacteria had resistance to it went much better. So today is the first day that I have felt normal in a long time. We did find out that the baby is a girl last Wednesday which is fun news.

Since it's been so hot and dry none of the flowers are showing off at their best right now. I was surprised when I went outside this evening to check things over that there were some lovely flowers on my latest clematis vine. This is the Betty Corning variety, and I love them because they are so understated. In fact I barely noticed that it was there. :) I gave almost everything a good watering down to help them along. There's a tropical depression moving towards Texas and I'm hoping it blows some rain our way. A girl can dream. :)

The Golden Compass

It was with some excitement and a little anxiety that I saw the following link on Yahoo News today. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808718640/info The Golden Compass is part of an excellent trilogy by Philip Pullman. After I got the first one I immediately went out and bought the others and had a reading marathon to finish them. It was one of the best series that I'd read in a long time. So on to the movie. There are parts of it that look incredible, but there's always that nagging "But it wasn't like that in the book!" that I will have to get over. I do have to say that Nicole Kidman as Ms. Coulter is a fabulous choice. Something else to look forward to in December. :) Hopefully I can see it before I go into labor. ;)

Crepe Myrtles

Last fall when we bought our house there were two trees that had been planted in the summer. One of them looked to be dead and the other had only one or two green leaves on it. As part of our agreeing to buy the house I asked for the trees to be replaced. I also asked if I could pick the replacement trees. Since there were crepe myrtles that my grandmother had planted growing in front of our house when I was younger I really wanted some. Those had been the bright magenta colored blooms that are a trifle overblown. For those who might not be familiar with them, most of the common crepe myrtles are magenta, lavendar and white. The trees that got put into the front yard actually looked to be almost in worse shape than the trees that were removed and I thought they might die over the winter.

Flash to April when the trees had just begun to leaf out, and the whole area was struck with a severe frost. It killed the top of the limbs of the tree and turned all of the leaves brown. For a month nothing grew on them and finally leaves started coming out. While D and I were out shopping I noticed that there were crepe myrtles in the parking lot of the store and they were RED. I had never seen a red crepe myrtle before and I was in love. Since we didn't have any idea what the color of those that were planted in our yard were I got a flash of hope that they might be red too, but what are the chances. A couple of weeks ago I noticed the flower buds on them, and finally yesterday they opened up and they were....RED! Actually only one has opened up so far I haven't seen the other yet. I'm hoping it's red too, since red and magenta together look like colors a cheap hooker might wear. But I guess we'll see. :)

Roses

Yesterday I got home from work and ran out to take pictures of the roses. My Elle rose was opening up the day before, and when I went to takea picture I realized that my camera battery was dead. :P So I went out and snapped some quick pictures. Since it had just rained earlier I got some perfect dewy shots. I especially admired the intricate bloom on the Neptune bush, up above. I have been really happy with how well the roses have done since they were just planted this year. My previous attempts at growing roses haven't always been successful so it's always a crapshoot with me. So far the most effort that I have had to go to so far this year is assassinating a couple of Japanese beetles that were snacking. I don't really like killing things but sometimes you have to.

The pregnancy is going along pretty well, I don't really have much to complain about....yet. ;) I reserve my right to complain in the future! I'm still waiting for this nesting instinct to kick in that will make me clean the house like a mad woman. Go figure, the one symptom that I REALLY need isn't happening. I try not to get too excited or nervous because I still have a long way to go. I'm getting to the point though that I'm going to have to start making some arrangements...find a pediatrician, take some childbirth classes, pick out a hospital etc. It was nice being comfortably numb and not having to worry about all of that, but I guess I must. :)

Nice Weather

We've had a very nice spell of weather over the last couple of weeks. We've gotten quite a bit of rain, and the temperatures have been a little cooler. We went to Lowe's this morning to get a work bench for the garage, and of course while we were there I had to look at the garden center. I've been keeping my eyes out for a replacement for my peppermint clematis. It has very neat looking blooms on it but unfortunately hasn't been doing so well since it got planted. Almost all of the leaves have fallen off and it just wasn't looking too good. So while we were at Lowe's I found a Butterscotch Jessamine that has yellow fragrant flowers. It was a very well established plant and looks like it'll do good. I also picked up a couple of plants for the bird/butterfly/bee garden that I'm going to be setting up by my bird feeder.

After I got home I went out and planted the jessamine. I also did some tidying up of our back porch area because it was looking a little junky. I had some failed planting experiments, old pots and stuff sitting around so I got it all cleaned up. I also got rid of the failed lotus plant and potted a water lily in its place. After that I was pretty much wiped out for the day and came in and rested.

It has been a pretty quiet and restful weekend. It has been raining some off and on which is much better than the drought that we were having. D.'s parents went home on Thursday after a very busy and productive visit.

One of the main things that got finished was the gravel pathway in the picture above. Before it was part of the flower bed and to get over to the faucet you had to walk around grass clumps and got ant bites all over your feet. Now it is much cleaner and tidier looking. The stepping stones have a neat Celtic knot on them. We also got mulch laid down so maybe the plants won't dry out quite so fast. The mulch helps give it a more finished look also. Note that my pink whirling butterfly plant in the bottom right corner has been corraled. I had the same plant in North Carolina and it was very well behaved. This one has been sprawling all over the flower bed and looking pretty shabby. We got a little hoop to hold it up so that the stems on it cascade a bit and look so much nicer.

What's on the agenda for tomorrow? Laundry, grocery shopping, more laundry and then ending up with doing laundry. We've been behind for the last month or so and getting caught up really sucks.

4th of July

So I haven't felt like posting for a while now. I was feeling extremely fatigued for most of the month of May and the early part of June. I haven't had any problems with morning sickness, but the heat does wear me out really quickly now. I have been busy with work and finishing up my classes. So I've started the next round now and I'm really not at my best with it. I'm used to a few weeks between classes so there was a bit of a break. This set started the day after the other classes ended so I'm still trying to get my bearings with it.

D's parents have been here visiting since Friday. It's been like having a couple of industrious helpful little elves around the place because they have gotten so much done while I was at work. They stained the fence, did some yard work and reorganized the garage. We went to see Transformers this afternoon, and I really enjoyed the movie. Back to work tomorrow, but at least it's only for two days before the weekend.

Welcome Cookies Back Again!

The cookie drought at our house has finally been broken, behold it is Snack Day at work tomorrow! Of course I forgot that I had told them I would bake some cookies until 9:10 p.m. I have had this recipe for a while that I wanted to try, because my grandma used to bake some pineapple coconut cookies and my mom loved them. Since grandma is dead and her estranged sister has the recipe box she doesn't have a recipe. So I found this one out on the internet and am going to bake them for her next time she comes to visit. It's not that healthy for you but the taste is a real winner.

Pineapple Coconut Cookies
1/2 c. shortening
1/2 c. brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 c. white sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 c. crushed pineapple, drained
1/2 package of baking coconut

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl combine the flour, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl cream together the shortening and sugars. Add in the egg and vanilla. Add the flour mixture, pineapple and coconut alternately and stir well. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets and bake for approximately 10-15 minutes or until they just start to brown around the edges. Be careful not to overbake them.

Neptune

My first roses in the new house bloomed today. They have had buds on them for the last week or so that just barely open a little bit each day. This rosebush is Neptune, that I bought from the Edmund's Roses catalog this spring. It's been kind of dry lately and there have been some little bugs on the buds so the flowers weren't perfect. But I figure that it's an accomplishment enough to get even a raggedy bloom out of them so I'm posting the pictures like a proud mama.

Speaking of proud mamas, I am going to be one. In December plus or minus a few weeks. So there's a lot of excitement around the homestead now. I have been doing well and I had my first doctor visit. My next one will be the second week in June to keep an eye on everything and make sure it is all going well. I'm such a logistician that I must already start planning every detail that I can think of so that very little gets left to chance. It's actually obsessive/compulsive I think. :)

It's been a pretty busy week, work has really picked up for me lately. I've also gotten over the aversion to food and actually cooked for the first time this last weekend. It seems like I'm making up for the meals lost with a vengeance now, so hopefully I'm not as big as a whale for my next doctor's visit.

P.S. The roses smell divine, very strong traditional rose smell. :)

Fenced In

The new fence is in. We came home from work one day to find all of the posts in place. The next day they had the cross-sections in place. Then a couple of days later the fence panels were in and it was done. Some of our other neighbors were getting a fence from the same place and they did them all together. I actually can't get a shot of the whole backyard in one picture.

It is really nice and defines our property. Before it was hard to tell whose was what. So there it is. Now we are working on getting it paid for. ;)

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

Work finally started on our privacy fence today. We commissioned it a couple of weeks ago but it was raining last week and they didn't get started on it. I am so excited because we have never owned an honest to God real all around privacy fence. We have a lot of projects that we are planning for the back yard, but we didn't really want to start on any of them until we had the fence.

One of our challenge spots that we are going to be doing something with is the drainage ditch in the back yard that cuts off the back 1/3 of our back yard. I'm not sure why they chose that drainage option because it makes the back part of the yard mostly unusable. Don't worry though friends, I have a plan. The main problem that I have with the current drainage ditch is the fact that the soil is eroding as the rainwater flows over it. What we plan on doing is to dig it out a bit more and make a dry gravel streambed and incorporate features that will help keep the soil in place and out of the local streams. We will plant some rain garden type plants that can deal with water or drought on the edges and then put a wooden bridge over it, like one of these:

http://www.aquaart.com/lwbridges.html

And then all along the back fenceline I plan on planting the whole thing in blackberry brambles. So in this way we will be able to utilize our whole backyard instead of just writing off the part with the ditch in it. The other advantage is that by fencing it we won't have to worry about the kids riding their dirt bikes and four wheelers through it. Now if only it will all work out as smoothly as that. ;)