What's Blooming This Week 5/28/08

This is my Arabian Nights dahlia, planted just this spring. That's why I love bulbs, they're so easy that just about anyone can grow them.
This is my Pentestemon, planted last year and relocated to the back yard this year. It is covered in white blooms.
My mountain laurel has buds on it! I'm very excited because I haven't ever grown one of these before. They remind me of summer in Northern Virginia, because I used to see them all the time when I went running.

Elle is still blooming away. It's one of the most photogenic roses that I have ever grown. :)

The Peppermint clematis blooms are still there, believe it or not. Some are a little worse for the wear but are otherwise okay.

I Made It!!

I'm happy to report that the family visit is over and I've survived. We went up to Arkansas to visit my mother and sister. We got some nursery visits done and lots of baby snorgling. We had a family cookout and it went pretty well. We had an awesome hotel room with super comfy furniture, high speed internet, a hotel pool and fitness room and a huge shopping center next door. I am not saying that the visit was perfect, but there was no blood loss and no one was harmed in the filming of this vacation. I also got some material for my book, so I'm happy. :) Now for the long trip home tomorrow, I hope it goes as well as the trip out here did. See you on the other side!

The Watched Pot

Seed starting has never been a strong point of mine, but I saw the packet above in Target the other day and knew that it had to be mine. I like it because of its decorative value, but also because I have always wanted a passionflower vine. So I got them and a little peat pellet greenhouse and planted them. And started waiting. And waiting.....still waiting every day and checking them. I think it's a bad sign that mold is starting to pop up on top of the peat pellets, but I still hold out some hope. The package says germination can take up to 28 days and it's been...um who knows, like I wrote down the day I planted them *snort*. We'll see if my faith will get rewarded.

What's Blooming This Week 5/16/08

Angel Face is still plugging away, in spite of a bad case of black spot. If you look carefully at the 3 o' clock petal you'll notice a small white spider that is peeking out. Unfortunately I think I got it when I was spraying it down with fungicide.

The Peppermint clematis is still blooming away. I'm waiting for the pompom in the center to open up, but the petals have unfurled and it looks more like a clematis bloom now.

This is my new Little Duckling clematis that I got for Mother's Day. Isn't she a beaut?

This is the Butter and Sugar siberian iris that I got last summer. I've had a devil of a time getting a good picture, because the white reflects back so much on the pictures that you can hardly see the yellow.

Oddities

Sometimes I am attracted to plants because they are just odd. One of the first plants that I got when we got our new house was the Peppermint clematis pictured above. It had a green center and whitish petals, and looked very different. We put it in the first flower bed that we built. Then we moved that bed the next spring. It started to grow and even got a few flowers, but then it died back. I thought it was dead so I dug it up and replaced it with a jasmine plant. But rather than throwing it out I put it in a pot and left it on the patio over the winter. Lo and behold this spring it started growing like mad, so when we rearranged the beds in the backyard I planted it by a shephard's hook with a windchime on it. It put on lot of flower buds, one of which you see above. This brings me to my quandry. The flowers are fairly small and they aren't brightly colored. I bought another clematis, Little Duckling, thinking to replace it, but I haven't. There is something that still appeals to me about Peppermint, and so it lives on in my garden. I think I'll plant my Little Duckling clematis under my other shepherd's hook with the hummingbird feeder.

Veteran's Honor

Is that not the most absolutely perfect rose blossom that you've ever seen? Strategically captured with droplets of water from a passing rain storm? :) Thank you dear One Truth for the lovely present. It looks lighter in the picture than it actually does, in person it seems to be darker.

The Joseph's Coat rose is still going gangbusters. I can't believe the variety of different colors on the plant. We're going to get a trellis for it this weekend because it's starting to flop over now.

There was a line of powerful storms that tore through Mississippi and Alabama today. Thanks be to God that it wasn't worse than it was. Tornados were sighted right south of the airport, which is right across the street from where I work. So things could have gone much differently today.

Maintenance

Now that we have our beds set up and plants planted for the spring it is time to maintain it all. So when I got home from work tonight I strapped my trusty sidekick to my chest (Quickbeam in her Baby Bjorn carrier), took my pruners and headed out to the garden. I trimmed all of the old blooms off of my roses and cut them back some. They have some black spot issues so Mawavi treated them. We also cut the dead wood off of our poor crepe myrtle trees. For those not in the know, when we bought the house we had them trade out the old dead trees for some crepe myrtles. But a late spring freeze killed the tops of them. I thought they were gone, but they came back in the bottom part of the tree. Now they are looking like they were butchered while we are waiting for them to recover. We puttered around for a while and enjoyed being outside. It was perfect weather today and I want to soak it all in before the hot humid weather gets here. Here's my Veteran's Honor rose bush, getting ready to bloom.

What's Blooming This Week 5/3/08

Welcome Home Rose

Neptune Rose Elle Rose Joseph's Coat Rose Acadian Miss Louisiana Iris

Enough

Over the weekend we finally reached the point that was Enough. I thought that we had already reached Enough when we finished off the back yard garden. But when we put up the bird feeder that my dad made for me, it looked awfully bare. So I decided that we would put in one last big effort and do a bed around the base of it. I had a couple of plants left that were sitting on the concrete patio in the back, and on thinking of it decided that they would make great plants for birds, butterflies etc. So we made up a list before we headed to Lowe's of everything that we could possibly think of that we could possibly need. Because I know me and I know my husband I also added '1 plant' to the list. That way when I picked up an impulse buy and he made a snide comment on whether it was on the list I could say "Well yes, as a matter of fact it is on the list, right here, 1 plant". It didn't come down to that though, because look as I may I just wasn't interested in buying plants. Okay, I'll pause long enough for you to pick yourself off of the floor. :) I may still pick up a few plants here and there throughout the summer, but when you transplant after it starts getting warm outside the plants are really need and require a lot of attention through the season. Watering all the time, protection from some of the sun etc. So I think that I'm probably finished until this fall when I start up again. :)

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. :)