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. ;)

Technology Curse

So overall the weekend hasn't been very promising. I've broken two major household appliances, it has rained for the last two days, it has been cold and not exactly condusive to getting things done. It's not necessarily that I broke the appliances as much as I was the one who found that they weren't working. The dishwasher isn't turning on and it appears to have some disconnect between the electronic panel on the front and what actually turns it on. The timer on the dryer is not moving and clothes just dry and dry and dry. So I really probably shouldn't even be on the computer because lord knows what will happen to it.

Not a really good way to start off the new week, hopefully it isn't a sign. ;)

Gardening in my Garage

We had the freezing spell Saturday through Monday so I couldn't put out any plants. I got in a shipment yesterday evening, but I worked late so I couldn't put it out. Today it rained a ton, so no planting for a few days while I wait for it to dry out. In the meantime I was concerned for my new Angel Face rose bush. I had planted one of these up in North Carolina, pictured above. I fell madly in love with it and it tore my heart out to leave it when we left. So I found one in a gardening catalog and ordered it. It came in with yesterday's shipment and was a bare-root plant wrapped in plastic. Since I won't be able to plant it outside for a few days I went ahead and put it in a pot with some dirt in it to keep it from drying out. Hopefully I'll be able to get them out before they all die.

Too good to be true

Most people that I know figured that we'd get another cold snap after the warm weather we've been having. We just didn't think it would be this much of a cold snap. After a couple of nights at 27 degrees the leaves on my crepe myrtle tree died. Most everything else still seems to be doing okay and that has been the only casualty I have seen. I'm definately ready for a bit warmer weather.

My last round of mail-order plants is coming in and after that I don't plan on planting much. Our main priority is to get the privacy fence in the back yard put up and then maintain the things that we have planted so far. Looking forward to warming up soon. :)

Botanical Garden

It is day #2 of my mom's visit, and we decided to go visit the botanical garden. It was a beautiful sunny day and perfect to go walking around. It was however not the perfect day to go there because they had a charity fundraising walk-a-thon type event going on and it was a madhouse there. We walked around and looked at all the tulips, lilacs, cherry trees, dogwoods, azaleas and it was beautiful.

We got back to a vegetable garden demonstration area where people were working outside. One of the ladies asked me if I would like to have some of the flower plants, because they were getting ready to till up an old neglected bed to plant some vegetables. May as well ask me if I still want to keep breathing! So they dug us up some day lilies, poppies, oxalis and sweet william and put them in plastic grocery bags to carry out.

In case you didn't know, the soil in Alabama is clay. Heavy, dense clay that turns hard as a rock when it is dry like it has been. When they dug up the plants there was a substantial amount of dirt on them. We picked up the bags and started walking back to take them to the car. Before too long it felt like my arms were getting pulled off. The handles on the bags started stretching. We made it to a park bench and sat down to rest. We started off again and made it a little farther and the handles on the bags started breaking. We stopped at another more secluded park bench and decided that something had to be done. So we pulled out the clumps and started knocking off big clods of dirt to lighten up the loads.

We finally made it out, although there was a brief period of time where I was afraid we were going to get tackled as we left since it looked like we were carrying ill-gotten gains. We went out to eat afterwards and then went home. We stopped by the quilt shop and both left with more fabric than we needed to. Tomorrow: On to the nursery and pond store!

More Springtime Goodness

Yet another beautiful spring day today. It was actually 86 degrees yesterday and felt about like summer. Today it was a bit overcast and looked almost like it would rain. Almost. It's actually a bit on the dry side right now and we really could use some rain. I had to water today and I don't like to do that with water straight from the faucet. The water here really smells like chlorine, and when I take a bath it smells almost like a swimming pool. I ran some in a watering can today so it can sit overnight and some of it can evaporate out.

The grass got cut today for the second time and is starting to green up. There are weeds growing all in the sod and we're probably going to have to get it treated. Our previous lawn was a collection of weeds with a few sprigs of grass in it, so it'd be nice to have something that was mostly grass.

Tulip Hageri

Spring is definately here and we've been doing a lot of gardening this weekend. Got things planted and beds moved around. I am definately worn out and ready to go back to work so that I can rest.

My baby, you've found him!

I am extremely happy today and all is right with the world. My computer dieded and it had to go into the repair center. It's been gone over a MONTH. I have been lost and wandering without it and hubby and I have been unhappily sharing his. I basically got back a new computer because they replaced the hard drive, motherboard, video card, both DVD drives and part of the chassis.

But now here it is, back in my house and squeaky clean, woohoo! I don't want to put anything on it now because it's so empty. ;)

Hopeless

Since I've been spending a ton more money on books than I'd like to lately, I decided to get started going back to the library more often. That way I can read to my heart's content and not have to pay anything (unless I'm late taking them back!). You know that sounds really good in theory, but there are two evils at work here: previewing books that I like and the Amazon Marketplace where I can have access to thousands and thousands of used bookstores across the country. Case in point:

I've always been a sucker for regional cookbooks, and have always tried to find one for each area that I have lived in. I've been stumped on a regional cookbook for Minnesota. When I was at the library on Sunday I came across this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Savoring-Seasons-Northern-Heartland-Dooley/dp/0816645744/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-7914975-6964722?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174358824&sr=8-1
The book is great, it has a lot of commentary and history on the region in it, and some downright tasty (though not healthy!) recipes. So of course I had to buy it. I've found myself prowling around the AM several times in the past few days and I think I'm going to have to start blocking the site now.

My problem is that even though I am telling myself that I really don't NEED anymore books I can complete the transaction in less than two minutes so there isn't time for the buyer's remorse to kick in. Normally when I go to a real book store I will pick up an interesting book, decide to buy it, carry it around for about 5 minutes and then put it back. Just the act of making the decision to buy it makes me feel better, and the hassle of having to actually go check out makes it not worth it. I hope that I don't have to make the library off limits like the bookstores are now. :)

Score 1 for the hometeam!

Or Me 1 - Feral Yeast 0

Second attempt for a rematch and it was much more successful than the last. The main reason is that I decided to use sourdough, which I've had better luck with in the past than straight yeast breads. I had some leftover pumpkin from making some pumpkin oatmeal cookies and wanted to find a recipe to use it. So I found a pumpkin dinner roll recipe online and used a sourdough recipe conversion spreadsheet to remake the recipe. I attempted it starting last night and these were the results today. Here's the recipe that I used:

Sourdough Pumpkin Dinner Rolls

1 c. sourdough starter

3/4 c. milk (or soy milk)

4-5 c. flour

1 tsp. salt

6 Tbs. canola oil

1 c. canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)

1/3 c. brown sugar, packed

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ginger

1/8 tsp. allspice

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. baking soda

Combine starter, milk, 2 c. flour, canola oil, pumpkin, brown sugar and spices in a large bowl and mix well. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and leave to sit for about 24 hours. Remove plastic wrap and stir spond. Combine remaining flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl and whisk to combine. Add flour mixture to sponge and stir until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. Turn dough out and knead 3-4 minutes, adding flour only to keep from sticking.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Divide dough into 24 equal portions and roll them into balls. Place several inches apart on a baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit for 15 minutes. Brush tops with milk and bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

For some reason I was thinking that the rolls would come out pretty sweet and I wasn't thinking they would be a good dinner roll. They aren't though, they are just right. Really rich tasting with a subtle spicy taste. I plan on trying them again for holiday rolls this fall. :) They turned out slightly heavy and I'm thinking it's because I didn't use bread flour or maybe needed to knead it longer. I'll have to do some tweaking to make it better.

Crepe Murder

I'm so happy today because I can finally start talking about gardening again. Since moving into our new house last fall there wasn't much to talk about. There didn't seem much use in getting started on anything with winter right around the corner, and there was so many other things to do. But today is another matter all together.

The sun is shining very brightly outside, but the air is still really chilly. The birds are singing and the wind is blowing in the trees. One of the projects that has been on my radar lately is pruning our crepe myrtle trees. For those who don't know what a crepe myrtle is - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crepe_myrtle Part of the deal with the new housing development were two trees in the front yard. The ones that were there had been planted in the middle of the drought and looked dead, so I asked for them to be replaced. I asked for crepe myrtles if possible. When I was growing up, we had two of them that my grandmother had planted growing in front of the house and I thought it would be nice if I had some again. I was reading an article in Southern Living that was trying to prevent people from committing Crepe Murder by beheading their trees in the mistaken belief that it would give the tree a beautiful form.

So with my newly acquired pruning tools I set forth to do battle with my own. For the most part it was pretty straightforward, but one of my trees has a split in the main trunk. I'm going to have to figure out what I need to do with it so I can get started with retraining it if necessary.

I've also been poring through gardening magazines and trying to figure out what I want to plant where. I have made enormous lists of what I want to plant and have to keep pruning it back. Cost is a constraint in this because we need to get a fence put up in the back yard first before we do anything else.