Garden update - March 2012

So.  First garden update of the year.

 The clematis survived; I'm surprised. It lived all summer in the lousy plastic pot it came in, and I figured I'd killed it. 

My amazing husband is 90% done with a "real" compost bin. Last year, we made do with the dozen or so random tomato cages we found in the back corner of the yard when we bought the house. No clue where they came from; the people who lived here previously didn't garden (and it shows!). Not sure about the people before them, but there was no obvious garden patch, the whole yard was grass.

After the bin is finished, we're building a 3rd raised bed. Some of last year's compost can go in it, and we'll fill the bin with new fixin's. Which we have a lot of. I'm pretty sure we cleaned up the leaves and stuff last fall, but we've been working in the yard the last two weekends, and the pile of compostable stuff is way, wwaayy bigger than we expected. And here I was wondering if I could cruise the neighborhood on trash morning and grab some bagged leaves. Doesn't look like I'll need to do that after all.

Planted spinach and lettuce already, had to go buy radish seed. The radishes and peas will be planted tonight (allergies willing). The heat mat I ordered for starting seeds will be here tomorrow, and I'll work up a system to start the bell peppers, herbs, flowers, and whatever else. I plan to start the peppers (mini bell mix), basil, rosemary, thyme, delphinium, zinnias (big purple ones), possibly cantaloupe and pumpkins, and maybe some others. Depends on when I run out of room in the seed-starting trays.

 And, allergy season SUCKS. Even with two kinds of meds, I was ready to dig my eyes out with a dull spoon last night. This will probably be the year I start seeing an allergist, because this is insane and annoying, and it's getting worse. Year before last, I started having oral sensitivities too - as of last year, I couldn't eat raw cherries, apples, or carrots, which are the three veggie-snack staples. And I think it's spread to celery and pears. If cantaloupe is added to the list, I will cry.

okay, Blogspot won't post from a Kindle. bugger.

I can write posts in the "edit html" mode on my Kindle, but not the "compose" mode. And life is waaaaay too short to write html code on a twitchy touchscreen. I hag to go through two keyboard screens to get to the < and > keys. So much for that idea.

My A-List is getting shorter

I've got a short list of authors who I love, and whose books I will buy essentially sight-unseen, in hardback, at (close to) full price. That list is getting shorter, though - Anne McCaffrey died last November, and I just saw Dorothy Gilman's obituary in the N.Y. Times (she died on Thursday; complications of Alzheimers, which explains the lack of books). She hadn't published a book since 2000, but I was still hoping for one last adventure with Mrs. Pollifax.

Not sure where that leaves my A-list - Mercedes Lackey is taking a break from Valdemar, Todd McCaffrey's Pern novels are plague-ridden (literally) and not (in my opinion) as good as his mother's, and Rita Mae Brown's Sneaky Pie series has gotten too forced-preachy for my tastes. I think that leaves Susan Wittig Albert and Alexander McCall Smith (what is it with authors and triple names?), although I should probably add Tamora Pierce to the hardback-worthy list. Probably a few others I can't recall off-hand, but the list is getting shorter.

What a difference

One year ago today, we had 18inches of snow.

This week, temps are in the 60s. We've had two snows this winter, neither enough to even cover the grass. Very different.

Back in business

So, the blog has been neglected. I'll try to do better this year. If I can post from the Kindle, there may be more life here (and more swearing at the Kindle's non-keyboard).

P.S. - Jan, are you still reading here? Tried to check in on your blog(s) and I guess they're invite-only now?

Halloween season

Or, making this year's costume.

El Burrito has decided, after lots of discussion, to be Word Girl this year (yes, a "girl" - although she's also an alien. This led to discussion at the grandparents' house. He's already been a monster (Cookie) and an elephant(Horton), why shouldn't he be a girl/alien/superhero??). Next year he wants to be Super Why.

Official Word Girl costumes are about $35 and only available online, and if they're anything like the official Horton costume we saw, they're cheaply made. So it's DIY again. Luckily, I bought a sewing machine for a whopping $6 at a yard sale this summer. Even more luckily, it actually appears to work. :) And Jo-Ann's was having a sale on cotton fabric last weekend, so cape supplies came to under $5 (a bit more if you count the machine needles).

I went to Target today looking for the rest of the costume. Red seems to be "in" for kids this year, so I found a plain red shirt and leggings at Target, plus gloves and tights/legwarmers that will turn into boot covers. Much happiness on the way home.

Now I just have to actually make the cape, figure out how to do a hood, and muddle together a felt costume so our stuffed monkey can be Captain Huggy Face, Word Girl's trusty sidekick. DH and I have been told that we're going to be Mr. Botsford (Word Girl's adoptive father - her alter ego is Becky Botsford) and Becky's best friend Violet. I wanted to be Granny May and DH could be The Butcher, but we were told that we could only dress as Good Guys, not Villains. :)

I suck at summer

Yes, it's been a while. The PC got a virus and I was offline for a while. Still don't have things totally cleared up, which sucks.

Also, I suck at summer planning. Just realized El B has 2.5 weeks of summer vacation left, part of which is already blocked off for a sleepover at Grandma's, and we haven't really done anything this summer. We've left the county twice, for pete's sake, both times for trips to my parents'. (Not what you'd call a "vacation" at all.)

That list of fun local stuff to do? Didn't do any of it. I planned to go on campus to the college's art & archaeology museum, but I realized tonight that classes start next week and parking will be a crazy mess.

The box of craft kits and list of fun little projects? Totally forgotten. We did one, and it's still unfinished. Our main accomplishment has been 3 sets of caterpillars from his Live Butterfly Garden. Wow. Oh, and he saw two movies - Cars 2 and the new Winnie the Pooh movie.

He spent most of his summer watching TV, and it makes me feel like s**t because it's my fault.

We didn't go to the farmers' market, the park, the museum, the zoo (okay, 3 hour drive, but still), nothing. I didn't even manage to call his best pal from preschool for a playdate yet.


I suck.