Thursday, September 17, 2009
Because I know many of you will appreciate this
Some for the fencing, some for the lightsaber, some for both....
Friday, September 11, 2009
Fall gardening, or lack thereof
Oh right. I keep forgetting that the reason I don't get anything done outside after mid-August isn't because I'm lazy (though I am), it's because of the damn ragweed. Last weekend I tried to break it up some -- half hour here, 45 minutes there, maybe an hour and a half when I got all distracted by deciding to dig out the lily of the valley. Then I spent the next three days mostly unable to breathe despite the allergy meds. Stupid ragweed.
Speaking of lily of the valley, if I could go back in time and deliver one message to myself, it would be, "Don't change the grade of your yard with the dirt from someone's basement, and don't think that piling inches of dead, mostly clay soil on top of lily of the valley will kill it. It won't. It will only make it stronger." I still love lily of the valley, and I'm delighted with it in the shade garden on the northeast corner of the house. But this had been planted on the south side, where all the sun just gives it entirely too much encouragement. Lily of the valley does not need to be encouraged. This year I noticed how much it was encroaching on my iris and lilies, so I figured I'd pull some out and try to restrain it a bit. HA! Silly me, I went in with a little hand cultivator. Isn't that adorably naive? Twenty minutes and a good sharp shovel later, I was pulling up clumps of lily of the valley roots ten inches deep and so dense there was very little room for soil around them. I know I didn't get it all, but I think I've at least slowed it a little.
Speaking of lily of the valley, if I could go back in time and deliver one message to myself, it would be, "Don't change the grade of your yard with the dirt from someone's basement, and don't think that piling inches of dead, mostly clay soil on top of lily of the valley will kill it. It won't. It will only make it stronger." I still love lily of the valley, and I'm delighted with it in the shade garden on the northeast corner of the house. But this had been planted on the south side, where all the sun just gives it entirely too much encouragement. Lily of the valley does not need to be encouraged. This year I noticed how much it was encroaching on my iris and lilies, so I figured I'd pull some out and try to restrain it a bit. HA! Silly me, I went in with a little hand cultivator. Isn't that adorably naive? Twenty minutes and a good sharp shovel later, I was pulling up clumps of lily of the valley roots ten inches deep and so dense there was very little room for soil around them. I know I didn't get it all, but I think I've at least slowed it a little.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Nothing to see here
Nope, still nothing interesting happening in my life.
I'm looking forward to Open Forge at the end of the month. After changing my mind several times, I'm now planning on making tomato cages that don't suck. That is, big and sturdy enough to actually support tomato plants. I love the way the spirals look, but I would like to let the plants just grow next year instead of pinching them back to a single stem. Of course, I don't actually know how I'm going to make said cages, what design I'll be using, etc. I do want to be able to store them without taking up half the garage. Any suggestions?
And hey, three-day weekend coming up and a remarkably open calendar for the foreseeable future. Does this mean I'll actually get some of my fall garden chores done? The ones I talk about every year but never seem to manage? Let's not hold our breath.
I'm looking forward to Open Forge at the end of the month. After changing my mind several times, I'm now planning on making tomato cages that don't suck. That is, big and sturdy enough to actually support tomato plants. I love the way the spirals look, but I would like to let the plants just grow next year instead of pinching them back to a single stem. Of course, I don't actually know how I'm going to make said cages, what design I'll be using, etc. I do want to be able to store them without taking up half the garage. Any suggestions?
And hey, three-day weekend coming up and a remarkably open calendar for the foreseeable future. Does this mean I'll actually get some of my fall garden chores done? The ones I talk about every year but never seem to manage? Let's not hold our breath.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Oh this modern world
This may be one of the more surreal Internet experiences of my young life. The gentleman next to me, who must be in his seventies, is watching a Flash something-or-other with "Amazing Grace" playing very loudly. I'm sipping a hot chai. Coffee shop? Hardly. Does the hum of multiple coolers seem out of place?
I'm currently enjoying the wireless services of the Ideal Corners Gas, Convenience and Bait Shop (now with schmancy coffee and Internet). Ahead of me? A pizza oven and microwave in front of the cooler of eggs, cheese, milk, various Carl Budding sandwich meats and pre-wrapped Deli Select sandwiches, then the pop cooler. To my right, the chips and snacks aisle. Past that, the minnow tanks and ancient refrigerator that holds styrofoam containers of worms.
Wireless is everywhere.
Even the resort, in fact, though I can't get it in the trailer. So I didn't really need to come to the Ideal Corners Gas, Convenience and Bait Shop, but...oh who am I kidding? I so did!
Besides, it's a great day for bike riding today. Cloudy and cool but not too windy, for the first day since I arrived. Haven't been to A-Pine for pie with my wireless, as I haven't ridden a bike since last year so thought a shorter jaunt would be better. Good thing. My legs wobbled like a colt's when I got off my bike after only a mile or so.
Am having an amazingly good time, which I guess isn't so amazing since I do every year. Suzuri joined me for the first weekend (lucky for me, since Puck took the car to Wisconsin so I lacked a way to get here). We caught fish and cleaned them ourselves! And then ate them for supper, yum. Have been out on the boat lots but haven't been swimming much because there's always been a good stiff breeze to keep me cool. Am most of the way through reading my third novel. Keep half-expecting Temp to show up, sigh. (Stupid railroad.) Why did I only buy six ears of corn? It is so delicious!
Have been away from the news for days, and when I got here all the front pages were talking about Favre, so I still don't know what's happening in the world. So there's something good to come of that anyhow.
Did you know "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!" comes in a spray bottle? Doesn't that sort of invalidate their claim? I mean, it's in a spray bottle. I can believe it's not butter. (Sorry, glanced up at the refrigerator case. Welcome to vacation brain! Whee!)
On that note, I should shut up now.
I'm currently enjoying the wireless services of the Ideal Corners Gas, Convenience and Bait Shop (now with schmancy coffee and Internet). Ahead of me? A pizza oven and microwave in front of the cooler of eggs, cheese, milk, various Carl Budding sandwich meats and pre-wrapped Deli Select sandwiches, then the pop cooler. To my right, the chips and snacks aisle. Past that, the minnow tanks and ancient refrigerator that holds styrofoam containers of worms.
Wireless is everywhere.
Even the resort, in fact, though I can't get it in the trailer. So I didn't really need to come to the Ideal Corners Gas, Convenience and Bait Shop, but...oh who am I kidding? I so did!
Besides, it's a great day for bike riding today. Cloudy and cool but not too windy, for the first day since I arrived. Haven't been to A-Pine for pie with my wireless, as I haven't ridden a bike since last year so thought a shorter jaunt would be better. Good thing. My legs wobbled like a colt's when I got off my bike after only a mile or so.
Am having an amazingly good time, which I guess isn't so amazing since I do every year. Suzuri joined me for the first weekend (lucky for me, since Puck took the car to Wisconsin so I lacked a way to get here). We caught fish and cleaned them ourselves! And then ate them for supper, yum. Have been out on the boat lots but haven't been swimming much because there's always been a good stiff breeze to keep me cool. Am most of the way through reading my third novel. Keep half-expecting Temp to show up, sigh. (Stupid railroad.) Why did I only buy six ears of corn? It is so delicious!
Have been away from the news for days, and when I got here all the front pages were talking about Favre, so I still don't know what's happening in the world. So there's something good to come of that anyhow.
Did you know "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!" comes in a spray bottle? Doesn't that sort of invalidate their claim? I mean, it's in a spray bottle. I can believe it's not butter. (Sorry, glanced up at the refrigerator case. Welcome to vacation brain! Whee!)
On that note, I should shut up now.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Vacation! And books!
Week of Solitude starts tonight! How much am I looking forward to this? You have no idea.
To kill some of the interminable minutes between now and then, here's a book meme I stole from Temp over on Facebook.
Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. List 15 books you've read that will always stick with you. They should be the first 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.
1. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
2. The Liar, Stephen Fry
3. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
4. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
5. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
6. Watership Down, Richard Adams
7. The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
8. The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
9. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
10. Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
11. Native Son, Richard Wright
12. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
13. Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
14. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
15. A Song of Ice and Fire (series), George R.R. Martin
Huh. That was different than I thought. Mostly because of the "books that will always stick with you" bit. I mean, the degree to which I loathed Moby Dick means it will always stick with me, but damned if I'm going to put it on the list. And I just know there are some books that are really dear to me that I just didn't think of right off the top of my head. And then there's the whole thing where books like Jane Eyre were terrifically important to me in my teens, but if I read it now it would be completely different. Some of these are here because of how deeply comfortable they are, others because they are the opposite of that.
Yay books.
To kill some of the interminable minutes between now and then, here's a book meme I stole from Temp over on Facebook.
Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. List 15 books you've read that will always stick with you. They should be the first 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.
1. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
2. The Liar, Stephen Fry
3. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
4. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
5. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
6. Watership Down, Richard Adams
7. The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
8. The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
9. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
10. Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
11. Native Son, Richard Wright
12. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
13. Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
14. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
15. A Song of Ice and Fire (series), George R.R. Martin
Huh. That was different than I thought. Mostly because of the "books that will always stick with you" bit. I mean, the degree to which I loathed Moby Dick means it will always stick with me, but damned if I'm going to put it on the list. And I just know there are some books that are really dear to me that I just didn't think of right off the top of my head. And then there's the whole thing where books like Jane Eyre were terrifically important to me in my teens, but if I read it now it would be completely different. Some of these are here because of how deeply comfortable they are, others because they are the opposite of that.
Yay books.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
The most wonderful time of the year
I have ripe tomatoes on the vine! (Not many, granted, because of weather, but still! Ripe tomatoes!) The basil is thick and lovely, and I see bruschetta and BLTs in my near future.
AND Colorado peaches are in season and at Bob's. Puck went grocery shopping, saw them, and bought me half a dozen. That oughta last until Sunday or so. Mmmmmm, Colorado peaches. *slurp*
AND Colorado peaches are in season and at Bob's. Puck went grocery shopping, saw them, and bought me half a dozen. That oughta last until Sunday or so. Mmmmmm, Colorado peaches. *slurp*
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