Wednesday World of Gardens

 And WHAT--you may ask--do teenaged chicks have to do with gardens ???  Well, I'm glad you asked.  (Here they are--you go first, no YOU go first--coming out of the coop in the morning...) Aren't they precious??

   Chicken manure and straw from the coop are an important part of our composting routine. IF we didn't have so many dogs, cats and coyotes around here, they'd be free ranging and eating up bus from the garden. Maybe. My last experience with that was that I had to fence my garden, because they LOVE tomatoes, all green plants and especially green beans and peas, as well as bugs and weeds.  LOL  As it is, we exploit their waste product, which is very high in nitrogen and ammonia. So, after it's been good and composted, we use it on the gardens...but not before, because chicken poo is very HOT and can burn anything you plant in it. (And yes, this IS the voice of experience talking. lol)

   The gardens are off to a good start, it looks like.  All the flowers that should just be blooming are almost finished (irises and such) the Clematis is in full bloom already, and this morning the first  Stella D'Oro day lily bloomed !!

   I have quite a few of these planted around the place. They're great and they bloom almost all summer long.

  For some reason I'm not seeing the picture I took of the clematis...hmmm...

  Anyway, here are some shots of the vegetable gardens in their infancy (mostly):

Assorted and Sundry Bell Peppers...

 Sugar edible pea pods

Green Beans

French Breakfast Radish babies (the rest of this bed is planted in 2 lettuces, spinach, chard and onions and the 2 bottoms of celery experiment!)

Christmas Pole Limas--not sprouted yet..a lovely maroon and white speckled bean. 2 trellises,7 poles, 3 beans per = 42 plants (Our first time to do this--we'll see.)

  'Maters--4 Big Boy, $ Better Boy and 4 Beefsteaks

Taters--Red Pontiacs, Kennebecs and Irish Cobblers

Edamame bed--no sign yet, and can't pull weeds, just in case. lol

And GOOSEBERRIES!!  In the backyard by a big old dead tree and I didn't even know they were there until Ellyn pointed them out on our stroll yesterday!

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 The peaches are going to be great this year!!

The apples too!

And this is the quinoa bed-an experiment- and it was just planted 2 days ago.

Ahhh...here's the clematis--came through when I downloaded a second time.

And the evening primrose at the front porch.

And finally---the king of everything, Sir Jinga

 So, there you have it...the gardens at Honeysuckle Hill in the middle of May.   Hope you enjoyed the tour!!!!

Namaste.

Finally Friday...

   I just like the concept.

It's been a rainy Friday, from the time I got up this morning til about 2 hours ago. Heck, it could be raining out there right now for all I know.  lol   I had quite the exciting day, a chicken on the loose to start it off, and I had a breakfast date, so spent  about 10 minutes trying to catch her before giving up. I told the dog to make sure she stayed OUT of my garden, or I'd cook them both for supper.  The goofy hen stayed right on the far side of the coop, clucking her stupid brains out. She was in hog heaven, in a clump of ferny woodsy stuff that had to seem like Paradise.  When the Irishman got home from work today we went out back and got her back in.

  I had a lovely breakfast with a young man (younger than my son) that I adore. We stayed yakking over coffee for an hour and a half. Then went to a meeting  and he headed for work and I headed for home immediately after.  I stopped off at my favorite little market and bought some beautiful pork chops for supper. We fixed a grand salad from the garden, corn on the cob and oven baked pork chops. I can't tell you how satisfying it is to eat straight from the garden again. (I say this every year). lol  I only wish the pea pods were ready to eat...the crazy weather hasn't helped them. It was a late spring that turned hot hot, then cold, then really hot again. Now it's the wettest spring on record and cool again.  The plants look good (the peas) but they aren't making peas yet. The spinach on the other hand, is starting to bolt already.  Todays salad had some spinach, lettuces, kale, radishes, cucumbers, green onions, chives, basil, baby carrots and zucchini in it.  Yum.

 I can't believe some days how many really strange people I know.

It's 71 degrees right now, and more storms are on the way they say. I am cozy in my little house, the floors got vacuumed and the worst of the dog hair is off the furniture.  If the power goes out, all the better. I can get more done and even catch up on some reading.  I need to get back on track with my housekeeping...I may start using the Flylady website again. Years ago, somebody told me about her. I was living in North Carolina and working all the time and I was expressing my amazement at my friends house always being so clean. She worked as much as I did!  She said her secret was the Flylady.  She wrote down the web address for me and I gave it a go.  It turned out she (Flylady)  lived very close to where I lived! Anyway, lots of little tricks that I still use, but I haven't actually followed a plan since I retired from the work world.  Now that I'm back out there, I'm thinking maybe I should get back on board.  It sure makes everything a lot easier...to me, at least. Check her out, if you get overwhelmed and your house gets out of control...you'll be glad you did.

  Well, I may get to bed a little early tonight. I have been doing a better job of being in bed BEFORE 1 AM lately. It makes a world of difference in how I feel.  I can still only lie in bed for 5-6 hours...but I'm getting more restful sleep, I think.  I like getting up early, I take my morning cup of coffee and head out to the back deck, overlooking my gardens, or if I'm feeling really adventurous, I head on down to my little overgrown meditation area...a small iron table and chairs down at the point by the pond, sitting on a mossy bank, with windchimes softly tinkling.  The birds sing to me, I can hear the chickens softly talking amongst themselves, and in the distance the owls are hooting...calling across the fields and meadows for their prospective mates. I love this time of year... 

 The Jingacat has decided the only place he can sit is perched on my chest, making it really hard for me to type.  So--I guess I am finished for the night.

  Sweet dreams, all....

Namaste

Friday January 15, 2010

Since cats seem to be the theme of the week around this blog, I found this adorable picture too. Some of the most amazing acrobats, these feline funny guys!

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Spent a good part of today with a "normie" high school friend of mine. She lives in a delightful old house at the edge of a town I'd never been to before. I didn't make the coffeecake to take along, turned out to be just as well, as she doesn't eat sweets. (In my head is screaming that scene from My Bigt Fat Greek Wedding, where the bride to be is telling her aunt that the fiance is a vegetarian. He doesn't eat meat, she explains. The aunt [at the top of her lungs] says "WHAT??? HE DON'T EAT NO MEAT !?!?!?! WHAT YOU MEAN HE DON'T EAT NO MEAT?????") Of course I'm thinking--you don't eat no sweets??What????? lol

We had a good time chatting away and I stayed a long time before heading home. I met one of her sons and her husband and it was all real nice. I came home with about 15 pounds of sweet potatoes (maybe more, I can't tell) and a light heart. I don't have many connections from when I lived here all those years ago... but this woman had tracked me down back when I lived in Oregon (1995) about a class reunion, and we have been vaguely in contact ever since. It was funny, listening to her talk about things that I have no recollection of for the most part. But isn't that how it is for us, sometimes? I go through this with my family all the time....and try to explain to them that I cannot remember much stuff from back then...that alcoholism stole all memories of lots of things for me. I didn't tell my friend that today-no reason too. Just shook my head a few times and said I didn't remember.

Tomorrow we are going to dinner with friends. Out. Like a real date or something. lol I'm looking forward to that, getting to know some new people that we SEEM to have a lot in common with. Life is good.


I am very tired tonight and getting ready to go and read in bed for a bit before falling off to sleep. It's horrendously foggy here...from late this afternoon through tonight. GUess it's from it getting so warm while there's still so much snow around...


I came home today feeling very blessed to be me and have my home and planning my own garden. My friend gave me a beautiful heirloom seed catalog from a company in Missouri that looks like a quality coffee table book. It is gorgeous! I'll post a little more about that tomorrow.


***Happiness lies not in getting what you want, but in wanting what you have.***


Namaste.

December 10, 2009

Remember when they were so sweet??? NOT ANYMORE!!!!!!!!!!!

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I have had an interesting day, to say the least. The last part of it has been amazing and the first part of it was, well…horrendous. I was a screaming maniac for a few hours there.

First of all, the assmaster of the house locked one of the cats (*remember the cats that wouldn’t come in last night??–one of those) in the entertainment center when he closed it up last night. This morning when I got up, I hear this pitiful crying and several other cats are sitting around the cabinet, laughing and making fun of the one trapped inside. You know how cats are…they can be so cruel. One is pawing at the door, and when I open it, out pops my Junko, glaring and hissing at me, like it was all my fault. She is furious and takes on all the other cats that are there. They scatter and I nearly fall over one who darts beneath my feet.

Now, if you’ll remember from yesterday, I have a pinched nerve in my back and my knee is screwed up again, so stumbling is not really a recommended event. I trip, I swear, and cats laugh as they dart away. I grumble and mumble. Then I find that some cat has broken my little crystal rocking horse that is one of my Christmas decorations. I am furious. Then I find that someone (cat) has taken a dump in the corner, beside the aquarium, in about a 6 inch square space. Of course, I have to try to get on my hands and knees and twist around to get to it to clean it up. I am nearly crying with pain now. 15 minutes later, someone (cat) has taken a dump AGAIN, on my carpet beside the entertainment center. By now I am yelling as I clean up another mess. I suspect it is the cat who is mostly an outside cat, as I see her pee in the litter boxes, but have never seen her poop in one.

Then I discover that (naturally) the cat who was locked in the entertainment center has pooped in there. So, once again, screaming in pain, I am on my knees trying to clean out the little space below the tv, where she has pooped. Once again, little cats are hiding around the corners watching me, laughing silently with their little paws over their mouths.

It was a whole morning of this stuff. In between I would sit in front of the computer and lay on the heating pad. Then I got a call and someone was coming, so I tried to put up the rest of the Christmas decos and vacuum up 500 tons of dog and cat hair…stopping every 15 minutes to lie on the heating pad. I actually got almost everything done.

Tonight we went to the group anniversary and had a delightful time. A man with 50+ years sober who helped start the group was telling a little about what AA was like here 50 years ago…how you had to drive either to St. Louis or to Springfield to go to a meeting. It was fascinating. Saw a lot of people we hadn’t seen in a while and had a good dinner.

Then we came home and now….I’m going to bed.

Namaste.

Saturday in the rain...

This picture is entitled "JOY".

I can feel that....the joy oozes out of vibrant colors. Joy is a companion of mine these days...and it sneaks up on me sometimes. Sometimes it is a subtle joy and sometimes it's a shout-out-loud joy.

The coolest thing about living a life of joy, is that you are always making exciting discoveries. Certain music evokes joy in my heart, like Handel's "Water Music". And "Suite for flute and jazz piano" which I adore. Sometimes it's a painting, or an old carefully crocheted doily that someones great grandmother made. Sometimes it's the blue of the sky. A few days ago I was sitting in the car waiting to leave when I saw a shooting star. I am always awed by those things. The sound of children laughing brings on a rash of joy for me. The velvety feel of a small puppys ears or the smell of lavender. The intricate dance of words in a poem or crafted into a book... Things that are somehow connected to my feelings and trigger a reaction almost every time I encounter them. It amazes me always the way the human mind works.

It's nearing the end of another day here on the Prairie. I have to get up early to go to a meeting and I am tired from a full day. I have a guest slumbering in the room next to me here, and Ifeel blessed to be able to provide a respite from time to time.

I have cats sleeping on my desk, doggies snoring at my feet. All well with the world...


Namaste.

Fri-da-licious-Friday

[A Basket of Cat}

A long day, and I should be heading to bed, as I have to be up early. I am chairing the meeting at 10 Am, so I have to be there by 9 to set up, so I have to get up by 7:30 so that I can make breakfast and get dressed and drive the half hour to get there. Grandson is here spending the night...he fell asleep watching a movie at about 7:45. That means he'll be up at zero dark thirty. And he MUST have scrambled eggs and toast for his breakfast! lol He loves the idea of eating eggs that he carried in from the henhouse.

We had a lovely, though short day. When I picked him up, he said that he was hungry. I got him right off the school bus. He said that his dad is drinking again, and that last night he drank so much he passed out in the floor. When the youngster woke up this morning, he was still there. He said that after his dad passed out last night, he dumped all his beer down the sink and threw away all the cans. I guess he had a hard time getting him to wake up this morning, and he needed to eat a good breakfast because they had to take the ISAT's today. He was afraid he was going to miss school.

I watch this sweet boy and think-dammit! he shouldn't be having to play the punishing parent with this guy. He said his dad gets mad all the time and yells at him when he drinks. And he said he told him that if he didn't quit the drinking, he wasn't going to stay with him anymore. I hate what alcoholism does to our children.

It's been a gorgeous day with temperatures in the low 80's...almost breaking a record set in 1956. Miss Caylee found the pond and has been throwing herself in it all day. I watched her come tearing through the back yard and fling herself into the water with reckless abandon. With a look of total and complete ecstacy on her little dog face. lol We can learn so much from our animal companions.

I have had so many opportunities today to be so filled with gratitude--I love it when I don't have to work too hard to find the beauty in my world. There have been so many things, from a beautiful sunrise, to a gaggle of Canadian geese out on the pond, to the cacophony of frogs down by the springs. From a kind word by a stranger, to the sight of a freaky young man helping his grandmother get out of the car, to the look on my husband's face when we tricked him about something tonight. From the sounds emanating from the new kitty box as the week old babies squirm and vie for the best feeding position, to watching my little dog run at breakneck speed around the house, after I thought she might never walk again. From watching my sick kitty recuperate with the magic of antibiotics, to reading my favorite bloggers and hearing what's going on in their worlds.

Especially blessed by the mundane routines of my life. Especially blessed by friendships near and far. Especially blessed to be here, now.

Namaste.

Tuesdays in the country

[Leo de Catrio]

It was a long and busy day today. I just finished cleaning up the kitchen from supper and the remnants of the chili endeavor. Tomorrow afternoon I'll start the big batch...today I made a lovely white chili. It's made with cannelini beans and ground turkey, onions, garlic and chopped [mild]green chilis. The spices are breathtaking as well....cumin and oregano and cinnamon and of course, cayenne pepper and white pepper. Sea salt. It makes a great soup, and you puree about half the beans to thicken it and give it a rich full body. It is a little time consuming, but well worth it in the end. I made about 4 gallons of it, maybe a little more. Tomorrow the real chili gets made. I'm using about 20 pounds of ground beef and it should make my water bath canner full. That's probably the best pan I have for making it in. I'll make a batch or two of cornbread as well, and K's German Chocolate birthday cake.

Had a good day, all in all. A couple of phone calls, but mostly just me and the critters, here in the Peaceful Valley. lol We went outside and played for a bit, Caylee and Molly and Lucy and Junko Taibei. Caylee can only go out with an adult present, since the great escapade. Just until she's a little bigger and a little older. I did a little house straightening, a little chicken tending, and fed the cats and dogs. I worked on the story I'm writing some too.

These are the days when all the blessings are so obvious, I don't even feel like I have to write them down. The days when I feel confident and present and serene. The kind of day that you wake up with a 'thank you' on your lips.

I love the green of the grass and the golds and reds of the trees and the blue blues of the sky. I love the purring of my cats as they deign to honor me with their presence. I love that my husband and I are both sober and that no matter what, we are there for each other.

I am feeling especially blessed tonight. Off to bed...5 AM comes early.