Quite Contrary?

A 'new' lavender plant - I'm hoping it will spread (along with some columbine seeds I threw down). It's in the front of the house under a cherry tree. Unfortunately the tree shades it quite a bit but it does get all day sun just the same!

The vegetable garden! Yes, those are peas and potatoes! The potatoes are in flower already and the peas are about a foot high. I know, I need to get some sort of support for them or soon they're just going to fall right over - if the bunnies don't get them first! Darn bunnies...

My lily. Isn't it beautiful??? I absolutely adore the flowers and it takes virtually no work. I put it in the ground and low and behold a week or two later those lovely white flowers popped up. *sigh* If only life were that easy. (By the way, I've left all the plant markers in the ground until the end of the season. I want to see what's going to take and what's not and then I'll make a note of what can be moved/ filled in or gets to stay.)

The shade garden and a NEW Patio set (hidden from view). My yew trees are pretty droopy but I'm hopeful that they'll come back. I've got tons of Lily of the Valley and a few ferns (that aren't going to make it I'm afraid). It truly is becoming a Garden Oasis (the name of the patio set and a nickname for the area -from my friend K. who's enjoyed it once or twice).

A neighbour gave me this Cedar. Thank you Ms. C!! However, if you have someone say to you, "Hey, I have this tree in my yard and you can have it all you have to do is...." WALK AWAY! They're probably going to tack a "dig it up" onto the end of that sentence and let me tell you digging something out of someone else's garden can be nerve wracking. Walk away. Pay $60.00 for a new Cedar from Home Depot and be happy with it. The story has a happy ending - really - I didn't wreck her garden, my archeology degree came in handy and I ever so carefully dug the roots out one, by one, with my fingers and a tiny shovel. Sad, sick and true...

My sad, sad Hostas. I'm also hopeful this will make it. He doesn't look happy does he? Poor thing. He was growing perfectly fine beside my garage and I rudely lifted him up and plopped him in the shade garden, in the corner. If he takes he'll have all the room he needs to grow big and full. If he doesn't I will have one really bare corner in my shade garden.

Who would have thought that I could put seeds in the ground, cover them with dirt and a few weeks later they would actually grow?? Not I, that's for darn sure! But contrary to what I thought and what I expected, the plants are getting bigger. Not all of them, but the majority. And I'm delighted, ecstatic, fascinated and a little in awe. I might just get something out of my garden yet - by something, I mean food and/or pretty flowers - it has already provided me with so much more...

Long Weekends.

Well, depending on what neck of the woods you're in, you're having a long weekend starting today (at 5? 3? now?) but for some of us, the weekend isn't the 'down time' part of the week. Thus, a long weekend often provokes the feeling of dread in stay-at-home moms or maybe it's just me...  

Let me explain, as you know, S is in school full-time and my dear husband is at work full-time (which is usually 8am-6pm) and during the day it's just good ol' E and I and we're used to doing our own things.  He gets free reign of the toys and truly, the house, and me while S is away, and I don't really have anyone to worry about but him.  We talk, go for walks, go adventuring, hang out with friends or just vegg.  We have a great time.  Occasionally, we get a little sick of each other but usually it's around 2pm and then it's time to start picking people up and bringing them home so it's not usually a problem.

Now, when the weekend hits we've got 2 full days of sharing the house with 2 other people and this weekend because it's a long weekend, it means we have to share the house for 3 days - yah, 3!  We get the bickering, the yelling, the teasing and the name calling all at once and don't even get me started on the kids relationship!    The laundry piles up, the dishes take over the counter and I have to cook way more than I do during the week (or get take out, which gets really expensive...).  By the time Tuesday rolls around I'm going to be exhausted!  So, weekends are often my work time and not a vacation.  

Don't get me wrong, I love having A and S home... really, I do.  I love having my family all together - they usually like each other and generally enjoy each others company.  However, this tends to only last a day or two - what are we going to do by day 3?  Such is life... Hope you have a lovely weekend and that the "Vacation Fairy" visits you!

Eww...

This is larger than the actual size of a Deer Tick. I think in reality they wouldn't be much larger than this O.

A magnified view of a vicious and ferocious man eating monster...

My dear friend Stacy (possibly ex-friend, keep reading...) took me to a lovely place called Sharon Woods today. E was with us. Our goal was to tromp 1.7 miles in the bush in hopes of burning off some of the excess' we tend to fill our faces with during the week (the usual stuff: broccoli, carrots, lean meats - you know...). It was a clear, sunny day with just a slight breeze so that one would remain fresh and sweat free. Fabulous, no? Yes, so it would appear! But little did I know Stacy was taking me into "The Trap of Doom" (if you say this with a James Earl Jones like voice is sounds much more menacing)!

You see, in much of this great land of ours (North America - I'm all inclusive) a silent and deadly killer is waiting in the tall trees, grasses, bushes, flowers, heck, they're everywhere. It waits hoping that some unsuspecting victim will fall unsuspectingly into its dreaded grasp. And then, it crawls ever so slowly, little bit, by little bit, passing hair after hair until it has found that oh, so warm spot in a crevice on your body (most likely behind your knee or ear - sicko, I know what you were thinking...). This ferocious, blood sucking vampire is none other than THE DEER TICK! I shudder at the mere thought of it's name. Really, I'm shuddering and scratching like crazy as I'm writing... it's something awful... ick.

Now, I may be a bit of a sissy here because I really haven't found a deer tick on myself since I was 12 or 13 or something like that but I have seen them within the last 5 years and they scare the CRAP out of me! Did you know they burrow their little head under your skin, then suck your blood until they balloon up to the size of well, I don't know but the ones I used to find on my dog were HUGE, like the size of a nickel or something.... totally gross.

So far, I haven't found any from today's excursion but if I do I'm cutting Stacy loose. I just can't handle that kind of adventure. I can cut across the street willy nilly or go swimming after eating, heck, I can even stick my tongue to a cold flag pole in January but I'll be damned if I'm going walking through the bush filled with Deer Ticks. That's just way too dangerous for me - she's a rebel man and I'm not up for that kind of stuff. My mom would be appalled.

Author's Note: I apologize for bringing this subject up. I know it's gross and you know it's gross, especially if you've ever found a deer tick on you. It's Stacy's fault we're having this discussion. I did not know they had them here in this great state of Ohio. Now I think I might have to move. Darn it, I was really starting to like it here and my potatoes are coming up and everything....

Oops, I did it again!

No, I'm not Britany Spears - did you start singing the song? It's much worse than that, I think I may be coming obsessed with this whole gardening thing... First, I had a whole bunch of lilies that needed a new home because I wanted to use the space they were currently in to make a new Herb garden. So, I dug up the area beside the vegetable garden and put them in a tidy little row in hopes that one day they will grow up nice and big and be an oh so beautiful border along the driveway. The sod that I dug up was piled in a cylindrical shape and on top I placed an inherited mosquito breeder (or a bird bath, whatever). And at the end of all of that, some more lilies (different type - though not sure what kind...). By the time I was done I was covered in dirt from the tips of my fingers to half way up my arm - I could have worn gloves but where's the fun in that?

Thus, the Herb garden is officially planted. I love it. Should the plants actually take and fill in I really think it's going to be wonderful - in only the way someone who enjoys plants would find it to be wonderful (Really, I've got the bug bad)! I've planted everything from Basil, Thyme and Sage to Fennel and an assorted variety of peppers (yah, I know those aren't herbs but too bad). There's also 3 different types of strawberries - I'm hoping those will spread over time (would it be too much to ask for them to spread by August) and make enough for a lovely little tart. Wouldn't that be fabulous?

I'm also the proud new owner of a few prizes from neighbours and friends - isn't it great to get 'free' stuff?! The aforementioned lilies (I'm not all together sure what they are but if I luck out they'll be Iris' or something just as wonderful) and bucket full of Lily of the Valley (which I adore) and a beautiful Black Hollyhock (my mother has tried to grow one forever and when I told her I got one she was soooo jealous - not that my life is about making my mom jealous, it was merely an added bonus - love you mom!). Those darn bunnies in the back forty have nibbled some of the leaves off my Black Eyed Susans and so I've moved them to the front of the house and put the Hollyhock there instead. I'm not sure the bunnies are going to live long enough to see my strawberries spread... We have a Black Walnut Tree in the back (it's gorgeous but a little annoying come fall) and when I googled Hollyhocks "they" said that usually Hollyhocks thrive in this environment. We'll see. There's a lot of waiting in this plant game. I'm not a good waiter - luckily I have more than enough little projects to keep me busy (remember the dresser? Yah, not done. How about the desk? Nope. And the arbor? Darn it.).

On my list today is to prune the tree in the front yard and weed. Darn the weeding. I'm hoping my husband will cut the grass as it's starting to find it's way into everything! Ohio seems to be a great place to have that famous English Garden as everything just grows and grows and grows - except Lilacs, hmm.... It would be nice if in the next couple of years I have something resembling an actual garden but I'm no avid gardener and my knowledge is dependant on my friends input and google (Thank God for both). I think that might be a warning for my friends...

A Few Finds.

www.violet.com

http://www.pequitobun.com/


http://www.thespoonsisters.com/

http://www.theurbangarden.co.uk/

http://www.moo.com/

www.fredflare.com

Because I have so much extra time on my hands to just sit around and surf the net and find some wonderful little sites - or because I was told I'm uneasy to buy for... What? Me? Really?(I'm not the only one that has had a week like this. Check out Mommy Needs Five Minutes and tell me you wouldn't want to kick her husband in the ass.) - I have in fact found a couple of interesting sites for you to meander this weekend that have some lovely, if not cheeky, items. I'm not promising greatness here but I did see some things that would have topped an OK magazine in a minute (maybe less) -please, don't ask... You judge for yourself and have a great weekend, no matter what you might be doing or getting.

As an aside: Mrs. R has created her own blog! Hurray, now you can all get to know her like I do - check her out at http://obnoxiousgreendoor.blogspot.com/

Dinner.

I think I'm smitten with Smitten Kitten. Or I'm hungry. Or I'm food obsessed. It's a toss up really... I was on her site today and was looking for a cake recipe but totally missed it and went right to the breakfast page (apparently I get sidetracked easily - hence all the brackets in my writing...). Well anyway, there is a lovely looking recipe for Huevos Rancheros that I'm pretty sure is going to be on my table this evening (Honey, guess what we're having for dinner)! This is a pretty easy recipe and quite frankly, we have it often, but without the egg (we will be eggless this evening as we had an omelet last night for dinner and two nights in a row is pushing it, even for me). Tomatoes with Cumin, Onion, Plain Yogurt, Black beans = yum!

So thank you to Ms. R. for the lovely tortilla recipe (which I will share one day if she gives permission to or if anyone seems interested). I'm going to make the dough now and let it sit and then it will be all ready to roll out and fry on my lovely little skillet. I can hardly wait. If you ever make these I highly, highly, highly recommend buying Mexican cheese. It melts everywhere and just tastes sooo darn yummy with salsa or guac. or black beans.... Mmmmm... I can hardly wait (did I say this already)!

And as a added bonus little E. and I made Pineapple Macadamia Upside Down Cupcakes today! He's been hounding me all morning for cupcakes and since we didn't make a cake on Tuesday I thought I should probably appease him and throw something in the oven. He's quite a good little helper and even knows to level off the flour before putting it in the bowl (of course he does this outside the flour bag but you can't have everything can you?). Handy little man! We aren't going to wait until this evening to taste these that would just be wrong - I'm going to have one in 15 minutes with a cup of Earl Grey. What a divine day it is. Hope yours is too.

Note: E.'s comments when they came out of the oven, "Mmm... sloppy and good". And they are - be sure to run a knife around the outside before you turn them out or you'll have a messy, mess, mess, mess. Not that I know from experience or anything...

Once a Week Wine.

And so here it is... The selection for the day is a lovely little number called Gouguenheim (as you can see from the label - I'm not judging your ability to see/read/understand, I was merely completing a sentence). And I have to give it the big ol' thumbs up 'cause it's really quite good. If you live in the area Housewine sells this one (oh, there's a surprise) and be sure to tell them I sent you - I'm hoping one day Donnie will start giving me a discount (I suppose there's only the 4 readers in Columbus so that's not bound to happen any time soon).

What I like about the wine is that there are no strong flavours that make you squint your face in an odd way (and as I'm getting older it's really better that I try not to squint my face in an odd way or it might stay that way or God for bid, give me wrinkles). I think it would probably taste best with a light fish or a simple chicken dish but I'm no expert and I'm not eating either.... But I have to say it's darn satisfying straight out of a glass while you're watching a Sponge Bob Squarepants repeat (it's sad that I know it's a repeat isn't it?).

I am truly sorry to inform everyone that I haven't been drinking much wine lately (very, very sorry) but I've been busy keeping the Mexican Tequila companies in business. As the weather warms up I feel myself being drawn to those darn Margaritas and any other little "girlie" drinks that might be out there but I'll try my best (I'm always willing to sacrifice myself for my readers) to post about new wines occasionally (perhaps it's time to switch to whites!!!). If you've tried anything good lately let me know (wine or otherwise). I do read the comments section! Until tomorrow...or the next day...