Category Archives: garden

Photo courtesy of peppergrass. Thank you for CC photos.

Dear Amanda: Lemon Cucumber are one of the special delights of summer. They are delicious little cucumbers shaped like lemons. One of my favorite memories is of eating lemon cucumbers with my Grandpa. Look for them in your farmer’s market this summer. Or better, grow some.

Sometimes I wake myself up early on my days off. This morning I set the alarm more for Bob than me.

It went off and I clicked it off and Bob got up. I kinda drifted in and out until about 6am there was this strange sound that rattled the walls. Normally I would assume it was something Bob was doing. But I heard him say, “Huh?” So then I very carefully peeked out the window in case some sort of stealth vehicle was cruising out front. Nothing.

I love all the theories. The railroad. Police testing bombs. Sonic boom. Earthquake boom. I’m going with alien invasion or National Guard sonic boom.

This is from the bag of assorted tulips. I like them.

Today was a pretty decent day. I did my errands. Paid my property taxes. Made progress on a writing project. Baked cream cheese brownies for a dinner date tomorrow. I would have done some yardwork but it was one of those days where it’s sunny for 5 minutes and then monsooning for 5 minutes. All day.

Look how sweet the pink ones look today. I never should have doubted them.

Every time I look in my backyard there are giant crows sitting around staring at the house. I finally put my camera on the kitchen counter so I could send a picture to Kira. But the minute I got it out, they disappeared.

The pretty red ones out front. Last year there were cream-colored ones mixed in. Do white tulips transform to red? That sounds like a fairy tale.

The moment I went outside to take this photo, an osprey flew exactly overhead with a fish in its claws. It was so low I could hear its wings beat the air. And it moved so quickly out of sight, I couldn’t take a photo.

Chukchuk what am I to do for you?

After how many years I’ve been planting a garden I finally had the brilliant idea of starting my peas in the house first. Every year I put a zillion peas out there and the slugs eat then as soon as they sprout and I get the world’s saddest pea plants. I’m going to put these out over the weekend.

Then I’m going to start my lemon cucumbers inside. I haven’t had good lemon cucumbers in a couple of years.

I got out my garden book. Maybe if I spend some time actually reading it I can learn something.

I usually don’t like to buy flowers that are so fancy they look wrong. And I’m a big fan of the generic daffodil. But this one is called something like double tropical peach and it’s kind of goofy but I like it.

Today was so beautiful it was painful. I sat on my front porch and read in the sun and I kept feeling like I wasn’t enjoying it enough. I had to grit my teeth and strain to prove that I was worthy of 70 degrees.

These are another tiny flower that looked bigger and more glamorous in the catalog. They’re still pretty.

Oh look, the lawnmower man. Every lawnmower in town was going this afternoon. The hum of America.

After dinner, since it was still light and you could go outside with a t-shirt on, Bob and I went for a walk. We had just left the house when a giant bird flew overhead.

“Look,” I said, “It has a fish.”

At first glance, I thought it was a heron. It landed on the streetlight in front of our house. It was huge with brown wings and a white underside and distinctive marks on its head.

It settled in to eat its dinner.

After a few moments we went back and sat on the porch to watch. After much discussion, we decided it was an osprey.

Bob finally snuck back in the house and grabbed the camera and the binoculars. We watched it for at least ten minutes. A few crows did a fly-by but it didn’t even look up.

Sadly, my camera wasn’t up to the task. But this was really cool to see and a great end to the day.

Last week I had drafted a joke post where I ordered up a sunny and 50 degree day on the weekend from Mother Nature so I could enjoy some time digging outside. Mother Nature responded by mocking me for asking. I never posted it.

This morning I woke up to rain clicking against the window but it all went away and by afternoon I saw bright sunlight coming from the window. Of course by that point, I had finally reeled my butt in and was focused on writing and related. I looked out the window and thought, “I don’t feel like going outside right now.” But it’s February. And it’s sunny. And it’s 50 degrees. What kind of moron wouldn’t go outside? (Aside to You-Know-Who: well, other than you.)

I had a wonderful couple of hours, whacking back the roses (the photo is from last year and from a neighbor’s house) and pulling out dead stuff.

Now I’m back in and trying to get focused on the writing and related and not interested. I’m going to do my 500 words and start dinner and later I’m going to watch some shows. The only Friday show I’ve seen so far is Dollhouse and first impression: disappointing but it has potential. I liked the part where Helo had his shirt off.

Check out the local snow bunny.

I can never remember which weekend I’m supposed to prune my roses. I remember the lady in the paper saying something about a three day weekend in winter. Yesterday I checked my handy guide to roses and it said January but when the temperature is not near freezing.

I’m not sure what “near freezing” means but I’m guessing today isn’t the best day to do it.

It was pretty when we woke up. It’s all soggy and melty now.

Dahlia garden still looks good. The rain did a number on some of my plants. If I was a more active gardener I’d probably get out there and stake them.

But I’m not.

I just found out a few hours ago that Father’s Day is *this* Sunday, not *next* Sunday which means I don’t have it totally together, I’m totally late.

I fed my sourdough this evening and just noticed a blob of white flour-y paste on my foot. Not sure how that happened.

I wanted to watch the soccer game (Netherlands v. France) but first thought I’d whip up a quick treat for the writers meeting tomorrow and didn’t really clue in how long I would be standing there stirring to get my damn caramel made. I skipped the game and could barely keep my eyes open during the highlight show. The Italy v. Romania game looked like a good one, too.

I did not finish one thing today. I’m busy most of tomorrow. I’m not confident I’m holding it together. BUT: I have baby turnips. And also, apparently, a frankenhand.

The weekend weather wasn’t quite as doodoo as predicted. It was cold, but yesterday afternoon the sun came out and sitting at the computer was giving me a headache so I worked outside. We had our tree pruned back in January and I got all but three big branches into the yard debris bin. I planted a bunch of flower seeds that I bought impulsively at the beginning of March and I raked the garden spot and turned over some of the soil. Maybe next weekend I can get the manure and plant a few things. Because all danger of frost must have passed by now. Please?

My neighbor was out, too and he said possibly the squirrels were into the tulips. Maybe. While we were talking a shiny red car stopped in front of our houses and a wail came from a person in a ball in the street. At first I thought they’d hit him but no, the car had been pulling the kid on his skateboard. Another kid got out of the car and scoffed and dragged wailing kid to his feet. The driver was a blonde girl. They very pointedly did not make eye contact with the grown-ups standing on the curb looking on with concern/scorn.

Last night I caught up on my shows. Am I the only person who tears up during almost every episode of Doctor Who and Torchwood? Last night I was sniffling into my tissue during the end of Torchwood and Bob came upstairs. He said, “Your hair is big” which was true because I had washed it but not applied 10 lbs of product nor done any styling except for the bangs so they wouldn’t stick out.

Every night when I get home from work (assuming it’s still light out and not raining sideways), I go to my flower bed and admire my flowers. I often go to the backyard, too. Why grow them if you’re not going to enjoy them?

Tonight was I was startled to find this:

What? You don’t see the problem? Count the flowers.

Now here’s my shot from Sunday:

Yes! There is a tulip bandit on the loose in my neighborhood.

What giant turdhead.