Category Archives: garden

Check this out — a coyote in the backyard. I know we have them in the neighborhood but never thought we would have one in the yard.

I worried about bunny but he showed up the last two nights so he’s okay for now.

There are additional clips here. You can see him check out that hole in the hedge — I’ve seen all the critters: raccoons, oppossum, bunny, and cats disappear in there.

Gorgeous day out. I am going to do yard work.

I love looking out my kitchen window this time of year.

On one of the warmer afternoons I sat out there for a little while and fed the blue jays. Sometimes they will come pretty close. Other times they’ll just sit there and watch from the wire.

I didn’t check the wildlife cam for a week It didn’t look like there was much going on out there.

I was wrong.

I checked this morning and all the usual characters have been through. Bunny is the most hilarious because sometimes I can just see his glowing eyes jumping up and down. The same raccoon duo with the damaged tails.

There’s definitely one opossum. I never get two in the same shot but sometimes it seems like the clips make more sense if there is more than one.

I generally don’t dig my dahlias because it’s a giant pain in the ass and I’m too lazy to properly follow through so they usually get moldy and/or shrivel up.

When I was cleaning up the backyard I dug up two plants that hadn’t produced flowers in a couple of years intending on tossing them. Then I saw the tubers and thought maybe I’d save them and try replanting them in the spring and see what happens.

I watched a dahlia digging video and learned a lot. Too bad I didn’t watch this 15+ years ago when I first started growing dahlias. I’ve been doing it all wrong. And I did it wrong again because I dug them too early.

I’m sure they’ll be fine. I’ve had moldy bulbs sit in the shop over the winter in a big pile and then I planted them and dahlias grew.

The above is from these pink dahlias that are so hearty it’s terrifying. The only reason I dug these up is because they were bursting up out of the ground. That thing was really heavy and hard to break apart.

I still didn’t do it exactly how the video showed but I suspect I will still get flowers.

I didn’t get enough tomatoes to make soup but I was gifted tomatoes from Melonie so I made this Deborah Madison favorite.

Saute some shallots in butter. Cut up your tomatoes and put them in the pot with salt. Let them slow cook all afternoon.

Whir with the stick blender. Strain into a new pot. I often skip that step. I add a plop of cream.

It’s some weird trick of the light but this photo look like there’s a golden lump in there.

My computer situation has become a big enough pain in the butt that I bought a new computer. Normally I would pick up my computer at the Apple Store but there is no Apple Store downtown right now. When I purchased it, it was supposed to be delivered next month.

Then I received notice it would be delivered on the one day neither of us would be available to be here.

This is the flower area. It still looks pretty good.

My notice said I could click to make adjustments to my delivery. I clicked and was sent to a page that confirmed, yes, I was scheduled for a delivery and if I need to make adjustments, I should enter my numbers and click here. I entered and clicked and was sent to a page that said, yes, deliveries are a thing that happen and to click here for more information about my delivery. It sent me back where I started.

I had to phone.

I picked every tomato I thought had a chance of turning red. Also: oh my, that window. It seems like everything is extra gross since the smoke.

If you’ve called any customer service line recently, you already know that a robot makes you talk to it and says it can understand full sentences and then it understands nothing and just gives you information that you already have. Once I got through to a person, TylerJustin he said I really needed to talk to UPS because it was in delivery mode now.

I talked to the robot at UPS who was convinced I needed a pick up and no matter what I did, she tried to get my address so she could schedule the pick up. I yelled at her until she reluctantly sent me to a real person. Oh, but my computer is coming from overseas, did I want to be transferred to the international UPS customer service?

Why the hell not?

Here’s what happens if you empty an old envelope of “assorted squash” into your garden and rake it around.

That person helpfully let me reschedule gave me a 13 digit case number.

Two minutes after we finished my cellphone rang and local UPS told me that they couldn’t really reschedule but we could leave a note on the door to tell the UPS driver not to leave it if we weren’t there.

Maybe this could work. But also, maybe not. I don’t trust anyone to do anything right in 2020.

We talked some more and we were able to arrange for the computer to be held and we will pick it up.

I would end on a triumphant note but let’s see if this all goes to plan first. I will report again in a week or two.